Photo by Rob R.

This Saturday, the restored Murphy Windmill at the south end of Golden Gate Park will take its final step to becoming fully functional – prepare to see it turn!

April 28 commemorates the Dutch national holiday Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag; normally celebrated April 30), and SF Rec & Park is using the occasion to celebrate the re-opening of Murphy Windmill. The windmill has been under restoration for many years at a cost of several million dollars.

Saturday’s celebration kicks off at 11am at the Murphy Windmill, where SF Rec and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg and Dutch Consulate General Bart van Bolhuis will officially open the windmill, and commemorate its first turns. The cottage next to the windmill will also be open to the public. Windmill Designer Lucas Verbij will also be on hand to give a windmill history tour at 11:30.

The Murphy Windmill will only be turning for the day on Saturday. We’re not sure what the plans are for its long-term operation, but there is probably more work needed to bolster it for 24/7 turning. Let’s hope for a decent breeze on Saturday so the Murphy Windmill can finally turn along with its cousin, the Dutch Windmill, at the north end of the park!

I’ve been told that Rec & Park has been testing Murphy’s turns for an hour every day “to make sure the parts are greased and working.” So far so good.

In addition to the kick-off at Murphy Windmill, there will be a large Queen’s Day celebration at the Dutch Windmill including vendors, food, games, children’s activities, live music and more from 11am until 5pm.

Stop by to enjoy all things Dutch including pastries, cheese, and other delicacies, plus a flea market (Queen’s Day is known for its nationwide vrijmarkt (“free market” or flea market), at which many Dutch sell their secondhand item) and a beer garden.

The stretch of JFK Drive alongside the Dutch Windmill will be closed to traffic to host Saturday’s festival.

Sarah B.

This Saturday, the Parks Conservancy will host a celebration for the grand opening of the new Lands End Lookout visitor center.

The new visitor center – located just above Sutro Baths in a corner of the Merrie Way parking lot – features “exhibits and artifacts, interpretive merchandise, a café, restrooms, and “green” features throughout”. Also newly built is a 1,000 square foot building for restrooms (no more porta-potties!).

Saturday’s celebration kicks off at 11am with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. From 12noon until 2pm, the center will be open to visitors and there will be live music performances. Beginning at 1pm, you can join guided walks on the area’s Ohlone heritage, wildflowers, history or archeology.

The construction of the Lands End Lookout was made possible through a $5 million donation from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Goldsmith Foundation. Additional funds were provided by the National Park Service and Parks Conservancy members.

In early community meetings, the architectural firm on the project, Esherick, Homsey, Dodge & Davis (EHDD), said they envisioned the Lands End Lookout as “a touchstone for a network of places along the edge”, a starting point for visitors to begin their exploration of Lands End. And visitors don’t just mean tourists – according to a surveys conducted for the project, 80% of visitors to Lands End are local to San Francisco.

To help guide the design process, the Park Service developed five themes for the project: Lands End’s history of recreation (think Sutro Baths, Camera Obscura, rides along Merrie Way, the Cliff House and its Sky Tram), the cultural landscape (who’s been part of the history of Lands End and the archaeology that has evolved), the natural landscape, the Native American presence of the Ohlone/Costonoa tribes that visited seasonally for nearly 3,500 years, and finally, Lands End’s identity as a National Park.

EHDD summed up their design goal for the center as “a place that reflects the past, represents the present, and provides opportunities for future use of Lands End, its protection and enjoyment.”

Come out Saturday and see if they accomplished it!

Sarah B.

In late 2011, a $13.5 million settlement was reached between the Presidio Trust and CALTRANS for cleanup of contaminated sediments that have run into Mountain Lake off of the Park Presidio roadway above it. The runoff has been occurring since the roadway opened 70 years ago.

Under the terms of the settlement, Caltrans will pay $5.5 million to the United States for remediation of Mountain Lake, $4 million for re-configuring the Mountain Lake overflow pipeline, $500,000 for the Presidio’s legal costs, and will fund and construct a run-off diversion project, at an estimated cost of $3.5 million, so that contaminants from Highway 1 will no longer enter Mountain Lake.

According to project organizers, sediment at the bottom of the lake “contains contaminants of concern at concentrations that pose a potential risk to the environment.” The contaminated portions will be removed by dredging and Caltrans will make changes to treat future storm water runoff from Park Presidio before it enters the lake.

On April 19, the Presidio Trust will host a public meeting to receive feedback on the project’s Draft Feasibility Study/Remedial Action Plan (FS/RAP). The Draft FS/RAP proposes excavation by dredging as the preferred cleanup alternative for Mountain Lake. A California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Draft Negative Declaration for the cleanup project has also been prepared. (View FS/RAP & CEQA Documents | View project fact sheet)

The contaminants are in the lake sediment and do not pose a risk to human health, but do pose a potential risk to the lake’s freshwater aquatic habitat. The Presidio Trust plans to remove contaminated sediment from the lake by dredging. The dredged sediments would be processed on site to remove excess water and then placed in trucks and hauled to a disposal facility off the Presidio. Caltrans would stabilize Highway 1 before remediation to protect the roadway from failure during dreding operations. After dredging, the bottom of the lake would be graded to a stable and natural lake configuration. The Presidio Trust is working closely with the City of San Francisco and Caltrans to develop the dredging plan.

