City's First "Parklet" Comes to NOPA: Construction To Be Completed This Week at Mojo Bicycle Cafe

Workers assemble platform and support for sidewalk extension at Mojo Bicycle Cafe

Temporary sidewalk extension, 40 ft x 7 ft, for cafe seating, planters, and bike parking

Rijad Ghannan of RG Architecture is donating his services for the trial extension

The installation of San Francisco's first "parklet" will be competed today or tomorrow in front of Mojo Bicycle Cafe on Divisadero Street. As part of a six-month experiment, two parking spaces will be transformed into a raised sidewalk-level wooden deck with cafe seating, planter boxes, and parking for six bikes. On Thursday and Friday of this week construction crews placed the wooden tiles and supports in place with Rijad Ghannan supervising the work. His firm, RG Architecture, is providing its services gratis to the project. Ghannan is a former board member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and brings his appreciation for biking and innovative design to the project.

The expanded sidewalk installation at Mojo is part of the city's "Pavement to Parks" program which experiments with diverse uses for public spaces. Other projects have been larger in size such as the 17th and Castro intersection which now features tables and chairs instead of car traffic. The much smaller installation at Mojo Cafe will be assessed after six months. If successful, the permit for its operation can be extended another six months. For more information and images of the Mojo project, check the coverage here in Streetsblog.