South San Francisco

Today’s post is, well honestly, a soap box.  Most people know the City of South San Francisco because they see the above when they drive into San Francisco from the airport.  That is it, that is probably all you need to know as well.  It is a delightful little town with an old downtown where you can still get your shoes fixed, and the hardware store guy knows your name, and what you need.  It is a split town, the freeway runs directly through it, the west side of the freeway is why it is called the Industrial City.  It is miles and miles of office buildings, almost entirely feeding the biotech industry, ugly, massive and lacking all signs of humanity except the ubiquitous 500 car parking lots.

However, South San Francisco has done something that other cities should do.  They built a public park that is functional, attractive, and has an art walk.

First, it has the typical things you would expect, but oh so much more.  It has TWO baseball parks, Bocce ball, Tennis, Soccer, TWO kids playgrounds, an indoor swimming pool AND a skateboard park.

All this and an art walk, proving that when cities and counties want to do it right – it is all possible.

The art wasn’t anything to write home about, but here it was in the middle of a park filled, with families picnicking, playing ball, and generally just enjoying their park.

The grounds were really well maintained, and well designed.  Colma Creek used to run through the area, making it marshy and unusable.  During construction they tamed the creek in concrete culverts.  I assume this little trail was meant to pay homage to the creek.

Oh, and did I mention there is a 1.8 acre dog park, with separate areas for big and little dogs AND it’s own art.

If you enjoy reading history, there is a nice article in the local paper covering the area from the 1800’s.