Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: Neighbors Work Together

I am pleased to report that the Friends of Rossi Playground have teamed up with the Neighborhood Parks Council to renovate the playground (located at Arguello Boulevard and Anza Street) as part of the Playground Campaign.

The campaign harnesses community initiative and ingenuity to build dynamic play spaces while bringing communities together. Neighbors, or their contacts in the trades, will perform the majority of the steps required in the playground rebuilding process. Community members (including children) will design the playground, help raise money and actually put together the playground equipment and site changes during community "Build Day." Through the Playground Campaign, neighbors come together to realize a common vision and build a sense of community.

Nearly 100 Rossi neighbors are involved in this effort. They have formed construction, outreach and fundraising committees and are on their way to raising the $50,000 necessary to pay for the play equipment. On Design Day, held March 22, the Friends of Rossi Playground met with Peterson Architects, which has graciously donated its services, to impart its vision of what the new playground should look like.

Design Day was a huge success and the architects are now translating that vision into conceptual drawings to present to the community in the next few months.

We all understand that our children need a safe place to play. Through play, kids learn about their boundaries, how to build relationships and how to socialize with other children and families. Play offers children much needed exercise and physical challenges as well as safe and fun activities that help keep them out of gangs and off drugs. The community at Rossi sees this as an opportunity to create a play environment that will be inviting to the young and old alike and reflect the wonderful diversity of our community. I am proud of this inspiring effort by the community in District 1. If you would like to get involved in the Rossi Playground renovation project, call the Neighborhood Parks Council at 621-3260.

Support Our Chinese Restaurants
On Thursday, May 29, my office teamed with Dr. Mitch Katz, director of the SF Public Health Department, and Wang Yunxiang, consul general of the People's Republic of China, to send a message concerning SARS. Together, we shared a beautiful lunch at the Mayflower Restaurant on Geary Boulevard. In addition to enjoying excellent food and wonderful company, our purpose was to let residents and visitors to our City know that there is absolutely no reason to allow fear of SARS to deprive you of the joy of eating at our many wonderful Chinese restaurants.

As Katz explained to the many members of the press who attended the lunch, there has been no case of SARS that has originated in San Francisco. A visitor from Hong Kong exhibited the single case of SARS to have developed in the City. Even in those countries where SARS has been a problem it is being brought under control. The World Health Organization recently removed Hong Kong from its list of countries on a travel advisory. With the complete lack of any evidence of danger of SARS transmission in San Francisco, it is very important that we not allow unreasoned fear to keep us from visiting our regular haunts. The many small businesses, particularly restaurants, that make our City special have already suffered greatly under the economic downturn. Now the SARS scare is hurting our Chinese businesses even more. Let's all make a resolution to visit our favorite Chinese restaurant, enjoy a wonderful meal, support diversity and help our economy rebound. See you over dim sum!

San Francisco Supervisor Jake McGoldrick represents District 1.