SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
FOUNDING OF THE DEPARTMENT
San Francisco incorporated as a city and county in 1856 after rapid population growth sparked by the Gold Rush in the Sierra . By 1890 , the city had close to 300,000 residents . In order to meet the infrastructure needs of the ever-expanding population , leaders created the Board of Public Works on January 8 , 1900 .
The first order of business was to begin to regulate street construction and paving in order to develop public spaces and lots for private use . Public infrastructure was at the heart of private and public real estate development . The work needed laborers , engineers and tradespeople . The department ’ s four original bureaus were Engineering , Light and Water Services , Streets , and Building .
According to the 1899-1900 city engineer report ,
Of the work urgently needed to be done by the City , none is probably of greater importance than the systemization of the sewerage and drainage works to fit existing and projected sewers into the lines of main drainage and sewerage disposal , as proposed and adopted during the last year . This work , as well as the work of extending street line surveys , setting monuments and establishing grades for streets in the outlying rapidly growing districts of the city ( also urgently needed ) is of a character not productive of revenue . All work of this class will be pushed forward as fast as the available funds will permit . 4
By 1902 , the agency was also known as the Department of Public Works . The August 1902 annual report notes that the department “ may be expected to take on larger dimensions and to comprise additional bureaus , such as for a water system and municipal railways .” It also notes expected growth of the city with incidental expansion in street operations . It states that the Bureau of Engineering is “ concerned with the most important features of municipal material interests .” 5 Though the department did not make policy about development – how and where buildings and open spaces were built – it did literally build the framework to support the policies . And at least from 1906 , the year of the Great Earthquake and Fire that nearly destroyed San Francisco , there was a city architect . Plans of City Hall at the time show the offices of the city engineer and the city architect flanking the mayor ’ s office , underscoring the importance of these roles in a relatively new city forced to rebuild after the devastating disaster and unusual compared to other U . S . cities .
Over the next century-plus , Public Works ’ roles have shifted , expanded and contracted . At different moments , jurisdiction included the sewer system , building inspection , roadway striping and many other functions now tasked to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency ( SFMTA ) or the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission ( SFPUC ). Over the years , the work scope of the department has been on the political trading block : SFPUC needed more in its portfolio and took over sewers from Public Works ; Public Works lost building inspection duties when the Department of Building Inspections was created . In the early 2000s , Public Works was moved under the Office of the City Administrator , alongside more than two dozen much smaller departments . Most recently , in the November 2020 election , voters passed a charter amendment authorizing the Board of Supervisors to consider dividing Public Works into two agencies : the Department of Streets and Sanitation and the Department of Public Works . 6
18 San Francisco Public Works