Statue of Mahatma Gandhi (San Francisco)

The bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing near the San Francisco Ferry Building depicts the leader in a determined, mid-stride walk. Sculpted by Zlatko Paunov and Steven Lowe, the eight-foot figure holds a walking staff and gazes out toward the bay. This positioning intentionally mirrors his historic nineteen-thirty Salt March, where he led a long procession to the sea to protest British colonial salt taxes. The city received this sculpture in nineteen eighty-eight as a gift from the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation. It remains a fixture of the waterfront plaza, though it is frequently caught in the middle of local chaos. The statue is a recurring target for souvenir-seeking vandals, particularly the wire-frame glasses, which have been stolen so many times that the San Francisco Arts Commission keeps a stockpile of replacements on hand. During a particularly rowdy celebration following a San Francisco Giants pennant win, the bronze walking staff was snapped in half. In another incident, a creative prankster once outfitted the figure with red, light-emitting diode eyes that glowed in the dark.