![]() Based on her success in that role, she earned an official appointment, in 1976, to the city’s planning commission.īierman was meticulous in her public service. She had learned how to get things done in San Francisco as a community organizing housewife. But Bierman was incredibly bright and driven, a high school valedictorian and incessant reader. Fortunately, San Francisco had Sue Bierman.Īfter growing up in Nebraska, Sue Bierman had moved to San Francisco in the 1950s, bringing with her more formal training in music than in city planning. It was one thing to determine that a new highway was unnecessary it was another to ask whether it might be a good idea to remove a freeway that had already been built. But the freeway along the Embarcadero was serving tens of thousands of vehicles per day. Elsewhere in the city, community organizers-initially downplayed as “little housewives” by pro-highway groups-had stopped plans for highways that would have done more harm than good to the city. Like so many other city-crossing highways in the United States, the Embarcadero Freeway was built after World War II, made possible by federal support for highways to move the military and serve the growing number of automobiles.įor decades after it was built, the Embarcadero Freeway had stretched more than a mile along San Francisco’s eastern waterfront, blocking precious views and access to the bay. Well, an earthquake with some help from a woman named Sue.īefore the Embarcadero was a must-see destination, it was a double-decker concrete highway. It had taken an earthquake to make this unforgettable place. Lots of other people seemed to be doing things they’d always remember. A balloon artist made a monkey for my son, Ezra, who toddled safely to show it to the harbor seals. ![]() We looked for wild parrots in a lush park. We strolled along a palm tree–lined promenade. We saw the historic piers and the Ferry Building. When my family visited San Francisco, the Embarcadero waterfront was at the top of our to-do list. ![]()
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