Encourage and facilitate the use of existing, unused spaces for community use and gathering areas for all ages.
Francis Scott Key Annex Yard
The Francis Scott Key Annex (42nd Ave between Irving & Judah) is owned by San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and is currently being used for office space and storage. In the Blueprint, we discussed the idea of creating a more useful purpose for the building. After many discussions with SFUSD, we learned that the school district does not have immediate plans to sell the property. SFUSD must first conduct an analysis about the potential need for creation of another school, and there is currently no timeline for initiating this analysis. Given this information, our office requested to move forward with temporary community use of the yard.
We partnered with the Planning Department’s Pavement to Parks program to engage neighbors on ideas for use of the yard. We held three community meetings along with the San Francisco Planning Department, SFUSD, and architecture firm, Perkins + Will, to discuss temporary investments that could be made. At these meetings, residents, neighborhood groups, and community leaders shared great ideas ranging from enhancing the well-used basketball courts to expanding community garden space.
Pavement to Parks is a program through the Planning Department that seeks to quickly and inexpensively convert underutilized space into places that enhance gathering space for the community and foster neighborhood interactions. We look forward to seeing the improvements completed in Fall 2015.
Sunset Mercantile Market
We were thrilled to see parents spearhead a Mercantile Market in the Sunset District, and our office would like to continue supporting efforts such as these. Started by Laura Peschke-Zingler and Angie Petitt-Taylor, the first Sunset Mercantile Market was held in December 2014 at the Francis Scott Key Elementary School yard where participants enjoyed shopping, musicians, storytellers, delicious food and beverages, as well as a plenty of activities for children. In addition, 10 percent of proceeds will benefit the Francis Scott Key Elementary School PTA. This is a great example of using of existing spaces for community use and gathering areas for all ages. Our office will continue to support events and efforts such as these.
Find out more:
Pavement to Parks program: http://pavementtoparks.sfplanning.org/
For more information about the project at Francis Scott Key Annex Building: http://pavementtoparks.sfplanning.org/fsk_school_site.html
To view a visual map of ideas generated at our first meeting, visit: http://pavementtoparks.sfplanning.org/docs/FSK_Activity%20Map_2015.03.19.pdf
Sunset Mercantile Market: http://www.sunsetmercantilesf.com/