West Side Thrown Under the Bus
So much for transparency!
District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio worked for months to plot the closure of the Upper Great Highway (UGH) to vehicular traffic but said nothing to the people he works for. He did not speak with local residents, community groups or merchant organizations in the Sunset, Parkside and Richmond districts while the city attorney’s office was drafting and reviewing language for the ballot measure.
On June 18, the last day that the SF Board of Supervisors could put an initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot, Engardio pounced, with the assistance of District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, and sent the legislation to the SF Department of Elections.
The rationale that Engardio used to justify putting the fate of the UGH in citywide voters’ hands boggles the mind. He says the board of supervisors will make a decision next year to close the UGH to private vehicles and that this way, District 4 residents can vote now to keep it open. He implies he knows who will win the six supervisors’ seats up for grabs as well as the race for mayor. Did the people of the Sunset know they were hiring a fortune-telling Nostradamus as their supervisor?
Plan Does Not Make Sense
Engardio’s initiative to close the UGH will go before a citywide electorate, where the bicycle coalition, Walk SF and other anti-vehicle regressive organizations will harp the benefits of a great oceanside park. It will be a tough for Sunset residents to get the word out with less than three months to go before votes start rolling in.
Engardio’s ballot measure would:
• Create more divisiveness on the west side of the City by pitting neighbor against neighbor – those who need the roadway for safe, efficient and climate-friendly transportation against those who believe a great park will draw visitors from around the world.
• Immediately stop the three-year pilot program currently in force on the UGH that allows commuters to use the roadway during weekdays and closes the roadway for other uses on the weekends. (The current pilot program is set to expire at the end of 2025.)
• Foreclose any compromise solution where vehicles could be allowed co-access with bikers and pedestrians, including a proposal by District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan to keep two lanes open for traffic and dedicating two lanes for other uses.
• Not provide research, studies or money to create or even study the possibilities of a new park. Engardio’s measure only halts private vehicles from using the UGH. His grand park is only a pipe dream.
• Divert up to 20,000 vehicles a day from the UGH to Sunset Boulevard and 19th Avenue, two high-risk injury corridors, in direct conflict with the City’s Vision Zero plan. With more vehicles driving longer distances with more stops, it is obvious there will be more air pollution.
• The UGH would still have to be maintained as a roadway, with constant sand removal, as the initiative allows police, fire and city vehicles 24-hour access.
At a meeting of the People of the Parkside Sunset (POPS) in July, mayoral candidate Dan Lurie took a principled stand to oppose the closing of the UGH because it is not well thought out and because of the sneaky way it was put on the ballot.
“This isn’t how you govern,” Lurie said.
Mayoral candidate and SF Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Chan also oppose the initiative.
Sunset Residents Misled, Lied To
The UGH was closed to vehicle traffic in 2020 so city residents could have some open space during the COVID-19 international health crisis. At the time, public officials guaranteed the traffic closures would be temporary.
That changed when then-District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar proposed a plan to close the roadway to traffic from Fridays at noon until Monday mornings. He subsequently got the supervisors to sign-off on the three-year pilot program.
It was just two years ago when Sunset and Richmond residents were forced to fight for the reopening of the UGH and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park. They worked hard to get it on the ballot (Proposition I) but the fight was lost when several members of the SF Board of Supervisors put a competing measure on the ballot (Proposition J).
Now, Sunset and Richmond district residents have to rally again because Engardio has thrown them under the bus.
With little more than three months until the election, they have to raise money, seek endorsements, gather ballot arguments, organize volunteers, print literature, conduct press conferences, create a speakers’ bureau and all of the other things necessary to run a citywide campaign. And it will be difficult to win in November when San Francisco voters see that our supervisor, as well as SF Mayor London Breed, fully support the closure of the roadway for the promise of a non-existent park.
But, only the voters in District 4 will determine Engardio’s fate if there is a recall election or when he is up for re-election in 2026.
