The Great Highway Con
Behind the scenes on the battle over Prop. K
• • • • • • • • • • August 2025 • • • • • • • • • •
St’tate Senator Scott Wiener, representing San Francisco, has worked overtime to weaken and limit the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a state law that requires state and local government agencies to analyze the potential environmental effects of proposed projects and to inform decision-makers and the public about those effects. It also mandates the identification of ways to avoid or lessen environmental damage and the consideration of alternatives to projects. CEQA provides environmental safeguards for the protection of our communities. Anyone who weakens environmental safeguards is not helping our community.
Wiener helped the Fisher brothers, the billionaire sons of GAP founder Donald Fisher, put artificial turf in Golden Gate Park. In 2014, more than 10,000 San Francisco residents signed a petition to put Proposition H on the ballot in a grassroots effort to protect Golden Gate Park from artificial turf. Proposition I, an opposing measure that would permit artificial turf in the Park, was put on the ballot by a group of seven Supervisors, including Supervisors Scott Wiener and David Chiu (currently City Attorney), at the behest of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, headed then, as now, by Phil Ginsburg.
Wiener has long been the real estate developer’s friend, attempting to limit or eliminate local controls over housing development, including by-passing the environmental safeguards of CEQA, pushing State legislation to upzone our residential neighborhoods to allow 7 and 8-story buildings, and ignoring community concerns. Working closely with this campaign to relax constraints on real estate developers is Todd David, Political Director of Abundant San Francisco, a former Executive Director of Housing Action Coalition, and a long-time friend and associate of Wiener. A close associate of David, Peter Belden, is currently Political Chair of the San Francisco Branch of the Sierra Club and a prominent member of the SF Bicycle Coalition, and is a proponent of closing the Upper Great Highway.
So, how did it come about that Scott Wiener, no friend to the environment, became a behind-the-scenes influence at our local Sierra Club? I have been a member of the Sierra Club for decades, and I was surprised to see their endorsement of Proposition K, to close the Great Highway to cars between Lincoln and Sloat. There is nothing green about closing the Upper Great Highway (UGH) to cars on weekdays. Not a single car will be taken off the road because UGH is closed. Pushing stop-and-go traffic onto nearby neighborhood streets will increase air pollution from exhaust fumes. Before you can get to Sunset, you now have to go up Fulton for 15 blocks, stop and go. What is green about that?
“There’s a reason Republican-funded and billionaire-backed organizations like Abundant SF, GrowSF and Neighbors for a Better SF must brand themselves and their policies as “moderate.” They are fully aware that San Franciscans are more likely to align with “moderates” than let Republican-led groups take power in our city. ”
Even the language of Prop. K was misleading: “The restrictions on private vehicles have enabled people of all ages and all walks of life to safely recreate by the coast next to Ocean Beach by using the Upper Great Highway as a promenade for walking, jogging, biking, scooting and rolling.” You don’t need any additional restrictions on private vehicles to accomplish this. The UGH was already closed to private vehicles from noon on Friday to 6 a.m. Monday and every holiday. The rest of the time, there is Ocean Beach on one side and a broad promenade on the other side for people to engage in “walking, jogging, biking, scooting and rolling”.
As soon as we were made aware of Prop. K, we were also made aware of a well-funded, well-orchestrated advertising and promotional campaign proclaiming “Ocean Beach for Everyone.” Did the funders of these ads know about Prop. K beforehand? Doesn’t it make you wonder who is behind this and why they are putting in so much effort and money? The ad campaign was deliberately deceptive and a prime example of misinformation; Ocean Beach was already open to everyone and always has been.
“There’s a reason Republican-funded and billionaire-backed organizations like Abundant SF, GrowSF and Neighbors for a Better SF must brand themselves and their policies as “moderate.” They are fully aware that San Franciscans are more likely to align with “moderates” than let Republican-led groups take power in our city. People should look into who has funded these organizations and their ties to conservative politics. We must not blindly believe everything a well-funded, well-marketed nonprofit is touting. In fact, we must be even more skeptical.” - Letter to the SF Chronicle by Gillian Garaci, San Francisco, responding to a letter by Todd David, June 18, 2024
“In what’s described as a multiyear effort to take control of San Francisco politics, a group of moderate Democrats is planning to take over a low-profile but influential board tasked with steering endorsements in key local races. On Saturday in Hayes Valley, state Sen. Scott Wiener and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan stumped for a group calling itself Democrats for Change, which is running a slate of candidates for the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC). The Democrats for Change slate is running two dozen candidates across San Francisco and is partially backed by the moderate political group Abundant SF. The group’s director, Todd David, said it has around $500,000 in funds committed to the March 2024 DCCC race so far. Other moderate political groups and clubs are also expected to promote the candidates. Lai (a candidate and co-host of the Hayes Valley event) described the effort to take control of the committee as part of a long-term effort to steer San Francisco politics in a more “pragmatic” direction.” - Annie Gaus writing in the SF Standard, Dec. 03, 202.
“When the dust settled from the March 5 election, it was clear that reformist forces had won some big victories over San Francisco progressives. None was more dramatic than the takeover of the San Francisco Democratic Party, with moderates taking 18 of 24 seats on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee. The local party is considered a valuable strategic prize because it doles out endorsements for candidates and measures that may make the difference between electoral success and failure in a city that votes heavily Democratic. The stunning coup by the moderate SF Democrats for Change candidate slate was engineered by Abundant SF, a two-year-old group with strong ties to state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is known in part for his legislation aimed at clearing the way for housing to be built in The City and elsewhere.” - by Patrick Hoge, SF Examiner, Mar 20, 2024.
Todd David, Peter Belden, and Robin Pam, wife of AbundantSF founder Zack Rosen, lobbied DCCC members to vote Yes on K at a 2024 DCCC meeting: Here is a link to a photo of them at the meeting — the photo doesn’t mean much unless you know the back story.
The Bicycle Coalition has been receiving City funding, and there have been questions about how that came to be.
The (SFMTA) board questioned why the Bicycle Coalition was the only nonprofit to receive the city’s $1.5 million contract. Tracey Lin, SFMTA’s Travel Choices Manager, said that after the contracting team reached out to about 180 contacts and other organizations, the Bicycle Coalition Education Fund was the only nonprofit that ended up submitting a proposal to receive funds. “So only one bidder, so only one awardee?” asked Board Vice Chair Stephanie Cajina. “It’s a red flag.” Board Director Lydia So echoed Cajina’s concerns: “In my experience with other publicly contracting processes, is that if we ended up only having one person bidding on the contract … we actually will have to go back and redo the outreach for the [proposal] process. That’s the only way that is fair.” Ms. So said there are many legacy bicycle businesses that could also benefit from funding, and that SFMTA outreach and the contracting language might be keeping other groups from participating. - SFMTA approves $1.5 million Bicycle Coalition contract despite ‘red flag,’ by Patricia Arack and Tomasita Medál, El Tecolote June 1, 2024.
The SF Bicycle Coalition was also a prominent and vocal supporter of Prop. K.
The tangled web of the endorsers of Prop. K, including Abundant San Francisco, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the SF Democratic Party and the SF Sierra Club all lead back to the real estate developer’s friend, Scott Wiener. Other endorsers of Prop. K were the now notorious SF Parks Alliance and Phil Ginsburg. I have to wonder, what is Wiener’s real interest in passing Prop. K and closing Upper Great Highway?
David Romano is an environmental activist living near Ocean Beach
August 2025
