Green SF Now Blog

Two stories crossed my desk this month (sent to me by numerous folks), and I thought they belong nicely together. First, the warning: NOAA now says there's a real chance the El Niño building in the Pacific becomes "very strong" by late fall, and a recent SF Chronicle Open Forum piece argues that San Francisco isn't ready for what a wet winter could bring. Second, the good news: a new San Francisco Estuary Institute study (covered by KneeDeep Times) found that rain gardens right here in San Francisco are filtering toxic chemicals out of stormwater far better than researchers expected.

In other words: big storms are the problem, and green infrastructure is part of the answer. Best of all, it's an answer we can start building this year, corner by corner.

Why a wet winter hits San Francisco harder

San Francisco runs sewage and stormwater through the same set of pipes. When heavy rain overwhelms treatment capacity, the combined system discharges stormwater mixed with raw sewage: more than 1.8 billion gallons a year on average since 2016, according to federal regulators cited in the Chronicle piece. Most of that flushes out to the Pacific. But when heavy rain lands on top of high sea levels, it can go the other direction, onto shorelines, into streets, and into basements. That's what happened in the winter of 2022-23, when downtown got nearly 18 inches of rain in about three weeks and homes along Marina Boulevard flooded. (We've written before about what those outflows look like at Ocean Beach.)

To be fair, El Niño's effect on Northern California rainfall is mixed. Some strong El Niño winters here have been wet, others average or even dry, and forecasters can't tell us which kind this one will be. But that uncertainty is exactly why we prepare: our sewer system was built for a climate that no longer exists, and every gallon we keep out of the pipes is a gallon that can't back up into someone's home.

What the new SFEI study found

Here's where the second story comes in. SFEI researchers sampled stormwater at four San Francisco rain gardens across 15 rain events between 2022 and 2024, testing for 21 different contaminants. They published the results this month in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. In many cases the gardens removed over 90% of the chemicals measured, including a 95% average removal rate for 6PPD-quinone, a compound that rubs off car tires and is acutely lethal to salmon and steelhead. (Trillions of tire particles wash into the Bay every year!)

Principal investigator Melissa Foley told KneeDeep Times the team was surprised by the results: "So to see, for some of those contaminants, a 90% reduction between stormwater coming in and stormwater coming out, that was really exciting."

The researchers are careful about two caveats, so we will be too. Even after 95% removal, the leftover 6PPD-quinone still exceeded EPA thresholds for aquatic life, so filtration helps a lot but can't replace getting the chemical out of tires in the first place. And SFEI's Rebecca Sutton describes rain gardens as a targeted tool that does the most good where pollution loads are highest, which means placement matters.

The "deep green" case, and the "light green" start

This is the strongest evidence yet for what we call deep green infrastructure: bioswales, rain gardens, permeable surfaces, and daylit creeks that soak up stormwater where it falls instead of piping it into an overloaded combined sewer. The benefits keep stacking up: less flooding, fewer combined sewer discharges, cooler and shadier blocks, more habitat, and now measurably cleaner water reaching the Bay and the ocean.

Deep green projects take capital budgets, engineering, and years. That's why we start with the light green version now. The easiest thing a neighbor can do this summer is claim the space: state daylighting law has already cleared the corners of parked cars, and San Francisco's new Community Corners program lets you register one and fill it with planters and plants. A corner that's reserved and planted today is exactly where a future rain garden goes. We watched it happen at Cortland & Moultrie, and trust me, it's a much shorter journey from planter to swale than from asphalt to swale.

Ready to start? Check out communitycorner.fun for a plain-language guide to organizing your neighbors and registering a corner. If a big winter does arrive, the corners we green now will be the ones doing the work when it counts.

This blog post was written by Kieran Farr, volunteer organizer for Green SF Now and member of the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club.

Last Saturday we celebrated the newly approved Community Corners program the best way we know how -- by building the next one! As part of One City Day, San Francisco's first-ever citywide day of service, volunteers gathered at Cortland & Moultrie in Bernal Heights to install planters and plants that expand the city's first Community Corner pilot. From kids to retirees, neighbors came out together to plant and install the newly greened corner over the course of the 2 hour volunteer event.

What we built and why

Here's the spiel that I shared with passers by who asked: "A Community Corner is a new program launched by the SFMTA that lets any community member put beautiful flowers, planters, asphalt art, and all sorts of placemaking things in this daylighting zone at the corners, which helps harden it. So then we have fewer vehicles parking here illegally, and we have a beautiful shared space for the community."

Robin Pam from Streets for All also helped organize the event and connected it to the state law that started it all: "State law requires that cities block 20 feet before a crosswalk to provide more visibility for pedestrians crossing the street. This is called daylighting, and it makes crossing the street much safer than having cars parked right up to the crosswalk. It also creates a lot of extra space on our streets. So we've worked with the city to create a program where neighbors can apply to add beautification — whether it's planters or murals — to these daylighting zones to help their neighborhoods become more vibrant and create more pedestrian safety."

An open air gallery coming to Cortland

Planters are just the beginning. At the event, Janet from Bernal Beautiful shared how asphalt art murals are coming to more daylighting zones along Cortland, starting at Anderson & Cortland — a corner with painful significance. "Last October we had a fatal hit-and-run, and all the neighbors really rallied around our neighbor who was killed," she said. "What we're doing here is honoring the victim, our neighbor and our friend. Art has been shown to really calm traffic — the data shows drivers yield more to pedestrians."

Murals by local artist Jennifer Keith are going in at both daylighting zones near the Moonlight Cafe, and Bernal Beautiful has an open call for artists to reimagine more corners. "Our vision is to transform Cortland into an open air gallery," Janet said. "This will really showcase what the Bernal community can do — not just for safety, but for placemaking, for belonging."

A big tent, and a big thank you

One of the joys of Saturday was seeing how many corners of the city this work brings together: Supervisor Jackie Fielder and Jennifer Ferrigno from her office, Monica Munowitch, the SFMTA program manager for Community Corners, Robert from SF Beautiful, Robin Pam from Streets for All, Luke from the Civic Joy Fund, Janet from Bernal Beautiful, and myself (Kieran) from Green SF Now / Sierra Club SF Group -- plus the neighbors and volunteers who did the digging, planting, and watering. Thank you all!

