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

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

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

Fremont, Nebraska Fremont is a city in and the county seat of Dodge County, Nebraska, Dodge County in the eastern portion of the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 27,141 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it t ...

, 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 prioritize motor vehicle traff ...

" 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 San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

freeway into the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. In 1964, she formed a council in her

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called the Haight and the Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the countercultu ...

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 politician who served as the 37th mayor of San Francisco from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. He was known as "The People's ...

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 serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

, and served until her death in 2006. The Susan J. Bierman Grove in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle and Sue Bierman Park in the Financial District are named in her honor.

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