San Francisco’s Sunday Streets faces cut as budget crisis deepens

San Francisco’s budget squeeze is now deciding which neighborhoods get car-free streets, and which do not. The Department of Public Health plans to remove its full $215,758 contribution to Sunday Streets, putting the future of events in SoMa, the Mission and the Sunset in doubt even after supporters raised more than $100,000 to save part of the season.

Sunday Streets is not a parade route in the abstract. Livable City says the program turns 1-to-4-mile stretches of city streets into temporary public space where kids play, seniors stroll, neighbors meet and local businesses and organizations connect. It runs in partnership with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the City and County of San Francisco, which makes the cut more than a bookkeeping decision. It is a fight over whether public health dollars should stay tied to street-level outreach and access, or be redirected entirely to clinical and other direct services.

The program’s backers say the stakes are especially high in neighborhoods that have long had less access to open space and community programming. Sunday Streets began in 2008, when Livable City was chosen to lead it as part of then-Mayor Gavin Newsom’s push to create car-free streets across the city. Livable City says the organization, founded in April 2000 as Transportation for a Livable City, grew out of that effort and has since helped build Sunday Streets into a signature open-streets tradition inspired by Bogotá’s ciclovía model. Earlier coverage and advocacy materials say the series began with two waterfront events in 2008 and later reached an estimated 100,000 residents across diverse neighborhoods.

The money fight has already forced triage. Supporters say fundraising was enough to secure three 2026 events in the Tenderloin, Bayview and Excelsior, but not the full slate. Mission Local reported that Sunday Streets still has to cover permit and operating costs tied to the San Francisco Fire Department, the Department of Public Health and Recology, and that private fundraising included a matching gift of up to $50,000 and a goal of raising another $50,000 by the end of March.

Patricia Barraza of Livable City said, “the community has believed in the event for 17 years and should keep believing in it now.” Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents SoMa and sits on the budget committee, has framed the issue as one of painful tradeoffs in a city that does not have enough money for every program it wants to keep. The first 2026 event is scheduled for April 26 in the Excelsior, but the larger question is whether San Francisco still wants to pay for streets that function as public space, public health outreach and neighborhood equalizer at the same time.