Editor:
Opponents of Prop. K say westsiders don’t want an oceanfront park. They don’t speak for us or the thousands of other Sunset residents who do want a park and wholeheartedly support Prop. K.
We have lived across the highway from Ocean Beach for over 40 years and raised our daughters to enjoy and respect the ocean, including surfing, dog-walking and dipping in the water daily. Our solar contracting business requires us to get around the neighborhood by truck and we have adjusted to the recent Great Highway closures accordingly as there are so many alternate routes. The few minutes of delay is nothing compared to having a world-class beach park in our City.
The Great Highway Park pilot has been a transformative experience for our community and Ocean Beach Park will make it better. For years, the Upper Great Highway cut our neighborhood off from the beach, acting as both a mental and physical barrier that discourages daily enjoyment of the coast. With the pilot, we have witnessed people safely skateboarding, pushing children in strollers and traveling in wheelchairs. They are better able to participate in the beach experience without being separated from the ocean by four lanes of traffic.
The pilot showed us that instead of a highway as a barrier, we have a park that connects us to the ocean and each other. The opportunity to make the park permanent is one that we don’t want our neighborhood, or the rest of San Francisco, to miss out on. Our coast should be a place for community, not driving convenience.
Without the broad and sustained neighborhood support over the past four years, Prop. K would not have made it to the ballot. The available data suggests that we park supporters are actually in the majority, even if we don’t shout as loudly.
Addressing the lack of park space for Sunset residents has been a topic of discussion in the neighborhood since before the Great Highway Park pilot was introduced. A multi-year community outreach study called “Sunset Forward,” published in 2022, found that Sunset residents “crave more community events and opportunities for people to connect across ages and cultures.” It identified “four main neighborhood service needs” in its survey, including “a lack of community connection in the Sunset” and “a need for more access to public parks and open spaces.”
Transforming the Upper Great Highway into Ocean Beach Park directly addresses these needs. You will see many “Yes on K” signs displayed proudly throughout the neighborhood. The neighborhood’s desire for more park space also helps explain how the pilot park became the City’s third most visited park, without adding even so much as a park bench.
When asked about the future of the Great Highway, the neighborhood response has been clear: We support Ocean Beach Park. A 2021 outreach study by the Country Transportation Authority showed 1,047 residents emailed in support of a full-time promenade, compared to 120 in support of maintaining a roadway. Every time Prop. K opponents tried to remove the weekend park – including at the Board of Supervisors in late 2022 and the California Coastal Commission in April of this year – there was overwhelming community support to keep it.
In fact, just two years ago, our neighborhood voted against putting cars back on the Upper Great Highway. Prop. K’s opponents sponsored a ballot measure in 2022 that would have required the Upper Great Highway be used as a roadway 24/7/365 – and ditto for roads in Golden Gate Park. 65% of the City voted against the measure, and notably so did 54% of District 4. Now, after introducing a citywide ballot measure two years ago, Prop. K’s opponents complain that the use of the Upper Great Highway is a “local issue” that shouldn’t be up for a citywide vote, perhaps because the City, and even our neighborhood, disagreed with them last time. Public beach access all along our beautiful California Coast is not a new or local issue. Prop. K is about welcoming all residents and visitors to enjoy the beach.
Over the past four years, we have seen the positive impact an oceanfront park can have on our neighborhood. We’ve built lasting connections with our neighbors, found peace in walks along the coast after a stressful day, enjoyed community events such as the Great Hauntway, and watched our children, and children from all over San Francisco, learn to ride their bicycles with the waves crashing in the background. Ocean Beach Park is a gift to our City, and one that we, as Sunset District residents, don’t take for granted. We’re ready to fight for it because we know how much it means to our community and how much it has improved our lives. We’ll be voting for our community and we hope you will, too.
Wynne Bamberg and Greg Kennedy
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
What a beautiful letter! Thank you, Wynne and Greg, for capturing how the park has felt for my family too. Hoping so much that the city will vote Yes on Prop K.
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You can not justify closing it during the week! The current compromise is best of everyone.
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On any given weekday and most weekends it’s hardly used at all.
This reeks of political carpetbaggery and further Pro-K advertising without any actual analysis of what is being proposed and how it will negatively impact the districts affected, not to mention the dishonesty of the political machines behind it.
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Instead of insulting the community with more drivel and lies, the authors could share how many construction contracts they have lined up for all those new giant buildings along the beach.
