2020 has been the most unpredictable year of our generation. 

Pandemics, social unrest, and now wildfires and air quality. After 2 cancelations due to air quality concerns, we started UNDSCVRD Sundays with our partner Sunday Streets in the middle of an unprecedented heat wave last week. As luck would have it, air quality took a turn for the worse and a visible haze of smoke settled over SOMA. Purpleair.com registered local air quality to be hazardous so we quickly shut down the activation early.

Yesterday’s apocalyptic scene of orange skies in the Bay Area was a wake-up call. We can’t control mother nature. There are fires raging in California and new fires in Oregon are perpetuating the soot and ash clogging our skies. As I write this, the air quality in SOMA is currently hazardous once again:

The weather patterns are unpredictable. Air forecasts may predict healthy or moderate air conditions, but microclimates and wind patterns will quickly shift on-the-ground conditions like last week.

Until the wildfires blazing across California and Oregon are contained, we are going to be victims of unpredictable air quality.

When we created UNDSCVRD Sundays, we had a goal to develop the safest activation possible with the most comprehensive COVID-19 safety measures: contact tracing, temperature checks, social distancing markers, and even onsite safety checks to keep our community safe.

But with the recent turn of events, we have come to the conclusion that it is safer and better to postpone UNDSCVRD Sundays until 10/4 to give our brave firefighters time to contain the wildfires and for mother nature to cut us a break. We are committed to creating opportunities for economic recovery, but only in the safest manner possible.

Written by Desi Danganan