Want a Community Corner in your neighborhood? The SFMTA's registration portal is expected to launch this summer. In the meantime, check out communitycorner.fun for a plain-language guide to organizing your neighbors and getting a corner registered.

This blog post was written by Kieran Farr, volunteer organizer for Green SF Now and member of the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club.

We did it! On June 16, the SFMTA Board of Directors approved the new "Community Corners" program -- a two-year pilot that lets neighbors turn dangerous parking spots near crosswalks into safer, greener corners like the pilot that launched on Cortland this spring. Advocates have been working toward this for over a year, and now it's official City policy.

Thank you to everyone who showed up

The Board needed to hear from neighbors who wanted this program, and hear from you they did: over 20 people spoke in favor at the meeting, on top of a wave of supportive emails from across the city. To all the awesome folks who took time out of a Tuesday afternoon to come to City Hall or wrote to the Board - this is your win too! Decision-makers listen when the community shows up, and you showed up.

What's a Community Corner?

State law now keeps cars from parking right up against crosswalks so everyone can see each other, which is called "daylighting." A Community Corner takes one of those newly cleared corners and adds planters or murals, so drivers slow down and neighbors get a little pocket of green. (Or "light green" infrastructure as we call it.) Under the newly approved program, neighborhood groups can register a corner with the City and steward it themselves, with a registration portal expected to launch this summer.

Want to adopt a corner near you? Check out communitycorner.fun, a community-run guide that explains the program in plain language and walks through how to organize your neighbors and get a corner registered.

The work continues on equity

As approved, registering a corner with planters still requires a $50 fee and commercial liability insurance. We realize these requirements are hard for most volunteer groups to meet (especially the insurance requirement), and that many public commenters urged the Board to drop so every neighborhood can take part, not just the best-resourced ones. We'll keep advocating for those fixes during the pilot. But first: celebrate. San Francisco now has an official pathway for community-led greening at our street corners!

Learn more: The Voice SF coverage of the approval · communitycorner.fun · SFMTA staff report · California AB 413 (the daylighting law).

Two weeks ago, a small new gathering spot appeared at the corner of Cortland and Moultrie, right in front of the Bernal Heights library. It's a first for Cortland, and a first of its kind in San Francisco. It's also simple, we added "light green" planters to a corner that doubles as hardening for an existing no-parking (daylighting) zone. We've adopted the name "Community Corner" to describe this treatment, thanks to Alec Hawley from Fauvescraper who coined this term as part of his longtime efforts to advocate for these projects. This installation is a pilot project to help the City evaluate a larger rollout of Community Corners in other neighborhoods.

This corner is exactly the kind of community-installed greening we have been advocating for since last year — the through-line connecting Supervisor Fielder's letter backing green daylighting, the policy work Supervisor Melgar and Emma Hare have been doing on Love our Neighborhood rules, and Action Item #18 of Mayor Lurie's Street Safety Executive Directive, which directs SFMTA, SFPUC, SFDPW, and SFFD to develop a process for residents and community groups to install protected infrastructure in daylit zones. The Community Corner is what that policy looks like at street level.

A True Community Effort

Thanks to the people and organizations that put in time and funding to deploy this installation including the Civic Joy Fund's Green Streets Guild, GreeningProjects.org, Alec Hawley from Fauvescraper, and the Sierra Club SF Group. Special thanks to Jennifer Ferrigno from Supervisor Fielder's office, along with Executive Director Gina Dacus and Sulaiman Hyatt from the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, as well as neighbors from Bernal Safe Streets Eric Foote and Mahdi Rahimi, and so many others! Within minutes of setting up, neighbors were stopping in to use the space. It's shady, it's welcoming, and it turns out people were just waiting for a place like this to land in the neighborhood.

Connecting the Dots

Cortland has been a focus of our advocacy for a while. The Community Corner sits alongside the longer-term Cortland in Bloom vision for greener, safer daylighting along the corridor. Each corner that gets built makes the next one easier — for City staff writing the program, for elected officials backing it, and for neighbors who can now point to a real place instead of a rendering.

This blog post was written by Kieran Farr, volunteer organizer for Green SF Now and member of the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club.

The past few months have been a powerful reminder that priority greening projects don't move forward on their own. They move when neighbors show up — at open houses, at tabling events, and out in the street. Here's a quick look at three places where the community made a difference this spring:

Third Cayuga / Alemany Open Houses Draw Crowds

In March and April, SFMTA and SFPUC hosted three community open houses for the Cayuga / Alemany Greening project, and the turnout was a genuinely happy surprise. Neighbors from the Mission Terrace and Excelsior continue to show up in force to support what is exactly the kind of cross-agency collaboration we keep advocating for: green infrastructure that does double and triple duty — managing stormwater, calming traffic, and creating real placemaking on Cayuga Slow Street and the surrounding area.

Sustained turnout across three open houses sends a clear signal to City staff that this project has the neighborhood's backing. If you live or work nearby and haven't yet, a quick letter of support for the project goes a long way toward keeping it on track.

Tabling at the American Indian Cultural District Anniversary

On March 28, volunteers from the Sierra Club SF Group and Sierra Club Bay Alive joined the American Indian Cultural District's anniversary celebration to table, talk with neighbors, and connect greening work to the cultural and ecological history of the land. A huge thank you to the volunteers who gave up a Saturday to be there including Terry, Triana, Frank, and Parker. Showing up at events like these — outside our usual rooms, in community with the people closest to a place — is how greening becomes something more than a planning document.

Backing Light Green Daylighting on Cortland Street

Green SF Now volunteers also turned out to a Safe Streets Bernal community meeting at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center to support adding "light green" infrastructure to harden daylighting zones along Cortland Street — and the proposal got a big thumbs up from the room. This continues the momentum from Supervisor Fielder's support last fall and dovetails with the citywide push for community-installed greening in daylit zones called for in the Mayor's Street Safety Executive Directive. Special thanks to Eric, Sulaiman, Janet, and the many other Bernal neighbors pushing for greener and safer streets — see the Cortland in Bloom project page for more.

