A Digital Journal - San Francisco Public Works
In the Works
July 2025
With a goal of sparking joy and enlivening our city, Public Works launched Love Our Neighborhoods, a faster, cheaper and simpler way for residents, businesses and nonprofit organizations to create, build and install projects that add beauty and build community – from staircase murals and string lights to little libraries and sidewalk planters.
Jan. 8, 1900, was the day the City of San Francisco officially marked the beginning of the San Francisco Board of Public Works through legislation that would usher in an era of cleaner streets and safer infrastructure for the residents of the City.
Today, we're known as San Francisco Public Works and we continue to provide many of the same programs and services that we did 125 years ago – while facing many of the same challenges.
Take a trip through our history with many rare images from early in the 20th century, which trace the development of Public Works and the City of San Francisco.
FEATURE STORIES
Love Our Neighborhoods
Amid a citywide push to simplify permitting and cut red tape, San Francisco Public Works is making it easier and cheaper than ever to spread joy, beauty and creativity in neighborhoods across the City in ways big and small – from installing little libraries along sidewalks to creating decorative staircases.
A Glass Act: Chinatown’s
New Public Art Wows
City officials and community leaders gathered at the Chinatown-Rose Pak Muni Station on a breezy July afternoon to celebrate the arrival of the area’s newest piece of public art, a colorful, glass-crafted love letter to the neighborhood’s rich history and cultural significance.
Love Our Neighborhoods
Amid a citywide push to simplify permitting and cut red tape, San Francisco Public Works is making it easier and cheaper than ever to spread joy, beauty and creativity in neighborhoods across the City in ways big and small – from installing little libraries along sidewalks to creating decorative staircases.
Artist and Goettingen Neighbors Group member Phillip Hua designed “Steps of Wisdom,” the tiled staircase at Goettingen and Dwight streets in the Portola,
created by neighbors and permitted through the Love Our Neighborhoods program.
Words of wisdom, provided by neighbors, are etched in the tiles.
Among them: “Know your neighbors,” and “Use each experience as a stepping stone.”
With Public Works’ new Love Our Neighborhoods program, residents can now receive City approval for a little library, sidewalk bench or planter in front of their home or business by snapping a few photos and uploading them to an easy-to-navigate dedicated website, quickly registering their project for free.
Bigger plans? No problem! Even those looking to pursue more elaborate projects – like string lights, sidewalk plaques and murals in the public right of way – will be able to apply for a permit in under 45 minutes. Don’t have a fully formed idea yet? The Love Our Neighborhoods staff will work with you from the start to discuss what’s possible.
Collaboration between Public Works and community members is a driving ethos of the new initiative.
“Part of what makes San Francisco a spectacular city is the way residents and community groups care for and love their neighborhoods,” said Public Works Director Carla Short. “While safety and accessibility remain a priority for us as stewards of the public right of way, we want to help guide and support people in their efforts to improve and beautify our shared public spaces.
A decorative heart sculpture, specially commissioned by the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation for Glide Memorial Church in the Tenderloin,
was unveiled at a community celebration on July 30, with the Ellis Street location approved through the Love Our Neighborhoods program.
“This new program,” Short added, “aims to simplify and speed up the process of enhancing and enriching our neighborhoods – and looks to foster an environment where creativity, dedication and civic pride can flourish.”
Residents and community groups across the City – from West Portal to the Portola, from the Tenderloin to North Beach – already have benefitted from the new program.
During recent weekends, for example, a group of Sunnyside residents, with paint brushes in hand and kneeling on foam cushions, could be found meticulously hand painting a colorful mural called “Winter Stream” along the upper Detroit Street Steps – one of the first projects out of the gate for the Love Our Neighborhoods program.
Volunteers paint a mural on the upper Detroit Street Steps, a community-driven initiative and one of the first Love Our Neighborhoods projects.
“This particular permit process has been a much smoother process than anything we’ve done,” said Pam Parker Murphy, who spearheaded efforts back in 2018 to improve the staircase with a series of projects.
Her mission: Transform the blighted public staircase that was overgrown with shrubbery and a haven for illicit drug activity and illegal dumping into a welcoming neighborhood treasure.
