San Francisco has managed to be on the cutting edge of experimenting with new ideas. As we all know many of those ideas are high tech and percolated by budding entrepreneurs resulting in apps and technical products. During this plethora of ideas, a low tech idea was spawn, germinated and coined “parklet”. Five years ago the first parklet was created in San Francisco. Their count around the city has since paralleled the tech boom.

So what is a parklet? It is a small strip of 1 to 3 street parking spaces that is transformed into a mini park funded and maintained by businesses, residents and community organizations for general access and use by the public. Typically many are in front of host businesses that users are not compelled to patronize. The parklets are temporal in nature. They must be built at the same level as the sidewalk, be handicap accessible and made of durable material yet easy to remove, leaving no trace of its’ existence. Some parklets have plants, seating and bicycle racks while others are very basic.

We have passed by multiple parklets over the years while photographing street art but never given much thought to their design, vibe or number. Recently we wondered where the parklets are located and if they reflect the character of the neighborhoods they are situated in. Aided by the Map of Projects on a city planning site we drove to different neighborhoods to check them out. We discovered some had similar designs but different vibes due to the patrons and hosts. There are a number of unique ones that are not confined to the current “in” areas. No surprise, quite a few are in front of coffee houses and cafes and have seating for linguering. Following is a sample of parklets.

There are two parklets on 24th St in Noe Valley that were original pilot projects opened in December, 2010. This is one of them and is maintained by the Noe Valley Association

There have been three parklets in front of Luna Rienne Gallery on 22nd St at Valencia in the Mision District. The first one was constructed in September 2011 and was designed and built by Erik Otto with the intension of periodically constructing new ones. We happened upon the second one titled Head in the clouds by Ursula X. Young in 2013 and the current one built in 2014 by Brian Barnecio titled Misinformation. Luna Rienne Gallery has a page on their site for donations for this project.

On Valencia around 20th Street is a residential parklet. It has always amazed us that someone would eliminate their garage space and want a public park at the bottom of their front door. But then who wants to back a car onto Valencia and look at concrete. This parklet is all about the garden.

One of our favorite parklets is the one outside Four Barrel Coffee on Valencia at 16th St. This one has the most creative bike rack and sports high counters with stools and epitomizes the current tech boom in the city in look and feel.

The smallest parklet we discovered is in the Dogpatch on 22nd Street by 3rd Street hosted by Just for You Cafe. The DogPatch is a small area just beyond Potrero. It looks hardly bigger than one parking space. It seems very fitting and cozy for an intimate neighborhood tucked away in a somewhat remote part of the City.

One of the more unexpected creative parklets is in what people think as the staid Marina filled with residents who supposedly are counter to the new tech culture. Oddly enough the Marina/Cow Hollow was the hot spot during the previous tech boom where crowds swarmed outside laundry mats and Noah Bagels on week-end mornings. This split truck is “parked” on Fillmore at Filbert and is the only parklet in the area and hosted by Rapha Cycle Club. It is not surprising there is only one in the Marina. The open shoreline is just blocks away.

Around Folsom and 8th in Soma is a parklet hosted by BrainWash. There are lots of little alleys with residents tucked away in this former warehouse light industrial area. Soma or South of Market is where the tech and homeless lock heads. Start Ups abound and construction cranes are everywhere transforming this neighborhood as we blink. The look and functionality of this parklet totally reflects the area. You can park your bike and sit over coffee while your clothes wash.

On 11th at Harrison is a bright yellow stucco building fronted with a classic white picket fence parklet complete with picnic tables. This down home parklet is hosted by Butter that opens at 6pm and dishes up Americana food like corns dogs, tots and chicken nuggets with Karaoke on Sundays. During the day traffic is lighter on this street than others in the area which makes this a decent place for soaking up sun rays during the lunch hour.

There are currently two parklets in the Upper Haight. One is hosted by the Haight Street Market under a mural of Hendrix mural by Eon75, Griffin One and Doty. The other is at Haight and Masonic, hosted by Magnolia and has a rather streamlined look with one continuous planter.

There are four parklets along Polk Street, all hosted by purveyors of food and coffee. We stopped at two. One is closer to Pacific Heights hosted by Cheese Plus and the other one is in the Lower Polk around Eddy. The one on Pacific has more of a residential vibe with families standing around chatting with their dogs. The one on Lower Polk feels like a place where working people or folks passing through the neighborhood might stop for a while for coffee or a lunch break.

Learn more about Parklets

We did not make it as many locations as planned. Hopefully these photos will give you inspiration to explore other neighborhoods.

The City website contains all you need to know about the Parklet Program.
Pavement to Park

A map with the location of all the parklets
Map of Projects