According to the New York Times’s Aug. 8 article titled “San Francisco’s Cyclists Cheer a Road Less Traveled. Museums Mourn It,” San Francisco’s flagship museums are at risk because the “bike lobby” convinced the City to close a section of Golden Gate Park’s JFK Drive to private cars.
The controversy about keeping Golden Gate Park’s John F. Kennedy Drive car-free east of Transverse Drive after the pandemic ends is shifting into overdrive. A new study might help steer the debate.
Is JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park accessible to all or just to able bodied and financially able?
For more than a year, the public has been enjoying a car-free experience along John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, from the eastern entrance of the park to Crossover Drive. But when the pandemic restrictions are finally lifted, they might face a choice of keeping it this way or not.
Photos and captions by Emily Huston.
A new art installation by San Francisco artist Charles Gadeken titled “Entwined” sits in Peacock Meadow in the east end of the park next to the Conservatory of Flowers. The art installation honors Golden Gate Park’s 150th anniversary and will run from Dec. 10 to Feb. 28.
After the SF Recreation and Park Department closed John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park to vehicular traffic 24/7 to allow space for pedestrians and cyclists to get some exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, it created a wall between the Richmond District and the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park.
Outside the DeYoung museum on a recent foggy morning, 60+ people showed up decked out in streamers (and masks) to keep JFK Drive and the surrounding museum loop dedicated to bikers, pedestrians, and rollerbladers.
After Mayor London Breed ordered San Franciscans to shelter in place, Walk SF capitalized on the momentum from the resulting uptick in Golden Gate Park visitors seeking government-approved exercise.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 