What about SF's synthetic turf?

Photo: Michael Macor

From the front page of today's SF Chronicle (US to mount multiagency study of health risks of synthetic turf):

...Citing health concerns, the Los Angeles Unified School District no longer uses crumb rubber on its turf fields, preferring alternatives like cork, while the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation also stopped using the recycled tires on new fields.

In San Francisco, a group of parents fought the Recreation and Park Department for years over installing turf fields with crumb rubber at Golden Gate Park. The fields were installed anyway, but opponents continue to push for alternatives — like used shoes or coconut fiber

Kathleen McCowin, who was arrested after staging a one-person sit-in at Golden Gate Park to stop construction of the Beach Chalet fields, said she’s not sure the federal agencies will answer the question many parents have...

Rob's comment: 

Well, what about it? Has the city's Recreation and Parks Department installed potentially toxic synthetic turf on our playing fields? 

Odd that the reporter didn't include a reassuring response from Rec and Park, which the Chronicle story seemed to require. Maybe there's no reassurance to be had. 

I can't find anything on the issue on the website, though I did find this.

Earlier posts on the issue here, here, here, and here.

The Coastal Commission: What happens next?

Banning Ranch Conservancy

Richard Frank on Legal Planet:

...Those commissioners voting to remove Lester insist that their action was motivated by concerns over the Executive Director’s management style, rather than any pro-development sentiments on their part. Many observers–--including California newspaper editorial boards–--are not buying that explanation, and fear that Lester’s firing signals a philosophical shift making the Coastal Commission more amenable to coastal development interests.

We won’t have to wait long to get at least an inkling of the Commission’s future policy course: at its March meeting, the Commission is scheduled to consider a massive new coastal development project proposed for the Orange County coast. 

How the Commission votes on that high profile, controversial project should provide interested observers with some sense of whether Executive Director Lester’s ouster does indeed signal a more pro-development stance by the Commission....(emphasis added)

See also this, this, and this.