Along with neighbor Rosaura Valle, Murphy pulled together a group of community-spirited neighbors and started The Detroit Steps Project. The staircase is split in two segments – the upper steps run from Joost Avenue to Monterey Boulevard and the lower steps from Monterey Boulevard to Hearst Avenue.
Volunteers work two-hour shifts bringing the mural, designed by Sunnyside resident and artist Tad Sky, to life.
Step by step – literally – the community-led improvements, fueled by hardworking, dedicated volunteers, have been transformational: Gone are the piles of trash and neglected foliage. Today, there is new fencing and tended landscaping frames the stairs. Organized work parties have added up to thousands of hours of volunteer time over the years.
“This is not our vocation, it’s a love for our neighborhood and our city – a labor of love,” Murphy said.
While the group has bigger plans to add a decorative arch at the top of the lower steps and improve lighting, the mural on the upper steps is already underway with the help of 80 volunteers who each take two-hour shifts on organized workdays to paint it. Neighbor and artist Tad Sky designed the mural.
“For us as a community group, having a smooth process allows us to contribute in ways that we otherwise might not be able to,” Murphy said. “These projects make our community a nice place to live, a safer place to live and a more beautiful place to live.”
An element of the Detroit Steps mural, titled “Winter Stream.”
The Love Our Neighborhoods program marks a significant departure from previous City permitting processes in a few key ways:
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It is staffed with its own dedicated program analyst who acts as the primary point of contact from application through construction – both streamlining the effort and providing step-by-step guidance. A designated in-house team of engineers also will be available to assess more complex projects that require more stringent reviews to ensure safety and accessibility.
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Love Our Neighborhoods permits also come at a much lower cost to applicants than other City-issued permits for encroachment into the public right of way. They range from free of charge to $1,065, depending on the project’s size and scope.
People can install little libraries in front of their homes or businesses through a simple – and free – registration process.
How it works
Love Our Neighborhoods projects are divided into three tiers based upon their complexity, size and cost.
Tier 1 Love Our Neighborhoods projects include benches, little libraries and planters. Any property owner can install a Tier 1 project in front of their property free of charge. To register a Tier 1 project, all that is needed is the registrant’s contact information and a few photos of the completed project to self-certify that it follows the Love Our Neighborhoods program regulations. Some examples of regulations for these projects include maintaining a minimum distance from existing elements, like street trees, curbs and transit shelters, and keeping the path of travel on sidewalks free and clear.
Murals, like this one on a retaining wall on Claremont Boulevard in West Portal, fall under Love Our Neighborhoods.
Tier 2 projects are larger and incorporate more significant parts of the public right of way. These include murals on retaining walls, bridges or sidewalks; most tiled staircases; commemorative plaques; string lighting and minor landscape projects. They carry a one-time Public Works fee of $533, plus an additional $11 Board of Appeals fee.
This piece, sponsored by Downtown SF Partnership and part of the Love Our Neighborhoods portfolio, can be found in the public plaza at Drumm, California and Market streets.
Tier 3 projects require the most coordination and highest level of review. These include string lights hung across a commercial corridor, certain tiled staircases, new stairways or retaining walls, sculptures, fog catchers, pedestrian-scale lighting, major landscape projects and multi-amenity designs. These projects carry a one-time Public Works fee of $1,065, plus an additional $11 Board of Appeals fee.
Only established community organizations, nonprofits, community benefit districts or merchants’ associations can apply for Tier 2 and Tier 3 permits.
Sidewalk planters fall under Love Our Neighborhoods, with a fast and free registration.
The dedicated Love Our Neighborhoods website includes information about project funding options, a list of FAQs and helpful tips for potential applicants.
Each project type has its own page on the site, complete with a full, step-by-step list of the eligibility requirements, as well as the applicant information and project-related documents needed to successfully apply for that type of project.
Its “Helpful Documents” page is a repository of more than 25 documents – from sample site plans to templates for project maintenance plans – designed to assist in the application process.
Mayor Daniel Lurie said Love Our Neighborhoods builds on his administration’s San Francisco-comeback initiatives.
