The Upper Great Hwy.’s Future
The future of the Upper Great Highway will be on the ballot this November. It has served as a part-time park with the road closed to traffic on weekends the past few years. Now, voters will determine if the City should plan for the Upper Great Highway to become a permanent oceanside park.
When discussing the Upper Great Highway, it’s important to understand these points:
• What has already been decided?
• What is proposed for the future?
• What is staying the same?
What Has Already Been Decided?
Both directions of the Upper Great Highway south of Sloat Boulevard are set to close due to coastal erosion. This has already been legislated. That means we will never again be able to use the Upper Great Highway as a direct connection to Daly City and the 280 freeway. Traffic from Daly City will have to use Skyline Drive and go around the zoo. Traffic from San Francisco will need to turn left at Sloat and continue south past Lake Merced.
What is Proposed For the Future?
Without a direct connection to Daly City, we have to think about the best use of the section between Lincoln Way and Sloat. This is an opportunity to reimagine the space for the next century as an oceanside park. This includes improving traffic flow on Lincoln Way and Sunset Boulevard to get people where they need to go.
What is Staying the Same?
The Upper Great Highway will remain open to cars 24/7 from the Richmond District neighborhoods to Lincoln allowing full access to the Cliff House, Beach Chalet, soccer fields, the Ocean Beach parking lot and anywhere in the Sunset from Lincoln.
A Big Decision
The correspondence to my office is split on whether the Upper Great Highway should be a park or not. This mirrors the results from Prop. I – a November 2022 ballot measure that called for reopening the Upper Great Highway to cars full time. In the Sunset, Prop. I failed 53% to 47%. Citywide, it failed 65% to 35%.
The failure of Prop. I meant the part-time park pilot could continue. The Upper Great Highway would serve as a park on weekends, then revert to a coastal highway during the week. But it’s a temporary arrangement set to end in 2025. As the deadline approaches, the fight between pro-highway and pro-park advocates will only intensify.
That’s why we need to decide once and for all if the Upper Great Highway is going to be a park or not. A decision of this magnitude deserves to be made directly by voters.
Lemon-into-Lemonade Opportunity
The already-determined closure of the Upper Great Highway south of Sloat is a reality we have to accept, even if we don’t like it.
But this inconvenience offers a lemon-into-lemonade opportunity.
I’ve been focusing my energy on finding a better way to travel south when it’s no longer possible to use the Upper Great Highway for a direct connection to Skyline, Daly City and Interstate 280.
One solution is to optimize a new route. When the section of the Upper Great Highway south of Sloat closes, southbound drivers will be forced to turn left at Sloat. But what if we made it easier to turn left at Lincoln instead? What if it were better to just head to Sunset Boulevard for points south?
Lincoln is a pain right now because it’s full of stop signs. The intersection at 41st is a real mess. But we can replace all those stop signs with traffic lights for much better traffic flow.
Road improvements on Sunset Boulevard are coming, like putting the bus stops on the other side of the intersection so cars can make easier right turns. And we can time the lights better.
A traffic light will replace the three-way stop sign at Sloat and Skyline that creates back-ups.
These traffic improvements will benefit drivers by making it easier to get where they need to go. A seamless drive down Lincoln to Sunset Boulevard will also keep drivers from cutting through neighborhood streets.
If we can improve the driving experience along Lincoln and Sunset Boulevard, drivers will be able to get to the same point at the same time whether they turn left at Sloat or Lincoln. This provides a win-win opportunity for a coastal park between Lincoln and Sloat that can bring a lot of joy to San Franciscans.
What About Access to the Sunset Neighborhoods?
The ballot measure only considers closing the section of the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln and Sloat. There are no on or off ramps between Lincoln and Sloat, so that stretch of the Great Highway doesn’t provide access to most Sunset residents.
There is no proposal to close the Upper Great Highway north of Lincoln. Outer Richmond residents will still be able to travel by car 24/7 to from the Cliff House to Lincoln and anywhere in the Sunset.
Now, the question is what to do with the section between Lincoln and Sloat with everything south of Sloat closing no matter what. The Lincoln to Sloat section will have less utility as a direct connection to Daly City. That’s the lemon we have.
Do we turn this section into an oceanside park by creating a new traffic route with better flow? That’s the lemonade we could make.
Voters get to decide.
How Did This Get on the Ballot?
A supervisor can put a measure directly on the ballot with the signatures of at least four supervisors.
