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From: Toody Maher [mailto:toody@pogopark.org]
Subject: Article on Pogo Park in SF Chronicle
Hello Members of the City Council and City Manager,
Last Sunday, the SF Chronicle ran a front page, color story on Pogo Park in their Insight section (see link below):
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Hard-work-to-restore-Richmond-playgrounds-pays-off-5501644.php
While we are thrilled by the coverage, the Chronicle omitted several serious key points:
1) we are driving $ back into the community to hire and train local residents to design and build parks in their own communities;
2) nothing could be accomplished without the dedicated help and partnership from the City of Richmond. In every single interaction with the press, we continue to underscore our partnership with the city as the #1 reason our parks are successful and are making an impact. We cannot help what the press writes.
Below is a letter to the editor that we sent to the Chronicle in response to Sunday's story. :
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To the Editor, San Francisco Chronicle:
Your coverage of Richmond's Pogo Park in May 25's Sunday Insight was appreciated by all the Iron Triangle residents who have worked for years to make the park a reality. We'd like to correct a significant error, though, and point out a serious omission.
Several photo captions identified members of the park construction team as "neighborhood volunteers." In fact, they are all paid Pogo Park staff, not volunteers. Our community cherishes Pogo Park not just because it is beautiful and safe, but also because it has enabled dozens of local residents to learn valuable design, construction, and management skills and to secure good jobs that pay a living wage.
What was missing from your otherwise excellent reporting was that we couldn't have built Pogo Park without the critical support and encouragement of the City of Richmond--its mayor, city manager, parks department, police, city council, community development office, and many other departments.
I may have been the catalyst who started this ball rolling. But the success of Richmond's Pogo Park is truly a team effort.
Toody Maher
Executive Director
Pogo Park
Richmond
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Hard work to restore Richmond playgrounds pays off
Michael Berkowitz
Updated 11:47 am, Wednesday, May 28, 2014
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Toody Maher (left) advises a team of paid staff rebuilding Pogo Park in Richmond, Calif. on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, in preparation for the park's grand opening in the fall. They are: Richard Muro, Daniela Guadalupe, Jose Juan Reyes, Eddie Doss, Karina Guadalupe and Tonie Lee. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle |
By any measure, the neighborhood had problems. When Toody Maher moved in, she already knew about Richmond and its notorious Iron Triangle or, as one law enforcement officer called it, Triage Triangle. But Maher had some ideas on improvements and the energy to make them happen.
During World War II, Richmond had briefly flourished as a shipbuilding center. But when those jobs set sail, unemployment rose, families were broken, and crime rates soared to among the highest in the nation. Thus, the view from outside Richmond is often clouded by these grim social conditions.
Nevertheless, Maher had been charmed by the neighborhood, with its comfortable homes, broad avenues, plentiful parks and affordability. Where others saw mayhem and danger, residents saw people stronger for what they had endured.
Maher already had learned a bit herself about endurance and making things work. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she played professional volleyball in Europe, pioneered the launch of Swatch watches on the West Coast and designed Fortune magazine's 1990 Product of the Year, the world's first clear phone with lights. That same year she was named Inc Magazine's entrepreneur of the year.
She set about realizing the Richmond parks' potential by organizing the greatest assets of the community: the people around her and the land where they lived.
"Every day I'd walk through the Elm Playlot and see these great trees, but no kids. The parks were close to the elementary schools and thousands of kids' homes. It made sense for everyone to try to improve them," she said. Now, Pogo Park consists of the Elm Playlot, Harbour-8 Park and Unity Park (the latter two part of the Richmond Greenway), all in different stages of development.
What Maher and her neighbors are doing provides a model for how people anywhere can improve their communities. Her plan was simple, direct and labor intensive, starting with the hard work of building coalitions and finding ways to access resources. Everyone had a role and saw how everyone could benefit. The outcomes were tangible.
Elm Playlot today is a half acre full of energy and activity, with workers constructing tricycle paths, play structures, disc swings, a ball wall, picnic and barbecue grills and a multiuse area for performances or tai chi. Above are a zip line and lights in the trees. When completed, the park's community garden will help supply a healthy-food kitchen and classes in growing and preparing nutritious food.
Last summer, more than 9,000 meals were served at the park. Elm Playlot workers, recruited mainly from the neighborhood, are trained to create high-quality play opportunities that contribute to children's development. Nearby, Pogo Park has combined with the Trust for Public Land to help Richmond and other community agencies plan the Richmond Greenway, an abandoned right of way that will be converted to gardens and recreation.
The greenway winds through the city, linking residents to community services and leading to the next phase - Harbour-8 Park, a new play area surrounded by green gardens, comfortable seating and public art.
The success of Pogo Park can be measured by its physical accomplishments. But the testimony of its users and movers shows a more wide-ranging potential impact. As park user and staff member Carmen Lee says: "Our new parks have showed us how we can act to make our lives better."
Model for success
Here is the formula Toody Maher and her community used to reimagine and improve their community parks:
Define the problem: The parks, especially Elm Playlot, where she started, were underutilized and in a state of disrepair.
Assess the resources available: Neighbors had knowledge, experience and ideas. But it would take both public and private financial resources to use these assets.
Mobilize these resources: Maher began this journey by walking the neighborhood, knocking on doors, and founding a nonprofit organization - Pogo Park. She recruited an advisory board and staff. She also sought out experts in the field, those who had worked on other parks or with experience in children's play and development.
Secure financing: Maher took her plan to the Richmond Redevelopment Agency. If she could raise $30,000 in a week or so, they would match that amount to begin the planning process. Inc Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year exceeded that, secured the match and moved on to win a series of small grants from Kaiser Foundation Health Care, Children's Hospital Oakland and other private foundations.
Be strong and resilient in the face of adversity: The Richmond Redevelopment Agency had pledged $400,000 to help pay for landscape architects, construction and equipment. But the financially strapped state of California wiped out the city's redevelopment agency. Undaunted, Maher went back to the private foundations and public agencies and helped the city of Richmond win $2 million in Proposition 84 bond funds to rebuild parks for the critically underserved.
Build (and maintain!) it and they will come: Using local help and expertise as much as possible, implement your ideas.
- Michael Berkowitz
Michael Berkowitz is a past senior manager of the San Francisco Planning Department and a former planning commissioner for the city of Berkeley. To comment, please submit your letter to the editor at www.sfgate.com/submissions/#1
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