Organizers of Sunday Streets, an 18-year-old neighborhood street fair in six San Francisco neighborhoods, have launched a fundraising drive and a letter-writing campaign to save the 2026 season.
The drives began soon after the Department of Public Health’s February announcement that it would cut its entire contribution to the program of $215,758.
The public health department, along with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the Department of Public Works, and the Recreation and Parks Department, had collaborated with Livable City, the nonprofit that runs the street fairs, to put the events on. Sunday Streets includes half a dozen Sundays of car-free streets each summer.
“We don’t want this program to die,” said Sally Chen, deputy director of Livable City. “And we don’t want these partnerships that have been built over these 18 years to go to waste.”
The events happen annually in the Tenderloin, Mission, Bayview, Western Addition, South of Market, and Excelsior. The city’s contribution paid salaries for the daylong festivals, in which streets are blocked off and local community groups set up booths.
The cut represents 43 percent of the program’s $500,000 budget. The budget includes $150,000 from SFMTA for insurance and marketing on buses. Sunday Streets fundraises to cover all other costs, including permits from the San Francisco Fire Department, Department of Public Health and Recology.
So far, the program has received a matching gift for up to $50,000 from a private donor and hopes to raise $50,000 by the end of March, equaling a contribution of $100,000 to organize half a season. They’ve raised $31,500 as of publication, according to Chen.
“Community voices need to be heard before you take away joy and connection for something that really means a lot to us,” said Lea Sabado, the co-owner of Excelsior Coffee at 4495 Mission St., who started collaborating with Sunday Streets in 2019.
During Sunday Streets, Sabado and her husband, Andre Higginbotham, give out free coffee and affogatos, and also promote Higginbotham’s auto-mechanic program at nearby June Jordan School For Equity.
“It’s basically just one big-ass block party to celebrate the neighborhood,” she said. “We don’t have a cultural parade like Chinatown does, we don’t have a night market like Valencia does, you know, at least give us Sunday Streets. There’s not a lot that we can cling onto.”
Neighborhood stakeholders see the Sunday events as important in generating local revenue, bringing residents out and attracting new visitors.
Chen, who grew up in Nob Hill, said she would meet up with her friends at their respective neighborhood events and spend the day together.
“That was when I got to see Valencia Street for the first time,” she recalled. “That was actually more memorable than having my friends meet me near mine.”
Under pressure to reduce its $3.2 billion two-year budget by $17 million, the Department of Public Health decided in February to pull 100 percent of its funding from Sunday Streets.
According to a memo written by public health director Daniel Tsai, the department is focused on “preserving direct health and clinical services.” Sunday Streets is not included in that definition.
Others see it differently.
“This is a public-health intervention at a different level,” said Tom Radulovich, senior policy lead of Livable City, “Part of the challenge of explaining this to city officials is that, to use Ezra Klein’s term, Sunday Streets is an ‘everything bagel.’”
Then-Mayor Gavin Newsom launched Sunday Street in 2008 to create open-air street events in high-density neighborhoods with less access to open space. Radulovich said that mission is still intact.
“Newsom was a big fan of greening the city, beautification, all of that,” he said. “So civic pride is imbued in the project. And people get to enjoy themselves for the day, and they get to see each neighborhood in the best light.”
The events typically bring in crowds of families with children, neighbors, and community organizations to encourage attendees to shop locally, get outside and interact with their neighbors.
Dontaye Ball, president of the Bayview Merchants Association and head chef at Gumbo Social, said last year’s first-ever Sunday Streets event in Bayview provided the neighborhood an opportunity to showcase its offerings.
“It was a great amalgamation of all of these different communities,” he said. “People would come from the Sunset and talk to people from the Bayview and realize, ‘Oh, our kids go to the same school.’ Or people who had never been to Bayview would be like, ‘So this is what the sunny side of the city looks like.’”
Ball also went to Sunday Streets in the Excelsior and Fillmore.
“Going opened up a different purview for me,” he said. “We’re in the greatest city in the world and I saw that the Excelsior and the Fillmore are great too. It is overly important that we take these opportunities to celebrate our great neighborhoods.”
Sunday Streets is the only large open-air event that happens in the Excelsior regularly, said Chen. She added that the cuts are “devastating.”
“It’s such a stark disinvestment in a tradition that is so uniquely San Francisco,” she said. “People get married during Sunday Streets. People learn to ride their bikes during the event.”
Chen also noted the “stark contrast” between city funding for downtown events and neighborhood events.
“One downtown activation gets a DJ for $75,000 for one night. And we get $215,000 for the whole year,” she said.
Chen noted that during the pandemic, local businesses were the ones that kept the city’s economy stable.
“The ones who have been able to stick around, or even come back, need all the love and support that they can get,” she said. “And we’ve spoken with business owners who say they make triple their average profit in one day during Sunday Streets.”
Ball said the importance of the event cannot be underestimated.
“We all understand that in our city there are cuts that need to be made across the board,” said Ball. “What we’re advocating for is the opportunity to continue highlighting our neighborhoods.”
This would be so sad. My kids learned to ride bikes at Sunday Streets. And learned that cities have choices in how we use our street space.
Damn !!
Yet another cruel step by the Billionaire administration to make life more miserable for those who don’t want to go Downtown for parties amidst Manny’s skyscrapers !
I ran into the Mayor at the last Valencia street Sunday Fair while I was walking Skippy and it kinda freaked him out that I was barefoot …
“h., you’re barefoot !!”
I replied, pointing to Carlins Cafe behind me:
“This is my house.”
I was able to be that casual because the Sunday Streets program had brought the party to me and other 80 year olds more infirm in our own neighborhoods.
I remember how Sunday Streets got formed, do you ?
See if I’m right.
Jake McGoldrick (D-1 Supe at the time) thought it would be a good idea to close the main Thorofare in Golden Gate Park to motor traffic on Sundays.
Dede Wilsey and the Swells who had torn down the Classic , De Young City Art Museum there and replaced it with a hideous Aircraft Carrier looking building and a garage that destroyed a beautiful Hundred Year-old bridge …
They hated it and brought in their Top Gun lawyer, Jim Sutton to make the Voters pay for both the museum and the garage they assured us would be paid for by Dede’s friends and which, of course they not only reneged on, but also made the Garage private and restricted Access to the Pretend-Class Museum.
So over at the Greens they loved the idea and put it on the Ballot for various streets all over the City as I recall.
And, won !!
Now, couple decades down the line Luries people move from moves to roll back Gonzo’s Charter Reforms which cut the Mayor’s power on to every other trace of Progressive legislation.
Kill the fun for the Poor and let’s throw another giant party at the Armory for the rich and write it off on their taxes which should go to pay for Sunday Streets for everyone.
Way to go, Daniel.
go Niners !!
h.
Memories …
What happened to the young Daniel Lurie who worked on the Campaign to elect Bill Bradley President of the United States ?
Now, he’s wandering the slum streets like a Gangstah Boss backed by the illegal bodyguards looking for a fight.
Revenge doesn’t work.
Look at 16th and Mission tonight if you don’t believe me.
We need permanent Cop Kobans like Feinstein put there and Willie took out.
go Niners !!
h.