SF New Developments

Starting next year, a little patch of Europe will be colonizing SoMa’s Jessie Street—that is, if the people behind Mezzanine have their way.

Anyone familiar with Italian piazzas, teeming even during the wee hours with chattering teenagers wheeling Vespas or clutching gelatos, will find it easy to picture the latest vision for San Francisco’s ever-changing nightlife scene. Visualize a plaza, buffered by a grove of trees, offering a haven from the honk and screech of trucks, the belching smog of buses and the thrust and drift of stop-and-go motorists. The gritty streetscape recedes as you pass through the cluster of trees and enter the paved sanctuary. Passersby walk their dogs; waiters weave among the outdoor cafe tables occupied by office workers, shoppers and loungers; a local musician performs an early evening concert of out-folk or psych-dub.

If certain people at Martin Building Company get a chance to realize this vision—to be called Mint Plaza—everyone will be able to experience a bit of la dolce vita in the bustling heart of the city. Right now, the SF-based developers are spearheading an ambitious private-public effort to close a 290-by-54-foot stretch of Jessie Street, between Fifth and Mint streets, to automobile traffic. Should that be accomplished (hearings before the Department of Public Works and the MTA board, among others, have been scheduled for mid-October and early November), the company will fund and construct a pedestrian plaza housing restaurants and cafes. Arts and cultural programming will include outdoor music festivals, cinema alfresco, street fairs and farmers markets. Community groups such as the San Francisco Bike Coalition and future neighbors such as the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society have thrown their support behind the endeavor. The SF Bike Coalition has described the proposed space as promising “to be one of downtown’s most vibrant public spaces.”

Read the full story in 7×7 Magazine here >>