By Mike Hall
Medill Reports
SAN FRANCISCO — As the San Francisco sun beamed down near the intersection of Howard and 4th streets, vibrant hues from every shade of the rainbow decorated once-bleak concrete walls, illuminating a series of four murals outside the entrance to the Yerba Buena Gardens.
Those murals, designed by four Filipino Bay Area artists, were installed from 2023 to 2024 to honor Filipino heritage in the heart of California’s Filipino Cultural Heritage District. The displays, which depict the historical significance of Filipina women showcase the city’s artistic, musical and scientific advancements, and are among 60 scattered throughout Yerba Buena, an arts neighborhood home to hundreds of dining and entertainment venues, museums, hotels and educational spaces.
Yerba Buena is one of 16 active Community Benefit Districts scattered across San Francisco’s 47 square miles. Covering land from Second to Fifth streets and Market to Perry streets, the neighborhood features sites such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of African Diaspora and Children’s Creativity Museum.
The Yerba Buena Gardens, characterized by Yerba Buena Partnership Executive Director Scott Rowitz as “the heart of (the) neighborhood,” are an 87-acre area housing 20 gardens, 14 pieces of public art, a pair of restaurants, a historic carousel and several recreational venues.
Seve Ghose, who became the executive director of the Gardens three years ago, said he hopes the art reflects the surrounding community.
“We are a unique oasis in the middle of what I call a concrete jungle,” Ghose said. “Art plays, and our art speaks to local artists that designed these pieces. They’re welcoming, and they also share a little bit of the story of the past and of San Francisco in this area.”
His staff is also developing a Chinese medicinal garden, a new addition to the landscape as a tribute to the sizable Chinese and Filipino population in the Yerba Buena community.
During Super Bowl week, Ghose said he’s noticed “10 to 15 times more than normal (foot) traffic” around the Gardens. He said his area receives residual revenue, but his hopes for those making a pit stop extend far beyond football.
“San Francisco is a very welcoming place,” Ghose said. “It’s very diverse, and it allowed me to be me in the sense as a person of color. I hope people leave with an appreciation of the neighborhood and also a deeper appreciation of the city.”
The same goes for Rowitz. His organization aims to enhance the downtown Yerba Buena neighborhood through public safety, economic vitality, neighborhood engagement and public art.
The neighborhood’s latest exhibit, a 60-foot-wide public mural on the Mission Street side of the former Bloomingdale’s building at the San Francisco Centre, examines the relationship between humanity and the natural world through Indigenous perspectives.
“Art inspires,” Rowitz said. “Art and creativity really make a city and a community vibrant. We hope that the inspiration from this inspires people to be creative artists and see the value of how art and culture really create the economic core of a city.”
The mural by contemporary artist Jeffrey Gibson was installed in late January, but it required Rowitz and his staff to think critically about where it could fit within the neighborhood.
“We are consistently looking at opportunities to create vibrancy in the neighborhood,” Rowitz said. “We have been doing some studies on these high-traffic corridors of our neighborhood, which connect the various parts of our neighborhood. In that process, we realized that these facades could be amazing art venues.”
Part of enjoying Gibson’s work, and everything else the district offers, includes keeping the neighborhood clean and safe, a core function of the Yerba Buena Partnership. Each day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., members of the nonprofit’s Clean and Safe Team clean sidewalks, remove graffiti and monitor public areas so individuals can fully appreciate what Yerba Buena has to offer.
In anticipation of Super Bowl LX, Rowitz and his team have adjusted Clean and Safe Team logistics to support the influx of visitors.
“Normally, we have 20 ambassadors on the street,” Rowitz said. “At this point, we’re operating at about 50 ambassadors who do everything from power washing to cleaning to welcoming to safety. We’ve gone deeper on this event, specifically using the Super Bowl as an opportunity to lean into our cultural identity as the arts and museum district.”
So, while fans flock to stores selling merchandise or to NFL-driven activation events throughout the week, they may also discover artistic gems in one of the most artistically rich areas in the city. For someone like Rowitz, a marquee event is an excellent moment to showcase their neighborhood.
“They’re going to come away recognizing that San Francisco, and this neighborhood specifically, is a vibrant, thriving community,” Rowitz said. “They’re going to remember the heartbeat of San Francisco, as well as the arts and cultural organizations in this neighborhood that represent the cultural identity of our neighborhood and the city.”
Mike Hall is a sports media specialization graduate student at Medill. Follow him on X: @mike_pat_hall.