San Francisco Honors Former Mayor Art Agnos With Potrero Hill Street Naming

Hundreds of supporters, elected officials and labor leaders gathered on Connecticut Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood to unveil Art Agnos Way, permanently renaming a stretch of road for San Francisco's 39th mayor. The outdoor ceremony — emceed by Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin and hosted by District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton — drew a cross-generational assembly of city power brokers to honor a leader whose decisions on the waterfront, homeless shelters and earthquake recovery still shape the city today.

• Connecticut Street flat in District 10 officially renamed Art Agnos Way in a ceremonial unveiling attended by Mayor Lurie, Speaker Emerita Pelosi and dozens of former officeholders
• Speakers credit Agnos with transforming San Francisco's waterfront, founding the Children's Fund, pioneering homeless shelters and diversifying city government
• Pelosi recalls Agnos's early LGBTQ advocacy and his role introducing her to Cleve Jones and the AIDS Memorial Quilt
• Agnos reflects on arriving in San Francisco in 1966 with $500, finding community on Potrero Hill and building a career devoted to those shut out of power

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A Greyhound Bus, $500 and Six Decades on the Hill

Why it matters: The renaming of Connecticut Street's flat to Art Agnos Way is the first permanent civic honor for a former mayor whose tenure from 1988 to 1992 produced landmark policy decisions — tearing down the Embarcadero Freeway, founding the Children's Fund, creating the city's first homeless shelters and leading recovery from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The ceremony doubled as a living history of San Francisco progressive politics, with nearly every speaker connecting Agnos's legacy to ongoing debates over housing, homelessness and civic identity.

Where things stand: Supervisor Shamann Walton, who carried the renaming legislation, opened by framing the honor in terms of lasting institutional impact. "Mayor Agnos, under his tenure, was one of the founders of the Children's Fund and made it possible for hundreds of millions of dollars for children's services that are continuing today right here in San Francisco," he said.

Former Supervisor Peskin, serving as emcee, recognized a sprawling guest list that included Mayor Daniel Lurie, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, former supervisors, maritime trades union members and former Agnos administration staffers and commissioners. Peskin called Agnos the originator of a movement that now carries a different name. "Much is made of Mayor Agnos's legacy in reuniting San Francisco with our waterfront when he made the command decision to tear down the Embarcadero Freeway. Yimby news alert — Mayor Agnos is actually the OG New Urbanist," he said. He added that Agnos's appointment track record may be unmatched: "Many of us think that Mayor Agnos still holds the record for the best commission appointments ever."

Mayor Lurie praised the durability of Agnos's contributions and his continued neighborhood engagement, noting that the former mayor still picks up trash on weekends in Potrero Hill. "Your legacy reminds us that public service does not end when you leave office, nor does it require one to be in office," Lurie said, adding: "We can see the long lasting impact of those decisions in the waterfront that you helped open to the public, the affordable housing you expanded, and the broader range of San Franciscans you brought into city government."

Pelosi, the Quilt and a Freeway Deal

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi delivered one of the ceremony's most personal tributes, reaching back to the early 1980s when Agnos, then an assemblymember, attended a gay and lesbian community dinner honoring Phil Burton — an act she described as politically courageous at the time. "He had one of his babies in an infant seat, and he said, I brought my baby son here to this because I want to tell him when he's older that this was something to be proud of, to be at this dinner with the gay and lesbian community," Pelosi recalled.

She credited Agnos with introducing her to Cleve Jones and the idea that became the AIDS Memorial Quilt. "Art brings Cleve Jones to my house to say, I have this idea about making a quilt. Art Agnos is the one who introduced me to that," she said.

Pelosi also described the political mechanics behind the Embarcadero Freeway demolition, recounting her promise to secure federal funding if Agnos could guarantee community consensus and action. "I said to Art, we can get that money to take this — this is going to be a big deal. But you have to guarantee that when we get that money, dirt will fly. You have to build being a community together," she said.

A Family's Definition of Public Service

Steve Agnos, the former mayor's son, provided the emotional bridge between the political tributes and his father's personal remarks, framing the elder Agnos's career — from social worker to assemblyman to mayor — around a single purpose. "He always told me his job was to go into important rooms where big decisions were being made and advocate for the people that could not afford to be in those rooms," Steve Agnos said.

He closed with a challenge to the crowd: "The same fight that sustains my dad is also the same fight necessary to sustain San Francisco. And I would encourage you to remember this and take up this good fight, if you haven't already, or if you already have, keep it up and never lose sight of why you do it. This is the Art Agnos Way."

"I Promise to Leave My City Better Than I Found It"

Former Mayor Art Agnos spoke at length, visibly moved, about arriving in San Francisco in 1966 on a Greyhound bus — three days and two nights from the East Coast — with $500 in his pocket. He described discovering Potrero Hill and being drawn into civic life by neighbors who became mentors: Jim Herman of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Passen family who introduced him to civil rights and farmworker causes, and Father Peter Salmon, with whom he created the sanctuary movement at St. Teresa's Church.

"I had never met a Chinese person before I came here. I had never met a gay person before I came here. I had never met the kind of people that I love so much here, anywhere else but here," Agnos said.

He credited Pelosi with making the Embarcadero demolition possible by navigating the federal bureaucracy. "I could not have done it without her because I couldn't break through the Republican administration that was running the city, at the country at the time," Agnos said.

Agnos closed by invoking the ancient Athenian citizen's oath, expressing hope that future passersby on the renamed street would consider him one of their own: "I promise to leave my city better than I found it."

Voices From the Podium

Former District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell invoked her mother, Enola Maxwell, an early Agnos supporter, and offered a succinct assessment of the former mayor's willingness to challenge convention. "How many people take down a freeway? Brave, courageous and bold," Maxwell said.

Consul General of Greece Gregorios Tasiopoulos honored Agnos on behalf of the Greek state as "a prominent Greek American, a visionary liberal politician, a humanist, a brave man who took important initiatives and led the city of San Francisco during the recovery of the Loma Prieta earthquake."

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• Certificate of honor: The entire San Francisco Board of Supervisors signed a certificate presented to Agnos before the street sign unveiling.
• Reception: The ceremony concluded with a countdown, the unveiling of the Art Agnos Way sign, and a gathering at Goat Hill Pizza on Potrero Hill.