Slowing Down and Getting to Know the Neighborhood

San Francisco’s Slow Streets are low-vehicle-traffic residential corridors. They provide comfortable options for walking, biking and rolling, as well as driving. But some of them also have become community spaces that bring neighbors together. In this episode, we take a look at a few of the ways San Francisco residents are embracing their Slow Streets. 

We speak with SFMTA Transportation Planner Julia Malmo and Analyst Elijah Enis. They talk about the Slow Streets Mural Pilot Program. Slow Street Stewards Tim Hickey and Molly Hayden also appear in the episode. So does Zaid Zayouna, the founder and creator of Slow Street Coffee.

Transcript

MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: If you live on or near a Slow Street in San Francisco, perhaps you have noticed more than just transportation happening on some of them.

JULIA MALMO, SFMTA TRANSPORTATION PLANNER: We have seen on a lot of Slow Streets that the community has taken it upon themselves to really kind of create Slow Streets as community spaces. 

MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Transportation, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s official podcast. I’m your host, Melissa Culross, and from parties and public art to parklets and even neighborhood coffee stands, in this episode we’re looking at some of the ways people are inspired by and making use of Slow Streets. It’s a summertime Friday evening in the North of Panhandle, or NoPa, neighborhood. People are gathering here on Lyon Street as artist Matley Hurd paints a mural…right on the street.

MATLEY HURD, ARTIST: I’ve done art my whole life, as most artists have, you know, but I really started taking it seriously, uh, in 2019-ish. And then 2020 when the pandemic hit, I just kind of felt like it was time to kinda make a switch. So, I wanted to go and do more public art, and I got started with doing very small murals around the city. And then that kind of led into getting more and more projects. And then, yeah, it was like a cool experience just to, like, try painting a mural on the ground. It’s much more different than painting it on a wall; a little more physical. 

MELISSA: This portion of Lyon is a designated Slow Street, and the mural sits on the block between McAllister and Fulton Streets...across town from Hurd’s home in the Ingleside neighborhood.

MATLEY: This is part of the city I don’t come to too often. It’s very chill over here. I love the vibe. I love how close-knit it seems like the community is. Everybody’s been super, you know, gracious and hospitable and just nice and helpful. A lot of community members have come and helped paint and, you know, watch my back on the street. And, you know, it’s just been, honestly, a great experience. Like, this is one of the better, if not best, experiences I had on a mural. Usually, we kind of paint solo and keep to ourselves. And this is a very, you know, different aspect, but I appreciated the community and just seeing how many people are out here.

MELISSA: So, what does this mural look like, and how did the design come about?

MATLEY: We engaged with the community members, and we did a vote and survey. We kinda asked, like, what they were looking for, first and foremost. And what they were, you know, uh, wanting to have in terms of the imagery. The two main, most common voted-on things were, like, the SF parrots and the dahlia flowers. And I was, like, “Let’s not mix it up and confuse it. Let’s just go with that. So, basically, for the mural, we have a 24-by-70-foot ground mural depicting two SF parrots, two dahlia flowers. We have the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. We have some, uh, like, ocean and, and clouds and fog along with some of, like, my abstract, like, flowy, bouncy shapes, you know, in different colors. We have hues of, like, teals, oranges, yellows, blues, greens. You know, we try to keep it very chill and relaxed but also bright and colorful. And, yeah, that was pretty much the idea, and, and when I submitted the design, they kinda seemed to love it, which I appreciate. And I’m glad to finally be painting it on the ground and not just doing it on my iPad.

MELISSA: The neighborhood is just as happy to see the mural coming to life. Dave Bill lives a few blocks away and volunteered to help out with the project.

DAVE BILL: I signed up and did a number of hours making sure everything was safe but really, I just got to chat with Matley and a few others who were hanging out as he started painting. And it’s been lovely to see such beautiful artwork, and I try to be involved with the community because I know how much it takes to make a neighborhood safe and feel like a community. And so, I like to do my little part. 

MELISSA: And 7-year-old Fiammetta Cheng and her sister have been riding their scooters as their mother and their neighbors watch Hurd paint and continue to pitch in.

FIAMMETTA CHENG: I’ve been circling laps around the mural. And I’ve also enjoyed watching and looking at the mural. I think it’s gonna look great when it’s done. And, like, I’m excited for tomorrow because tomorrow’s, like, community painting. Whoever comes, if they wanna help, they can help paint the mural and help enjoy. I also like it because you get to talk to a lot of people around the neighborhood.

MELISSA: We ask Fiammetta what she thinks of the mural and what it reminds her of.