WiggleFest: A Show-Don't-Tell Cafe District in the Street

WiggleFest returned this April, and this year we partnered with the Civic Joy Fund's new "Green Streets Guild" and historian Joel Pomerantz on a show-don't-tell exhibit along the route. Civic Joy Fund underwrote the temporary installation of dozens of plants and seating in the street, transforming a stretch of asphalt into a cafe-district style outdoor street garden — a calm, leafy place for families and kids to land, sit, and stay a while.

These activations matter because they let people experience what a permanently greener Wiggle could feel like, instead of just imagining it. Joel's historical context grounded the day in the watershed and creeks that ran here long before the streets did. Big thanks to Luke Spray, Savannah Schoelen, Ariel Vaughan, and the whole Green Streets Guild crew for putting plants and chairs where they belong — in the street, with people. Thanks to Sierra Club volunteers Frank, Karen, and Peter for joining for this activation.

Your Involvement Is What Moves These Projects

None of these projects — Cayuga / Alemany, Wiggle Plaza, or any of the other priority greening projects we track — cross the finish line without sustained pressure from neighbors and volunteers. City staff and elected officials want to back projects that have visible community support behind them.

If you can come to an open house, table at a community event, or show up to a block activation, please do. And if you can't, the simplest thing you can do today still works: pick a project you care about from our priority list and send a short letter of support. It really does make a difference.

This blog post was written by Kieran Farr, volunteer organizer for Green SF Now and member of the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club.

On January 28th, we hosted a panel discussion at Studio Aurora in the Mission District, bringing together voices from city government, community stewardship, and indigenous-led ecological work to talk about what greening really means for San Francisco's neighborhoods. Co-presented by the Sierra Club, Green SF Now, and SF PROPEL, and moderated by PROPEL Executive Director Sunny Angulo, the evening drew a packed room of neighbors, advocates, and organizers. Our panelists were Sara Moncada (Director of Native Ecology, Association of Ramaytush Ohlone), Stephen Torres (Mission District urban sustainability activist and Rain Guardian), and Sarah Minick (Urban Watershed Planning Manager, SFPUC).

Green Infrastructure Serves Everyone

Panelists explored how green infrastructure isn't just about beautification. Stephen Torres described his work tending the bioswales on Mission and Valencia, explaining to local businesses how they actively divert water away from the 100-year flood zone and directly protect storefronts that have been inundated with increasing frequency. Sarah Minick highlighted the multi-modal nature of green infrastructure: rain gardens, native plantings, and permeable surfaces address stormwater, urban heat, biodiversity, and community health all at once. As she put it, when you see multiple threats emerging but solutions that can address them simultaneously, "that, to me, is really exciting."

SF Doesn't Have a Planning Problem

A recurring theme was that San Francisco has no shortage of plans. Sara Moncada put it vividly: the city is like standing at the edge of a wishing well, full of beautifully designed, data-supported projects that have been sitting there waiting for actual action. With cutting-edge environmental research from UC Berkeley and Stanford, multiple climate adaptation strategies, and well-articulated community projects, the region is rich in knowledge. The problem? Action. With an ever-changing funding and political climate, communities need to push projects across finish lines rather than drafting new ones.

Equity Means Following the Data

The panel didn't shy away from hard truths about environmental justice. The Mission and Tenderloin continue to have the least open green space in the city, yet don't receive their fair share of greening investment. Sarah Minick identified schools as some of the most impervious surfaces in San Francisco, with many over 90% hardscape, and called for a resilient streets bond to transform our roads, which make up 25% of the city's land area and 37% of its impervious surface. She also championed creek daylighting as a compelling way to honor the landscape while solving real infrastructure problems. The consensus: follow the data to where the need is greatest, invest in multi-purpose solutions, and listen to what the landscape is telling us.

Recentering Our Relationship with Nature

One of the most provocative ideas of the evening came from Sara Moncada, who called for a shift from a human-centric to a nature-centric framework. "We've deeply centered human priorities," she observed, noting that even when we propose ecological projects, our first instinct is to flip through permits and bureaucratic barriers. "Nature doesn't need humans. Do we need nature? Yeah. We like to breathe. We like food. We like water. It's a whole thing." Stephen Torres echoed this, reminding the audience that the areas now covered in concrete and hardscape were once sacred waterways and estuaries, and that our long-term existence depends on reintegrating ecological systems into urban life rather than continuing to conquer them.

Dream Projects and How to Get Involved

Each panelist shared concrete ways to take action:

• Adopt a rain garden. Stephen Torres urged everyone to become a Rain Guardian, stewarding green infrastructure in your own neighborhood while learning how your community engages with these ecosystems.
• Green your local school. Sarah Minick called on parents, volunteers, and neighbors to get involved and propose green infrastructure at their local schools. Kids shouldn't be spending their days on impervious blacktop.
• Support creek daylighting. SFPUC's Yosemite Creek daylighting project is at 97% design. Sarah Minick highlighted these projects as imaginative, beautiful, and compelling to everyone who encounters them.
• Watch for indigenous-led projects. Sara Moncada shared that a first-of-its-kind indigenous garden in Glen Canyon Park is in development. She also highlighted Friendship House's village project in the Northern Mission, which is breaking ground soon, bringing green initiatives to a neighborhood that desperately needs them.
• Volunteer with PODER and Hummingbird Farm. They run regular volunteer workshop days for land tending and community building.

Sara Moncada's ultimate dream brought the room together: a living ecological corridor connecting all the way around the city, a natural pathway for people, coyotes, quail, butterflies, and all the species we share this peninsula with. It's ambitious, but as the evening made clear, the plans already exist. What's needed now is the will to act.

On December 15th, Mayor Daniel Lurie issued Executive Directive 25-06: Street Safety Initiative, a wide-ranging directive that establishes a renewed citywide commitment to traffic safety. For Green SF Now, the most exciting element is a specific directive that brings together public agencies to enable "light green" infrastructure in daylighting zones—something we've been advocating for alongside our safe streets partners.

