The 1989 San Francisco Bay Area earthquake destroyed an elevated freeway, opening up the entrance ramp space for community gardeners. Photo credit: Good.is
Theo Schell-Lambert reports on Good.is,
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake left many of San Francisco’s urban freeways structurally unsound. (Back then, there were many, carving up the core of the city.) But the flipside was a boon: The teardown of broad segments of elevated road has led to the revitalization—the reinvention, really—of neighborhoods like Hayes Valley. It has also given the city chunks of unused space, including the stretch between Laguna, Octavia, Oak, and Fell Streets, where ramps to the old Central Freeway haven’t led anywhere in years.
Gardeners at a work party get the gardens ready for the upcoming growing season. Photo credit: Hayes Valley Farm
San Francisco plans to develop this lot eventually, probably with mixed housing and green space. But a clever new project has been conceived for the interim years: an urban agriculture cooperative called the Hayes Valley Farm. “The Hayes Valley Neighborhood association contacted the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development to ‘activate’ the lots,” says Chris Burley, now the project’s director. Agriculture was the idea that moved everyone. “We’ve all seen the power of gardens to transform a space,” he says.
Click to read the rest of A Former California Freeway Turns Into A Farm story.
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