Thursday morning (18th June 2015) marks a milestone in the ongoing renovation of Dolores Park. The newly completed north area will finally be opened to the public, after some delays caused by additional drainage work and even some vandals. This new area includes new ADA pathways allowing wheelchair access from the 18th Muni all the way to the children’s playground area, as well as a big Recology funded recycling station to help with the trash, new bathrooms, rebuilt tennis courts, bike racks and significant fixes to the drainage of the park to mention some of the long list of improvements. For a full list, see here.

To mark the event, there’ll be a “Silent Disco” held in the park – from 3pm to 7pm. Details here.

Given the sheer crowds coming to this little park, please spread word about the #LoveDolores campaign and consider this a “Leave No Trace” park. If you want to help at Dolores Park, you can meet up with the Dolores Park Stewards on Sunday, June 21, 2 to 4 P.M…. at the 19th and Dolores Street Plaza. They plan to meet with and inform park patrons of the new trash plan, the Pop-Up recycling station, our new restrooms and ask everyone to take the pledge to #LoveDolores.

At the same time as opening the north part, the south part of Dolores Park will be closed off for repairs. It has been very, very, overrun by the crowds during the construction and is obviously worse-for-wear. The same folks who fixed up the north part will now turn their attention to the south part of the park for approximately the next six months. Note: the children’s area in the south part of Dolores Park will still be accessible – but you’ll need to follow the new concrete path to get there.

Renovation of Dolores Park Playground began in 2011, the result of a partnership between San Francisco and fund raising by the Friends of Dolores Park Playground.

The project manager for all this construction work is: Jacob Gilchrist, Project Manager, Capital Division, SF Recreation and Park Department. His phone is 415 581-2561, fax is 415 581-2540.

More information including a park map and a survey for park users is on the project website and on www.doloresparkworks.org

Trivia questions: Did you know Dolores Park used to be a cemetery? Is the name of the park “Dolores Park”? Or “Mission Dolores Park”? Or “Mission Park”?