San Francisco Beautiful Stages A Billboard Revolt On Mid Market and Wins!

November 6, 7:30 PMExploring San Francisco ExaminerGerry Morales

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San Francisco Beautiful says no to excessive billboards!
www.sfbeautiful.org

Everyone loves a good "David and Goliath" story and this week's version came from the recent defeat of Proposition D. The measure was defeated by 54% in a tightly contested race fought hard on both sides. But the grass roots efforts of "San Francisco Beautiful", a 62-year old community outreach group aimed at preserving the uniqueness of San Francisco neighborhoods and standing up for what makes the city truly unique helped defeat the proposition.  San Francisco Beautiful has been the driving force in creating neighborhood beautification initiatives most San Franciscans take for granted. If it weren't for the heady efforts of San Francisco Beautiful, residents (and tourists alike) wouldn't be able to enjoy cable cars, Lake Merced, mini parks in The Mission and sidewalk cafes.

The long contested and divisive issue of what to do in The Mid Market District has been debated for many, many years. Recently, there have been speculative efforts to redevelop the neighborhood and while similar billboard propositions were soundly defeated by San Franciscans before, property owners brought the measure back in a traditionally low voter turnout election. The proposition even had the backing of some pretty well-known elected officials (including Gavin Newsom himself).

San Francisco Beautiful gathered volunteers (and even hired locally owned staffing agency, Strategic Staffing to assist in their efforts with temporary employees) and got the word out by passing out fliers on street corners throughout the city. It appears as if all the hard work eventually paid off.

In a press release following the election turnout, Milo Hanke, President of the Board at San Francisco Beautiful said, "The commonsense values of ordinary San Franciscans prevail as we reaffirm our civic pride and sense of place as a world class city. San Francisco voters remove all doubt - they will tolerate no new billboards. San Francisco Beautiful will continue to articulate that mandate. Maybe City Hall will finally hear the message: No New Billboards."

It also looks as if San Francisco Beautiful is going to walk their talk when it comes to finding an alternative to making Mid Market Street a more livable environment. According to Mr. Hanke, "We anticipate being involved in the solution."

And while this weeks victory was a great opportunity for San Francisco Beautiful to bask in its success, they wasted no time in moving on to the next big struggle. There has been recent talk of corporate sponsorship of The Civic Center (seriously) and the volunteers at San Francisco Beautiful are back in action as they fight to make your neighborhood just that...a neighborhood.

For more information on San Francisco Beautiful, log onto www.sfbeautiful.org to find out how you can participate.