Supervisors Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman, Myrna Melgar and Dean Preston joined me in putting this on the ballot. Supervisor Ahsha Safai also supports the ballot measure.
Why Going to the Ballot Matters
It is important to realize that the current Board of Supervisors is already poised to legislate a full closure. There is a large majority willing to close it tomorrow. And in 2025, there may be a new class of supervisors in a supermajority in favor of closure. That means they could possibly override a veto if a new mayor opposes the closure.
We must be honest about the political reality. The group that fought to reopen the highway to cars 24/7 lost a major appeal at the Coastal Commission. The Coastal Commission’s response signaled that they would support a permanent park.
I supported putting the future of the Upper Great Highway on the ballot so voters can have agency in the matter. Otherwise, the closure will just happen by legislation. A ballot measure gives people opposed to the closure a chance to organize and defeat it. Without the ballot measure, they won’t have that chance.
Why the November 2024 Ballot?
There won’t be another election until June 2026. By then, the Board of Supervisors will likely have already closed the Upper Great Highway.
If voters want to directly determine what happens to the Upper Great Highway, they need to do it this November.
Why Isn’t a Part-time Park Option on the Ballot?
A part-time park/highway option is not sustainable. It’s difficult to create lasting park infrastructure when the weekend park has to convert back to a road every Monday morning. Dedicating half of the area to a full-time park and the other half to a full-time road would cost the most while providing the least desirable experience for both drivers and park goers. This option would create one lane of traffic in each direction, which would not offer the convenience drivers desire. It would also create hazards for the people crossing traffic to use the park.
A hybrid park/highway would still have all the expenses of maintaining the road for cars, even when the road has far less utility with everything already set to close south of Sloat. For example, the signal lights on the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln and Sloat have reached the end of their lifespan. They are rusted out and need replacement – at a cost of nearly $10 million that could be used for something else.
Benefits of a Park
Personally, I believe that an oceanside park is good for our City.
We’ve already seen the potential with the weekend road closure. The part-time park has brought joy to more than three million visitors – from senior yoga to dragon dances, jazz performances to art exhibits, Halloween costumes on parade to marching bands in a Fourth of July parade.
Fun aside, it’s good for the environment and just makes sense.
The New York Times named the part-time park at the Upper Great Highway as one of “52 places for a changed world.” Now we have the opportunity to make it full-time and official.
We could call it the Great Sunset Park.
Remember when the Embarcadero was covered by a double-decker freeway? When Crissy Field was a dumping ground? San Francisco today is unthinkable without the park restoration at Crissy Field and the transformed Embarcadero waterfront.
The decision to tear down the Embarcadero Freeway was controversial 35 years ago, just as the decision about the Upper Great Highway is today. I wonder, will the Upper Great Highway for cars become as forgotten as the old Embarcadero Freeway?
Will our kids and generations after them be able to imagine San Francisco without an oceanside park? Will we be the lucky ones who get to create this joyful place that will define San Francisco for the next century?
We get to decide this November.
Joel Engardio is the District 4 representative on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He can be reached at engardio.com/contact.
Categories: City Hall
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
What a show of how class driven SF is. The money came to the outer sunset and now we have this.
If this is truly about the preached safer streets and providing open space to people, why aren’t we closing a dangerous street in a neighborhood that lacks open space instead?
The UGH is one of the safest streets in SF. Open park space is literally in every direction, even a National recreation area and the largest city park. There are also numerous city parks, safe neighborhood sidewalks and most people have access to yards.
This is one more well oiled and funded campaign from the wealthy SF residents who’s vision of SF is a city that acts solely to satisfy their selfish, narrow minded needs and desires, not the inclusive and equitable society that most of us strive for.
The money and effort would be better spent serving a neighborhood that needs safer streets and access to more open space.
Let’s not follow the mentality of hoarding and selfishness down this rabbit hole that ultimately puts all these cars on our neighborhood streets, making them less safe.
