Mason Street Closure

Fairy godmothers can turn pumpkins into coaches and mice into footmen, but it was City officials and devoted neighbors that turned Mason Street into Mason Green. Representatives of 4 City departments, Supervisor Chiu and aid Jamie Cantwell, and dozens of North Beach neighbors did a one day makeover of Mason Street on Saturday, August 1. The street is being closed for 2 months to study, in real time, the effects of that closure on area traffic. With North Beach lacking in parks and civic spaces, and the City’s Pavements to Parks project gaining such enthusiastic support, the idea of converting the street to a public plaza during the traffic study period gained momentum and was approved.

But, while other street conversions - like the recent one at Castro and 17th - have been months in the making, planning for Mason Green started only 3 weeks before the scheduled closure (in order for closure results to be done in time to be included in the ongoing EIR). City Departments pitched in, many staff members going above and beyond the call to pull all the needed parts together. Rebar, the local design collective that created the Park(ing) Day movement and that was responsible for turning Civic Center Plaza into a harvestable garden last year, developed a concept for the space.

It was especially gratifying to see City staffers from different departments pitching bark chips and hauling wattles and carting plants side-by-side. By late afternoon the space was filled with residents and visitors, as if it had always been there. It was gratifying to sit and watch people round the corner and react with widened eyes and huge smiles as the unexpected park came into view.

As befits a temporary installation, every component of the Mason Green will be reused or returned. The plants go into other parks or back to RecPark’s nursery. The straw wattles that line the flower beds will be used in a slope stabilization project up at Coit Tower later this year. The wooden planter barricades will be used for the Pavement to Parks projects as the City experiments with creating other impromptu piazzas. The decorative boulders came from the rubble dug out from beneath City Hall during its renovation.

Neighborhood-centered casual gatherings will take place through August and September - bocce tournaments, poetry readings, kids crafts. Neighbors are encouraged to come and visit. People who have ideas for low-key (non traffic-generating!) entertainment or celebrations or who want to steer clear of other gatherings should contact Donna Faure at donnafaure@yahoo.com to tap into the Mason Green calendar.

Our coach will turn back into a pumpkin on September 27. But, if the studies go as predicted, neighbors can look forward to a more beautiful - and permanent - park in the future.

Thank you

The Friends of Joe DiMaggio Playground would like to thank the many people who contributed to Mason Green’s success, in particular:

DPW
Ed Rieiskin
Mohammed Nuru
Rich Bridygham 

RecPark
Karen Mauney-Brodek
Maggie Cleveland
Mark Tilley
Marianne Bertuccelli
Dennis Kern 

Rebar
John Bela
Matthew Passmore

Friends of Joe DiMaggio Playground project volunteers
Lizzy Hirsch
Donna Faure
Tan Chow
Liz Diaz
Terry Grenchik
Lee Goodin
Julie Christensen

Why is Mason closed?

North Beach needs a bigger and safer library. Several years of study has provided strong evidence that it is not practical or cost efficient to try to add to the existing North Beach Library. The building ranks 3 in a 1-4 scale for earthquake safety - with 4 being the worst case. It cannot meet current accessibility codes. And many feel its placement on the neighborhood’s primary playground 50 years ago was a bad idea and that, if changes are to be made, the land should be returned to recreation and landscape use.

After 5 community meetings and 2 years of study, the City decided placing  a new library on the triangle (at Lombard/Columbus/Mason, now owned by the City) had the most combined benefits for both the library and the Playground.

The neighborhood gets a new, bigger library with separate areas for adults, teens and kids. There will be a special room for story time and readings. The circulation desk will no longer stick into the reading space. And there will be room for special collections like the Beat poets and the neighborhood’s history.

Although many of us got used to the idea of the triangle being a park, we can get more and better park space if the library moves out to the triangle. The old library would be removed and that land returned to RecPark. With the addition of Mason Street, there would be enough land to break the gridlock that has blocked playground improvement since the library was plunked down there a half-century ago. The park master plan calls for all the current ball courts - softball, tennis, basketball to remain; for the children’s play area to be moved closer to the Pool and RecCenter; for patios to be added near the Center; for trees and planted areas to be added in the new spaces.

When the City first considered closing Mason, it started by consulting with Police, Fire and Muni. None of the City’s emergency or transportation departments saw obvious problems related to the closure. The City’s internal computer models indicated closure would have minimal impact on traffic (it would not make any existing situations significantly worse) and might even improve pedestrian safety by aleviating some complicated intersections. As the library project moved forward, traffic engineers were hired to look deeper into the various scenarios. They reached the same conclusions. An Environmental Impact Review is currently underway. It will consider the negative effects of having a bigger new library and of removing the current library. It will also consider the effects of closing Mason. The street closure goes farther than is required by offering a real-life look at the effects. The EIR should be completed in early 2010. If the results are positive, construction of the new library could start in 2011 or early 2012. Several sources of funding for the playground renovation are being investigated. But paving (or unpaving) the way for future changes now, while these major alterations are taking place, makes a lot of sense. And interim plans are being developed that would make good - and green - use of the extra space until full park renovation could take place.