Ogden Avenue's Garden Hasn't Broken Ground. Its Tree Lighting Is Already a Tradition.

How does a park get a tradition before it exists? On the 400 block of Ogden Avenue, between Folsom and Gates, neighbors will light a holiday tree on Saturday, December 5, from 4 to 7 p.m. Last year's lighting was billed as the fourth annual, so this one is the fifth. The garden the tree is meant to celebrate has not been built yet.

The block is an "unaccepted" street. The city doesn't maintain it, and it has no sidewalk. It still gets steady foot traffic from people walking to the bus stop, from parents bringing toddlers to Ana's Childcare, and from dog walkers. In January 2026, Greening Projects, the nonprofit backing the effort, described what most people saw there: abandoned cars sitting for months, weeds coming up through cracked pavement, trash caught in the bushes. Yet for four Decembers in a row, that's where neighbors have gathered. Across Bernal, this is how green space gets built: the community forms first and the construction comes much later. Ogden is in the middle of that sequence right now.

Years of Paperwork, Four Tree Lightings

A first-person account on the Greening Projects site traces the project to a remark made to a teenage daughter while walking past the neglected block. "Somebody should do something about this." Her reply was "Why don't you do something?" In a 2025 Bernal Connect interview, Jorge Romero-Lozano said he started the project in 2021.

Here is the official track, from grant to permit:

• 2022: A city Community Challenge Grant of $148,074 for the 400-block streetscape
• Early 2023: Tentative plans sent to the city for review under Public Works' streamlined Street Parks process
• Later in 2023: A $150,000 Urban Watershed Stewardship Grant, as Mission Local reported
• June 2024: Construction documents submitted to the SFPUC for review
• December 2025: Final permit design set submitted to the SFPUC
• January 2026: Final designs complete, permit applications in, and the team in "the final waiting period before breaking ground"

The neighborhood track ran alongside it the whole time. The Ogden calendar for 2026 shows an Earth Day Stroll in April, a Pride Family Fiesta on the block in June, birdhouse painting in September, a fall fundraiser in October, and a group at the Halloween parade on Cortland. The Pride Family Fiesta listing called the block "the future home of Ogden Avenue Gardens." In September, a Greening Projects newsletter still described it as an unaccepted street "turned into an unofficial long-term parking lot" that "will soon become" a greenspace and playground for the daycare next door. The project's own site says it hopes to start construction in 2026 and plans a community party once the garden is real.

Why the Calendar Matters as Much as the Permit

The events cover the parts no grant pays for. Mission Local's October 2024 profile put the estimated cost at $465,000. At that point the project still needed at least $165,000, and volunteers had raised about $33,000, partly in direct donations and partly in reimbursable volunteer hours. Those are 2024 figures. The fundraising calendar has kept going since. This year's Mexican Spirits & Wine Tasting on October 17 at Baukunst, 433 Cortland Avenue, was billed with "all proceeds" going to the gardens. In 2024, volunteers Wendy Miller and Joy Morgenstern ran an online art auction with 95 works and held the reception at Barebottle Brewing Co. on Cortland.

The events are also how the project keeps its people. Mission Local named seven residents leading the effort, including Eva Martinez, Ana Ligi, Joy Morgenstern, Wendy Miller and Romero-Lozano. Ligi described the group as ordinary, community-minded neighbors. The same piece described the site as a stretch of roughly 150 by 50 feet. The only building on it is Ana Fernandez's daycare, which she had run for 24 years. She told the outlet she worried about children running into traffic and described pushing a stroller half a mile to the nearest park. The 2024 plan was to close the block to through traffic at Gates and Folsom. Ideas for the space included native-plant beds, art installations, outdoor movies, yoga and a local tree lighting. The tree lighting is the one item from that list that already happens every year.

Greening Projects says plainly where it fits. Its newsletter says its projects "start with a community that already knows the site," and that its own role is fiscal sponsorship, grant support, design and permitting, volunteer coordination, and "a plan for who will water the plants after opening day." On Ogden, neighbors have gathered for a tree lighting every December since 2022, well ahead of any planting.

