Connections eBulletin: May 27, 2020

Dear colleagues,

I hope you enjoyed the much-needed, much-deserved holiday weekend and were able to take a physical and mental break from our ongoing coronavirus response work.

While most of us were able to take some time to rejuvenate, there were many of you who continued to work throughout the weekend. The sun was shining, and as we’ve seen over the past few months, our parks were teeming with people playing, walking, skating, biking and, for most part, social distancing in our park spaces.

I was able to visit 10 of our parks, and they were in great shape. Hats off to our Gardening and Horticultural team, as well as our Custodial and Structural Maintenance staff, who are doing an amazing job of keeping our parks and facilities clean and safe while the public continues to rely heavily on them.

Our Park Rangers, led by Chief Mike Celeste, Lieutenant Marcus Santiago and Sergeant Maja Follin, were also out in force this weekend, focusing on outreach and education efforts and handing out thousands of masks to the public. Each person that we speak to about social distancing guidelines has the potential to prevent the virus’ spread to an exponential number of others, so our work in this space is both critical and invaluable.

Speaking of social distancing, the response to our newly painted circles at four of our most popular parks has received rave reviews from both the public and nationwide media outlets. They’re proving to be a creative and effective way to balance both the city’s health guidelines and people’s desire to get out to our parks. The 507 circles at Dolores, Washington Square, Little Marina Green and Jackson Playground were painted by Kevin Teahan and the Line Paint Crew, who are normally responsible for painting our athletic field lines. This is the type of adaptive, innovative problem solving from our department that inspires me every day.

Our Recreation staff, including Anne Marie Donnelly, Lillian Bautista, Samantha Booker, Joan Martin, Melissa Poole and Carmelita Rogers, also worked over the weekend to make preparations for registration for our upcoming modified summer camp season that begins June 15. The entire recreation division, headed by Lorraine Banford, deserves continued kudos for serving our city over the past three months and providing emergency child care to our city’s health care workers and essential City employees. Below is an awesome video, produced by the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) that captures the heart and soul of the program.

Finally, I want to thank Sarah Madland and our Policy and Public Affairs team, which includes our Volunteer and Community Gardening divisions. Over the past three months, this team has provided 25% of the number of employees who’ve been deployed externally to the City’s EOC and Joint Information Center (JIC). They have worked as City Greeters, Site Monitors, Equity Officers, Emergency Volunteer Center Deputy Chiefs, Pantry Coordinators, and at the Joint information Center. I am thankful for everyone who has served in some capacity downtown and exhibited a willingness to help San Francisco and its citizens in this time of need.

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