Street Named for Local Hiring Pioneer as Committee Advances Holocaust Center, Historic Firehouse

San Francisco's Land Use and Transportation Committee moved through three items Monday morning, each touching a different thread of the city's identity: a Bayview block renamed for the organizer who built the blueprint for mandatory local hiring, landmark protection for an 1896 firehouse threatened by state housing laws, and zoning for Northern California's only Holocaust education center. All three passed unanimously and head to the full Board of Supervisors.

• Bayview block renamed James Richards Way, honoring the co-founder of Aboriginal Black Man United whose local hiring model reached the White House

• 1896 Ocean View firehouse — SF's last horse-drawn unit — advances toward landmark status under a program designed to protect historic properties from state demolition streamlining

• Special use district approved at 2245 Post Street to build a 34,000-square-foot Holocaust education center serving 165,000 students statewide

• All three items passed 3-0, forwarded to the Board of Supervisors with positive recommendations

Why it matters: James Richards co-founded Aboriginal Blackman United (ABU) and spent decades fighting for mandatory local hiring on city-funded construction projects — a framework that labor leaders say became the model for federal infrastructure policy under Build Back Better. Monday's vote makes his name a permanent fixture in the neighborhood he organized.