Editor:
Not long ago, it was easy to forget that San Francisco was surrounded on three sides by water. With much of the coast and Bay walled off by a double-decker freeway, a highway, an Army post and industrial sites, opportunities for the simple joy of a stroll along the water were few and far between. Our City has come a long way. San Franciscans today can enjoy leisurely strolls along the Embarcadero promenade, enjoy restored marshes and bayside parks like Crissy Field and Crane Cove, and picnic with a view of the Bay in the Presidio.
Until now, the west side of the City has been left behind in that progress. Instead, the City’s oceanfront continues to be dominated by a noisy four-lane highway that separates people from our coastline. That’s finally starting to change. Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors decided to implement the decade-old plan to close the Great Highway Extension south of Sloat, which has been actively crumbling into the sea, transforming it into a new oceanside trail, beach access, and most pressingly, protecting our sewage system against climate change and sea-level rise. Vehicle traffic will be rerouted inland, with plans for new traffic lights to smooth the way.
This is an important first step for the City to adapt to rising seas, but mother nature’s reclamation of that road gives us an amazing opportunity to transform our oceanfront for more people to enjoy by establishing a new, two-mile long oceanfront park from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard.
As just a weekend-only short-term pilot, Great Highway Park has been a stunning success, becoming San Francisco’s third most visited city park with an average of nearly 10,000 visitors per weekend. The park was even recognized by the New York Times as one of “52 Places for a Changed World” and a “must-go destination, pointing the way for post-pandemic urbanism.” A full-time oceanfront park is the best use of this invaluable public land.
Members of our state’s coastal protection agency, the California Coastal Commission, recently celebrated Great Highway Park for its increase to equitable access and ability to “bring people together in a joyful way in a beautiful space along the coast” and as a “fabulous project … (that) is a benefit to not only the community, but our climate.” The Commission also recognized that the park provides “improved public access” for people using wheelchairs and families with baby strollers.
Creating the full-time park will provide the much-needed community and recreation space that Sunset District residents have long demanded from city planners. It would allow for the installation of permanent infrastructure and amenities that will improve the space and its usage. Bathrooms, drinking fountains, seating, tables, shading, children’s play equipment and accessible ramps to the beach – to mention a few – will increase accessibility and enhance the park experience, not to mention making it an even more popular destination for locals and visitors alike, a boon to local small businesses.
Beyond the immediate benefits, this is a chance for us to be foresighted and protect our coast for future generations, rather than leaving it as a problem to be dealt with later. This new park will provide the opportunity for the City, state, and National Park Service to collaborate in restoring coastal dunes, which are vital habitats and offer protection against sea-level rise. Great Highway Park could become a shining example of an urban solution to rising sea levels that coastal communities everywhere are experiencing. As it has often been said, as California goes, so goes the nation. And as San Francisco goes, so does California.
But what do San Franciscans have to give up to create this beautiful oceanfront park? Fortunately, very little. With the Great Highway Extension set to be permanently closed to car traffic in the near future, drivers will already need to turn inland at Sloat. People driving south across the Sunset will just need to turn one street earlier, at Lincoln, and we’ll have space for two miles of joy, community and Pacific Ocean bliss. Traffic routes are changing anyway, so we’ll need to make major improvements at key intersections – new street designs, traffic lights, and turn lanes – to help everyone get where they need to go safely and efficiently.
While we wait for these improvements, it’s reassuring that city traffic data show that the re-route only takes an additional 1-3 minutes at peak times. And even better news is that this will actually save the City money; the City Controller’s office estimates that converting the road to a full-time park saves $150,000 to $500,000 a year for less frequent sand removal, capital savings of $4.3 million for not replacing traffic signals, and a stray $21,000/year for not maintaining those signals.
That is a compromise everyone can love: those driving across the Sunset get traffic improvements for a smoother route, and all San Franciscans will finally have access to waterfront parks on all three sides of our peninsula.
People will look back on this time and wonder why it took so long to transform the space into a new two-mile oceanfront park along our western waterfront. What are we waiting for?
