People often say life at Rec and Park is like a circus, and on October 25, they couldn’t have been more correct, when cast members of the new Cirque du Soleil show here in San Francisco showed up at Moscone Rec Center to help celebrate new improvements at the park.
In September, Cirque du Soleil (through EcoMedia) gifted nearly $32,000 to the department for a new remote lighting system at Moscone, Lang and Jackson ball fields. The new system allows our staff to control, monitor, and manage field lights from any computer or smartphone, entering in detailed lighting schedules field by field, down to the minute. Emergency schedule changes can also be made easily in the case of rain‐outs.
The system reduces energy usage by operating lights only when they are needed. As an automated system, it does not require our staff to travel from field to field to turn lights on and off, as was the case with previous systems.
The new remote system will reduce energy usage by 26% or for a total of 475.5 hours per year. That’s equivalent to about $25,000 a year, a pretty big sum in an era when every penny counts.
These improvements are actually not a first in our department. Thanks to our partnership with the City Fields Foundation, similar remote systems have been installed at Kimbell Playground, Silver Terrace, Fraklin Square, South Sunset, Crocker and Garfield Square, and are performing wonderfully.
These advances are making the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department one of the most technologically advanced and greenest park systems in the country.
I want to thank Cirque du Soleil, EcoMedia, Supervisor Mark Farrell, Hydra Mendoza from the Mayor's Office, SF Environment and the wonderful students from Marina Middle School who came out on Tuesday to help us celebrate.
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