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 Harvey Milk Plaza and Rainbow Flag (Castro and Market Streets) – Memorializing San Francisco politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk, this small plaza is a neighborhood gathering point for marches, demonstrations and voter drives. It also is the location of a giant rainbow pride flag (20 feet by 30 feet) that waves over the Castro.
On the evening of Harvey’s and Mayor George Moscone’s assassinations on November 27, 1978, thousands of Castro residents and other grieving San Franciscans gathered at the plaza. With tears, candles and flowers, they somberly marched down Market Street to City Hall in memory the slain leaders. The plaza, renamed for Harvey in 1985, serves as the starting point for his memorial candlelight march every year on November 27th. The lower level of the plaza, which also provides access to the southern entrance of Muni Metro’s Castro Street station, has a small display of photos from Harvey’s life and a plaque giving a brief history of his accomplishments.
On the upper level of the plaza, a 70-foot flagpole flies the huge rainbow flag, visible for miles around. At its base a plaque commemorates San Francisco's lesbian and gay state and local elected officials. The LGBT rainbow flag was first designed and created in San Francisco by Gilbert Baker, a young gay fabric artist who in 1978 was challenged by his friend, Harvey Milk, to sew a symbol of pride for the gay community.
Inspired, Baker dyed and stitched together eight fabric strips of brilliant color. The first few rainbow flags appeared at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade to positive acclaim. The flag was reduced to six stripes to make production easier (hot pink and indigo were eliminated) and by 1979 rainbow banners were lining the parade route. The flag quickly was adopted by the LGBT community around the world as a symbol of pride and diversity.
In the Castro and Upper Market area, rainbow flags can be seen everywhere: attached to light poles as banners, posted in bars, on merchandise in shop windows, and hanging from the front of people’s homes. The large flag at Harvey Milk Plaza and the rainbow banners on street poles throughout the district are paid for and maintained by monies contributed yearly by the Castro Street Fair and the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro (MUMC).
17th Street Plaza Renovated and Re-Dedicated in May 2010
The one year anniversary of the Castro's successful 17th Street mini-plaza was celebrated in May with an upgrade of the plaza's planters and furnishings, and a lively rededication ceremony on May 22. Located at Castro and Market Streets, the plaza was revamped by city workers and local volunteers in April and May with improvements including new concrete planter boxes filled with shrubs and flowers, dozens of large glazed jars filled with green plants, new tables and chairs, and special surfacing of the plaza area.
The urban community space was launched as a pilot "Pavement to Parks" project in May 2009 and has become a popular gathering spot for neighbors in and visitors to the Castro/Upper Market area. The first of four new pedestrian plazas constructed in San Francisco last year, the 17th Street plaza has received national attention as part of a U.S. trend towards the creation of small urban parks.
At the rededication ceremony, the revamped park was praised as an excellent example of the successful greening of urban space by a variety of speakers including S.F. Supervisor Bevan Dufty, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, and Andrea Aiello, Executive Director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefits District. The S.F. Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band and Cheer S.F. provided music and entertainment preceding the festivities to a crowd of about 200 spectators.
The majority of the plaza improvements were funded by a $56,500 Catalytic Commercial District Capital Grant received in 2009 from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. The Castro/Upper Market Community Benefits District (CBD), which oversees and pays for maintenance of the space, also contributed funds for new tables and chairs throughout the plaza.
The community space was originally launched as a pilot and many of its fixtures, such as the planter boxes, were not built to be permanent. Seth Boor of Boor Bridges Architecture contributed his services pro bono to redesign the plaza as a permanent space, contributing the technical drawings and overseeing the work.
New plants were purchased at a discount from Flora Grubb Gardens. Planting days were held in April and May, with over 50 volunteers helping from local groups such as the CBD, Friends of the Urban Forest, and the S.F. Great Streets Project. The finishing touches on the upgrade, including a new gate on the Castro Street side of the plaza, should be complete by the end of June.
San Francisco's four new pedestrian plazas were noted in a May 9th article in Parade Magazine that reported more cities, including New York and Atlanta, were encouraging 'loitering' by creating outdoor seating areas, mini-parks, and plazas. The article stated, according to research by New York non-profit Transportation Alternatives, that outdoor seating areas "boost foot traffic by 20%, leading to 10% more retail sales," and increasing property values by 7%.
Read more about Harvey Milk Plaza Beautification Project
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