Supervisors Throw Westside Residents Under Bus
Editor's Note: All election recommendations are the opinion of the author, the Westside Observer does not endorse candidates or measures, and welcomes opinions to the contrary.
•••••••••• September 27, 2022 ••••••••••
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 and merchant organizations in the Sunset, Parkside and Richmond districts while the City Attorney’s Office was drafting and reviewing language for the ballot measure. He said nothing to his constituents even though he runs a monthly column in the Sunset Beacon.
On June 18, the last day that the SF Board of Supervisors could put an initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot, Engardio and Supervisor Myrna Melgar pounced and forwarded the legislation to the SF Department of Elections.
The rationale that Engardio used to justify putting the fate of the Upper Great Highway 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 says 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 hired a fortune-telling Nostradamus as their supervisor?
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.”
Plan Does Not Make Sense
Engardio’s initiative to close the UGH, Prop. K on the Nov. 5 ballot gives less than two months to organize a political campaign before votes start rolling in.
Engardio and Melgar’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, climate-friendly transportation against those who believe a park will draw visitors from around the world.
• harm public safety by slowing emergency vehicle response times. The SF Fire Department’s surf and cliff rescue unit is located at 42nd Avenue and Geary Boulevard. This unit needs quick access to Ft. Funston, the SF Zoo, Irish Cultural Center, etc.
• render moot 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 pedestrians and cyclists, including a proposal by SF Supervisor Connie Chan to keep two lanes open for traffic and dedicating two lanes for other uses.
• not provide research, studies or financing 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 daily 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 in some form, 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 Mark Farrell and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan also oppose Prop. K.
Westside Residents Misled, Lied To
The Upper Great Highway 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 that the traffic closures would be temporary.
That changed when then-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, westside residents have to rally again because Engardio and Melgar have thrown them under the bus. With just 2 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 Engardio and Melgar, 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. Melgar’s fate rides with voters in District 7 in this election.
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 (www.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 Upper Great Highway 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 and Melgar 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 make a donation, go to the website at www.openthegreathighway.com.
Please vote to keep Ocean Beach accessible for everyone, not just a privileged few. Vote "no” on Prop. K.
Paul Kozakiewicz is an editor and former publisher of the Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review newspapers.
Paul Kozakiewicz is founder of the Richmond Review newspaper (1988) and co-founder of the Sunset Beacon newspaper (1991).
December 22, 2021