Light Green Infrastructure Gets Official Support

Action Item #18 of the directive states: "Develop a process and prototypes to allow residents or community groups to install protected murals or other infrastructure enhancements to reinforce established daylit zones." This directive to SFMTA, SFPUC, SFDPW, and SFFD to work together on a coordinated process is exactly what we've been pushing for.

Daylighting zones—the areas near intersections where parking is restricted to improve visibility—represent an enormous opportunity for community-led greening. These spaces can be transformed with planters, bioswales, and native plantings that simultaneously calm traffic, capture stormwater, increase biodiversity, and create safer crossings for pedestrians. When we add greenery to these zones, we're not just beautifying our streets—we're creating safer conditions for children walking to school, seniors crossing the street, and everyone navigating our city.

A Safe System Approach That Includes Nature

The directive adopts the "Safe System Approach," which acknowledges that people make mistakes, but those mistakes shouldn't cost lives. This philosophy aligns perfectly with our vision of using nature-based solutions to build in multiple layers of protection. A planted daylighting zone doesn't just improve visibility—it physically prevents cars from encroaching on crosswalks, slows traffic through visual cues, and creates a buffer between pedestrians and vehicles.

The directive also establishes a Street Safety Initiative Working Group bringing together 15 city agencies, more than have been included in Vision Zero efforts previously. This interagency coordination is essential because light green infrastructure projects often require sign-off from multiple departments—something that has historically blocked community greening efforts.

Thank You, Alex Sweet

We want to extend special thanks to Alex Sweet in the Mayor's Office for her work on this directive. Getting language about community-led infrastructure enhancements into an executive directive requires navigating complex policy terrain, and her efforts have opened new pathways for neighborhood greening projects across the city.

What This Means for Green SF Now

This directive builds on the momentum we've seen this year. Earlier in 2025, the Love Our Neighborhoods permit program streamlined permitting for sidewalk-adjacent projects. Supervisor Fielder supported community-led light green infrastructure on Cortland Street, and Supervisor Melgar and Emma Hare have been working on the policy details to make light green daylighting possible.

Now we have direction from the Mayor's Office for agencies to develop an actual process. The 6-month timeline means we should see prototypes and procedures emerging by mid-2026. We'll be watching closely and advocating for a process that is accessible to community groups and reflects the full range of benefits that light green infrastructure provides: traffic safety, stormwater management, urban cooling, biodiversity, and creating the green open spaces that families and children deserve in our dense neighborhoods.

Read the full directive: Executive Directive 25-06: Street Safety Initiative (PDF)

Last week's SFMTA Board meeting on December 2nd brought exciting news for green infrastructure in San Francisco. Two projects we've been supporting took steps forward, demonstrating that community-led advocacy for greener streets is making a real difference!

Bayview Community Pathway Approved

The Bayview Community Pathway received approval at the SFMTA Board meeting—a significant milestone for this capital project that will bring much-needed green infrastructure to the Bayview neighborhood. This multi-use pathway will connect residents to transit and community destinations while incorporating sustainable stormwater management and native plantings. It's exactly the kind of investment our environmental justice communities deserve.

Hayes Promenade Renewed for Another Year

The Hayes Promenade has been approved for another year of operation. While this "light green" infrastructure may not be the permanent green space we ultimately envision, it continues to provide valuable open space for the Hayes Valley community. Every year the Promenade operates demonstrates the demand for car-free, people-centered public spaces in our dense neighborhoods.

Thank you to Andrew Seigner and all the community members who have worked tirelessly to keep this vision alive. The Promenade's continued success builds the case for more permanent green infrastructure investments.

Learn more about Hayes Promenade →

Building Momentum

These wins remind us that showing up matters. When community members advocate for greener, safer streets at public meetings, decision-makers listen. Thank you to everyone who submitted comments, attended meetings, and supported these projects. Let's keep the momentum going into 2026.

Update (December 15, 2025): SFPUC has informed us that the Bayview Community Pathway was assessed but not selected for green infrastructure integration. SFMTA's project schedule did not align with the time needed to develop stormwater improvements, and geotechnical constraints including shallow groundwater and bedrock made implementation challenging. SFPUC plans to continue evaluating the Bayview area for future neighborhood-scale green infrastructure opportunities.

Last Monday night, I saw so many of you at two separate community events. Seeing so many community members voicing support for a greener San Francisco keeps us volunteer organizers going. Thank you!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some extra big thanks to those making a difference:

Thank You to Supervisor Fielder

D9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder supported a community-led initiative to add "light green" infrastructure to harden daylighting zones along with other traffic safety treatments on Cortland Street. Neighbors have laid out a long-term plan for more permanent greening and traffic safety improvements. Please say "thank you" if you know her—it's a big deal to push that hard for the community.

Thank You to Andrew Seigner

Andrew has worked tirelessly to bring more open, green space to the heart of Hayes Valley. His efforts have inspired many others in the community to support a shared vision of accessible green spaces. This work led to the successful renewal of the Hayes Promenade for another year at last week's SFMTA Board Meeting.

Thank You to Supervisor Melgar and Emma Hare

Behind the scenes of many greening initiatives are elected officials who dare to support them, and the staff who work tirelessly to research and implement them. D7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar and aide Emma Hare have been working with City staff on thorny issues of how we can safely and legally allow "light green" infrastructure in daylighting zones as a next version of the popular Love Our Neighborhoods program they brought forward earlier this year. Nothing is ever simple in San Francisco, so thank you for unwinding the knot of bureaucratic challenges.

Thank You to Luke Spray and Savannah Schoelen

Changing minds is hard. When proposing changes to our built environment, it can be scary for many people. There is no better method to communicate these ideas than to actually change the environment. The Green Streets "town square" style popups from the Civic Joy Fund led by Luke and Savannah have made miraculous green makeovers in our neighborhoods. These activations change minds to say "yes."

Thanks for making San Francisco a better place for future generations. Wishing you a great Thanksgiving holiday!

This blog post was written by Kieran Farr, volunteer organizer for Green SF Now and member of the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club.

San Francisco made a promise to correct historical inequities and close the "green gap" in our most vulnerable neighborhoods. But a pattern of flawed policies and funding decisions shows that promise is being broken. This systemic failure undermines the city's legal commitment to environmental justice, signed into law as part of the General Plan in May 2023.

