For this week's Scenes of the City we stopped by the newest park in the city—SoMa West Skate Park and Dog Play area.
Plans for the new park have been underway since 2009, after $3.3 million funding and a deal with CalTrans (who owns the property). Tucked underneath the Central Freeway, between Valencia and Otis streets near Zeitgeist, the roar of traffic above and skate boards on concrete below merge. Adults, teenagers, and even younger kids fly around the park on their boards, BMX bikes, Razor scooters, and anything else on wheels. Check out the action for yourself here—but be careful to not get in the way.
Moat notable about the new park, aside from that gaggle of skaters, is the new mural, There Slipped Saturn A Perpetual Tock- a.k.a. The Saturn Clock, by San Francisco-based artist Jovi Schnell. Spanning several columns surrounding the skate park, the work was inspired by the area's nearly forgotten treasure, San Francisco's Woodward's Gardens.
Schnell says, "It was inspiring to work on a project that transformed a parking lot into a dynamic and active public space. It was fun to create something for this new park and connect with the amusement park history of San Francisco."
