Quesada Gardens gets national attention

"The Quesada Gardens Initiative has helped to transform the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood," said San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee at a special dedication event on Tuesday, March 13th in the heart of Bayview.

The mayor visited as part of GRO1000 San Francisco, a national initiative that made awards to five U.S. cities.   

Representatives from The U.S. Conference of Mayors, ScottsMiracle-Gro, Plant A Row for the Hungry, the National Gardening Association, the Garden Writers Association and Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens also spoke. Locals Annette Smith, QGI founding gardener) and Jeffrey Betcher, QGI organizer, represented Quesada Gardens Initiative, welcoming the Mayor and other guests.

The ceremony included the presentation of a National Gardening Association youth gardening award to Serenity Williams who lives on Bridgeview Drive and gardens in the Bridgeview Teaching & Learning Garden.

Serenity Williams smiles with neighbor Mary McClure who works (and plays) with her at the Bridgeview Garden.

Beginning at 7am, about 50 Quesada Gardens residents and volunteers from ScottsMiracle-Gro and Lowes weeded, pruned and spread mulch throughout the showcase Quesada Garden. 

The San Francisco GRO1000 event is the first of several public installation events being held in the U.S., Canada and Europe in 2012. 

More national attention: New York Times profiles 5800 Third

A March 13th NYTimes article by Barbara Tannenbaum acknowledges that the economic boom years stopped just short of Bayview Hunters Point.  The article also sites mixed use development, specifically 5800 Third, as an indication that better days have finally arrived.

  

SF Housing Director Olson Lee is quoted as saying, "This development proves that economic diversity and market-rate housing can work in the Bayview."

   

See the article online.