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This is the most disingenuous opinion piece I have ever read. Putting this on the ballot for November 24, written by Engardio, shows how beholden Engardio has become to the Bicycle Coalition and Kid Safe. There is no reason why the third option of a continued hybrid of closure on weekends (which should be from 6 am Sat to 6 am Monday) should not be included as an option. . Closure of the Great Highway impacts more than the bicyclists and Sunset recreational users – it impacts commuters from the Peninsula and SF residents on the west side of SF who need to go to the Peninsula for work, shopping or pleasure such as going to SFO and nearby residents who have found their homes now clogged by 20,000 vehicles per day during closure of the GH. It totally galls me when advocates of closure look at Google map and say “Sunset is only 5 minutes away and takes the same amount of time”. When you have 3 major north south arteries and one of them is closed, the capacity drops by 1/3 and the remaining two arteries become log jams, particularly during construction which happened to 19th Avenue and is happening now and in the future on Sunset. Arguments for closure: “for the environment”. When you divert traffic it doesn’t decrease emissions, it increases it when the traffic becomes stop and go with long idling times. The UC Riverside study noted in the SF Chronicle article showed smog emissions higher along 19th Avenue and postulated it was due to the closure of the GH. Argument for closure: “safer”. The GH is one of the safest traffic corridors in the city and closure diverts traffic to high injury corridors like 19th Ave and Sunset. Sunset has schools, multiple pedestrian crossings, greater potential for collisions unlike the GH which has none. Argument for closure: “recreation”. How about recreating on actual parks like the National Recreation area known as “Ocean Beach” or Golden Gate Park or around Lake Merced. Halloween parties? How about in school yards, actual parks, one time closure of streets which occur frequently in SF? Closure of the GH highway extension is easily accommodated by going east on Sloat and going to 35. It DOESN’T justify closure of the entire GH. Finally, this initiative provides no funding to create a “park”. It merely closes the the GH to languish until such funding is provided. I doubt the GH “Park” is used at night (except for fireworks which is a fire danger and annoyance to nearby residents), inclement weather to equal the 20,000 vehicles/day which are displaced.
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They do not care a whit about pedestrian or public safety, they don’t care about commuters or any class that actually works, they don’t actually care about the environment which this does not affect in the slightest – it’s entirely a political grist.
These people are liars with an agenda of billionaire backers dumping cash into 501c3’s and c4’s that are not “allowed” to collaborate, but do in plain sight without so much as a glance from corrupt City Attorney Chiu, and with Breed as MC.
The very carpetbaggers who sickeningly tried to pretend the family of 4 killed at a West Portal bus stop by a (high-70’s speeding wrong-lane sidewalk-jumping) Mercedes SUV somehow “demands” that we jackhammer the entire neighborhood and make it more difficult for locals to get around. Little people concerns, they’ll explain, and we’re lucky to be put out of business and thrown into deficits by such virtue-signaling and noble leadership.
Close the well-lit and perfectly 100% safe set-aside (and already built no less) main thoroughfare and make those 20-50 THOUSAND vehicles per day go down narrow, poorly-controlled Sunset avenues? This actually makes sense to these charlatans!
“Candidate” Nossokoff even trotted out the baldfaced lie in claiming closing GH to vehicles would result in “increased biodiversity” and “urban cooling” – There is no other read of that, it’s pure BS from whole cloth. It’s not even plausible on its face yet they feel entirely comfortable asserting it publicly as if fact. (*Shamelessly, that blurb was even admittedly authored by AI no less!)
Do we not deserve better even from our CANDIDATES?
And Richmond/Sunset Review might want to step up the editorial review and push back on these frankly ridiculous op-eds every other week – as if this is the sole and most important issue facing our districts? This Billionaire-backed agenda has nothing to do with the Richmond/Sunset, we’re just their latest stepping stones to greater SF/CA “Family” corruption and privatizing of the existing public domain.
Stop electing non-locals. Stop taking “Moderate SF” billionaire puppets seriously.
Recall Engardio at the soonest opportunity, we need real leadership more than ever.
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“Upper Great Highway south of Sloat Boulevard are set to close due to coastal erosion.”… Coastal erosion is a red herring; this section of beach could easily be stabilized by sand replenishment or a rubble wall – like dozens of other beaches up and down the coast. This highway is being deliberately collapsed, to create another playground for the Bike Bro’s. It’s a traffic disaster.
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Friends, please note: Engardio’s ballot measure has no cost analysis for reconfiguring this needed transportation artery into a park. Maintenance of The Great Highway, as is, is underfunded, understaffed and inadequate, with only one full-time gardener and one part time assistant. The Great Highway is not, as is, ADA compliant with only two handicapped ramps a half mile apart from each other. What will it cost to make it ADA compliant? What is the cost of installing new traffic lights along Lincoln and Sloat that Engardio says we can afford compared to Engardio’s claim that it’s too expensive to replace some traffic lights on The Great Highway that are rusty and need replacement? What is the cost to our health and well-being to reroute the big rigs, huge grocery vans, construction equipment, firetrucks, emergency vehicles, motorcycles in groups of 100+, as well as cars off The Great Highway where they are far away and instead onto our residential streets where children play and breathe in their toxic fumes?
