Fences are up on the Upper Great Highway between Judah and Kirkham streets for “Shipwreck Cove,” a temporary pilot playground backed by Friends of Sunset Dunes (FOSD). A telling detail is already visible on the project’s banner: a vinyl sticker hastily slapped over the word “Summer,” pushing the opening back to “Fall 2026.”
This botched timeline points to a deeply troubling reality. FOSD is reportedly using private donations to fund this project, an apparent maneuver to bypass standard City procurement and public oversight. But private money does not grant a license to evade state law, and it proves FOSD is prioritizing political speed over children’s safety.
FOSD bragged that the project is designed by “Something Labs,” an independent collective that creates indoor museum displays. Let’s be entirely explicit: they are completely unqualified for this project. They are not a licensed, bonded California commercial general engineering contractor or an accredited public playground manufacturer. You cannot YouTube-tutorial your way into engineering public infrastructure. There is an astronomical, legally terrifying gulf between crafting indoor science exhibits and calculating the structural wind-loads and safety use-zones required for heavy outdoor equipment exposed to gale-force coastal winds and 24/7 unsupervised use.
Families shouldn’t have to demand public records before visiting a playground, because municipal oversight normally does its job. But we must demand them here, because an un-credentialed hobbyist collective lacks the specialized engineering expertise to build to code.
Are the existing octopus sculpture, skatepark and biking ramps actually up to code? Under California Health and Safety Code Section 115725, all public playgrounds must meet rigid ASTM standards, including a 12-inch shock-absorbing fall zone. Public risk management authorities will not insure installations lacking formal manufacturer certification. If an injury occurs, San Francisco taxpayers hold the bag.
Meanwhile, western SoMa’s long-promised Rachele Sullivan Park project was recently halted due to a $10 million funding shortfall. How can the City justify allowing hazardous, uncertified “DIY” projects on a highway median while legitimate neighborhood parks are left completely broke? Rec & Parks must halt this installation.
Sincerely,
A Sunset District Resident
Categories: letter to the editor
Open the Great Highway!
Where is and who is paying for maintenance of it? Who gets sued when somebody gets hurt?? Dumb idea!
Many thanks to the Sunset resident who authored this Letter to the Editor and for asking important questions that need to be answered. My guess is the big rush to fill the area with oversized structures secured to the surface is to be able to raise the cost of what they will claim it will take to relocate these structures elsewhere if in November it is deemed that private vehicles may share the use of the Great Highway Monday through Friday. Interesting strategy that they used regarding the skate park, telling the Judge it was temporary and easily dismantled, and afterwards claiming it would be cost prohibitive to relocate it.
This cannot be true. “FOSD is reportedly using private donations to fund this project, an apparent maneuver to bypass standard City procurement and public oversight.” You cannot build on city/public land without a contract from the city. It does not matter that the funding is private. All city contracts have provisions in them that all records done under the contract and the work product are owned by the city. If what you are saying in that sentence is true, anyone could build anything on city and the publics land. Clearly this is not true.
You can ask for public records from the city of the department overseeing the contract. You can also ask FOSD. There cannot be a bypass.
Unfortunately, there are all kinds of bypasses that occur every day. It seems that it just depends on who has the money, or social contract, to finance them.
I’ve personally talked to a business owner on Irving Street who told me about a single-family home that was rebuilt so that it now has eight or nine individual units in it, which are rented out to students from SF State who need a place to live. These units are totally illegal. But the landlord/homeowner gets away with it.
Rec & Park is on record as being blatantly corrupt, but City Hall does nothing about it. There’s all kinds of stuff that needs to be cleaned up in this city.
Yes, you are correct city officials and employees bypass, violate laws and city codes every day. Big money is growing their political power in the city, and it would be no surprise that they skirt laws.
It would be great if City Hall meaning the Mayor, Supervisor and the City Attorneys Office cleaned up the violations or did not violate the laws themselves. Vote them out if they don’t and vote for people that will.
I want to add. I am neither for or against the Great Highway being a park or it being a road. I am for laws being followed and the right for people to know what their government is doing, and they can’t hide it behind private organizations. There has to be transparency and accountability.
Correct me if I’m wrong, or I don’t understand the circumstances well enough, but don’t public parks, regardless of size, require review, evaluation, and permitting by SFRPD? Isn’t there a period during which construction bids are accepted? Doesn’t SFRPD have a list of preferred contractors? This proposal seems very loosey-goosey and seems difficult to believe.
Excellent point. Perhaps one should make a request to the Inspector General to investigate the funds Rec and Park receives from the city budget an audit of that department. It would be nice to see what that enterprise department is doing with its rather expansive new income stream from their deal with the entertainment contracts and other increased fees and other charges. I believe the Golden Gate Park neighbors would love to know.