The City’s business core boasts a growing menu of children’s activities as officials and others work to diversify the ailing area
Downtown San Francisco , historically known primarily as a place where adults go to work and shop, has increasingly been accumulating attractions for kids and their families. New arts and crafts activities sponsored by The City in Union Square, upgraded miniature soccer fields on a former bus-terminal lot South of Market Street and a nighttime movie show in Yerba Buena Gardens are among the offerings coming at a time when many hope The City’s business core will evolve into a more economically and socially diverse area.
“As we think about downtown and how we structurally change downtown, starting with families or thinking about families is a nice place to begin,” said Andrew Robinson, executive director of The East Cut Community Benefit District, a neighborhood-services nonprofit supported by property owners. Much of downtown has felt relatively dead in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was followed by the increased use of remote-work technologies and persistently high office and retail vacancy rates. Public officials are currently trying to promote conversion of underutilized offices into housing in an effort to stimulate action. The scene was lively this month, however, when Robinson’s agency and partners celebrated the opening of two completely rebuilt miniature soccer fields in a corner of The Crossing, a popular open space featuring different activities for young and old alike on the site of the former Transbay Temporary Terminal near Main and Howard streets, a location surrounded by office and residential high-rises that have sprouted in recent decades. Developed as the first in a multicity initiative by the nonprofit Street Soccer USA with support from Visa and Bank of America, the revamped pitches replaced temporary structures with professional-grade turf, 13-foot-high netting to keep balls from bouncing away and sturdy metal perimeters. There are also two converted shipping containers between the fields for tutoring, mentorship and after-school support for players and their families, said Alex Altman, Street Soccer USA’s chief operating officer. Street Soccer USA, which has run free soccer programs at The Crossing since it opened in 2021, is a nationwide organization dedicated to addressing social issues and helping people achieve their potential in underserved communities through soccer-based programs. It also operates in several other San Francisco neighborhoods and in Oakland. “Our love language is soccer, and so we want to create accessible and inclusive spaces, particularly for kids and community members that don’t generally have access because of financial resources or space,” Altman said. Dyah Radman, 13, said he discovered Street Soccer USA while exploring the neighborhood shortly after his family moved to an apartment near First and Howard Streets. Now, he routinely walks from home to The Crossing to join in the action. “I got to know people around the neighborhood that I now hang out with,” Radman said while trying to keep the ball away from his friends next to the field where his younger sister was playing a game. In addition to the soccer fields, The East Cut also screens movies for kids on Fridays. In late April, it unveiled a nearly $157,500 play structure that was an immediate hit, Robinson said.“I can say with certainty that there is an increased demand,” Robinson said. “It’s a surprise that there are so many kids and nannies in the neighborhood.” That trend is only expected to increase with the completion of a 184-unit affordable-housing tower for families now under construction next to The Crossing on Folsom Street. In nearby Salesforce Park, Robinson’s agency has been paying most of the bill since 2018 — with a COVID-19 pause in 2020 — for Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, a New York company, to deliver a range of activities. The offerings for small kids have proven so welcome that they have been expanded from one to four days a week, with up to 75 people showing up at a time, Robinson said. Responding to that demand, The East Cut also recently introduced a music and movement program for kids at The Crossing nearby as well, Robinson said. The regular toddler sessions at Salesforce Park are in addition to periodic events, such as an egg hunt, Halloween festivities and an event that leads hundreds of participants through the park on a quest to solve puzzles that is scheduled this year for Aug. 24. There will also be performances of Circus Bella on Sunday, according to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which owns the park. The City has allocated $1 million for Biederman Redevelopment Ventures to deliver programming in Union Square from Jan. 30 through October of this year. Biederman Redevelopment Ventures has since brought live performances for toddlers, as well as daily bubbles, giant blocks, board games and children’s books on a rack, among other things. The “Toddler Tuesday” program now regularly attracts 30 kids and caretakers, said Nina Coveney, a senior project manager with the company. The company also puts out game equipment for diverse ages, including cornhole boards, pingpong tables and a foosball table, all of which were in use — and almost all by families with children — at noon on Father’s Day. Ex // Top Stories Waymo’s range is getting closer — but not all the way — to