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For many in San Francisco, that sprawling park known as the Presidio is one of the city's signature landmarks. But in an executive order on Wednesday, the Trump administration proposed shrinking the federal agency that manages the park. Katie DeBenedetti with member station KQED reports local officials say that agency was set up to withstand this kind of challenge.
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KATIE DEBENEDETTI, BYLINE: Even on a weekday morning, the Presidio is bustling. Elementary school classes are having lunch. Groups of friends catch up in red, low-back chairs overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, and a dozen dogs run off-leash on the main lawn. This 1,500-acre park at the northern tip of San Francisco has been open to the public for about 30 years. The panoramic view it provides of the bridge, the bay, the contours of the Marin County Hills in the distance have made it popular among both visitors and locals. Elizabeth Bradburn is one of these locals who was out walking her dog.
ELIZABETH BRADBURN: I think it's a destination spot for a lot of people from outside of San Francisco. But then we who live here also use it regularly - on a daily basis, I would say.
DEBENEDETTI: The executive order Trump issued Wednesday - as part of the administration's policy to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government - said that any functions of the trust that aren't required by law should be scrapped. It's still not clear what that actually means for the Presidio because the trust says all of its functions are required by law. San Francisco supervisor Stephen Sherrill represents the park area on the city Board of Supervisors. He says the trust was created by an act of Congress, and its caretaking of the park is protected by law.
STEPHEN SHERRILL: Federal law gives the Presidio the ability to manage their own operations and generate their own revenue, which they've been doing since 2005.
DEBENEDETTI: The Presidio Trust was required to become financially independent of the government by 2013 and says it relies on the money it gets from leasing historic buildings in the park. It was granted $200 million for infrastructure improvements through the Inflation Reduction Act.
SHERRILL: They're just baiting us with a blatantly partisan attack. The only thing that this does is create completely unnecessary fear among 3,000 residents of the Presidio.
DEBENEDETTI: NPR reached out to the White House for comment and did not receive a response. The trust has to submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget in two weeks, saying how it will comply with the order to shrink operations.
For NPR News, I'm Katie DeBenedetti, in San Francisco. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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