San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed today joined City officials and community partners to launch the inaugural Love Our City Holiday Eco Blitz in downtown San Francisco. San Francisco Public Works and partnering City agencies are collaborating with community and business improvement districts on the Holiday Eco Blitz as part of the City’s Love Our City campaign. Leading up to and during the holiday season, the Love Our City team will increase efforts to keep the City’s busiest downtown and waterfront corridors clean for residents and visitors.

“I take great pride in San Francisco, and I want to make sure that we all do our part to keep the City clean and beautiful,” said Mayor Breed. “We want everyone to have a safe and pleasant experience in our city. The Holiday Eco Blitz will help us keep our busy downtown corridors safe, clean, and welcoming during the holiday season. When we all work together, we can make San Francisco shine even more.”

The 2019 Love Our City Holiday Eco Blitz begins today and continues until the end of the year. Crews will be on the job every day of the week focusing on popular commercial corridors and adjacent alleyways, boosting the regularly scheduled cleaning services in those areas.

Mayor Breed kicked off the program at Hallidie Plaza in front of the famed cable car turnaround along with San Francisco Public Works, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the City Administrator’s Office, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, San Francisco Police Department, the Port of San Francisco, and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. They were joined by their nonprofit partners, the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (CBD), South Beach/Rincon Hill/Mission Bay CBD, East Cut CBD, Fisherman’s Wharf CBD, and the Union Square Business Improvement District.

This program builds on the existing partnerships in the year-round Love Our City campaign. Community and business partners worked with Public Works to identify the Holiday Eco Blitz scope of work, which includes sweeping and steam cleaning sidewalks, clearing leaves and litter from catch basins, and removing illegal postings from poles. The program also includes pruning street trees and weeding basins, cleaning public trashcans and street furniture, sprucing up around bus stops, painting over graffiti, power washing roadways, and educating merchants and property owners about their responsibility to keep sidewalks clean.

In addition to the Holiday Eco Blitz, Public Works has been conducting a concentrated early-morning cleanup operation in the nearby Tenderloin and Mid-Market areas over the past several months, bringing a full contingent of crews to wash the streets and sidewalks.

“We know that when the holidays roll around, it’s our City’s time to shine and the Holiday Eco Blitz will help us do just that,” said Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru. “Our cleaning crews already remove more than 20,000 tons of garbage off the sidewalks and streets every year and are serving the City 24/7. Keeping our city looking its best requires a true team effort and that’s why I am so grateful to all of our community partners who are participating.”

“We are looking forward to welcoming visitors to Union Square over the holiday season and are grateful to Mayor Breed, Public Works and all of the City departments for contributing the extra resources to make the area even cleaner and safer,” said Karin Flood, Executive Director of the Union Square Business District.

“The Yerba Buena CBD is excited to participate in the Holiday Eco Blitz. As we do our part each day to keep Yerba Buena’s sidewalks clean, partnerships and programs like Eco Blitz have a positive impact in creating an even more inviting place for shoppers, workers and residents to enjoy the holidays in Yerba Buena,” said Cathy Maupin, Executive Director of the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District.

“We are looking forward to showing off our polished-up neighborhood to the thousands of visitors, workers, and residents who inhabit our area every day, especially during the holiday season,” said Alice Rogers, President of the South Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood Association

“Fisherman’s Wharf is thankful for the continued support from all of our City partners and we are looking forward to the Holiday Eco Blitz,” said Randall Scott, Executive Director of the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District.

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