I am a Friend of Kenny Alley. It was once a completely neglected alley in my neighborhood, The Excelsior, in San Francisco, with an unfortunate problem of accumulating various dumped goods and furniture. Lots of mattresses, for some reason.

Technically, it's a San Francisco Street, but it is "unaccepted" by the San Francisco Department of Public Works, which means it's up to me and the neighbors and other Friends of Kenny Alley to get things done there on a volunteer basis.

We've done well. We've cleaned it up ... Many times, and we have completed some projects at the site in phases. Over time, we have added a mural to a building on one side, as well as planters and plantings. We've added rain gutter gardens on the other side. We tried to keep them planted with cacti, but they were just too attractive and expensive and people kept stealing them. So, we've moved on to less flashy succulents that we can transplant from neighbors' back yards. It's much cheaper that way.

Our most impressive project has been a mosaic artwork on the stairway in the alley that is designed to suggest a waterfall. In fact that is the name of the artwork, "Waterfall." We also have future plans to continue the water theme with a mural on the sidewalk that leads from the stairs to Mission Street. We unfortunately can't do that with $1,000.00.

So, the $1,000.00 project I'm applying for is to string some lights in a shimmering zig zag pattern across Kenny Alley, perhaps adding some other beautiful dangling elements that will catch the light; to make it even more attractive, make the visibility better and make walking through Kenny Alley safer at night. We want everyone to feel that they can use Kenny Alley to travel to and from London Street to Mission Street by way of Kenny Alley at all times of the day or night.