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ParkScan.org
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
ParkScan.org is a public portal that empowers San Francisco residents to submit observations to responsible city government agencies regarding maintenance issues that need attention in parks, playgrounds and trails.
Supporting organization:
Neighborhood Parks Council
URL:
http://www.parkscan.org/
City:
San Francisco
State/Region:
CA
Country:
USA
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
Parks are vital social centers as well as critical environmental assets in our cities, but many urban Recreation and Parks agencies have been hit hard in the budget wars of recent decades and consequently, parks may be visited infrequently by city staff. Inadequate maintenance especially affects low-income people that rely most on parks in dense cities. Yet people walk, play, and exercise in their neighborhood parks every day, which makes them the most frequent observers of conditions that require attention. ParkScan.org is a unique technology-driven project that allows park users in San Francisco to use a web-based public portal for gathering, analyzing and reporting information on park, trail and playground issues.
ParkScan.org software, developed with a seed grant, empowers residents to communicate efficiently to key managers within the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD). Users receive a tracking number to follow the city’s response. The system also allows any community member or city staff to create customized searches to view observations that have been reported at their park, in their district, or citywide. Attention to ParkScan.org reports is now included as a performance measure for managers at RPD.
City agencies and community members can also use ParkScan.org data to present staffing and equipment needs to elected officials for budget allocations.
ParkScan.org is an innovative model of how community members can use technology to effect positive change in the delivery of city services and hold government accountable to respond to citizen concerns. Our proposed project would allow us to expand our website’s capacity to work with other cities and park organizations that have approached us to help them implement ParkScan.org.
Benefits of ParkScan.org
• Harness volunteers by empowering civic responsibility
• Improve agency customer service and satisfaction;
• Increase efficiency by directing limited resources;
• Provide data for maintenance planning and funding; and
• Bring transparency and accountability to city agencies.
Sustainability (financial) model:
ParkScan.org San Francisco is currently maintained with a small amount of funding. Currently, ParkScan.org has a renewable annual contract with the Rec and Park Department for $75,000 a year (made available through the Mayor’s Office) to sustain ParkScan.org in San Francisco.
Funding to expand ParkScan.org to other cities is where additional resources are now needed. The ParkScan.org web based technology will be made available to other cities for free. Our key fundor, Sloan Foundation, is a national foundation and expansion of the project to other cities is an agreed project metric.
The expenses to expand ParkScan.org to other cities will be covered through:
Sloan Grants
The Sloan Foundation is willing to provide $100k to pilot cities to develop a ParkScan.org program.
Corporate Sponsors
We have a Corporate Sponsorship Package that allows corporations to sponsor the ParkScan.org website and have their logo featured on our website.
ParkScan.org Training to other cities
• Initial trainings can be customized to different audiences and should be budgeted between $2500 and $5000. Trainings will be offered to the managing agency, as well as to the staff of the local RPD that are expected to interact with ParkScan.org.
• Ongoing training
• A manual has been produced and is currently available.
Venture capital from foundations
ParkScan.org is applying for grants from the following organizations to fund the marketing and expansion of ParkScan.org outside of San Francisco:
• Community Technology Foundation of California
• Google
• AT&T
Potential obstacles:
ParkScan.org serves one city in its current form. In order to offer ParkScan.org in multiple cities, additional programming must occur that will convert the current (single city program) to a program that can serves multiple cities.
Resource Needs:
To serve as a portal for multiple cities, additional programming must be undertaken to our website at a cost estimate of $60,000. This is a one-time expense. A mapping function called Google Enterprise also needs to be added. This provides interactive maps for all parks in all cities. Google Enterprise costs $10,000 for licensed copy. The total needed funding is $70,000.
Key Milestones:
• Complete website and data programming to launch national program.
• Develop website to add Google mapping function.
• Customize each city’s ParkScan.org website in terms of categories, features, and conditions. Myriad types of parks, recreation centers, pools, and other facilities can be added, even golf courses.
• Organize trainings for other cities ParkSan.org managing agencies.
• Determine internal reporting structure and where to send reports, identifying who the clients are, including collaborative partners.
• Launch ParkScan.org in 5 major cities: Oakland CA, Phoenix AZ, Philadelphia PA, New York City NY. and Baltimore, MD
Project Summary:
ParkScan.org offers a public portal for gathering, analyzing, and reporting information on park, trail and playground maintenance issues via the worldwide web. The system currently empowers San Francisco residents to connect efficiently with the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) and provide their observations regarding issues that need attention at parks and playgrounds. Observers receive a tracking number and any member of the public (or elected official or city staff) can observe the response of the City in addressing the reported issues on the ParkScan.org website. Our goal is to expand the website capability to help other cities that have contacted us to replicate our model.
Comments
ParkScan-Tool of the People
For myself, knowing that I can report on any type of issue that I notice at any park at anytime in the City of San Francisco, with an instant ticket opened that goes not only to the Neighborhood Parks Council (the non-profit that monitors the project) but directly to the individuals responsible for repairing or maintaining the specific issue in that park makes all the difference of 24 hours.
I have found graffiti removed in as much time and any other issues that have long term planning followed up with by the NPC as well as the Rec & Park.
My confidence to know that a problem will not fall off the radar gives me hope for the City's green emeralds.
The Office of Mayor are also looking into adopting the same model for following up on issues for the other departments in the City.
Thank you NPC for creating and maintaining PARKSCAN!
greatest thing to happen to SF Parks
Speaking as a native San Franciscan who grew up just a few blocks from two major urban parks (Duboce & Buena Vista), ParkScan is simply incredible. It works for the people of the city. This demands to be replicated across the country. Bravo!