On a semi-cloudy April morning at West Sunset Playground, the scene is an idyllic one. Kids are spinning on a carousel. Asian elders are doing tai chi. Stand on your tippy-toes and you can see the ocean waves crashing.
There’s just one problem. The playground’s rubbery safety surface resembles the face of the moon. Children regularly trip on the material, which has grown crumbly from 15 years of rain and sun, and sustain minor injuries, and some have been observed putting it in their mouths.
Concerned parents have repeatedly flagged the precarious state of affairs to the city — only to be told a fix will cost nearly $600,000 and could take up to two years. While there might be a less costly way to do it, it would mean making the playground less accessible to the disabled, according to the Recreation and Parks Department.
So, for now, the falls and rubber-eating continue — and the pitted surface remains a hazard to wheelchair users as well.
“They trip. They fall. They hurt themselves,” said Rose Khallouf, who brings her 6-year-old daughter to the playground at least four times a week. “The city has the capability of doing better for our kids.”
Last summer, Khallouf and a group of parents began alerting the city to the playground’s state of disrepair. They believed they could raise tens of thousands of dollars to support the project.
But what looked like a simple neighborhood undertaking quickly became a bureaucratic headache.
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They approached the parks department and Supervisor Joel Engardio and were given an initial estimate of $120,000. That turned out to be based on miscalculated square footage. The agency had also recommended that they work with the Parks Alliance, the financially troubled nonprofit that helps pump community money toward sprucing up the city’s green spaces.
Quickly the parents realized their fundraising efforts were quickly going to be overshadowed by the rising costs after they were given a new estimate: $55 per square foot, or $577,500. Their efforts have fizzled out since then.
How can a playground surface cost that much?
The over half-million-dollar price tag includes both materials and labor. The work requires builders to deconstruct the entire playground and dispose of the old rubber. The subterranean level is made of ground-up tires, and the surface is made of EPDM rubber. Like many other construction materials, rubber prices jumped during the pandemic and have remained high.
Other costs are specific to the West Sunset Playground site: The surface features complex animal designs of octopuses and whales. It also has multiple colors, which is more expensive for builders, experts said.
The city says it has chosen to use the rubbery safety material because it offers better accessibility for disabled visitors to the playgrounds. Other cities have decided to use much cheaper options, including Cupertino, which uses tan bark for most of its playgrounds, according to a city spokesperson.
That crushing expense comes as the city’s budget for playground repairs is due to shrink in the coming years.
The parks department told the Standard that it has a limited amount of money for playground maintenance — $950,000 this year, which is slightly higher than usual because of interest earnings from a 2012 bond. In the following two fiscal years, when West Sunset Playground is scheduled for resurfacing, that number will drop to just $750,000.
That amount is part of a $15 million bucket of funds the parks department uses yearly for capital improvements. The playgrounds compete with other fixes, such as paving, irrigation system maintenance, fencing, and other priorities. Rec and Parks manages over 135 playgrounds, and says it repairs up to five annually. The other sites ahead of West Sunset Playground are Upper Noe, Excelsior, Minnie & Lovie, McKinley Square, Yik Oi Huang, Alioto Mini Park, Lincoln Playground, and St. Mary’s Square.
Engardio, who represents the Sunset District, told the Standard he does not have the authority to tell departments how to spend their budgets and can only use diplomacy to push projects like West Sunset along.
“I wish it could be sooner, and I know we all wish it could be sooner,” said Engardio, who added that all 11 supervisors are competing over the same pool of money to spruce up their districts. “You can’t just wave your arm and make it happen and make it so.” He added that the parks department was able to push the playground to the front of the line of repairs from fiscal year 2027 to 2026.
But the wait is much too long for Sunset resident Dee Dee Lewitter, who has three children and visits the park once a week.
“They’re going to wait for more broken bones before that becomes a priority,” she said. “I just feel really disheartened at getting anything done.”