New San Francisco Boulevard a "Linear Park"

 

The new Central Freeway off ramp at the intersection of Octavia and Market Streets in San Francisco feeds onto a tree-lined boulevard that landscape architect John Thomas calls a "linear park." Photo by Jessica Brandi Lifland, S.F. Chronicle

The 7.1 earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area October 17, 1989 caused severe damage as far as 70 miles from the epicenter in the Santa Cruz Mountains, including wrecking San Francisco's double-decker Central Freeway. The freeway used to cut through San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The underbelly of the huge concrete structure became the refuge for drug dealing and prostitution.

The boulevard design kept in mind pedestrians and bicyclists. John Thomas, a landscape architect with the city department of public works, worked on the Octavia Boulevard project. Evergreen elms, flowering cherries and pears and Lombardy poplars line the four-block boulevard. Four large date palms arise at the connection to the freeway. A new park, Hayes Green, on Octavia between Fell and Hayes streets, was another welcome addition.