Chris Waddling is QGI's new Vice Chair

In the summer of 2007, I began pressuring the city and Samtrans to start taking responsibility for their own property at Palou and Dunshee, over the Caltrain Oakdale rail tunnel.  I called the new 311 system to get trash picked up that the city could get to, and found email addresses of people at Samtrans so as to get things cleaned up inside the fence.  Unbeknownst to me, at around the same time, two residents were beginning to take some responsibility for the area as well, cleaning up what trash they could get to and working with Quesada Gardens Initiative to get extra volunteer help, planting a few jade plants on the accessible strip of dirt.  QGI, in turn, was working on getting an agreement with Samtrans, but things were plodding along very slowly.

In 2008, we all joined forces and haven't looked back.  The Palou Community Garden has come a long way, with the city and Samtrans now working with us to keep it cleaned up.  QGI has obtained an agreement wiht Samtrans, has organized several cleanup days, and we're now at the stage where we're laying down weed barrier (cardboard) and mulch to try to keep the weeds at bay.  Neighbors notice the difference, as they're no longer assaulted by the stench of the dumped trash that met them each day.  The project has a long way to go. It is the largest and most complex project we've worked on so far.  Every Saturday, anyone and everyone is welcome to come out and help!

From Bayview Footprints (and yes, that's me):

Pictured is Chris at the Palou Garden after a recent mulching effort. 
Bridgeview Garden neighbor Sherry Scott pitched in.

Quesada Gardens Initiative has even more to thank Chris Waddling for. First for his massive contribution to the Palou Garden project, and now for expressing his commitment to Bayview Hunters Point through expanded leadership with the feisty band of neighbors known as Quesada Gardens.   

Chris agreed to fill QGI's Board of Directors Vice Chair position, which had been empty since co-founder James Ross moved to Kentucky, and the Board voted its unanimous and enthusiastic approval.  He will work with Chair (Emeritus) Annette Smith and all the residents associated with QGI to grow the network of involved residents building social cohesion through consensus and asset-based approaches to community change.    

Taught the value of gardening and sustainable living by his mother and grandmother, Chris has become an avid backyard gardener himself, with a passion for improving the community by working the soil and bringing neighbors together. Chris credits his "can-do" attitude to lessons passed down from his working-class ancestors - the Jamaican meat-packer, the English ship-builder, the American iron-worker - and credits his parents for encouraging his demand of himself to strive for better.  

Chris sees the founders and members of the Quesada Gardens Initiative as sharing many of the same values as his family. He has found QGI to be a good fit for all those who believe that nurturing our community's strengths and building consensus as a way to solving our problems are simply part of being a good neighbor.


You can often find Chris working at QGI's Palou Community Garden, where he continues to serve in a project leader capacity, or walking from his home to his job as a PhD scientist at UCSF, Mission Bay. He also does his best to keep himself and others in the district informed through his D10 Watch blog.  

Chris immigrated to the US in 1994, has lived in San Francisco since 2000, and in the city's Bayview neighborhood with his family since 2004.