Author: Alfredo Casuso

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Saturday, June 19, 2021

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

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MAYOR LONDON BREED ON JUNETEENTH

“Today San Franciscans come together to celebrate Juneteenth, the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. For the first time, this monumental day has been recognized as a national holiday that will forever commemorate the lives and struggle of those who have come before us. Growing up as a Black woman in the Fillmore, Juneteenth has always been a special day for me. I remember cowboys riding their horses through crowds of performers, both young and old, re-enacting the emancipation of our ancestors. Celebrating this day with my community always made me feel part of something larger than myself.

Juneteenth is not just a reminder of our history of being enslaved and our prolonged struggle for equality; it’s a celebration of the contributions Black San Franciscans have made to the City we all love. It’s about our grandparents, who migrated from the Jim Crow South, worked tirelessly, and helped build our City’s economy. It’s about the legacy of jazz in the Fillmore that paved the way for today’s artists and musicians. And it’s about San Francisco’s fighting history to ensure racial and economic justice for all Americans.

In May of last year the systemic injustice emanating from hundreds of years of racism and mistreatment of Black Americans was put into plain view when we witnessed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police. While we’re now a year removed from the mass protests that erupted across the country and the world, I have not forgotten about the challenges that our Black community continues to face.

We have taken bold steps to fight racial injustices facing our City’s declining Black working class. Investments like the Dream Keeper Initiative, which will provide an annual investment of $60 million to help support Black residents, communities, and businesses. I understand that funding alone will not heal generational wounds of disinvestment and economic inequities. But I can assure you that I will continue to work every day to make San Francisco a safe place for every individual, regardless of their skin color. 

As we celebrate Juneteenth this year, let us remember those we have lost to injustices and inequality. In a city that prides itself on embracing diversity, promoting inclusion, and being a beacon of hope, we must do better living up to these standards. For too long, Black lives in America have been overlooked. We must demand justice and work to change the systems that have kept so many of our friends and family members pinned down, and we must support and empower one another as we build a just and equitable country that we can be proud to call home.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

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COIT TOWER TO WELCOME VISITORS AGAIN

San Francisco, CA — Coit Tower, the iconic white column defining the San Francisco skyline, will welcome visitors Thursday, June 17 for the first time in 15 months, Mayor London N. Breed announced today.

The 210-foot welcoming beacon, which also houses the largest Depression Era art collection in the U.S., normally sees up to 1,500 visitors a day. Health orders shuttered the National Historic Site March 15, 2020.

Coit Tower will resume selling tickets for elevator rides to its observation deck, where sightseers can enjoy 360-degree views of the City and the San Francisco Bay. Masks are required in the elevator.

Visitors can admire the 26 murals inside the tower’s base for free. The frescoes, which depict life in California during the Depression, were painted in 1934 by artists employed by the Public Works of Art Project, a precursor to the Works Progress Administration. 

Guided tours of the artwork will be limited to six people at one time. Coit Tower’s gift shop and café kiosk will also re-open Thursday.

“From its panoramic views to the Depression Era frescoes painted on its walls, Coit Tower gives visitors a glimpse of the City’s breathtaking beauty and the resilience of its residents,” said Mayor Breed. “I’m thrilled to open this beloved landmark to the public again.”  

The simple fluted tower is named for Lillie Hitchcock Coit, a famously eccentric patron of the City’s firefighters. Coit died in 1929, leaving a substantial bequest “for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city I have always loved.” The funds were used to build both the tower and a monument to Coit’s beloved volunteer firefighters, in nearby Washington Square. Coit Tower was completed in 1933.

“Coit Tower is a special place—not just for tourists but locals who want to see their city in a new and awe-inspiring way. We’re grateful to be able to provide this experience to visitors again,” said San Francisco Recreation and Park Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg. 

Coit Tower is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. everyday. For more information, visit Coit Tower online.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

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MAYOR LONDON BREED AND THE SFMTA ANNOUNCE UPDATED TIMELINE FOR THE RETURN OF CABLE CARS

The SFMTA will run mock service starting in August and will solicit the public’s help and feedback ahead of the return to revenue service

San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) today announced that cable cars will once again be resuming service in San Francisco as downtown economic activity returns. SFMTA staff will begin mechanical inspections of the cable cars in mid-July, and by the first week of August, will invite the public onboard free of charge to help provide feedback on customer experience ahead of a fall restart of revenue service.

“San Francisco just isn’t San Francisco without the cable cars running, and this is just the latest sign that City is recovering and bouncing back,” said Mayor Breed. “Today, San Francisco is reopening, which is a testament to all of the sacrifices that our residents and businesses have made over the past year and the fact that we have the highest vaccination rate of any major city in the country. People are ready to once again visit San Francisco and experience everything we have to offer, and we know that riding the cable cars is always high on the list of things that people want to do. I want to thank the SFMTA for all of their work during the pandemic to keep our transit system running under the most challenging of circumstances and for everything they’ve done to bring back service in the City.

Last March, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SFMTA temporarily halted cable car service as part of the city’s emergency response. This decision was made to best protect operators and the public. Muni resources were then shifted to a core network to serve essential workers and accommodate physical distancing on San Francisco’s most utilized lines.