FIAMMETTA: I sort of think of San Francisco. I feel like the parrots sort of remind me of parks because San Francisco has a lot of parrots. I like the mural with the Golden Gate Bridge on it. I also like how they show the fog and sorta show the weather around San Francisco. They also show landmarks in San Francisco.

MELISSA: Tim Hickey is president of the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association and the Lyon Slow Street steward. He says this mural is just part of what’s happening on this portion of Lyon.

TIM HICKEY, NOPNA PRESIDENT AND LYON SLOW STREET STEWARD: Each Slow Street has its own flavor. So, for this neighborhood, we try and activate it in whatever way it works. We have a lot of people who garden here. So, I’ve been building planter boxes, and people have opted to put in…at different intersections they’re going to be putting in their own plants that they’re all gonna be drought-tolerant native plants. But, they, uh, have specific plants that they like to put out that complement the existing sidewalk gardens. Which, we have a lot of sidewalk gardens, and that’s another passion project of some of our board members. :27

MELISSA: At this point you might be thinking, “Slow Street steward? What’s that?” For the answer to that question, we turn to Julia Malmo, a transportation planner on the SFMTA’s Livable Streets team. She tells us the stewards are simply neighborhood volunteers.

JULIA MALMO: No one at the SFMTA has designated anybody a steward of a Slow Street. Often there are multiple stewards on each Slow Street. And really, the way we understand them, they’re just, sort of, super advocates for Slow Streets. You know, looking after the Slow Street. Often we hear from stewards that will email us and say, “Hey, you know the Slow Street’s delineators have been driven into, and one is down.” 

MELISSA: We’ve left NoPa and are chatting with Malmo on Page Street in the Lower Haight. She works on the agency’s Slow Streets Mural Pilot Program…and it’s through that program that the NoPa residents were able to get a mural on Lyon Street. The city’s Slow Streets began as an emergency response to the pandemic. Today there are almost twenty of them in neighborhoods throughout town, including the Mission, Potrero Hill, the Richmond, SoMa and many others. At this point, they’ve grown beyond that initial emergency purpose and have become gathering spaces in some areas. As we hear from Malmo, that’s where this mural pilot program comes in.

JULIA: Really, it represents an expansion of the Slow Streets program from strictly sort of infrastructure focused. You know, with Slow Streets, we want to provide safe, comfortable corridors for active transportation. And we do that by reducing the volume and speed of cars on the slow streets. So, an expansion from sort of the infrastructure side of things to community activation. We have seen on a lot of Slow Streets, like on Page Street which we’re sitting on right now, that the community has taken it upon themselves to really kind of create Slow Streets as community spaces and not just places where they can ride their bikes and walk safely. So, this is an opportunity for folks to come together on a Slow Street and really cement it as that community space

MELISSA: So, why murals, in particular?

JULIA: The idea of a street murals program has been in the works for a while within the agency. And we decided that Slow Streets would be a great place to pilot a program like this because they’re already really low-volume streets. And so, murals would last longer. And there are also communities that have kind of come together around Slow Streets. And there’s been a lot of interest in activating these spaces. And so, there’s subsequently been a lot of interest in the Mural Pilot program.

MELISSA: Okay, so, if you want a mural on a Slow Street in your neighborhood, how would you get one? SFMTA Analyst Elijah Enis…who has worked with the agency for the last year through the SF Fellows program…breaks it down for us.

ELIJAH ENIS, SFMTA ANALYST: For the process, in general, it’s three steps. The first of which is submitting an application to the Slow Streets team. And that’s more for the traffic feasibility. Making sure that the colors work on the street. That you’re far enough away from street markings and, sort of, manhole covers, all of that. And after that process is completed, you go to the Arts Commission, where they will, sort of, accept the art, and they’re in charge of deciding what gets to go on the street. What gets to be in the art. So, that’s the second step. And then the third step is the permitting team at SFMTA. And that’s an application where you’re basically saying, “We’re gonna close the street for this many days.” And after that, you’re good to paint. Sort of the most important thing about this process is that it’s community-led. So, if you’re looking to get a mural, you live on or near a Slow Street, sort of start building relations with your neighbors and generating ideas. And that’s really the first step, is getting that together.
 
 MELISSA: And we work with the Parks Alliance on this, and they project manage. From our point of view, what is that partnership like?
 
 ELIJAH: Yeah, so the Parks Alliance actually got a Community Challenge Grant. Unfortunately, at this time, MTA doesn’t have the possibility of funding these murals. So, the community is going to have to do that part. And so, the Parks Alliance, luckily, have this Challenge Grant. And through them, we’ve been able to get one mural down and another one coming next month. 

