Facts About Prop. K
Creating a park on a section of the Upper Great Highway will be good for the environment, give people of all ages better access to the coast and bring new customers to our small businesses. We are doing this for our families, our kids and grandkids. This is for the future.
We can have all this benefit while helping car drivers get where they need to go – and create joy for generations to come.
Prop. K does not close the entire Great Highway
The northern section of the Great Highway that actually connects the Sunset and Richmond neighborhoods will remain open to cars 24/7. You will always be able to drive from the Outer Richmond to the Cliff House, the Beach Chalet, the 400-spot parking lot at Ocean Beach and to Lincoln Way to access the Sunset. You will always be able to go around Golden Gate Park. This is how drivers get between the Sunset and Richmond now, and that will not change.
Prop. K will not force all drivers onto Chain of Lakes and 19th Avenue. Drivers will always be able to go around the park from the Outer Richmond to Lincoln Way. Traffic flow improvements on Lincoln (replacing stop signs with traffic lights) will make it easier to get everywhere you want to go.
Sunset Boulevard has three lanes of traffic in each direction, and it has capacity. Traffic volume on Sunset Boulevard is down 30% from before the pandemic. We’ve already made traffic flow improvements by moving the bus stops to the other side of the intersections, allowing for cars to make right turns without being blocked by a loading bus.
The southern section of the Great Highway is closing whether Prop. K wins or loses
The section south of Sloat Boulevard is falling into the ocean because of extreme coastal erosion. The California Coastal Commission is forcing the City to remove this section of road. The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to close it. There is nothing we can do about the closure of the southern section. We will never be able to use the Great Highway as a direct connection to Daly City. Prop. K asks what we should do with the middle section of the Upper Great Highway now that it has lost its greatest utility.
Prop. K only closes a section of the Great Highway without on/off ramps for cars.
The middle section of the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln and Sloat has never had any on/off ramps for cars to access the Sunset. This is the only section that Prop. K considers closing.
This section of the Great Highway bypasses all the businesses and schools in the Sunset. Once passing Lincoln, southbound drivers have to go all the way to Sloat and then backtrack on local roads to access points within the Sunset. Or northbound drivers at Sloat have to go all the way to Lincoln and backtrack on local roads to get into the Sunset.
We are working to make Lincoln Way and Sunset Boulevard more efficient for traffic flow since those are the roads that actually bring people into the Sunset.
With the Great Highway already scheduled to close south of Sloat, there will be a forced left turn at Sloat. Prop. K will have drivers turn left at Lincoln instead and use Sunset Boulevard for points south. Traffic flow improvements on Lincoln and Sunset Boulevard will make these the preferred routes and keep drivers from cutting through neighborhood streets.
Prop. K does not allow for new development along the beach.
Prop. K only addresses a section of the Great Highway designated as park land. San Francisco’s constitution – the city charter – prohibits building housing on park land. Our precious coast will be protected from development.
Prop. K asks a simple question.
Prop. K only asks voters: Do people want the middle section of the Upper Great Highway to remain a road or become a park? We first need to know the will of the people before we create a plan for a park. This is why Prop. K does not include a plan for the park.
If the people say “yes” to a park, then we can begin the long public process of park planning. Meanwhile, we know that the simple weekend road closure has become San Francisco’s third-most-visited park. Without creating any park amenities, there already is a huge demand to experience the coast in a unique way.
This is on the ballot because everyone should have a say about what to do with their coast. Voting is the most open, transparent, and democratic way to learn the will of the people. The coast belongs to all San Franciscans and everyone should have a say.
If Prop. K passes, the northern section of the Great Highway that connects the Sunset and Richmond neighborhoods will always remain open to cars 24/7.
The middle section between Lincoln and Sloat will remain open while permits are obtained for its closure and traffic improvements are made.
We must plan for better traffic flow because the southern section of the Great Highway south of Sloat will close no matter what happens with Prop. K.
Learn more about what Prop. K does and doesn’t do at engardio.com/blog/great-highway-future.
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 
Making our neighborhood streets less safe to bolster his political resume and gather support.
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It’s borderline irresponsible journalism to keep publishing this nonsense. “Facts” about Prop. K? Charitably, this entire piece is spin, but more accurately, it’s weasel-worded deception.