This ballot measure contains no approved design for a park. This ballot measure contains no approved funding for a park. THIS BALLOT MEASURE WILL NOT GIVE US A PARK. This ballot measure removes the opportunity for community engagement and discussions about the data gathering re comparing traffic conditions when The Great Highway is open to traffic conditions when it’s closed. This ballot measure stops the data gathering and sand maintenance immediately after Election Day if it passes. It gives us a closed abandoned highway that will quickly be covered with sand. How will sand management be funded if it becomes a park, what will it cost and when will that start? This ballot measure calls The Great Highway unneeded when it’s an evacuation route.
The spin of this becoming a fabulous new park is going to influence people who have never seen or used it to vote to pass this because Joel Engardio refuses to acknowledge the beauty of the existing shared space where bicyclists pedal, people walk and jog, and vehicles safely drive coexisting together. No intersections equals no car crashes on The Great Highway. That’s San Francisco’s one Vision Zero successful accomplishment! There are many accidents on Sunset Blvd and 19th Avenue where the highway traffic is being redirected. Will the City repave the 10-foot wide 2-mile long pedestrian path so it is smoother? Will they agree to fund the necessary maintenance for sand removal and landscaping? Will they do anything to protect our fragile sand dunes with a Wildlife Sanctuary nestled within it? No. Why? Because they do not even have enough money to take care of what they already have.
NOAA(tps://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr.html) has said the sea level at Ocean Beach is expected to rise no more than 13 inches by 2050. That’s not a climate emergency. That’s no reason to destroy this beautiful natural coastal area and act like a commercial park is a needed replacement. Even if they wanted to, they can’t afford to build it. THIS BALLOT MEASURE WILL NOT GIVE US A PARK. Vote to keep The Great Highway Open.
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Engardio’s ignorance and ideas show he is not a real San Franciscan and never will be. He doesn’t understand that San Francisco is still a working mans town. Not everyone are tech workers working from home. 20,000 cars a day use the Great Highway connecting not just the North and South at the west end of the city but also connecting the North Bay and the South Bay. His decisions are based on what he thinks will improve his political career over what his constituents want. He is ruining the west side of the city. Scott Weiner told him to build baby build and get that developer money! The only reason Engardio was voted in was to get rid of Gordon Mar who also didn’t listen to his constituents. We will vote Engardio out!! London Breed will be voted out! If the ballot measure passes you will have a vast wasteland of garbage.
Look what happened to Golden Gate Park. Empty during the week and massive traffic jams on weekend unless it’s raining. During the winter the place is empty. How many times a month do you think Engardio has family picnics in Golden Gate Park? I can only guess that all these people who want an asphalt park next to the beach are afraid of sand and the ocean? Why would you want to go to the beach and not step foot along the waters edge. We have 6 miles of beach to walk along. Build sand castles, fish, surf, and just lay in the warm sand on warm days in the fall.
Have you noticed all the McMansions going up along the Great Highway? Is this affordable housing? This will only increase property values pushing out the working class family’s. Our schools are closing because we have no more kids growing up here unless your family has money!
My last comment… Vote Melgar out!! Get rid of her!! Another example of a political bozo. And be sure to vote out Mandelman in 2026. And most of all vote out Engardio in 2026!!
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I forgot to mention Engardio’s failure of a 4th of July parade. There were more people in the marching band than in this so called parade! ABC news reported the crowd as ” Two bands, 25 dancers as well as several parents and kids took part”. Where were the 10,000 people he claims use the Great Highway every weekend? How much did this cost us tax payers? Our schools are broke and Supervisor Engardio is having parades that no one comes to? A total political ploy looking for notoriety. Remember all this in the 2026 election.
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Engardio is so plainly a clueless transplant who barely lives in his district at all.
We need a recall on these divisive “Moderate SF” billionaire-backed charlatans.
Locals have seen enough of their lies.
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Before voting day, I would like to see a traffic plan projection by SFMTA. Please show residents and commuters how the city will improve traffic flow to handle increased volume on Sunset and 19th Avenues, and let’s get people’s names for accountability.
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When the third most utilized North/South traffic way on the Westside is taken away and no replacement is substituted, it’s a negative equation. How does that work when density is on the horizon? Who is the steward of our City growth?
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pathetic
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