“I love this city, and every San Franciscan I meet on the street does, too. You feel that pride and that care in every neighborhood – and this program is about unlocking that energy and letting it flourish,” Lurie said. “We’re making it easier for residents to take on neighborhood projects, because if someone wants to help their community look better and feel more alive, the City should help them do it.”
He was joined by supervisors Myrna Melgar and Rafael Mandelman, as well as Public Works staff and community leaders, at a July 15 Love Our Neighborhoods kickoff event in Glen Park.
Public Works Director Carla Short addresses the crowd during a Love Our Neighborhoods kickoff event in Glen Park on July 15.
Public Works envisions this program as one of the many ways the department can help drive San Francisco’s comeback. Enlivening and beautifying our public spaces fosters community among neighbors, attracts visitors to a neighborhood, encourages economic activity and boosts civic pride.
“Community-driven projects are the ideas, voices and energies of residents. They grow connections and foster pride,” said Renee Berger, who captained the Burnside mural and tiled staircase projects in Glen Park. “The murals that brighten once-forlorn areas, gardens that replace thickets of weeds, and colorful mosaic stairways that we see in San Francisco are dreams realized by community members committed to nurturing healthy neighborhoods.”
Do you love San Francisco? We do!
BY THE NUM83R5
PUBLIC WORKS
2025 -YEAR TO DATE (through end of June 2025)
6,400
POTHOLES
FILLED
4,972
TREES
PRUNED
640
CURB RAMPS
CONSTRUCTED
212
NUMBER OF BLOCKS RESURFACED
10,727
TONS OF DEBRIS COLLECTED
“Arrival,” the glass mural by Tomie Arai, at the Chinatown-Rose Pak Station. Photo Credit: Ethan Kaplan Photography, through the San Francisco Arts Commission.
A Glass Act: Chinatown’s
New Public Art Wows
As commuters hustled past to catch their train and Muni buses zipped by, City officials and community leaders gathered at the Chinatown-Rose Pak Muni Station on a breezy July afternoon to celebrate the arrival of the area’s newest piece of public art, a colorful, glass-crafted love letter to the neighborhood’s rich history and cultural significance.
The artwork – known as “Arrival” and created by internationally renowned New York-based artist and activist Tomie Arai – tells the community’s story through historic and contemporary imagery translated into architectural glass on the station’s exterior along Stockton and Washington streets, as well as along the transit hub’s plaza wall.
The project, a collaboration between the San Francisco Arts Commission and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, was brought to life with the help of Public Works, which led construction management during the installation of the dynamic art piece.
“I think, of course, the beauty of artwork is that everyone sees things differently,” District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter, whose district includes Chinatown, told the crowd gathered at the July 24 event. “But for me, as I’ve looked in the past week or two at this artwork ... I love noticing something new every single time.”
City officials and community leaders celebrate at the July 24 unveiling of “Arrival.”
At the entrance into the Muni station, the artwork extends like a scroll across the three sides of the station’s exterior, beginning with scenes of the California coast and San Francisco Bay – a historic port of entry for immigrants from Asia. As the art piece turns onto Stockton Street and then Washington Street, the design portrays a mix of hybrid trees and flowers, suggesting a vibrant garden and the promise of a new home, a reference to the nearby Ping Yuen (Peaceful Garden) public housing project and the legacy of Chinatown tenant organizers.
Maps of local streets, the broader city and the world beyond form an evolving backdrop for portraits of students from the neighborhood's Gordon J. Lau Elementary School and multiple generations of community members. In San Francisco’s Chinatown, the oldest in the United States and like many urban centers home to diverse immigrant communities, “Arrival” signifies a neighborhood in transition, replete with history and moving toward a more global future.
The artwork showcases Chinatown history, the immigrant experience and community members. Photo Credit: Ethan Kaplan Photography, through the San Francisco Arts Commission.
To Public Works engineer Kevin Li, who was part of the project team, work on the art installation was especially meaningful. He attended Commodore Stockton pre-school across from Gordon J. Lau Elementary School and grew up in Chinatown and neighboring Nob Hill.
“I never imagined as a kid that the building that was previously here would be transformed into a transit station and then as an adult contributing to the installation of a piece of art that will continue to carry on the important legacy of this wonderful community,” he told the crowd.
