Peaceful 'Poets Plaza' Planned For Vallejo Near Columbus

Peaceful 'Poets Plaza' Planned For Vallejo Near ColumbusPiazza St. Francis rendering. Graphic: Courtesy of Angela Alioto.
Geri Koeppel
Published on April 16, 2015

Angela Alioto has a vision. Imagine, in front of the landmark National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi at 610 Vallejo St., an Umbrian-style piazza closed to traffic. 

Imagine that piazza inlaid with white and green granite, with the names of prominent poets and peacemakers in bronze in a circle right in front of the church. "Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi," Alioto said. "People who are famous in the world for bringing peace."

And imagine sitting and sipping an espresso under olive trees without the roar of cars and motorcycles. The legendary Caffe Trieste is on the opposite corner of the plaza, long a "third place" for neighbors and thinkers to gather and discuss the world. On the northwest corner is La Porziuncola Nuova, a re-creation of the little church that Saint Francis rebuilt and where he founded the Franciscan Order of the Friars Minor in 1209. He named his little church the “Porziuncola," meaning “little corner of the world."

Alioto, an attorney, has had this vision ever since her days as Board of Supervisors president. "As you recall, in the 1990s I was on the Board of Supervisors, and the Roman Catholic Church was closing churches," she said. "I was against that. I landmarked 11 of them." She saved and reconstructed the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi—which was builtin 1849—back in the late 1990s, and her plan was always to make the rectory and the plaza a place for political thought, gathering and reflection.

Now, the plans for "Piazza St. Francis, the Poets Plaza," as she's calling it, are moving forward. She joined forces with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who also would like to see a place for poets, for obvious reasons. "Ferlinghetti gave us his drawing, I gave him my drawing, and we mutually agreed on everything and started working hand in hand together in 2009,” Alioto said. "We plan to have it built by February or March 2016." Ferlinghetti founded the Saint Francis Foundation and is on the board of directors, along with Alioto and several others.

St. Francis and the proposed site of the Poets Plaza. Photo: Geri Koeppel/Hoodline

The project will cost roughly $1.5 million and $700,000 still needs to be raised, but Alioto is certain it will happen. "I created a little committee of doers," she said. "Having been a politician and a trial lawyer, I can laser focus on people who are doers, they make all the difference in the world. This little committee is dynamite. We’re working with just about every wealthy person in the city who wants to leave a mark."

In fact, Alioto has ambitiously outlined a draft of "San Francisco for Peace: An International Gathering of Peacemakers for Dialogue, Debate & Decision Sponsored by the Knights of Saint Francis of Assisi" at the Poets Plaza on Sept. 27th–30th, 2016. The Dalai Lama is already confirmed, she said.

Alioto envisions the conference as a series of meetings with international, national and local peacemakers in the areas of faith, science, the arts, government, academia and more in seven "piazzas" around the city, including the Poets Plaza, Civic Center Plaza and the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Delegates are expected from the top 10 organized world religions. Not content with doing things small, she's already penciled in the second conference in 2021 and the third in 2026.

Mayor Ed Lee is "on board 100 percent" with the plan to close off the block of Vallejo for the plaza, Alioto said, as are the Board of Supervisors and Planning Department. A wide array of civic groups and citizens have offered their support.

The city has plans to start digging up the street in July and August to replace the water and sewer lines, she said, so this is a good time to get in cahoots for the bigger picture. She hopes to begin building the plaza in September 2015 and to finish by September 2016 for the peace conference.

In what's probably not a big surprise to anyone who's lived in the city for five minutes, one of the biggest challenges Alioto is facing is parking—or rather, removing it. The archdiocese at St. Francis, she said, currently has a four-car garage with entrances on Vallejo.

"Right now the plans show their cars driving in to their garages on the piazza," Alioto said. "I think they will be reasonable in the final analysis and understand this is a world class piazza and is not something you would want your car on. It would be sinful, no pun intended, to drive you car on it. It would be sacrilegious, to a degree." She said the people raising money for the plaza are willing to pay to have the garage entrances relocated to Grant Street.

According to the website, "The piazza will become a garden of wishes, a garden of dreams, and a place to ponder, reflect and to meet new and old friends over a cup of cappuccino."