November 6, 2007
Proposition G: Daddy, can we have a pony?
Just what San Francisco really needs – renovated horse stables in
Golden Gate Park! That's right. Proposition G, if passed, would raise
$750,000 towards revitalizing the existing dilapidated stables.
Proponents of the prop claim that this is all for the youth of San
Francisco. Well, they must be thinking about little Spencer and Avery
of St. Francis Wood, cuz we're pretty sure that the kids who go to
John Muir Elementary in Western Addition would get bubkes out of some
fancy-shmancy horse stables. (Allegedly, it was actually a couple of
Noe Valley kids who were promised horses by Supervisor McGoldrick.) If only the proposition focused on something a little more practical for our urban youth.
| Advertisement: SFist Continues Below!
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
It's a part of the park, and its legacy, so I support it. City kids have no DIRECT use for Victorian conservatories, Dutch windmills, non-native bison, or Japanese tea gardens, yet somehow we manage to wring educational use out of them, you know?
I think kids on field trips would welcome the chance to see the horses, were the stables (and the polo field bleachers) not a dangerous bum-haunted dump.
I agree with the above comment. This city supports plenty that city kids (or anyone else) have no use for. I am all for the horse stables, and voted accordingly.
You don't have to be rich to appreciate the stables and the horses.
Thirded-leaving them closed for another six years is certainly not doing any good.
this was the only thing i voted in alignment with daly on today. his family must have gotten the better of him on this one.
You don't remember having to vote at the ballot box to fund the maintenance on the windmill, do you? That's because you didn't! That is just paid out of Wreckin' Parks budget, like every other thing. So again, why should horse housing be accorded special attention, ahead of literally all other park spending?
Some of you may remember that when the city got in bed with a public-private partnership to restore Harding Park Golf Course we got fucked in the ass. Beware rich people bearing gifts for parks.
If this doesn't pass SFist is so totally running the famous "No, you can't have a pony. Not yours." internet meme picture.
I voted for this because I remember when this facility was in good shape, as recently as the '90's, and you or I or anyone could take horse riding lessons at a dirt cheap city price.
I would like something like that to be possible again some day. Riding a horse in the park in the fog sounded really cool.
$750,000? That's what? A couple parking meters downtown over a one-month period?
I agree. If the stables were actually re-opened, it'd be one place, besides the Exploratorium, where kids from any school could take a field trip. You'd be amazed at how many kids have never seen a horse in a field, only bums and shopping carts amongst the overgrown grass.
There's nothing better than the inside of a horse for the outside of an inner-city kid. Or something.
Really though, horses are great medicine. A similar measure for stables in Oakland (Wildcat Canyon Ranch) passed, so why not here? They've surely got some inner-city kids who are making use of the program. I bet SF has a few, too.
Yeah, I'm very wary of privatization too, but the stables are a wreck because of their previous half-assed semiprivate status. Fixing it sooner rather than letting it sit there and rot until some dubiously motivated private entity slithers up and makes an irresistible offer just seems prudent to me. Time will tell.
Some interesting reading on Prop G:
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4913
http://sweetmelissa.typepad.com/sweet_melissa/2007/11/proposition-g.html
I wish folks would at least go see the place..
Little late now!
The stables are indeed relevant to the kids at John Muir. Where do you think they get the meat for the school lunches?