The Broken Promise: Public Works Order 187246

Public Works Order 187246 bans new tree plantings on any sidewalk less than 7.5 feet wide—a restriction far exceeding federal and state ADA requirements. Enacted without public input, this policy guarantees a net loss of thousands of trees citywide. In SoMa West alone, it ensures elimination of 24% of the neighborhood's entire canopy, making it San Francisco's least green area.

This directly contradicts the city's Environmental Justice Framework, which legally mandates policies to correct structural inequities. Data proves that tree canopy drops steeply as environmental burdens increase. For communities within the state-defined Air Pollution Exposure Zone—almost everything east of Divisadero—trees are critical defense against harmful PM2.5 pollution. By removing them, the city fails to protect its most vulnerable residents.

Misallocated Federal Funds

The pattern continued with a $12 million federal grant from the Inflation Reduction Act, specifically intended for planting trees in low-canopy, vulnerable neighborhoods. Instead of using the legally-binding Environmental Justice Framework, Public Works created its own non-compliant framework using outdated tools.

The result? The "3,500 Trees Project" wrongfully excluded 15 designated Environmental Justice census tracts—primarily in SoMa, Tenderloin, Bayview, Lower Nob Hill, and the Mission—while channeling funds to 12 tracts that didn't qualify as high-need communities.

A Path Forward

Cities like Los Angeles and Seattle have successfully adopted data-driven equity frameworks to close their canopy gaps. By establishing clear, performance-driven goals, San Francisco can ensure fairness becomes a binding commitment, not just an aspiration. Together, we can build a city where environmental health is a right for all residents, not a privilege for few.

Take Action: Sign the Petition

This guest blog post was written by local environmental activist Shaun Aukland on behalf of the Save SF's Narrow Street Trees working group, and shortened for this website. Check out Shaun's full research "Concrete Over Canopy: How San Francisco is Failing Its Environmental Justice Communities"

Yesterday marked an exciting transformation at the Bernal Heights Recreation Center as community organizers unveiled a pop-up town square on the facility's underutilized blacktop. With the playground under construction and limited amenities for families with young children, Jorge Romero-Lozano from Greening Projects teamed up with Luke Spray and Savannah Schoelen from the Green Street Fund to create a much needed vibrant community space during the construction of the next-door playground, in partnership with San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. This celebration marked the first day launch of this temporary space, proving it doesn't take much to convert hardscape into valuable community assets.

The pop-up plaza features light green infrastructure elements including shade-providing plants arranged along banks of tables and chairs, creating an inviting gathering space where one didn't exist before. The centerpiece is an all-natural kids' play area constructed entirely from 100% reclaimed materials sourced from the Recreation and Parks Department yard. This nature playground was built in under a week and largely designed on site. This earth-friendly creation demonstrates that play structures can be low-cost, easy to construct, and durable while avoiding the environmental impact of plastic playground equipment.

The town square was packed! The Rec Center manager noted she'd never seen the space so busy in her four years there, and the seating was being used within 5 minutes of coming off the truck.

Importantly, the pop-up serves as a 3D prototype of ultimate design, which is in the works and planned to go into construction in 2027. With some strategic blacktop removal, these types of activations could become powerful tools for reclaiming underused hardscaped spaces throughout San Francisco's urban landscape. The project serves as a pilot for testing different layouts and amenities while the community finalizes the longer-term vision for the space.

This temporary activation, running daily through February (and potentially longer), joins successful precedents like Patricia's Green in Hayes Valley, the Noe Valley Town Square, and Lakeside Landing—each transforming underutilized spaces into magical community gathering places. The Bernal Heights location is particularly strategic, occupying one of the few flat spots in this hilly, dense neighborhood and enhancing the Cortland commercial corridor.

The plants are great, but maintenance is everything — special recognition goes to Dheya Calahorrano from IntegrArte for leading the long-term care of the space. Dheya's work to bridge local communities through work with nature at this site (and many others in San Francisco) is a testament to the connecting value of the restoration of nature in our own neighborhoods.

Visit the pop-up page for more info about the temporary Bernal Heights Town Square. Check out the long-term renovation plans here.

What an awesome tour we had at Ocean Beach! Organized by the Sierra Club in partnership with Surfrider, our bike tour brought together an impressive group of experts and community members to explore the complex ecosystem that lies beneath and beyond the sand dunes of San Francisco's western edge.

Led by Greg Braswell with co-guides Chase Davenport and sand expert Bob Battalio, this wasn't just another infrastructure tour—it was a deep dive into how natural landscapes, restoration efforts, and urban systems intersect at one of our city's most treasured coastlines. Special guests from SFPUC and other guests' expertise on coastal dynamics helped illuminate the intricate relationships between built and natural environments.

Tour Highlights

While the tour's impetus started around sewer infrastructure, the diverse panel of experts expanded the tour to reveal Ocean Beach as a whole ecosystem. Despite our best attempts to craft the earth to human demands, natural forces push back and we need to learn to better integrate.

• Combined sewer infrastructure: We followed the path of the west side's combined sewer system from the northernmost tip of Ocean Beach south to Sloat, with multiple stops at transfer boxes and outflow stations for engaged discussions about how the system manages both sewage and stormwater.
• Dunes restoration and natural landscape: We explored how the dune system functions as critical habitat and natural infrastructure, protecting inland areas from coastal storms while supporting unique plant and animal communities. These efforts align with SF Recreation & Parks' ongoing Ocean Beach improvement projects.
• Native plants restoration: The group examined ongoing efforts to restore native vegetation that stabilizes dunes and provides essential ecosystem services.
• Surfrider partnership with Friends of Ocean Beach: Eric from Surfrider discussed their Climate Action Program and collaborative efforts to protect and enhance this coastal environment through community-driven initiatives.

This tour showed us that there's more to stormwater management than combined sewer outflows abatement or stormwater runoff — it's about understanding and protecting a complex, interconnected ecosystem that serves both our communities and the natural world. The enthusiasm and expertise of our participants made this an unforgettable exploration of San Francisco's coastal green infrastructure.

