Diane was sitting on the cement ledges at UN Plaza with her great grandson, Tay-Tay, at UN Plaza on a sunny afternoon. She brings her great grandson to the library for story time at the Children’s section.
“I take him to the children’s library at least once or twice a month because there’s a lot of children in there and they have story time and stuff like that. And usually when we come to the library, I come down and we’ll generally just sit here. We’ll be over here and I’ll let him throw his ball. Play ball over there. Then go and get on the train.”
Diane was born and raised in San Francisco. She thinks the Civic Center area is a good space but not necessarily a place to bring kids. Aside from the library, Diane does not generally stay long in the area.
“I love San Francisco and this place out here is cool. It’s just a lot of different people. It’s something to look at if you really want to see. Just look at all the different people and the stuff that’s going on but sometimes it can be best to keep it movin’. Like if it’s too many people, I wouldn’t even be sitting here. I’d be gone. The only reason why we here is because we went to the library. There’s too many different things going on here. I mean, sure, you can bring a kid down here and keep an eye on ‘em, but this is not a place for kids to be.”
Diane prefers the public parks near their home in Lakeview because it’s more kid-friendly and provides more activities for families.
“They have a park right up the street from my house, it’s nice. There’s a gym and all kind of stuff at the park I go to by my house. They have a basketball court, they have a little kid’s park, they have a soccer park, they have all kind of stuff, and they have a daycare center. They have a community center.”
When asked what improvements could be made to UN Plaza, Diane did not have much to say and she didn’t think putting in more seating would be a good idea.
“I don’t think it should be too much more seating because then it’d have more people sitting down, more people selling drugs, doing what they do. Put some more seats here and there would be more of them.”
Diane and Tay-Tay typically stay no more than 20 minutes and they were on their way back home.
“We’re fixing to go to my church and then at my church we have ‘Friday Night Live’ for the children where all the children come and play games. It’s inside of a big gym so we play games; they play basketball and all kind of stuff.”