SFO Robotaxi service’s expansion on the Peninsula has a notable exception Why SF can't afford to cut workforce funding As San Francisco grapples with how to close its two-year budget deficit, leaders must protect proven programs that advance economic equality Is The City’s ‘family zoning’ plan big enough for families? Some critics argue that the proposal will incentivize builders to construct apartments that are far too small for typical households to live in Laurel Arvanitidis, director of business development for The City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, said city officials have been pleased to see in Union Square both the number of people visiting and the length of visits trending up. “We’ve been really intentional about making sure that downtown is no longer just a place that’s nine to five, but that it’s a place that you can go to with your kids, that you can go to with your friends,” Arvanitidis said. One regular attraction Biederman Redevelopment Ventures introduced several months ago is the “Family Sunday Fundays” series. On Father’s Day, Febb Ungab, 9, came to Union Square from Santa Clara with his parents and was immediately drawn to tables under a tent by a sign proclaiming “free” activities. There, Ungab threw himself into making multiple paper koinobori wind catchers — colorful kite-like representations of fish derived from Japanese tradition. “We get to draw what we want and then cut it out and put it on a stick and rope and string so it would fly,” said Ungab, who was in the midst of making his second koinobori while his parents relaxed at a nearby set of tables and chairs. “I love to draw.” The activity was led by Maker Studio Kidz, a San Francisco company that focuses on hands-on experiences designed to fuel creativity. “Union Square has a special charm, and I think it is a good space that can be safe for kids to come out and have fun,” said Jessica Foxen, chief operating officer of Maker Studio Kidz. “The word just needs to be spread more.” In May, Coveney said, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures added The Walt Disney Family Museum as a partner to curate programming on the fourth Sunday of each month, and the California Academy of Sciences will join in August as well. Outdoor movie showings will be added in August, along with other special events. “Despite doubts from many parties about providing children’s programming in Union Square, all of the kids programs have been a surprising hit with increasing attendance across the board,” Coveney said. Such new activities come on top of the numerous kid-friendly offerings in and around nearby Yerba Buena Gardens, where among other attractions there is a playground with a 25-foot tube slide, a climbing wall, a historic carousel, an ice-skating rink and a bowling center. Admission for kids is always free at the nearby San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In addition to summer camps run by organizations at the site — which includes public and private uses and open space between Third and Fourth streets and Mission and Folsom streets — Yerba Buena Gardens is used frequently by summer programs from other parts of the city, said Seve Ghose, the executive director of the Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy. “We have amazing family activities,” said Scott Rowitz, executive director of the Yerba Buena Partnership, the local community-benefit district. “There really is something for everybody.” The Children’s Creativity Museum, a more than 25-year-old operation at Yerba Buena Gardens that specializes in hands-on activities, has a theater that is hosting a People’s Circus Theatre adaptation of “The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Anderson through June 22. Katharine Greenbaum, the museum’s interim executive director, said attendance was still only 40 percent of what it was before the pandemic, after which the museum did not reopen until 2022. With an $800,000 state grant and nearly $200,000 in donations, the museum recently made improvements to its infrastructure. During the spring, the number of visitors has been up 30 percent compared with last year, Greenbaum said. “I do hope that people are interested in coming back down, experiencing all of the public programs that everyone around the Yerba Buena community is putting on,” Greenbaum said. Outside the museum, the annual Yerba Buena Gardens Festival includes a Children’s Garden Series running Fridays from June through August. It features events targeting children under the age of 10 that can include puppetry, music, dance, acrobatics and clowning. The festival also has special kid-friendly shows, such as Circus Bella’s performances next Friday and Saturday. The Children’s Garden Series received a $75,000 grant from the Svane Family Foundation — established in 2019 by Zendesk co-founder Mikkel Svane — as part of $5 million in pledged grants aimed at supporting downtown San Francisco’s arts scene. Cristina Ibarra, the festival’s managing director, said attendance for the Children’s Garden Series has been growing after falling dramatically in the wake of the pandemic, rising from about 3,000 people in 2021 to 7,000 last year, as compared with about 9,000 in 2019. This month, for the first time in more than a decade, the festival hosted an outdoor movie showing with a presentation of the movie “Wicked” for about 1,000 people, Ibarra said.
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