Federal Grant Will Provide Funding to Create Buchanan Street Mall

The City of San Francisco has received a $3.9 million federal grant to help with the revitalization of the 5-blocks that form the Buchanan Street Mall.  

Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, allocated a total of $61.1 million in grant funding is available to communities in 26 cities across the United States to create new parks and trails, or substantial renovations to existing parks through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) Program. 

The mall is currently a pedestrian public park built in the 1980s that covers five urban blocks in the Western Addition, a severely disadvantaged community near the Fillmore District. The renovation is part of a larger community-driven renewal project which is intended to restore the park to be a dynamic, equitable, and safe neighborhood gathering space. 

“The Buchanan Street Mall project isn’t just about creating a beautiful new park, but is also about giving the Fillmore community a place to celebrate the rich history of their neighborhood and a place to inspire hope for a healthier, safer future,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, California State Director and Vice President-Pacific Region for Trust for Public Land. “This funding will help take this park from idea to action and brings the project one step closer to reality.” 

Trust for Public Land (TPL) submitted eight park equity proposals to the California Department of Parks and Recreation Statewide Park Program in March of this year and seven were approved for funding, including the Buchanan Street Mall project. TPL has been deeply involved in the community engagement process for the project since 2014 and also applied to the previous round of SPP funding in 2019.  

The Buchanan Mall Renewal Project is the result of intergenerational community conversations and leadership. The local community and project partners have invested in the Buchanan Change initiative for over seven years, bringing the community together through a visioning process, completion of a conceptual master plan for Buchanan Street Mall, and working together to secure funding for design and construction of improvements, as envisioned by the community. 

“This project was initiated through community conversations and storytelling,” said Tamara Walker, Outreach Director, Citizen Film. “Young and old convened to talk about how this space, which had historically been a pillar to the community, could again become a positive and vibrant place.” 

About Trust for Public Land 

Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national nonprofit that works to connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors. As a leader in equitable access to the outdoors, TPL works with communities to create parks and protect public land where they are needed most. Since 1972, TPL has protected more than 3 million acres of public land, created more than 5,000 parks, trails, schoolyards, and iconic outdoor places, raised $84 billion in public funding for parks and public lands, and connected more than 9 million people to the outdoors. To learn more, visit tpl.org.