The organization that oversees San Francisco’s Presidio Park has two weeks to respond to an executive order signed yesterday by President Donald Trump to cut funding it has deemed as “unnecessary.”
The San Francisco Standard reports the Presidio Trust was among a group of other institutions, including the US Institute for Peace, the Inter-American Foundation and the African Development Foundation, the order said should be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
The trust was established with bi-partisan support by Congress in 1996. It overlooks about 80 percent of the 1,500-acre park, with the National Park Service managing the rest.
The Presidio, which sits on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, was originally settled by the Ohlone. It was a Spanish fort, then a Mexican military outpost before becoming a US Army base from 1848 to 1988. Six years after the base closed, the grounds were transferred to the National Park Service.
It is unclear what impact the executive order will have. Congress mandated the trust become self-sufficient in 2013 – a goal the trust actually achieved eight years earlier, primarily by leasing buildings. Two years ago, the trust received $200 million in federal funds for maintenance.
