In the Works
A Digital Journal from San Francisco Public Works
APRIL 2026
The Rest of the Lineup
Baptism by Fire: New Training Campus for Firefighters, EMTs, Paramedics Breaks Ground in Bayview-Hunters Point
City officials flung gold-plated shovels into a generous mound of dirt on a recent April morning in Bayview-Hunters Point to mark the beginning of a new era of firefighting and rescue training in San Francisco.
Public Works Week 2026:
A Time to Teach, Learn
and Celebrate
Public Works Week – a time to celebrate our accomplishments and showcase our work – brought hundreds of students to our open houses, offering them an opportunity to learn what we do through hands-on activities with our boots-on-the-ground crews, engineers and designers.
NUMBERS
2026 YTD (through the end of March)
by the
104
blocks resurfaced
1767
TREes PRUNED
6080
tons of debris collected
1756
potholes filled
86
curb ramps constructed
Visitors stroll through the lush Pennsylvania Garden street park in the Dogpatch/Potrero Hill neighborhood.
Street Parks
Build Community,
Green San Francisco
Across San Francisco, more than 100 odd-shaped parcels of land in the City’s public right of way – once dormant or neglected – have blossomed into lovingly tended gardens and welcoming community spaces under a partnership between neighborhood volunteers and Public Works.
Volunteers begin work on a new street park in the Green Hairstreak corridor.
Since launching in 2004, the Street Parks Program has grown to 137 active sites citywide, each supported by community-based stewards who take the lead in maintaining and shaping these spaces.
Street park locations in San Francisco.
Public Works, which manages the program, loans out tools, provides trash bags and green waste bags, hauls away the waste and reviews site and maintenance plans. At times there are joint workdays involving community volunteers and Public Works crews.
Public Works crews and scores of volunteers work together to beautify the street park adjacent to the 16th Avenue staircase.
David Dea, the steward for the street park at 20th and Noe streets in the Dolores Heights neighborhood, said that before the pandemic, the open space near his home was used as a homeless encampment and strewn with needles, human waste and trash.
"Nobody did anything about it and we said, 'We're going to take the space back,' and we started planting there," said Dea, a 30-year resident of the area whose garden came to life with donated plants and volunteer labor. "It's now a beautiful space."
The street park at 20th and Noe streets in Dolores Heights after being transformed by volunteers in the neighborhood.
Public Works, he said, has really helped the neighborhood volunteers "with trash bags, gardening equipment and trash pickups, so they're very involved."
Tanika Gaines is one of three Street Parks Program managers with the Public Works Community Engagement Team.
"As a street parks manager, we have a responsibility to engage with the community to see what their need is," Gaines said. "That's what public service is all about."
A resident works on a section of a Penny Lane street park.
Each street park is different – created to meet the needs of the community that develops it.
Under the guidance of Public Works, residents can transform the public land into ornamental gardens, places of recreation, community meeting spaces, wildlife habitat or another open space use. Some have benches, lighting and murals, others simply plants and perhaps trees.
Street parks come in all different sizes, like this tiny one on Taraval Street.
The street parks, also known as pocket parks, come in different shapes and sizes on land in the public right of way that Public Works owns but by code typically is not accepted for maintenance. Some are nestled next to stairways or found on a roadway median, a traffic circle or a dirt path.
Over the past year, Public Works has reinvigorated the initiative, with more dedicated staffing and stepped-up outreach and support.
And this month we hosted the first of what we hope will be an annual Street Park Summit.
Attendees of the inaugural Street Park Summit hear opening remarks from Street Parks Program manager Enyi Nwamuo.
The event, held at our Street Tree Nursery in the South of Market on April 18, brought together both veteran street park stewards and those interested in getting involved.
Participants came away with a deeper understanding of how the program works and learned about plant selection from a landscape architect. They also got tips on gardening, which tools to use, how to obtain permits, if needed, and tree care from our Bureau of Urban Forestry staff. Additionally, they heard about funding opportunities from our partners with the City’s Community Challenge Grants Program.
Attendees discuss all things street parks at the Street Park Summit, surrounded by young trees at the Public Works Street Tree Nursery.
Perhaps most importantly, the stewards got a chance to meet with each other to brainstorm ideas and talk about what has worked for them, what challenges they’ve faced and what triumphs they’ve celebrated.
Bonnie Bergeron, a Tunnel Top Park project manager, shares her knowledge about native plants with summit attendees.
The summit wrapped up with a group tour of several street parks to see firsthand how vision, purpose and labor can transform these pockets of land into neighborhood treasures.
Street Parks Program manager Enyi Nwamuo leads a tour at the Pennsylvania Garden street park.
Public Works stands ready to expand the Street Parks Program. Details on how to get involved can be found at sfpublicworks.org/streetparks.
