Public land, private hands
By: Beth Winegarner
Examiner Staff Writer
February 19, 2009
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| As the cash-strapped Recreation and Park Department leases out more of its attractions to raise revenue, critics say control of The City’s facilities and open spaces is going to the highest bidder. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — More public park spaces in The City could be handled by private management as park leaders hunt for ways to boost revenue.
Dozens of city-owned Recreation and Park Department facilities — from Coit Tower to the Japanese Tea Garden — are supported by public taxes and bonds but operated by private firms that lease them from the department in return for a cut of their profits.
In fiscal year 2007-08, the department was forced to cut $6.6 million from its budget. It is expected to slash another $8.8 million in 2008-09 and is closely studying its properties to see where lease agreements could help boost cash flow, according to Rich Hillis, the department’s deputy director for partnerships.
The department is also grappling with some $1 billion in deferred maintenace expenses.
Some residents and workers have criticized the department for putting city-funded properties under private management. City park officials counter that it is a good alternative for financing staff and maintenance at some of its facilities.
Fears of privatization brought some out to a Rec and Park budget meeting Friday, concerned that a plan to allow the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to control maintenance work for Camp Mather — The City’s family facility near Yosemite — was a step in the long-rumored direction of handing over the running of the camp to an outside agency.
Rec and Park Interim Director Jared Blumenfeld said the department had no such plans. He called all privatization concerns “a lot of misinformation.”
Leasing department-owned sites in some cases has reaped big rewards. The Beach Chalet, for instance, put nearly $550,000 into Rec and Park coffers last year.
“The more leases we have, the more money and work we have … for gardeners and recreation staff,” said Lisa Seitz Gruwell, the department’s communications director.
Department leaders are hunting for additional lease opportunities, such as food vendors at Dolores Park or Peace Plaza. They’re also renegotiating leases — potentially with a higher bottom line — at the Japanese Tea Garden, Stow Lake and the Golden Gate Park Carousel to help fund public parks, Hillis said.
Thursday, the Recreation and Parks Commission is expected to discuss and possibly vote to begin negotions to offer the lease for the Japanese Tea Garden to Murata Cafe Hana, Inc. Parks staff says the agreement will bring $12,000 a year to the garden’s maintenance fund, as well as a $500,000 grant that will be used to improve concession spaces and surroundings, plus other benefits, including boosting business.
The winner of the new lease for Stow Lake and the carousel would also take over rentals at the “birthday barn” in the newly renovated Koret Playground, where rentals have been handled by both public and private agencies in the past.
With the birthday barn, Rec and Park found that it just couldn’t keep up with the demand — and a private company can offer party packages The City can’t, spokesman Elton Pon said.
“It’s [been] booked solid,” Pon said. “This is an opportunity for us to increase revenue and provide the public with a more complete
experience.”
Steve Stallone, a spokesman with SEIU Local 1021, sees the switch to more leasing agreements in a less positive light, saying the pacts bring in less-experienced workers for cheaper wages. He pointed to the planned expansion of Rec and Park site leasing agreements — from five to 10 — with Rec Connect, a private-public funded partnership with the Department of Children, Youth and Families that brings in outside organizations to run the centers.
“You’re losing park directors who have been there for years and have a connection with the community, and you’re taking this money and hiring someone from the outside to do the programs the city staff used to do,” Stallone said.
Busy holdings leave less time for community use
As The City transfers more and more of its green spaces into private hands, locals are finding it difficult to play in their neighborhood parks.Many Golden Gate Park neighbors complained that they were shut out from using the park during the week of the Outside Lands festival in August, a three-day concert that raised $815,000 for the park.
“If we lease a facility one night, it means it gets to be open to the public the other six nights of the week,” said Recreation and Park Department spokeswoman Lisa Seitz Gruwell. “It’s a trade-off, for sure, and we wish everything could be free all the time, but we’re not in that reality right now.”
In another example, Grattan Recreation Center in Cole Valley is predominantly used by a private co-op preschool for 50 children, according to Margot Reed, an organizer for SEIU Local 1021, a park employees union.
Grattan was closed for underuse prior to its lease; now, it’s a moneymaking property for the department, said Rich Hillis, Rec and Park’s deputy director for partnerships. Similarly, the Beach Chalet near Ocean Beach was closed and gathering dust before it reopened as a moneymaking restaurant.
JP Murphy Recreation Center in Chinatown also houses a members-only day care leased from The City, according to Reed.
Such ousters make many residents angry that they can’t make use of sites they help pay for.
“I totally understand Rec and Park wanting to make money,” said Shauna McGrew, a parks booster in the Sunset district. “But when my tax dollars have gone to pay for the renovation of a building, and they lease it, when do I get to use that play area or the basketball courts?”
Rec and Park’s most lucrative lease-based moneymakers
The Recreation and Park Department raises revenue by leasing some of its properties to outside management.Top moneymakers in 2007-08 included:
Concessions at golf courses $2,800,000
Beach Chalet restaurant $543,861
Exploratorium concessions $366,960
Japanese Tea Garden concessions $190,000
Union Square Café concessions $160,000
Palace of Fine Arts concessions $138,195
Golden Gate Park carousel tickets $75,000
Stow Lake boat rentals $82,000
Source: Recreation and Park Department
bwinegarner@sfexaminer.com
Examiner Staff Writer Andrea Koskey contributed to this report.
