Mayor's Fix-It Team Quadruples Efforts, Adding 20 New Corridors For 2017

Mayor's Fix-It Team Quadruples Efforts, Adding 20 New Corridors For 2017Park Station Capt. John Sanford, Mayor Ed Lee and Fix-It director Sandra Zuniga on 9th Avenue in the Sunset. | Photo: Cheryl Guerrero
Shane Downing
Published on March 21, 2017

The city’s Fix-It Team is quadrupling its efforts across San Francisco, the Mayor’s Office announced this morning.

Last May, Mayor Ed Lee announced the creation of the Fix-It Team as part of his Neighborhood Promise strategy. Focusing on quality-of-life concerns, Fix-It works to address everything from unruly trees to street encampments, graffiti to potholes, poor street lighting to unsightly news racks.

“Our residents want simple quality-of-life issues fixed and fixed quickly,” Mayor Lee said in a statement. “Fix-It has become an incredible tool in coordinating and focusing our city department efforts on the unique issues that face each neighborhood.”

In 2016, Fix-It was piloted in Chinatown, Market/Castro, Mission/Geneva, the Inner Sunset, and Civic Center/UN Plaza. In 2017, its focus has shifted to 20 specific corridors, representing all the supervisorial and police districts in San Francisco.

The list of 2017 Fix-It neighborhood footprints.

The Fix-It Team chose its work areas by creating a survey to ask neighbors about their concerns, which was completed by 400 residents and in five languages across the city.

The team then mapped the survey results against police data and 311 service request data, to determine the top high-need 'zones' that Fix-It could work to support.

“From the Bayview to the Marina,” wrote Sandra Zuniga, Fix-It’s director, in an email, “we saw three concerns [consistently] at the top: violent crime in public spaces, property crime and sidewalk cleanliness.”

Castro neighbors completed a Fix-It prioritization activity last year. | Photo: Shane Downing/Hoodline

Since last year, Fix-It has had plenty to do. It’s engaged with 510 residents, fixed 108 streetlights, painted 495 crosswalks and curbs, pruned 51 trees, and fixed or replaced 150 street signs. It’s also enhanced street cleaning operations on 100 city blocks.

Zuniga says that her team’s efforts, big and small, have been well-received around the city.

“Even the smaller fixes, like fixing lighting or tree maintenance, are appreciated by residents,” wrote Zuniga. “They make a real difference in our neighborhoods being cleaner and safer places to live.”

The numbers are important, but so is the positive feedback from neighbors. “The positive community response encouraged Fix-It to take on more neighborhoods and expand our efforts,” Zuniga wrote.

Mayor Lee, Fix-It Team Director Zuniga, Southern Station Capt. Daryl Fong and Kadi Poile of Rec & Park discuss improvements at Victoria Manalo Draves Park. | Photo: Elaine Gavin/Hoodline

The Fix-It team won’t be expanding overnight, Zuniga says. It will take time and resources to scale up, including three key hires to help ramp up the expansion Like Zuniga, they will focus their work on community engagement and liaising with city departments; Fix-It is working with Public Works to find room in the budget for the new additions. 

Zuniga told us the work in the 20 zone will be staggered over the next year. The first thing that neighbors can expect to see is fliers in their mailboxes announcing a scheduled community meeting.

“By connecting residents to city services, we are educating residents on the services available to them and how to report these issues themselves," she wrote. "By introducing neighbors to each other, we are helping empower lasting change that will help sustain the work the Fix-It team accomplishes.”

Zuniga told us that Fix-It's further growth hinges on the success of this year.

“Fix-It isn’t just about beautifying our communities and quick fixes,” she wrote. “Our aim and what we’ve seen is that these efforts are strengthening our neighborhoods too.”