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What do you do when the block you live on has been so choked with drugs, addicts, and violent crime that no one seems to remember better days?  If you lived on Quesada Avenue in Bayview Hunters Point a few years back, you would pull down the blinds and dread the inevitable dash to your car.  But that changed in 2002 when retired residents, Annette Smith and Karl Paige, started planting flowers and vegetables here and there around the block.

Neighbors were delighted to see color, beauty and food grow through the familiar blight.  Soon, on an urban median strip that runs up the center of the block, a small garden had become the meeting place for residents beginning to emerge from isolation.  The block is now transformed with gardens, art and a thriving spirit of community.

The Quesada Gardens Initiative (QGI) is the 100% resident-led movement that Annette’s and Karl’s act of love ignited.  In just six years, the group has achieved unprecedented results: visible, sustained change with little funding in a place where the priciest government programs continually disappoint. 

The project brought residents together in a new way, broke the isolation many felt, and empowered them to face some entrenched problems with renewed hope.  The Quesada Gardens neighborhood project quickly evolved into a more formal initiative: a close knit group of highly-motivated, concerned residents that reflects the diversity of the neighborhood and the city as a whole.

The Quesada Gardens Initiative is creating a safe and beautiful oasis in one of the nation's most challenged neighborhoods: the BVHP.  Our primary mission is to build social cohesion, health and wellness through community gardens, public art and events, and grassroots constituency-building.  We also address a range of related issues that diminish health, safety and quality of life, isolate residents, and reduce the experience of "community" that QGI represents.  Strong communities prevent violence and improve the health and wellness of its members.  QGI is 100% resident-led, powered by an extraordinarily diverse group of residents who live near the gardens, and their nonprofit, academic, governmental, and business allies.

The Quesada Gardens Initiative is "a little miracle," representative of renewed hope for a district in transition.  We believe that neighbors who know one another by name and regularly join together in common purpose can create lasting change that includes lower rates of violence and chronic disease.  QGI expresses that cornerstone value through key initiatives that include:

·         The now elaborate Quesada Garden and the constituency group of hundreds of activated residents from all demographic corners of Bayview which QGI represents;

·         Bridgeview Garden, a stunning teaching and learning garden providing practical experience with community-building, food production and the environment for Bayview children;

·         Latona Garden, a community food-producing garden installed as a response to years of dumping at the site (dumping which has since ceased);

·         Bayview Backyard Garden project, installing modular backyard farms and mentoring low-income and longterm Bayview residents to grow their own fruits and vegetables;

·         A major mural that defines an events space used for an annual outdoor film festival, Halloween “safe block” party, and a full range of other gatherings; and

·         Bayview Footprints, a collaboration of groups focused on strengthening the community through positive strategies, that QGI has organized and leads.

Bayview Footprints Collaboration of Community-Building Groups is designed to nuture the vision of community-based, resident-led change by engaging affinity groups, something our individual constituency model could not accommodate.  QGI is effectively reaching whole new and tremendously diverse constituencies of residents as a result.  Projects under the Footprints umbrella program include:

·         The only open, online community calendar (www.BayviewCalendar.org) serving the entire neighborhood - an immediately popular contribution;

·         The only information source (Bayview Footprints monthly newsletter delivered to thousands online and through limited print copies) that focuses on positive community- and business-building activity;

·         The only events series, the monthly social gathering known as Just for Us…and You, Too!, that has successfully moved patronage to Third Street businesses and community gathering spots in the evening hours (much like QGI’s outdoor film festival was the first program to get residents outside at night);

·         The only comprehensive portal website and social network (www.BayviewFootprints.org, online but still under construction); and

·         The only social marketing campaign that can be tailored by any organization or individual to reflect diverse experiences of the neighborhood (designed to focus residents’ pride and participation in Bayview, and drive volunteerism toward community-based activity).

The Quesada Gardens Initiative has for years secured rare, positive media attention for Bayview through strategic media outreach, and has been splashed across the front page of the Chronical several times.  In January, our Bridgeview Garden was featured on the front page of the local section of the San Francisco Examiner, and in March two members were the subject of an indepth interview for Network Empowerment Network TV. 

At the close of last year, we received the Models of Hope Award from the San Francisco Interfaith Council at the Mayor’s Annual Prayer Breakfast.  Other prestigious awards QGI has received include a Crissy Field Community Heroes Award, San Francisco Beautiful’s Robert C. Friese Award, and San Francisco’s Clean and Green Summit community recognition.  QGI’s two founding gardeners each received a Jefferson Award for their service. 

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