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Camping in Golden Gate Park?

A CurbedSF story stopped me in my tracks last week. They posted about a SF Examiner article detailing the Park & Rec Department’s plans to look into allowing campouts in Golden Gate Park for kids.

“It’d be kind of like a summer camp,” Rec and Park Project Manager Lev Kushner said. “It’s an idea I stole from New York. They have a camp-out with parents and children, and then maybe a bonfire, a constellation identification walk or a campfire cookout.”

There’s already plenty of illegal camping happening in Golden Gate Park, so why is the Rec & Park Dept. now interested in the concept? Money, of course. With $9 million in cuts to their budget, the department is looking for new ideas to generate revenue.

The article says that Park & Rec Chief Phi Ginsburg “has created a three-person moneymaking team to flush out the ideas and other possibilities, such as corporate sponsorships, holding flea markets and flipping more events like the “Peter Pan” show, which is netting the department $315,000 in permits alone.”

In typical Examiner fashion, they don’t actually explain what the Peter Pan show is so I’m not sure. Anyone know? I imagine people flying around on cables in wooded areas of the park in green tights, but who knows. Must be something interesting if it’s generating that much in permit fees. [Thanks to reader Bob who sent in a link explaining the Peter Pan show]

Back to the camping idea… My initial reaction to this was negative. I guess I am jaded by all the issues in Golden Gate Park like homeless camping, trash, crime and the annual dead body that some poor visitor inevitably comes across. The idea of having kids sleeping overnight in the park strikes me as a bad idea. I think the Presidio would be a more appropriate place for this. It just feels a lot less urban.

There is also the issue of staffing and managing a program like this. Wouldn’t you need a 24 hour security service to watch over the area where the little tykes and their chaperones are snoozing? In the Examiner article, Ginsburg says that a similar program in New York city requires “about 70 people”. With a budget crisis already looming, hiring a large team to manage a new program like this doesn’t seem like good spending.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some lovely places in GGP where people could have a great camping experiencing. The AIDS Memorial Grove is one that springs to mind, as well as the top of Strawberry Hill at Stow Lake (great sunrises from there).

I also question how much money this would really bring in. What would a group pay for the privilege of bunking in the park? If they only ran a program like this in the summer, the possibilities for a lot of revenue seem limited.

As a kid, I spent a night on Alcatraz. I tagged along on a girl scout outing and we all had to clear the helicopter pad of weeds in exchange for the sleepover. I was exhausted by the time we crawled into our cells and sleeping bags. They didn’t close the cell doors, but it was one of the best night sleeps I ever had. And I’ve never forgotten the experience of being on the island at night, hearing the sounds of Ghirardelli Square trickle across the Bay to us as we sat around the campfire.

So I think there are urban spots where this camping idea has some merit, but I’m not so sure about Golden Gate Park.

What do you think of the idea of camping in GGP? Are you getting your camping gear ready in anticipation?

Sarah B.

11 Comments

  1. why did you delete half the comments here? UNCOOL, loser lady

  2. @ what_gives – I didn’t delete the comments though it looks that way. I changed web hosts today and in the process of the switchover, some comments were left on the old host, some on this new host. I’ll add them all back in, don’t worry. 😉

    Sarah B.

  3. I have sometimes thought about camping out down in GGP just for fun.

    You would have to be very ninja-like about it in order to do it without causing any trouble or getting any trouble. There are all manners of danger, of course: at any time your secret campsite might be invaded by the homeless, the cops, sex perverts, coyotes, joggers, frisbee golfers, or even muggers, rapists, or killers. But with careful planning and execution, you could do it, and maybe even have a good time about it.

    If the camping was done more in highly ordered Boy Scout fashion, in some kind of fenced in area like the polo fields, with security and whatnot, I guess it could be safe “for the kids $$$”. Just not probably much fun in the traditional sense of camping.

  4. There is a campsite in the Presidio — the Robb Hill Campground — that can be rented through the Presidio Trust although it has been under renovation for a while. Not sure if/when it is back online.

  5. Providing more opportunities for San Francisco residents to use their park? Proving another recreation activity for families? We can’t have that. What is Ginsburg thinking?

  6. I camped in Golden Gate Park as young Boy Scout in the mid-1980s once. There was a district-wide camporee involving competitions between San Francisco troops. (Mine was Troop 39.) Hundreds of kids and leaders (maybe even a thousand or more? hard to trust my pre-teen perspective) in tents up and down Speedway Meadow. Wonder if it was an isolated event.

  7. The Robb Hill site is still under construction. To what_gives:If you would please, ease up and show some respect for Sarah, a lot of work goes into this blog. No need to call anyone names, sheesh.

  8. Sorry Lady. I suddenly mistakenly thought you were one of these a-hole bloggers who deletes the comments they don’t like. An honest mistake, right? Since after all, the comments WERE deleted for a while, with no explanation until I complained. Anyways, glad you are not one of those comment deleting types after all. I stand corrected! Bad on me yall. Have mercy Oh Jesus

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