Now through Jan. 4, the Garden’s trees, plants and ponds will serve as a backdrop for more than a million lights, creative art installations and musical accompaniment. Visitors will walk a one-mile trail of lights carpeting the meadows and strung from the branches of trees, highlighting the beauty of nature in winter. Hot cocoa and other seasonal fare will be available to set the holiday mood.
Phil Ginsburg, the man who led the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department for 16 years through accomplishments and controversies, is stepping down from his position as general manager at the end of this year.
Officers with the San Francisco Police Department arrested a 19-year-old San Francisco man for sexual battery, kidnapping and other charges following an attack last week on a minor in the bathrooms at the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park, Interim Chief Paul Yep announced Friday.
But the latest development really takes the cake! The San Francisco Botanical Garden Society (now corporate branded as “The Gardens of Golden Gate Park”) is putting gaudy LED lights on a “mile” of trees in Strybing Arboreum (now commercially promoted as the “botanical gardens”).
San Francisco’s parks have always been free and open because our public dollars make them that way. They are not commodities for rent.
Celebrating 60 years of the Grateful Dead’s music, the City of San Francisco rolled out the red carpet for the Dead & Company last month. The festivities featured San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) buses wrapped in Grateful Dead-inspired psychedelic colors, a special rose planted in Golden Gate Park’s Rose Garden – and the most anticipated of the festivities – three concerts at the Polo Field featuring Dead & Company during the first weekend of August.
I’m not anti-music. I’m anti-making two residential districts bear the cost of parties we didn’t ask for. The City should move these festivals downtown, where the energy and the business are needed most.
Outside Lands photos, day two. Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.
Things to do on San Francisco’s west side in August 2025.
Outside Lands photos, day one. Friday, Aug. 8, 2025.
One foggy Sunday afternoon in July, Anna Boyarsky and her two children were biking west along John F. Kennedy (JFK) Promenade in Golden Gate Park when they rounded the bend past the whale tail and spotted something gleaming through the trees ahead. As they got closer, they began to see a teal serpentine sculpture – a 100-foot-long sea serpent. They stopped, craning their necks to take in all the details of the 25-foot-tall sculpture towering over them.
The legacy of Zion Williams-Gaines is now enshrined in San Francisco’s first skatepark, recently named in his honor as a tribute for his dedication to skateboarding and perseverance in overcoming blindness to pursue his passion.
$1 million will be dedicated to the Sunset Boulevard Recycled Water Project. The improvements, designed by Public Works, will replace potable water supplied for irrigation with highly treated recycled water that exceeds state standards
It’s frustrating that Supervisor Engardio keeps claiming to be mitigating Chain of Lakes congestion caused by the Upper Great Highway closure by replacing the stop sign at Chain of Lakes/Lincoln Way/41st Avenue with a traffic signal. In reality, at least for drivers using Chain of Lakes, it has made things worse ….
Next month will mark the 17th year that the Outside Lands Festival (OSL) will be held in Golden Gate Park. In 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to extend the contract between Another Planet Entertainment (APE) and the City of San Francisco until 2031.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 