Jane Lew and Heidi Moseson, residents of the Richmond and Sunset districts
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
It already IS a park. These people are not longtime locals, this is carpetbaggery.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“That is a compromise everyone can love: those driving across the Sunset get traffic improvements for a smoother route”
This is not something you “gift” to the residents of the Richmond/Sunset, only IF you get your way on some unrelated and unnecessary grift. Recall Engardio.
The divisive West vs. Downtown divide and conquer act is despicable.
These are not locals, this is part of a larger billionaire-backed agenda.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I question your “facts”. The Great Highway is not the “third most visited park”, that’s touted but it only refers to SF owned and managed parks. The federal parks like the GG National recreation area (which includes Ocean Beach), Crissy Field, the Presidio all have more visitors. The 10,000 visitors per weekend should be compared to the 20,000 vehicles PER DAY that use the GH as a vital traffic artery. The statement that there is only an “increase of only 5 min” is not true. If you take 1/3 of the major arteries and leave the remaining two to carry the load that use to be carried by three, the additional traffic alone prolongs the commute time – not to mention when those two remaining arteries are delayed by accidents, lane narrowing (like on Park Presidio and Crossover for 19th), construction (like the years of construction on 19th Avenue and the upcoming construction on Sunset (which I personally experienced today coming north on Sunset). Right now Sunset is being impacted by Outside Land closures of MLK and other park roads. Since when does recreation trump all other needs like tradespeople and other people getting to work, parents taking their children to school, people getting to the VA for appointments and health care?
LikeLike
This is so crazy. From what I understand, a “Great Highway Park” is just a pipedream. There are no funds for it. I don’t think it’s even part of the what we are voting on. The vote is strictly to close the Great Highway completely. It’s time to “Open The Great Highway” 24/7. There are approximately 20,000 commuters a day who really need TGH open. They consist of workers who commute to or from SF to the Peninsula, and locals from the Richmond, Sunset, Parkside and other San Francisco residents who use it to cross from one side to the other for jobs, shopping, school driving, appointments, or maybe just to breath in the fresh ocean air, and see that beautiful 2 miles, or maybe to visit a friend, or a night out at a restaurant or bar, etc. You live in a “city” for crying out loud! We need to function! We are not suburbia! We already have plenty of really nice parks in SF, and Golden Gate Park, and playgrounds and pools all over town. GGP already has a few major roads closed for people to play and ride bikes. So why don’t they use those roads. GGP is only across the street from TGH. If you don’t want to use those closed roads in GGP…well, let’s open them up! Oh, and TGH is also 2 miles of the San Francisco 49 Mile Scenic Drive. So which 2 miles are going to replace that beautiful scenic drive…19th Ave, Lower Great Hwy, La Playa, 41st Ave, Sunset? And who in the City is going to use this little park? It seems that it is really for the locals who live within a couple of blocks. Engardio says 3 Million people have visited there since it “started”. Then it was changed 10,000 a week. There is no way anywhere near those figures could be accurate. I truly hope that we do not vote to close TGH. And if you agree, tell everyone you know to vote against closure, especially your friends and family who live in all other areas of the City who will also be voting on this issue and probably have no idea what TGH means to commuters and locals of this part of town.
LikeLike
Keep the Great Hwy open on weekdays! It’s very wrong to have made this a ballot measure. It should be worked out through the legislative process.
LikeLike
This is a basket of deplorable misinformation. This GH is NOT a good location for an expensive park. 80-90% of the time the GH is cold, windy, cloudy, foggy, and damp. Any misguided improvements by Ginsburg (dog heads, tennis courts, toys for kids etc.) will be immediately buried in sand, rusting, and vandalized. It will become “Joel’s Homeless Campground.” The current compromise has been successful. It has protected the nearby residents, but has given recreation users the weekend. Joel Engardio is desperate to gain the glory and fame as the supervisor who secured the permanent closure of this vital arterial. Do not allow him to harm his own constituents. Also the bogus argument of sea level rise is debunked if you check the NOAA sea level rise predictor online. In 200-300 years, if ever, a 10-foot sea level rise shows the upper GH DRY, but the north and east coast of SF Inundated by floods. VOTE NO ON THIS HARMFUL BALLOT MEASURE.
LikeLike