It’s that time of the year!
Join us for the 2011 California Coastal Cleanup Day | Saturday, September 17, 2011| 9am-12pm
Click here to learn how to participate!
Cleanups take place along bays, creeks, rivers, highways, and the coast throughout California.
April 2011: Our Executive Director Meredith Thomas had the opportunity to speak on the radio with Mike Zuckerman, the director of sustainability at Temple. Their talk touches on the vision of a Blue Greenway in San Francisco. Visit here to hear their interview and to learn more about the Blue Greenway.
If you’re wondering how you can become involved with the Blue Greenway, each Saturday April 2-23 we’re giving you the opportunity to pull out your work gloves and participate in workdays all along the Blue Greenway. Click here for more information.
As the month of April comes to an end, NPC would like to thank everyone who participated in Earth Day activities along the Blue Greenway. Whether you removed debris from the shoreline, planted native species or joined the annual egg hunt, your dedication brings us one step closer to realizing San Francisco’s vision of a continuous, connected and thriving waterfront. To view photos of Earth Day cleanups and activities please check out NPC’s Flickr page.
NPC would like to send a special thank you to the Department of Public Works Community Clean Team, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Green Trust SF, India Basin Neighborhood Association, Kayaks Unlimited, Literacy For Environmental Justice, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, Sea Scavenger, and the Tretorn Wellie Wagon for your hard work and dedication to the Blue Greenway.
| Tretorn Wellie Wagon Volunteers at Warm Water Cove Cleanup | Malcolm X Academy at Herons Head Park People’s Earth Day Celebration |
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March 2011: As part of UCSF’s ongoing efforts to support the local community, the University presented the Neighborhood Parks Council’s Blue Greenway project with a donation to help fund the construction of a “green” corridor that will transform San Francisco’s southeastern waterfront into a go-to destination for recreation.
“The southeastern waterfront has always been the maritime and industrial heart of the city,” said Meredith Thomas, executive director of the Neighborhood Parks Council. “Now it has the potential to be a parks center as well, transforming into a place with world class bike trails and walkways. The UCSF grant allows us to come up with engagement tools and more opportunities to create excitement about the project.”
The $12,635 donation to the Blue Greenway project was presented on March 4 at the Blue Greenway Partner Breakfast. Click here to read more from UCSF.
Sixty open space advocates and decision makers, including Supervisors David Chiu and Malia Cohen, gathered at our Blue Greenway Partners Breakfast on March 4th to thank our sponsors for their ongoing support of our efforts along the Blue Greenway. Our Blue Greenway partners were also on-hand to share and discuss their work along the waterfront. Click here to view photos from the event.
This event was sponsored by UCSF Mission Bay, the Blue Greenway Task Force Members and the Neighborhood Parks Council.
Blue Greenway Project for San Francisco’s Southeast Waterfront Gains National Support
Federal Support Provides a Local Voice for 13 Miles of Waterfront Parks
NPC was recently awarded $175,000 from the EPA to heighten local community involvement in the execution of the Blue Greenway through a Brownfields Area–wide Planning process.
The geographic area of focus of NPC’s Area-Wide Plan will include brownfield-impacted land currently not funded for remediation along the Blue Greenway alignment in Bayview, and India Basin. These neighborhoods represent the historical industrial heart of the city and are plagued by Brownfields, areas of containing industrial waste and toxins.
With the support of the EPA’s Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Pilot Program, NPC will facilitate local engagement in area-wide planning of the Blue Greenway for the revitalization of the brownfield-impacted community of Southeastern San Francisco. Drawing upon expertise from the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR), EPA funding will also be used to generate an area-wide plan with the community that will address how to remediate and transform 5-10 areas along the Blue Greenway that continue to have negative health and safety impacts for adjacent low-income neighborhoods.
The NPC-led engagement process will give the neighbors an opportunity to express their open space, park and recreation needs.
CCLR (Center for Creative Land Recycling) will be partnering with NPC on this important initiative designed to support a full community process for the development of parks and open space along our long neglected southeastern waterfront. CCLR will bring its expertise in the redevelopment of contaminated land having assisted hundreds of communities across the state with the clean up and revitalization of historically-neglected and environmentally-challenged property.
The area-wide planning process will leverage existing efforts to identify and reduce threats to human health and the environment, and will facilitate assessment and revitalization of brownfields in the target area by identifying site-specific reuses for them. The plans will integrate site cleanup and reuse into coordinated strategies to lay the foundation for addressing community needs such as economic development, job creation, housing, recreation, and education and health facilities.
Download the press release by going to sfnpc.org/press-releases/.
For images from our November 10 Press Conference at Warm Water Cove, you can download them directly from our Flickr page.
The Port will be hosting the next round of Blue Greenway community workshops; these meetings will be focused on presenting program and use options for each of the Port’s open spaces, in the context of the larger system and to present alternative concepts for a palette of site furnishings, including tables, benches, lights, bollards, bike racks etc. In addition, we will review comments we heard on the existing conditions document presented at the last meeting and how we plan to address the comments.
The meetings will focus on sub-areas within the Blue Greenway including:
September 29th at 6:00 – 8:00 at Pier 1, Central Blue Greenway Sub – Area, Islais Creek to Hunters Point Shipyard.
October 6th at 6:00 – 8:00 at Pier 1, Northern Sub-Area of Blue Greenway – Mission Creek to Cesar Chavez Street.
Full Agendas and documents that will be reviewed at the meeting will be distributed on September 24th.
For more information on the Blue Greenway project, please visit the Port’s Blue Greenway website.
India Basin Shoreline/Area C Planning
Click here for more information.