SFPUC Only “Retreating” Roadway
Engardio says the closure of the UGH between Sloat Boulevard and Skyline Drive is a done deal, and that vehicle traffic will have to be diverted around the SF Zoo. The SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) originally called for the Westside Treatment Center and a portion of the UGH to be vacated so the Pacific Ocean could claim a part of the beach for “managed retreat.” It was too expensive to shore up the beach with rocks and sand every year, the SFPUC said.
But a funny thing happened a couple of months ago. The SFPUC now says it will build a seawall and dump sand in as needed to protect the Westside Treatment Center. So much for managed retreat.
According to the SFPUC’s website (sfpuc.gov), the plan is to “construct a buried wall to protect wastewater infrastructure and recycled water facilities from shoreline erosion, and cover with sand every year, as needed, to maintain a wider beach.” (This has the surfer community up in arms as it risks one of the best spots for surfing in the City.)
So now we are back where we started, except for the removal of the UGH in that area.
It could be argued that the SFPUC’s plan harms the environment more than it helps by needlessly redirecting traffic to longer commutes through the neighborhood with many more stops.
Engardio should be fighting to reopen the UGH between Sloat and Skyline boulevards, and to restore the roadway back to the way it was before the phony claims of “managed retreat” were used to close the roadway.
Send Money, Volunteer
The Open the Great Highway organization has been working to reopen the roadway since politicians first started lying about it. To volunteer or to donate, go to openthegreathighway.com.
Paul Kozakiewicz is an editor and former publisher of the Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review newspapers.
Categories: Commentary
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Great opinion piece. It perfectly captures all the reasons why this proposition to close the Great Highway prematurely is a bad idea. The only thing missing is the potential for increased homeless tents along the GH (two of which I have seen this year and I never saw them before the GH was closed periodically to cars) and the inability to have police patrols to prevent illegal activities like fireworks on the Fourth of July which caused a deck to catch on fire when the GH was closed. Shouldn’t you design, plan, and fund a “park” BEFORE you close a major traffic artery for some potential future park? This proposition merely closes the GH to vehicular traffic without any definite plans and funding. Vehicles including shuttle buses, light trucks, commuter buses, trades people with their vans, Recology trucks – not just passenger cars. Those vehicles need to go somewhere else which not unsurprisingly were the adjacent streets. Residents on those streets justifiably complained about the increased traffic (20,000/day). Traffic slowing measures were slowly installed to mitigate the diverted traffic along the Lower GH, then 48th, then 47th, then 46th etc but traffic just flowed to the next unobstructed street. Whack a mole clearly didn’t mitigate the impact of closing the GH on the nearby residents.
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Oh – so maybe it turns out that the compromise worked out by previous Supervisor Gordon Mar was a better idea after all.
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No, the best idea would not to have closed it in the precipitous way that Gordon Mar did and he paid for it by losing his seat. Maybe the latest similar action will result in the same outcome. The problems caused by the closure of the GH to cars has still not be fully solved. Look how long it takes the city to do anything – the Van Ness improvement project, Valencia St bike lane, installing even a simple traffic light or stop sign, building permits. How long do you think it will take to create a “park” and solve all the attendant traffic problems created by this proposition? Will they make any provisions for the addition stress that multiple events like Outside Lands, Bay to Breakers, triathalons, etc that make movement north/south difficult? During the predictable necessary years of planning and funding there is no reason for banning vehicles NOW.
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Get ready for a rough ride.
This article pretty much covers the territorial turf war over the Highway vs Park. One does wonder how and why Engardio’s ballot came to together about the same time that Senator Wiener was working on SB591 that would re-align the jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission, leaving the coast open to unlimited development. Removing the drivers from the area would make development a lot easier since there would be fewer eyes on the scene. There would be less awareness of what is going on.
