Public park site of former Great Highway hit again by graffiti vandals
Why was San Francisco City Hall lit red last week?
Officials said the graffiti messages included language opposing the site of the soon-to-be opened park, including 'gentriffy (sic)' and 'Your (sic) bringing trouble….' Officials said the San Franciso Police Department and park rangers responded to the incident. Rangers are increasing their patrols in the area.
In November, San Franciscans voted to ban cars for a two-mile radius of the Great Highway and transform it into a public park.
On March 15, one day after the highway was permanently closed to car traffic between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard, a mural by local artist Emily Fromm at the Judah Street bathroom location was 'heavy vandalized.'
'It's painful to see something meant to uplift the community and celebrate our history be treated with disrespect,' the muralist said in a news release following the incident.
Friends of Ocean Beach Park said the recent act of vandalism was removed by Sunday evening thanks to its volunteers and Rec and Parks painters.
'Destructive behavior by a few won't get in the way of our work to make the coast enjoyable and accessible by all,' says Friends of Ocean Beach Park President Lucas Lux.
'There are countless constructive ways to engage in conversations about our city's future, but spray-painting public spaces isn't one of them,' added San Francisco Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg. 'We're focused on creating something beautiful for everyone, and that work will continue.'
Friends of Ocean Beach Park said despite the incidents, approximately 4,000 people still head to the area each weekend.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Axios
10-07-2025
- Axios
Why we have the San Francisco Columbarium
At the end of a residential cul-de-sac in the Richmond stands the San Francisco Columbarium — a rare, well-preserved relic of the city's burial past that gives visitors a chance to honor loved ones or explore a striking architectural landmark. Why it matters: It's one of the last remaining places in San Francisco where families can place urns in remembrance of the dead after most graves were relocated outside city limits in the early 20th century. Today, it holds the ashes of thousands of San Franciscans. Between the lines: The structure opened as part of the Odd Fellows Cemetery in 1898, before the city's burial ban went into effect. Though the Columbarium was spared from demolition, the site fell into disrepair after the Odd Fellows Cemetery was removed in the 1930s, but the structure was restored decades later by the Neptune Society, a cremation company. The ornate neoclassical building features a 45-foot tall rotunda, domed ceiling, stained glass windows and walls lined with glass front niches, small compartments personalized by the families of those interred there. Its three floors contain 4,500 niches for cremated remains.


San Francisco Chronicle
01-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
These 24 city-owned San Francisco buildings could collapse in a major earthquake
When the next major earthquake strikes, at least 24 of San Francisco's city-owned buildings could collapse, and over two dozen more could suffer major damage. The at-risk buildings include the Hall of Justice — where tens of thousands of San Franciscans report for jury duty each year — as well as multiple fire stations, police stations and homeless shelters. That's according to the city's own Seismic Hazard Ratings (SHR), a 1 through 4 score that classifies how seismically sound — or unsound — a building is, as determined by a structural engineer. Two dozen still-unretrofitted buildings in the city's portfolio have the highest SHR score of 4, according to data shared with the Chronicle. When a sizable quake strikes those buildings, per the SHR 4 definition, 'extensive structural and nonstructural damage, potential structural collapse and/or falling hazards are anticipated which would pose high life hazards to occupants.' Twenty-six more of the city's buildings notch an SHR of 3, which means a quake is likely to deal enough damage to pose 'appreciable life hazards' to people inside. For both categories, there's a chance that the damage could be too severe to repair. The damage estimates are based on an earthquake that would produce ground shaking more intense than the 1989 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake; the city calculated a 10% probability of such a quake occurring over a 50-year period. Since 1990, San Francisco has spent over $20 billion on seismic retrofits for some of its most essential public infrastructure, including City Hall, the Veterans War Memorial and Laguna Honda Hospital. City officials say San Francisco is ahead of other Bay Area cities in having a standardized and thorough method for assessing the seismic risk of its buildings. But there are still dozens of city-owned buildings that have not been retrofitted and could collapse in a major earthquake, and the Bay Area is due for one. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates a 72% chance of a 6.7-magnitude quake, a 51% chance of a 7.0-magnitude quake and a 20% chance of a 7.5-magnitude quake hitting the region in the next 30 years. Only about one-third of the city's roughly 900 buildings have been given SHRs, because conducting the assessments the ratings are based on is expensive and labor-intensive, said Raymond Lui, section manager for the Department of Public Works' structural engineering division. Some of the unassessed buildings could be SHR 3 or SHR 4s, but a computer simulation of the buildings' risks suggest that the probability of that is 'slim,' he said. State law does not require San Francisco to retrofit its existing buildings. Under the California building code, most new buildings are held to a 'collapse prevention' standard — strong enough that they won't collapse during an earthquake at least as powerful as the 7.9-magnitude quake that devastated the city in 1906. Buildings deemed more essential, like hospitals and police stations, are held to a stricter 'life safety' standard — resilient enough to provide some life safety services post-quake. That means the retrofits San Francisco has undertaken are, essentially, voluntary, and funded through voter-authorized bond measures. But funding is never a guarantee among the competing priorities in the city's capital plan. Brian Strong, the city's chief resiliency officer, said the city will be able to keep checking off retrofits if San Franciscans keep voting to support bond measures. The next Earthquake Safety and Resilience bond measure, for $350 million, is expected to go before voters in November 2028. 