After a pause in reporting for two years due to the COVID pandemic, the City Performance Unit of the Controller’s Office has released the Park Maintenance Annual Report and interactive dashboard detailing the conditions of public park features ranging from dog play areas and athletic fields to restrooms and table seating areas.
Every three months, since 2005, staff from the Controller’s Office and the Recreation and Parks Department visit parks across the city to conduct evaluations, and the Controller’s Office then analyzes and aggregates the results as part of its public reporting on an annual basis. While the primary purpose is to present the public with the latest information on trends in park maintenance, these tools also serve to support Recreation and Park’s operational decision-making, with the ultimate goal of continuous improvement of San Francisco’s parks. Importantly, this year’s report also highlights data on Equity Zones, which are neighborhoods disproportionately affected by environmental health risks. High-quality parks in Equity Zones can help to mitigate these health risks.
“This project is part of our core work to measure the City’s performance, and I’m very pleased that we’re able to get back to it this year after two years of emergency work.” said Controller Ben Rosenfield. “It’s particularly good to see that disparities in the overall quality of parks between neighborhoods have continued to shrink and that positive trends have largely been sustained through the pandemic.”
Highlights from the report:
- Six parks received perfect scores of 100% in FY22 (July 2021 and June 2022): DuPont Tennis Courts, Fay Park, Gilman Playground, Sunnyside Conservatory, Washington Square, and West Portal Playground. This was the highest number of perfect scores in a single year.
- Most Feature scores declined from FY20 to FY22, with the exceptions of Greenspace (+4 percentage points), Ornamental Beds (+2 points), and Hardscape (+1 point). The features which saw the largest year-over-year score decreases were Restrooms (-4 percentage points), Table Seating Areas (-4 points), and Outdoor Courts (-4 points).
- From FY15-FY19, the City’s highest-scoring parks were concentrated in the northern part of the City while its lowest-scoring parks were concentrated in the south and east. FY20-FY22 saw this trend reversed, with a more equitable distribution of both high- and low-scoring parks across the entire City.
This is the 15th annual park maintenance standards report based on the results of evaluations from FY19-20 and FY21-22.
The Controller’s Office will be releasing the following data products in the months ahead:
Spring 2023: City Survey
Learn what San Franciscans think about our City.
Spring 2023: Street and Sidewalk Standards
See the results of our surveys conducted throughout the City during the year to glean the condition of our streets and sidewalks.