Rome wasn't built in a day, but on March 4, 2008, Balboa Playground was. The total amount raised by the Friends was between $600,00- $700,000, according to John Katz, one of FOBPP's core group of movers and shakers. They raised money from their neighbors and local businesses, and, working with the Neighborhood Parks Council and Rec and Park, FOBPP received funding from the national nonprofit KaBOOM!, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and a $75,000 Community Challenge grant from the Mayor's Office for an ADA accessible pathway to the new playground. The Friends of Balboa Park Playground, a group of local residents, got together to replace it and provide a community gathering space. Its wide range of facilities includes two baseball and two softball fields, a soccer stadium, swimming pool with changing room, picnic area with tables and benches, tennis courts and a new playground.īuilt in the 1970s, the playground became dilapidated and dangerous after 38 years of heavy use in the area with the highest number of children in San Francisco. Located in the Outer Mission/Excelsior/Ingleside District, Balboa Park serves as a district, a neighborhood, and a public park. In 1994 a City College plan to acquire the Park for recreational and vocational opportunities for at-risk youth failed and it remained a park for all its neighborhoods. ![]() In 1952 the Recreation and Park Department granted the New Mission Terrace Improvement Association $34,750 for replacing the Park irrigation system, completing two baseball diamonds, and lighting the tennis courts. In 1951, the Board of Supervisors allocated $40,000 for a soccer field that required $110,000 more and Mayor Elmer Robinson approved paying it from the Recreation bond, noting that people had been working and fighting for it since 1907. In 1946, plans to build temporary housing in the park for returning veterans and their families got underway, and in 1948 141 two-and-four room apartments were ready for occupants. But, beginning in the 1950s, changes and improvements came slowly and incrementally. Two ball fields, and a successor to that House - the Ingleside Police Station - are fixtures in the 21-acre park today. One Commission report that year noted that Balboa Park surrounded the House of Corrections and that progress was being made on a new ball field. They got it and the park was oompahed in, October 19th, 1910. The Ingleside Improvement Club wanted it for the dedication ceremony the following year. When the City gave Balboa Park over to the San Francisco Parks Commission in 1909, the first call on its budget was $100 for a band. ![]() Phone number for further information is (415) 337-4701
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