After coming off of the high of participating in citywide teacher strike, a group of around 20 people gathered at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s courtyard on Monday afternoon for a different cause.
“We’re going to get the ‘Zuckerberg’ off of San Francisco General Hospital,” said Sasha Cuttler, a retired nurse and organizer of the event.
The effort was simple: Get a group of 10 people to replace each letter in Zuckerberg’s name with a hand-made construction paper box to spell out “Pretti Good,” the last names of two Minnesotans who were shot dead by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.
Mike Dingle is a Service Employees International Union retiree who worked at the hospital for “a dozen years” on the lift team, transporting patients safely.
“Zuckerberg bought some furniture and just put his name on it,” he said. “It’s just disgusting.”
Dingle designed the boxes used to cover each letter on the sign. He said he staked out the spot at night for measurements and then took an afternoon to construct them.
Attendees, decked out with blue bunny ears in honor of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, a Minnesota child whose family was targeted for deportation, said Zuckerberg and his companies have done irreparable harm in collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Meta recently blocked any link posted on their apps related to identifying ICE agents.
“They’re saying that’s because they didn’t want them to be harassed. And there’s a big irony there because Mark Zuckerberg, with his empire, has violated the privacy of so many people,” said Cuttler.
Former District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar also attended the guerrilla event. He has long been a vocal critic of Zuckerberg’s name being attached to the hospital, even passing a resolution opposing the name in 2020.
“Even then, we knew that Facebook’s policies did not reflect San Francisco’s commitment to human rights, dignity, or social and racial justice. At that time, we warned that the platform was a conduit for hate speech and disinformation,” Mar said. “Since then, those warnings have only been further validated.”
Attendees participated in chants like “Zuck off!” and “Pretti Good.”
In 2008, taxpayers in San Francisco funded the major reconstruction of the hospital with an $887 million bond. In 2015, Zuckerberg donated $75 million to the hospital. For years, Zuckerberg defenders have argued that the city talked him into placing his name on the hospital, and not vice versa, as city officials believed this would spur other mega-donations. Mission Local is unable to verify this — and, if true, the goal of spurring other such gifts via the name placement did not come to pass.
“The donation, while significant on face, represented only about an hour and a half of his income at the time,” said Mar. “Yet it came with permanent advertising rights on our public commons.”
Brother Sinthetic Soul, a nun with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, is a patient at Ward 86, the AIDS and HIV center at San Francisco General. Coming for treatment at a hospital named for the Facebook founder has never sat right with Brother Sin.
“It’s abhorrent that we name an institution after someone whose empire does harm,” said Brother Sin, citing Instagram’s effects on young adults’ mental health.
Ruth Radetsky is a former teacher at Balboa High school and friend of Cuttler. She actually attended the walkout at Balboa in the morning, made her way over to the hospital in the afternoon, then headed out to Civic Center for another protest urging state pension funds to divest from Tesla.
“This is absolutely important to me,” she said.
The name change, being unsanctioned and involving paper boxes, is not permanent. Cuttler hopes it will remain for at least a week before the hospital removes it. Cuttler would like to see the Board of Supervisors eventually put the issue to voters, who’d decide on an official name change.
The Department of Public Health has not yet returned messages seeking comment.
At the end of the ceremony, Brother Sin had an appointment to catch at Ward 86, but performed a blessing on the new sign before hurrying off.
“May everyone who enters here receive care that is Pretti Good, Pretti Compassionate, and Pretti Focused on healing rather than branding.”
Give back the money and take back the name!
Congratulations on the name change to honor Mr. Pretti and Ms Good.