Seeing Islais Creek as an Amenity
Past and future wetlands on San Francisco's southeast shoreline
Islais Creek lies low between the Bayview and Dogpatch. You might not know it just by looking at it, but this is the mouth of San Francisco’s largest — and arguably most important — watershed. Stretching from the bay to Daly City, this creek was at one point navigable beyond where the Alemany Maze is today.
Imagine taking a boat to pick up hardware at Lowe’s. That should give you an idea of how much we’ve transformed this landscape. Now we have to transform it again. Climate change is turning Islais Creek into a liability, but also an opportunity.
In its current state, Islais Creek is an industrial backwater. Production, distribution, and repair businesses surround it. These are essential industries, but they largely turn their back on the water. Industrial uses border the majority of this (surprisingly long) channel, which stretches nearly a mile from where the creek emerges from a pipe under 280 to where it meets the bay just beyond a nearby cement plant. In effect, the creek becomes a barrier. What was once an expansive wetland, teeming with life, is now a border between neighborhoods.
What if it didn’t have to be this way?
A newly released draft study from the Port and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) imagines a future Islais Creek that will be able to withstand a storm surge that could one day flood this basin with more than seven feet of water—if we decide to do nothing. Even the tallest player at Chase Center is destined to be fully submerged if we do nothing.
Because this watershed is so large, the risk is essentially doubled. Rising seas create problems on the bay side, while on the land side, increased storms will send a torrent of water downstream to areas we have largely covered with concrete, and are thus more likely to flood without intervention.
The Army’s engineers imagine adding even more concrete to protect our waterfront. Taller concrete. Wider concrete. But gradual concrete. At public workshops, Port staff are quick to emphasize that this will be less wall and more gentle incline. All of which is designed to protect the more than 22,000 jobs that are at risk in this former wetland turned working-class job center. Yet interestingly, staff from both the Port and Army acknowledge that working with nature is sometimes better than fighting it. What if nature can make us more resilient than concrete?
This is Engineering with Nature, and through it, we can imagine an alternative future that creates an expansive wetland park that connects the Bayview to the rest of the city, while also creating new green amenities for its residents.
Right now, this imagined future is closer to a dream than reality, as it’s not part of the current plan. At least not yet. But creating an expansive and interconnected park is well within reach. Many of the properties that border the creek are city-owned properties, and the water has to go somewhere.
In cities like Hoboken, new parks are being built to help the city withstand storms. These are floodable parks, designed to absorb an onslaught of water. They create amenities like sports courts built above storage tanks, and elevated boardwalks that span wetlands that dampen the waves. These projects reveal that infrastructure can do more than just protect us, it can nurture our communities and our environment too.
These projects also open the door for a future Islais Creek that connects neighborhoods rather than separates them. An Islais Creek that is resilient and in repair rather than polluted and neglected. An Islais Creek that is home to more jobs, more birds, and more joy, instead of just simply more concrete.
This is the future that’s within our grasp.
The Port and the Army are now taking public comment on their plan, and the responses we give them will reverberate for generations to come. This is a 13 billion dollar investment in our city’s waterfront that should last well into the next century. Will our children experience an expansive wetland park full of community amenities, or a concrete walkway next to a bus depot? Now is the time to decide.
While much of the investment imagined in this plan is set in stone (in some cases quite literally) along the northern waterfront, the southern waterfront provides more more opportunity. Our city leaders would be wise to treat this opportunity as a chance to invest in equity-priority communities, right past wrongs, and repair some of the environmental, economic, and emotional harm brought on by decades of neglect.
We’re advocating for the Port and Army to fully commit to Engineering with Nature at Islais Creek. To not only incorporate nature-based features, but maximize them. To not only protect existing jobs but also to create new ones. To prioritize increasing connections in all directions, connecting the Bayview to Dogpatch, Islais Creek to the base of Bernal Heights, and to eventually restore this watershed so that those in the Excelsior and Outer Mission could trace this waterway from their front doors all the way to a sweeping wetland park, a park filled with enough amenities to rival any park in the city.
Standing on the banks of Islais Creek, you can see the city’s past choices on full display. The choice to push industry to the far edges of city limits, to disconnect the Bayview from neighboring communities, to disregard nature. This place is the result of decisions that have devalued this watershed, its ecosystem, and its inhabitants.
Will the city make new choices for its future? Will we choose to see Islais Creek as a community asset? Will we create concrete or amenities? It’s time to find out. Because the water is rising.
This is the first installment of an ongoing series by SF Parks Forward on the past and future wetlands of Islais Creek. This series explores the potential this watershed has to make us more resilient to climate change, knit together the Blue Greenway, restore natural habitats, and provide new jobs and amenities for surrounding communities.