Cayuga Park Folk Art by Demetrio Braceros - San Francisco, California - Roadside Attractions on Waymarking.com

I first learned about Cayuga Playground from a public television series called "California's Golden Parks", hosted by Huell Howser. This show tells the story of how Demetrio Braceros, a Filipino-born, city park gardener adopted this park and added his special gardening touch to the park.

Demetrio came to the San Francisco area in 1977 and worked at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park. In 1986 he was given the responsibility for an undeveloped area on Cayuga Street. For the next twenty-two years, Demetrio lovingly transformed what was a stand of weeds and unkept trees into a beautiful city park with trails, treehouses and many wooden sculptures created from abandoned trees and downed limbs.

Among the park's treasures are totem poles of SF Giant Barry Bonds, SF mayor Willie Brown, newspaper columnist Herb Caen, John Lennon, Michael Jordan and Princess Diana. There's a Sept. 11 memorial flower bed, Native American carvings to pay tribute to the park's namesake and messages such as "All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today," painted in Braceros' fanciful but neat cursive.

Cayuga Park must be visited to be fully appreciated. A short video tour of the park can be found here.

From a SF Parks and Recreation document:

This 3.89-acre site includes a 2,500 SF clubhouse, a play area, tennis and basketball courts, and grassy field for practice soccer play and T-ball. Elevated BART tracks skirt the northern edge of the site. More significantly, Cayuga Playground is known for its vast collection of hand-carved wooden sculptures that dot the landscape. The wooden sculptures are the innovations of Demetrio Braceros, a long-time Recreation and Park Department gardener who retired in 2008. Two unique thematic gardens, titled the “Garden of Eden” and the “Trail of Hope”, are incorporated into the landscape.

Cayuga Playground at San Francisco Parks & Alliance website

Price of Admission: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Roadside Attractions Website: [Web Link] Location Website: [Web Link] Weekday Hours: Not listed Weekend Hours: Not listed

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