2022 SPNA Accomplishments & Activities

PARK RELATED

Park

• Sponsored Monthly clean-up days in partnership with the city, Southside Park neighbors, St Francis students, and Sac Pics-It-Up volunteers. We printed fliers and distributed them around the neighborhood with help from Jason (Sac PD Lieutenant) - a few new volunteers came.

• Conducted a Park Tree Survey with Sacramento Tree Foundation to identify and replace the old or dead trees that were removed in 2022. Presented the plan to the city (to plant 15 cherry and oak trees), which was approved. The Sacramento Tree Foundation will provide trees and SPNA volunteers will plant them Winter 2023. Date TBD.

• Advocate to install 6-8 new trash cans. SPNA continues to contact the city regarding this, with no response in (as of fall 2022).

• Evaluation to identify missing benches and tables was conducted to determine replacement locations. Next steps include: Funding, types of materials to be used and working with the city to complete. 

• Monitoring and reporting (using 311) of the new west restroom vandalism and graffiti.

The Playground Renovation

• In April 2022 the "Universal Universe" Playground renovation was completed and an inclusive playday celebration was hosted by Access Leisure, Youth, Parks, & Community Enrichment on Saturday May 7th. The newly renovated playground is all about the "solar system" to allow kids of all abilities to learn, play and grow. 

• A fundraising campaign began in 2020 To do this work (during Covid), and raised over $440K. Money continues to be added to the campaign to continue the effort.

• Monthly playground (and park) cleanups were organized with several volunteer groups. They included St. Francis high school students, the SPNA/Neighborhood members as well as the Sacramento Picks It Up organization.

• A new “We-Go-Round” replaced the old and broken merry-go-round. The playground boasts the region’s only wheelchair accessible merry-go-round.

• A huge group of interactive music pieces were installed and have become very popular.

• New turf and irrigation was added and a few large elm trees were removed, new trees are planned.

• The Sun Plaza playground concrete and etched relief words were restored with bright colors which are more easily seen by the children. Sherwin Williams Paint Company supplied the paint on National Paint Day.

• New bronze dedication signage was installed in the playground.

• The rubber play surface was replaced with new colors and patterns. It was 16+ years old and showed lots of wear.

• Bathrooms on the west side (which were over 50-years-old) were replaced by new ADA compliant bathrooms-they were manufactured off site and installed by crane.

• The perimeter fence (with space symbols) was painted with color by a local school and community members along with special needs kids (called The All Stars).

• The  “Port of Call: Earth” Spaceship sculpture restoration had an initial success by getting a power wash and clean-out. We continue to work with the Arts Commission to repair and restore it. The sculpture was commissioned by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and installed in 2005 by artist Joe Scarpa. 

• In the future…

  • We will promote accessible play dates that include cool science and space theme events and activities. 

  • We will bring a company that builds bikes for special kids (August).

  • A wayfinding system will be added to assist blind kids thru a new campaign to continue partnering with the city to add more rich sensory features and NASA braille maps. 

Lake

• City added several trash receptacle “tubes” for fishing lines by piers. Monitoring their use and planning replacements when needed.

• Cleanup events to pick up trash around the lake’s perimeter.

Courts

• The City approved the SPNA’s proposal to add pickleball lines of one tennis court with 4 pickleball court lines. The painting work was done by volunteers. 

• A Southside Park pickleball group established a 501c3 non-profit to fund improvements to the courts and held fundraisers during 2022. It raised $1000 in their December 2022 Pickleball Tournament. They will propose to the city building a “16x16 backboard” for both pickleball and tennis courts.

• The Aquatics Department agreed to SPNA’s proposal to move an unused metal bench from the pool locker room to the courts. 

• Approximately 100 pickleball players use the Southside Park courts every week (see playtimescheduler.com for times).

Community Clubhouse

• While the clubhouse did not reopen to the public in 2022, the city hosted a few teen events, a self defense class (for a fee) and youth camps there. 

• SPNA continues to advocate for the city to rebuild the clubhouse programming to pre-pandemic levels. This remains challenging even after some programming was created by the city for seniors and children (fewer for other age groups). 

Pool

• Co-sponsored 2 low-cost family days with council member Valenzuela on July 17th and August 14th. SPNA provided snacks and ice pops. 

• The Pool was closed early for “fiberglass repair”. This was unexpected and unscheduled and SPNA will continue to press city to explain and update in the 2023 season.

Special Events in the Park

• In 2022 (March thru October) Southside Park hosted 11 events, some with VERY HIGH attendance. SPNA monitored and provided feedback to the City. Southside Park is one of the most popular parks for vendors and events.

• In 2022, the Special Events committee focused its efforts on working with City Staff to improve the monitoring of the Special Events in our park. SPNA continued to see violations of park rules and guidelines (negligent event coordinators with cars and vendors) as well as poor monitoring by the city.

• At SPNA’s suggestion, the City installed two removable bollards at the east and west “entrances” of the park to prevent vehicles from entering the park during events. Bollard funds came from fees collected from the special events.

NEIGHBORHOOD-RELATED

• Sponsored several neighborhood socials at local restaurants in June (Urban Roots restaurant), August (Buffalo Pizza), and December (Valejos).