City officials shovel dirt during the ceremonial groundbreaking of the new San Francisco Fire Department Division of Training facility.
Baptism by Fire: New Training Campus for Firefighters, EMTs, Paramedics Breaks Ground in Bayview-Hunters Point
Flanked by bright red fire trucks, a quartet of colorful architectural renderings and the shimmering Bay in the distance, City officials flung gold-plated shovels into a generous mound of dirt on a recent April morning in Bayview-Hunters Point to mark the beginning of a new era of firefighting and rescue training in San Francisco.
On a sprawling 8-acre lot at 1200 Carroll Ave., Mayor Daniel Lurie, District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, City Administrator Carmen Chu, Fire Chief Dean Crispen, Public Works Director Carla Short, fire union president Sam Gebler and scores of firefighters and City staff celebrated the April 16 ceremonial groundbreaking for the new San Francisco Fire Department Division of Training facility.
The Public Works-led project, which is being built from the ground up, will replace existing facilities that are worn and outdated and create a training environment and operational hub that meet the City’s modern-day needs.
Existing training facilities for San Francisco firefighters are worn and outdated.
A bird's-eye view rendering of the new San Francisco Fire Department Division of Training facility.
Street-level-view renderings of the new San Francisco Fire Department Division of Training facility.
“We must provide our first responders with the tools and the resources they need to be successful,” Lurie told the crowd. “And we will.”
The new complex will improve operational efficiency by consolidating existing Fire Department training facilities in one location with enough room for an administration and classroom building, a firefighter recruit building, an apparatus building for vehicle and equipment storage and a maintenance shop.
But the centerpiece of the project will be the several controlled live-fire and rescue structures, urban search and rescue simulations and paved roadways with hills to emulate San Francisco’s topography and street conditions for fire apparatus vehicle maneuvering, fire ladder and fire hose deployment training.
A San Francisco Fire Department official points at a rendering of the new fire training facility while explaining some details to other colleagues.
Not only will the new campus provide a specially designed 50,000-square-foot scenario district that reflects San Francisco terrain and neighborhoods with a mix of commercial and residential uses to train firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians, it also will serve as the Fire Department’s seismically resilient backup emergency operations center in the event of a major disaster.
The project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2029, is expected to create more than 450 construction jobs, with local residents performing 30% of the work hours and 50% of the apprentice work hours. Swinerton, a national construction firm headquartered in the Bay Area, will serve as general contractor. San Francisco subcontractors will perform 20% of the work, with at least a dozen from the District 10 San Francisco Hyper-Local Building Trades Contractors Collective.
“We’re proud to have the firefighter training facility here in District 10,” Walton said. “This investment creates real opportunity, building pathways for local residents into careers in public safety and strengthening the future of our workforce. The San Francisco Fire Department continues to lead with a commitment to community, equity, and excellence.”
Public Works is managing the project and construction on behalf of the Fire Department. Public Works’ Bureau of Architecture is providing design services for the main administrative building and our Bureau of Landscape Architecture is handling the landscape and hardscape design of the campus.
San Francisco Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen speaks to the crowd at this month's groundbreaking ceremony.
Scores of firefighters, City staff and community members gather for the groundbreaking ceremony in Bayview-Hunters Point.
Due to the size and scope of the project, an outside executive architect – DLR Group – is responsible for the rest of the buildings, alongside the architecture firm Kuth Ranieri as the associate architect. A Texas-based subject matter expert and former firefighter who has built dozens of training facilities for fire and police departments also is involved.
“This project is both vitally important for San Francisco and a highly complex, challenging undertaking, requiring an all-hands-on-deck approach from the City and our partners,” Short said. “As the latest example of San Francisco’s commitment to strategically investing in critical public infrastructure, this game-changing training facility for our first responders will help safeguard our communities and bolster the City’s emergency preparedness for generations to come.”
Financed through the City’s voter-approved Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond program, the project represents a much-needed upgrade for a firefighting force – about 1,500 strong – that currently has to train new recruits and veteran staff at outdated facilities on Treasure Island and in the Mission District.
“Every new sworn member of the San Francisco Fire Department will begin their journey and make their commitment to service here at the Division of Training. They will return again and again throughout their career to sharpen their skills and rise to new challenges. This is where firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs will be forged. This will be the heart of the San Francisco Fire Department,” Crispen said. “Thanks to the support of voters, we are able to build the future of this great department, right here in the Bayview.”
The Public Works team working on the project poses for a group photo.
Kids work on planter boxes during Public Works' open house at its Operations Yard.
Public Works Week 2026: A Time to Teach, Learn
and Celebrate
OPEN HOUSES
Hundreds of students participated in Public Works Week 2026 this month with hands-on activities that gave them a firsthand glimpse at the work it takes to care for our city.
