The project to reimagine a public plaza and transit station entrance in San Francisco's LGBTQ Castro district to better honor its namesake, the late gay supervisor Harvey Milk, is still millions of dollars shy of the total needed before work on it can commence. City officials and backers of the proposal are hopeful the bulk of the money will come from private donors.
Anywhere from $5 million to $15 million is still needed in order to fully fund the renovation of Harvey Milk Plaza at the corner of Castro and Market streets, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told the Bay Area Reporter. A better sense of how much needs to be raised will come once the construction drawings for the project are completed, he added.
"The first thing for the project is finding some funds to just finish that work and then we can get an actual cost estimate," said Mandelman in a December 19 interview. "The numbers we have are still kind of general estimates and they need to be more tightly nailed down. Then I think we need to have a conversation with the mayor and our state and federal partners whether there are any additional public funds. And we need to have a conversation with the friends and those who support the project about how much is realistic for them to raise."
He was referring to the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza booster group that for nearly a decade has championed a reimagining of the plaza areas built atop the Castro station for the city's Muni subway system to provide a more fitting commemoration of Milk, his civil rights legacy, and the LGBTQ community he championed.
Brian Springfield, a gay man who's executive director of the friends group, has said in several interviews this month with the B.A.R. that it has committed to raise nearly $8 million of the remaining funds needed, working off a figure of $10 million. He expects the city will be able to make up the difference.
Bond measure passes
In the November election, city voters passed the bond measure Proposition B that included $25 million to pay for the bulk of the renovation work at Harvey Milk Plaza. But the current total cost of the project is estimated at $35 million, and the city's public works department that will oversee its construction has told the friends group it needs to be assured all funding is in place for the project before shovels can hit the ground.
"They will not enter into the construction contracts until they have full funding, so they won't break ground until full funding is in place or on its way," said Springfield. "The friends' amount of private dollars that need to be raised to cover construction costs related to memorial elements is around $7.8 million. We are working on that now."
To date, the friends group has raised $125,000 toward that amount. In the new year it will be ramping up its capital campaign to secure commitments from foundations and other donors able to give a substantial amount toward the project.
Once it reaches about 75% of the amount it needs to raise, the friends group plans to then launch a small donor campaign to help it reach the final amount.
"The good news is the $25 million in Prop B really has changed the understanding of and momentum behind the project," said Springfield. "I think people are really excited about getting it across the finish line."
Springfield met with public works staff and Mandelman, who represents the Castro at City Hall, on December 18 to discuss next steps for the project following the passage last month of the $390 million bond measure for infrastructure, public spaces, and street safety projects across the city. Public works spokesperson Rachel Gordon told the B.A.R. the timetable for the construction of the plaza is dependent on finding the funds.
"We are going to be actively looking at other funding opportunities," said Gordon, such as grants for transit-oriented projects and other resources. "We are very heartened by the $25 million from the bond, but we want to make sure we have the money in hand before we start construction."
In a phone interview last week Mandelman said it remains to be seen what more in public funding can be secured for the plaza project. State and city leaders are bracing for projected budget deficits in the years to come, and any local fiscal support for the plaza project will need to be approved by Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie.
"It is going to be a historically bad budget year," noted Mandelman. "I am going to do everything I can to find the resources for this project, but we are going to need the mayor's help."
SWA, the global landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm first hired by the friends group to work on the new design for Milk plaza, is projecting a construction start date in late 2026. It would mean a completion date in 2028, two years after Mandelman will have been term-limited out of his Board of Supervisors seat. It is unclear, though, if that timeline can be met, Mandelman told the B.A.R.
"That would be amazing. I think we should try to make that happen. At the moment, I have no certainty we will be able to," he said.
SWA Associate Principal Daniel Cunningham, a gay man who until a few years ago had lived in the Castro, told the B.A.R. "it seems feasible certainly" at this point for a new plaza to debut in 2029. He is optimistic of seeing the friends group be able to leverage Prop B's passage to raise the rest of the needed funding to pay for the memorial aspects of the design for the new plaza.
"At this point there should be confidence with private donors that this project is actually moving forward. We hope others see the opportunity to contribute to this now it is a real project," said Cunningham, who now resides in Oakland.
With his firm now contracted with the city to complete the drawings for the project, Cunningham expects to have them done at 90% in the next few months. Public works is delivering the plaza redesign on behalf of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
"The typical lifetime for a project like this is 10 years. We are tracking pretty true to that," said Cunningham, as he has been working on the design for four years.
The plaza
Milk plaza is considered the front door to the city's LGBTQ neighborhood. Its main entrance fronts Castro Street, with the plaza extending along Market Street to Collingwood Street.
At the moment much of the back half of the space is behind construction fencing due to a city-funded project to add a second elevator for the subway station at a cost upward of $30 million. It is on track to be completed in 2026, said Gordon.
When the elevator was first proposed back in 2016, neighborhood leaders had brought up also redesigning the plaza. It kicked off a lengthy process to come up with a new design for the area amid opposition from those who fought to preserve the plaza's current configuration, as the B.A.R. has extensively reported on over the years.
The project aims to reconfigure the public parklet to make it more accessible and properly commemorate Milk, who was the city's first openly gay elected official when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Eleven months into his first term Milk was assassinated, along with then-mayor George Moscone, by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White.
While in office, Milk was a big supporter of public transit. The plaza was named in his honor in 1985.
"It has been really amazing to be a part of this and to watch how Harvey's message is still influencing and bringing people together after all these years," said Cunningham. "From an urban design perspective, this is huge for the Castro and rejuvenating the neighborhood."
As part of the approved plans for the plaza, a new spiral podium feature is to be built at the entrance by the intersection of Castro and Market streets in a nod to its history as a gathering place for protests and rallies. A smaller stairway leading to the underground subway station would be constructed, replacing the wider one there today that undulates downward across most of the space.
A rose-colored, transparent overhang above the stairs and escalator that go to the Muni station would be used to protect them from rainwater. The color scheme is derived from that of the red-and-white bullhorn the plaza's namesake famously used to rally residents of the neighborhood and the city's larger LGBTQ community during protests held at the site and during marches that kicked off from it.
A new enclosed space below street level will be used for a museum-like installation telling Milk's story and that of the city's LGBTQ community. The friends group also wants to incorporate into it sections of the concourse for the subway station.
"I think this project has so many opportunities still to evolve in terms of what story we are telling in the displays and gallery space," said Cunningham. "What the content of those elements is precisely remains to be defined. The next level of development is working with the community on what is the story we are telling and how we are telling it. I am excited to move into that next phase of content development."
Having lived near the intersection of 16th and Market streets where the new permanent home for an LGBTQ history museum will be, just two blocks away from Milk plaza, Cunningham predicted the combination of the two projects will be transformational, not only for the Castro, but the city as a whole. The new museum should be open as of 2027.
"I think these two projects are going to be a huge draw to our neighborhood for people locally, nationally, and internationally," said Cunningham, who still patronizes his longtime barber in the Castro. "This will boost the strength of the Castro for many years to come, not only as a gay destination and source for gay tourism but also allies and beyond."
Anyone interested in donating to the Milk plaza project should email Springfield at [email protected]. There is also information on ways to give to the friends group on its website at harveymilkplaza.org.
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