Yesterday, we received a tip from Megan M. alerting us to a slippery situation at the Panhandle playground. Apparently, the playground's set of triple purple slides have gone missing as of about a week ago.
The photo above is the current state of the playground. Here's what they used to look like:
Were the slides out of order? Or was something more nefarious going on? We checked in with Connie Chan of SF Recreation and Parks for more information, and she let us know exactly what's going on:
"The slide was broken and now is undergoing repair. We are working to determine a time line for when it will be fixed and back in the play area."
Parents of small children, you can all now heave a collective sigh of relief.
While trying to find out more info about the slide, we also checked in with Dale Danley, who runs the Panhandle Park blog. Though he didn't know more about the playground situation, he did recently post a gem from the 2003 issue of North Panhandle News, which takes you on a fun journey in the Panhandle way-back machine. He writes:
"Highlighted by some bicycle clip-art and accompanied by ads for Car Los and Club Waziema, the article led with a comment about 'seven months of stop-and-start construction.' (San Francisco public construction projects were as slow 11 years ago as they are now.) The article also references DPT (now MTA), and the recent approval of Fell Street bike lanes. There's an intriguing mention of signage and stencils that would be 'designed to steer walkers to the south pathway and cyclists to the north pathways,' but that are, mysteriously, 'still in development.'Glancing through the rest of the newsletter brings back memories of District 5 Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, Annie Bourdon doing outreach for City CarShare (which then had a fleet of 85 cars), and Leila Fakouri's application to open Madrone Lounge, 'primarily an art space.'"
You can check out this blast from the past over at Dale's blog.
We'll keep you posted on any developments with the slide situation, but for now, regular playground-goers can rest easy knowing the slides should be back in action soon.
