A community festival in San Francisco Saturday kicked off a larger campaign to push back against some of the negative narratives about the city and to highlight its rich and innovative history.
At the East Cut Crossing that day, Amala Ankem was volunteering to help with a mural project as part of the civic pride celebration to show the best of the city.
“I’m still pretty new,” said Ankem, who moved to the city about a year ago. “And I really wanted to get involved in the community. ... I think the objective of this whole event is — well, I definitely agree with it. It makes me want to come out and be part of the change.”
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The organization Advance SF kicked of its “It All Starts Here” campaign in conjunction with the event. As it wrote on its website, the campaign aims “to remind the world why San Francisco has been, and will always be, one of the greatest cities.”
“It All Starts Here” is funded privately by individual donors.
“It’s about a $4 million campaign,” said spokesperson Alex Tourk. “You’re going to see a lot of media assets over the next month: television commercials, billboards. But again, any campaign, it’s great to have all those media assets.”
Despite signs of a recovery with new businesses in San Francisco, a common narrative focuses on the city’s challenges such as a slow downtown and homelessness.
“I think it’s a lazy narrative,” said artist Monica Magtoto. “I think if you go into any neighborhood and talk to people, you will see the culture, you will see the food, you will see the vibrancy. You will see resilient people.”
“This is to instill pride in San Francisco,” said Mayor London Breed, who attended the event. “This is to instill hope and to get people excited about San Francisco. And part of it is, you have to counter some of the negativity with some of the positivity of what is going on.”
People could get signs to display their support, and the event Saturday encouraged people to share stories about their love for the city on social media.
Stories of optimism about the city got a big boost Saturday, and attendees were ready for it.
“To me, uplifting the city is really about remembering our roots of coming together,” said Magtoto.
