Sausalito Reopens Park to Public - Vina del Mar a symbol of city's mixed feelings on tourism- Nov 29, 1996 - San Francisco Chronicle - By Carl Nolte

Sausalito Reopens Park to Public
Vina del Mar a symbol of city's mixed feelings on tourism
Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, November 29, 1996

For the first time in more than 30 years, the public will be allowed inside Sausalito's Vina del Mar Park, a small jewel of a place that has come to symbolize the town's schizophrenic attitude toward tourists.

The park will reopen December 12, the first step in giving the center of town a new look. Eventually there will be a plaza near the San Francisco ferry landing and a promenade with artists' kiosks, all part of a plan to make Sausalito more ``user-friendly.''

Which means, of course, more attractive to its residents -- and to tourists.

Vina del Mar is a beautiful little park with immaculate green lawns, flower gardens, palm trees and a splendid fountain, all guarded by two cement elephants from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco.

The sign says it all: ``This historic park is for your viewing pleasure. Please do not enter.''

Back in the good old days, anyone could go into the park. But in the '60s, to the horror of the town's civic leaders, everyone did. It became a haven for hippies, who, shocked people said, hung out, smoked dope, dropped acid, played guitars and did other awful things.

A fence went up and the park was closed to the public. In the '70s, it was named for Vina del Mar, Sausalito's sister city in Chile, but it stayed locked up. The enemy at that time, according to local newspaper accounts, was ``hordes of seasonal visitors.'' In other words, tourists.

Sausalito has always been ambivalent about tour-

ists. On the one hand, their money helps pay the rent and generates sales taxes. On the other, they take over downtown. Bridgeway, the main street, is impassable on weekends, and parking is impossible. It is like living in a postcard.

It seemed to be a rule: Tourists and Sausalito people did not mix.

Sausalito loves festivals, and invites everyone to its annual Art Festival on Labor Day. But the best Sausalito festivals are carefully kept secrets: parades down Caledonia Street for the Portuguese Holy Ghost Festival, for Easter, for the Fourth of July and for Halloween. These are for locals only and are never advertised outside of town. A couple of years ago, Caledonia Street was even excised from maps given to tourists.

``Caledonia Street is ours,'' said Patrick Moloney, who lives in the north end of town. ``It's not for tourists.'' Like many Sausalito residents, he seldom goes to the center of town, which is lined with boutiques and souvenir shops.

But times have changed. Vice Mayor George Stratigos, elected this spring with the slogan ``Born and Raised. Knows and Cares,'' believes it is time for something different.

``When Sausalito people travel, they become tourists themselves and spend a lot of time looking for small villages, just like Sausalito,'' he said. He can't understand why Sausalito residents would ignore visitors when they come to their hometown.

Reopening the park, he thinks, will allow locals and tourists to mix, sit down in the same park and talk.

Not everybody feels this way. Some think the carefully tended park will be trampled. Some are not sure. ``My mother is worried,'' said Randy Archer, who has lived in Sausalito all his life. ``I myself am glad it is being reopened. I went here as a kid. But Sausalito is turning into another San Francisco, you know, with all kinds of people, and now we have beggars, too, like the city. Maybe they'll be in the park. So I have mixed feelings.''

Lauren Gonzales, another lifelong resident, is sure of what she wants. She campaigned to open the park in 1974, when she was 11 and in the sixth grade. ``Without this park,'' she told the City Council, ``There will be no joy in children's eyes.''

She was turned down then, but last month, the council voted to reopen the park -- and Gonzales, who now has one son, three stepchildren and another child on the way, is delighted. ``The best thing about it,'' she said, ``is my kids get to enjoy this park.''