It’s a “fact” that it “will be good for the environment”? Really? Shunting 18,000 cars a day into residential streets where the speed limit is 10mph less indicates you’re in the car 30% longer over the same distance. That’s worse for the environment. That tack of WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE ENIVIRONMENT has always been dissembling, not based on anything factual.
The southern section is not closing whether or not K passes; the question is part of the main verbiage of the proposition. If it does not pass, EVERYTHING slipped in will not pass.
Joel is intellectually dishonest in nearly everything he says about K. I have an email from him from February where he claims everything’s a done deal and he’d love to help but “we don’t have the votes.” So he’s a coward who doesn’t want to fight City Hall because OH WAIT he authored this nonsense at the last minute without taking the temperature of his district in any way.
When I brought it to his attention that it was idiotic Ortega was a slow street when Giannini and Sunset Elementary were reopened, that right turns at La Playa to 45th on Lincoln heading south were CAUSING traffic problems, and closing the left turn at 47th from Sloat heading south at the then-new light wasn’t just idiotic but baffling as well, he offered to take a walk around the neighborhood with me.
…to see how DRIVING and TRAFFIC was an issue. That’s our supervisor, let’s take a walk to view traffic.
He doesn’t represent us; he represents moneyed interests.
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Do you really believe that the part of the Great Highway south of Sloat won’t close if Prop K doesn’t pass? It’s absolutely happening no matter what. It’s been in the works for over a decade (the Ocean Beach Master Plan specifically describes it), there were all sorts of hearings and approvals, the Board of Supervisors already voted on it (https://sfgov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6388557&GUID=A0D196D5-D057-47CE-8C71-9E06DF72532A&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=ocean+beach), that part of the road is done and commute routes will have to change with or without prop K.
To be clear, your complaint is that you talked to your supervisor about traffic problems you observed, he offered to take the time to go with you to look at the problems firsthand, and somehow that’s a bad thing?
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Methinks he doth protest too much. It’s what Engardio isn’t saying that is most concerning. Yes, he states some facts about things that aren’t in Prop K. What he doesn’t say is that closing the GH 100% paves the way for those things to happen.
It IS FACTUALLY in the SFMTA Biking and Rolling plan, but not in Prop K, to consider (with no vote by SFMTA Board until after the election) making part of Chain of Lakes AND the “unclosed” portion of the GH car-free. Voters get ZERO say in that.
It is also FACTUAL that London Breed and Scott Wiener are seeking a Coastal Commission carve out for Ocean Beach, which equates to making it significantly easier to build along the coastline than it is now. It is FACTUAL that the City owns the “grassy knoll” that leads up to the UGH. If the road is closed, there is no longer a need for the eastern walking path. And it’s absolutely wide enough to build on if you combine the two. Lincoln to Sloat equates to about 500 single family home parcels. They could build on city property UNIMPEDED. Look into Abundant SF and the Abundance Network. No one’s throwing this kind of money at a closed road, unless there’s a big ROI down that closed road.
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Supervisor Engardio is once again making the same specious arguments about Prop K, the proposition he put on the ballot at the last minute rather than waiting to see how the compromise of the Great Highway open to cars 4-1/2 days a week and closed 2-1/2 days went. Below I address each of his points in the order he wrote them.
He says the park will be good for the environment. How will the traffic jams resulting from the closure be good for the environment? One just has to look at Chain of Lakes Drive during the weekends to see what will happen all over the Outer Sunset.
He is correct that it is “for the future” – the future of all the people who will profit from the high rises he and his cronies will get built down there and the rich people who will move in.
He constantly claims that the northern part of the Great Highway won’t be closed. Of course it won’t. It is needed as access for the soccer fields, the Beach Chalet, the western part of Golden Gate Park, as a staging area for various concerts and races and for north/south traffic to the Richmond District, not to mention it is needed by surfers and others who use the actual Beach which is under the jurisdiction of the GGNRA who would not approve such a closure.
Where will the money come from to replace the stop signs with traffic lights on Lincoln? There is no money attached to Prop K. And it will certainly not make anything easier. The way things are now are just fine. Leave it that way.
Supervisor Engardio, states that the GH traffic won’t impact Sunset Boulevard. Is he considering the usage by the new residents, visitors and delivery people of Shirley Chisolm Village, of the building going up at 26th and Irving and the huge development at Stonestown?
What is he talking about – on/off ramps? There is no need. I turn left from Lincoln on to the Highway and I turn left from the Highway onto Sloat. I turn right on the journey back. No ramps needed.
