Editor:
Since Prop. K lost, I believe there is a better solution for all those involved.
If, in the near future, we can tear out the old road on the Upper Great Highway and replace it with a tunnel for cars, trucks, vans, jeeps, motorcycles, etc., then a new path could be built on top of the tunnel and dirt and grass put there for people to enjoy safely on top. I see this as a win-win for everyone.
I was a gardener at the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department for more than 14 years, from 1995 to 2010. Since San Francisco is the second-most-crowded city in the United States after New York City, it only makes sense to me that this happens very soon.
The new tunnel must extend from Sloat Boulevard to Lincoln Way. If this takes place, this should help stop 19th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard from being overcrowded. Fixing the area next to the Pacific Ocean constantly will hopefully end erosion plus other potential problems too.
G.L. Hastings
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
  Can’t do that because there is a 14 Ft. in diameter sewer pipe that runs under the center of the Great Highway . Built in the late 70’s , it runs all the way from the Presidio to the sewer plants at the south end of the GH . Unless you’d like to see raw sewage pour onto the Lower GH I’d shelve that idea . Similarly you can’t build a “park ” on top of the sewer line either because it has to be accessible to maintain and repair . That’s a point the pro-closure folks left out of their information brochure about Prop K . Perhaps purposefully ? Fact is that if maintained at its original width there is plenty of room for autos , bike paths , walkways AND parklets . check the picture
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Unfortunately there is a waste water pipe that runs under the Great Highway. I suppose that could be moved while a tunnel is built but your idea replicates what was done in Germany. So many Prop K proponents cited the Hamburg park and the NYC High Line but the Hamburg park was built only after the highway that was in use was buried underground. The High Line was an inactive railroad track, not an active traffic artery. If it was and they had to divert that traffic to surface city streets I bet it would not have been built with so much support. A simpler solution would be to expand the already existing walking path to allow bicyclists and pedestrians to have their own paths and for cars to continue to use the GH itself. But no, people like Lucas Lux had to close the highway completely to cars although recreational use pales in comparison to it’s use as a major traffic artery. You will note that Prop K failed in the western part of SF, including D4, Engardio’s district. Only people on the eastern side who had no skin in the game because they don’t use the Great Highway supported it. Remember that in the next election cycle when Engardio runs again for supervisor. Breed lost my vote when she introduced and supported Prop K and the precincts voting for Lurie almost matches the no on K voters. Dean Preston, another supervisor who supported K lost his seat. So now Engardio has lost both Breed and Preston in City Hall. Connie Chan won again and she was against Prop K.
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Prop K lost but developing the coast is illegal and it will be fought in court for years. They’ve merely divided the city into two classes : transplant yuppies who don’t live nearby, and actually affected residents who apparently don’t matter enough politically. A citywide vote that ends 54:46 is no mandate, there is no funding and no appetite locally for their developer free-for-all plans. We will fight them and win.
When Engardio is recalled we’ll get someone in who actually cares about the Sunset, not political ladders to an equally unaccountable CA legislature. Like Breed, these arrogant pseudo-progressive liars will need to find a real job.
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