Ezra David Romero [00:02:22] You know, it’s three and a half miles right next to Ocean Beach, basically like the last road in San Francisco on the west side of the city. When you go to Ocean Beach, this is the four lane road that separates the city from the beach itself. People use it, like you said, you know, to go to school. They go to Daly City. They use it as a workaround to go around this like this dense part of the neighborhood of San Francisco. So it’s sort of like this connector for many people in San Francisco.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:59] And the idea of repurposing this road from how it’s currently used to kind of what we’re seeing more of now kind of first came about during Covid in April 2020 when I remember these images of people just social distance walking, biking on this road that you’re probably more used to seeing cars on. What was the idea there?
Ezra David Romero [00:03:27] I think the idea was to get out of the house. You know, people want to go outside. And so this provided an opportunity for people to socialize, to have some fresh air. It was really successful. So they closed it from like Fridays around noon until Sunday for a period of time. And that’s still happening today.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:50] So how do we sort of go from that to closing this portion of the highway permanently?
Ezra David Romero [00:03:58] Well, a group of sunset residents approached supervisor Joel Engardio, who represents the Sunset neighborhood in San Francisco, with the idea to turn this into a possible full time park by closing the highway. They realized how successful it was. But then they also had some environmental concerns around climate change, around the road being closed 60 plus times a year because sand gets on it and it’s unsafe for cars to go on. They approached Joel Engardio and Joel Engardio sponsored it, and then it became a proposition and people voted on it.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:36] And what would Prop K do exactly?
Ezra David Romero [00:04:40] It simply only closes the highway from Lincoln Avenue to Sloat Boulevard on the Great Highway does nothing else beyond that. It puts Parks and Rec in charge of it. And then for it to become reality like, it has to go through all this permitting process. So it’s going to be a minute before it actually closes down.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:05] And I know you actually spoke to Supervisor Joel Engardio before the election. What did he say? And what did he tell you about Prop K? It seems like he was a pretty big supporter.
Ezra David Romero [00:05:18] I think for him it was really about the environmental hazards around climate change. And there’s a part of the great highway just south of this area that’s already set to close sometime in 2026.
Joel Engardio [00:05:28] Mother Nature has definitely given us a lemon because part of the road’s falling into the ocean. But Prop K is the lemonade because it’s what are we doing with the middle section of the great highway to set it up for the best success for the future?
Ezra David Romero [00:05:42] He was thinking, let’s capitalize sort of on, you know, people’s energy around wanting to be out there and sort of preserve the environment in this neighborhood as well.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:52] Right. Because it wasn’t just about closing this portion of the road, but sort of transforming it into something else. Right?
Ezra David Romero [00:05:59] Yeah. There’s all these ideas of like, could we turn this area into like the Highline Park in New York City? Right. That was like an old rail line that they turned into this like park that you walk up to. And there’s it’s beautiful. There’s chairs. It’s like brings nature into this area.
Joel Engardio [00:06:14] So as a park, we can design into the park, the dune restoration and allow for what Mother Nature is inevitably in bringing along in the decades to come.
Ezra David Romero [00:06:24] This is an area we could preserve that could be a buffer to climate change, coastal erosion, but at the same time have some great public benefits where people can go out and enjoy it, because during the pandemic, people enjoyed it so much. It was packed with hundreds, if not thousands of people. So he’s like, I think this could be a good idea.
Joel Engardio [00:06:43] People would say, well, where’s the park? Well, it’s there because it’s a unique experience to do things at the coast with an ocean view that you can’t do on the sand. And so that’s why many thousands of people come out there and why it’s become San Francisco’s third most visited park with just asphalt. So where do we go from here? Well, it’s already a successful park, but we want it to be a grander park. We want to be a fancier park. So that’s the fun part.
Ezra David Romero [00:07:10] Seemed like the yes side, they were really about the environment and enjoying the space.
Heidi Moseson [00:07:16] In the for almost five years now that we’ve had this space in some form of park mode, whether the whole week or just on the weekends, it has like completely changed the way it feels to live out here.
Ezra David Romero [00:07:27] I spoke to a woman named Heidi Moseson, and she lives right on the Great Highway. She’s lived there for like 15 years. You know, she said she loved it being closed during the pandemic because she met her neighbors. You know, she saw all the people enjoying the space that she has easy access to. And for her, it was about like opening this up to more and more people across the city. But at the same time, preserving this area because of the threats of climate change.
Heidi Moseson [00:07:54] It’s sort of like a common space or like a town square that you you just run into your neighbors, you know, and it builds community. We have yesterday, you know, we went on a bike, rides stopped five different times because we kept seeing people we knew. And that’s so fun. That feels like community.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:08:18] And that said, there was actually a lot of uproar over Prop K this election. It was a super contentious ballot measure. Lots of opinions. What did you hear from the no side?
Ezra David Romero [00:08:32] I think a lot of their concerns around traffic safety, you know, it might hurt local businesses. And when the highway closes, the no side is afraid that like 10 to 20,000 cars will be rerouted into their community and they’re going have to deal with that every single day.
Julia Quon [00:08:50] This is a proposition that at first it seems great, like, let’s open up a park. This actually doesn’t align with the day to day realities of many families in our neighborhoods.
Ezra David Romero [00:09:01] I spoke to a young woman named Julia Quon. She had really big concerns around traffic in that area.
Julia Quon [00:09:07] Traffic is already so bad on Sunset Boulevard, traffic is already so bad on 19th. And so we use the great highway, especially when I’m talking about medical appointments, to be able to to get to places and to drive our Po Po’s and Ye Ye’s.
