In Chan Kaajal Park is a public park in the

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

of San Francisco, USA, located north of 17th Street between

Folsom Folsom may refer to: People * Folsom (surname) Places in the United States * Folsom, Perry County, Alabama * Folsom, Randolph County, Alabama * Folsom, California * Folsom, Georgia * Folsom, Louisiana * Folsom, Missouri * Folsom, New Jerse ...

and Shotwell Street. It was inaugurated in June 2017 as the city's first new park in over 10 years. El Tecolote described the opening as "a hard-won victory for the Latino and Indigenous communities of the Mission, who have lobbied for years for its creation". The park's name, chosen by a community vote, means "My Little Town" in the

Yucatec Maya language Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic com ...

, and is also sometimes rendered together with its Spanish translation as "In Chan Kaajal (Mi Pueblito)". It reflects San Francisco's significant Mayan American minority, consisting of immigrants who since the 1990s arrived from Mexico's

Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...

region and settled mainly in the northern Mission and the Tenderloin. Facilities include a playground, a gym for adults, a drought-resistant community garden, greenhouses, and a small stage for public performances on the central plaza. An interactive water installation commemorates

Mission Creek Mission Creek (from Spanish: ''misión'') is a river in San Francisco, California. Once navigable from the Mission Bay inland to the vicinity of Mission Dolores, where several smaller creeks converged to form it, Mission Creek has long since bee ...

, which used to run through the site. Artist

Carmen Lomas Garza Carmen Lomas Garza (born 1948) is an Chicana artist and illustrator. She is well known for her paintings, ofrendas and for her papel picado work inspired by her Mexican-American heritage. Her work is a part of the permanent collections of the S ...

created renderings of a

California condor The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to nort ...

and a great blue heron adorning the fence, commissioned by the

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cali ...

. The park was constructed on a former parking lot, with a budget of $5.2 million. The planning process had begun in 2008 and saw city agencies partnering with a local grassroots organization named PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Justice) and various neighborhood associations. On the remaining area adjacent to the park, a 127-unit affordable housing project broke ground in 2019.{{Cite web, url=https://missionlocal.org/2019/01/sf-missions-fourth-100-percent-affordable-housing-project-breaks-ground/, title=SF Mission's fourth 100-percent affordable housing project breaks ground, date=2019-01-31, website=Mission Local, language=en-US, access-date=2019-02-09

References

Parks in San Francisco Maya civilization Mission District, San Francisco

See also

References