Sept 11–12, 2026
Three civic questions teams can choose to build against this weekend. Pick the one that calls to you, or let it shape how you read the city.
San Francisco has thousands of vacant lots, surface parking garages, and underused single-story buildings sitting on some of the city's most transit-connected land — while the city simultaneously declares a housing emergency.
Figure out why this land is sitting idle and what would actually get it into use. Your output can be a tool, a piece of research, a policy proposal, an organizing plan, an explainer — whatever your team thinks best fits what you find.
Every commercial corridor in San Francisco has storefronts that have sat empty for months or years — a shuttered bakery, a hardware store, a nail salon, now just paper-covered windows. Pick one corridor that you know, or can picture — Third Street, Mission Street, San Bruno Ave, Clement Street, wherever calls to you. Picture its empty storefronts. What used to be there? What's the neighborhood missing because that space sits dark?
Then dream. If this corridor became what it deserves to be, what would that look like — block by block? The city already has a few tools in its pocket that might unblock a piece of it. Treat those as resources to raid, not the point of the exercise. Come back with something that moves one real block closer to being occupied — a plan, a tool, an outreach strategy, a pitch to a property owner.
Every district in San Francisco is living through some version of the same question right now: what's actually happening around here — and how do we build the city we want, together? But just as much of it is about the everyday texture of a neighborhood: are people connected to each other, is the block clean and safe, does the city have the capacity to show up? A neighborhood where people know each other and trust the systems around them is a neighborhood that can absorb change well — and one that's ready for more of it.
Here's the challenge: what would it take for every resident in this city to feel like their block is seen, their neighbors are known, and the systems meant to serve them actually work?
Claim your spot in about thirty seconds — no application, no essay, no cost. Pick the theme that keeps nagging at you, and we'll match you onto a team by skill and district before kickoff.