Sanchez Slow Street in Noe Valley: What's New and What's Next

"Have you been wondering what those new metal cubic planters are doing at the intersections of Sanchez/Cesar Chavez and Sanchez/Day?" Friends of Slow Sanchez opened a July post with that question, and it answered with a list of first names. Chris, Dominic, Andrea, Devon, Amela, Emme, Kieran, Zaid, Ben and Brooke Ray built the planters. Chris and Emme got a special thank-you for looking after them.

Those two planters show where the Sanchez Slow Street stands this fall. Over the past eighteen months, San Francisco finished the stretch from 23rd to 30th. It installed the concrete, painted the corners and passed a new speed limit. What's left is mostly upkeep: watering, weeding, signs and events. A lot of that now depends on a small volunteer group and whoever on the block decides to join it.

The street was already slow before the new limit

The new 15 mph limit sounds like a big change until you compare it with how drivers were already using the street. In 2024, while the city was preparing the Next Generation project, SFMTA's own summary listed the posted limit on Sanchez as 25 mph. It also set a separate Slow Street target of 15 mph for average speeds. Then it reported what drivers were actually doing, using traffic counts taken on January 17 and 18, 2023.

SFMTA's Slow Streets program sets two tests for a low-stress corridor: 1,000 or fewer vehicles a day, and speeds of 15 mph or less. Every measured segment of Sanchez passed both. Even the busiest one, near 24th Street, carried a little over half the traffic the program allows. The blocks between 26th and Clipper carried less than a quarter of it.

So the new limit mostly makes official what traffic was already doing. When the old 25 mph limit was still posted, most drivers were already going slower than the new one. The city's work on Sanchez was mainly about making the slow street permanent, since it already worked.

What the city finished, step by step

The approvals took two years. The construction itself happened mostly in one season.

1. January 2025. According to Upper Noe Neighbors, the project had paused while SFMTA worked through design concerns with SF Fire. SF Fire then approved the proposed design without exceptions.
2. March 2025. A traffic order approved daylighting and painted safety zones at six intersections: 30th, Day, 29th, Cesar Chavez, Clipper and 24th. It also approved traffic-calming islands on 29th Street where it meets Sanchez.
3. September 2025. Upper Noe Neighbors reported that islands and painted corner areas had started to appear.
4. February 23, 2026. A San Francisco County Transportation Authority report called the Next Generation Sanchez Slow Street substantially complete. It cost about $277,000 from District 8 Neighborhood Transportation Program funds.
5. April 17, 2026. At an SFMTA engineering hearing, the City Traffic Engineer approved sending a 15 mph limit for Sanchez between 23rd and 30th to the SFMTA Board. Staff reported multiple emails in support, one in opposition, and supportive comments at the hearing.
6. June 2, 2026. The SFMTA Board adopted the limit in Resolution 260602-043. The same resolution set 15 mph limits on Page Street and on 20th Street between Shotwell and Potrero.
7. August 2026. SFMTA's speed-limit tracker, last updated June 15, lists August 2026 as the scheduled completion for Sanchez. The tracker shows the plan as of June, so it doesn't confirm when the signs actually went up.

The SFCTA report also describes the funding in a way that ties straight to those two planters at the corners. The money paid for painted safety zones and calming islands, "and landscaping and planters on select islands to add green elements in the roadway." It also calls Sanchez a pilot for "next generation" treatments now that the SFMTA Board has approved a full citywide Slow Streets program. In other words, the city is watching Sanchez as a test case for other slow streets.

Two corners, ten volunteers, and a watering schedule

The planters at Day Street and Cesar Chavez came out of a new city pilot called Community Corners. It lets neighbors plant and decorate some of the "daylit" zones SFMTA created to make crosswalks more visible. Daylighting clears the curb space next to a crosswalk. The pilot lets people turn that space into something besides bare pavement.

Friends of Slow Sanchez thanked SF Beautiful, the California Native Plant Society and the Presidio Nursery for the Day and Cesar Chavez planters. Its July post asked people to "be patient and keep checking in to watch our sweet little native plants grow." Native plants take a while to fill in, and slowly growing plants need water on a regular schedule.

That's where the group needs help. At Upper Noe Neighbors' July 15 community meeting, Friends of Slow Sanchez said it was trying to recruit volunteers and form groups, and that it needs "lots of people to water pots / planters." The group formed in 2020 to promote community, safety, greening and art along the corridor. According to the meeting notes, it played a key role in bringing the Next Generation features that are now installed.

BR Demko recently took over as the leader of Friends of Slow Sanchez. She told the July meeting that the group is switching its fiscal sponsor from SFHAC to SF Beautiful. Last year it partnered with Friends of the Urban Forest, and it is looking into permits for vendors. SF Beautiful also contributed to the corner planters, so the new sponsor is an organization already involved in the plantings.

What a speed limit doesn't settle

Even with slow traffic, the same meeting heard about a problem that numbers don't capture. One attendee said they walk Sanchez every day and see near misses caused by people not paying attention. They described people yelling at each other and not knowing who has the right of way, and called it "confusing." They asked whether signs could tell drivers to yield to pedestrians. The answer recorded in the notes was "good idea."

The 2023 counts explain why that complaint survives a lower limit. When median speeds are already 12 to 14 mph, a 15 mph sign changes little about how fast people drive. What's still unclear is how drivers, cyclists, walkers and dogs share a street built for slow, mixed use. Shared rules and signs would address that.

Someone also asked whether the old opposition to the Slow Street is still around, since some Sanchez residents objected strongly in the past. Demko's answer was "We must stay friendly to all," and the notes add that the message seems to resonate. The group hasn't pushed for anything stricter. It has put its energy into plants, happy hours and a dog parade.

Upper Noe Neighbors says it supports the Slow Sanchez design and wants to know what neighbors want next for the street. It directs questions and feedback to [email protected], with "Sanchez Street" in the subject line. That address is the right place to send a request for yield signs.

Where to show up in October

Most of what's left on the street depends on volunteers and events. Here is what's on the calendar this month, along with how firm each date is:

• Upper Noe Cleanup, Saturday, October 10, 10:30 a.m. to noon. Meet on Day Street at Upper Noe Recreation Center, a block from the Sanchez and Day planter. Volunteers pick up litter, and Martha & Bros. provides free refreshments afterward. The cleanup happens every second Saturday.
• Friends of Slow Sanchez happy hour at Noe Cafe. The group meets the last Friday of each month. The July session ran from 5 to 7 p.m. If the pattern holds, the October date is Friday, October 30.
• The Halloween dog parade. Friends of Slow Sanchez holds it on the Saturday before Halloween. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, though, and a family-events listing that cites an organizer screenshot puts the parade on Sanchez Street on Saturday, October 31, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The same listing has a Halloween Stroll from 3 to 5 p.m. It doesn't give a route, so check slowsanchez.com before you bring your dog.
• A wellness event. The group said in July that it was planning one for October. No date has been posted.

One idea from the July meeting hasn't been scheduled. An attendee suggested closing a block for a long-table street dinner like the ones in Italy. Friends of Slow Sanchez said it was already thinking about a communal potluck. If it happens, it would be the first event built around the new corners. The planters at Day and Cesar Chavez still need someone to water them in the meantime.

At Amanda Jones Advisory & Associates, we follow projects like Slow Sanchez because they shape what living on a particular block is like. That kind of detail matters when you're preparing a home on Sanchez or anywhere nearby. If you'd like to talk about how changes to your street affect your plans, book a private consultation.