San Francisco Beautiful

Description

San Francisco Beautiful was founded by Friedel Klussmann in 1947, when the city of San Francisco intended to send our beloved cable cars to the junkyard. Saving our identity and our livability; that is what San Francisco Beautiful is all about.

For over 65 years, San Francisco Beautiful has been integral in making San Francisco the extraordinary place it is today. From the beginning, our mission has been to create, enhance and maintain the unique beauty and livability of San Francisco. Through civic engagement, partnering with communities to build better neighborhoods, and celebrating urban innovation, we keep San Francisco beautiful. Today you can see us greening neighborhoods, improving streetscapes, and activating public spaces.

We believe that San Francisco is beautiful, and also think that people should have a space to enjoy its beauty! With our Pavement to Parks projects, we have transformed underutilized space into urban escapes. By greening spaces once covered in concrete, outdoor activity is promoted, a sense of community is built, and the public and private sector is brought together. Today you can see 26 parklets in the city, with 42 in construction, and 60 awaiting permits.

San Francisco Beautiful improves streetscapes by actively opposing the commercialization of our public spaces. When AT&T installed large, obtrusive utility boxes which interfered with the public’s right-of-way, we started fighting to ensure an adequate environmental review of their plan to construct more than 700 private utility boxes. More than 25 neighborhood organizations have joined our efforts to protect San Francisco’s public right-of-way and to say no to this visual blight.

As a group of citizens, neighbors, friends, and philanthropists, we at San Francisco Beautiful strive to make our city one of community. Our most recent project, Play Streets, aims to activate public space for our children, and to encourage good old-fashioned fun! Because not every neighborhood has parks or backyards, the distribution of safe, public space for kids to play in is unevenly distributed. By closing one or two blocks of a street to vehicles, kids are free to play while their families and neighbors spend time together and building community.

Whether be it neighborhood greening, activating public spaces, improving streetscapes, or a game of hopscotch on the street, we at San Francisco Beautiful are constantly striving to improve the City by the Bay. With your help, we can continue to keep San Francisco beautiful.