Arts and CultureSan FranciscoSF-Excerpts

The Hidden Secret of the Seward Street Slides

Updated: Apr 18, 2015 08:55
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Someone built these crazy concrete slides in the most random place in the Castro. Basically you grab a piece of cardboard at the bottom of the slides, then go up to the top, and slide down. Not exactly rocket science, at least I don’t think so (I really don’t know what rocket science is). My advice is to not try to hold on to the card board with your hands because you might scrape them. The place is a little inaccessible, you might need a car, but the way to get there is this: Take 17th St. away from the Mission, and turn left on Douglas. Then take Douglas until you hit Seward and turn right. You’ll see a little park thing on your left, and that’s where the slides are. Have fun!

ps I just found out about the story behind this place.  Read it over at Found SF.

Seward Street Slides
Seward & Douglas
[The Castro]

photo from Bo H on yelp

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Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, is a travel writer, poet, TV host, activist, and general shit-stirrer. His website BrokeAssStuart.com is one of the most influential arts & culture sites in the San Francisco Bay Area and his freelance writing has been featured in Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveler, The Bold Italic, Geek.com and too many other outlets to remember. His weekly column, Broke-Ass City, appears every other Thursday in the San Francisco Examiner. Stuart’s writing has been translated into four languages. In 2011 Stuart created and hosted the travel show Young, Broke, and Beautiful on IFC and in 2015 he ran for Mayor of San Francisco and got nearly 20k votes.

He's been called "an Underground legend": SF Chronicle, "an SF cult hero":SF Bay Guardian, and "the chief of cheap": Time Out New York.

10 Comments

  1. Andrew Dalton - Aggressive Panhandler
    May 24, 2010 at 3:39 pm

    Look out for the neighbors though! I went here two years ago and the aging lesbian couple next door yelled at us about how websites were ruining their neighborhood (I think they meant Yelp?) and they we calling the cops. We got one slide in and then they started throwing empty cans of cat food at us.

  2. bryce
    May 24, 2010 at 8:34 pm

    the slides are great
    but PLEASE stu – no car necessary!
    this is a half mile walk from market/castro/17th.

  3. Adgirl
    May 25, 2010 at 11:46 pm

    There is a slide like it in Berkeley. Don Cornelius Park. Across from the Rose Garden.

    The cardboard goes faster if you rub it with wax paper first. We use to kill ourselves on it when we were kids.

    here’s a video
    http://vimeo.com/9950040

  4. August 8, 2010 at 1:28 am

    How interesting. The linked article says that the permit to build on the site, where the slides are now, expired on midnight, January 12, 1966. It happens to be significant for me, because I was born just a few hours later, on the morning of January 13, 1966.

    So, I guess the park and I sort of have the same birthday. Sort of.

    Thanks, Stuart, I never would have found out this little bit of trivia without your goddam website. 🙂

    Steve Puma

  5. […] the wheels get stuck in the MUNI tracks is inevitable, but hey, we have THE GIANTS!  TAQUERIAS!  THE SEWARD STREET SLIDES!  And amazing, amazing […]

  6. Sue
    May 6, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    ,if you wanta super fast slide ise wax paper but wear old jeans because you will put holes in the rear,just ask my mom LOL
    also dump sand down the slides b4 useing cardboard whoosh and yes please walk there is not enough parking up there to begin with which is prolly what folks are complaining about..btw i used to play there back in the late 70’s