We were stoked to see our Green Density Walking Tour bring together 30 community members to explore how thoughtful housing policy advances environmental goals through compact, walkable neighborhoods this past Sunday, August 10th. Co-hosted with D9 Neighbors for Housing and the Sierra Club, the 1.5-mile tour from Precita Park to 16th & Harrison showcased the connections between density, green infrastructure, and climate resilience.

The tour featured stops at bioswales managing stormwater runoff, restored sections of the historic Mission Creek bed providing flood mitigation, and examples of housing development that integrates environmental considerations. The tour concluded with optional drinks and discussion at the Flying Pig on 15th & Van Ness.

Tour highlights included innovative AR experiences using historic imagery that allowed participants to toggle between past and present views of the same locations. Participants could scan QR codes to see how San Francisco's landscape transformed from marshlands and meandering creeks into today's urban environment, revealing both challenges and opportunities for green infrastructure in dense neighborhoods. Check out a longer writeup of the technology behind the AR historic watershed views here.

Special thanks to event organizer Diva Harsoor and our co-hosts D9 Neighbors for Housing and the Sierra Club for making this educational community experience possible.

Exciting new funding opportunities are available for community-led green infrastructure projects in San Francisco. If you have an idea for a project, now is the time to explore these grants to turn your vision into reality.

Community Challenge Grants (CCG)

The City Administrator's Office is offering grants from $50,000 to $150,000 for neighborhood beautification projects, including green infrastructure. The deadline to apply is October 9, 2025. This is a great opportunity for community groups to lead projects that improve their local public spaces.

Learn more and apply for a Community Challenge Grant.

Avenue Greenlight Grant

Avenue Greenlight offers grants from $2,500 to $20,000 for nonprofit organizations, community groups, and merchant associations to lead improvements in San Francisco's commercial corridors. Eligible projects include community events, murals, and beautification initiatives that benefit local small businesses and neighborhoods.

Organizations may propose up to five projects in a single application. All projects must be completed within 12 months and focus on San Francisco commercial corridors. The application window closes on September 4th, 2025 at 5 PM, with awards announced by September 26th.

Apply at AvenueGreenlightSF.org - Applications must be submitted electronically and include detailed project budgets, maintenance plans, and community engagement strategies.

SFPUC Green Infrastructure Grant Program

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) offers large-scale grants of up to $2.5 million for projects that manage stormwater runoff from at least half an acre of impervious surface. While the Spring 2025 cycle is closed, the Fall 2025 cycle is upcoming. You can contact them now to schedule a site visit and assess your property's potential.

Contact gigrants@sfwater.org to get started and visit the SFPUC Green Infrastructure Grant Program page for more details.

Nearly 40 community members joined our San Francisco Watersheds 101 webinar to explore the hidden water systems beneath our city. Water experts Karen Curtiss (Red Dot Studio) and Doug Jacuzzi (Westside Water Resources) revealed how San Francisco's aging infrastructure creates serious environmental and public health challenges.

Our Complex Water System

San Francisco's drinking water comes from multiple sources: Hetch Hetchy, the Westside Basin Aquifer, and East Bay surface flows. But our aging combined sewer system mixes stormwater and sewage in the same pipes. During heavy rains, raw sewage overflows directly into San Francisco Bay and Ocean Beach—with bacteria levels 100 times higher than EPA safety standards.

The Westside Basin: A Hidden Resource

The Westside Basin aquifer beneath western San Francisco is massive—nearly the length of Lake Tahoe and a third as wide. This underground water source could provide up to 60,000 acre-feet annually if properly recharged. Instead, our concrete-covered city prevents natural infiltration, leaving this resource severely underutilized.

From Wetlands to Floods on the Eastside

Historical images showed how the Mission District was once wetlands and meandering creeks. As Karen noted, "that waterway followed what is now the low-lying Folsom Street Area of the inner mission -- which explains what happens to the Folsom Area with intense rainfall events."

Thanks to Karen Curtiss and Doug Jacuzzi for sharing their expertise, and to all community members who joined this important conversation about San Francisco's water future.

Webinar Recording

Slides and Resources

Links to slides in PDF format. Link to PDF resources from CNPS on native plants for bioswales, aquifer recharge, rain gardens, & gray water systems.

This is a policy victory! Mayor Daniel Lurie's announcement of the Love Our Neighborhoods permit program is exactly what Green SF Now has been pushing for—streamlined permitting that makes community-led green infrastructure projects easier. We congratulate Mayor Lurie, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Supervisor Myrna Melgar, and especially the hard working staff from Supervisor Melgar's office for supporting this breakthrough policy change supported by San Francisco Public Works.

The program's three-tier system tackles the bureaucratic barriers that have blocked neighborhood environmental improvements. With permits obtainable in under 45 minutes, community groups can finally move from vision to implementation on projects ranging from planters and little libraries to bioswales and community gardens.

While the program covers projects "in front of a single property" in the public right of way, questions remain about whether this extends to daylighting zones and other street safety improvements. The program appears limited to sidewalk-adjacent projects and may not include removing concrete or address ongoing SFMTA/DPW coordination challenges that have blocked community greening efforts.

Regardless of the imperfections, Green SF Now supporters should explore how this new system can accelerate your neighborhood projects. Whether you're planning a community garden, installing rain gardens, or adding planters in front of your property, the Love Our Neighborhoods program transforms environmental advocacy into concrete action.

We've been advocating for exactly these changes—and now we have the tools to build the sustainable, resilient San Francisco our communities deserve. There's still more work to do, but it's worth celebrating this milestone as we move SF to a greener future.

Read more: SF.gov: Mayor Lurie Kicks Off Love Our Neighborhoods Permit Program | Love Our Neighborhoods Program Page

We had an incredible hands-on community action event at Moscone Elementary School, transforming garden spaces into vibrant green infrastructure! This Saturday morning volunteer opportunity exemplified how grassroots environmental action can create meaningful change in our neighborhoods while building stronger community connections.

