What we’ve learned by hanging out at The Park

A couple of weeks ago Step Up Step Out hosted a 2 mile walk starting (and ending) at Rose Park. Along the way we found a couple of dozen people out walking with or without dogs. Alone or in pairs. It was active, vibrant and personable. All the guest walkers to our space said as much!

And then this past Tuesday we hosted one of two National Night Outs in the RP Neighborhood – the other one on 5th/Junipero at Casa Lopez. Both places had plenty of games and chances to greet others. At Rose Park, just adjacent to the Gazebo RPNA offered life size tic tac toe, a badminton court, bounce the ball into the bucket game, and adults trying to make glow stick art. We were visited by 3 teams from LBPD – First on site was Commander O’Dowd who graciously ‘lost’ a game of bean bag toss!!! Followed by other LBPD staff and then sometime later by a whole crew of Senior Police Partners that made the kids shriek with joy with their blue cape giveaways. “This may be the best park in the city”.

Yes it is historic and pretty – but it was all the people. Those just walking through the park, hanging out with friends or exercising their dogs. We have challenges and we work to resolve them – Commander O’Dowd and RPNA President Gretchen Swanson discussed strategies for the periodic human trash issue. Both agreed to work on this. Let’s stay in touch! info@rpna.org