San Francisco Community Groups Receive Grants To Protect And Educate Pedestrians
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— As San Francisco struggles to combat an alarming rate of pedestrian deaths and injuries, several local community groups are receiving money to educate residents.
In Chinatown the programs are targeting children and the elderly as a susceptible demographic for pedestrian-related incidents. The Self-Help for the Elderly center was the setting where District Attorney George Gascon announced $33,000 in grants for neighborhood groups to create education programs to promote pedestrian safety.
"We're focusing on community engagement because we know that the best way to create a sustainable community is to create a community that is engaged," Gascon said. The grant money will come from the city's community court system.
Walk San Francisco (a pedestrian advocacy organization) Education Director Natalie Burdick told the gathering of seniors that in 2013, 21 people died in pedestrian-related accidents in the city.
"This is unfair and this is particularly unjust because the high-concentration of those deaths is in communities like Chinatown, like SoMa, like the Tenderloin," she said.
Community organizations in each of those areas, in addition to the Portola neighborhood and Sunset District, are all set to receive $3,000 in grant money to go toward the program.