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) and Planning Department staff held two open houses at Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) in March. The March 3rd Open House showed a Land Use Plan and alternative plans for street improvements at Innes Avenue, Hunters Point Boulevard and Hawes Streets, and preliminary studies for pedestrian and bicycle bridge options connecting India Basin Shoreline Park and India Basin Open Space at Hudson Street via a series of “bridglets”, a single long bridge or a seawall providing at grade access. Comments on the options should be sent 
to Lila Hussein at Lila.Hussein@sfgov.org or by fax to (415) 749-2524.
The March 24th Open House showed proposed height limits, view corridors, a topographic model, area wide design guidelines and a land use map. These will be available at the above website soon.
SFRA and Planning have also released a Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report for the India Basin Shoreline Redevelopment Program (also available on the website) and will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Wednesday, April 7th 6-8 PM at Our Lady of Lourdes Church located at Innes Avenue and Hawes Street in India Basin (map). Comments on the scope and content of environmental information to be provided in the EIR should be sent no later than 5 PM on Thursday, April 22, 2010 to Stanley Muraoka at SFRA (Stanley.Muraoka@sfgov.org).
The India Basin Neighborhood Association (http://www.indiabasin.org) has drafted a separate “Community Vision” for the area which can be viewed on their website.
There will be a SPUR lunchtime forum on the future of India Basin on Thursday, May 20th at 12:30 PM at the SPUR Urban Center. Click here for more information.
2010 People’s Earth Day & Sunday Streets – April 18th, 2010
Heron’s Head Park EcoCenter Grand Opening 10 AM to 3 PM
Herons Head Park – Cargo Way @ Jennings Street
Come celebrate the 10th Annual People’s Earth Day at the EcoCenter, a NEW environmental justice education center. Free to the public. With food, dance, great raffle prizes, youth talent and youth led interactive tours of the EcoCenter. Visit the LEJ website for more information.
Sunday Streets – April 18th, 2010 along the Blue Greenway
The April 18th Sunday Streets event will close Terry Francois Boulevard from AT&T Park to Mariposa Street and 3rd Street from Mariposa to Bayview Playground from 10 AM to 3 PM. Click here for more information.
Neighborhood Parks Council/Blue Greenway and the Bay Trail Project (ABAG) will have an information table at 3rd and Cargo Way during the event.
Blue Greenway Planning
The first Community Planning Meeting to review the Blue Greenway existing conditions, opportunities and constraints and best practices will be in April, 2010. After receiving community input at the April meeting, the Port will draft design guideline concepts for site furnishing, way-finding, interpretation, locations for public art, open space programming and preliminary costs for review and project prioritization which will be reviewed by the Community in the summer. Check the Port’s website for more information.
The Port of San Francisco is in the process of developing the Blue Greenway Planning and Design Guidelines through a Community Planning process. For more information on this, go to the Port’s Blue Greenway web site at www.sfport.com/bluegreenway. This planning process is funded by the 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond (link), and is being coordinated with all City Agencies that have jurisdiction within the Blue Greenway.
It is anticipated that the first community workshop to discuss existing conditions, opportunities and constraints and best practices will be in March 2010. After receiving community input at the March meeting, the Port will draft design guideline concepts for site furnishing, way-finding, interpretation, locations for public art, open space programming and preliminary costs for review and project prioritization, which is anticipated to occur in the summer.
When the draft concepts have been reviewed at a subsequent community meeting, design guidelines will be finalized. Design and construction of project components will begin in the fall and winter.
Three Blue Greenway projects were identified for early implementation, including shoreline improvements to Bayfront Park within Mission Bay, expanding the opportunity for the future park to meet the bay’s edge, redesign of Tulare park located on the north shoreline of Islais Creek between Illinois Street and Third Street, and expansion of Heron’s Head Park including an improved entryway to expand the program and use options of the facility. Each of these concepts is available for review on the Port’s web site.
On June 6th, friend of NPC Adah Bakalinsky (author of Stairway Walks in San Francisco) led, along with NPC, a 10k walk along the San Francisco waterfront. The walk serves a dual purpose: it is a fundraiser for NPC and is also a symbolic event to welcome Adah’s great-grandson, Austin, to the world.
Adah has generously offered to donate any pledges made for the walk to NPC. We cordially invite you to help us celebrate the arrival of Adah’s great grandson by donating online or writing a check. NPC will accept donations for Adah’s walk until one month after the event.
HOW TO DONATE:
MAIL: To donate, please mail a check to the NPC office: 451 Hayes Street, 2nd floor, San Francisco, CA 94102. IMPORTANT: Please make check payable to Neighborhood Parks Council, and write “Adah’s Walk” on the check memo.
ONLINE: You can donate online by clicking here. BE SURE TO SCROLL HALFWAY DOWN the donation page and click the check box next to Adah Bakalinsky’s 10K Hidden Waterfront Walk: 6/6/09. Fill out the rest of the form and your donation is complete.
Starting at Rincon Park Promenade (Embarcadero between Howard and Folsom), a group of walkers and park enthusiasts joined Adah on June 6th and discovered hidden parks and open spaces along the planned Blue Greenway, the portion of the waterfront from China Basin to Candlestick Point that will complete San Francisco’s last portion of the Bay Trail.
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NPC was established in 1996 to promote a sustainable and equitable park system in San Francisco through community involvement. Representing more than 120 park groups and more than 4000 park volunteers, NPC has become the leading park advocacy voice in San Francisco. Their energetic agenda is committed to restoring and building parks and playgrounds in neighborhoods–ensuring that children can play safely and enjoy greenery around them. Their method is to engage community residents in all aspects of the program(s), from advocacy to stewardship.
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| Adah Bakalinsky, with Mayor Newsom |
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