The turf wars on and around Ocean Beach are reaching a high pitched whine, that grates on pretty much everyone’s nerves. The political winds are tearing the city apart. There is no obvious effort to unify and join many groups of people. Allies have withdrawn into their corners and are holding their cards to their chests instead of reaching out to form alliances. Fear and loathing are the order of the day.
The splintered groups agree on one thing. The system is not working. A lot of promises that came with the major “improvements” we were sold, such as car and parking removal will initiate an and new client base of 15 minute city folk. The changes have not been good for most people yet and we are tired of holding our breath and waiting for the next big idea to fail. Stay tuned for some surprises in the near future that will either bring a sigh of relief or a nasty headache.
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Spot on…developers of high-rise insults across the country are throwing residents the park ‘bone’ instead of doing what a tech-savvy architectural firm (Practice for Architecture and Urbanization) in New York City has done recently to find housing spots for 1 million people that keep neighborhood character (i.e., not over 4 stories in residential areas and preserving historic districts–see NYTimes article by Vishaan Chakrabarti https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/30/opinion/new-york-housing-solution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.800.Kk3Z.2bMyR34XifW0&smid=url-share)
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Given the twisted logic and thinking about closing the Great Highway, are freeways next in line?
Given the car-hating subculture of the city, this would seem to make good sense.
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Thank you, Paul Kozakiewicz, for the most honest, accurate description of this situation that I’ve read. Please, readers, help get the word out to vote NO on Engardio’s Proposition to permanently ban personal and commercial vehicles from being able to continue safely sharing the Great Highway with pedestrians, bicyclists, dog-walkers, hikers and beach-goers, as they have been doing for decades. There is no design or funding for building or maintaining a world class park to replace the existing Great Highway and multi-use space, as proponents of the full time closure advertise. It will immediately lock the gates to the nearly half a million vehicles per month that use it to commute north and south, to travel to and from many destinations including the Veterans’ Hospital, and to avoid the gridlock and congestion on 19th Avenue, Sunset Blvd, Crossover Drive. There has been no plan to mitigate the traffic that has met with success over the past 4 years. A sudden full time closure will devastate the quality of life of the nearby quiet beach community, affecting merchants, residents and visitors. There’s so much work to do in so little time. Please help if you can.
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Joel is like tRump the way he has successfully divided a community even further. He’s the worst thing to happen to the Sunset. The only reasons he finally became a Suervisor on his 3rd attempt was redistricting & lack of choices. It’s also worth mentioning, even though Prop I lost in the last election, a majority of Sunset voters voted in favor of Prop I.
As a D7 resident, I plan to disregard Melgar on the ballot.
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Joel is like tRump the way he has successfully divided a community even further. He’s the worst thing to happen to the Sunset. The only reasons he finally became a Supervisor on his 3rd attempt was redistricting & lack of choices. It’s also worth mentioning, even though Prop I lost in the last election, a majority of Sunset voters voted in favor of Prop I.
As a D7 resident, I plan to disregard Melgar on the ballot.
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As a D7 voter, I hope you vote for Matt Boschetto. He is someone who is not afraid to stand up for what is right and he is not anti-car. Melgar is a proud member of the Bicycle Coalition and has consistently supported closing streets and removing parking spaces to the detriment of her constituents. I support your decision to keep her name off your ballot because with rank choice voting, that’s the best way to defeat her.
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Fantastic article Paul! How do these morons expect to pay for this?? It will be buried in sand along with the idea of this being a park. Saying that 10,000 people visit the Great HIGHWAY every weekend is an outright lie. This isn’t Trump country so no matter how much you lie doesn’t make it the truth.
I encourage all of you to get out the vote and defeat this ballot measure. Vote to get rid of Breed and Melgar in this election. Remember who put this ballot measure on the ballot! In 2 years make sure Engardio’s political career is over! In D7 vote for Matt Bruchetto and get rid of Melgar. Last I looked, Matt Bruchetto has already raised more funds that Melgar. Goodbye Melgar, siding with Engardio sealed the deal to move you out of office. Get rid of Breed! Breed helped put this on the ballot and made a mess of our city. She is way over her head to run a city. The people of the Sunset and west side of the city will not forget. Engardio, your political future is over!