Located at 2576 Harrison Street in the Mission District, Moscone Elementary's garden spaces represented an ideal opportunity to implement "light green infrastructure" solutions that benefit both the school community and the broader urban ecosystem. Our volunteer tasks included planting in pots and garden beds, clearing space for a new garden shed, and weeding and light landscaping—all activities that directly support the kind of nature-based solutions we champion at Green SF Now.

School gardens like these serve multiple functions in urban green infrastructure systems. They capture and filter stormwater runoff, provide habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects, improve air quality, and create cooling microclimates that help combat urban heat islands. Beyond their environmental benefits, these spaces offer invaluable outdoor learning opportunities for students while strengthening community bonds through collaborative stewardship.

Volunteers of all skill levels participated, and we provided tools and guidance throughout the morning. The enthusiasm for creating positive environmental change in our city was infectious! Thank you to everyone who participated and to Dheyanira for organizing this successful community action.

A shocking Supreme Court decision in March 2025 has significantly weakened federal water quality protections nationwide—and it started right here in San Francisco. In a controversial 5-4 ruling, the Court sided with the City in San Francisco v. EPA, limiting the federal government's ability to enforce clean water standards and potentially subjecting communities across America to unsafe water quality. While this represents a major setback for environmental protection, it also highlights why local green infrastructure solutions are more critical than ever. Cities can no longer rely on federal mandates to protect our waterways—we must take action at the grassroots level to implement nature-based solutions that reduce pollution, manage stormwater, and restore natural processes that keep our Bay clean.

Read the full story: When Courts Fail the Bay: The Supreme Court Ruling and San Francisco's Water System - Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter

Green SF Now and the Sierra Club SF Group Leaders met with key state legislators in San Francisco this week to advance our 30x30 initiative and discuss expanding green infrastructure opportunities on Caltrans-owned properties throughout the city.

Our productive meeting with Senator Wiener's office focused on legislative pathways to unlock underutilized Caltrans parcels for green infrastructure projects. We presented our case for converting 60 acres of asphalt and concrete into permeable surfaces like parks and rewilding areas as part of our "Green SF Now" campaign.

The timing is particularly relevant as Caltrans has recently decided to end most of its leases for parking and industrial use underneath highway structures due to safety concerns around fires and encampments. This creates an opportunity to repurpose over 40 acres of San Francisco land currently located beneath highways into productive green space.

While existing legislation like SB 211 authorizes Caltrans to lease property for emergency shelters and food distribution, green infrastructure use isn't explicitly permitted. We also discussed connecting our local Green SF Now initiative with the state's broader 30x30 conservation program, which aims to conserve 30% of California's lands and waters by 2030.

Our earlier meeting on May 16th with Assemblymember Haney's staff provided valuable insights into the legislative landscape and addressed compliance issues with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission regarding "complete streets" requirements during excavation activities.

Our advocacy team will continue working with allied organizations already engaging Caltrans staff on leasing programs, while exploring legal pathways to approve green infrastructure uses.

After over a dozen activations over the past 2 years, we've retired our display boards exhibit of Treat PAST PRESENT FUTURE after our May 17 event.

These interpretive panels engaged thousands of community members in conversations about the history of the land underneath our feet and the actions of generations of people who have disrupted the natural flow of the earth and water in the historic Mission Creek watershed.

Special thanks to Sam Conkling and Into the Streets who provided the manpower and funding to create and maintain these displays for the community.

These boards live at Sam Conkling's wood shop and we're open to finding a new home for them by August, otherwise we'll deconstruct them and use the wood for future Sam creations. Contact kieran.farr(at)gmail.com if you're interested.

What a perfect way to cap off our series of events with our partners Evolved SF and Into the Streets at Treat Plaza! Our final Saturday activation brought together an amazing crowd of community members, environmental advocates, and curious neighbors for one last celebration of green infrastructure possibilities in the Northeast Mission. This continues outreach work that we started in 2024 supported by Into the Streets and Sierra Club.

Sierra Club volunteers Sam Conkling, Dheyanira Calahorrano, Irene Ferrera, Vicky Hoover, and Parker Kjellin-Elder were joined by new faces and returning community members who have become regular supporters of our work. The blend of familiar faces and new participants showed how our presence at Treat Plaza has become part of the neighborhood fabric over these past months.

While our regular presence at Treat Plaza is ending, the momentum we've built here will carry forward into exciting new phases of our campaign. Stay tuned for announcements about upcoming events and opportunities to get involved with Green SF Now!

Green SF Now was honored to participate in Marshall Elementary School's Native American Heritage & Earth Day Celebration in San Francisco's Mission District. This vibrant cultural event brought together students and families for an afternoon of learning, art, food, and performances.

Our team provided interactive art activities for students from kindergarten through 5th grade. We brought maps showing the existing city layout and historical waterways of San Francisco, inviting young artists to add their own creative interpretations directly on top. Many students chose to highlight the prehistoric waterways and green spaces that once characterized the area, while others envisioned new possibilities for their neighborhood. The youngest participants enjoyed using markers and crayons with Sierra Club "wildlife" coloring books.

This hands-on approach proved to be an engaging way to help students connect with the natural history beneath San Francisco's built environment. By visualizing the historical waterways that once flowed freely through what is now an urban landscape, students gained a deeper understanding of how our city has evolved and how we might restore some of these natural elements in the future.

One of the primary benefits of green infrastructure is providing safe, green spaces for people—enhancing street safety by using natural elements and removing non-permeable hardscape. So it's no surprise that a group of safe street advocates had plenty of ideas on how and, more importantly, where to put green infrastructure throughout San Francisco.

At a recent visioning session hosted by Matt Biggar of Connected to Place at the SPUR offices, our team prepared a map of San Francisco showing all 11 supervisorial districts and invited participants to mark potential sites for green infrastructure projects. From bioswale-protected slow streets to converting streets to parks, the ideas kept flowing well past our scheduled session time.

These community-generated insights will help inform our advocacy work as we continue pushing for a greener, safer San Francisco. Special thanks to Matt Biggar for organizing this productive session and to SF New Deal for hosting at the SPUR office.

