The Return of Alamo Square Park
May 26, 2017 | By Daniel Herzstein
Just over a year after its closure on May 10, 2016, Alamo Square Park reopened again to delight locals and tourists alike on May 24th. The long-awaited reopening was conveniently scheduled a few days after Bay to Breakers—an intentional choice confirmed by multiple sources, although some neighbors cite that work on the park has continued throughout the week.
Originally slated to take roughly seven months, but delayed by heavy rains, the $5.3 million renovation boasts a completely new irrigation system to reduce water use by 33 percent, fresh pavement, trees, drought-tolerant greenery, and a new bathroom.
The Alamo Square Neighborhood Association (ASNA) organized to raise money to replace the park’s trees, which are rapidly approaching the end of their 100 year lifespan. In the last five years alone, 60 trees in the park have perished.
“We wanted to raise $100,000 in 100 days to benefit the park for the next 100 years,” said John Dallas, an ASNA board member who worked on the effort to put new trees in the park.
Beyond raising the money for the trees, neighbors also pitched in with planning where the new trees would be placed and what species would be best suited for the park. “The canopy was in depletion; it’s a lot of Monterey Cypress trees that were at the end of their lifespan,” said Lee Stickles, an ASNA Board Member and landscape architect. “In the next 50 years there are not going to be any trees in the park unless we start to do something now. So we came up with a reforestation plan.”
To ensure the reforestation preserves the views from the park, a view study was conducted to identify where to place new trees to allow for the largest tree canopy as possible without losing the picturesque city backdrop. Trees were also strategically placed to block considerable wind from the west side of the park.
The neighbors’ work to improve the park harkens back to the original effort to create the park in 1890, when neighbors lobbied the city to turn a plot of land into a park after squatter and notorious criminal, "Dutch Charlie" Duane, was removed. Fortunately, a century later, no criminals have had to be removed to upgrade the park.
ASNA and San Francisco Parks and Recreation held a reopening ceremony on Wednesday, May 24. They hope the park and its new trees can serve neighbors and visitors for at least another century.