In San Francisco, hundreds of protesters gathered at Justin Herman Plaza at the foot of Market Street on Friday morning and marched through downtown chanting "Not my president!" and "What do we do? Stand up, fight back!" Others carried signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and "Stop Trump, Evictor in Chief. Sanctuary City for all!"
Activists stopped to protest outside the San Francisco Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, Wells Fargo and the Israel Consulate, chanting "No more walls."
Alondra Aragon, who works at Poder, an economic and environmental justice nonprofit in the Mission District, protested in downtown San Francisco. She's expecting her first child.
"Once I found out Trump got elected I was like, oh my God, how am I going to raise a son, especially a person of color, in this world, especially in this society," Aragon said. "So I was kind of nervous ... but now that I'm in my third trimester, and I'm about to have him, I'm ready, and I'm excited because I'm going to raise a warrior. Just like they say, it takes a village to raise a child. This is my village in San Francisco, and yes, we're being gentrified, but we're still here. And this is why I'm here."
A San Francisco Police Department spokeswoman said 17 people had been arrested outside Uber headquarters in San Francisco. Bay City News reported that eight people had chained themselves to the front doors of the building on Market Street between 11th Street and Van Ness Avenue to protest Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who served as an adviser to Trump.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m., protesters in San Francisco blocked Caltrain tracks at 16th Street, stopping trains and causing major service delays. A Caltrain spokeswoman said a dispersal order was issued at 10:30 a.m. Transit police, with the assistance of SFPD officers, arrested 12 protesters at the site. Trains started moving through the area again at 11:30 a.m.
Demonstrations continued into the evening, with more than 1,000 people gathering at San Francisco's U.N. Plaza.
The crowd marched peacefully to the Mission District and back to City Hall.
Erwin Kelly, an 85-year-old resident of the Castro, said he's more concerned about Donald Trump than any other president in his lifetime.
"It was never as serious as this," he said, adding that he plans to push his city to protects immigrants from deportation. "They can’t take our immigrants away from us. ... I’m willing as an 85-year-old man to stand in any doorway where we have to stand to keep them from taking a family apart."
In Oakland, protesters began gathering in the morning outside the city's Federal Building for a day of demonstrations.
“I think it’s important that the voice of the people is heard and that the majority of us in this country don’t think what’s happening with this election is normal and it’s not what we support,” Oakland resident Leah Ricci said.
“I think it’s good that we now know the face of this institutionalized racism," Oakland resident Meg Allen said. "I think once you bring it out in the open, you can address it."
By nearly 6 p.m., about 300 demonstrators had gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland and began a march south on Broadway into Chinatown flanked on both side by a heavy police presence, most officers on foot and some on motorcycles and bicycles.
Protesters chanted, "Racist, sexist, anti-gay. Donald Trump go away" and "No more presidents."
UC Berkeley student Anisha Chemmachel carried a sign with the James Baldwin quote, "If I love you I must make you conscious of things you do not see." She explained why she was at the demonstration before the march began.
"I guess the simplest answer would be to vocalize my dissent and to vocalize my solidarity with the marginalized groups that are specifically targeted by this Trump administration ..." Chemmachel said. "Groups like immigrants, groups like Muslim individuals in this country, like laborers, like my queer peers. Folks who have been either directly or indirectly targeted or will be affected by upcoming legislation."
A large constant Oakland police presence flanked marchers, preventing them from largely shifting away from a path that was being set by law enforcement.
