Mayor Newsom signed the Urban Environmental Accords as part of World Environment Day, held here in June 2005. Since the signing of these landmark Accords, San Francisco has launched the Livable City Initiative with a clear goal in mind: to make our City a world leader in city greening by 2010.

San Franciscans have a proud tradition of taking on tough problems and developing creative solutions. The Livable City Initiative is a partnership between city government, local residents, and the business community to develop a comprehensive vision for greening San Francisco, develop citywide greening programs and projects, and create tools that assist communities in initiating greening projects locally.

Goals of the Livable City Initiative

• Dramatically improve the beauty, safety, and sustainability of San Francisco's streets, parks and plazas, and improve the environmental performance of new development, both public and private;

• Empower residents and business with new programs that allow them to take the lead in greening efforts;

• Make greening a gateway to neighborhood development, jobs, public safety, and better health;

• Make greening a core part of the everyday work of city departments, through smarter capital planning, maintenance partnerships, and the expansion of environmental priorities in project design and permitting; and

• Take a green approach to how we manage our city infrastructure, ensuring that greening not only beautifies, but increases public safety, reduces noise and airborne pollution, cuts city maintenance costs, improves resource efficiency, reduces our water consumption, and enhances our ability to manage wastewater.
  

To achieve these goals, The Livable City Initiative is comprised of three program areas:
Click here for a detailed Organizational Chart

Reforming City Standards and Operations

• The Better Streets Policy - Establishing a clear city policy that insists on good urban design and comprehensive management of streets, parks, and plazas. The Better Streets Policy was adopted by the City’s Board of Supervisors on February 28, 2006. Read the policy!

• San Francisco's Pedestrian Realm Strategy - This project will develop comprehensive standards for pedestrian safety and accessibility, landscaping, lighting, site furnishings, and environmental best practices for the design and management of San Francisco's streets. These new standards are being developed jointly by the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) Deparment of Public Works (DPW), Planning, and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). A consultant team has been selected and public outreach will begin in Fall 2006!.

• Green Building Incentives Program - This program is creating streamlined permitting procedures in the departments of Building Inspection, Planning and Public Works for new development and renovations that volunteer to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® (LEED) Gold designation or better. This program is on track to be made available in late August 2006.
  

Creating Great Public Spaces

• Great Streets - Guided by the principles of the Better Streets Policy, We’re investing more than $11 million over the next three years in streetscape enhancements citywide. More<<

• Median Improvements - Immediate steps to renew and bring new landscaping to the city's medians. More<<

• Trees for Tomorrow - Planting 25,000 trees over the next five years to improve the health, safety and attractiveness of city streets, and to achieve the United Nations Urban Environmental Accords, Urban Nature Objective by 2012. We surpassed our goal for year One - planting tree no. 5,265 in dedication to Rosa Parks and planting more than 5,580 between Arbor Day 2005 and 2006

• The Blue Greenway Initiative - This initiative will creating a 13-mile greenway/waterway network along San Francisco's Southern Waterfront, providing new access to the waterfront for San Francisco's Eastern Neighborhoods. The First phase of the path linking Mission Creek to Hunter's Point Shipyard opened in June 2006 with the "Imagine the Way" event, which brought more than 250 people to India Basin Shoreline Park to celebrate the Blue Greenway. Download the Blue Greenway Vision Plan and Roadmap for Implementation. More<<

• The Bay to Beach Bikeway - Striping, stencil, signage, and paving improvements to create a consistent Class I bike route from downtown to Golden Gate Park and the Ocean. These improvements were completed in time for Bike-to-Work Day in May 2006! More<<

• Consolidated Newsrack Program - This ongoing program replaces the existing hodge-podge of individual newsracks with consolidated racks in the city's downtown, major thoroughfares and neighborhood shopping streets. Replacement is nearly complete on Market Street and in the Union Square area! More<<

• Utility Undergrounding Program - Undergrounding public utilities to reduce or eliminate overhead wires on city streets. More<<

• Automatic Public Toilet Program - Installing automatic public toilets at key locations throughout the city.

Empowering "Grassroots" Greening

• Green Connect - A partnership between government, nonprofit organizations, and San Francisco residents and businesses to support the greening of San Francisco's streets, parks and public spaces. Green Connect will create new resources and nuild new partnerships to improve maintenance and implement greening projects across the city. Learn more about Greenconnect.

• Community Challenge Grants - A matching grant program to fund your ideas for public space, landscaping, public art and maintenance improvements. Do you and your neighbors have an idea to improve your block? Get together and make a proposal! We awarded more than 23 applications worth more than $300,000 in May and will be accepting another round of applications in Fall 2006! More<<

• Street Parks - Working with neighborhoods to transform unused street areas into pocket parks, community gardens, and public spaces.

• Community TreeWatch - Encouraging community stewardship of new street trees.
  

Partner Agencies

• Department of Building Inspection
• Department of Public Works
• Department of Public Works - Bureau of Engineering
• Department of Public Works - Bureau of Urban Forestry
• Municipal Transportation Agency
• Planning Department
• Recreation and Park Department
• San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
• San Francisco Arts Commission
• San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
• San Francisco Transportation Authority
• SF Environment

Community Partners

• Alliance for a Clean Waterfront
• Friends of the Urban Forest
• Neighborhood Parks Council
• San Francisco Beautiful
• San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
• San Francisco Parks Trust
• Transportation for a Livable City
• San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)
• Sign up as a partner

Contact Information

• Astrid Haryati, Director of City Greening
  Mayor’s Office of Public Policy and Finance
  City Hall, Room 288
  1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
  San Francisco, CA 94102
  
  
• Kris Opbroek, Manager of Capital Projects
  Department of Public Works
  30 Van Ness Avenue, 5th Floor
  San Francisco, CA 94102
  (415) 558-4045 phone
  (415) 558-4519 fax