Quesada Gardens Initiative has even more to thank Chris Waddling for. First for his massive contribution to the Palou Garden project, and now for expressing his commitment to Bayview Hunters Point through expanded leadership with the feisty band of neighbors known as Quesada Gardens.
Chris agreed to fill QGI's Board of Directors Vice Chair position, which had been empty since co-founder James Ross moved to Kentucky, and the Board voted its unanimous and enthusiastic approval. He will work with Chair (Emeritus) Annette Smith and all the residents associated with QGI to grow the network of involved residents building social cohesion through consensus and asset-based approaches to community change.
Taught the value of gardening and sustainable living by his mother and grandmother, Chris has become an avid backyard gardener himself, with a passion for improving the community by working the soil and bringing neighbors together.
Chris credits his "can-do" attitude to lessons passed down from his working-class ancestors - the Jamaican meat-packer, the English ship-builder, the American iron-worker - and credits his parents for encouraging his demand of himself to strive for better.
Chris sees the founders and members of the Quesada Gardens Initiative as sharing many of the same values as his family. He has found QGI to be a good fit for all those who believe that nurturing our community's strengths and building consensus as a way to solving our problems are simply part of being a good neighbor.
You can often find Chris working at QGI's Palou Community Garden, where he continues to serve in a project leader capacity, or walking from his home to his job as a PhD scientist at UCSF, Mission Bay. He also does his best to keep himself and others in the district informed through his D10 Watch blog.
Chris immigrated to the US in 1994. He has lived in San Francisco since 2000, and in the city's Bayview neighborhood with his family since 2004.
Pictured is Chris at the Palou Garden after a recent mulching effort. Bridgeview Garden neighbor Sherry Scott pitched in.
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