Tompkins Stairway Shows How It Ends

Bernal already has a finished example. Tompkins Stairway Garden connects Nevada and Putnam Streets in southeast Bernal and was completed in spring 2019. The ribbon cutting was June 8, 2019. Andre Rothblatt designed the multicolored zigzag tile stairway, inspired by the "Steps to Peace" in Deir Atiyah, Syria, and Arterra Landscape Architects designed the garden.

The path there looks a lot like Ogden's. Vicky Rideout organized neighbors, researched who owned the land, contacted the mayor's office, helped form a street park and led the fundraising. She now sits on the steering committee and still volunteers, though she has stepped back from day-to-day stewardship. Greening Projects calls the stairs "the main route for Bernal residents walking to the Alemany Farmers Market."

"Greening Projects helped us plan and execute the first fundraising campaign for the Tompkins Stairs, and it was a huge success. They generated strong community support and involvement!"

Vicky Rideout, Tompkins Stairway Garden, in the Greening Projects newsletter

Seven years after the ribbon cutting, the stairway still runs on volunteers. The garden's site lists monthly work mornings on the first Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon.

Two More Bernal Projects Are Earlier on the Same Path

The newsletter that called Ogden a future garden also named the next Bernal site in line: "On Cortland Avenue, Gateway Community Garden will greet everyone entering Bernal Heights." The site is 100 Cortland Avenue, between Cortland and Santa Marina Street, also known as Good Prospect Community Garden. It already has garden plots and a walkway connecting the two streets. The planned expansion would add more plots, a gathering area, an orchard and a rain garden at the Cortland entry on the remaining half of the lot. Greening Projects says city grants have secured $300,000 for the garden expansion, sidewalk landscaping and a planted bulb-out at that address.

Bernal Wild, up on the hill, started even smaller. In spring 2021, neighbors set out to free a Coast Live Oak and a Toyon from invasive Scotch broom. The work has grown into native-habitat restoration within what the group describes as Bernal Hill's 20-acre summit ecosystem. In the Greening Projects newsletter, Lori Eanes of Bernal Wild described how that support helped the group grow:

"What began as a simple project to clear some Scotch Broom off a hillside on DPW land in Bernal Heights has become so much more, thanks to the guidance and support of Mike and Jorge. They helped us get a website up and a fundraiser going, and stay in regular contact to help us track the money we raise. We now have a budget to buy plants and tools."

Lined up, the four projects show the sequence. Tompkins was finished in 2019 and volunteers still keep it up, while Ogden, by Greening Projects' January account, has final designs and permit applications in and its traditions already running. Gateway's next step is backed by grant money for an expansion, and Bernal Wild grew from a neighbor collective's effort to rescue one oak. The newsletter's appeal for all of them was the same: "None of them get built without people showing up now."

Saturday, December 5, Start to Finish

The first Saturday of December lines up three of these groups on one day:

1. 9 to 11 a.m.: Friends of Bernal Rec Center hosts its first-Saturday coffee meetup on the Bernal Heights Rec Center plaza, with updates on upcoming park projects. The hosts ask people to bring a reusable mug.
2. 10 a.m. to noon: First-Saturday volunteer morning at Tompkins Stairway Garden, per the garden's site.
3. 4 to 7 p.m.: The fifth annual tree lighting on Ogden Avenue between Folsom and Gates, details on the Ogden Avenue Gardens site.

The tree lighting is the one that happens on the actual future garden site. Last year's event description said it brings neighbors together, expands beautification efforts and does "a bit of fundraising."

Blocks like Ogden, Tompkins and 100 Cortland affect more than weekend plans. A street the city doesn't maintain, a neighbor-run garden next door or a planted bulb-out on the corner can all change how a property reads to the next buyer. KJ Kohlmyer has spent two decades working through permitting and site questions in Bernal Heights. If you own near one of these projects and want to know what it means for your home's value, request a home valuation.