Park for the People

India Basin Waterfront Park is San Francisco’s next big thing.

Written by SAN FRANCISCO RECREATION & PARKS DEPARTMENT

All photos courtesy of SAN FRANCISCO RECREATION & PARKS DEPARTMENT

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WWhat was once a brownfield in a neglected corner of San Francisco’s southeast side is about to undergo a major metamorphosis. Under the direction of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and its partners, the abandoned industrial site at 900 Innes Avenue and the surrounding area will soon be transformed into a sprawling greenspace called India Basin Waterfront Park.

Construction kicked off last year, and once complete, the project will combine two already-existing parks, India Basin Shoreline Park and India Basin Open Space, while also enjoining the 900 Innes Avenue site. The product will be a new ten-acre waterfront park complete with scenic views of the Bay, shore access, a nature playground, multiple athletic fields and sports facilities, a boat launching pier, and a network of trails that will connect 1.7 miles of the Bay Trail, among other amenities. In addition, an eventual pedestrian and bicycle trail will link sixty-four acres of open space along the shoreline, running from the Embarcadero to Candlestick Point.

The monumental undertaking is one of the largest projects in recent city history, costing approximately $200 million. On the surface is an expansive park that will provide Bayview-Hunters Point access to nature. But underneath, it’s a once-in-a-generation environmental justice project that will provide residents with jobs, learning opportunities, a healthy shoreline that supports wildlife, and so much more.

“Reconstructing the shoreline and bringing out its natural beauty is something that’s been long overdue,” said San Francisco Recreation and

A New Park Under Construction

Park

Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg. “This is something the Bayview-Hunters Point community has been advocating for, and we’re excited to be delivering it, providing the community with one of the most important park projects in modern San Francisco history.”

The city first acquired the vacant 900 Innes Avenue site in 2014, planning to connect it with the already existing India Basin Shoreline Park and India Basin Open Space. The India Basin Waterfront Park project is a collaboration between the San

Francisco Recreation and Park Department, Trust for Public Land, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and the Bayview-Hunters Point Community.

Once the land was acquired, San Francisco supervisors approved the site environmental impact report in 2018, making way for an extensive cleanup and restoration of the land, shoreline, and waters. The eighteen-month cleanup, which began in March 2021, was led by specially trained crews who oversaw the removal of contaminants leftover in the soil and sediment from the area’s s boat building and vessel repair history. Abandoned and dilapidated structures were removed, while soft bottom intertidal and subtidal habitats were restored.

State and federal agencies, including the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, among others, oversaw the cleanup. The cleanup and remediation reached completion in August 2022, making way for the construction phase.

“Bayview-Hunters Point residents have endured the brunt of the city’s pollution for generations. At its core, this project is about environmental justice after a long history of racism. It is about providing what the neighborhood has deserved all along: access to pristine waters, recreational and economic opportunities, and a healthy shoreline,” Ginsburg said.

A Rich History Tied to the Shoreline

Although San Francisco Recreation and Parks officials are looking to the future when it comes to creating the city’s next large park, they’re also honoring the site’s past, when it served as a significant spot for the city’s fishing and boating industry.

Before the arrival of Spanish Missionaries, the Ramaytush Ohlone people inhabited the area. However, not much is known about India Basin prior to the 1860s. In 1870, John Hamlin Burnell purchased land in the area and established the Albion Ale and Porter Brewing Company, building what became known as the Albion Castle at 881 Innes Avenue. Although the brewery shuttered, in part due to the prohibition era, the historic building itself survived and, to this day, serves as a private event space.

In 1866, the area’s once-inexpensive land and easy shore access became valuable property, as the city’s maritime manufacturing and commerce industry boomed. During this time, the California Dry Dock Company established itself as one of the major boat-building companies in the area. The site also began attracting several Chinese shrimp camps.

The India Basin area soon became an important place for the construction of scow schooners, or shallow draft wooden boats that, at the time, played an essential part in the state’s commerce, bringing manufactured goods and crops throughout California via the Bay and Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

During this time, the thriving maritime industry gave way for dozens of families to settle in the area and create a small community that lived off fishing, shrimping, and—of course—boat building.

One of the most prominent remnants of the area’s maritime heydays that is still standing is Shipwright’s Cottage at 900 Innes Avenue, built in 1875. Although occupied by a handful of different families throughout the years, the home served as a boatyard office. In recent decades, the historic building suffered from neglect and served as an example of the neighborhood’s blight. However, thanks to advocacy from the India Basin Neighborhood Association, in 2008, the cottage was honored as a San Francisco Landmark. The cottage’s rehabilitation is part of the current construction effort happening at the future India Basin Waterfront Park. In addition to the building’s rehabilitation, the cottage will also serve as an educational and recreational facility.

