On Saturday morning for a few hours, neighbors came out to give Muriel Leff Mini-Park on 7th Avenue a little t.l.c. About eight residents pitched in, led by a few gardeners from the San Francisco Rec & Park Department.
It was a perfect day, sunny but not too hot. The gardeners first showed us how to plant small bushes that would fill in the bed along 7th Avenue. We then moved onto the large sandbox, which needed sifting to remove rocks and bits of debris.
A lot of the morning was spent edging the lawn to bring the walkways back into shape. I found myself jumping on my shovel and doing my best pogo-stick imitation; some of the grass was pretty thick.
After our edge-athon, organizer Mikki Sulanchupakorn exclaimed “I didn’t even know the path ran through that part of the park!”. Mission accomplished.
While we didn’t uncover any valuable artifacts while we dug and planted, we did find a plastic army man buried about a foot down. He still had his binoculars in hand!
Other tasks we took on included removing ivy, cleaning weeds out of walkway cracks, picking up litter, and repairing a sprinkler head that was disabled by my over-enthusiastic pogo-sticking. Whoops!
The group also spent some time giving Mikki suggestions for how to better the park, such as painting the far wall with a mural, additional planting and a nicer bulletin board for park and neighborhood announcements.
Special thanks to Mikki and the Rec & Park team for leading us to a nicer, cleaner park. If you live close by, stop by and check it out. There’s a great pepper tree you can sit under.
Sarah B.
I’m sure Muriel is smiling down from heaven knowing her little patch on the planet is getting some tender loving care. 21 rake salute for all that pitched in for the cleanup!
Hi David,
It sounds like you knew Muriel? There’s very little info about her online. Enlighten me! We should get a Wikipedia page started for her too.
Sarah B.
Hoo boy, digging in the memory banks here.Being active in the community,I ran across Muriel but she was not a close buddy. I had a chance to speak with her son at the celebration and a bit of the memories did come floating back. She as others accomplished a rare feat. She mounted a campaign to save a bit of city history and it worked. This patch of ground that was part of the old Richmond stables languished for some time, thanks to Muriel it is the park today instead of condos or asphalt. I believe Mikki has some contact info, I’ll send her a note and see if we can get some background for a page. She and you share something. You both are passionate about our neighborhood and have spunk!