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Thank you for this insightful and detailed analysis. Your article highlights the critical issues with Supervisor Engardio’s proposal to permanently close the Upper Great Highway to vehicular traffic. I appreciate your thorough examination of how this measure was introduced without proper community consultation and the potential impacts on residents, commuters, and businesses.
Your points about the lack of a concrete plan or funding for a new park, the risk of increased traffic congestion, and the environmental concerns are spot on. It is crucial for voters to fully understand the implications of this measure, including its potential negative effects on our community’s quality of life and transportation efficiency.
Additionally, your discussion of the shifting plans from the SF Public Utilities Commission and the overall lack of transparency surrounding this issue highlights the need for a well-thought-out solution rather than political maneuvering.
Thank you for bringing these important issues to light and providing a well-rounded perspective. Articles like yours help keep the public informed and encourage meaningful engagement with local issues, enabling us to make informed decisions.
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Fire London Breed and her cronies. This is our last chance to get out of her pocket.
501c3-501c4 collusion under London Breed’s Billionaire-backed “Grow SF” and associated fraudulent “non-profits” require DOJ investigation because California and SF Attorneys are not up to the task of investigating internal corruption. Period.
Engardio never had Sunset residents’ best interests anywhere in his carpetbagger YIMBY national agenda. They lie as they breathe and when the stuff hits the fan, they plan to be in higher office like the ultimate double-talk developer’s pet Scott Wiener, to push their corrupt agenda (for Billionaire profit) at the state level where there’s almost nothing left to stop it. This is not a “Democratic” party by any stretch.
This is a cabal of corrupt overcompensated liars who need run out of town on a mismanaged and bankrupt MUNI rail. FIRE BREED, RECALL ENGARDIO.
Great Highway has always been an 100% safe park area for every SF resident.
Someone needs to sue immediately to block this shambolic and fraudulent ballot initiative or they will matriculate and push their frauds at the state level with OUR taxes and livelihoods, as Newsom’s corrupt mismanagement is but a mere prelude to.
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This is another example of how our city has reached a very low point.
For the last decade or so the position of a San Francisco Supervisor has become a magnet for opportunists like Engardio and Melgar, who promise during their campaigns to represent the majority of their constituents in order to gain their votes, and then do an about-face once they’re elected and cater to either small groups or enforce their own personal agendas.
Five years ago the Great Highway was enjoyed by everyone – drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians – without any complaints. Then once Gordon Mar – another control freak of a Supervisor – suddenly closed it temporarily to vehicles and tried to keep it that way, the division started. The Bicycle Coalition and WalkSF in particular have tried to control the highway solely to vent their petty anger toward cars, and the ridiculously phony statistics of how many people use it on a daily basis have only shown just how desperate and vindictive these groups can actually be. More and more the tolerance that has made San Francisco so great is becoming a thing of the past… now it seems to be just about one group trying to gain control over another rather than work to find ways for everyone to live together.
I live in District 1, and Connie Chan has been the only supervisor who has repeatedly tried to find ways to keep the highway accessible to everyone. Rather than also work to find similar compromises, Engardio, Melgar and Scott Weiner instead continue to stoke the division. Engardio’s phony, eye-rolling plea that he’s “doing it for the children” – while one of the biggest parks in the country is a block away – is nothing but a smokescreen to control the highway by manipulating voters with this ballot measure.
As city polls are showing, Breed is hopefully on her way out in November. The polls are also showing that the majority of San Franciscans have become sick and tired of the Board of Supervisors. I encourage District 7 to vote Melgar OUT of office, as well as Scott Weiner from the Senate. Enough is enough.
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Great article Paul. Did you also know that Engardio and the other supervisors voted to authorize the PUC to spend more than $200 million for the new seawall that is only permitted for 20 years? Maybe they didn’t read the fine print. How many of them have even visited the site of the project?
