Streetsblog San Francisco

Photo: Myleen Hollero/Orange Photography

City planners often get very little public recognition for the work they do, and can sometimes take the heat on a project if it doesn’t prove politically popular. In the case of San Francisco’s revolutionary Pavement to Parks program, the early resistance to reclaiming public space from cars to create convivial spaces for people has gradually subsided and parklets are now in heavy demand. None of it would have been possible without the hard work and determination of Andres Power, an urban designer for the San Francisco Planning Department.

As the manager of the P2P program, Power has spent tireless hours managing the city’s initial plaza and parklet projects and moving them through the vast city bureaucracy. He deals regularly with merchants, neighbors and community groups. He’s worn a hardhat on many a Saturday and is the guy who gets called at midnight if something goes wrong.  Power’s unwavering dedication, even in the face of fierce opposition, has made him one of the unsung heroes of San Francisco’s livable streets movement.

Along with some of his colleagues at the Planning Department, Power is working from within to change the dysfunctional and old-school culture of city government with an eye to then transform our streets. The Pavement to Parks program is now catching the attention of cities all over the U.S. Last week, San Francisco issued a new request for parklet proposals, which means they’ll be spreading to even more neighborhoods.

Power was born in San Francisco and grew up in the East Bay city of Albany. I sat down with him recently to find out more about his interest in urban planning, and his involvement in the Pavement to Parks program.

Bryan Goebel: What sparked your interest in city planning?

Andres Power: I’ve always loved cities. Being in a place that’s dynamic and changing and exciting has always been something that has intrigued me. I’ve tried to think back and to figure out what my motivators were and I think I just landed in the right place, to be honest. I had some great professors in undergrad at Brown University that really were forward and progressive thinking and inspired me. Then, after undergraduate, I went and worked in New York at the Department of Housing and Preservation doing economic development for the city and it was just an amazing place to be. It was so crazy and frantic, such a huge and complicated bureaucracy, but still, individual people could make amazing changes.

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On Haight Street, where merchants were portrayed as proponents in a campaign that criminalized sitting on public sidewalks last year, Dave Mclean sees a public realm in need of more places for neighbors and visitors to gather. As the owner of two businesses on the street, he’s ready to jump at the chance to create that space with two new parklets.

A 24th Street parklet in Noe Valley. Flickr photo: throgers

“I’ve loved the parklet concept since I first heard about it and saw the one at Mojo on Divisadero as it was being built,” said Mclean, who would love to see parklets outside both Magnolia Pub and The Alembic Bar. “They seem like something that can become a real community asset and add energy and vitality to a neighborhood’s sidewalk culture.”

The flocks of cafes, restaurants and community organizations eager to liven up their street space with an attractive new parklet are getting another shot at applying for a permit. The SF Planning Department’s Pavement to Parks program has issued its second Request for Proposals (RFP) [pdf] and is accepting applications for the next six weeks. With over forty businesses having already expressed interest, demand is just as high as it was in the first round.

Parklets provide businesses and non-profit organizations a way to help enliven a neighborhood’s public realm by expanding crowded sidewalks for seating, greenery, bike parking, and other creative uses. Many have already become community gathering spots and neighborhoods are clamoring for more.

“It seems like a natural fit to place some of them in front of businesses that people already gather or congregate at,” added Mclean.

Last fall’s RFP period drew 39 applicants, with 27 permits issued, although about eight are still on hold or have been withdrawn for various reasons, said Project Manager Andres Power.

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The Rebar crew assembles the parklet. Photo: Aaron Bialick

Within a span of just a few hours, a new parklet has transformed a part of Columbus Avenue in North Beach. Fronting Caffe Roma, it’s the second project to bring some breathing room to choked sidewalks on a section where cafe and restaurant life fill one of the city’s densest and most historic neighborhoods.

“Somebody called it our own little Via Veneto,” said Tony Roma, the owner of Caffe Roma. “If you’re familiar with Via Veneto in Rome, it’s open to the cafes and people sit down outside in the sun and drink their spritz.”

“So if we’re gonna get a warm weekend, here’s the place to do it.”

The parklet, designed and installed by the art and architecture collective Rebar Group, features a section of tables and chairs for the public to relax, eat and drink, while greenery in the rest of the area is intended to have more of a “park” feel, said Roma.

