Constant Gardeners

A 320-foot stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in San Francisco had been a popular dumping ground for years. It wasn’t unusual to see abandoned sofas, TVs, and other appliances amid the wild fennel that flourished along the fence above the Caltrain embankment. It was a stereotypical scene of urban squalor. But in 2016, the area was transformed into a showcase of drought-tolerant landscaping. A neighborhood group received permission from Caltrain, the commuter railway running from San Francisco to San Jose, to fix up the road’s dirt shoulder and plant a garden of Mexican sage, agaves, and other succulents.

Since then, that same group of residents—from the city’s Dogpatch neighborhood and a small section of Potrero Hill—has managed to accelerate the excruciatingly slow engines