SF Rec & Parks plans to revamp UN Plaza this fall with skate park, ping pong and Teqball tables

Plans were filed this week for a new revitalization project in SF’s generally drug-ridden UN Plaza, in what appears to be an effort by City Hall to bring about positive change and bring non-drug dealers and non-users to the plaza.

Looking at it now, it’s a little hard to imagine that UN Plaza will soon become anything other than the open-air market for drugs and stolen goods that it has been for years. But a section of the plaza closer to the Orpheum Theater may soon get a skate park, new chess tables, and ping pong and ping pong tables. Does not agree a game on a curved table that combines elements of soccer and ping-pong.

The plan does not affect the area of ​​the square that has the most commerce…next to the BART station entrance and the fountain.

The SF standard is the first word on the plan, which it confirmed from the SF Department of Recreation and Parks, which oversees the plaza. The department is seeking permission from Planning for the six-week project, which will include installing granite rails and some form of hardscape equipment for skateboarding, with plans apparently being compared to the skate park at Place de la Republique in Paris, seen below.

Actual design details are scarce at this point, but below is this diagram showing the pilot program’s skate park and sports area. The design appears to preserve space in the middle of the Heart of the City Farmer’s Market promenade.

The checkerboards, supervisor Dean Preston tells the Standard, are the result of community input into the project. It is unclear where the Teqball idea originated. And they say there will be other “sports equipment” as well.

According to the standard, part of the Plaza’s red brick pavement will be removed for the red brick skate park.

This probably isn’t the magic bullet for cleaning up UN Plaza, but it could be a positive step if the park catches on. If approved, this work could begin as early as September, and supervisors seem motivated to do a variety of projects like this one to make parts of downtown and Central Mark safer and healthier.

Do parents of teenage skaters want their kids at this skatepark?

It’s ironic, isn’t it? This plan came out on the same day that Mayor London Breed and the police chief had to defend a major police crackdown on the unlicensed skateboarding event that takes place every year on Dolores Street?

As Breed said in a statement, “No one was…arrested for skateboarding.”

And look! The city wants to build a new skate park for the skaters so they can meet it.

Rec and Parks recently opened a new skate park, the Waller Street Skate Parkin October, and the department manages several others around town, including popular ones SoMa West Skate ParkUnder the Division Street Freeway.

Top image: SoMa West Skate Park via SF Public Works