January 22, 2024: Into The Streets/Treat Avenue Plaza Minigrants awarded GP $7,500 of a $15,000 overall budget to prepare a conceptual design for the Treat Avenue Greenspace. The project is an unaccepted street on Treat Avenue between 15th and Harrison Streets. We aim to convert this roadway into an agreed, open space. We are rendering in development.
The benefits to the community are extensive, but the main ones include:
- Provide much-needed green, open space to the underserved Latinx community, which lacks sufficient recreation areas in the district.
- Improve blighted public spaces, which currently attract dumping and vandalism. This site would be better used for green space.
- Increase the district’s green canopy area, which, at 8%, is below the city’s average of 15% since much of the green canopy is in more well-heeled neighborhoods.
- Continue activating the area, including Treat Plaza, as a springboard for future green space planning, design, and construction.
- Offer additional space where neighboring residents and workers can convene, and SPCA volunteers can walk their wards.
- Provide opportunities for urban farming in planters and beds, which can also be used for educational purposes for the neighborhood children.
- This will increase foot traffic and, therefore, customers for the local businesses, especially markets, cafes, and other local eateries. In addition, these businesses will be called upon to provide catering during large community events.
Extending and creating a network of community open spaces stemming from Treat Plaza will not only enhance the area’s livability and overall residents’ health and well-being, but it will also create a chain of open spaces, which will encourage community members to take ownership of them and, thereby, increase stewardship and the amount of time they spend in them. To that end, we are collaborating with Latina Mission Moms (LMM), actively seeking spaces for their children’s educational and recreational activities.