Dear San Francisco,

I love you! So much so that I have committed my life to making you a better place to live, play, and shine. I raised my kids here. I was married here. I go to church here. I adore this community, and nothing is more important to me than making the lives of families better. I give my heart and soul to this city every day, through the work I do at GLIDE. 

And I’m not the only one. We all love San Francisco, don’t we?  The question is: how much does San Francisco love us back?

We want everyone to feel welcome here and a part of the fiber of this city. Families from all over the world come here for a better life – we must protect them. Our Black heritage must not be under attack! And LGBTQ+ people fearing for their rights, are all hoping San Francisco will continue to fight for them. All of us are asking the question, “Does this city love me back? How much? Is it going to be enough?” 

There’s so much to love in San Francisco: parks everywhere you go, every few blocks walking through a different amazing culture, world-famous tourist attractions like the Golden Gate Bridge. But it’s the people of San Francisco I love most of all. San Francisco is beautiful because of its people. 

I have memories of my early years visiting my grandmother who lived in the Baker Street projects in Fillmore and playing all day with the neighbors’ kids. Growing up in Bayview Hunters Point, where the community supported each other, and no kid went hungry. You saw REAL community there. Even though everyone was poor, it didn’t feel like it, because we were a village. GLIDE’s work is all about rebuilding those community bonds.  

San Francisco, I’m writing to you on Valentine’s Day this year because I love you– and I want you to love me back– love all of us back. Love must go beyond words. I want to see love in action.  

Volunteering in GLIDE’s kitchen and dining room is one of the best ways you can show up for people in San Francisco who desperately need some warmth and kindness during this rainy winter. You can also host a group for people seeking recovery; there are so many ways you can help.

In a loving San Francisco, everyone will have a chance to access health care. Everybody will have a chance to send their kids to a good school. Everyone will have the chance to get a job and take care of their family!

If San Francisco loves us back, there will be no cuts to social programs, to food programs, and more shelter beds and affordable housing made available. If San Francisco loves us back, our leaders won’t let technology platforms have more power than the people posting on them. San Francisco needs to love the person sleeping on the street just as much as it loves the wealthiest CEO.  

If San Francisco loves us back, it will invest in communities like Bayview, Mission, Excelsior, Potrero Hill, and of course, the Tenderloin: one of San Francisco’s most misunderstood communities.

Many families who were gentrified out of Fillmore and Bayview moved to the Tenderloin.  We have individuals living on the streets, and their families have been in SF for generations. San Francisco needs to start loving those families back, because a healthy Tenderloin is a healthy San Francisco. 

Reverend Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani founded GLIDE on an agenda of unconditional love. Every day at GLIDE I do my best to put love into action. Our leadership team is thinking night and day about how GLIDE can continue to fight for our communities that are under threat right now: immigrants, BIPOC, trans people, homeless families, survivors, and more.  

Because we love San Francisco, GLIDE will show up for San Francisco. San Francisco, will you show up for us? 

With heart,  

Dr. Gina