Our trees arrived!

Heidi waits in the rain....

This morning I met Heidi and her crew from Friends of the Urban Forest (FuF) onsite at 7am. It was light outside, but raining, and as the commute traffic whizzed by us on 17th we waited... and waited! The nursery truck delivering our 22 trees and the contractor with the augering machine were both delayed. Annie came out and chatted with us before leaving for work, and having good company made it much more pleasant.

Annie & Matt watch the trees arrive

Eventually the trees and augering machine did show up. The mad-max style jeep augering machine set to work digging out the holes Annie and Matt had laid out the night before, and the small crew of FuF helpers helped guide truck with our trees into Regent's Cab lot. They have been super nice to let us store some Yuccas there for months, and are letting us store the trees there overnight as well.

Jeep-Auger-Awesome!

Once the truck was backed in we began unloading in the rain, a splattering of mud coming from off the trees/truck as we unloaded the large, wet, heavy trees and stakes. All worth it! Needless to say I was also getting covered in mud, so no photos of this part of the operation. After I was clean enough to operate my cell phone I was able to snap a photo of one of the boxed trees on site for perspective, and an example of one of the augered holes.

Tomorrow we will meetup with FuF and their crew of volunteers to install the trees - so stay tuned for some great photos. Maybe drop by with a warm cup of tea?

Tree onsite

Exemplary Hole

Tree positions marked

It rained all day, in case you didn't notice, or are vacationing in Hawaii! I went and checked the street at 6pm to mark spots for the tree augur guy to come drill holes for them tomorrow morning. It was raining and several cars were parked in tree planting spots. Gah.

I went and did some more work for a few hours, and just now at about 10.50pm Matt and I returned from marking the spots in the rain. Only one piece of machinery is blocking a tree spot now and hopefully Mike the contractor will move it tomorrow.

We are wet and cold but that part of the job is done. We had to measure each spot twice to be accurate: 19' from the roadway, another 5' for the sidewalk, and then halfway between the fence and that point for each tree. Oh, and 20' apart. Our measuring tape got very muddy, and we went through a couple cans of paint. I have to say the new area looks amazing though!

Tomorrow morning Friends of the Urban Forest are meeting Emily at 7am to drop off the trees. Emily thinks I am getting up at 6am to meet her at 7. Haha. Hah!

Aerial views and more!

Maybe it looks even better from above!

Annie and I received two great emails this morning from neighbors Jason and Nataly. Not only did they tell us how happy they were about the new street park, they sent over aerial photos of the site. A double whammy of happiness! I hope they continue to take aerial shots of the street park as it progresses. If you have photos of the site you'd like to share, please email them to me at emily@psgsf.org.

Yea, heavy equipment!

Just as it was getting dark I was able to take my dog Bentley on a walk and check out the day's progress. A good portion of the street has been roped off so that the asphalt can be safely removed. We are still maintaining two-way traffic and perpendicular parking on both sides, so don't worry! The area between the parking and the fence has a bunch of rock, asphalt, and unmentionables dumped over the years by countless people of questionable morals, so it all has to be dug up and safely removed. No more dumping allowed in our street park!

Bentley checks out the BRC to be

In addition to the area being removed along the fence, there some additional features that will have the asphalt removed from them as well - these are labeled 'BRCs' for bio-retention cell. It is basically a fancy way of saying a planted area that acts to slow down and filter rainwater. There are 4 of these located along the parking zone to slow and filter water as it travels down the street. You'll love them, we promise.

Beautiful, level park

The site was originally quite sloped, so much so that if you stood at the bottom by the fence you could not be seen from the street level. Now with the retaining wall finished and the area back-filled with dirt, the site is almost level. I am honestly overjoyed to see things at this stage of completion - so many meetings about the retaining wall,  grading of the site, the eventual redwood fence that will top the structure... endless.

Night-time Agaves at P garden

After walking through the new street park Bentley and I headed up to Pennsylvania Garden to dispose of his doggy waste and enjoy night-time at the garden. With the new street park we may incorporate some features that are not found at Pennsylvania Garden - like a larger seating area with lighting - but for now we're just dreaming up the possibilities.

Retaining wall progress

Yesterday work continued at the project site, with lining fabric being attached to the inside of the wall, as you can see in this photo.

Tomorrow Emily and I will meet to  mark the locations for the trees on the streets so that Friends of the Urban Forest can augur holes on November 30th for the December 1st tree planting day.

We are also going to delineate the areas of asphalt to be removed from the street which will be planted in order to prevent the erosion at the bottom of the street, and to slow traffic - one of DPW's stipulations for the project. If you've ever tried to turn the corner at the bottom in a car you'll know it's perilous, and there's been more than one speed-related accident as people zoom round there to avoid the 4-way stop at Mississippi and Mariposa. Simlarly people park very haphazardly at the corner, often leaving cars almost in the middle of the street.

As a result we plan to make 3 or 4 car-sized bulb-outs into the parking on the east side only to collect storm water and slow traffic. We will not be performing any work to the West side of the street at all.

Thankful for our neighbors

Retaining wall in progress

Happy thanksgiving everyone. Today we're feeling grateful to our friends and neighbors on the street who have come together to help make this project happen.

This week contractor Mike Glynn has been hard at work with his crew installing the retaining wall - as you can see the wooden supports are also now almost complete.

