{"id":706,"date":"2012-01-08T22:22:36","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T03:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/?p=706"},"modified":"2012-02-24T22:36:11","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T03:36:11","slug":"seward-slides-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/08\/seward-slides-san-francisco.html","title":{"rendered":"Seward Street Slides:  Great and Unusual San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"2e5142c0289a1f785cf2dcce097231a4\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-6725039255769208\";\r\n\/* Reno Hotels Leaderboard *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0584775893\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 728;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 90;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a title=\"Seward Street Slides by Far Out City, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-one.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0px initial initial;padding: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-one.jpg\" alt=\"Seward Street Slides\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I honestly have no idea how these concrete death chutes were ever approved by San Francisco Recreation and Parks. This is what happens when children make urban planning decisions.<\/p>\n<p>If you have that sinking feeling that, so far, your trip to San Francisco has been a bit too normal, too staid, <em>too safe &#8212;\u00a0<\/em>it&#8217;s time to head for the Seward Street Slides.<\/p>\n<p>Built into a lush hillside on one of San Francisco&#8217;s steepest hills, the Seward Street Slides are twin, two-story cement slides that fully take advantage of the near vertical incline. That&#8217;s right. Vertical. Hang on to your hats and grab some cardboard, because we&#8217;re taking the plunge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where did they come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a title=\"Seward Street Slides by Far Out City, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-two.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0px initial initial;padding: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-two.jpg\" alt=\"Seward Street Slides\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Seward Street Slides are a part of Seward Mini Park, a steep vacant-lot-turned-community-garden deep in the Noe Valley hills. The design was the brain child of local resident Kim Clark, age 14, who submitted the winning entry in a &#8220;Design in the Park&#8221; competition.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the late 1960\u2019s, the lot was slated to become a 104-unit apartment building. Noe Valley residents rallied to put residential occupancy limits in place, squashing the building plan and allowing the lot to remain unencumbered.<\/p>\n<p>To the victors go the spoils, or in this case, the responsibility of designing the park. A local sculptor held a &#8220;Design in the Park&#8221; competition and encouraged children to apply. \u00a0Local resident and 14-yr old Kim Clark&#8217;s proposal for a gigantic slide won the competition, and the Seward Street Slides opened less than a year later in 1973. The Slides have been\u00a0exhilarating\u00a0and terrifying generations of San Franciscans ever since.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seward Mini Park Today<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a title=\"Entrance to Seward Mini Park by Far Out City, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-three.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0px initial initial;padding: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-three.jpg\" alt=\"Entrance to Seward Mini Park\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The park is a jungle of overgrown California Buckeyes, nearly enshrouding the slides under a green and red berry canopy. I didn&#8217;t see them until I was mere feet away. You might want to use a GPS app to zero in on the right location.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re planning on slip-sliding the afternoon away, you&#8217;ll need a cardboard box (static and kinetic friction generally taking the fun out of weathered, concrete slides). Don\u2019t worry if you\u2019re not properly outfitted, I came across a trail of discarded cardboard devastation on my visit. There were many sizes and styles of box to choose from.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a title=\"Seward Street Slides by Far Out City, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-four.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0px initial initial;padding: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-four.jpg\" alt=\"Seward Street Slides\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A tip: hold onto the lip of the cardboard as you slide down. Try not to flip over and kill yourself.<\/p>\n<p>While you may be thinking, this would be totally awesome at around 2am, a sloppy detour on your way home from the Mission or Castro\u2026 the park has at least three signs saying NO adults unless accompanied by children.<\/p>\n<p>Also, it\u2019s closed from sunset to sunrise.<\/p>\n<p>And, no alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>For good measure, they\u2019ve also installed yellow, padlocked gates at the top of the slides.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a title=\"Seward Street Slides Barrier by Far Out City, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-five.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 0px initial initial;padding: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sftodo.com\/images\/blog\/seward-street-slides-five.jpg\" alt=\"Seward Street Slides Barrier\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you also thought, \u201cI&#8217;ll just hop the gate, no biggie,\u201d they\u2019re way ahead of us. <em>There are yellow gates placed intermittently down the slides. <\/em>It seems odd that you\u2019d build the ultimate drunk-hipster, fun-time contraption and then put it on lock down.<\/p>\n<p>Now, this could be a reaction to modern ideas of safety and (a warranted) fear of litigation, or maybe it&#8217;s just a seasonal precaution. Let\u2019s all cross our fingers and hope it\u2019s the latter. Free the Seward Slides!<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Where: On Seward Street, between Douglas Street and 19th Street<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Transit accessible by the K, L, M, and T MUNI Metro Lines, and the 24, 33, 35, 37, and 48 MUNI bus routes. From BART, transfer to the MUNI Metro lines at Powell Street or Montgomery Street Stations or to the 48 MUNI bus line at 24<sup>th<\/sup> Street Station.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Open daily, 9am to 5pm. Except when the yellow gates are up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>(After getting your fill of the slides, climb uphill to Acme Alley for stunning views of downtown San Francisco and the Transamerica Building.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>by Maria\/Far Out City. \u00a0Maria publishes elaborate San Francisco Bay Area day trip itineraries over at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.faroutcity.com\">FarOutCity.com<\/a>. \u00a0All photos copyright by 2011 Far Out City.<\/em><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I honestly have no idea how these concrete death chutes were ever approved by San Francisco Recreation and Parks. This is what happens when children make urban planning decisions. If you have that sinking feeling that, so far, your trip to San Francisco has been a bit too normal, too staid, too safe &#8212;\u00a0it&#8217;s time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,18],"tags":[247,248,246],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716,"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sftodo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}