Bayview Celebrates the Latona Community Garden

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Many of our Bayview neighbors joined us last weekend to celebrate the second anniversary of the Latona Community Garden. What used to be a smelly skanky debris-filled eyesore, is now a thriving organic community garden. The formerly blighted corner has been transformed into a warm and welcoming public space where neighbors gather, local kids play, and organic food is grown.

Neighborhood kids climbing the walnut tree in the Latona Community Garden.

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These are a few photos from the Latona Community Garden’s 2nd birthday party last week:

Many USF students joined our Bayview neighbors last week to celebrate the garden.

Most of the food for our event was locally grown and organic.

Just behind our neighbors Dexter, Vernon and Frenchie, you can see the new solar panels on top of the Sunny Vibrations food wagon.

Some of the neighbors pose in front of Miriam and Craig’s solar-powered Sunny Vibrations food truck. They prepared and donated most of the healthy local food for our community garden party.

This was our first attempt at hand made ice cream.

We all took turn hand-cranking the organic persimmon ice cream; it was delicious.

Neighbors Jim and James are both very active in Bayview’s community gardens.

Two of my favorite people on the planet, Peter and Eliza.

Dixon brought his newly adopted mom, Mei Ling, to the celebration.

Some of the local kids expressed themselves on rolls of recycled paper in the garden.

Parenthood seems to agree with new dad and local filmmaker Shane King.

Lucinda (and her partner Brian) have helped the garden to evolve over the last two years.

This is how the corner of Latona and Thornton Street looked two years ago.

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Much like my friend Becky’s Atlanta neighborhood of Edgewood, San Francisco’s Bayview District is a place in transition. Our Latona Community Garden is an example of one of the positive changes that has recently occurred here. Over the next few months Becky Striepe and I will be writing about other changes and similarities related to our respective neighborhoods, as well as the different ways in which we both are trying to lead a more sustainable urban existence.