The result was the longest cable car shutdown in the system since the full system reconstruction in the 1980s, requiring significant work to reboot the system and bring it back better. Now, as the City shifts its focus to supporting economic recovery, residents, visitors, and tourists will once again be able to experience the cable cars and hear the iconic bells chiming from Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf, and all of the iconic backdrops in between.

Leading up to the return, the SFMTA will continue recertifying operators, hiring line inspectors, and preparing infrastructure to accommodate service. In August, members of the public will be able to board the lines when cable car conductors are making stops and ride during this period before fare service resumes. This mock service will run at similar levels to regular service and riders will not need to pay as the SFMTA works out the kinks in the system.

By early September, cable cars will resume revenue service, first to the Powell-Hyde line, and with the Powell-Mason and California lines following shortly thereafter. Service is planned to run from 7 a.m. until about 10 p.m., though cars returning to the cable car barn after 10 p.m. will continue to take riders to Chinatown.

“Our cable cars are a symbol of San Francisco and central to the city’s economic recovery,” said Jeffrey Tumlin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “We’re grateful for the public’s help in service testing and operator training as we work to bring transit back better than before.”

Anyone interested in cable car service updates is encouraged to subscribe to text or e-mail updates for more information.

Media contact:
David Perry / David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

World’s Original Rainbow Flag Returns to its City of Origin

Created for 1978 Gay Pride Celebration in San Francisco
Was Thought Lost for 40 Years

4 June 2021 – San Francisco, CA: Surrounded by community leaders, elected officials and other history lovers, San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed today officially welcomed back the long-lost original Rainbow Flag to the city that first saw it fly in the 1978 Gay Freedom Day celebration that featured then San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. This historic artifact will be added to the permanent collection of the GLBT Historical Society and will be on display at the society’s museum(www.glbthistory.org) at4127 18th Street in San Francisco’s internationally known Castro District.  The flag is the centerpiece of the exhibition entitled “Performance, Protest and Politics: The Art of Gilbert Baker.”

“I am thrilled to welcome back this important piece of LGBTQ and San Francisco history to its original home,” said Mayor Breed in remarks at a ceremony marking the flag’s unveiling. “This flag represents so much to people across the world, and they will now be able to visit and see it for themselves. Our history as a city and a nation is inseparably connected to the LGBTQ movement, and this symbol serves to remind us all of this history.” 

In April 2021, the GLBT Historical Society received an archival donation of an extraordinary, unique piece of history, now being publicly unveiled during the Pride season: a fragment of one of the two monumental rainbow flags first raised on June 25, 1978 in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Displaying the original design’s eight colored stripes, it was created by Gilbert Baker (1951–2017) and hand-stitched and dyed with the help of Lynn Segerblom (Faerie Argyle Rainbow), James McNamara, Glenne McElhinney, Joe Duran and Paul Langlotz and other volunteers and friends. Thought to have been lost for over 40 years, the fragment was recently rediscovered and is the only known surviving remnant of the two inaugural rainbow flags.

“I love that our iconography evolves, as we do as LGBTQ communities coming together under the same queer umbrella. I grew up with the pink triangle and the lambda sign and was happy when the pride flag by Gilbert Baker became popular,” said Tina Valentin Aguirre, Board Member, GLBT Historical Society. “Today, I love the Transgender, Nonbinary, Bear, and Progress pride flags. And if I see a Mexican pride flag, I’m in love, because it’s a mash-up and there’s something revolutionary about that. Yay for pride in all guises!”

“Rainbows are of nature, and Gilbert Baker’s creation represents every aspect of our nature: communities of color, the differently abled, all genders and expressions,” said Terry Beswick, Executive Director of the GLBT Historical Society. “Gilbert Baker not only created a symbol of our movement, but that creation has actually pushed our movement forward.”

The GLBT Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits and makes accessible to the public materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of LGBTQ history, culture and arts in all their diversity. Founded in 1985, the nonprofit is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of LGBTQ public history. The Society’s operations are centered at two sites: the GLBT Historical Society Museum, located since 2011 in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood and the Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives and Research Center, open to researchers in San Francisco’s Mid-Market district.

“San Francisco’s LGBTQ community deserves a world class museum to properly document our history,” California State Senator Scott Wiener said. “We owe this to Harvey Milk, Gilbert Baker, Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, and all the trailblazers that came before us. We’re going to make this museum a reality, and it will be such a benefit to this community. Let’s get it done.”

“I want to thank the people of San Francisco for making this place the home of the rainbow flag,” said Charley Beal, President of the Gilbert Baker Foundation. “The flag means something to a lot of people. Its significance is global.”  

The Gilbert Baker Foundation (www.gilbertbaker.com) exists to protect and extend the legacy of Gilbert Baker, the creator of the LGBTQ Rainbow Flag, as an activist, artist and educator.

Also present for the unveiling ceremony were GLBT Historical Society Board Chair Maria Powers and San Francisco District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and San Francisco City Treasurer José Cisneros.  Sponsors for the exhibit are the Gilbert Baker Foundation, ABSOLUT® Vodka, Rythm and Big Run Studios.