SF Rec and Park department is trying to incorporate more technology, but without research or a goal Sachin Agarwal Follow Jan 30 · 3 min read

I recently learned about a program where the San Francisco Rec and Park department is seeking “an interactive and easy-to-use solution to increase play and connection for our city residents”.

This program is run by City Innovate, whose mission is to “match the best and brightest startups with governments primed for innovation, so our cities don’t get stuck with solutions that don’t work and partnerships that don’t fit.”

I had a bunch of questions. What problem are they trying to solve? Who are they solving this for? What are the program goals? What kind of startups might have solutions?

I joined a Zoom meeting where someone from City Innovate, SF Rec and Parks, and others were reviewing the program and answering people’s questions. Here are my takeaways:

The goal to increase people using our parks is great! San Francisco is one of the best park cities in the country. GG Park is larger than Central Park! We should do more to get people in and enjoying this resource.

There currently isn’t any research around what residents or tourists want in the park. It sounded like there’s a program in the works now to get this information, but it doesn’t currently exist.

When looking at programs for the park, it’s important to think about accessibility and equity. I asked if there was a resource to look at to understand what the requirements are around this. I’m hoping to hear back.

The goal of this challenge is specifically to use technology (probably software only) in some way. It seems odd to make that a requirement up front. One should go wide and explore all ways to “increase play” in the park. What if it’s building a new playground? Removing cars from JFK? Or even just adding some new signs?

This year is the 150th anniversary of Golden Gate Park. There are going to be a ton of great events and activity in the park this summer.

One of the new programs that I learned is being deployed for the anniversary is Hello Lamp Post. The idea is you walk up to an object that has an alphanumeric code on it. You text that code to a number and have a “conversation” with that object.

If the problem to solve is “people want to learn more about objects in the park”, this feels like the wrong thing to build. It’s over engineered and complex. Texting an object is weird. It will bias towards tech people who might understand what texting a bot means (though even tech people haven’t really adopted that).

In addition, it won’t work for children who don’t have phones, people who don’t speak english, or those who can’t text well.

A simpler solution might be to put up physical signs in the park. For example, around the carrousel in Koret playground have a large sign with the history, old photos, and other information. This is much more accessible to all ages, languages, and tech abilities.

I wondered if Hello Lamp Post was doing this for free, in which case it wouldn’t be taking away from other SF Park resources. However, they are not. The program is being paid for by SF Rec and Park. I don’t know details about the program or the cost (both in terms of dollars and human resources), but this feels like a miss to me.

Overall being on this call made me very sad about the state of our parks department. Instead of listening to residents and doing things to fundamentally improve the park, this project seems fixated on using tech in some way, even if it’s forced.

We don’t need more technology in the park. If anything, we want less. The park is an oasis to get away from our screens and enjoy time with our family, friends, and neighbors.