It is the last week before school starts in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, and it’s time to fix a bike, spruce up a household study space or sew a new tote bag.
The Community Innovation Lab at India Basin Waterfront Park is embracing the right to repair by hosting a week of events for families and kids. The waterfront park itself is an experiment in social repair, as an equity project of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the Trust for Public Land, the San Francisco Parks Alliance and the A. Philip Randolph Institute San Francisco, or APRI.
The Lab is a modified cargo container, outfitted with a deck and large patio.
“It’s a cargo container that works as a storefront,” said Louie Mezie, program manager with APRI. “Think of it as a community resource where community members can come out and utilize the free Wi-Fi, have free access to books provided by the San Francisco Public Library, and use the space for programming and event planning.”
On Monday, volunteers from the Randall Museum were on site helping kids learn the mechanics of bicycles. The next time a chain comes lose, kids can take the matter into their own hands, flip it and fix it.
Small acts of self-reliance at The Lab this week reflect a national movement against corporately controlled obstacles to repair. The right to repair is a political backlash against companies purposely designing products to have a limited life span, requiring buyers to use only the manufacturer’s maintenance services or restricting access to tools or components.
Tuesday’s event focused on repairing items in the home, with volunteers on hand with tools to help families repair broken furniture or appliances. Instruction Wednesday concentrates on how to plant a successful fall garden. Sewing machines will be running on Thursday for anyone who wants to learn how to mend a favorite jacket or design a bag. Friday’s skate jam will focus on fixing skateboards.
Looking to add more workshops
Anyone in the community can apply to coordinate an event at The Lab — health, arts, financial literacy, youth and family activities.
“We are looking for consecutive weekly event proposals,” said Mezie. “Right now, I’m speaking with a yoga instructor who’s from the Bayview-Hunters Point community and he wants to do a six-week series of nutrition workshops out here.”
“Next week we have an etiquette workshop series where kids can learn some of the skills that it takes to be successful in the workplace — how to wear professional attire, how to speak using professional language,” he said.
There is an upcoming teen night where kids can come out as school is starting up. The documentary “Freedom Riders” will be projected onto an inflatable screen. There will be free food and other youth activities.
“Kids can make some vision boards,” said Mezie. “It’s a makeshift board where you can post certain images of what you want this upcoming year to look like and how you envision it panning out.”
San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Department acquired the abandoned shipyard in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in 2014. The city set out to design a large destination park in a way that will keep an underserved community in place.
APRI meets biweekly with community members to make sure that nothing goes on there without the neighborhood being involved.
According to the national nonprofit Trust for Public Land, which ranks city parks based on factors such as accessibility, safety and social engagement, residents who live near good public parts are 60 percent more likely to volunteer than residents of lower-ranking parks.
They are, on average, more socially connected and engaged with their neighbors than are residents of cities with lower ranks. They are also 26 percent more likely to form friendships with people in different socio-economic groups.
On Thursday, Oakland-born choreographer Adia Whitaker will perform three shows at the park with a live band starting at 5 p.m. The show features singers from the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.
Those interested in more information about events at the India Basin Waterfront Park can sign up for a newsletter online.
The post India Basin Waterfront Park program teaches youths self-reliance through repairing things appeared first on Local News Matters.