Sue Bierman (August 5, 1924 – August 7, 2006) was a civic leader in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, serving on the San Francisco Planning Commission, the Board of Supervisors, and the Port Commission. Born in

Fremont, Nebraska Fremont is a city and county seat of Dodge County in the eastern portion of the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 27,141 at the 2020 census. Fremont is the home of Midland University. History From the 183 ...

, she moved to San Francisco in the 1950s with her husband Arthur K. Bierman. She became active in city politics as a leader of the "

freeway revolt Highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) are organized protests against the planning or construction of highways, freeways, expressways, and other civil engineering projects that favor vehicles. Many freeway r ...

" of the 1960s, an effort to stop the expansion of the

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one ...

freeway into the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. In 1964, she formed a council in her Haight-Asbury neighborhood to campaign against the proposed "Panhandle Freeway". The expansion was halted in March 1966 when the Board of Supervisors voted 6–5 against it. Her reputation as a neighborhood activist and co-founder of the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council led to her appointment by Mayor

George Moscone George Richard Moscone (; November 24, 1929 – November 27, 1978) was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. He was known ...

to the San Francisco Planning Commission in 1976. She served on the commission until 1992, and afterwards ran successfully for the Board of Supervisors on a platform of housing the homeless, protecting the health budget and preserving open space. She remained a Supervisor until required by term limits to step down in 2000. Her final civic position was on the Port Commission, where she was appointed by Willie Brown in 2003, reappointed by

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fro ...

, and served until her death in 2006. The Susan J. Bierman Grove in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle and

Sue Bierman Park Sue Bierman Park, also known as Ferry Park, is a park in San Francisco, California in the Financial District. Sue Bierman Park replaced off-ramps just north of the Embarcadero Center, and next to the park Ferry Plaza was constructed in front of ...

in the Financial District are named in her honor.

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