Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association

10th Annual Wawona St. Halloween Block Party in Review

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Matt Chamberlain

By: Rae Doyle

The Grinch may have stolen Christmas, but this year the dastardly villain threatening the Harry Potter themed Halloween Party on Wawona Street is Father Time.

How it all began

A month and a half after the tragic events of 9/11, the neighbors on Wawona Street, between 14th and 15th Avenues, led by Wawona resident, Bridget Wylie, decided to lift neighborhood children’s spirits by closing off their street and turning it into a magical Harry Potter world for Halloween.

Ten years in the making

This past Halloween was the tenth and final year in which eight garages on Wawona, two houses on 14th Avenue and one on 15th Avenue were decorated with Harry Potter themes. The event has become so popular that more than 2,000 kids and adults attend each year, with a ratio of about two kids to one adult. Most of them are in costume. This year Mayor Ed Lee even joined the fun.

Passports are provided that point out the sites and the Harry Potter themes of those sites. The street is closed off so that children and adults can safely amble from one side of the street to another side. Neighbors from all over the West Side attend year after year, and use the event to catch up with each other, as the children enjoy a safe, fun trick-or-treating experience.

The end of an Era

Now, Harry’s voice has changed and he shaves regularly, and there are no more Harry Potter books or movies planned for the future. The Wawona Street neighbors have decided it is time to end the yearly event. Father Time had brought an end to the Wawona Street Harry Potter Halloween.

There were other factors also. One of the original organizers, Bridget Wylie moved to Redwood City three years ago and another neighbor, Thea Gray, will soon be moving to the Oakland Rockridge neighborhood. However, even though Bridget Wylie no longer lives on Wawona, she still returns every year to serve as Horton.

Historically, the event was organized and paid for entirely by a small group of neighbors on Wawona St. They’d pay for the permits to block the street, rent lighted safety barriers and print passports for the children. However, when the Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association (GWPNA) president Matt Chamberlain heard that this was going to be the last Harry Potter Halloween event, he acted quickly to provide financial support to the neighbors. He called an emergency meeting of the GWPNA Steering Committee to meet in front of the West Portal Library to approve a $300 grant to help the Wawona neighbors fund the event. The freezing Steering Committee members passed the motion for the grant unanimously.

What the future holds

Marina Hardeman of 329 Wawona is doubtful that any future theme can be as compelling as Harry Potter. This year on Wawona there were eleven garages with the following themes: Hagrid’s Hut, Dragon at Grigott’s Bank, Hogwarts and its Great Hall with the Sorting Hat; Nagini at the Home of Professor Bathilda Bagshot; Lestrange Vault, Grigett’s; Broom Repair Service; St Munge’s Hospital; Entry to Ministry of Magic; Hog’s Head Tunnel Leading to the Room of Requirement; The Weasley’s Burrow, Divination Classroom.

Even without a theme picked yet, there is still a lot of motivation to continue the Wawona Halloween event. Marina Hardeman said it’s a lot of work – but it’s fun. And so many people say “Thank You” to the Wawona neighbors who host the event, that she’d love to see the event return next year with a new theme.

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Join GWPNA May 3rd; Prep for the June Elections

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Matt Chamberlain

I’m really excited to announce that the Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association (GWPNA) is gearing up to help you understand the issues in the coming June and November elections. Both San Francisco and all of California face serious issues, starting with huge budget deficits, but certainly not ending there. It’s likely we’ll be asked to vote in both City and State elections this June, in order to address some of these issues. Which ones are still up in the air, but by May 3rd we’ll have a pretty good idea of what will be on the June ballot. That’s why GWPNA has invited the League of Women Voters of San Francisco to join us at our May 3rd meeting to discuss the June ballot. Our meeting is open to the public and attendance is free.

GWPNA Meets
May 3, 2011 at 7:30pm-9:00pm
West Portal Playground Clubhouse
139 Lenox Way
San Francisco, CA 94127

The League of Women Voters in SF is a nonpartisan, multi-issue organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government. Their experts research the issues and can explain them in simple terms that we can all understand.

But that’s not all. GWPNA is also reaching out to the candidates running for Mayor of San Francisco this November. We’ll be having them join us to talk about their qualifications and goals between now and October. It’ll certainly make for some exciting meetings! So come join your neighbors and meet the candidates. We currently have the following lineup, but check our web site for updates and changes.

May 3: Dennis Herrera and Tony Hall &
the League of Women Voters
June 7: Michaela Alioto-Pier and Phil Ting
Sept 6: David Chiu and Joana Rees
Oct 4: Bevan Dufty

Additionally, GWPNA is partnering with several other neighborhood organizations under the leadership of the West of Twin Peaks Central Council, to hold a large-scale Mayoral candidates forum in September. The details of that will be published as they emerge, but it promises to be another don’t-miss event!