A long-neglected underpass in Potrero Hill has blossomed into a vibrant green gateway, showcasing the power of neighborhood advocacy and sustainable urban design. Mayor Daniel Lurie joined Supervisor Shamann Walton, Donovan Lacy, Carla Short, Tilly Chang, and community leaders to celebrate the ribbon-cutting of the Potrero Gateway project — a transformation that turned a challenging stretch of urban infrastructure into a safe, green passageway. The project revitalized the Highway 101 underpass on 17th Street and the adjacent block of Vermont Street with widened sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and concrete dividers that create a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists alike. As Supervisor Walton noted at the event, "This area was neglected—unsafe, uninviting, and overlooked. Today, we're celebrating a transformation that didn't start at City Hall but with neighbors who demanded better." What makes this project particularly exciting from a green infrastructure perspective is the thoughtful integration of ecology and art. Native plantings now soften the urban edges, while four striking public art sculptures titled "Metamorphosis" rise from terraced gardens. This project represents exactly the kind of transformation we champion at Green SF Now — community-led initiatives that replace hardscaped urban environments with green spaces that improve safety, build community, and reconnect us to the natural history beneath our city's concrete.

Read more from SF.Gov News: Mayor Lurie, Community Leaders Cut Ribbon, Celebrate Completion of Potrero Gateway Project

Peter Belden and Kieran Farr represented Green SF Now at University of San Francisco's Earth Day celebration on Tuesday. Our table at Gleeson Plaza attracted students interested in local environmental initiatives, and our informative signage about Green Infrastructure sparked new conversations. We collected nearly 50 sign-ups and discovered many students hadn't yet encountered the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club Wildlife-themed coloring books were particularly popular among visitors. True to our green values, all materials were transported to campus by bicycle! Special thanks to USF's Office of Sustainability for organizing this celebration and providing the table and chairs, those are hard to bring on the bike.

Our second activation at Treat Plaza transformed the space into a collaborative urban planning workshop. Karen Curtiss from Red Dot Studio Architecture and Design led a visioning exercise that engaged community members in reimagining green spaces throughout the Northeast Mission. Participants gathered around a detailed map of the neighborhood, adding their ideas via colorful post-it notes and markers while enjoying live mixed music from The DJ Project and art from Evolved SF and partners. The atmosphere was both productive and festive, with the historical exhibit "Treat: Past, Present, Future" providing context for the area's evolution and Sierra Club volunteers Elizabeth Creely, Parker Kjellin-Elder, and Vicky Hoover on hand to provide guidance and discussion. This participatory mapping approach allowed community members to identify potential sites for green infrastructure while considering the neighborhood's history and cultural heritage. Take a look at some of the feedback from this picture of the feedback here:

Don't miss your last chance to see Green SF Now at Treat Plaza! We're hosting a final Treat event on Saturday, May 17: Green SF Now Interactive Exhibit with Evolved SF.

Cole Valley's innovative pop-up town square experiment transformed an awkward wedge of road into a lush urban garden. As the N Judah emerged from the tunnel, riders found over 500 plants creating an unexpected pocket of urban tranquility. I came early with my son and dad to to snap a few photos with organizer Luke Spray from the Green Street Fund and Robin Pam from KidSafeSF. The arrangement of tall plantings and other diverse greenery from Flora Grubb created natural safety barriers that allowed my kid to play comfortably without normal roadway hazards. This pop-up model presents an exciting new concept for quick, effective green activations across San Francisco!

Read more from SFGate: Tiny San Francisco neighborhood embraces huge idea for safer street

The official kickoff of San Francisco's 2025 Climate Action Plan Update brought together leaders across sectors at SF's War Memorial across from City Hall. Sierra Club members Kieran Farr, Vicky Hoover, Elizabeth Creely, Maya Chaffee, and Tom Radulovich from Livable City joined diverse stakeholders from community organizations, businesses, and government agencies to help shape our city's climate future. Our table focused on clean water systems and nature-based solutions. We explored how freshwater, stormwater, and wastewater infrastructure face increasing climate challenges, emphasizing the importance of working with nature rather than against it. Restoring wetlands and implementing natural solutions emerged as key strategies for climate adaptation. SF Environment Director Tyrone Jue set the tone by highlighting alarming trends: 2024 marked the hottest year on record, following record-breaking temperatures in 2023 and 2022. Mayor Daniel Lurie reaffirmed the city's commitment to net-zero emissions by 2040, spotlighting transportation and building operations as priority sectors comprising 89% of city emissions. Youth Commissioner Gabby Lester-Coll delivered a powerful speech on climate justice and youth involvement, reminding attendees that climate action isn't just about technology but about centering vulnerable communities in our solutions.

A full transcript of the keynote speeches is available here: City and County of San Francisco, GovTV Transcript, Wednesday, April 16, 2025

What a thrill to see SF New Deal's Building Blocks parklet program launch at Excelsior Coffee on a foggy Tuesday morning! The energy was electric as Lea Sabado and her son cut the ribbon on their bright yellow modular parklet, bringing "light green" infrastructure to life in the Excelsior District. As I chatted with Hoh Chen from SF New Deal, I was struck by how this Lego-inspired approach tackles both environmental and economic challenges. At just $400 monthly instead of the $60,000 upfront cost, these parklets are accessible to small businesses and community groups alike. The beauty of this system is how perfectly it aligns with our Green SF Now mission. These parklets are quintessential "light green" infrastructure, creating planted spaces that absorb rainwater, create community spaces, add biodiversity, and naturally calm traffic. The yellow sides of Excelsior Coffee's installation aren't just eye-catching; they're functional planters bringing nature back to our concrete corridors.

Read more from SF Standard: Parklets peaked, then died off. A new model inspired by Lego aims for a revival

The Sunset Dunes Park opening celebration was a remarkable success for the Green SF Now initiative! Sierra Club volunteers Terry, Vicky, Elizabeth, Brian, Kieran, and others helped create an incredible presence at this community event. The turnout exceeded our expectations with nearly 100 on-site registrations at our table and Green SF Now displays. Dozens more signed up for our guided nature walk, thanks Brian for organizing these!

We're excited to continue our momentum with upcoming events. Thanks to all the dedicated volunteers who make these community activations possible.