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Great points. NOAA now has an interactive map showing sea level rise along the coastline depicting the year 2100…amazingly, it shows clearly that the Great Highway is still there as well as the area around the treatment plant! ( Managed retreat farce in full view) But look out Embarcadero and the interior Bay coastline. That is where the attention and money needs to go to handle a real seawall or you’ll be sailing in ships again into the financial district and beyond like in the Barbary Coast days. Shortsighted, career climbing politicians and their minions need to be voted out! We need actual public servants.
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Hi everyone, reasonable people can disagree on this issue. I encourage you to read my blog post that explains:
— Why this is on the ballot
— Traffic mitigation legislation that will happen whether the measure wins or loses (because we need better traffic flow on the Westside no matter what)
— Benefits to local economy
— Coastal protections
— Emergency evacuation routes
— Park planning legislation
— Traffic studies by SFMTA with links
— Coastal Commission report with link
— Political realities
https://engardio.com/blog/great-highway-future
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You sold out the district you pretend to represent with your ballot initiative.
Personally I’d love to give you an earful but by now I know you are incapable of listening to your constituency or telling an ounce of truth. Shame on you.
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I applaud the supervisor for his thoughtful and very thorough piece and encourage anyone interested in this matter to read it (see link above in the supervisor’s comment). He seems to be addressing this in a balanced manner. (I write this as a non-resident of this district, with no skin in the game.)
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“(I write this as a non-resident of this district, with no skin in the game.)”
And why should you vote on it then? Engardio sold out his district for special interest “non-profits” that only serve to install unaccountable shills to do the bidding of their dark money Billionaire backers. This is part of an agenda that has nothing to do with “benefits to the local economy” nor “protecting the coast” whatsoever.
It’s a lie. It’s a grift and you’re pretending it’s legitimately founded, why?
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you are not a resident of the district. What do you know how we feel about the closure of the UGHW when we can’t use it anymore? Joel lied. He sold us out to those without skin in the game. Vote No on the UGHW ballot measure.
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Everyone has skin in this game, even those living north and south of SF whose options to get through the city to other destinations in a timely fashion are already severely impacted, let alone those who live outside SF but work there. Unfortunately, they don’t get to vote despite it affecting their lives daily. When common sense was actually a thing, you didn’t have to worry that major roadways would get closed by propositions or supervisors with their own agendas and dreams of their legacy projects and bicycle utopias. Of course, ” non profits” weren’t running everything under the radar with no need for disclosure nor regulations such as sunshine clauses. SFMTA traffic studies are garbage statistics skewed to its director’s already decided plans…did everyone forget Jeffrey Tumlin was a private consultant who helped orchestrate the Ocean Beach Master Plan – he’s been working on closing the Great Highway for YEARS. Pandemic emergency closure, slow streets, some very poorly executed and controversial bike lanes, ridiculous commuter lane and times ( 6am- 8pm) on Park Presidio to and from the Golden Gate Bridge, all brought to you by Tumlin.
Go drive the GH ( while you still can) and then the lower residential city street, called the Lower GH with its arterial stop signs, speed bumps, cars pulling in and out, muni turnaround at Judah, etc and tell me ” it takes on average a minute longer” – just one of the many examples of the garbage stats coming out of SFMTA and repeated by Engardio. Park usage numbers are grossly inflated by heat sensors used which can’t distinguish the same person walking back and forth from a dog or coyote walking by, for example.
I could go on and on, but just point out that this new park has zero published cost estimates because the planning and funding ( it’s entirely unfunded) hasn’t gotten that far…but the plan for a permanent closure is well underway and will be immediate if Engardio’s prop passes.
Might be time to vote Breed and her cronies out, unless you know, you have no skin in the game.
.
