Street Named For San Francisco's Late Public Defender

Jeff Adachi, who was San Francisco's public defender, died on Feb. 22, 2019.
Photo credit San Francisco Public Defender

A narrow, two-block-long corridor on 7th Street connects San Francisco’s Hall of Justice and the public defender’s office. That corridor’s name was formally changed from Gilbert Street to Jeff Adachi Way on the first anniversary of the former public defender. 

Jeff Adachi was the San Francisco public defender until he died suddendly on Feb. 26, 2019. 

His successor Manohar Raju spoke about Adachi’s passion at the dedication ceremony. 

“I watched Jeff walk this path from our office to court nearly every day to litigate or to support one of his defenders as they argued for someone who was incarcerated or who was facing incarceration,” said Raju. “There was nothing, nothing that energized him more than that fight.”

VIDEO: The late SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi gets his due, becoming the first Japanese American so honored in SF. Touching & well-attended ceremony. There was controversy surrounding this, but in the end unanimously approved by Board of Supervisors pic.twitter.com/gbvX73BsJ5

— Doug Sovern (@SovernNation) February 26, 2020

The new street sign was unveiled by Adachi’s widow. 

However, the renaming was not without controversy. 

Adachi’s death was determined by the coroner to be a drug overdose, but his family insists it was a heart attack.

Some neighbors objected to the re-naming because it would force them to change their addresses. Despite this, the Board of Supervisors approved it unanimously.