Bounded by 16th, 17th, Bryant and Hampshire streets, Franklin Square is located at the outer edges of the Mission and Potrero Hill.  Well-used by soccer teams from outside the neighborhood, the park is rarely visited by nearby residents, save the occasional dog walker.  Once a shining example of Victorian-era design, complete with an athletic field and meandering pathways, the 4.4 acre park is dilapidated and dangerous; a magnet for the homeless, drug use and prostitution.  The park’s metal play structure is corroded, its pressure-treated wood pillars rotted and leeching arsenic, and its sandbox polluted with feces, syringes, condoms and cigarette butts.  Two years ago, the Neighborhood Parks Council (NPC), a local nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing city parks and green spaces, declared Franklin Square San Francisco’s worst, giving it a grade “F."

Maintaining enough open space for San Francisco’s dense population is challenging.  With five and a half acres of parks, playgrounds, or urban wilderness for every 1,000 people, the City has about half as much green space as the national average.  According to the Neighborhood Parks Council and the San Francisco Parks and Recreation and Planning departments, the eastern neighborhoods – the Central Waterfront, Dogpatch, East SoMA, the Mission, Showplace Square and Potrero Hill -- are in particular need of more open space.  Other neighborhoods with an open space deficit include North Beach, Bayview-Hunters Point, and Visitation Valley. With a hefty amount of development on the horizon for San Francisco’s southeastern neighborhoods, City agencies involved in open space acquisition and maintenance are brainstorming ways to ensure open space access in the coming years.

Bernal Heights Park, located at the nexus of Highway 280 and the 101, is webbed with hiking trails and covered with patches of willow scrub, wildflowers and grasses with exotic names like Purple Needlegrass and Johnny-Jump-Ups. Because of its native plants, grasslands, and good habitat for birds, insects and butterflies, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Natural Areas Program (NAP) officially designated the Park a “significant natural area” earlier this year.