Sunday Streets Excelsior #1
March 29th, 2020 | 11:00am – 4:00pm
On March 29, Sunday Streets returns with the first of two annual events along the Excelsior’s main corridor. From Silver to Geneva Avenue, enjoy a car-free Mission Street, filled with open space for all, plus exhibits, live music, free activities and open space from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
With a route over a mile long, a car-dominated roadway transforms into a temporary park, providing plenty of space for residents to roll, walk, bike, exercise or simply hang out. Open streets increase community engagement and foot traffic, showcasing the area for visitors and giving locals a chance to see it in a whole new, walkable light.
Visit Activity Hubs at the southern and northern ends of the route, and at Persia Triangle, where residents can experience a pop-up community park. Enjoy a Market Square and Picnic Grounds, and pick up a Common Cents Passport at a Sunday Streets Info Booth to get stamped (and win prizes from!) local businesses. And don’t forget to pick up the Explore Local Map for a fun guide to the Excelsior you can use all year long.
“The E” boasts the city’s highest number of families and young people and is also San Francisco’s most diverse. Catch the 14, 49, 29, 44 or 52 bus or walk from Balboa Park or Glen Park BART stations to local eateries, ranging from Mexican, Thai and Korean cuisine to old-school Italian. Take in colorful murals, shop at fresh vegetable markets or check out seasonally-themed windows at neighborhood landmark Central Drug Store. Bring the kids for story time at the library branch or explore nearby McLaren Park.
For Sunday Street Excelsior’s fall event, click here.
TRANSIT & LIVABILITY
A high percentage of school-aged youth and multiple district schools make Muni the schoolbus for many neighborhood youth, and traffic creates busy – and sometimes dangerous – intersections, with both Mission and Geneva Streets identified as Vision Zero high-injury corridors.
At Sunday Streets, the Persia Triangle Pop-Up Park gives residents a feel for what the proposed mini park might look like in a neighborhood with few public plazas and open spaces. Check out Excelsior Action Group for upcoming Friends of Persia Triangle meetings to make the park a year-round community asset.
Car-free streets help envision a safer way for residents to get around. Check out SFMTA’s Mission Street Excelsior Safety Project and Excelsior Neighborhood Traffic Calming Projects for upcoming meetings and feedback sessions.
DID YOU KNOW?
On April 15, 1869, the Excelsior Homestead was filed at City Hall. Up to the 1906 earthquake it was a farming neighborhood, populated by Swiss, Irish, Italian Ligurian immigrants, and considered a village.
Along with his daughter Jeanette, Emanuel Lewis – one of the original housing developers in the neighborhood – named many of the area’s avenues after countries, and its streets after countries’ capital cities.
The Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia was born and raised in the Excelsior. In 2016, two commemorative plaques were installed on Mission Street at Amazon and at Harrington to honor his musical and family history.
The Alemany Emergency Hospital and Health Center was designed by then-city architect Charles Sawyer and is now a historical landmark. Inside are two frescoes by Bernard Zakheim, a notable artist who studied with Diego Rivera.