On Saturday, the community gathered at San Francisco’s Civic Center to recognize Good Neighbor Award winners and start a week that aims to bring connection and kindness to neighbors. At Civic Center, the welcome mat was laid out as San Francisco Good Neighbor Week kicked off. Julia Gitis is the event’s founder and organizer, and explained that she first learned about something called “Good Neighbor Day.” “That was started by President Jimmy Carter in the 70s. It’s not widely known, but we brought it to San Francisco last year for the first time. We are the first city in California to celebrate it, we’re celebrating it with a whole week,” Gitis said. The event included music, a lively atmosphere and neighborhood representation from all city districts. This day also included recognition for Good Neighbor Award winners. One of those people was A-Jay Nicolas, who is a founding member that’s getting a neighborhood association up and running. “We’ve already started participating in conversations around the neighborhood, trying to get people’s pulse on what they want to see in Mission Bay what they want to fix, what they think is going well,” he said. There are community partners, an events calendar for people to know what exists and custom events for the week, but the key is connection. Nearby a trash cleanup was underway. One participant says it happens regularly with “Refuse Refuse”, a way to help and they also meet people. ...read more read less