San Francisco officials and boosters love saying that all residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. This is true, but not all parks are created equal — and not all neighborhoods share the same bounty.
Low-income and nonwhite neighborhoods across the city have less public green space than wealthier, whiter areas — about 40 percent less, according to a recent report by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. This unequal distribution is a crucial caveat when the post-pandemic future of the city, and especially its shared open space, is under intense debate.
Bayview-Hunters Point has long been isolated from the rest of the city and is home to some of the most polluted land in the Bay Area, as well as some of San Francisco’s most underserved neighborhoods. But the tide for this bayshore community might be turning. A local playground just got a major makeover. A few blocks away, the city recently broke ground on a waterfront park that will add several acres of green space to the neighborhood. These projects have led some to dub this “the Bayview’s big park moment.”
One of the most important green projects on tap is right in the middle of an ambitious housing redevelopment. Hunters View, a hilltop site where Gavin Newsom first pledged to rebuild dilapidated public housing in 2004, just got the green light (and a $34 million city loan) to enter its final phase. This part of the project not only includes an additional 118 housing units to the 286 already built, but also a park with café seating, a grassy expanse, and a public barbecue area.
According to Catherine Etzel, spokesperson for the John Stewart Company, the new park will occupy three-quarters of an acre — significantly larger than two other parks built during the first two phases of development. Etzel says the company, which is the lead developer on the project, hopes to break ground on this phase next year.
“We know that green spaces are very essential when it comes to raising a family,” said Iose “P.J.” Iulio, who has lived at Hunters View for 18 years and is president of both the tenants association and the resident council. “Other parts of San Francisco have wonderful parks, wonderful spaces that their communities are able to enjoy. Why can’t we have that in the southeast part of San Francisco as well?”
The still-unnamed park will be a boon to the neighborhood, and its design and construction are big tests of the city’s commitment to bring green space to San Franciscans who need more of it — and crucially, to deliver it in a way that values their input and keeps their communities whole.
A green discrepancy
Seven miles northwest of the Bayview, part of John F. Kennedy Drive (Golden Gate Park’s main drag) has been closed to cars since last April. The Bayview’s representative at City Hall, Sup. Shamann Walton, charged in March that the closure was racist and reeked of Jim Crow segregation.
The rhetoric was dismissive of facts; there are still plenty of parking spaces in and near the park, there are direct transit connections, and the number of District 10 residents who visit the park has not decreased significantly since the road was closed. But Walton’s claim was rooted in one truth: Folks in the Bayview — which has the most Black residents of any neighborhood in SF — have a lot less green space near them than people in the rest of the city.
The Frisc found that the combined acreage of all parks in the 94124 zip code, home to Hunters View and the rest of the Bayview, is about 373 acres, or 15 percent of its total. In contrast, San Francisco overall has dedicated about 21 percent of its land to parks and recreation, according to the Trust for Public Land.
Most of the Bayview’s park space is contained in the 252-acre Candlestick Point State Recreation Area; the city’s Recreation and Parks Department says the combined acreage of its land within 94124 is about 96 acres. (It is worth noting that nearby McLaren Park, SF’s second largest after Golden Gate Park, occupies 313 acres and is accessible to many Bayview residents, although it is not within 94124 itself.)
The green discrepancy between the Bayview and the city is significant, and has deep historical roots. The neighborhood didn’t get its first park, Bayview Park, until 1915, and at the time it was little more than a grassy hill with some eucalyptus trees and an access road. Hunters Point, home to more than 4,000 people, had to wait even longer; though India Basin Shoreline Park is at the base of Hunters Point, there is still no Rec and Parks green space on the peninsula itself, and nearby Hilltop Park did not open until 1979.
This lack of public green space can be traced back to the 19th century, when the Bayview and other southern neighborhoods were mostly open land. Homesteaders’ associations divided the land into plots for farmers and didn’t see a need for parks, according to Bayview historian Chris VerPlanck.