'It's not something that's going to happen overnight,' he said, 'but I'm confident that we're making really good progress.' Here are five of the city's most important buildings that have SHR ratings of 3 or 4 and for which there is either no plan or guaranteed funding to upgrade or replace the structure. Hall of Justice — 850 Bryant St., SHR 3 'Severely overstressed.' 'Substantial cracking.' 'Significant rocking.' Those are all descriptors of what a major earthquake could wreak upon the nearly 70-year-old Hall of Justice, per a 1992 seismic assessment report. The city has known for decades that the eight-story concrete behemoth, which houses the county's criminal courthouse, is seismically unsound. Two of the building's basic specs are enough to alarm any structural engineer: its year of construction (1958) and its main building material (concrete). Before the 1970s, some structural engineers had raised concerns that concrete buildings could be seismically unsafe. But it wasn't until after the 1971 6.6-magnitude San Fernando earthquake, which caused two brand-new concrete hospital buildings to nearly collapse and killed dozens, that those concerns were translated into major changes to California's building code. Old concrete buildings like the Hall of Justice are especially dangerous because they can collapse suddenly and spectacularly, said Bob Pekelnicky, a senior principal and structural engineer at Degenkolb Engineers. 'It's nothing and then it's just — boom,' he said. The city has been slowly relocating people from the building — the offices of the Medical Examiner and District Attorney, San Francisco Police Department's headquarters, and two county jails which previously occupied the 6th and 7th floors have all been moved out. At least 76% of the building is now vacant, according to the Superior Court of California. 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Fire Station No. 7 — 2300 Folsom St., SHR 4 The fire station on Folsom Street in the Mission District is one of eight fire stations in the city rated SHR 4. Four more stations are rated SHR 3. All of those stations have Fire Chief Dean Crispen 'very concerned' about seismic safety, but Station No. 7 is top of mind, he said. That's because in the case of a major earthquake, the station is slated to play an important role in the city's emergency response. Station No. 7 is one of the three stations that would take charge of a section of SFFD's operations after a quake, as part of a decentralized approach in the event that communications are down. One of the other two stations, Station No. 2 on Powell Street in Chinatown, is also an SHR 4. 'You can only imagine,' Crispen said, asked what would happen if Station No. 7 collapses just when it's most needed. 'We'd have to rescue our own members out of a fire house.' Though the department initially planned to look for funding to make seismic improvements, it's now hoping to replace the aging facility altogether. An estimated $65 million project to replace it was deferred from this year's 10-year capital plan. If funding can't be identified, the city plans to prioritize the project in 2028. Taraval Police Station — 2345 24th Ave., SHR 4 Five of San Francisco's 10 police stations are rated SHR 3, and two — Taraval and Ingleside — are rated SHR 4, with no plans for retrofitting yet. Taraval Station in the city's southwest corner serves San Francisco's most populous police jurisdiction, extending south from Golden Gate Park down to Daly City and east from Ocean Beach to 7th Avenue. About $168 million to make structural improvements to or replace Taraval Station was deferred from this year's capital plan. The project was deferred from last year's capital plan, too. Police and fire stations are overrepresented on the list of the city's most unsafe buildings. That's because they tend to be older buildings, and because the stations are essential, so it is difficult to take one offline to perform the upgrades, Pekelnicky said. MSC-South Shelter — 525 Fifth St., SHR 4 Every day, more than 340 homeless people flock to the South of Market shelter for a warm bed and a hot meal. The building, which has distinctive maroon awnings, is more than a century old. Two other city-owned shelters, at 260 Golden Gate Avenue and 1001 Polk Street, also have SHR 4 designations. All three are older, concrete buildings, like the Hall of Justice, meaning they lack the steel reinforcement that resists side-to-side shaking. According to the city's capital plan, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and the Department of Public Works are in the process of designing a seismically safe shelter to be built on the same site, but no funding has been identified. Human Services Agency headquarters — 170 Otis St., SHR 4 The city long knew that the eight-story concrete building that houses the Human Services Agency was vulnerable, but a 2018 seismic assessment showed it was more dangerous than previously thought. During a 1906-level earthquake, the 1975-constructed building is expected to be 'on the verge of partial or total collapse,' with damage including 'extensive shear wall failure' and the potential for debris to block the exits, according to the assessment. That could be catastrophic for the hundreds of people who work in the building — and for the scores more who frequent the building for services like food assistance and job training. One Human Services Agency employee said they are so scared to work in the building that they have told friends and family to sue the city if they die inside during an earthquake. The employee asked to withhold their name for fear of retaliation. In a statement, an HSA spokesperson said the agency signed a lease last month for several floors of 1455 Market Street and plans to relocate staff from 170 Otis and 1235 Mission, another SHR 4 building. The agency also plans, in the next two years, to acquire a site on the southeastern side of the city to accommodate any employees who can't fit in the Market Street building. The spokesperson did not give a timeline for the relocation out of 170 Otis and 1235 Mission but said the Market Street building is currently being renovated. A 'very real cost tradeoff' San Francisco is not an outlier in owning buildings that could collapse in an earthquake. In fact, experts say, the city is somewhat of an outlier in even knowing which of its buildings might collapse. 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' because this is a rare earthquake that may not happen for 100, 150 years.' The high cost of building seismic resilience into construction underscores just how powerful earthquakes can be, a wakeup call for San Franciscans as public memory of the Loma Prieta quake continues to fade. 'There is no such thing as an earthquake-proof building,' city structural engineer Lui said. 'It's just gonna be how much damage you're going to sustain.'


San Francisco Chronicle
26-06-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. Pride weekend: What to know about street closures and transit impacts
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