The highlights of the annual Public Works Week festivities, held this year April 20-24, were two open houses – one hosted by our designers and engineers who helped grade schoolers build model cities and test them for earthquake resiliency on specially crafted “shake tables,” and the other at our Operations Yard.
There, visitors built wooden planter boxes and metal toolboxes, filled potholes, rode high up in bucket trucks, smoothed out wet cement and painted plywood. They also met with welders, locksmiths, flooring specialists, plumbers and other trades workers. In all, more than 600 young San Franciscans participated in the open houses.
Public Works Week also provides the department with an opportunity to step back and celebrate our accomplishments over the past year with an awards ceremony that recognizes individuals and teams for outstanding work.
Kids put their model city to the test on a “shake table” during a Public Works open house.
A print version of a Real People. Real Work. campaign poster at Howard and Third streets features asphalt crew truck driver Fabiola Vega.
caption
AWARDS
Project of the Year Award went to the “Real People. Real Work.” campaign – a multimedia package with photo portraits, written vignettes, videos and podcasts highlighting eight employees who are representative of our workforce. They included an architect, a carpenter, a graffiti buster, a landscape architect, a structural engineer, an asphalt crew truck driver, a street cleaning supervisor and an arborist.
By sharing their stories, they showcased not only the work they do, but the work of their bureaus, their divisions and the department as a whole. This was a dynamic, creative and compelling multi-layered undertaking that really captures who we are.
Leading the effort were Julian Pham, Patrick Riley and Nathan Rodis from the Public Works Policy and Communications division.
Public Works sheet metal pros take apart a walkway frame.
Team of the Year Award went to the employees who worked on the Oceanwide Sidewalk Restoration project.
For years, the abandoned Oceanwide Center construction site at First and Mission streets in the South of Market cast a shadow over one of San Francisco's most prominent corners. When work on the mixed-use development stopped in 2020, the scaffolding and temporary walkways that remained became dirty, unsafe and a source of great frustration for the thousands of people passing through every day.
In 2024, the City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development asked Public Works to take a hard look at what could be done. Funding came together in early 2025 but getting the property owner and their lender to sign off took until fall of that year, leaving an incredibly tight window to get the job done. With the Super Bowl on the horizon, our team didn't flinch. They coordinated with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the City Attorney's Office and the property owner, keeping every party informed every step of the way — and they delivered.
More than 50 Public Works employees were involved, among them carpenters, general laborers, sheet metal workers, a structural engineer, cement masons and others.
This award recognizes not just the physical work of restoring busy downtown sidewalks, but the determination, coordination and care that made it possible.
Public Works Director Carla Short (right) addresses the crowd with Jonathan Vaing, who won the Employee of the Year Award, next to her.
Restoration of the Mission Street sidewalk.
Employee of the Year Award went to Jonathan Vaing, who heads our Bureau of Street Environmental Services – the City’s 24/7 street cleaning operation.
A lot has been said about the San Francisco comeback and Vaing, who is strategic, collaborative and responsive, has had a big hand in the City’s post-pandemic improvements. His team’s work is among Public Works’ most public facing efforts, day in and day out.
Vaing has a keen understanding of the importance of the work at hand – whether it is readying the City for the Super Bowl, making sure neighborhood needs are met, coordinating with other City departments on street condition operations, deploying trash cans or developing a new graffiti initiative. The list goes on.
His job is complex, high-profile and unrelenting. He doesn’t retreat but readily takes on new challenges.
Jonathan Vaing heads Public Works’ Bureau of Street Environmental Services.
A Public Works tree crew stabilizes a new street tree on Naples Street.
#LoveOurCity
April showers brought spring flowers – and a committed group of volunteers for a morning of planting trees, weeding and mulching a community garden and picking up litter.
Nearly 50 volunteers, most decked out in wet-weather gear, showed up under rainy skies for this month’s Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification Day.
Public Works hosts the monthly workday where residents work alongside Public Works crews on neighborhood improvement projects. The April 11 event focused on the Excelsior, Mission Terrace, Crocker Amazon and other neighborhoods in District 11.
The theme for the day: The work will get done, rain or shine. And it did.
Among the projects: Sprucing up Sisterhood Gardens on Brotherhood Way, planting street trees along Naples Street, and picking up trash around the Havelock Street pedestrian bridge.
A young volunteer hammers on a wooden tree brace to protect a newly planted sapling on Naples Street.
Helping us kick off the day’s activities were District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen, San Francisco First Lady Becca Prowda and SF Environment Director Tyrone Jue.
Next month’s Neighborhood Beautification Day will be held on May 9 in the Mission, Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods in District 9. We welcome both seasoned community volunteers and newcomers of all ages. The day will get started at 9 a.m. at Garfield Square Park, 26th and Harrison streets. For more information, and to sign up, please visit sfpublicworks.org/loveourcity.
Volunteers spread mulch in garden beds at Sisterhood Gardens.
