San Francisco Public Works Annual Report - Fiscal Year 2017-18 | Page 11

With 1,600 employees and a diverse
portfolio that touches every San Francisco
neighborhood, Public Works is at the
forefront of addressing San Francisco’s
challenges and embracing opportunities.
You will learn more about our work in
this annual report, from fully rolling out
StreetTreeSF – the voter-backed program
that gave Public Works the needed
resources to properly care for the City’s
125,000-plus street trees – to making
tremendous progress on the expansion of
Moscone Center to keep San Francisco
competitive in the nation’s convention
business.
We expanded the Pit Stop public toilet
program, opened more Navigation
Centers to shelter homeless residents and
improved coordination with other City
agencies to more effectively address tent
encampments and illegal street activity. We
ramped up street cleaning in Chinatown,
began routine sweeping of bike lanes
across the City and celebrated streetscape
improvements on Ocean Avenue and
Irving Street. We launched Public Works
TV, worked on San Francisco’s first bike
park for adventurous cyclists and paved
hundreds of blocks.
Much of what Public Works does cannot
be accomplished without our volunteers
and nonprofit partners. Residents gave tens
of thousands of hours of their time to green
and clean the City through the Graffiti
Watch, Adopt-A-Street and Community
Clean Team programs. We contracted
with nonprofit workforce development
programs to steam clean garbage cans,
sweep sidewalks, spruce up medians and
more.
Those partnerships, projects and programs
represent just a sliver of the work we
accomplished.
But I cannot reflect back on Fiscal Year
2017-18 without acknowledging the tragic
and unexpected death of Mayor Ed Lee.
He suffered a fatal heart attack on Dec. 12,
2017, at 65 years old, while serving in his
second term.
Mayor Lee was Public Works Director
from 2000 to 2005 and remained a true and
steadfast champion of our organization
and our mission to serve the public and
take care of our city. He derived great joy
in sweeping sidewalks, planting trees and
smoothing asphalt on a freshly paved road.
He loved San Francisco deeply, cared
for our diverse neighborhoods and never
wavered from the City’s values.
With his passing, Public Works is
recommitted to carrying on his legacy of
public service for the public good.
Mohammed Nuru
Director of Public Works
F Y1 7-1 8 @sfpublicwo rks | 5