The fact that once you are on The Highway you bypass all the streets is why The Highway is such an efficient and SAFE drive. There will be an increase in accidents and injuries if it is closed down.
Once people see how impacted and unsafe Sunset Boulevard will be, they will use residential streets. This will lead to an increase in accidents and injuries.
Supervisor Engardio and his friends won’t try to build on the Great Highway but next to it on La Playa and Lower Great.
So if Prop K is approved where will the money come for Engardio’s Park? Will it be taken from the Rec and Park budget? Will other parts of the City that don’t have parks lose their opportunity to have one? The west side is rich in parkland and recreational places. We don’t need another park out here. Will it come from another part of San Francisco’s dwindling budget? Is this unnecessary park the best use of our money?
Please vote No on Prop K.
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Oh, should “everyone” have a say about closing Marina Blvd in that district if some people want a park there even though there are already recreational spaces (Marina Green) immediately adjacent to it? Shouldn’t the people who’s formerly quiet residential streets are now flooded by traffic have more of a say? I don’t think people in the the Marina would accept that traffic like you are saying residents parallel to the GH should. Shouldn’t the people who depend on the street for one of the few ways to cross SF north south on the western part of town have more say than someone in the Haight who doesn’t?
This was a sneaky, underhanded way of permanently closing the GH with you martialing support months beforehand and giving opponents NO time to marshal theirs because you filed on the last day possible.
I had to take Sunset during Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Taking Pt Lobos, part of the GH, Lincoln, then Sunset added about 30 minutes to my trip to South SF. Chain of Lakes and passage through GGP to get to Sunset is obstructed frequently by Outside Lands, HSB, athletic events. That “fact” of “five minutes longer” on Sunset is untrue. The other “alternative fact” is “closing the GH is good for the environment” (also untrue as the UC Riverside study shows: spiking of smog emission along 19th Avenue when the GH is closed).
That same Sunday I had to get to SSF, I saw many many people at Ocean Beach itself on that hot sunny day and few people on the GH itself. Many more people using the already existing recreational space (Ocean Beach which is part of the GG National Recreation Area) than this hypothetical “third most visited park” which is also untrue. It’s only third if you count only SF controlled parks. If you count Federally controlled parks it drops significantly as this past week shows – probably ten times as many people using Ocean Beach instead of the GH yet you continue to tout “third most visited park”.
Putting it to a city wide vote when the negative side effects only affect the residents of the western side of SF is wrong. If the entire city saw the proposed future closures they might not be so willing to close the GH. See the SFMTA Riding and Rolling plan for future closures. They include all the GG Park including Chain of Lakes and 43rd so you will NOT be able to cross GG Park to use Sunset Blvd. Other roads they want to close are all roads around Lake Merced. Kezar Drive so you can’t go from Oak/Fell to the Sunset.
People who use bicycles as their primary form of transportation are only about 7% of the population and not changing despite all the infrastructure changes to accommodate them. Why is this small percentage of SF residents dominating these decisions to close roads to cars? Because the SF Bike Coalition has infiltrated the SFMTA and supervisors like you. I encourage everyone to view this web site and see what’s in store for the future unless we stop it now by changing supervisors and mayors and the head of the SFMTA. https://www.sfmta.com/media/39978/download?inline
Why don’t you make those traffic improvements FIRST, show that they work, THEN close the GH? Note that all the mayoral candidates other than London Breed (with whom you are in cahoots) oppose Prop K (Peskin, Farrell, Lurie). People need to vote Breed out. Then move on to the supervisors who instead of legislating and hammering out true compromises insist on fiats like Prop K. If you governed you would have detailed conversations with the other supervisors whose constituents are most affected (like Connie Chan who opposes K) and hammer out mitigation efforts, compromises, etc and not a “winner takes all” ballot proposition which doesn’t give people other viable options – just close the GH to cars yes/no.
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Oh? Sunset Boulevard has more capacity? Looks mighty jammed up to me at busy times already.
Hurrying this measure onto the ballot?
Working to open our neighborhood to massive new buildings?
Opposing expanding rent control?
This isn’t representing my views and I will vote accordingly.
