Deliberately poisoned trees, splinter groups, and heated emotions: The road to create a public park in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood has been a bumpy one. Esprit Park, named for the 1980s clothing brand whose former headquarters once occupied the area, has finally opened after years of planning, arguing, and yes—arbor-based sabotage. In her first piece for Alta Journal, Julie Zigoris details much of the drama and design work that led to the park’s eventual opening in February 2025. In reading her article, however, it becomes clear that the work on making everyone happy about Esprit Park might not yet be done. Zigoris settles in with Alta Live to give us the backstory on this eight-year park development process, explain why the park might favor this popular neighborhood’s dogs more than its children, and tell us how a plan for public green space involved more twists and turns than Lombard Street.

About the guest:

Julie Zigoris is a storyteller in San Francisco, where she works to uncover the people and places that make the city unique. Her work has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the San Francisco Press Club, the Los Angeles Press Club, and the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

Here are some notable quotes from today’s event:

  • On the park’s timeline: “I mean, what was so fascinating about reporting on this piece was, there’s this kind of plastic-tarp sign hanging on the fencing around the construction, fencing around the project, and it said “Esprit Park Renovation Project Early 2023 to Fall 2023”—as in, the completion date is fall 2023. And when I went to take pictures the first time when I was doing my reporting and interviewing someone there on-site, the “2023” had a little plastic sticker on top of it that said “24,” pasted on top. And then the next time I went, somebody had ripped it off so you could see that the “23” was behind it. And then the next time I went, the sign was completely taken down, because really the park didn’t end up opening up until the next year, in 2025.”
  • On the neighborhood’s infrastructure and the demand for green space: “This neighborhood lacks a lot of infrastructure. There’s no sidewalks in a lot of places. There’s no stop signs or stoplights, no trash cans. And so even though this neighborhood was voted one of the coolest a few years ago by Time Out, and so many people are moving there for all the cool restaurants and hit bars, at the same time, there’s a lot of things that are lacking in this neighborhood. And green space is one of them.”
  • On the resolution of the park project: “While people were ecstatic that it did finally happen, you know, it was at a very high price tag after a very long time. And so while people are very happy to see it end and happy that a compromise was reached, there’s also a little sense of disappointment—they feel a little bit cheated that it took this much out of them.”

Check out these links to some of the topics brought up this week.