IS SAN FRANCISCO A SUSTAINABLE CITY?
During this school year we have been connected with a School in San Francisco California called http://presidiohill.org.
They are students of 7th grade and they are learning Spanish with their teacher Feli. To write a post for the magazine Sapere aude we sent them questions related to the SDGs. These are some of the questions:
- How many nationalities are there in San Francisco? Olivia said that San Francisco has 12+ nationalities. Including many Asians, Mexicans, Europeans, Africans, and Indigenous/Pacific Islanders. Many! It is a very diverse city. A lot of other people here come from different countries. As one of the popular destinations of the world across many industries, lots of people just visit or stay here for a little while too said Nate and Adriana
- What is the most spoken language in San Francisco after English? Ethan and Omi said that there is a lot of Spanish, Chinese and Filipino spoken in San Francisco
- Why is San Francisco a Spanish name? Noah told us that San Francisco ‘s name is Spanish because it derives from «Mission San Francisco de Asís,» a mission established in 1776 by the Spanish, which in turn was named after Saint Francis of Assisi. Most of California was colonised by the spanish that is why san francisco is a spanish name. That is also why other places in California have Spanish names.
- Are there many homeless in San Francisco? Why? Nikki and Bennett said that there are a lot of homeless people in San Francisco but recently there were a few laws that made living on the streets really hard because they can’t do a lot of things such as camping in the street. Soon there aren’t as many homeless people as 1 year ago. People are usually homeless because of housing prices and taxes getting more expensive and there are less wages to live on. About 8,323 people are homeless in San Francisco as of 2025, about 3,969 of which are in shelters and 4,354 who are unsheltered, mainly because of the extremely high cost of living here including rent, job loss, and substance abuse. Many homeless people also come to San Francisco because of homeless camps and easy access to drugs. (SDG 3, 8, 10)
- Regarding shops, is it true that you pay with fingerprints? In any case, if you pay with fingerprints, is it comfortable? Eva and Anita said: Yes, you can pay with your fingerprint if you are paying with a device. You can use your fingerprint to access your bank card instead of a passcode. Some devices scan your palm and you can use that to pay. To answer if it is comfortable, neither of us has ever paid with our palm, but using your finger does not feel like anything. SDG 9
- What do they do with the clothing that is returned?
Sometimes people put them in Goodwill which is a secondhand store for clothes, or we have school clothing drives. Depends on what you mean by returning clothing though (by Adriana and Nate)
7. Finally are you a sustainable city? Can you tell me some examples?
Yes we are a sustainable city, we have a lot of green areas and we have good waste systems. Some examples are sustainable transportation. A lot of people take public transportation. For example, many students from our school take the public bus to and from school. There are also trains in San Francisco. All the public transportation is free if you’re a minor. We also have a lot of green spaces to promote happiness. We are also big in LEED certified buildings that are built to be more sustainable and waste less. And we have electric bikes you can rent throughout the city which you can use to get around San francisco. SDG 7, 11
In conlusion, we can see that there is a big contrast in this city because there are some sdgs like 11 (sustainable cities) that are an example and other sdgs like 1 NO POVERTY, 3 GOOD HEALTH AND WELL BEING , 8 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH that everyday are becoming worse although they say there is a new law to control camping in the street.
We have to work hard to get the goals of the Agenda 2030. It’s only 5 years left!!