“A lot of those associations were basically geared toward working-class people who wanted to acquire two or three adjoining lots, maybe one for the cottage and one for a kitchen garden, animals, things like that,” says VerPlanck, a historic preservation consultant who wrote a 200-page history of the neighborhood. “It goes back to that point: Do we really need a park when people are living on big parcels with lots of open space?”
As the Bayview became a center of industry in the early 20th century, the city only saw one worthwhile use for its land: “working men’s homes.”
“These are blue-collar neighborhoods,” VerPlanck notes. “For a long time, the city did not invest that many resources in neighborhoods like that.” So residents took matters into their own hands — a DIY ethos that extends into the present day.
It’s an integral part of a livable community. We not only need parks that have a larger, more regional benefit, but also parks that are convenient for people to access.
Alejandra Chiesa, the Trust for Public Land
Volunteers built a (no longer extant) baseball field and playground at 3rd Street and Jerrold Avenue, and upon its completion in 1920, donated it to the Rec and Parks Department, according to VerPlanck. Unofficial construction continued through the Great Depression, when locals lobbied the city for services such as schools, buses and streetcars, water mains, and sewers. Government help was not forthcoming, though, and neighbors took it upon themselves to build the needed infrastructure, in addition to starting a cooperative grocery and even a bank.
Design, equity, and inclusion
Not all park improvements have been universally welcomed. The redevelopment of India Basin Waterfront Park, on which the city broke ground in June, has been a contentious issue for years, with activists protesting potential pollution from construction and raising fears of gentrification.
Alejandra Chiesa, the Trust for Public Land’s Bay Area program director, says resisting changes out of fear of gentrification can potentially deprive low-income neighborhoods of the benefits enjoyed by other neighborhoods. The fact remains that parks are necessary infrastructure with benefits beyond aesthetics: “More research is showing that there’s a correlation between access to open space and physical and mental health,” Chiesa notes. “Recently, the conversation of mental health has definitely changed. Even seeing trees, seeing nature, is huge for your mental health.”
Not everyone can enjoy forest bathing in their neighborhoods, but even a bit of green space can make a difference. Parks can counter the heat-trapping effects of asphalt and concrete and help absorb stormwater. What’s more, well-maintained parks become community hubs, bringing neighbors together.
“It’s an integral part of a livable community,” Chiesa adds. “What they’re doing in Hunters View is good. We not only need parks that have a larger, more regional benefit, but also parks that are convenient for people to access.”
David Fletcher is well aware of this balance. Fletcher is the landscape architect designing the Phase 3 park at Hunters View, and has designed a score of other public spaces in San Francisco’s southern half.
When he learned that the John Stewart Company had planned only “one or two” community outreach meetings, he requested that the company double the number. (Etzel confirmed there have been two in-person meetings so far, and that there’ll be more when it is once again safe to convene indoors.)
Fletcher says outreach should not be rushed — the first community meeting was in 2018 — because it takes time to determine exactly what residents want. The key, he adds, is “increasing the community feedback so that it’s iterative and we’re not trying to get everything decided and done at once. We’re kind of growing with them.”
Etzel echoed this sentiment, pointing out that an online survey for residents has been available since November 2020. The company prefers to wait until after the pandemic to set up more meetings, but “will work hard to overcome the challenges” using video and paper surveys. “Ensuring resident input on the park is critical,” Etzel says. “This park is for them.”
P.J. Iulio has been heavily involved in this years-long process. He attended the first two Phase 3 outreach meetings and worked as a liaison between the developer and other residents. He says he likes the current park design, which is thoroughly explained in a 14-minute video, and has been happy with the developer’s outreach.
“One of the things that I really enjoy about the process is making sure that residents are at the forefront of any decision-making,” Iulio says. He does have a few suggestions in mind for the next meeting, where Iulio says he will recommend more in the final design for kids, including a play structure.
Iulio notes he frequently visits India Basin Park for family gatherings, and that he’s looking forward to that park’s expansion as well: “It’s time that the southeast sector of San Francisco finally gets attention and improvement.”