• Monthly updates from the Police Lieutenant attending our meetings.

• Created and sent several “Neighborhood News” email updates to the SPNA email list 

• Consistent updating of the SPNA facebook and Next Door for events, etc.

• Outreach and communication with City service providers and businesses to attend our meetings.

  • Councilmember Katie Valenzuela’s office

  • Caltrans re: I-5 & Fix50 Highway Enhancement Projects

  • City of Sac Aquatics Department

  • Police community officer updates

  • City Planning Department

• Capital Public Radio published an article on the City’s experience with Safe Grounds. Gordon Lane and Kristin Kazamaki (Board President and Vice president) were interviewed and gave their views on our neighborhood's experience. Titled “Sacramento took nearly a year to create a new safeground homeless shelter we look at why it takes so long”.

HOUSING AND BUILDING DEVELOPMENT

• Monitored proposed projects (Met with developers of 525 S Street proposal), informed neighborhood of projects and related meetings.

• Sponsored and conducted regular FREE book delivery to the Marina Vista preschool, Safeground, Southside Clubhouse, and Pool.

SPNA HOUSEKEEPING

• Marc Laver (responsible for the playground improvements) joined the board March 2022.

• Secured SPNA-sac.org domain name

• Launched the first SPNA website - www.spna-sac.org

• Updated the SPNA Facebook page & NextDoor frequently and regularly

• Continued monthly neighborhood meetings using Zoom (a board member sponsored)

• Migrated and updated pre-2020 SPNA records to GoogleDrive

• Continued supporting mobile deposits and accepting dues payment via PayPal

• Renewed annual PO box rental

• Maintained all mailing lists for the organization (membership, board, neighborhood, civic)

2021 Accomplishments & Activities

Park-Related 

● Hosted monthly park cleanups with volunteers 

● Courts 

○ Tennis court improvements: advocated for tennis court net replacement, lights replaced, door fixed (Spring) 

○ Request submitted for tennis/pickleball court resurfacing (Fall) 

● Trees 

○ Replaced damaged Sakura cherry trees (provided by Sac Tree Foundation) ○ Monthly Sakura cherry tree watering 

○ Coordinated mulch delivery and spread around trees and park 

○ Continued commitment to water 12 newly-planted trees near the basketball courts (since Sept 2020). 

● Lake 

○ Advocated for and remained in regular communication with the City regarding the Southside Park lake aerator project. Eight aerators were installed in the lake (Spring 2021). 

● Playground 

○ Collaboration with the City and Jonnie and Friends Reach for the Stars non-profit/Marc Laver to restore Southside Park Universal Universe playground (e.g., clean-ups, new restroom by the playground, we-go-round installation, painting the planets on the fence, adding sand to the sand area) 

● Events 

○ Meetings with Special Events aimed to curtail movement of unauthorized vendor vehicles driving through the park during events. SPNA monitored 6 events (june 2021-September 2021) and provided feedback and communicated to the City. Vehicles are not allowed and damage the grass and are a safety hazard. 

Neighborhood-Related 

● Consistent outreach and updates to the neighborhood 

○ via the SPNA email list and social media presence (Facebook and Nextdoor) 

● Member of Homelessness Taskforce-,shared updates with community ○ Supported City of Sacramento’s first Safeground (located at W and 6th street “WX”) 

● Outreach and communication with neighborhood and City service providers and businesses 

○ Wind Youth Services

○ Caltrans re: Fix50 Highway Enhancement Project 

○ City Council 

○ City of Sac Aquatics Department 

○ Member of District 4 Homelessness Task Force (since Dec 2020) 

○ Police community officer updates at monthly meetings 

○ City Planning Department 

● Continued collaboration with Southside Park Clubhouse, new coordinator (Rich Semenza) started in October 2021. 

● Housing and Development 

○ Monitored proposed projects, informed neighborhood of projects and related meetings requesting public comment, providing feedback re: projects to City and developers, arranged for developer presentation of projects such as Enterprise Rent-a-car (Fall - Joleen Kleinbach, Area Manager) 

○ Appealed the development of 72-unit apartment complex (8th and V street) at City Preservation Commission meeting and partially funded the process with neighbor support (December 15) 

● Requested removal of non-functional metered parking posts along W Street (southern edge of park, completed in spring 2021) 

● Represented SPNA at Assemblymember Kevin McCarty Neighborhood Council meeting (November 10th) to provide input on state issues that affect our neighborhood. 

● Sponsored and conducted monthly book delivery to the Safeground, Southside Clubhouse, Pool, and the Marina Vista preschool. 

SPNA Housekeeping 

● Continued monthly neighborhood meetings remotely using Zoom (city sponsored account) 

● Activated and organized SPNA records for backup and sharing in GoogleDrive, created Google Contact lists, Google Calendar, etc to improve administration of SPNA activities. 

● Created SPNA meeting signage for sale to neighbors (2 versions) 

● Setup new bank (USBank) with mobile deposit and accepting payments via PayPal

● Renewed PO box 

● Maintained tax-exempt status 

• Created "Board Officer Description & Duties" document

• Created "President Sample Timeline" document