Patricia Barraza is bringing people together and working to protect community activations.
The Excelsior-native grew up engaged in her community with groups such as the Corpus Christi church system, United Playaz and City Hall’s youth commission. As an adult, she worked as an after-school program coordinator at John O’ Connell High School and then as director of the James Denman Middle School Beacon Center. Barraza has dived into community organizing, like Excelsior Strong, to bring neighbors together, and now, as Livable City’s director of community activations and partnerships Livable City, she is channeling that momentum to keep the popular activation Sunday Streets alive after a 100% funding cut by City Hall.
“I've always kind of been that ‘in the back’ person, and even now my goal is that at Sunday Streets these organizations are highlighted and they're showing the amazing things that they're doing and that I'm just kind of in the background making sure it all happens,” Barraza said.
Sunday Streets, the city’s open streets program through Livable City that brings a day of outdoor activities to several neighborhoods, faced drastic budget cuts from city partners like the Department of Public Health in February, a majority of which Livable City relied on. But thanks to online fundraising, a generous donation from a private source, and a match of funds, the program will continue for half a season this year in the Excelsior, Bayview and Tenderloin. The goal is still to bring even small activations to the other affected areas, pending funding.