The meeting will take place Thursday, April 19 at 6:30 pm at the Golden Gate Club, 135 Fisher Loop, Main Post, Presidio of San Francisco.

Comments can also be mailed to: Genevieve Coyle, Presidio Trust, P.O. Box 29052, San Francisco, California 94129, sent in via email to gcoyle@presidiotrust.gov or by calling (415) 561-4293. Comments must be received by May 3.

Sarah B.

It’s time for Sunday Streets! Sunday’s event will close down roads in Golden Gate Park and along the Great Highway to car traffic, allowing residents to stroll stress-free and enjoy live music, activities and other family-friendly fun.

It’s always great people-watching out at Sunday Streets – roller skaters coast by, multi-sided bikes revolve past, you might come across a free yoga class, or band performing. Anything goes at Sunday Streets, and it’s a great chance to get out and enjoy the day with the community.

This year, MLK Drive in Golden Gate Park will be closed, as well as the usual stretch of Great Highway from Fulton down to Sloat Boulevard. View Sunday Streets route

So dust off your bikes, roller skates, Radio-Flyer wagons, strollers or whatever other means of transportation you have – and come out to enjoy a car-free day!

Sarah B.

This Sunday, the Legion of Honor museum is throwing an Easter celebration, in theme with its current exhibition “The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde 1860–1900″.

The event kicks off at 12noon with a free, Victorian Easter Egg hunt for kids on the front lawn of the museum. A Mad Hatter – outfitted by the A.C.T. Costume Shop – will be on hand to emcee the hunt. Bring your baskets!

Other events on Sunday include Victorian hat decorating, a screening of the animated Alice in Wonderland film, and more:

12-3:00 p.m.
Adorn your Easter hats in the Mad Hatter fashion. Petrushka of Petrushka Couture Accessories will assist museum visitors with transforming their bonnets and top hats into a colorful and crazy headdress! Don’t worry, you can put your bonnets and top hats back to “normal” after you are done impressing the Mad Hatter.

12–3:00 p.m.
Join our museum artists in Gallery 8 and create an origami Easter basket for your hunts beyond the museum.

12:00-3:00 p.m.
Paper cut-out demonstration will be given by Sara Burgess in Gallery 10. Her intricate details reflect the beautiful aesthetics of the Victorian Era.

Florence Gould Theater
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Enjoy the 1951 classic animated version of “Alice in Wonderland.” (75 minutes) Rated: G.

Happy Easter!

Sarah B.

This Saturday night, Green Apple Books will host San Francisco native and author Jen McConnell.

McConnell will be reading from her debut collection of short stories entitled “Welcome, Anybody”:

A lonely woman imagines life with a dead cowboy; a trucker drops out of life for a weekend; a pregnant wife secretly employs feng shui to forestall the impending chaos. The vivid and sometimes heartbreaking stories in Welcome, Anybody progress from a quiet and profound despair to ones where hope, in some quiet form, begins to rise again.

Green Apple notes that most of the stories were written by McConnell either in her apartment on 8th & California or at the Blue Danube coffee shop right up the street on Clement.

She now makes her home on the Lake Erie shore, but refers to Green Apple as “my neighborhood bookstore during my years in the Inner Richmond”.

McConnell will be at Green Apple Books (506 Clement) this Saturday, April 7 at 7pm.

Sarah B.

Park Life, the small gift store and gallery at 220 Clement, is hosting a new exhibition featuring works from Anzfer Farms, a workshop and showroom located in the Outer Richmond:

Anzfer Farms was started by Jonathan Anzalone and Joseph Ferriso in 2009 as a place to create unique objects and installations. Our backgrounds in the arts encompass a diversity of practices, which influence our furniture and object design. Working primarily with reclaimed wood Anzfer Farms seeks to create strong and elegant pieces exploring timeless ideas of color and form.

The Park Life show, opening April 6, is entitled “Holz” which is the German word for wood or timber. “Holz” draws inspiration from the art and design history of the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements.

The exhibition ties together recent and past collaborative furniture pieces from anzer Farms while incorporating the painting and relief works the designers have made in private. View some of Anzfer Farms’ work

Park Life will host an opening reception for “Holz” on Friday, April 6 from 7pm until 10pm. The exhibition will be on display until May 6 during normal store hours.

Sarah B.

Jonathan Anzalone and Joseph Ferriso of Anzfer Farms. Photo by Jen Siska. Courtesy of 7×7.com

This Saturday, the SF Recreation & Parks Department will host their annual Spring Eggstravaganza family fair at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park.

This year’s theme is “Alice in Recreation Land” and features egg hunts, carnival rides, food vendors, bouncy houses, arts and crafts, entertainment and more. SFPD and SFFD will also compete against each other in a rib cookoff.

The festival runs from 11am until 3pm, and admission is $8 per person for an all-access pass.

Sarah B.