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I do have skin in the game because I live in the outer Richmond and the GH is the most efficient way to get to SFO, the Peninsula, Home Depot, Harding Park. I use it as the preferred route and dread traveling on weekends when the GH is closed. Last time I had to use Sunset it was narrowed to two and occasionally one lane because of construction. Crossing Golden Gate Park is worse because of Outside Lands closure of roads and traffic diversion. My friend who lives in the Haight asked me why I cared so much about the GH. Well, she never uses it whereas I use it all the time. People who do have skin in the game should have more say (like people who live on the Peninsula and western SF). What if people in Daly City said they wanted to close Skyline and make it a park for themselves, forget that it’s a public road in active use.
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liar liar pants on fire Joel. Resign!
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Now we see that a subway along Geary turning south at 19th is proceeding along in the planning stages with the SFCTA. It’s very early in the process but if it should proceed to construction, it will be decades of construction disruption and cost overruns (Central subway anyone?). Now all north south traffic will be diverted to Sunset if the Great Highway is closed prematurely. I consider the Doyle Drive reconfiguration and the eventual development of the Tunnel Top park to be very well done. Notice they didn’t CLOSE an active traffic corridor to do all that. They had a very well planned out traffic diversion plan and put the infrastructure in place BEFORE they closed the old Doyle drive and moved traffic to the new improved route. Engardio with this proposal plans to CLOSE an active traffic corridor BEFORE there are any infrastructure changes and improvements made to handle the fallout. Just like Gordon Mar closing the GH without considering the impact to the adjacent streets and then was playing catchup for the rest of his tenure with progressive street calming measures inching eastward because traffic flowed to the next unimpeded street. Wasn’t successful then, isn’t successful now, and apparently Engardio is making the same mistake now.
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Joel this is the same answer you gave me in a private email months BEFORE you decided to sneak this on the ballot. YOU are the one driving this process and then claiming you are just following political realities. Shameful. When you claim there will be benefits to the local economy, did you also study the potential negative impacts to businesses in the Outer Richmond like the Seal Rock Inn or Cliff House?
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You are trying to justify your unethical conduct with the benefits of your unethical conduct. The district has learned that your interest is not in serving us but in serving special interests, as well as your own interest. Your actions have caused division within the community which you are further willing to fan by fighting the recall door-to-door. District 4 needs someone they can count on to represent their interest on emerging issues the district. If you have any sense of honesty and conscience, please save the district the trouble and cost of a recall campaign and resign.
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Agreed. Engardio has not been the supervisor that he said he would be. He is not open to feedback. Vote him out as soon as possible.
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Thank you so much for writing this. We all need to send it to friends in other districts. Another argument against closing UGH is all the people who will be moving in to all the new construction going on or about to start. (Shirley Chisholm Village, 135 units; senior housing on GH, 216 units; 26th and Irving, 90 units, etc.) Even though parking will be woefully limited for residents at these places, there will still be all the workers driving in to build them and then delivery trucks, staff, friends, and those residents who will be parking on nearby streets. All this increased traffic will be pushed together along with the cars displaced from GH onto Sunset Blvd. or on the streets of the Sunset. Oh, I forgot. Everyone will be riding bikes.
Please vote to keep the UGH open and to get rid of Breed. And District 4 residents, be sure that Mr. Engardio is a one-time supervisor.
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Great comment with important factual points. Agree.
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thank you for writing this important piece. Joel Engardio planned this measure in secrecy for months. I voted for him and got my family and friends voted for him. Now I regret.
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This recall is deeper than the closure of the GHW. It is the recall of an unethical supervisor who betrayed the trust of his constituents on a significant issue to service his own interests and that of special interests. He is the cause of the current division and distrust within his district. He continues to fan internal division by justifying his actions, posting token videos to cover up his dishonesty, and then going door-to-door “buying” votes against the recall with a nice-guy personality, self-promotion, and who knows how else. With future big issues on the horizon affecting the district, the recall is to clear the way for someone we can trust to represent district interests.
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