Cayuga Park is a neighborhood park and playground in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, at the edge of the Cayuga Terrace neighborhood. Its history, location and aesthetics make it unique among the
parks
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...
of San Francisco.
History
In 1986, Demetrio Braceros was assigned to the Cayuga Park, with the mission to "change the atmosphere."
He created and installed the landscape art present around the park.
In 2009, Eric Powell was commissioned to create the Cayuga Portal steel art sculpture introduced in 2013.
Amenities
The park features an
accessible children's
playground
A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people wi ...
, picnic area, community rooms, bathrooms, outdoor
basketball court
In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor ...
, outdoor
tennis court
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...
s, and a multipurpose turf area with a
baseball field
A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refer ...
.
Public art installations
Cayuga Portal
The entrance gates to the park were recreated as a painted steel public art installation by Eric Powell. It was commissioned in 2009 and unveiled in 2013.
Landscape art
The aesthetics of Cayuga Park is largely the creation of Demetrio Braceros, an employee of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Braceros worked on the park for over 20 years, transforming a barren landscape into a park that features lush vegetation, trails, "themed gardens" and, most prominently, over 375 figurines, totem poles and statues as well as several observation decks, all carved from wood by Braceros.
After emigrating from the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
in 1973, Braceros worked for a San Francisco law firm but soon applied for a job as a gardener at the Recreation and Park Department. In 1986, Braceros was assigned to the park with the mission to "change the atmosphere."
Braceros said about the state of the park when he took it on, "there were prostitutes, drug dealers and crime. People got killed up there ... I thought to myself, how can I help this place?"
Notes
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Parks in San Francisco
Culture of San Francisco
Naïve art
Art in San Francisco
Mission District, San Francisco