Guest Opinion: SF can revitalize Market St. with heroes museum

I am probably the last person in America to give Donald Trump credit for anything he has done as our president; this includes his so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that he signed into law on July 4.

However, I learned that in this legislation, Trump has had a long desire to honor heroes. And tucked into the bill, there is $40 million for an American heroes garden. Similarly, I have been trying to celebrate the world's heroes in a museum for the past 15 years. This recognition of heroism is not just a mere act, but a source of inspiration and motivation for all of us.

On September 22, 1975, a disabled Marine Vietnam veteran by the name of Oliver Sipple was credited with saving the life of President Gerald R. Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel at Union Square in San Francisco when he lunged for the hand of the would-be assassin, Sarah Jane Moore, just as she fired her gun.

Instead of being honored for his heroics, he was used for political gain, disrespected by a well-intentioned columnist, and disowned by his own family.

Saving the life of a sitting president of the United States is how Sipple's parents found out that their son was a homosexual. This fact prevented them from seeing their son as a hero. When I discovered this sad story in 2010, I vowed to correct this wrong.

I first presented my evidence to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and easily got the board to unanimously pass a resolution declaring September 22, 2011, as Oliver W. Sipple Day. For the next 14 years, I must have repeated this bit of San Francisco history a hundred times in the hope of creating a San Francisco museum to honor heroes, such as Sipple, from all over the world. To my surprise, all I got was crickets.

In reading a San Francisco Examiner article, I learned of a “moonshot” competition called Market Street Reimagined. This competition, with $100,000 in prize money, was designed to elicit bold and innovative ideas, aimed to “rejuvenate” the troubled Market Street boulevard between Embarcadero and Van Ness Avenue. I was excited to participate.

The lead sponsor of this competition was the Urban Land Institute San Francisco, part of Urban Land Institute (ULI), a global, nonprofit research and education organization focused on land use and real estate development. It boasts "45,000 members in 80 countries, representing a wide range of disciplines within the real estate and land use sector," according to its website.

I was compelled to become a member of the ULI San Francisco competition at $540 per year (I chose the $45 per month option) in April. I then dusted off my heroes of the world idea and submitted it with a strange $75 non-refundable fee. Now, after the winners of the competition were announced on July 16, I am no longer a member, as I feel that I was misled, albeit unintentionally.

The SF Examiner article that initially sparked my enthusiasm was clear and concise. The competition's objective was to breathe new life into Market Street. However, the six winning submissions, while undoubtedly vibrant, seem to lack the practicality needed for the true rejuvenation of Market Street.

I have been on Market Street at least six days a week since November 2021. In contrast, the jury panel for this competition spent July 9-10 on Market Street, assessing and evaluating how best to rejuvenate this troubled area of the city by matching their observations with 167 entries submitted from approximately eight countries.

From now until August 8, ULI San Francisco will use the second floor of the Ferry Building to display all entries on 24" x 36" display boards. And based on my viewing of these entries at the Ferry Building, I saw color, passion, or commitment in every entry.

What I did not see was anything that came close to addressing the Market Street problem. Well, there was one idea that came close: the OS Museum of World Heroes. This museum, which I proposed, could serve as a cultural anchor for Market Street, drawing in visitors and residents alike, and potentially contributing to the area's rejuvenation.

Location. Location. Location.
Daily, hundreds of tourists from all over the world stand at the Market and Powell Street Cable Car turnaround waiting for their turn. They can't "ride to the stars" without passing the corner of Geary Boulevard and Powell Street, where Sipple saved the life of a president. But none of them are aware of this bit of San Francisco history.

Transforming Market Street into a tribute to heroes from around the world by utilizing a significant portion of the distressed San Francisco Centre as a museum is only the beginning. This proposed hero museum has the potential not only to honor our heroes but also to revitalize Market Street, giving us all a sense of hope and optimism for the future.

People love to be associated with creativity, greatness, and heroics. And we all have heroes. Along with those two facts, anyone who has a story to honor/share can join a new trend: Slip a note about some hero through the doors of any vacant Market Street storefront. This one act is intended to bring traffic into the San Francisco Centre, where there are over 150 vacant shops, or 80%, in that property. When a new storefront finds a tenant, the proprietor can collect notes left in or under their door and submit them to the museum for research and consideration for future exhibits.

Suppose I was to slip a note about Sipple's heroics to Trump's American heroes $40 million garden. What are the chances that a homosexual who saved the life of a sitting president would get even a flower? I think San Francisco is better than Donald Trump.

Allen Jones is a longtime San Franciscan resident, since 1960, and an activist and published author. He is also a homosexual.