Members of his family who were immigrants themselves would be very proud, Li added. “I hope this will inspire the next generation to continue preserving the culture and history of Chinatown.”
The project was challenging from start to finish but rewarding, Li said, from working above the sidewalk at the entrance of the station and adjacent to the Muni bus stop in one of the densest parts of the City to installing glass and steel into an asymmetric structure.
The glass mural stretches 120 feet around three sides of the transit station.
Crews also had to navigate several important community events and festivals, including the Chinese New Year Parade and NBA All-Star Game festivities.
Among the portraits highlighted as part of the newly installed art piece is that of Mary Tape, a desegregationist based first in San Francisco’s Chinatown and then in Berkeley, who fought for Chinese Americans’ access to education.
The station itself was named after community champion Rose Pak, who was born in Henan Province, China, and grew up in Hong Kong and Macao before arriving in San Francisco in 1967. She eventually became the first female Chinese American reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle and later made her mark as a community activist and political powerhouse.
For three decades, she championed the Central Subway, a critical transportation service for residents and businesses in Chinatown and the City’s other neighborhoods.
The Central Subway project, completed in 2022, connects the Muni Metro T Third Line from Chinatown to Sunnydale, providing a direct, rapid transit link between downtown and some of the City's busiest, most densely populated areas, including Union Square, SoMa, Mission Bay, Dogpatch and Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods.
Public Works provided construction management services for the installation of the art piece, which was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission.
In collaboration with the SFMTA, the Arts Commission managed the selection and implementation of a diverse public art program that includes 10 permanent site-specific artworks by 12 artists at Chinatown-Rose Pak, Union Square/Market Street, Yerba Buena/Moscone and 4th & Brannan stations.
The artwork at the façade of the Chinatown-Rose Pak Station is approximately 120 feet in length with a height ranging from 4 to 8 feet, totaling about 700 square feet.
The artwork project budget for “Arrival” was approximately $571,000, which was inclusive of design, fabrication and transportation. The artwork glass was fabricated by Moon Shadow Glass with support from Magnolia Editions.
Funding was made possible through the Art Enrichment Ordinance, which ensures that 2% of the gross construction cost of civic buildings, transportation improvement projects, new parks and other above-ground structures, such as bridges, is allocated for public art.
“Both art and public transit have the ability to move and connect us, and this showstopping, thoughtful installation sits at the intersection of the two,” said Public Works Director Carla Short. “We are thrilled to have been able to play a part in bringing this project to life, helping add another layer of beauty, history and kinship to this community’s already rich cultural tapestry.”
The summer jobs landscaping crew tending to the median on Junipero Serra Boulevard.
Summer Jobs Program: Grow and Give Back
This past spring, Marshawn Harris, 15, contemplated how he might spend his summer break from classes at John O’Connell High School in the Mission District, mulling over how to stay productive, earn some money and flex his job-readiness skills.
His father had heard about San Francisco Public Works’ Summer Youth Program, which is affiliated with Hunters Point Family, a community nonprofit in their Bayview neighborhood. Harris’ cousin is a graduate of the landscaping and urban forestry workforce development program and spoke highly of her experience.
“My dad said, ‘You want to work?’” Harris recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah!’”
On June 30, Harris began earning $21.55 an hour, working 24 hours a week. He removed weeds and garbage from medians and sidewalks throughout the City and learned how to operate work truck lift gates and use tools of the landscaping and arboriculture trades, such as hoes and line trimmers, among other practical and in-demand job skills.
Marshawn Harris, a John O’Connell High School student, said the summer job
with Public Works is hard work but feels good.
Each summer, Public Works provides high schoolers with on-the-job training, help with resume writing and interview training and education as they prepare themselves for graduation and stable and productive income opportunities that benefit the community.
Summer Youth Program participants are placed on supervised crews performing landscape maintenance and environmental cleanup. Duties include weeding, mulching, planting, watering and maintaining street medians, planters and pocket parks. Crews also participate in litter collection, graffiti abatement and basic right-of-way maintenance to help beautify neighborhoods across the City.
Marshawn Harris, left, helps a supervisor haul away the green waste.
“It’s hard work; I’m sweating now,” Harris said, one recent morning, wiping his brow during a break from lifting trash cans full of weeds and fallen leaves from a median cleanup project in the Ingleside neighborhood.