Søren Schaumburg Jensen, a Rebar Group intern and landscape architecture student from Copenhagen, Denmark, assisted with the project. “I really like the module concept of parklets,” he said. “It can be temporary, and you can exchange modules if you want to and move them.”

“I think Copenhagen could learn a lot from taking up parking spaces and extending the sidewalk like this,” he added, to the surprise of project manager Noah Brezel and myself.

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Image rendering by architect Jack Verdon via The Gubbins Experiment

The Inner Sunset could see its first parklet on Ninth Avenue in front of Arizmendi Bakery, introducing a new public space to its vibrant restaurant district, after dozens of neighbors and merchants showed up in support of the project at an SF Department of Public Works hearing today.

“People are hungry for gathering spaces,” said Inner Sunset Park Neighbors Board Member Adam Greenfield, who is helping to spearhead the project.

The street addition would be similar to several parklets already installed throughout the city that have reclaimed public space occupied by private vehicles and provided a welcoming place for people to sit, eat, socialize, and park their bicycles.

Merchants widely supported the project, which would be an attractive feature for new customers. The first parklet, installed in front of Mojo Bicycle Cafe on Divisadero Street, brought a 34 percent increase in pedestrian traffic during weekday afternoons, according to Liza Pratt of the Great Streets Project.

Speakers praised the parklet’s potential to add greenery, increase public safety by adding more “eyes on the street,” and open up an already crowded gathering spot for the community.

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This temporary park done for PARK(ing) Day in front of Ritual Roasters is an example of how a permanent parklet could enliven the street. Photo: Bryan Goebel

An enthusiastic audience of supporters who lamented the lack of public space in their neighborhoods attended a San Francisco Department of Public Works (SFDPW) hearing at City Hall this morning on proposed parklets in front Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia Street and farm:table coffee on Post Street. Supporters of the parklets testified that converting a few parking spots into vibrant spaces for people will enliven their streets and benefit their neighborhoods.

Eileen Hassi, the owner of Ritual, told the hearing officer that she has been trying to establish a park in front of her business at 1026 Valencia Street since it first opened in 2005. She said Ritual has been a strong supporter and participant in PARK(ing) Day and that the only complaints she’s heard from neighbors are that there are too many people on the sidewalks and that bicycles often clutter the area.

“Personally, I think these are good problems to have and the parklet is a great solution to both of these problems,” said Hassi, who added that many neighbors who aren’t Ritual customers have enjoyed the transformation of the parking spaces on PARK(ing) Day and would benefit from a permanent parklet because it would be public space. In addition, on-street bicycle parking would be added.

“I’m not a customer but they have been an excellent neighbor,” said Amandeep Jawa, a resident in the neighborhood and livable streets advocate. “Fundamentally, the problem on Valencia is not successful businesses. The problem on Valencia is that we have very narrow sidewalks and Valencia Street is a pedestrian street in spite of itself.”

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Installation of the track that the builder will use to attach the pavers. Photos: Matthew Roth

Construction of the two newest parklets in San Francisco began today with the installation of a sidewalk extension on 24th Street between Sanchez Street and Vicksburg Street, with another to follow shortly on 24th near Noe Street.

The new spaces were designed by Riyad Ghannam, who designed and built the first parklet in the city in front of the Mojo Bicycle Cafe on Divisadero street. The parklets will replace a total of four parking spaces and cost $37,000, the entirety of which came from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development as part of their commercial revitalization budget. The Noe Valley Association, which represents merchants in the area, is the permit holder and will oversee the maintenance of the facilities.

Learning from the Mojo parklet, the Planning Department’s Andres Power said they will be using pre-cast concrete pavers for the decking surface and steel planters, instead of wood and fiberglass at Mojo.

Referring to the public outreach process in Noe Valley, where a vociferous group opposed closing Noe Street to create a trial plaza, Power struck a diplomatic tone and said the parklets provided some of the public space amenities without the controversy. “It was definitely a challenging public outreach process in Noe Valley. The vast majority of people who participated in the process came to consensus that there was a desire for public amenities,” said Power. “We wanted to be building community, not dividing people.”

