San Francisco Residents Seek Options to Prevent Upper Great Highway’s Closure

Beachgoers catch the last of the sunset light in the ocean alongside the Pacific Coast Highway on July 2, 2020. Brent Stirton/Getty Images

SAN FRANCISCO—Residents from affected neighborhoods are seeking options to prevent the permanent closure of the Upper Great Highway, according to the official opponent of Proposition K.

Prop K, a measure to replace the Upper Great Highway with a park, marginally passed in the election this month, with 54.7 percent of the vote. An online map of the election results shows a divided city with strong opposition to Prop K from most western and southern areas, including Sunset District, Richmond District, and others.

Residents from these neighborhoods are now examining their options, which could include lawsuits to prevent the enactment of the proposition or delay the permanent closure, registered Prop K opponent Richie Greenberg told The Epoch Times in an email.

The options also include a recall of Sunset District Supervisor Joel Engardio, who promoted Prop K, Greenberg said.

The Upper Great Highway, the two-mile west-most highway segment of San Francisco between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard, will become a car-free promenade in early 2025, according to a Nov. 21 statement from the Recreation and Parks Department. The department has jurisdiction over the Great Highway, including the Upper Great Highway and a 1.7-mile extension.

The department received a $1 million grant on Nov. 21 from the California State Coastal Conservancy, a state agency tasked with protecting and improving natural land and waterways.

The grant will partly be used for experts to “evaluate measures to protect the coast from sea level rise and erosion, restoring natural dunes, and improving habitats for plants and animals,” according to a statement.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to create a park that not only enhances our coastline but also prepares us for the realities of a changing climate,” Recreation and Parks Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg said in the statement.

The ballot measure for Prop K states, “Restricting private vehicles from the Upper Great Highway will further reduce automobile pollution in a sensitive coastal habitat, including runoff pollution, which is one of the primary contributors to oceanic pollution.”

According to the legal text of Prop K, the Upper Great Highway has to remain open for emergency vehicles and other authorized vehicles.

“If walking on hard street pavement is a ‘park’, then they are correct,” Greenberg said. “But in reality, the Great Highway when closed will be very little used, since it is not a park.”

He said the roadway can’t be removed and won’t be able to be blocked with buildings or furnishings.

The battle over Prop K was “a fight for reality (residents who live, work and travel on the Great Highway) against people who don’t live here but think it will become a park,” Greenberg said.

San Francisco has a history of protecting its waterfront.

After the partially constructed Embarcadero Freeway was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Chinatown residents and business owners tried to stop the removal of the freeway. However, a petition with 20,000 signatures was not enough to halt the demolition of the structure.

The two-decked structure was intended to connect the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. The part that was completed had daily traffic of more than 100,000 vehicles and brought customers to Chinatown businesses.

Art Agnos, then-mayor of San Francisco, had the freeway demolished in 1991 following a Board of Supervisors 6–5 vote to tear it down.

A Central Subway line that now runs from South of Market to Chinatown was planned by politicians to make up for the lost traffic to Chinatown.