I enjoyed reading Julie Pitta’s commentary this morning in the Richmond Review and it felt validating as I agree with her about many things. One exception is my disagreement in the reason stated for Gordon Mar losing the election to Joel Engardio in District 4.
For the next three years, the Upper Great Highway (UGH) between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard will remain closed to cars from noon on Fridays to 6 a.m. on Mondays, despite pushback from two westside supervisors.
There can be no doubt about the result: People want car free areas in San Francisco.
Photos of costumed celebrants at the Halloween gathering on the Upper Great Highway (“Great Hauntway”), Oct. 30, 2022. Photos by The Enloe Creative.
JFK Promenade and The Great Walkway, less than three miles, are two places where pedestrians, cyclists, runners, people who are blind, people who use wheelchairs, children, and pets can feel safe and breathe in clean air.
City leadership has been missing in action across a range of issues, so not surprisingly a San Francisco Chronicle opinion poll found Mayor London Breed with less than 25% favorability rating, and the Board of Supervisors with 12%.
As Gordon Mar’s “pilot project” moves through the city agencies and onto its eventual vote and passage by the Board of Supervisors, the Upper Great Highway’s closure will be allowed to continue without an environmental study through Dec. 31, 2025, for a total of five years and eight months since its initial shutdown, despite the escalation of erosion of our sand dunes and destruction of our wildlife sanctuary from unrestricted foot traffic when vehicles are banned and beachgoers ignore designated crosswalks.
A Sept. 27 article in the Chronicle revealed “a project to lure (emphasis mine) more people to JFK” which includes installing three 7-foot-tall Doggie Diner heads along JFK, plus “food trucks, places to grab coffee, areas for buskers and even a small beer garden.”
Thanks to the closure, though, I have discovered a new route, one that I never would have taken before.
It is one thing to create new open spaces on dilapidated properties or, for example, on a tunnel top in the Presidio. It is entirely another thing to close streets used by tens of thousands of automobile drivers every day in commuting to their various destinations, which inevitably and unnecessarily causes the release of massive amounts of additional greenhouse gasses.
Prop. I would reverse this effort, forcing car traffic back on JFK Drive and destroying the weekend compromise for the Upper Great Highway that District 4 residents support.
SF’s future cannot return to car centric design through the reopening of JFK Drive, the Upper Great Highway, and Slow streets to automobiles.
San Francisco’s streets with traffic restrictions will face key decisions in coming months, including the approaching November ballot.
District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar today introduced legislation that would maintain the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard as a car-free promenade on weekends and holidays under a three-year pilot study.
Thank you for shining a light on so many of our neighborhood issues, especially those pertaining to the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. Open the Great Highway Alliance, a nonprofit benefit corporation, hopes you will publish the following statement concerning upcoming legislation that will affect the future of the Great Highway.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 