dragon breathes new life into willie “woo woo” wong playground in SF chinatown after $15 million renovation.
“cara ruppert, who oversaw the playground makeover for the recreation and park department, said it was satisfying to figure out how to cram a dragon, a phoenix, a two-level climbing tower, two slides, six basketball hoops, two murals and a half dozen pieces of outdoor gym equipment into a single half acre.”
read more: sfchronicle, 13.02.2021.
swing city @burning man 2018.
“Simon Lancaster’s tree house in San Jose’s Cambrian Park neighborhood is a childhood dream come true, even though it was built long after he became an adult.
The tree house was custom-built out of pine and Douglas fir by Oakland-based O2 Treehouse for a tidy sum of $22,000. “I hired a professional to ensure the health of the tree and the safety of my children,” he said.
But the tree house may have to come down because it apparently has run afoul of city building codes.
It sits 10 feet off the ground above a fork in the tree trunk and stands a little more than eight feet tall, for a total height of 18 feet, 4 inches.
“A city code enforcement officer who visited the Lancaster home Feb. 27 concluded the tree house is an accessory structure and as such cannot be taller than 12 feet. He followed up by sending a violation notice demanding compliance with the height requirement.
The inspector had responded to a next-door neighbor’s complaint to the city that the tree house was “way too big” and infringed on her privacy. The neighbor would not give her name for this story but said she and her husband “can’t sit in the backyard because the kids make a lot of noise when they go up.”
In his appeal of the city’s decision, Lancaster said he’ll argue that prior to construction, planners told him the tree house was not an accessory structure.
That’s why he didn’t think he needed to comply with accessory structure height limits or bother to tell city planners the tree house would be more than 18 feet from ground to roof.
“I tried to do my due diligence online and it was very confusing, so I called the city for clarification on Feb. 20 and 21,” Lancaster said. “My recollection is that for something to be a structure and covered by the code it would have to be underground or attached to the ground.”
He did ask if a ladder attached to the tree house would be considered a connection to the ground and said he was told no. The ladder hangs from the tree house and is not attached to the ground.”
read more: mercurynews, 03.07.18.
when you have shitty neighbors who don't like to hear kids playing, and the point of land use regulations is lost...
sad city.
pretty much the only places you can go to build and play in neat structures are at festivals and burning man.
happy lil’ feet @sunday streets sf: great highway, 12.06.16.
a bubbly, bubbly world @sunday streets sf: western addition, 11.09.16.
doing the twist @sunday streets sf: embarcadero, 13.11.16.
Tezuka Architects - Yoshino nursery school and kindergarten, Nara 2015. Photos © Katsuhisa Kida.
excellent low-rise design.
playland at 43rd avenue, in the outer sunset, sf. 09.05.16.
“Located at 43rd Avenue between Irving and Judah streets, the temporary park transforms what was largely a parking lot for the Francis Scott Key Annex into a community center while the SFUSD, which owns the parcel, explores more permanent options.
Spearheaded by a consortium of city departments, including Supervisor Katy Tang, Pavement to Parks, SF Unified School District, and SF Planning, the park was built largely by volunteers in the neighborhood, who came out for multiple work days to build the community garden, paint ground decorations, and construct the skate park.”
The French collective Bruit du Frigo is brilliant and we have the umpteenth evidence with this temporary amusement Park named Le Tube, build under an aerial railway in the suburbs of Bordeaux (France).
Photos by Hugues de Domingo _ All rights reserved
new public space at the new exploratorium!
kid- and adult-friendly public space spinning contraption things, and public seating!
on embarcadero, sf. 03.07.13.
[Last] Saturday [was] the fourth annual "Take Our Children to the Park...and Leave Them There Day."
For real.
The idea is that at around 10 a.m. parents take their kids to—as you might expect from the name of this holiday—their local park. And then they leave them there.
...Start a game of tag. Or basketball. Or fairies versus witches. And suddenly, those bored kids who were desperate to go home don't want to go home at all. They want to KEEP playing— with any luck, for the rest of their childhoods.
Playing is that powerful. It's addictive. It's what children have done since the beginning of time...till about a generation ago, when we decided, as a country, that letting kids go outside on their own is just "too dangerous."
Do you know how many kids play outside on their own these days? One study I read said that in a typical week, the number is down to six percent. That's kids ages nine to 13—the sweet spot for goofing around and, incidentally, becoming independent. But instead of exercising their bodies and minds and ability to organize ANYTHING on their own, including a couple hours of free time, most kids are either supervised in leagues or stuck inside, usually with a screen.
slate, 16.05.13.
i'm worried about kids not being able to walk around in cities by themselves (when they're about middle school age). it's even more impossible for kids whose parents decided to buy a house in the suburbs. they rarely get to see anything different or simulating, explore new things.
one of my childhood friends moved from berkeley (walkable gridded streets) to fremont (suburbs with cul-de-sac) in the 4th grade. now anywhere she drives she has to use the GPS.
i think growing up in the suburbs seriously f—ks up one's mental mapping capability and sense of direction. (maybe there are already studies on this?) but that can be remedied by living somewhere else for a significant amount of time.
“Play Streets For All,” a collaboration between Livable City, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency, and public health organizations, will introduce a smaller-scale version of Sunday Streets, making it easier for residents to close a block or two to cars and open them up for play and community-building.
Kids playing at a Sunday Streets event in the Tenderloin. Photo: Bryan Goebel
The pilot program, which will be held in addition to regular Sunday Streets events, will target neighborhoods that suffer from high rates of childhood obesity and lack safe places for kids to play...
Sunday Streets organizer Susan King said four neighborhoods are set to see Play Streets next year: the Tenderloin, Chinatown, Bayview, and the Western Addition. The exact dates and locations, along with the rest of the Sunday Streets schedule, will be announced by early January, she said.
sf.streetsblog, 26.11.12.
