How Glen Park Became the Place San Francisco's Stairway Month Ends

"Doing this bridge had been bubbling in my brain for 20 years," Glen Park resident Beth O'Leary told SFGATE last spring, talking about the overpass at Bosworth Street and Lippard Avenue. She had the idea in mind for two decades. After she brought it up during a chance conversation on the Burnside steps on New Year's Day 2025, the tiling of the bridge's pillars took about six weeks from the first coat of paint to the scaffolding coming down.

The neighbors behind the bridge also organize SF Stairway Month, a citywide celebration now in its third year. So when the month's 8-mile tiled stairway walk ends on October 24, it finishes on Glen Park's own tilework and then at Glen Park Station, a neighborhood bar.

Three Pieces on One Short Stretch of Trail

Glen Park's public art sits along a short stretch of the Crosstown Trail. SFGATE places the Burnside cul-de-sac two blocks up the trail from the Bosworth bridge. Each project built on the one before it.

Glen Park Beautiful calls the mural "the project that started our journey." The group describes the painting as more than 800 square feet, and the neighborhood celebrated it on September 17, 2022. In October 2024 the steps were finished right beside it, also with an Islais Creek theme. More than 300 of their tiles were made by neighbors at a community event. Legacy tiles honoring loved ones were set in among them. When the San Francisco Chronicle covered the steps in October 2024, it reported a $135,000 Community Challenge Grant for the mural-and-stairs project and hundreds of legacy tiles sold to donors.

The bridge is the newest piece. Its installation was the quickest part of the story.

The Bridge, From Weeds to Tile

For years the Bosworth crossing went unnoticed. It connects Glen Park School on the south side with the Glen Park Greenway on the north, carrying people over four lanes of Bosworth Street, which feeds directly onto Highway 280. SFGATE now calls it the city's first tiled crossing. Five pillars, about 400 square feet in total, are covered in mosaic against two shades of blue paint.

SFGATE's account shows how a neighborhood project actually moves forward:

• The team. Renee Berger, who led the Burnside project, teamed up with O'Leary and neighbor Libby Reder. Working as Glen Park Beautiful, the three started meeting weekly in March 2025.
• The permit. They applied for a Public Works "Love Our Neighborhoods" permit. SFGATE reports that five years earlier the same work would have needed a Major Encroachment Permit, which could take up to three years.
• The groundwork. Before the tile went up, more than 20 community members came out in June for a Neighborhood Beautification Day and cleared the growth around the pillars. Native plants went in where the ivy had been.
• The tile. Over seven days in Glen Park School's after-school program, students from kindergarten through fifth grade broke up donated seconds from Heath Ceramics, Fireclay and McIntyre and set the pieces into Holzman's design.
• The install. It took three days, with crew lunches from Canyon Market on Diamond Street. The scaffolding came down by May 2.
• The money. Most neighbor donations were between $100 and $500. A Glen Park Association grant and a benefit concert at Bird & Beckett Books & Records covered the rest.

That last item explains where the Stairway Month finale is being held.

Why a Citywide Walk Finishes in Glen Park

According to the Civic Joy Fund, SF Stairway Month is hosted by the Civic Joy Fund and organized by Glen Park Beautiful. Its partners include the Crosstown Trail, San Francisco City Guides and Bird & Beckett. The main walk is the third annual "Truly Terrific: Tiled to Tiled Stairway Walk" on Saturday, October 24. Karen Rhodes, a co-founder of the Crosstown Trail, and Alexandra Kenin, who has mapped more than 900 San Francisco stairways, lead it.

According to the event listing, the route runs:

1. Lincoln Park Steps, at the western end of California Street
2. Through the Richmond District to Golden Gate Park
3. The Hidden Gardens tiled stairway and the 16th/Moraga tiled steps in Golden Gate Heights
4. Up Grandview Hill, then lunch at West Portal Playground
5. The "Dragon's Tale" tiled stairway at Miraloma Elementary School
6. Down Glen Canyon to the Burnside mural and tiled steps
7. Along the Glen Park Greenway to the Bosworth bridge pillars
8. Glen Park Station, which the listing calls "Glen Park's living room"

Barr and Crutcher made the mosaics for all five stairways on the route, and both will join the walk as special guests. Berger will tell the story of the Burnside steps. The full walk is 8 miles and starts at 9 a.m. at the Lincoln Park Steps. If you join at the Mother's Meadow restrooms at 573 MLK Drive at 10:15 a.m., it's 6 miles. Organizers describe it as moderately strenuous, with dirt paths and uneven ground in Glen Canyon.

If you live near the Greenway, you don't need to cross the city to see the art. The last stretch of the route, from Burnside down to the bridge and on to Glen Park Station, is a short walk from home.

The Rest of the Month, Without the Eight Miles

The rest of the events stay close to the village. October 21 has two events in the same building on the same evening.

Sunday, October 18. San Francisco City Guides leads walkers up the Filbert and Greenwich Steps. This is the one event outside Glen Park.

Wednesday, October 21, 3 to 5:30 p.m. The SF Public Library hosts a Glen Park walk starting at the Glen Park Branch Library. It includes the Burnside steps and the Bosworth bridge.

Wednesday, October 21, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. At the same library, 2825 Diamond Street, Glen Park Beautiful takes community input on the fence at the back of the patio next to 2260 Diamond Street, the planned site of the neighborhood's next mosaic mural.

Tuesday, October 27, 7 to 8:30 p.m. "All About SF's Stairways: No Walking Required!" at Bird & Beckett, 653 Chenery Street. Mary Burk, author of Stairway Walks in San Francisco, appears with Kenin, who will show her map of the city's stairways. Liz Novoa hosts stairway trivia.

Bird & Beckett is a natural venue because it helped pay for the bridge. The shop is open for browsing Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. It also has regular jazz: "Jazz in the Bookshop" on Fridays and "Jazz Club" on Saturdays, both 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., plus Sunday happy hour sessions. The October calendar has Jeffrey Burr, Eric Markowitz, Smith Dobson and Noel Jewkes on Friday the 16th, and Darren Johnston, Kai Lyons, Marcus Shelby and Lorca Hart on Saturday the 17th.

The Next Pieces Are on the Calendar Too

The October 21 meeting starts the next project. Neighbors who come will help decide what goes on the Diamond Street patio fence, just as two library input sessions shaped how abstract the bridge design would be.

On Saturday, November 7, District 8 Beautification Day picks up where the earlier cleanup stopped. Volunteers will clear the remaining ivy under the pedestrian bridge and prepare the ground for a native plant garden. The work runs 9:30 a.m. to noon, meeting at Glen Park School at Bosworth Street and Lippard Avenue. Volunteers sign up with "Bosworth Team" in the organization field.

Grants are funding more work. Glen Park Beautiful reports that an Avenue Greenlight grant will pay to refresh the Welcome to Glen Park sign, add a mural on the fence next to it, and create a scavenger hunt. The Glen Park Association reports a separate $25,000 Avenue Greenlight grant for Community Corners murals and planters on the Arlington Slow Street. Those installations are planned, not finished. The association also credits the Civic Joy Fund for the murals on utility boxes at Glen Park BART.

Glen Park Beautiful's next design conversation is the patio fence meeting at the Glen Park Branch Library on October 21 at 6:30 p.m.

We follow Glen Park's mosaic trail as neighbors. If you'd like to talk about how community projects like these shape the blocks around Burnside and Bosworth, The Golden Gate Group welcomes the conversation. Schedule a 15-minute consultation.