Shaping the Richmond’s Future

By Brian Quan

Heading into the holiday season after dwelling on ghosts has me thinking about Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” While winter weather is seemingly far away from San Francisco lately, the tale of Ebenezer being visited by three ghosts leading to his transformation and reformation feels ever closer in relation to what our City is facing. While the moral and social values being espoused are very clear on a personal level, how can this tale of past, present and future be used as a lens into the design of our neighborhood?

The increasingly more normalized warmer weather this late in the year lead quite pointedly to concerns about potential fires and water access in case of emergency. While these are not new concerns to the area, I was struck by this framing of our neighborhood’s environment by retired SF Fire Department Deputy Chief Tom Doudiet: “You have to think of the Richmond and the Sunset as an old, densely packed forest. You’ve got old, dry wood-frame buildings that are like kindling all bunched up against each other.” 

After touring the sites of former cemeteries, I am left to wonder how this transformation from sandy coastal dunes to the dried up forest of houses has altered other parts of our environment. Normally the limiter of biomass in an area is the capacity of the watershed, yet have we done enough to ensure our modern sewer and stormwater systems have kept up?

Ghosts of the past of our environmental design that I noticed are on 23rd Avenue, between Fulton and Cabrillo, and 39th Avenue between Anza and Balboa. If you find yourself on these streets it becomes readily apparent how different they are from most every other street in the neighborhood. Splitting the roads are a center median of plants and trees. 

A way to combat the potential spread of fires that takes a cue from nature is to having living trees full of water. While now we’ve become capped by Golden Gate Park to the south and to the north by Lincoln Park and the Presidio, the only other tree breaks of significance are on Geary Boulevard, which is already a wide enough asphalt strip to act as a firebreak.

The ghost of our present tries to bring some level of greenery to our lives with sidewalk trees. But if you are familiar with the bestseller “The Hidden Lives of Trees,” then you might be aware that trees truly become a forest by having interconnected root networks via the soil. Our modern urban design has isolated trees spaced apart rather evenly, with us shaping them rather than the trees helping to shape the environment. This is done to protect the underground pipes from roots rather than integrating our systems to be in better harmony with nature. Yet we see time and again the flooding that winter storms bring as our asphalt watershed funnels away stormwater instead of capturing and storing it in the ground.

Wandering the Lands End area are stands identifying the Richmond watershed, part of the SF Public Utilities Commission’s informational campaign to help residents understand the City’s eight different watersheds. The main outflow of the Richmond is Lobos Creek. For those around long enough, this was the site of a massive sinkhole that swallowed a few homes after a winter storm. Water main breaks and sinkholes are seemingly more common as our infrastructure continues to age.

What about the ghost of our future in this parable?  Earthquakes and fires, doom and gloom – must we only think about worst-case scenarios to move us into transformation and reform. I see the past as a memory of what could be and where lessons can be learned to be better prepared for the changes we are starting to see.

As we think about the resilience of our aging infrastructure, we need to adopt a more holistic approach that draws inspiration from natural processes. With a goal toward a separated sewer and stormwater system, our City’s methods for utilizing our natural water resources needs to take a step up. (San Francisco is the only major city in the United States that does not have separate rainwater and sewer systems.) 

While we can tear up roads and replace pipes, there needs to be a more serious consideration of adding infrastructure elements being used in other parts of the City, like rain gardens and bioswales. Features like these help slow the penetration of rain water rather than letting them flow quickly out of the area. By adapting to more natural features perhaps we will forestall when nature fully reclaims the City.

Brian Quan is a Richmond District native, co-leader of Grow the Richmond, president of the Chinese American Democratic Club, member of the Park Presidio-Sunset Lions Club and leads a monthly Refuse Refuse S.F. street clean-up.