The median along Junipero Serra Boulevard, at Holloway Avenue, was transformed from being full of waist-high grasses to looking tidy and manicured, thanks to Harris, his 42 co-workers and their adult leaders from the Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry’s landscape shop.
“It feels good,” he said, adding that what he’s learning on the job will be helpful whether he decides to attend college or pursue full-time work after graduation. “I like cleaning up the City. It’s helping me be a better person and I’m learning how to help my peers.”
Harris is one of the fortunate teenagers across the country entering a competitive summer job market. Data shows that employers have either paused hiring for traditional entry-level jobs as food establishment servers, amusement park attendants, lifeguards and retail clerks or are selecting adults for these roles.
Despite serious fiscal challenges citywide, Public Works is proud to continue to offer the Summer Youth Program, said Public Works Director Carla Short.
“Our Summer Youth Program is integral to Public Works’ commitment to making our neighborhoods more resilient by providing our youth meaningful job skills but also imparting civic pride to the next generation as we continue our mission to make San Francisco cleaner and safer for all who live and visit here,” Short said.
The participants are introduced to safe work practices, timekeeping and workplace expectations, while receiving mentorship from City staff. The program is designed to provide early exposure to careers in the public sector and teach responsibility, teamwork and the basics of fieldwork in a municipal environment.
Public Works gardeners Sabrina Soto (left) and Yesenia Ramos wield tools of their trade during a median spruce-up.
Public Works gardener Sabrina Soto is overseeing the summer youth along with landscape manager Douglas Reed, gardener Yesenia Ramos and workforce development manager Warren Hill. Soto said the teens in the program are not only cleaning and beautifying the City, but they are getting experience that will benefit them as they finish high school coursework and plan for their future.
In a matter of weeks, Soto said, she’s seen a transformation in their ability to adapt to the demands of a daily job.
The program’s adult leaders, at first, had to provide step-by-step instructions, Soto said. “(Now) they’re grabbing the tools, getting the work done and asking, ‘What’s next?’” she said. “It’s going to (be) beneficial for their future. Some want to do hair. Some are athletes. Some are going to college.
“It’s been such a positive experience having them come out here and see how hard they work,” she added. “They feel very proud.”
Hunters Point Family – the nonprofit that recruits the Summer Youth Program participants, aged 13-17 – has deep roots in the City’s southeast neighborhoods. The organization works with other community centers, San Francisco Unified School District leadership and partner nonprofits to identify candidates for the five-week program, which concludes Aug. 1.
All youth who qualify participate in 12 to 15 hours of training in job safety best practices, conflict mediation and workplace etiquette, before beginning work alongside Public Works crews, said Nyree Monroe, Hunters Point Family’s director of workforce development.
The group began working with Public Works in 2023.
“It gives them the opportunity to work, earn money and study financial management,” Monroe said. “They’re not on a stipend. They are employees of Hunters Point Family during their time with the Summer Youth Program. They must fill out an application. They work alongside Public Works crews and see the world through these tradesmen’s and tradeswomen’s eyes, what it means to hold a job in environmental services, working outdoors. Not only that but they see the many other layers of Public Works’ endeavors across the City.”
In the two years Hunters Point Family has worked with Public Works’ Summer Youth Program, four students have gone on to four-year universities or community college, she said. Others have expressed an interest in joining Public Works’ general labor apprenticeship and public service aide career tracks.
“All of our youth are unique and come to us with different challenges,” Monroe said. “They also bring their individual strengths which we endeavor to draw out. Our goal is to give them the opportunity to prosper and grow and give back. We are grateful to San Francisco Public Works and the City and County of San Francisco for giving us the opportunity to serve our youth, our communities and families.”
In-house asphalt crews and outside contractor crews resurfaced 561 blocks last fiscal year.
A Milestone Year
Public Works not only met but exceeded targets set for roadway and curb ramp upgrades during the just-concluded fiscal year – showcasing our commitment to improve the condition of our streets and expand accessibility.
