Civic Center became home to screaming children, spinning rides and cotton candy during a four-day carnival last weekend — as part of greater revitalization efforts by the City of San Francisco.
Over the Thursday-Sunday weekend, hundreds of children and their families filled the block-long space. Neon lights overhead welcomed visitors to shoot basketballs and hit high strikers in order to win stuffed animal prizes. Children slid down a massive rainbow-colored slide and rode a huge ferris wheel that provided a seeming bird’s eye view of City Hall.
Our city has suffered ongoing “doom loop” and “hellscape” monikers of late, owing to swaths of Tenderloin, South of Market, and Civic Center’s struggles with homelessness, vacant businesses, and open-air drug markets. The carnival was the latest attempt to create a cheery atmosphere.
“We want to create fun and healthy activities and programs here in the Civic Center area for people to enjoy and we don’t just want people to come once — we want to provide programming and activities for them to keep coming back,” said Parks and Recreation spokesperson Daniel Montes.
We visited twice and enjoyed the experience, although there was nothing groundbreaking there: The ferris wheel broke on Saturday, and a single food stand made for very long lines. But it also felt worth seeing, if only for the silly rides juxtaposed with all the courthouses, our main public library, and City Hall.
Vida Snyder was walking home after enrolling her four-year-old son Chito in school when they came upon the carnival. With a funnel cake in hand, she explained that they had ridden on a few rides.
“They should have stuff like this more often,” said Snyder. She said that the rides they most enjoyed included the pirate ship swing and the spinning teacups.
The upbeat vibe felt a little less forced than we expected, and like any good carnival, we got a bit ripped off by the pricing scheme for rides and prize games — which made everything feel more authentic.
“This is a downtown space and plazas like this belong to everyone,” Montes said.
“And the idea is that we want to bring in families, local people — Tenderloin residents, SoMa residents and we just want everyone to feel like this is a place where they can come and have fun.”
Aaron Levy-Wolins is a San Francisco-based photojournalist and writer. Saul Sugarman contributed to this story.
The Bold Italic is a non-profit media organization that’s brought to you by GrowSF, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. Donate to us today.
