Take a walk—October is SF Stairway Month

Seven miles, 5-ish hours and 494 steps–who would show up for such an arduous journey? Around 60 intrepid and sturdy people did, that’s who.

October is SF Stairway Month, inaugurated this year by District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, in which the city is celebrating the 900+ public stairways across San Francisco. One of the events was a tiled stairway walk on October 13, a spectacular day weatherwise, of five stairways that have been lovingly decorated with the help of neighborhood leaders, tile artists, volunteers, donors, and organizations such as the San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA).

The walk was organized and led by Renee Berger, project leader of the Burnside Mural+ which is nearing completion of the tiled steps, and included the tile artists, the designer of the route, Supervisor Mandelman, and representatives of the SFPA. (All are identified in a group shot at the end of this post.)

Read about the Burnside Steps in SFGate and in the San Francisco Chronicle.

 

Once a hillside covered in trash, now it’s a multicolored, zigzag tile design, inspired by the Steps to Peace painted by youth in the Syrian town of Deir Atiyah and landscaped with flowering perennials, succulents, and other drought-tolerant plants.

 

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Photo:  Renee Berger.

The mural and tiles celebrate the geography, native flora and fauna and Islais Creek that runs through it, while also honoring the land that we live on and the Canyon that make the Glen Park neighborhood unique. The history and people of Glen Park are represented in the walls adjacent to the steps.

Perhaps the only tiled staircase adjoining an SF public school, the focus is on education and the joy of learning. There’s a mosaic on a wall showing the solar system, and the last 12 steps at the top count from 1 through 12, showing the counts of a variety of objects. (Not shown: steps 1-7.) The tip of the dragon’s tail starts at the bottom and winds its way upward.

 

 

 

 

This is perhaps the most well known of all the tiled staircases. The steps are covered with tile mosaics showing a sea to sky scene, with sea life at the bottom, followed by land animals, then birds, and rising up to the moon and sun at the  top.

 

As the name suggests, bountiful nature in all its glory is the theme of this tiled stairway. California native wildlife, plants and insects are depicted in nine separate sections, with large elements bursting their way though smaller scenes of flowers, leaves and bugs.