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You make it sound as if people living in the Richmond are the only ones who want to get to the other side of GGP, and that, that is all they want to do. Not true! And they are not the only ones who use TGH. We all use it, people who live in the Sunset and Parkside, to get from Sloat to Lincoln or to GGP or to the Richmond. It is used by commuters both San Franciscans and Peninsula residents who work on the Peninsula and the City. Parents driving their children to school. Children in SF no longer go to their neighborhood school 100%. They apply for 5 schools anywhere in the City. And TGH helps to get them from one side of town to the other. And you talk about no exits on TGH to the Sunset or Parkside. Well that’s the beauty of it. You can drive across TGH without ever stopping if you go with the timed lights, and people do drive by that timing. You can’t say that about Lincoln or Sunset or 19th Ave, which you never mention as another road that will be impacted if traffic is diverted up Lincoln, but it will be. You also never mention that you would be completely removing 2 miles of the beautiful San Francisco 49 Mile Scenic Drive which has existed for over 70 years and is a destination in San Francisco. We can go back to sharing the road with cyclists as we had for decades before the closure. I see cyclist on the road now., so we’re already sharing the road again. The walking path is still there as always, and everyone still has access to the beach by crossing at the stop lights instead of trampling all over the dunes and plants that grow on the dunes. The Zoo is not the only destination on the other side of TGH. And it would be much easier for all drivers to go down TGH, turn left at Sloat to go anywhere on that side of the City, and south to the Peninsula. So much easier than diverting up Lincoln. Vote No on K. A No vote still keeps it closed on the weekends anyhow. Maybe you are one who lives in The Sunset and never uses TGH. Well that is not a good reason to close it. We have to vote for the good of all the people effected. The world spins around all of us, not just one person, so let’s vote for the good of everyone and Vote No on K.
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Just a reminder that if No on K wins, “the compromise” ends next year and Great Highway Extension is deconstructed next year so you can bet we’ll be doing this dance for years to come.
Just close UGH already and let’s get on with life.
It’s time to give the Sunset and Ocean Beach a chance to be something more than just something some bypass with their cars.
It’s time to stop forcing Rec and Park to waste their money on a bypass and let them get back to enriching an undeniably incredibly and unique part of our community: Ocean Beach and the greenspace south.
It’s time that people in San Francisco not only have a way to the beach but also a world-class amenity to ride along it, to see and experience the ocean life and the mountains along side.
It’s time to encourage people to come to SF to access nature.
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People ARE enjoying “nature” – Ocean Beach itself. As I pointed out on the last hot sunny day during the weekend of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass far more people were using Ocean Beach itself and not the closed GH. The events being held on the GH to jack up the numbers about the use of a closed GH have actually DAMAGED the dunes and plants with all the people trampling the area including protected areas for endangered species. Smog emissions have RISEN along the alternate routes. Yes, let’s let the Sunset enjoy the traffic diverted from the GH which is now passing in front of their homes instead. Ban cars now and let the GH deteriorate with no maintenance while the promised mitigation and improvement projects have no funding. Great plan.
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“We will never be able to use the Great Highway as a direct connection to Daly City.” Engardio is not being honest. This is deliberately mis-leading. Even with the southern portion of Greatt Hwy closed, we can still turn left at Sloat and take the first right after the Zoo and in one minute you will be at the same place on Skyline that you would have been had you taken the coastal route. If Engardio is mis-representing this, what else is he not telling the truth about?
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My worry about closing the great highway permanently is the city is broke and has never prioritized infrastructure projects on the west side. How long do you think they’ll keep the road in a usable condition for recreation once it is closed to cars and they don’t have to. My concern is that it will just be some crumbling chunks of asphalt under shifting dunes in short order and we will have lost the great recreational road we now enjoy.
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Why did yelp give $350,000 to close a road? Why does Engardio promote the destruction of the dunes? I have pictures of Easter on the Great Highway where people climbed and slid down the dunes with Engardio next to the dunes.Pictures do not lie.No on K.Stores are going out of business. I believe partially due to people hating to drive in SF and parking stolen by rent a bikes.Is this intentional?
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Line by line, here are the facts when they’re not twisted:
Voting Yes on Prop K will NOT create a park on the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln and Sloat. It will not be good for the environment, give people of all ages better access to the coast or bring new customers to our small businesses. The weekday closure of the highway will harm our families, our kids and grandkids who will suffer the effects of close to 100,000 vehicles per week being diverted from the safe highway onto local residential streets with dangerous intersections at every block.
Prop. K closes a very heavily driven section of the Great Highway.