Ezra David Romero [00:09:23] You know, she lives in with a large family. And she was saying that, you know, might be hard for her to like get her parents or her grandparents to the appointments they need to go to and that this whole idea of closing this area is going to challenge how they get around the city. And that’s why she was against it.
Julia Quon [00:09:38] In my family, we only have one car for all of us. I use the bus whenever I can. But I still think that people are going to drive. I don’t think that it’s inclusive. I don’t think that it represents the voices and the wants of what people need in the neighborhood. And I don’t think it’s realistic.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:05] Ultimately, Prop Kate did pass. What do we know as true about how this city voted and how that sort of broke down across districts?
Ezra David Romero [00:10:15] For this to pass, it needed like 50% of the city and 54% of the city voted to pass it. San Francisco’s West Side residents in districts one, four, seven and 11. You know, that’s like the Richmond Sunset and Excelsior neighborhoods. They voted overwhelmingly no, 61% against and 39% for the proposition. But the results were sort of opposite for the rest of the city, with 64% of the voters approving it and 36% opposing. So it’s sort of like this tale of two cities.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:54] And then last Tuesday, in response to Prop K passing an effort to recall the San Francisco supervisor, Joel Engardio, who put Prop K on the ballot, officially began right?
Ezra David Romero [00:11:07] Yeah. Let’s step back a little bit. Even when I was doing interviews for the stories before the election, this threat was ever there. People on that on the no side were threatening. Like we might try to recall him, you know, even months ago. And that became a reality on Tuesday when two West Side residents, you know, went to the Department of Elections and submitted their plans to try to recall him basically over Proposition K.
Vin Budhai [00:11:34] If your supervisor or elected official deviates from their promises or what they said they were going to do, we have a right to recall them.
Ezra David Romero [00:11:42] I spoke with Vin Budhai about this. You know, he’s one of the people who lives out in this sunset who brought this forward. He said it’s really about in Guardiola overlooking not listening to residents, not holding true to his campaign promises. And they think he shouldn’t have any more time in office.
Vin Budhai [00:11:59] It shows that he didn’t listen to his constituency and listen to the voters. And it was just a huge betrayal against all of us here in D4.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:08] And how has Engardio responded to this effort to recall him?
Ezra David Romero [00:12:13] Well, I mean, he’s not stoked at the possibility of a recall, but he said he’s reached out to recall leaders to work together to, like, possibly solve common issues about traffic flow and street safety. You know, he’s been in office, what, around two years? You know, his term would end in around 2027. And he wants to continue all the other work. I think it’s a delicate balance when you’re a supervisor, right? You are beholden to your piece of San Francisco, but you’re also making up the whole. So I think Prop K is one of those moments, right, where it’s like this is in his district, but like it has a greater benefit to the rest of San Francisco. But that could have consequences if your constituents don’t like that idea.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:13:00] Right. And when majority of your constituents voted against the thing that you’re pushing forward, right? What does he say about that fact?
Ezra David Romero [00:13:12] Yeah, I mean, he says he respects their concerns overall, but he also mentions that like Sunset, residents brought this up to him. It wasn’t his idea. And so I think he is alluding to the idea that law, like there are many people who don’t like the idea. There are also many people who do. So he feels like he is representing a portion of his district. I mean, there’s been other situations, you know, in San Francisco and other parts of the country where, you know, people haven’t wanted the park to come in through their their neighborhood or they haven’t wanted to certain development. But then X amount of years later, it’s now this like beautiful public park and people love it. And it’s like a big part of the fabric of the city. And so I think that’s what he’s hoping for, but really could cost him his, you know, elected seat.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:14:04] Well, I do want to end here as or on the future of the great Highway. I mean, what is the timeline for the closure of the great highway and the eventual park and what’s the vision there?
Ezra David Romero [00:14:19] That’s a little bit up in the air right now. If we’re to close full time, The city has to get permits from the California Coastal Commission and others. And once those are acquired, then it can close. And I’m hearing some rumors as well that it could happen in the first quarter of 2025 or just sometime next year. So we’re still a minute out from this actually closing. But when it closes, all it’s going to do is they’ll put the locks on the gates, right? They might put some other amenities in there. But that’s all it does when it comes to the future vision for this area. That’s going to be up to the city to decide, though, you know, Joel and others told me that there will be a like a public discourse about what this could become. You know, he argues that it becomes a park day one when they put the locks on the gate. But the Parks and Rec department will be the ones who will be overseeing this. So basically, the vision, what it could become is up to the city. And that’s a long ways out.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:15:16] And what about the traffic and the cars that previously relied on the Great Highway? What’s going to happen with that?
Ezra David Romero [00:15:26] I think the idea there’s a little bit up in the air still. You know, when I talked to Joel and Gaudio in the past, his idea was to like reroute cars, possibly on the busiest streets, you know, where there’s stop signs and puts traffic signals there instead to speed up the flow of traffic. Some people think Proposition K was the cart going before the horse, right? Like you didn’t fix the traffic stuff first. So we will have to see what actually happens. And I imagine there will be a race to have these two things fix at the same time.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:16:01] Well, Ezra, it strikes me that, you know, we’re talking about a space that was a highway made for cars that is now being transformed into something completely different. And I feel like as a climate reporter, we’ve talked with you a lot about how communities sort of split over what to do with a space in a sort of changing environment. I mean, how does this story of Prop K fit into that?
