San Francisco

I just came across Garden for the Environment, a San Francisco group that maintains a demonstration garden in SF and offers classes on gardening, composting and other topics:

Garden for the Environment maintains a nationally acclaimed one-acre urban demonstration garden and offers environmental education programs about organic gardening, urban compost systems and sustainable food systems. Since its founding in 1990, the garden has operated as a demonstration site for small-scale urban ecological food production, organic gardening and low water-use landscaping.

I’ve always wanted to learn some gardening basics (it’s been a long time since I grew vegetables behind my Dad’s flat when I was a kid), so this is definitely on my list of things to check out.

Garden for the Environment


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Russian Hill is one of my favorite places to go walking in San Francisco, partly because of the proximity to my home and partly because of the amazing views and the variety of things to see. So I was delighted to find an article in the Chronicle the other day about… wait for it… walking on Russian Hill!

Even better, the article is actually a walking tour highlighting specific buildings and their architectural styles. It’s one of the “Urban Outings” columns “presented by Greenbelt Alliance, the Bay Area’s advocate for open spaces and vibrant places, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.”

Article and photos: Russian Hill hike, San Francisco
Greenbelt Alliance


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From the Chronicle:

The cooks of San Francisco, where sauteing is a sacred rite for some, now have a place to send their used cooking oil without turning the city’s sewer system into a choked maze of congealed grease.

On Saturday, the city kicked off a four-day cooking oil recycling drive, during which residents can drop off their discarded olive oil, canola oil and other kitchen grease for eventual use in the city’s fleet of biofuel vehicles. At the last grease recycling drive, over Thanksgiving weekend, San Franciscans unloaded more than 2 tons of cooking oil.

More: Grease drive: SF turns cooking oil into fuel


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Some events and exhibitions going on at the SFPL:

  • Presidential Inauguration. January 20, 2009, 9am-12pm, Koret Auditorium, Main Library, Lower Level: “Join us to watch the swearing in and inaugural address of President-elect Barack Obama. Celebratory refreshments in Latino/Hispanic Community Room B.”
  • Harvey Milk: Private Life, Public Life. Through January 10, 2009, Main Library, Third Floor, James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center, Sixth Floor, San Francisco History Center. “An exhibit of original photographs and archival material drawn from the collections of the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center and the San Francisco History Center that explores the life of Harvey Milk from his childhood to his days on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Highlights include family photos, love letters, candid snapshots and political papers.”
  • Our Rights as Human Beings, The 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Through December 1, 2009, Main Library, Third Floor, International Center. “In honor of the December 10, 1948 United Nations General Assembly adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Library presents a unique 1949 photo display designed to explain these rights in a way accessible to all, regardless of the language you speak, along with the full text of the Declaration.”
  • All Aboard! The San Fracisco Public Library Holiday Train. Through January 9, 2009, Main Library, Second Floor, Fisher Children’s Center. Featured is a Lionel O Scale replica of the Polar Express, which starred in Chris Van Allsburg’s 1985 holiday classic and the subsequent 2004 movie adaptation of the same name.

All programs at the Library are free.

San Francisco Public Library


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The San Francisco Department of the Environment has developed a Solar Map of The City which shows existing installations and provides estimates of how much solar energy can be obtained at a given location. There are also estimates to the cost of installing solar including incentive discounts available.

San Francisco Solar Map

The San Francisco Department of the Environment provides information and resources about a slew of environmental programs available in The City:

The San Francisco Department of the Environment (SFE) works to improve, enhance and preserve the environment, and to promote San Francisco’s long-term well-being. In addition to its historic function of providing environmental policy direction for the Mayor and Board of Supervisors, SFE delivers service programs for San Francisco residents and businesses, including recycling, toxics reduction, environmental justice grants, and renewable energy and efficiency. SFE develops innovative, practical and wide-ranging environmental programs, fosters groundbreaking legislation, and connects the public to environmental resources by providing access to comprehensive and easy-to-use information on a wide range of sustainable practices. Some of the Department’s ambitious, but deliverable, environmental goals include attaining 75 percent recycling by 2010, and curbing San Francisco’s greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. For more information about SFE, go to http://www.sfenvironment.org.

San Francisco Department of the Environment


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SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) has published “A Midlife Crisis for Regional Rail,” a report on the progress of the Bay Area’s rail planning over the last 50 years, and on what needs to happen next. A lot of the emphasis is tying together the disparate transit systems throughout the region and making immediate incremental improvements that will have big effects.

Great reading for all you fellow transit and rail enthusiasts: A Midlife Crisis for Regional Rail

SPUR home page


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