Prop. K will force drivers onto Chain of Lakes and 19th Avenue. The Vision Zero District 4 Report Card published by WalkSF lists as two of the 10 most dangerous intersections: 41st Ave at Chain of Lakes; and Sunset Boulevard at Wawona Street. Several schools are in front of Sunset Blvd with its 3 lanes of heavy traffic in both directions. Imagine adding thousands more vehicles to it.
One has to question the Supervisor’s statement that the southern section of the Great Highway is necessarily closing after Election Day whether Prop. K wins or loses, because if that were true, why is it included as something voters will be voting on when they vote on Prop K? See, Sec. 6.15 of Prop K. Restricting Vehicles on the Great Highway Extension. “… because that portion of the street is no longer needed for vehicular traffic.”
The section south of Sloat Boulevard has nothing to do with the utility of the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln and Sloat. If cars are forced to turn left at Sloat as they exit the southern end of the highway after entering from Lincoln, they drive a very short distance on Sloat before connecting with Skyline Blvd and continue on south down the coastal highway. This will directly connect them to Daly City and other southern destinations. Prop. K asks us to unnecessarily congest our roads, drive longer distances and travel through as many dangerous intersections as possible.
The utility, beauty and safety of the Great Highway is attributed to the fact that there are no on/off ramps for cars. Cars drive nonstop for two miles at 30 mph with no dangerous intersections or cross traffic via timed traffic lights. Prop. K bans vehicles from ever using the highway again, whether for twice daily commutes or the occasional scenic coastal ride.
Although this section of the Great Highway bypasses all the businesses and schools in the Sunset, that’s a good thing, a safe thing, and closing it will divert all the cars, trucks, delivery vans, construction vehicles, big rigs, and motorcycles (some in groups of 100+) onto the streets where they will drive right in front of several schools creating a dangerous situation.
Lincoln Way, Sunset Boulevard and 19th Avenue are all known for the injuries and crashes that regularly occur on them, but the opposite is true for this 2-mile section of the Great Highway. If the City could make these roads as safe as the highway, they would have done it by now, but all efforts have been costly failures. Nothing done so far has resulted in making these alternatives the preferred routes that have kept drivers from cutting through neighborhood streets.
Nowhere in Prop. K are voters asked: Do people want this road to become a park? Prop. K does not mention the word park or provide any funding for a park to replace the closed highway. It does not estimate the cost of a park. It does not ask for environmental studies before changing its use. It eliminates any possibility of community engagement about the data that was collected so far and stops all future data gathering. It does not provide any protection for the fragile eroding sand dunes. It ignores the ongoing destruction of the habitat of the endangered Snowy Plovers from the massive increase in foot traffic over the National Wildlife Sanctuary located between the west side of the highway and the beach. Oddly, Friends of Great Highway Park have a Snowy Plover mascot that entertains children as their spokesperson hands out propaganda and falsely claims passing Prop K will protect the endangered shorebirds by closing the Great Highway because “if there weren’t cars on the highway they wouldn’t be getting killed by cars running them over.” Wouldn’t it be great to see those statistics? Who has ever witnessed or even heard of one Snowy Plover being run over by moving traffic on the Great Highway?
The question is, despite the fact that this section of highway is designed as a multi-use space for all to share whether walking, biking or driving, and is currently being used that way from 6 AM Monday through noon Fridays, why is it not enough to have it car free from noon every Friday, all day and night every Saturday, all day and night every Sunday and all day and night every holiday?
This is on the ballot because the Supervisor of District 4 put it there in the least open, transparent, and democratic way, blindsiding the majority of his constituents by secretly working on it for months to obtain input from the City Attorney and convincing 4 other supervisors to sign on, as he hid it from merchants and other directly impacted residents, and then strategically filed it on the last day to file a ballot measure so no opposition to it could be filed in time for this election. “The coast belongs to all San Franciscans and everyone should have a say,” is his justification for making sure 8 out of 11 San Francisco districts that do not and will not experience the daily impacts of a closed Great Highway (other than the precedent it will set for road closures throughout the City in their districts) will be voting on the fate of it, influenced by heavily financed propaganda being spread citywide by those whose favor he seeks.
To keep sharing the very safe Great Highway with the thousands of vehicles driving on it Monday through Friday, vote No on Prop K. A no vote will still keep it car free every weekend and holiday and for special events. NO on Prop K.
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