561 blocks paved (target of 500)
224 curb ramps constructed by Public Works (target of 145)
526 blocks designed (target of 500)
The department bested the yearly 500-block paving target for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025, paving 561 blocks. The effort will help keep San Francisco on track to maintain the best paving condition rating among big Bay Area cities.
Overall, during the past 15 years, 9,249 – or 71% – of San Francisco’s nearly 13,000 blocks have been resurfaced.
The cumulative $979 million investment over that decade-and-a-half timespan has yielded the City a score of 75 on the independently rated Pavement Condition Index or PCI for short – a ranking deemed “good” by the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
The paving effort has earned San Francisco a roadway condition score of 75, a ranking deemed “good.”
The City has come a long way.
San Francisco’s PCI score hovered in the mid-60s during the early 2000s. But the City’s strong commitment to fund roadway maintenance over the last 15-plus years has resulted in a steady rise in the pavement condition score.
The PCI score represents an overall rating of road conditions on a scale from 0-100, with zero being a pothole-riddled, crumbling street and 100 signifying a freshly paved road. The average score in the region is 67. San Jose’s latest reported score is 71; Oakland’s is 57.
Public Works’ Street Resurfacing Program paved streets in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco during the last fiscal year. Among them: Clement Street, Fillmore Street, Green Street, Laguna Street, Sixth Street, Junipero Serra Boulevard, 29th Street, Alabama Street, Yosemite Avenue and Geneva Avenue.
Both in-house Public Works asphalt crews and City contractors performed the critical work.
Public Works' resurfacing program follows industry best practices by preserving streets in good condition instead of letting them deteriorate. This approach is the most cost-effective.
Extending the life of a block in San Francisco that is in good condition can cost as little as $50,000. By comparison, the price to completely reconstruct a block in very poor condition can be as much as $500,000 or more.
The driving philosophy of the San Francisco Street Resurfacing Program is “Treat the right road with the right treatment at the right time for the right price.”
Crews constructed 845 curb ramps in San Francisco during the last fiscal year.
Curb Ramps
The Public Works Curb Ramp Program also met and exceeded its goal last fiscal year.
Citywide 845 curb ramps were constructed in Fiscal Year 2024-25. This was a collective effort between various Public Works programs, City agencies and third-party utility companies.
Of the total curb ramps built across San Francisco last fiscal year, 224 were constructed by Public Works’ Curb Ramp Program, meeting and exceeding the program goal of 145.
For people with mobility challenges, curb ramps are essential for providing an accessible path of travel onto and off of public sidewalks, making it easier to get around. Public Works, through its Curb Ramp Program, is committed to providing equal access to all City residents.
Before a block is resurfaced, our engineers need to design the work. In the last fiscal year, the team designed 526 blocks.
Blocks Designed
Public Works met another one of its goals last fiscal year: number of blocks designed.
Staff in the Design and Development Division designed 526 blocks in Fiscal Year 2024-25, meeting and exceeding the program goal of 500.
Before a block is paved, a lot of prep goes into the design to ensure the newly resurfaced roadway is properly sloped and can accommodate the needed storm drains, curb ramps and other supporting infrastructure. The engineering team involved in the block designs plays an integral role in the upkeep of our streets.
Volunteers plant a young tree in the new dog park at Fifth and Harrison streets that will be opening soon.
Greening and Cleaning Brigade Gets to Work in the South of Market
For this month's Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification Day workday, volunteers and Public Works crews joined together to green and clean the South of Market, Mission Bay and other District 6 neighborhoods.
The July 12 event kicked off at the Public Works Street Tree Nursery, which also hosted an open house from 9 a.m. to noon that day. Visitors were able to learn about San Francisco's many street trees, check out a display of beautiful nature photos by Marisa Ishimatsu and chat with nursery staff about the history and purpose of the site.
District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey helped fire up volunteers and crews before teams fanned out to the various worksites. Participants planted trees, weeded and pruned public green spaces, picked up litter and wiped out graffiti.
Volunteers wipe out graffiti during July’s Neighborhood Beautification Day workday.
Next month, the Neighborhood Beautification Day team will head to the Portola, the Mission, Bernal Heights and other District 9 neighborhoods.
The event kicks off at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9, at John O'Connell Technical High School at 2380 Harrison St.
Want to participate? Sign up here.