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“and even our neighborhood, disagreed with them last time.”
Sunset and Richmond rejected them last time by 5%+ each.
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Thank you for this thoughtful and well-written letter. I’m an outer Richmond resident who is also voting Yes on K. It’s the right thing to do for our neighbors in the Sunset and for our city.
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Wynne and Greg, thank you for the positivity. A stark contrast to the other negative comments, characterizations and conspiracy theories herein. Onward for positive and meaningful change! I appreciate it!
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Facts are not conspiracy theories. The lies that the proponents of prop K have been pushing relentlessly have been factually debunked over and over. Obviously it’s a divisive and dishonest proposition that doesn’t actually reduce vehicle use or make SF streets safer for cyclists or pedestrians – the opposite, in fact.
If you choose to ignore the facts as you seem to be and calling them “negative” because the facts don’t align with BS positivity based on nothing real, that’s your mistake and one that will be repeatedly reaped by dishonest transplant yuppie politicos like Engardio and his shameless ilk.
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“For years, the Upper Great Highway cut our neighborhood off from the beach, acting as both a mental and physical barrier that discourages daily enjoyment of the coast.” Oh Please. The Great Highway has been in place, as designed for almost a century. I don’t know one person who ever felt it was a barrier to enjoying the ocean and Ocean Beach.
“The pilot showed us that instead of a highway as a barrier, we have a park that connects us to the ocean and each other. The opportunity to make the park permanent is one that we don’t want our neighborhood, or the rest of San Francisco, to miss out on.” Prop K closes the Great Highway. Nothing in prop K says park! Blatanty misleading. No money for a park, no stipulation for a park.
“A multi-year community outreach study called “Sunset Forward,” published in 2022, found that Sunset residents “crave more community events and opportunities for people to connect across ages and cultures.” It identified “four main neighborhood service needs” in its survey, including “a lack of community connection in the Sunset” and “a need for more access to public parks and open spaces.” Gotta love these community surveys that not one community resident I know (lived here over 40 years) was ever surveyed,
“The neighborhood’s desire for more park space also helps explain how the pilot park became the City’s third most visited park, without adding even so much as a park bench.” Sorry but their numbers used to justify this claim were result of a survey methodology bordering on fraud, and SFMTA published those numbers and as the addage goes, repeat misinformation often enough, it almost becomes accepted as fact. Doesn’t make it so.
“Without the broad and sustained neighborhood support over the past four years, Prop. K would not have made it to the ballot. The available data suggests that we park supporters are actually in the majority, even if we don’t shout as loudly.” Nonsense! Prop K made it to the ballot because some supervisors, Mayor up for possible re-election and our State Senator Weiner who is also working at and successfully rammed through a bill relaxing environmental protections and guidelines for the same coastline and going back from edge of Great Hwy a full 4 blocks ( guidelines that defined height and scale restrictions) and powers mthat be and big money at City Hall decided to terminate the compromise in secret, or at least noit publicized. aIt got on the ballot because Sup. Joel Engardio decided to ignore the agreed on guidelines ordering numerous open houses and other avenues for public input, to discuss any planned changes , the various reports on the effects of any proposed changes and alternative plans to the agreed on compromise which runs through Dec 2025. Engardion submitted the proposed ballot at deadline to prevent any competing ballot. then and only nthen his polished very slanted videos full of oversimplifed baseless assumptions and glorified promised of inconsequential permanent detours for the 15-2000 daily users of the Great Highway roadway. Smooth traffic flow reconfiguration, world class park, etc and claims of numbers of visitors that came from a contracted survey so flawed it bordered on fraud.
And Yes on K loves to dredge up history of those who tried to reopen the roadway 2 years ago as if that shortshighted effort somehow justifies the equally shortsighted and unfairly built campaign for force a major detour on thousands of commuters, veterans en route to VA, and families running necessary errands etc all based on blatant misinformation and moneyed advertising. Those forced into longer time in the cars may very likely be denied the luxury of the few able to enjoy the closed roadway being enjoyed by the few who choose not to consider use of Ocean Beach that has been in place for all time or the park and pathways built along the east side of Great Highway and used by thousands over recent decades.
“We’re ready to fight for it because we know how much it means to our community and how much it has improved our lives.” It seems obvious that we also know how much this means to the other major portion of our community and this one sided up or down vote will not be an improvement to the lives of many thousands for whom the road is far more a necessity that a mere convenience!
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