{"id":171086,"date":"2026-02-10T00:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171086\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:34:09","slug":"s-f-activists-axe-zuckerberg-name-from-hospital-in-guerrilla-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171086\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. activists axe Zuckerberg name from hospital in guerrilla protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

After coming off of the high of participating in citywide teacher strike<\/a>, a group of around 20 people gathered at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital\u2019s courtyard on Monday afternoon for a different cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to get the \u2018Zuckerberg\u2019 off of San Francisco General Hospital,\u201d said Sasha Cuttler, a retired nurse and organizer of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The effort was simple: Get a group of 10 people to replace each letter in Zuckerberg\u2019s name with a hand-made construction paper box to spell out \u201cPretti Good,\u201d the last names of two Minnesotans who were shot dead by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Mike Dingle is a Service Employees International Union retiree who worked at the hospital for \u201ca dozen years\u201d on the lift team, transporting patients safely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cZuckerberg bought some furniture and just put his name on it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dingle designed the boxes used to cover each letter on the sign. He said he staked out the spot at night for measurements and then took an afternoon to construct them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMike Dingle covers the word \u201cZuckerberg\u201d with \u201cPretti Good,\u201d the last names of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two anti-ICE protesters who were killed by ICE in Minnesota. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

Attendees, decked out with blue bunny ears in honor of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, a Minnesota child whose family was targeted for deportation, said Zuckerberg and his companies have done irreparable harm in collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meta recently blocked any link<\/a> posted on their apps related to identifying ICE agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re saying that\u2019s because they didn\u2019t want them to be harassed. And there\u2019s a big irony there because Mark Zuckerberg, with his empire, has violated the privacy of so many people,\u201d said Cuttler.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar also attended the guerrilla event. He has long been a vocal critic of Zuckerberg\u2019s name being attached to the hospital, even passing a resolution<\/a> opposing the name in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AFormer District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar, left, delivers remarks at the performance art installation organized by former nurse Sasha Cuttler at San Francisco General Hospital on Feb. 9, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven then, we knew that Facebook\u2019s policies did not reflect San Francisco\u2019s commitment to human rights, dignity, or social and racial justice.\u00a0At that time, we warned that the platform was a conduit for hate speech and disinformation,\u201d Mar said. \u201cSince then, those warnings have only been further validated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendees participated in chants like \u201cZuck off!\u201d and \u201cPretti Good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2008, taxpayers in San Francisco funded the major reconstruction of the hospital with an $887 million bond. In 2015, Zuckerberg donated $75 million to the hospital. For years, Zuckerberg defenders have argued that the city talked him into placing his name on the hospital, and not vice versa, as city officials believed this would spur other mega-donations. Mission Local is unable to verify this \u2014\u00a0and, if true, the goal of spurring other such gifts via the name placement did not come to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe donation, while significant on face, represented only about an hour and a half of his income at the time,\u201d said Mar. \u201cYet it came with permanent advertising rights on our public commons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brother Sinthetic Soul, a nun with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, is a patient at Ward 86<\/a>, the AIDS and HIV center at San Francisco General. Coming for treatment at a hospital named for the Facebook founder has never sat right with Brother Sin.<\/p>\n

\"PersonBrother Sin, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, delivers a blessing to the performance art installation at San Francisco General Hospital on Feb. 9, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s abhorrent that we name an institution after someone whose empire does harm,\u201d said Brother Sin, citing Instagram\u2019s effects on young adults\u2019 mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ruth Radetsky is a former teacher at Balboa High school and friend of Cuttler. She actually attended the walkout at Balboa in the morning, made her way over to the hospital in the afternoon, then headed out to Civic Center for another protest urging state pension funds to divest from Tesla.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is absolutely important to me,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The name change, being unsanctioned and involving paper boxes, is not permanent. Cuttler hopes it will remain for at least a week before the hospital removes it. Cuttler would like to see the Board of Supervisors eventually put the issue to voters, who\u2019d decide on an official name change.<\/p>\n

The Department of Public Health has not yet returned messages seeking comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the end of the ceremony, Brother Sin had an appointment to catch at Ward 86, but performed a blessing on the new sign before hurrying off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMay everyone who enters here receive care that is Pretti Good, Pretti Compassionate, and Pretti Focused on healing rather than branding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After coming off of the high of participating in citywide teacher strike, a group of around 20 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4735,1280,2871,101,29839,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-171086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-department-of-public-health","tag-health-care","tag-ice","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-general-hospital","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}