When the world arrives, GGNRA parks lead the welcome
Alison Taggart-Barone / Parks Conservancy
When the global spotlight turns to the Bay Area for moments like the Super Bowl, nature's greatest stage is outside, in our parks. With room for everyone, parks become our shared home field. They're places where people gather, move, celebrate, and recharge.
Here, Christine Lehnertz reflects on stewarding the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) during Super Bowl 50, and what it means to welcome the world again. Chris was Superintendent of the GGNRA for the National Park Service in 2016, and now serves as President & CEO of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, working to ensure these parks remain accessible, inclusive, and essential to everyday life.
What's one word or image that captures what Super Bowl 50 felt like for you as Superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area?
Energy.
What stays with you all these years later?
The enthusiasm of the city, of the people traveling in for the game, and the media were contagious. There were so many parallels with the inspiration and awe that I had seen people get when they entered special places like Muir Woods or Crissy Field, a shift in energy that invigorates.
What surprised you most about how people showed up in parks during that Super Bowl moment, as places of celebration and connection beyond the ticketed venues?
People were surprised that San Francisco has such great public lands and bowled over that there was an 82,000-acre national park right here! Looking across the Bay to the Marin Headlands, people would comment on the beauty of the land and often were shocked that the hillsides were parklands for everyone, not full of private homes and closed off to access.
What feels different about welcoming visitors to parks today?
Today, I see the parks as respite and time away from the demands of each day. Time seems to move so much faster now with a decade’s worth of app development, social media platforms and artificial intelligence—ways that the game and the vibe will be shared around the world. But the parks remain here for everyone, whether they're a local or visiting from across the country, at a pace that they want to experience. Standing in a park or looking at distant parklands is a way to slow your day, your breath, and your heart rate.
What excites you most this time, not just about the Super Bowl, but about the opportunity for parks to serve as a shared civic space for locals and visitors alike?
The Super Bowl is a gathering place. It’s a place for an amazing sporting event and for fans to come and cheer for their sports heroes. People will come from the East and the Northwest to cheer and cry for something they care about, and the players who give their all. In the Bay Area we have the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is a beautiful and amazing place for gathering. There’s no entrance fee, you can come by foot or by bus, and you can always see other people gathering too, for a picnic, touch football, or hike to a beautiful park overlook—and photo point!
People often call parks the Bay Area’s front yard. During moments like the Super Bowl, how do they also become our stadium?
Here in the Bay Area, we always cheer for the parks. We choose parks as our place away from home. We see people doing so many things in the park spaces, from writing poetry to holding quinceañeras, to attending concerts. They mean so much to our community.
What do parks offer that traditional venues can't?
Awe. The inspiration of nature cannot be duplicated, it cannot be generated through AI, and it can only be experienced personally. What else has the power to help us laugh, heal, and be inspired just by taking a few steps out of our doors?
The Super Bowl brings together sports, culture, music, and community on a global stage. How do Bay Area parks reflect that and become the place where it all comes together?
I think the power of human connection is transformative, even as an introvert, gathering together and seeing other community members somehow equalizes us. Being in nature when that happens can bring a sense of belonging that is built not from being the same as others but in being your genuine self. Public spaces and nature don’t judge us, they welcome us. The Bay Area has made it a priority to provide this opportunity to its communities. It's said in San Francisco that no one lives more than a 10-minute walk from a park. That’s an amazing commitment to health, wellbeing, and social connection.
When visitors from around the world experience the Bay Area through its parks, what do you hope they feel or carry home with them?
Admiration for the dedication that local, state and national leaders here have had to make sure public lands are available for everyone—this can happen in every community and I think San Francisco has the blueprints. The park experiences that people have when they visit for the Super Bowl may stay with them forever as memories, even if the final score of the game fades through the years.
