CASE STUDY
Beach Chalet Fields
MISSION
Guiding a recreation project through SF’s complex regulatory process
Challenge
The City Fields Foundation and the City of San Francisco teamed up for the Playfields Initiative in a public/private partnership to address the deficit in youth and adult athletic fields in the city. The goal was to increase the playable hours on existing sport fields by renovating city athletic fields with state-of-the-art synthetic turf, field lights and overhauling the permit and reservation system. Initially, the project met heavy opposition from some environmental and neighborhood groups.
Approach
50+1 Strategies was engaged to implement a city-wide outreach program to address the perceived environmental concerns associated with the synthetic turf fields, and educate the public about the recreational benefits to the community that would result from greater accessibility, increased playtime and the improved conditions of the fields. In addition, 50+1 worked on the Yes on I and No on H ballot campaigns in the 2014 election to support the turfed fields. Working with our partners, we helped develop the campaign’s strategic messages, slogans and logos, print advertising, and collateral materials. The communications strategy was conducted via direct mail, email communications, and paid digital ads, and worked in concert with our community organizing efforts to get stakeholders engaged in support of the project.
Results
The broad-based community support that 50+1 Strategies generated for the Beach Chalet Soccer Fields led not only to administrative approvals in favor of the project from at least three different governmental commissions and bodies, but also resulted in the passage of Proposition I, where the voters gave their express approval to allow the project to continue. In three years of ongoing efforts, our firm organized and turned out hundreds of supporters in support of the project at administrative hearings and even more at the ballot boxes. Hundreds of San Franciscan families use the fields every day.
