In her latest effort to enliven the Civic Center area and push the open-air drug trade back further into the Tenderloin, Mayor London Breed announced Monday that there's going to be a four-day carnival outside City Hall in late August.

It's a first-of-its-kind event for Civic Center, at least in any recent memory, and Breed said in a statement that the carnival is an effort at "creating joy" for this struggling part of San Francisco. It will also bring the sort of rides, carnival food, and frivolity that is normally only found in more suburban and rural areas in the summer months.

“Bringing a carnival to Civic Center is one of many ways we are creating joy and celebrating in the heart of our city,” Breed said in a statement today. “Creating vibrant, lively public spaces with activities people of all ages can enjoy is how we create strong safer communities. There is much more to come, and I’m excited to see this area continue to blossom.”

The city says it's expecting just a modest 500 to 1,000 people to attend the carnival each day from August 24 to 27 — and this will occupy the weekend before Labor Day Weekend, and the days that lead up to the traditional Burning Man exodus, which this year will start around Monday or Tuesday, August 28 or 29.

We are being promised hand-dipped corn dogs, Hawaiian shaved ice, funnel cakes, cotton candy, caramel apples, and popcorn, as well as a fun house, spinning teacups, a 100-foot super slide, and a Ferris wheel, among other attractions.

And it sounds like it will be essentially free to attend, but anyone 12 and up will have to buy $10 worth of tickets to spend on rides and/or food, in order to enter.

The Civic Center Carnival, as it's being called, will arrive just as the city is putting a plan in motion to remake part of the troubled UN Plaza next door as a skate park, ping pong, and chess-game hub. That is supposed to be happening this fall in a pilot program — one of several efforts to discourage the open-air drug dealing and drug use that have been plaguing the area for years now.

A separate city effort, dubbed Vacant to Vibrant, will be bringing pop-up stores, restaurants, dance parties, and concerts to different parts of downtown starting this fall.

Previously: SF Rec & Parks Planning Makeover of UN Plaza This Fall With Skate Park, Ping-Pong, and Teqball Tables

Photo: Max van den Oetelaar