Well, per the people at the Stow Lake Boathouse, the joint will reopen soon:
“We will reopen operations with food service and boat rentals no later than October 6th.”
Here’s how it looks today, with a fresh layer of asphalt:
Click to expand
Here’s the Twitter and the Facebook and the blog.
And here’s the manifesto:
“A trip to Golden Gate Park isn’t complete without a sojourn to Stow Lake Boathouse. Join us for a relaxing boat ride that will transport you to an idyllic retreat in the heart of San Francisco. Share time with friends and family at our nostalgic boathouse café. Invite the peace of nature to your day with an excursion to one of America’s most visited city parks.
We are very excited about our proposed vision for the Stow Lake Boathouse and Café. Our highly sustainable new café, improvements to the boathouse itself, and our new and improved fleet of boats offer a number of benefits to the City and visitors to Golden Gate Park.
Stow Lake is a valuable part of San Francisco’s heritage and it needs to stay that way. It should remain a venue for grassroots and other volunteer organizations, while becoming a place where future generations can learn firsthand about the variety and complexity of nature. Stow Lake is also home to many plant and animal species. It hosts so many natural wonders, that it’s hard to believe such a marvelous ecosystem exists so close to downtown San Francisco.
We pledge to be outstanding stewards of Stow Lake, and to work with our community partners in order to further the awareness and appreciation of this beautiful microenvironment. By establishing meaningful partnerships with local groups, we plan to continue and curate the legacy of Stow Lake for the San Franciscans of today as well as tomorrow. We are dedicated to meeting and exceeding existing stewardship standards in order to preserve and protect the richness of these plant and animal species, as this community has done in the past.”
OK then.
But at least 36 people on Gaia’a Green Earth don’t approve of the new tenant:
“It’s not over yet! The civil lawsuit begins March 2012 and will expose the truth about all the many laws that Rec & Park broke in order to bring in an out-of-state chain, with no boating experience to take over this historic boating recreation site.”
March 2012, huh? Sounds like a long ways off at this point.
Anyway, bon courage, new Stow Lake Boathouse and Café.
