New Bridgeview Garden on the Drawing Board

Bayview residents, including Quesada Gardens Initiative members and their University of San Francisco design partners, huddled on a recent and chilly Saturday morning to brainstorm about what they would like to see for a new garden on the corner of Bridgeview and Newhall Streets. Residents near the new site (above the main Quesada Garden) call it the "Bridgeview Garden," and shared their ideas about what it should be like when it's done:

- It should produce food
- It should have trees, preferably fruit trees
- It should take full advantage of the view which is truly amazing
- It should have a place to sit down (maybe a loveseat or picnic area)
- It should be colorful with flowering plants and public art (maybe draping flowers over the retaining wall or a mural)
- It should be terraced for safety, irrigation, erosion-prevention, and so that a speaker can address a group
- The fence, which is ugly, should be changed or enhanced (security for visitors and adjoining property, and protection of the garden are important issues)
- It should have easy access via a gentle pathway or a nice staircase

Bayview residents Joel, Mary and Bill have cared for this lot in the past. When they saw what their friends were doing at the Quesada Garden less than a block away, they thought What if the neighbors behind the Quesada Gardens Initiative supported the Bridgeview residents to transform the lot into a garden, and helped maintain it over time as a place for the community to come together?

Architecture and Community Design students, led by Professor Seth Wachtel from the University of San Francisco, were already working with the Quesada Gardens Initiative on a residential urban farming project, and immediately volunteered to help neighbors develop design schemes that will enhance the community.

Quesada Gardens Initiative members and Stanford student volunteers spent a hot and tiring day last summer clearing the lot, creating a blank canvas. More work was done by private sector volunteers from Deloitte and Touche.

DPW/BUF installed a new water meter earlier this year, and has assumed the cost of water usage in the Bridgeview Garden. Irrigation is the most critical consideration for any garden and makes all our plans possible!

Thanks go to the young people who came to share their ideas, to the many volunteers who weeded the main garden, and especially to SFPT who gathered volunteers, hosted lunch, and made an initial donation to QGI to begin the actual development of the Bridgeview Garden!

Have an idea about the Bridgeview Garden? Want to know when the next meeting will be? Post a comment here. Or email jeffrey@quesadagardens.org.