The Tenderloin, one of San Francisco's most crime-ridden neighborhoods, lies in the middle of the city, not far from city hall and the tony neighborhood of Nob Hill. Some travel brochures even caution tourists to stay away from the Tenderloin. The neighborhood earned its name and reputation in the 1920’s, when the police needed to be bribed with choice cuts of meat to provide enforcement in the area where construction and dock workers lived. It remains a neighborhood defined by poverty, homelessness and drug use. But in a narrow alley off Ellis and Leavenworth Streets is an urban sanctuary, known as the Tenderloin National Forest. The Tenderloin National Forest, or Forest, is one of the few open spaces in a dense neighborhood of over 40,000 culturally and ethnically diverse residents. The Forest came to life about twenty five years ago when Darryl Smith, an artist and San Francisco native, was living in a Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) managed apartment building adjacent to the derelict alley, then known as Cohen Alley. The alley served as a dumping ground for hypodermic needles and garbage. Smith and his partner, Laurie Lazer, along with fellow artists and community activists decided to transform the dingy alley into a safe, relaxing space for people to congregate. It wasn’t easy. In 1989, Smith planted a redwood in the shady asphalt. It was at that time that Smith and his artist collaborators formed the nonprofit Luggage Store Gallery. The space at 509 Ellis, previously a bar, became a garden annex to the Gallery and a site for the Gallery’s Artist in Residency (AIR) Program. Plant by plant, the alley was being transformed into a community garden and temporary performance space.