Affectionately referred to as “the little neighborhood that could!” the Portola is one of San Francisco's "hidden" southeast neighborhoods, tucked between the Excelsior, McLaren Park, and the Bayview Freeway. The neighborhood is part of the working-class rim of the city that once was home to the first wave of Maltese, Italian, and Jewish immigrants and the greenhouses that produced cut flowers for all of San Francisco. Today, it is a bustling multicultural, multilingual neighborhood with San Bruno Avenue as its main corridor.

The Portola Neighborhood Association is the volunteer organization that helps the Portola thrive. It envisions a neighborhood whose diverse volunteer members are stewards of this vibrant community by: 1.) working to foster a healthy, vibrant, and well-connected community through projects that beautify the neighborhood, 2.) promoting safe and accessible transportation, 3.) creating engaging public spaces, 4.) hosting community events, 5.) building on the neighborhood's identity as a Garden District, and 6.) connecting residents and merchants with city resources.



The Portola Neighborhood Association and its volunteer group, the Portola Garden Club, are proud of their work creating The Green Between, two blocks of green space just steps from San Bruno Avenue. Volunteers cleaned up generations of waste and created a verdant escape where workers and visitors can take a lunch break and savor the birds, butterflies, murals, and art installations and where community members can connect while being reminded of the power each of us has to make a difference in our community.