Jefferson Square Park

To get it out of the way: yes, Jefferson Square Park is in the «sketchy part» of Western Addition. And yes, I probably wouldn’t recommend parking a really fancy car around the boundaries of the park overnight. However, I run here several mornings each week and the sketchiness hasn’t been a problem for me.
Why am I even bothering to write a review about a park? To help out my fellow runners with a few tips:
1. If you run around the outer edge (on the sidewalk, not the path) of the park bounded by Eddy, Gough, Turk, and Laguna, one lap is roughly 0.5mi, so use that to calculate your route.
2. The inclines are less intense if you go clockwise.
It’s not the most exciting park, but it holds a special place in my mind: I drop by a few times a week to clear my head and feast my eyes on some much-​needed greenery.

The last time I went here I set up an umbrella, books, and a wide blanket, only to find the sprinklers drenching me and my belongings. I moved 10 feet further thinking I was ok, only to find another sprinkler turning on and again drenching me. I was soaked. This happened A THIRD TIME. After that I was done with the park! They should at least have signs that tell you the hours that the sprinklers will come one. How RUDE!

This park is a happy place to be. I loved getting a chance to look around and see happy people sitting amongst each other, talking and sharing and smiling their afternoon away. There were many dogs [offleash] running around and playing together. Everybody seemed happy and well; as it should be!

Cute little dog park with mostly friendly dog owners. On a sunny day, bring your dog, or if you don’t have one, sit down at one of the benches and strike up a conversation with one of the friendlier dog owners (they are easy to spot congregated) and enjoy… This is SF and how you get to know the neighborhoods.
Very conveniently located a few blocks away from Hayes Valley.

As a child I grew up watching Full House, which the Painted Ladies were well known from being featured in the show. The Painted Ladies are located right across from this park. For me, that’s what definitely makes this park. Sitting on a bench on a warm sunny SF day; reading a book, clearing your head, or simply just enjoying the view.

I love this park. Green grass and a good area to play. You need to have excellent voice command of your dog because there is a lot of traffic around and there are no fences whatsoever. The bad part: there is a dog that frequents this park that is very aggressive. Its hair is standing up all the way down its back the second it gets off leash, and it lunges at dogs baring its teeth. The owner said her dog likes to «play rough.» That is an understatement. It does not play nice. I have never let my dog close enough for it to bite (also my pup would not react well and would bite back). I am not breed discriminatory as I have owned a pitbull mix, but this pit mix is out of control. The owner does have it on leash most of the time, but it still was scary when she let it off leash. BEWARE! It is a black, female pit mix.

Wow, the renovation they did a few months ago has changed this place from crackhead central to a park that you could happily spend a few hours in. In fact, I generally do. Jefferson Square Park has been completely redone & while it still sports a bum or two, is so much more beautiful & safer than what it used to be.
They’ve tiered it on about 4 different levels with plenty of walkways, grass, trees, bathrooms & benches. The far side of the park (on Laguna) is where the off leash dog section is located. Dog parents note: you will likely see your dog rolling multiple times. Luckily, they have not found a dead pigeon or someone’s poop, rather the grass is fertilized with fish oil which apparently smells delightful to our furry friends. Additionally, if your dog isn’t good off leash, this probably isn’t the best space for him as it’s not fenced in, but it is such a big park that most of the pooches seem very happy to romp on the grass with their friends.
I am also a big fan of the infamous SF parrots which have appeared to make this their new home (likely because renovations are still going on at Lafayette Park) & love listening to them chirp & dash about the trees.
My only ding is that there are no trash cans so you have to walk outside the park to dispose of waste or picnic leftovers. If they could get a few more, I’m sure it would keep the park even cleaner.

Great place to play softball in the city if you can deal with sharing outfields with the opposing field. Sometimes if you’re playing with some guys who rope the ball pretty far you’ll end up overlapping and awkwardly facing each other. Today I ran down a ball into the other field’s infield and it even went by home plate while that field had their own play at the plate.
Good lighting and the field and diamonds are pretty well maintained. The field itself could use some trimming and does have a few holes but can’t complain given the location. Bleachers are decent and the backstop has one of those auto-​dropping designs.
Four stars because the bathrooms have soap and paper towels.

I think this is a great park!!! It actually has 2 parts to it, one section is just for people and the others is for dogs. I take my dog here regularly and she loves it!!! They just reopened it not too long ago which I thought was great because now I don’t see as many homeless and crazy people around!!! They fixed it up and it looks soo much better from before.

yup the new jefferson square park lOOks beautiful. and as a close neighbor
I too hope whence its reopened the homeless dont take over again. thats
just the kinda stuff Id like to forget about in a park. the homeless move in and stay all day and nite arguing littering and being disrespectful theyre a drag. their misery
is unwelcome they need to pick up and go where theyre provided for. I hope
the police start coming by and moving them on. the park belomngs to everyone.
perhaps we need a good sniper…

Jefferson Square Park just went through an overhaul to refit a prehistoric irrigation system and redesign the entire landscape. I’ve watched over the past few months with great anticipation as the construction crews tore out the old grass, installed new sprinkler systems, planted new trees and plants, and manicured a beautiful new lawn. The re-​opening of the park is going to be so well-​received, with all the dog-​owners, senior citizens, athletes, and neighborhood residents looking forward to a park they can be proud of.
The only reason I don’t give a 5 is that we don’t know if the homeless crackheads from the ‘loin will remember this is a park in which they used to sleep and urinate. If the cops can enforce the upkeep of this beautiful phoenix of a park, the Western Addition will be a much better place to live.

Any square/​park in San Francisco gets at least a 4 star rating in my book. Yes, this park could be a lot cleaner, but a nice patch in the middle of the city with some great views.

Everyone needs a place to take a nap and do some crack. It appears the majority of people seem to think this should be done behind closed doors or within the confines of an alley on O’Farrell or Turk somewhere. To that, I say, «Pish posh, friend.»
How about a grassen and treed city block gently sloping south towards Turk Street? How about a view of the Peninsula and probably a kickin’ breeze rolling through on a sunny yet coolish day? Sound like a nice slice of heaven? Then roll on down to this park, brother patriot! You might even catch this one dude who plays drums there. He’s pretty good.

We went to high school across the street. We called this place crack head park. It holds a special place in our hearts, even though it was dirty as all hell, it was our dirty park.
In reality, this place is good for two things, being homeless and smoking crack, or being a HS student and needing to hide a cigarette after school.

I was looking for a grassy area within walking distance of my apartment to lie around and perhaps paint something, so I used the satellite view on google maps to find a patch of green. Jefferson Square Park was the largest and closest, so I decided to walk over.
I was surprised to discover that its a big hill and not a flat grassy area (funny how everything looks flat in a 2D picture). I really liked it though, it was a great place to chill on the grass, and being a hill made for a nice view (which I ended up doing a watercolor of, but my impatience made me kind of hastily finish a lot of the details — I don’t paint very often).
I will definitely go back if I’m looking for somewhere to go on a sunny day, not the most amazing place, but certainly the best park I’ve found close to my apartment so far.

I think this place is a good place to buy crack. I wasn’t able to score any though. I think they take Sundays off.
But when buying your crack please stay off the grass. Dogs have land-​mined it.
I wish my vaccuum had the suckage of this place.