On a sunny day, the Bernal Heights Recreation Center Plaza used to have exactly one source of shade: a single tree, with neighbors crowded underneath it. The plaza worked for kids learning to ride bikes. It worked less well for the caregivers watching them, with no shade and nowhere to sit. When it rained, water ran across the pavement and flooded the nearby sewer.
We’re changing that. The plan adds seating, shade, and permeable surfaces. In the meantime, we teamed up with the Civic Joy Fund on a pop-up so neighbors can picture what the plaza could become: trees, a nature play space, benches, tables, and chairs. It’s the start of a new town square for Bernal.
Here’s what we believe.
Everyone, regardless of income, race, ability, or zip code, deserves public spaces that reflect the care, creativity, and persistence of the communities around them. These spaces should be shaped with residents, not just for them, and should serve as places to gather, support health and well-being, and offer a transformative green experience that is accessible to all.
That’s the idea behind every project we take on, and it looks different in every neighborhood.
Neighbors already know what’s possible
Every neighborhood has a spot that could be more: a forgotten stretch of pavement, an overlooked stairway, a corner with no shade. The people who live nearby usually know what it could become. What they’re missing is a partner to help plan, fund, permit, build, and maintain it.
Take Visitacion Valley. Community advocate Fran Martin has long envisioned a lot next to a local middle school: a green space where students can connect with nature and help care for it. A $1.5 million Community Opportunity Fund grant is now helping make it real. The idea came from the neighborhood. We’re helping carry it to the finish line.
The Kimbell Community Garden started the same way, with design and community outreach. CMG Landscape Architects then turned neighbors' feedback into a plan for a new place to gather.
Built with residents, not just for them
Plans drawn without neighbors tend to miss what only neighbors know.
The Bernal Heights plaza has since landed a $578,000 Green Infrastructure Grant, and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission has approved the conceptual design.
The pop-up is already getting a response from neighbors:
“My kids love the nature playspace, and I appreciate the additional shade and seating.”
— A local neighbor
Volunteers do plenty of the work, too. Rebuilding Together volunteers helped clean up the Mariners Village site. Neighbors cleared overgrowth at Tompkins Stairs and pulled Scotch broom off a hillside in Bernal Heights. The group behind that hillside, Bernal Wild, told us a simple clearing job grew into something much bigger, and that our support let them focus on habitat restoration.
Putting equity into the plans
When we say access shouldn’t depend on your zip code, we mean it shapes where we put our time, funding, and expertise.
In Bayview-Hunters Point, neighbors and volunteers are creating a green gathering space for an affordable housing development. At Mariners Village, a $150,000 grant is helping turn an aging basketball court into a refurbished basketball and pickleball court with picnic areas. A separate bioretention and tree canopy project will address neighborhood flooding, add landscaping, and double the existing tree canopy.
We’re deliberate about who gets in, too. At the Cortland Community Garden, 25 percent of plots will be reserved for underserved Mission residents, so a garden in Bernal Heights serves people beyond its own blocks. In SOMA, a $500,000 Community Opportunity Fund grant supports the Howard Langton Community Garden, a green oasis where residents can connect with nature.
Places to gather and celebrate
Green space does real work for health: shade on a hot day, cleaner air, somewhere to be outside. It’s also where neighbors run into each other, and kids play.
Ogden Avenue Gardens will turn an unused street in Bernal Heights into a park and playground for residents and a nearby daycare. In Potrero Hill, the Lower DeHaro Rain Garden will capture and treat stormwater, prevent hillside erosion, and add greenery.
Sometimes the point is just fun. This year’s Halloween on Cortland, now in its third year, closed Cortland Avenue to cars so families could trick-or-treat in the street, with music and festivities. The Civic Joy Fund, the Bernal Business Alliance, local merchants, and neighborhood volunteers made it happen.
Staying with a place
Opening day isn’t the finish line. Someone has to water, weed, and repair, year after year.
That’s why we start early and stay late. We pay for research, design, and feasibility before any grant exists, then provide the upfront community match, and each dollar invested early helps unlock two to three times the funding. Volunteer stewards keep tending gardens and shared spaces across the city long after construction ends. In 2027, we plan to establish a Green Benefit District to support ongoing care and maintenance.
Come see one
If this sounds like your neighborhood, or one you care about, there’s a way in. Giving Tuesday is coming up fast on December 1, and a gift to Greening Projects helps neighbors plan, fund, and build the next public space. You can also join a workday, introduce us to a neighborhood group, or take a tour and meet the people behind these projects.
Learn more at greeningprojects.org, or give ahead of Giving Tuesday at greeningprojects.org/donate.