SAN FRANCISCO—The damage that occurred on Friday, June 19, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park during a Juneteenth demonstration will cost the city $20,000. The amount does not include any damage done to the park’s statues. The cost of the damage to the statues will be determined by the city’s art commission.
On Friday, a group of approximately 100 protesters toppled the Father Junipero Serra, Francis Scott Key, and Ulysses S. Grant statues inside Golden Gate Park. A monument for Miguel de Cervantes, the author of “Don Quixote,” sculptures, benches, and a fountain in the park were also vandalized by the group of protesters. The statues were removed on Friday night for storage and city workers pressure washed the statues’ pedestals the following day.
On Saturday, June 20, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department tweeted, “The Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park has reopened to the public. A huge thank you to our dedicated staff who worked through the night to clean the area and reopen it to the public once again.”
The $20,000 will pay for city workers’ overtime and materials for repairs.
In a statement, Mayor London Breed said, “There is very real pain in this country rooted in our history of slavery and oppression, especially against African-Americans and Indigenous people. I know that pain all too well. But the damage done to our park last night went far beyond just the statues that were torn down, and included significant damage to Golden Gate Park. Every dollar we spend cleaning up this vandalism takes funding away from actually supporting our community, including our African-American community.”
