mission greenbelt

Sidewalk Landscaping
Permit
Downloads:

Mission Greenbelt

The Mission Greenbelt is a proposed urban earthwork that invites San Francisco residents to build a corridor of native plant sidewalk gardens along a selected route in the Mission District. If the gardens are built, they will connect three distinct communities, a schoolyard garden and four parks. The gardenswil be made up of adjacent plantings in newly built sidewalk gardens, in existing gardens and vacant lots, and in potted planters and on windowsills along the way. Each garden we build will contain a small ceramic marker, stamped with the with the year it became part of the Greenbelt.

Building the Greenbelt will strengthen and educate communities and improve urban ecology. By coming together to plan, design and build these public gardens, we will enhance our communities by cleaning the air, by sheltering pedestrians from street traffic and by creating new urban habitat. Also, by exposing more soil and growing plants, we will allow rainwater to seep into the soil where it can be naturally filtered and eventually flow cleaner into San Francisco Bay.

Sidewalk Landscaping Collages

Project phase 1

Initially, the Mission Greenbelt project was exhibited in September of 2007, as part of Hidden Histories, a group exhibition curated by Joshua Short for CELLspace. Following this exhibition, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery selected my proposal to transform their space into Mission Greenbelt Campaign Headquarters.

During November and December of 2007, with funding, administrative support and space provided by the SFAC Gallery, I mounted Mission Greenbelt Campaign Headquarters, a public awareness campaign intended to inform and educate San Francisco residents about the Mission Greenbelt project and about the Sidewalk Landscaping Permit process. A Sidewalk Landscaping Permit is required by the city of San Francisco in order for landowners to build sidewalk gardens. Campaign Headquarters was also equipped with a new body of artwork, which included a five-part, mixed-media collage to illustrate building sidewalk gardens, a jigsaw puzzle aerial map of the completed Greenbelt as well as a photo/audio tour and installation about San Francisco’s ecology.

Events at Campaign Headquarters included a Campaign Kick-off with Special Guest Speakers, a Sidewalk Landscaping & Permitting Workshop and a day where volunteers helped to plan and install a native plant demonstration garden at Civic Center in front of Campaign Headquarters. Every Saturday in December there were tours of the proposed Mission Greenbelt. The tours included a Youth Bus Tour & Planting Day, a Planning Tour with Sidewalk Chalk, a Bicycle Tour of the Proposed Mission Greenbelt and a Mission Greenbelt Soundscape Tour. These tours gave us an opportunity to investigate and experience the proposed Mission Greenbelt route. During some of the tours, we also put up street posters, we talked with people about the project and we passed out letters to local residents. I also worked with the San Francisco Arts Commission Arts & Education Program to develop a How to Build a Sidewalk Garden lesson plan, which I presented to Mission District school groups.

Mission Greenbelt Campaign Headquarters artwork and events were made possible with help from friends, collaborators and partnerships with San Francisco government agencies and local artists, scientists, activists and volunteers.

Read original project proposals

Special thanks for helping to make this possible!

Isaac Amala

Sam Bower
greenmuseum.org

Josiah Clark
Habitat Potential

Maria D'Agostino &
Mohammed Nuru
San Francisco Department
of Public Works

Jeremy Dalmas

Kevin Danaher

Betsy Davis

Supervisor Bevan Dufty

Mike Dyar

Greg Gaar
Haight Ashbury Native
Plant Nursery