A bust of former San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was unveiled at City Hall this past Friday by his family, former colleagues, and local elected officials.
“It means a lot to the family to see our father honored in this way,” said Lee’s daughter Tania in a speech. “We knew how much he loved this city, and it’s amazing to see how much the city loved him back.”
Lee served as San Francisco’s mayor from 2011 until 2017, when he died of a heart attack. He was the first Chinese American to serve as the city’s mayor.
Dozens of politicians attended the celebration, including several members of the Board of Supervisors, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, state Controller Malia Cohen, and state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.
Former San Francisco mayors Willie Brown, London Breed, and Art Agnos were also in attendance.
“Ed Lee rolled up his sleeves, brought diverse groups of people together, and got it done,” Brown said in a speech. “He led the city, first, through one of the nation’s worst recessions and then through an unprecedented time of growth and change.”
The bronze bust of Lee’s smiling face sits on top of a towering, 9-foot-tall marble pedestal in the hallway of City Hall’s Polk Street entrance.
For attendees, Lee’s bust is more than a sculpture honoring the former mayor. It is also a symbol against racism, since his bust replaced the bust of former Mayor James Phelan, who promoted anti-Chinese sentiment.
“Ed Lee rolled up his sleeves, brought diverse groups of people together, and got it done.” Willie Brown, former San Francisco mayor
Phelan was the mayor of San Francisco from 1897 to 1902. He supported extending the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a federal law that banned the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States for a period of 10 years.
His bust was recently removed from the spot where Lee’s new bust sits.
“We transform a symbol of discrimination into one of dignity and hope, and bend the arc of the moral universe more toward justice,” Pelosi said in a speech at the unveiling.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, who worked with Lee in preparation to host Super Bowl 50 in 2016 in Santa Clara, remembered Lee for his character.
“As I worked alongside Mayor Lee, I saw how genuine he was, how hard he worked, and how deeply he cared for San Francisco,” Lurie said in a speech. “To the Lee family: thank you for letting San Francisco share a part of his story.”