Read up on the League of Women Voters:
http://www.lwvsf.org/

West Of Twin Peaks Central Council:
http://www.westoftwinpeaks.org/

Matt Chamberlain
President, GWPNA

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Phil Ginsburg Explains Clubhouse Plans

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Matt Chamberlain

In a posting on the SF Recreation and Parks web site, Phil Ginsburg explains the options for keeping neighborhood clubhouses open. It essentially boils down to: 1) RPD finds a tenant to lease the clubhouses to, 2) Neighbors find a tenant to lease the clubhouse to, or 3) Neighbors find some other way to fund the $40,000/yr (part time) or $80,000/yr (full time) staffing at their local clubhouse.

Posted in Parks | Tagged Government, Parks | Comments Off

SF Recreation & Parks Department leasing neighborhood clubhouses to for-profit businesses!

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Matt Chamberlain

By: George Wooding, President – West of Twin Peaks Central Council

SF Recreation & Parks Department has scheduled a 6:00pm public meeting on Monday, November 15th at the JP Murphy clubhouse to discuss the RPD’s leasing of the JP Murphy clubhouse and park facilities. The Clubhouse is located at 1960 9th Avenue at the corner of 9th Avenue and Ortega.

In 2008 the Citizens of San Francisco spent $3,849,933 of the Proposition A, Parks Project Bond to renovate the JP Murphy Playground & Clubhouse. The Clubhouse is located at 1960 9th Avenue/Ortega. Effective August 15th, 2010 the RPD also fired or relocated all of its Recreation and Park Directors. The RPD is now about to lease-out our newly, renovated JP Murphy Park. The RPD euphemistically calls this new leasing for profit scheme “park revitalization.”

RPD representative, Lev Kushner, the Assistant Director for Strategic Planning, has been holding meetings throughout San Francisco in an effort to rent out neighborhood clubhouses, parks and facilities. The RPD is trying to lease at least 24 of the 48 park clubhouses in San Francisco. Usually, the RPD’s citizens notification is very lax and few people realize that their local Park is going to be leased for a minimum 5 year period.

It’s not that the groups that lease the parks are good or bad, the problem is that these private commercial groups take over large portions of the park at specific times and the neighbors who use these parks are not allowed to use the portions that are leased. The groups leasing the City parks often have nothing to do with recreation and are already working from an existing commercial location.

The RPD lease clearly states, “The tenant shall have the right to shared access of all playground and garden space in areas surrounding the premises.” Additionally, “The City shall use it’s best efforts to avoid interfering with the tenants quiet and exclusive use of enjoyment of the premises.”
Whatever happened to the neighborhoods right to “the use and enjoyment of premises” of our own park?

The RPD is claiming that this is its best way to generate revenue for now “underutilized” facilities. With usually only one potential tenant, the Parks are leased for ridiculously low amounts of money. The RPD started leasing parks throughout the City in July and is usually charging between $1.31 – 1.51 per square foot per month and allows full usage of the other park facilities. It is doubtful that the JP Murphy clubhouse will be leased for more than $1,500 per month. Apparently, the RPD now has a tenant for JP Murphy park or Mr. Kushner would not have scheduled a meeting.

The RPD’s quest for money has actually made them predatory. On July 15 the Rec & Park Commission voted to let an expensive private preschool displace a free, 38-year-old City College parenting class at the Laurel Hill Clubhouse. The clubhouse was leased to Language in Action (LIA), a preschool offering nine-month terms immersing two to five year olds in Spanish and Mandarin. LIA tuition ranges from $1,000—for two hours per day, two days per week—to $14,000 for full day, five day per week instruction. The RPD leased the Laurel Hills playground to LIA for only $1,427.00 per month.

“On the face of it, the RPD wanted to lease this property and they didn’t really care what the public thought,” stated City College Board of Trustee President, John Rizzo. “The RPD cared so little about the public that it was too late once they were notified.”

JP Murphy Park is our park, located in our neighborhoods and is used recreationally by the people in our neighborhoods. We don’t accept the premise that the Recreation and Park Department can have one meeting with the neighborhoods and then lease out our park for five years. We want to use our park the way we want to use them. The RPD has not even talked with the neighborhoods about how we might want to use our own facility. Without citizen protest/input the new RPD tenant will probably be moving into the park within a couple of months.

If the money that neighborhoods/voters are spending on public parks is being converted to support and subsidize commercial businesses and privatize public parks, voters will have to think long and hard as to why we would want to support the RPD’s proposed 2011 parcel tax or any other future bonds supporting the RPD.

This November 15 RPD meeting (next Monday night) is the neighborhoods only chance to stop the RPD from leasing the JP Murphy Park. The RPD will soon be leasing out other parks and clubhouses in our neighborhoods such as the Midtown Terrace park. If you love your park and want to save it from being privatized, please bring your friends and neighbors to this meeting. United we stand, divided we fall.

George Wooding
President
West of Twin Peaks Central Council
http://www.westoftwinpeaks.org/