Block party to fete ‘slow streets,’ new murals in SF’s South of Market area

FEC Galing Bata students, SOMCAN staff and artist Cherisse Alcantara in front of her ground mural design on Bonifacio Street. CONTRIBUTED

SAN FRANCISCO – A block party in the will celebrate the permanent designation of the first-ever Slow Streets the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood and the unveiling of eight new ground murals.

SOMA Block Party, a free, all-ages community event on Saturday, June 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at slow streets Mabini, Bonifacio, Lapu Lapu, Rizal, and Tandang Sora Streets is hosted by the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN).

Ground mural artists left-to-right: Rea Lynn de Guzman, Cherisse Alcantara, and Kacy Jung.(Photo: Erina Alejo)

Three artists from the community, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Cherisse Alcantara, and Kacy Jung, were commissioned to design and paint eight ground murals along SOMA Slow Streets reflecting the Filipino, Chinese, and Russian heritage of the majority of the residents and workers in the area.

There will be music, food, games, tables of community based organizations, activities, and performances.

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SOMCAN launched the SOMA Slow Streets Project and Campaign on August 2023 under its Reclaiming Our Space (ROSe) Program that combines art, design, and community planning to “organize, empower, and increase the civic engagement of the community around urban planning activities in SOMA Pilipinas, Filipino Cultural Heritage District.”

Slow Streets in San Francisco — designed to limit through traffic at a reduced speed on certain residential streets and allow them to be used as a shared space for people traveling by foot and by bicycle — started as a COVID-19 pandemic program to provide much needed space for people to be outside at a safe distance. These Slow Streets were.

The SOMA neighborhood is the entrance and exit to major freeways such as the 101, I-80, and I-280 and continues to have the highest severe and fatal injuries per mile to pedestrians and cyclists.

SOMA Slow Streets provides more open space in the SOMA which has the least amount of park space per resident in the entire city.                                

For more information about the SOMA Block Party, email [email protected] or call (415) 255-7693.