Community Breakfast to Launch Hayes Green

World-Wide Recognition for Hayes Valley!

Hayes Green, the new centerpiece of Hayes Valley, will open to the general public on June 3rd – with a host of honored guests on hand.

Mayors from around the world will be in San Francisco to attend the 2005 United Nations World Environment Day Conference, scheduled for June 1st until 5th. San Francisco is the first North American city to host this international affair. Mayor Gavin Newsom – along with Art Agnos, Frank Jordan, Willie Brown Jr., Senator Dianne Feinstein, and number of visiting mayors from the world over-will stop by Hayes Green on Friday morning for a breath of fresh air amidst their busy schedules.

The officials will be in the thick of intensive seminars, panel discussions, and meetings. They will also debate, develop, and sign the Urban Environment Accords, a roadmap for environmental improvement in cities.

Equally important (at least locally), Hayes Green will at last be open. The Green, which is part of the Octavia Boulevard Project, is the culmination of advocacy and grassroots efforts by local neighbors and businesspeople to convert a damaged freeway into a landscaped space that is both scenic and utilitarian. Hayes Green will be a gem in the neighborhood, contributing significantly to urban livability.

Free & Open to the Public

As part of the festivities for World Environment Day, the Neighborhood Parks Council will partner with the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and Hayes Valley Merchants Association to host the 9am Community Breakfast to celebrate the opening of Hayes Green. The opening, like all WED events, is free and open to the public. Local merchants will donate food and drinks, live music will wake up the crowd, and local schoolchildren will present the native flora and fauna of San Francisco. Several neighborhood leaders will make brief remarks about the change from an overhead freeway to a boulevard with park area and the history of area residents in effecting this and other changes in the neighborhood.

Art on the Green

Another highlight will be a temporary sculpture on the Green, designed and installed by David Best. David is well known for his temporary sculptures at Burning Man, and works almost exclusively with recycled and recyclable materials. Installation of this sculpture is scheduled to begin the week prior to the event. David and his crew are very respectful of the neighbors, and will be limiting their work to 8-6pm daily. Should there be any concern about noise or other issues with this project, please contact Jill Manton at the Arts Commission (252 2585). For more information about David Best, and a mock-up of this project, please visit www.blackrockarts.org.

Also scheduled for Friday is an interactive art installation by Creative Community Catalysts. This project, Community Action Trees, will allow each of us to state an action that we are taking to create a healthy community. As the mayors are signing urban environmental accords, we can sign personal accords and show our commitment in an artistic manner.

Join state, national, and international leaders – and of course, the good people of Hayes Valley – at Hayes Green for breakfast.

Other events that the mayors have planned during that week will also be in Hayes Valley. On Thursday, June 2nd, the Greenbelt Alliance will be conducting a tour of the City, and one of the focal points of that tour will be Octavia Boulevard, which should be nearing completion.

First Stop – Koshland Park

The international gathering of mayors will be also doing a bus tour of four important parks in the City. The first of these is Koshland Park. They should be at the park between 2:30–3:15 pm on Sunday, June 5th. We’d like to let the mayors know before they get off the bus, (which will stop at the Page Street ramp entrance) about the peace wall. There will be a mock-up of peace tiles along the Page Street entrance to the Park. The mayors will also be asked to contribute to our peace wall by signing a tile and naming their country as a tribune to their visit to SF. Once off the bus, hopefully most of them will quickly sign a tile and move on up to the garden and park. The Western Addition Drill Team and Drum Corps will perform. We would like to serve lemonade and possibly strawberry shortcake. There will be people designated to answer questions about the park and garden.

If you would like to assist with the Community Breakfast or World Environment Day, contact Johnny Wang at 415.621 3260 ext. 101 or jwang@sfneighborhoodparks.org.