MELISSA: The San Francisco Parks Alliance is a non-profit organization that works with communities and public agencies to create, sustain and advocate for parks and other public spaces. Stephanie Troyan is the organization’s capital program manager, and she explains that the Parks Alliance project manages the Slow Streets Mural Pilot Program by supporting folks who are applying for a mural. 

STEPHANIE TROYAN, SF PARKS ALLIANCE CAPITAL PROGRAM MANAGER: We are, kind of, aiding these groups through the process. Um, we did start off with community engagement. And that is, kind of, making contact with the Slow Street stewards, formalizing these groups, bringing people to come together to talk about what they want, where they’re thinking the mural will go, and talking about what artists to bring in to tell their story. 

MELISSA: Meanwhile, Enis reiterates how the role the SFMTA plays fits in.

ELIJAH: We’re here to do the traffic feasibility and, hopefully, make it as easy possible to get art on the street. For us, this is a chance for the city to just be more vibrant and colorful and exciting. I’d personally rather look at a mural, a colorful mural on a street, than sort of the drab, grey pavement. So, really our goal is to just help communities to activate, um, and sort of give a chance for neighborhoods to show their uniqueness. 

MELISSA: Since we’re in the Lower Haight on Page, which is a Slow Street, we decide to bring Molly Hayden into the conversation. She is one of the Page Slow Street stewards.

MOLLY HAYDEN, PAGE SLOW STREET STEWARD: A lot of people like to refer to us as the mayors of particular Slow Streets. I started during the pandemic when neighbors here in the Lower Haight, specifically, started bringing art out into the streets. They brought bistro tables and games and books and plants and, and whatnot in there. So, people were quite literally dragging art out into the streets, and people would add to it. And it just kind of grew from there. :

MELISSA: One of the things that has come out of the work Hayden has done with her co-steward Jessica Jenkins is the Page Street public parklet at the corner of Page and Fillmore. That’s actually where we’re sitting as we have this conversation.

MOLLY: We installed this last fall. And it’s a shared space for San Franciscans, for people who live in the Lower Haight, for people who use Page Slow Street either to commute or recreationally. There are families that come and take advantage of the two free little libraries we have here. One is dedicated to kids, and one is dedicated to adults for books. We also work with a local landscaper: Wren Sayler from Sprout and Stem. She helps to care for the faerie garden behind us, as well as the planters. And we also have a cold frame which is cared for by the students at John Muir Elementary just down the block.

MELISSA: Now, you may recall that Elijah Enis, the SFMTA analyst, mentioned that another Slow Street mural is going to be installed next month. Well, it’s going to be painted on Page Street in the Upper Haight. Hayden tells us what it was like for the Page Street community to get that mural.

MOLLY: We started back in March soliciting ideas from neighbors and users of Page Slow Street for what they’d like to see in a, in a mural. And they also had the opportunity to weigh in on which artist’s work. There was a couple that were presented via the Parks Alliance. And so, some of the overarching themes that were very present were hippie culture, obviously, being in the Haight Ashbury. And also natural elements like wild flowers and birds and things like that. And so, it’s very vibrant. Um, it’s got orange and yellow and purple and blue. It’s kind of Wizard of Oz-esque. It’s got, like, a little golden road that leads to, obviously, the San Francisco skyline in the center of the mural. Um, it’s got California poppies. It’s got some hummingbirds. It’s got some Painted Ladies. But I think it’s gonna be beautiful once it’s actually placed.

MELISSA: We’ve been talking a lot about murals, but of course, neighborhoods are embracing their Slow Streets in other ways. Lyon Slow Street Steward Tim Hickey discussed building planter boxes, and Molly Hayden says there are people who roll out a piano on Page Street and sing, while others have held cross fit classes and potlucks. You just never know how someone might use these spaces. And that brings us to Zaid Zayouna, the creator and Founder of Slow Street Coffee. We’ve met Zayouna at the Mill, a coffee shop…appropriately enough…on Divisadero Street. He doesn’t sell his coffee at coffee shops, but this is still a good place to discuss how Zayouna became a java entrepreneur. He says he began roasting coffee for himself and his wife about five years ago.

ZAID ZAYOUNA, FOUNDER AND CREATOR OF SLOW STREET COFFEE: We were just consuming a lot of coffee, and it was getting a little expensive. And I thought, “Oh, let me just try this out,” and got hooked. And the exercise of learning about the roasting process was very meditative for me. And a year and a half, almost two years ago, I had an opportunity to roast a big batch with a local roaster, and, uh, I took it. And here I am, almost two years later, roasting and selling coffee to the neighborhood.

