This is a new series featuring voices from the community.  This one is an e-mail  Fillipa Simone,  the recreation director at Parque Niños Unidos on 23rd Street between Folsom and Treat streets,   sent to the park’s users.   One of those users forwarded it to Mission Loc@l and we decided to look into it and post it as our first entry in the Community Diary series. Amanda Martinez, a reporter, visited the park today to take photographs and found it full of chidren at 1 p.m.     Mission Loc@l understands the city must make cuts, but  we also feel that it’s useful for everyone in the community to understand what is being lost.  The e-mail below is unedited.  We encourage others who have stories to tell, to send them into staff@misisonlocal.org

Hi Everyone,

I’m writing with deep sadness.. Over the last two years I have come to know you and your children through all the wonderful activities/programs we have had at the park. I received a notice in the mail stating my last day will be Friday, May 15th 2009 due to the city’s current financial crisis. The department has responded by deciding that my position at Parque Ninos Unidos is no longer needed. I’m not sure of the changes that will take place or the future of the programs.

I was advised that I still have a week to fight for my position, so I’m sending this email in hope that you all will support me in my fight to save my job. There are still several influential politicians / executive staff that may be able to overturn the decisions the Recreation Department has decided upon. If you have the time to show your support by emailing and/or making phone contact I would greatly appreciate it. In your email please state the relationship you have with me, as your local recreation director and express your feelings in regards to my termination. I thank you all for the support you have shown me over the past several years and it has been a pleasure interacting with your families.

Bellow is the list of the people you can contact. If you have any questions of need more information about this matter please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Fillipa Simone

Recreation Director

Parque Ninos Unidos

(415) 282-7461

alfredo.pedroza@ sfgov.org (415) 554-6556    (Mayors Office of Neighborhood Services)

david.campos@ sfgov.org (415) 554-5144 (Board of Supervisors for our district)

Jared.blumenfeld@ sfgov.org (415) 831-2701     (General Manager for SFRPD)

Mike.farrah@ sfgov.org (415) 554-5944 (MONS)

Please BCC your emails to:

bob.palacio@ sfgov.org (my supervisors)

Linda.barnard@ sfgov.org

jelakiwi@yahoo. com (so I have a copy)

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Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still here.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

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