SAN FRANCISCO — More than one-third of a proposed $185 million bond would renovate neighborhood parks in largely Asian Pacific American residential areas if the Board of Supervisors agrees next Tuesday to submit it to voters in February. The bond campaign would infuse $120 million to renovate 12 out of 123 parks. Among the top three projects would be in APA communities: $14.2 million for Chinatown Recreation Center, $13.9 million for Sunset Playground and $21.4 million for Palega Recreation Center in the Portola.
Nine million dollars would also be included for two centers in the Richmond and $7.4 million for one in Cayuga Terrace.
“These are projects that touch real people’s lives,” said David Lee of the Recreation and Parks Commission. “Generally, these playgrounds have not been updated in years.”
The most urgent need among 12 priority projects is Chinese Recreation Center, which scored 94.5 points on the commission’s 100-point system based on five needs, including seismic and life safety, emergency shelter facilities and degree of dilapidation.
The city will partially replace or fully renovate the 21,554-square-foot, three-story center built in 1951 at Mason and Washington streets in Chinatown. Among the fixes will be seismic upgrades to the center, the basketball court and playground.
On the city’s west side, where Sunset Playground furniture is more than forty years old, renovations include seismic work to the center, new play structures, a meeting hall, a kitchen, an indoor basketball court, fields, lawns and irrigation.
“There are very few parks serving that neighborhood, [which is] over 50 percent Asian, heavily immigrant. Sunset Rec is all you have in that neighborhood,” said Lee.
“It’s used round the clock,” he said, noting the badminton and tai chi programs.
Another $11 million would go to fixing park restrooms among the 200 properties and several hundred buildings that have been shutdown because of lack of funding. Building a new free standing restroom costs $400,000.
“We’ve got to put the most modern types of restrooms in, the most safest type of restrooms in,” said Recreation and Park Commission President Larry Martin, who is also leading the bond campaign.
The board is expected to finalize expenditures on Oct. 2 and submit it to voters in February’s election.