MELISSA: And how, exactly, did he come to sell his coffee?

ZAID: It started off as an experiment where I gave some coffee away, got some feedback. I sold some coffee to some neighbors. And people were interested in, like, the delivery aspect of, I guess, the initial idea, and I was going with the “milkman for coffee” idea for a while. And I was designing a route to be that person that delivers on a bike, on an e-bike. And at the time, I was trying to figure out, “How do I go about, you know, traveling in the city, and like, oh, maybe should use the Slow Streets.” And that’s when the light bulb came on. Uh, I’d initially set up to sell on a Slow Street next to where I live, and it all just came together.

MELISSA: Zayouna lives in NoPa and thought of and was inspired by Slow Streets because he spends time on them with his family.

ZAID: We’ll just walk to Golden Gate Slow Street…bikes, skateboards, scooters. That’s where we connect with other families that have kids similar age. Uh, they’ll come together. There’s actually a family in our neighborhood, uh, and their kid is a little older than my kids. Uh, she rides to the corner and looks up to see if we’re, you know, are we coming down or not? I’ve noticed that a few times. So, the kids pay attention. They, they want to have that interaction, and, uh, and I see it. I see it on the, on the, happening on the Slow Streets. Uh, so yeah, we, we use it if not once, twice a week with the kids.

MELISSA: Zayouna does have another job but says that Slow Street Coffee is starting to take more and more of his time. So, of course, we ask about the coffee, itself.

ZAID: I source my coffee from a distributor in the East Bay. They deal directly with farmers. So, they skip some of the middle distribution layers. They have that interaction with the farmers. They write notes about the coffee. So, I use a lot of their, uh, coffee. It comes from all around the world: Ethiopian coffee, Kenyan coffee, South Africa, Central America, South America. And I to vary the profile, as well as where the coffee is coming from. And that seems to be a hit for people that are consuming the coffee. Everyone loves it. I get a lot of good feedback. I tend to stay in the light to medium roasts. I don’t go very dark. And I’m introducing espresso coffee, as well. I’ve been getting a lot more customers that are interested in espresso these days.

MELISSA: At the end of the day, as Zayouna has slowly fallen in love with the sales part of his business, it really has become more about community. He tells us that he feels connected to his neighbors and energized by the feedback he gets on his coffee. So, does he think his business would be doing as well as it is without the Slow Streets?

ZAID: Yeah, I haven’t necessarily thought about that. But I, I think maybe the…my ability to, like, set up and have people come together might not be there in all these different neighborhoods. I guess there are some streets that have wider sidewalks, you know, more space that I can set up. Will there be volume of people? I don’t know. I guess I, I wouldn’t know. But the Slow Streets have allowed for more pedestrian, more cycling volume to come and be comfortable to stop and talk to me. And maybe that’s the difference. Just having that interaction and having people in the streets.

MELISSA: One of the things people we have talked to for this episode keep emphasizing is the importance of community and the role Slow Streets play in their neighborhoods. Stephanie Troyan with the Parks Alliance was at the community painting day for the Lyon Slow Street mural. She couldn’t help but notice how people reacted to it. 

STEPHANIE: A grandmother just happened to be coming through the street, and she got really excited about the art, um, and asked me about it. And about an hour later, she came back with her 20-year-old grandson to share the experience together. And they both sat together and painted for, like, an hour. And she just told me how meaningful it was for her to be able to do something like this, something that she’s never done before and do something with her grandson that he was also interested in.

MELISSA: And for Matley Hurd, the artist we spoke to at the beginning of this episode, his work is also about community.

MATLEY: To paint murals in the Bay Area is a great experience. It is a lot of work, but, like, being in different neighborhoods, you know, meeting new people, seeing how people respond to public art is probably the main reason why I love doing it. Usually, I think people don’t get to see art get made too often. You kind of see it either before or after. And I think people really are attracted to the process. And for me, it’s just…I love the grind, I love to keep going. I wanna make as much art in the Bay and outside the Bay as possible. And, um, I’m excited to keep working.

MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on TAKEN WITH TRANSPORTATION. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com-slash-Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify, our YouTube channel or wherever you listen. If you’d like to learn more about the Slow Streets Mural Pilot Program, go to SFMTA.com-slash-Street-Murals. And to learn more about Zaid Zayouna’s coffee, go to Slow-Street-Coffee-dot-com or follow Slow Street Coffee on Instagram. I’m Melissa Culross. Be well and travel well.