Minnesota Slow Street Greening
Turning Dogpatch's beloved "MinneSLOWta" Slow Street into a lush, tree-lined community greenway stewarded in partnership with the Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District.
Take Action to Support This Project
📍 Location
- Corridor: Minnesota Street from Mariposa Street to 22nd Street, plus the Minnesota Street right-of-way dead-end just south of 22nd at Woods Yard
- Neighborhood: Dogpatch / Potrero Hill, San Francisco
- District: Supervisor Shamann Walton (District 10)
- Key Connections: Esprit Park, Progress Park, Warm Water Cove, Museum of Craft and Design, Minnesota Street Project art gallery, UCSF Mission Bay, protected bike lanes on 4th and 16th Streets, Dogpatch Commercial District
🌱 Project Overview
Minnesota Slow Street — MinneSLOWta — runs through Dogpatch, safely connecting parks, museums, and businesses with a low-stress alternative to 3rd Street.
- Greening vision: transform painted interventions and plastic posts into a living greenway of street trees, rain gardens, native plantings, community-designed murals, and planters stewarded by the Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District
- Daylighting opportunity: daylighted corners at 20th and 22nd Streets — adjacent to neighborhood businesses and parks — are prime sites for bicycle parking and permanent planters and eventual deep green infrastructure
- Woods Yard community learning garden: at the southern terminus, a GBD-led effort is underway to convert the fenced Minnesota Street right-of-way dead-end and an adjacent landlocked parcel into a community and native plant learning garden — a natural bookend to the greened corridor
🤝 Stewards & Partners
- Community Steward: MinneSLOWta (D10 Livable Streets Committee)
- Maintenance Partner: Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District (GBD) — the Neighborhood Benefit District that maintains parks, medians, and green infrastructure across Dogpatch and NW Potrero Hill
- Community Partners: Dogpatch Neighborhood Association, Potrero Boosters, Museum of Craft and Design, Minnesota Street Project, neighborhood businesses along the corridor
- Government Partners: SFMTA (Slow Streets program), SF Public Works, SFPUC (Green Infrastructure), Supervisor Walton's District 10 office
💰 Potential Funding Sources
- Near-Term: Civic Joy Fund activation grants, SF Beautiful grants, Community Challenge Grant for planters and plantings; Green Benefit District pilot funds
- City Programs: SFMTA Slow Streets bulb-out funding (as piloted on Sanchez), SFPUC Green Infrastructure capital programs (as seen at Cayuga/Alemany), DPW street tree planting and tree-well extensions
- Maintenance: Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District assessment funds for ongoing plant care, watering, and stewardship — a structural advantage few SF greening projects have
- Community: Neighborhood fundraising, local business sponsorships, volunteer plant stewardship through MinneSLOWta
🗺️ Site Location Map
Corridor: Minnesota Street, Mariposa to 22nd — the heart of Dogpatch
Opportunity: A permanent Slow Street with approved painted safety zones, median islands, and a diverter ready to be transformed into permanent green infrastructure
Interactive map showing the Minnesota Slow Street corridor through Dogpatch.
🏗️ Planned Improvements
- Street Trees: New street trees along the Minnesota corridor to provide canopy, shade, and habitat — filling gaps where the existing streetscape is bare
- Rain Gardens & Sidewalk Gardens: Capture stormwater from the corridor and surrounding Dogpatch blocks before it reaches the combined sewer, reducing runoff to Islais Creek and the Bay
- Greened Painted Safety Zones: Transform the new painted safety zones at 18th and 19th Streets into living corners — native plantings, permanent planters, and community-designed street murals in the remaining painted areas
- Greened Islands & Diverter: Plant the approved traffic calming island between 20th and 22nd and the northbound diverter at 19th with drought-tolerant natives, turning bare concrete and paint into neighborhood landmarks
- Daylighted Corners: Replace plastic soft-hit posts with durable planters and add bicycle & multimodal parking — especially at 20th and 22nd, adjacent to neighborhood businesses and parks
- Greened Transit Stops: Partner with SFMTA to enhance the existing flag stops at Minnesota & 22nd with benches and lush plantings
- Community Art & Wayfinding: Extend the beloved Dogpatch Planet Walk and other community art installations along the corridor, paired with Slow Streets wayfinding
- Woods Yard Community Garden: At the southern terminus of Minnesota Street — just south of 22nd Street at Woods Yard — the Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District is working with SFMTA and SF Public Works to convert the fenced Minnesota Street right-of-way and an adjacent landlocked parcel into a community and native plant learning garden.
🎯 Project Goals
- A permanent Dogpatch greenway of street trees, rain gardens, and native plantings
- Safer corners with daylighting planters and bicycle & multimodal parking
- Community-stewarded maintenance through the Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill GBD
- A citywide model for transforming painted Slow Streets into permanent greenways
📈 Current Status
- Slow Street Status: Permanent (SFMTA Board approved December 6, 2022)
- Greening Vision: Building community support for permanent greening in partnership with the Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District
