I’ve walked down Buchanan Street many times, passing what looks like a very small community park at Page Street. The other day I walked in to that small park and found a great deal more of it was on the other side, including a community garden running down the hill.

I was walking through early in the morning, so the ground was wet and the leaves of the plants were covered in dew. It was fiercely quiet and peaceful; I could hear my feet crunching on the dirt paths. The planting boxes form terraces of sorts, with paths around them descending gently and then curving back up to the garden’s gate.

I did some web searching to find out more about Koshland Park. That brought me to San Francisco Beautiful, which awarded a beautification award, under the theme, “Civic Engagement: Meeting the Challenge,” to the park in 2003. Koshland Park is maintained by the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Parks Group, which meets to work on the park on the second Saturday of the month from 11am to 2pm.

More of the Parks that have received awards from San Francisco Beautiful can be found on their site.

Another group that works on the parks in San Francisco is the SF Neighborhood Parks Council. They describe themselves as, “a coalition of community-based park groups actively involved in improving neighborhood parks throughout San Francisco. Since 1996, NPC has grown to include 120+ park groups and 4,000 park volunteers, establishing itself as San Francisco”™s premier park advocacy group.”

One of the many reasons I love living in San Francisco is the combination of amazing things, such as the parks, and the community interest and actual people that give their time and energy to maintain those things.

I’ll be adding entries about more SF parks and places as I come across them.