This petition addresses the increased restrictions on recreational volleyball in Golden Gate Park. This is a large community that deserves the opportunity to continue an activity that promotes health, fitness, and social engagement outdoors.

After years of conflicting patrol and information for playing volleyball in Golden gate park, SF Parks and recs posted new guidelines that decimate the opportunity for the thousands of volleyball players to play in the city.

There are only 4 public outdoor volleyball courts in the entire city of San Francisco, most of which are not very central to the city. In contrast, Tennis has 152 courts, basketball had over 100, pickleball has 74 courts, softball has 25, soccer has 11 full size courts, and so on. With the limited public courts in the city, the main opportunity we have is to set up our own courts in Golden Gate Park. 

See here for the updated regulations, Here for the partiful event to show up on May 15th's preliminary hearing, Here to get involved with other organizers, and below for our concerns and suggestions

Recreational volleyball is now only permitted in the months of January, March, May, July, September, and November for Peacock Meadow and Bunny Meadow (Sunbathers Meadow has recently been added) with only 2 nets allowed per location (recently updated to 4). And February, April, June, August, October, December for Robin Williams Meadow (east end only) and Upper Big Rec Fields. 

While it is understood that rotating locations is crucial for lawn health, limiting play to only 2 locations accommodates a fraction of daily players, especially on weekends. 2 nets per location (with courts that traditionally accommodate 4-8 players each) means recreational volleyball is capped at 32 players for all of Golden Gate Park. The new regulations suggest that if there are already 2 nets set up, to ask to join one. It is not realistic to force people to let other players join nets/games to stay within the 2 net allowance as the lines to join would be incredibly long with the amount of players that show up. These are privately owned nets with varying different skill levels that can lead to accidents and very chaotic playing.

Upper Big Rec Fields have a close proximity to high traffic areas and pathways that create dangerous situations for both players and passerby. We suggest opening up the locations to other meadows that could be weekend/weekday only locations or dependent on other permitted events. For instance, Big Rec (South end) when the ball field isn't in use, Little Rec when little leagues aren't using them for soccer, or Hellman Hollow, Lindley Meadow, Hoover Redwood Grove, Sunbathers, etc when not permitted for picnics or events. 

New regulations require plastic stakes. Standard net set ups come with metal stakes that efficiently keep the nets up during play. In addition, plastic stakes are wider, weaker, (they struggle to hold up nets), and have much lower durability - often leading to the points getting stuck in the ground and needing substantial digging to remove. The standard metal stakes are thin and do not cause as much damage to grass and do not break. Either allow the metal stakes or install anchors for easy net set up. 

The San Francisco volleyball community openly welcomes conversations and suggestions that better accommodates SF Parks and Recs concerns while offering us sufficient opportunities to play recreational volleyball in the city