While the Chinese Shrimp Village that thrived in the area between the 1860s and 1930s served as a significant part of India Basin’s history, it also represents a bittersweet chapter for the neighborhood. Chinese immigrant families flourished along the shores of India Basin, collecting shrimp via small redwood boats and triangleshaped nets. Their daily hauls soon became a popular item for San Francisco households and restaurants. But, in 1939, the San Francisco Health Department burned down the village to make way for the Hunters Point Shipyard. It’s not clear whether the village’s residents were ever reimbursed for their losses. Not all was lost, however, as the Hunters Point Shrimp Company remained in the area for at least two decades afterward.

Once the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was established in the area by 1940, families stationed there began settling in the area. As America’s involvement in World War II escalated, a new wave of workers, including African American families from the nation’s South, sought new opportunities in San Francisco. This mass migration contributed to the Black community that makes the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood their home today.

Although the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard closed in 1974, it contributed significantly to the area’s pollution, leaving a host of contaminants that still haven’t been completely removed to this day. Another contributing factor to the area’s pollution was the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Power Plant, which initially ran on coal when it first opened in 1929 and then later converted to gas before being decommissioned in 2007.

Community Plays a Vital Role

With the new India Basin Waterfront Park becoming a reality by Summer 2026, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and its partners are making sure that the Bayview-Hunters Point community is at the forefront of decision-making.

“Although the area was once an integral part of the city’s economy, Bayview-Hunters Point residents have had little input when it comes to deciding what’s next for their neighborhood,” said APRI Executive Director Jacqueline Flin. “That’s why our partners have incorporated the community and put them at the forefront of the process, ensuring that they’re the direct benefactors of this new great park.”

A landmark plan called the India Basin Waterfront Park Project Equitable Development Plan (EDP) provides a blueprint for delivering a park designed by and for the community, while improving economic opportunities and environmental health for residents.

The India Basin EDP marks the first time an EDP has been adopted in San Francisco. Through its adoption, the city joins a new national movement that aims to add more greenspace and enrich its surrounding community, ultimately minimizing any possible displacement.

The community provided a vision for this document which outlines a series of commitments from the city and its partner agencies that guarantees that the Bayview-Hunters Point residents will share in the benefits of the project throughout its development. The areas of focus in the EDP include workforce and business development; arts, culture, and identity; transportation, access, and connectivity; opportunities for youth; housing security; and healthy communities and ecology.

As part of the project’s $200 million budget, $15 million has been earmarked to help implement the EDP’s initiatives. Among the most notable and popular programs that have already been implemented under the EDP are the Bayview Safety Swim and Splash program and the India Basin Workforce Development Program.

Through the Bayview Safety Swim and Splash program, elementary school kids who live or attend school in the neighborhood can learn to swim for free. The program is a partnership with the YMCA of San Francisco and aims to ensure that Bayview-Hunters

Point children feel comfortable and confident in the water, meaning they can swim, float, breathe, and get to safety with ease. The program, now in its second year, is especially important as drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children annually in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, youth are at a higher risk for unintentional injury around water due to their lack of familiarity in aquatic situations. Additionally, Black children are six times more likely to come from families in which neither parent knows how to swim, making Black youth particularly at risk of drowning.

In late May, the India Basin Workforce Development Program celebrated the graduation of 16 trainees. The new graduates have been trained in construction through the four-week program, preparing participants for union careers as laborers and other skilled workers. The graduates are primarily

Bayview-Hunters Point residents or are from other underserved San Francisco communities and most have already been placed in jobs, with some working on the India Basin Waterfront Park project through the project’s construction firm Swinerton.

India Basin Will Serve Generations to Come

With the wheels set in motion, the park’s construction is the city’s most ambitious effort in investing in not just a park, but an entire community—one that has historically been underserved.

Once complete, the park will not only have the amenities of neighborhood park, like a playground, basketball courts, and a grilling area. It will also include a new boathouse, beach, food pavilion, a makers shop, docks and piers, community gathering spaces, and multi-use trails, a refurbished Shipwrights Cottage, restored native habitats, and much more.

“The biggest takeaway here is that we’re not just building a new, large park in the city. We’re creating a gathering space for the Bayview-Hunters Point community that will serve generations to come,” Ginsburg said. “Great parks are shaped by the people who they serve, and that’s why putting the community at the forefront of this effort is vital.”

For more information, visit sfrecpark.org/1153/ India-Basin-Waterfront-Park