Though Power was kind in his characterization of the process, the anti-plaza crowd got downright vicious, as demonstrated in this near Tea-Party reaction to proposals to close a street. What doesn’t appear on the video is the after effect, where several in the audience infected with The Rage charged the stage trying to bite Andres, which led to a full-scale quarantine of Noe Valley for a week.

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Several months ago, this was an under-utilized swath of asphalt that often saw drivers stunting, doing donuts or speeding through the neighborhood. Photos: Matthew Roth

Community groups, city staff and elected officials celebrated the opening of the final Pavement to Parks plaza this weekend, a new 7,500 square foot space that months before was a wide asphalt expanse notorious for speeding traffic and more than a few drivers doing donuts amid smoking tires and revved engines.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera hailed Naples Green, a square in the Excelsior on Naples Street between Geneva Avenue and Rolph Street, as a “testament about what happens when community and government work together.”

Herrera invoked the history of the plaza, which in 1915 was turned into a temporary park to celebrate the Pan-Pacific Exposition and herald San Francisco’s recovery from the 1906 earthquake.  “This park is a testament also to what it means for San Francisco values and community history,” said Herrera. “I can’t think of anything better to commemorate what San Francisco is all about–a phoenix, a city rising and being everything that it can be–than the reestablishment of this park and bringing green space to this wonderful neighborhood.”

For years a group of merchants had been working through the Outer Mission Merchants and Residents Association (OMMRA) to improve the former slab of asphalt, first succeeding to get traffic calming and medians to slow speeds and reduce stunting, then finally convincing District 11 Supervisor John Avalos to cobble funding together through the city budget process and separate agency coffers. In all, the project cost $150,000, much of it coming from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which controls the streets and runs Muni, the San Francicco Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Public Works (SFDPW) and a $10,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Avalos applauded the community and OMMRA for their steadfast commitment to transforming the space, referring to the frequent donuts and reckless driving that occurred there previously. “This is a community that has seen too much grass, too much greenery, paved over, so to reverse that in such a magnificent way, in such a large way is really great to see,” he said. “We know we’re going to have more people using the space, that will be an inhibition to the kinds of activities that were going on here before.”

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The parklet in front of Mojo Bicycle Cafe. Photo: Matthew Roth

In a city with an appetite for experimentation, San Francisco’s parklets are particularly fascinating. What began as a guerrilla arts intervention meant to demonstrate the need for more public open space has now become a fully permitted procedure for extending sidewalks into the street and has the small business community, which routinely opposes removing parking or charging more for it, aflutter with interest.

During the 5th annual Park(ing) Day in September this year, the Planning Department announced it had opened a request for proposals (RFP) period seeking applications from interested parties who wanted to re-purpose the parking in front of their buildings to build and manage parklets.

The RFP encouraged community benefit districts, businesses and non-profits to submit preliminary designs for parklets, which would be reviewed by a select committee representing various departments in the city, including the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which manages parking and runs Muni and the Department of Public Works (DPW).

Applicants were encouraged to view parklets as sidewalk furniture meant to enhance public space. From the RFP: “Parklets are intended to provide space for people to sit, relax and enjoy the city around them, especially where narrow sidewalks would otherwise preclude such activities. They are intended to be seen as pieces of street furniture, providing aesthetic enhancements to the overall streetscape.”

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Eco-People proposal for current parking lot at 17th and Folsom.

Get ready to peek into a possible future for San Francisco parks.

This evening and next week, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department will lead a tour of four properties being considered for purchase and transformation into parkland. The locations being considered are at 17th and Folsom; Palou and Phelps in the shadow of 280; on Third Street just down from the sewage treatment plant; and 24th Street near Church.

The tour meets tonight at 6pm at 17th and Folsom, then continues to 24th Street at 7pm. It continues next Wednesday at Palou and Phelps at 6pm, and moves to Third Street at 7pm. The public is invited to learn more about the location and the acquisition process. If Rec & Parks decides to move forward with the purchases, there will be many more meetings and opportunities for the public to provide input.

If approved, the parks would comprise crucial new green space as part of a long-overdue reinvestment in the eastern neighborhoods. It’s thanks to the city’s popular Open Space Fund that the acquisitions are under consideration. The voter-approved fund sets aside about $2 million per year to acquire parks and natural areas.

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