Walking the Tenderloin leads to some unexpected surprises. Dotting the neighborhood are green squares of city lots practically no bigger than postage stamps.
In these spaces, children clamber the jungle gyms, teens shoot hoops, and seniors play cards. The people are protected by tall fences and stern guards. These oases of safety are the Tenderloin’s parks.
The parks feel a world away from the rough streets of the Tenderloin. The biggest park is the one-acre Father Alfred E. Boeddeker Park at 246 Eddy St. between Jones and Leavenworth streets. One-half mile northwest is the quarter-acre Sergeant John Macaulay Park at Larkin and O’Farrell streets.
Both parks were built during the crack epidemic of the mid-1980s, and were renovated over the past 15 years thanks to millions of urban renewal dollars.
A tinier park is the one-tenth-of-an-acre Turk-Hyde Mini Park. It sprung up around 1968 when the San Francisco mini-park program began.
Across the street from Turk-Hyde is the Urban Alchemy Oasis Park.
Urban Alchemy is a nonprofit that provides social services and training to formerly incarcerated people who are living in cities mainly on the West Coast. The Oasis park is no bigger than Turk-Hyde. Folks at Turk-Hyde call Oasis the “dog park” and has been around since 2022.
In the middle of all these parks, at 570 Ellis St., is the one-half acre Tenderloin Recreation Center Children’s Playground Park. In the middle of a complete makeover, from jungle gym to soccer field, the Children’s Playground is off-limits for now.
Boeddeker, Macauley and Turk-Hyde parks are connected to each other by the Tenderloin Park Network. Each park has two or more staff members sporting blue, green, and gray vests with the TLCBD logo — the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.
The TLCBD is a nonprofit whose core purpose is to lead the Tenderloin residents “into a vibrant community” through neighborhood management programs. Its staff support the group’s framework of “safe, clean, welcoming places for the community to connect.”
But make no mistake that the TLCBD staff guard the parks and the people in them.
“Kids only, and only with adults, are allowed in the park,” cautioned TLCBD staff member Diego at Macauley. Certain people can go in the park, but they don’t have free range to do what they want.
“No pictures, no pictures,” said Nolan Jones, Coordinator of Parks and Stewardship, TLCBD, at Turk and Hyde Park. That was repeated by TLCBD staff at Boeddeker. People can play in the park, they can rest peacefully; other lines are drawn by park staff.
“Sometimes,” said a TLCBD staff member, Maria, at Boeddeker, “we have to remove some people.”
Set free in peace, even in small spaces, kids and adults can be themselves at the Tenderloin parks. Kids hang upside-down on the jungle gyms at Turk-Hyde and Macaulay. Hoops and soccer are the thing at Children’s Playground Park and Boeddeker.
Around the corner from the Boeddeker b-ball court, a young couple has a quiet conversation under a grove of trees while seniors play cards a few feet down the hill by the Boeddeker Park Clubhouse.
In photos, see how the Tenderloin parks keep the spirit of the Tenderloin community alive.