Next week he'll be removing some asphalt and back-filling the retaining wall to create a slightly sloped area we can plant on. The design for this wall was donated by geotechnical engineer Bryce Neuman, and all the hardcore storm water calculations and intense water flow math was donated by landscape architect Andrea Alfonso.  Jerad Wiener and Sandra Zuniga at DPW cleared the path for us to make this project happen, and DPW Director Mohammed Nuru gave us the nod when others said it couldn't be done. heck, even Mayor Ed Lee said he wanted to see this happen when he came by the project site!

Steve Schweigerdt and Maria D'Angelico at the San Francisco Parks Alliance helped us through the painful grant process, and kept us going when we wanted to give up.

Richie Hart and Eamonn Herlihy who own the Dorsett & Jackson property on the street will be donating a 5' tall, approx 200' long redwood fence to go on top of the retaining wall in case anyone things driving over the edge is a good idea, and it should mitigate a little of the noise from the train track as well.

On November 30th our pals Heidi and Doug at Friends of the Urban Forest will be delivering our trees to the Regent's Cab parking lot at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue - thanks Steve Anton for letting us use that space! December 1st is tree planting day - we hope to see everyone there! (Put December 8th and 15th on your calendars too - it's a 3 workday series and we need as much help as we can get!)

And yesterday James Fregosi of Fregosi Paints gave us a key to his water bib so the very awesome  Emily Gogol and I could perform a water pressure and flow test last night (it's looking good!) He's giving us water for the new trees.

Thank you all (and everyone else who's been involved in any way at all - there are many more!) for helping us with this project. It's going to be so darned cool when it's done.

New beams added to the retaining wall

Beams ready to go!

Today I went down to the site to talk with our contractor, Mike, about the placement of the decomposed granite pathway and removal of asphalt from the site. There could be a lot of asphalt underground that we do not know about, so we have to wait and hope the process will go quickly and smoothly. Asphalt removal will be after Thanksgiving, and I can hardly wait. It is so exciting to see the street park taking shape, one week at a time!

When I was onsite they were installing the wooden beams that bridge the steel posts. Measure twice and cut once! It was a beautiful day outside, and I am hoping they were able to get all of the wooden beams put in.

Trees on the way

We have worked with Friends of the Urban Forest to select trees for this project, and it looks like we have candidates lined up with the help of Heidi L. our contact over there.

Our requirements were quite stringent, and we did a lot of research on the best species for the spot. Here's our wishlist:

1. Extremely drought tolerant, or xeric.
2. Evergreen, so they look good year 'round.
3. Not too tall (we have overhead wires.)
4. Low litter - less fruits, nuts and leaves falling all over the place.
5. A nice mix of 4-5 species.

These are the trees it looks like we're getting:

1. Olea europea (Olive tree)
2. Agonis flexuosa "Jervis Bay Afterdark" (Purple Peppermint Tree)
3. Acacia stenophylla (Shoestring Acacia)
4. Tristaniopsis laurina "Elegant" (Small-Leafed Tristania)
5. Acacia baileyana "Purpurea" (Purple Fernleaf Acacia)

We tried for a few other species but they weren't available - Psoralea pinnata, Cussonia species and the like - but we're happy with the one's we've got. They're sure to look fantastic on the street. Planting day is December 1st at 10am: join us!

Here Comes Street Park!

It reads better as street park

Finally, after years of waiting and struggling to get the green light, today is the first day of big trucks and workers in high visibility jackets! It was an awesome sight to walk West on Mariposa street, and see all the heavy equipment.

As soon as reached the corner of Mariposa and Pennsylvania, I spotted our contractor, Mike, heading out for the day. I stopped to chat, thanking him for all of his hard, and avoided getting hit by the commute traffic as I walked north on Pennsylvania towards the site.

All that work getting done!

As I got closer it was obvious that major changes were happening - numerous steel posts were already cemented into the ground, and they were busy positioning more at the very northern end. The guys running the concrete truck were waiting for the next pour, so I went over to say hello and thank them for their work. They were also keen to know what the final plan was for the street. One worker was looking forward to rain tomorrow, as he has been working 10-15 hour days and wanted a break, business has been too good. Nice to hear business is going well! My vote however is for no rain - that park can't go in fast enough.

Kessler and Crew

The crew positioning the steel posts were busy working, so no commentary from them, but I was able to take a bit of a group photo. Hopefully I can go back tomorrow and continue the progress, so stay tuned!

Groundbreaking info

DPW has removed all the homeless encampments and cut down the weeds on the street per our request (and the requests of countless other residents and businesses) and we're delighted to announce that our contractor Mike Glynn will be starting work on the retaining wall at the north end of the street in the next 10 days. 

We will be reaching out to businesses on the street to ensure accessibility can be maintained as much as possible, and regular street parking will be affected - please bear with us during this work phase and contact annie at psgsf.org or emily at psgsf.org if and issues come up.

We will be having three work days in December where volunteers can join us in making this project happen. We're volunteer led and believe in the power of the community to get things like this done, so please come out and help! Volunteer days are as follows:

Dec. 1st. 10am-1pm:
Tree planting with Friends of the Urban Forest - FILLED (more always welcome!)

Dec. 8th. 10am-1pm:
Building the sidewalk: installing edging and landscape fabric, and putting in decomposed grantite - NEEDS VOLUNTEERS

Dec. 15th. 10am-1pm:
Installing sidewalk edging rocks as wheel stops to prevent cars driving on the sidewalk  - NEEDS VOLUNTEERS

We hope you can join us - please sign up here to get involved (there will be drinks and snacks for everyone, as well as buckets of good karma to take home!)  http://pennsylvaniagarden.blogspot.com/p/volunteer.html