During today's Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Scott Wiener will propose setting regular hours for the city's 220 parks from 5 a.m. to midnight. According to the SFGate, "He says that every other major city has formal park hours, and hopes that it will deter vandals who deface park property and steal metal from the playgrounds - crimes that cost the Recreation and Park Department about $1 million a year."
As it stands, only around 60 parks in San Francisco have closing hours.
Wiener went on to tell the Chon, "We're one of the only major cities in the U.S. that doesn't have formal, enforceable park closure hours ... Officers and park patrol will easily know what the closure hours are and it'll be easy to enforce, whether it's by just asking people to leave, or, if necessary, writing a ticket."
Homeless advocates will (reasonably so) say that this will further criminalize homelessness in San Francisco. Golden Gate Park, among other local parks, typically acts as a makeshift hostel for many of the city's housing-free population.
On the plus side, it will help curb vandalism. It might also help to eradicate further trustifarian hipster tomfoolery like this. So there's that.
