The neverending battle of the former Great Highway

On the continent’s edge, far out in the fog, used to lie an approximately two mile long stretch of road called the Upper Great Highway. Few knew that this lonely stretch of road would become the flash point for an ongoing battle between a vocal and FURIOUS group of nearby residents and, I guess, people who like a beach park.

You probably already know the story, but to summarize: the UGH - and a more fitting acronym I cannot imagine - was a lightly to moderately busy road notable mostly for being set apart from all other roads (i.e., no businesses or homes on either side) and being useful to a fairly small portion of the SF population. Surfers would dodge cars crossing it, as it lay between the city and Ocean Beach.

Like everything else in this godforsaken world, things changed when the pandemic hit. As detailed in my previous post on this topic, during the pandemic the Board of Supervisors closed UGH to vehicle traffic and it became a popular bike/pedestrian path. Then they opened it to cars during the week only.

Then there was a ballot measure, Proposition K, in which the voters were asked whether “you want the City to use the Upper Great Highway as public open recreation space, permanently closing it to private motor vehicles seven days a week, with limited exceptions.” And on November 5, 2024, it won, 55% to 45%, or by about 35,000 votes (out of about 377,000 total). The residents were extremely normal about it.

Time proceeded apace. Days passed. The sun rose and sank. Slowly but surely UGH was converted into a park - Sunset Dunes Park, as it happens, a lovely name. So, you must assume, that put the matter to rest? San Francisco gains a new park, some people have to take alternate routes, but life goes on?

You would be wrong. Since that day, some ENRAGED residents - mostly Westsiders who claim that UGH was a vital lifeline without which they will surely die - have engaged in an unending campaign to get rid of that fucking park and get their road back.

Apart from the ENDLESS Nextdoor posts - more on which later - the Angry Mob recalled their supervisor, Joel Engardio, because he showed insufficient fealty to the horde. Mayor Daniel Lurie flailed around trying to pick someone who wouldn’t make everyone made at HIM and settled on a failed pet shop owner who maybe committed tax fraud and left her shop covered in feces. Much like the supervisor nomination process.

[One side note here. I have very little inside knowledge of how Mayors pick Supervisors but apparently for this mayor it’s “Get me a failed pet shop owner with tax fraud issues on the phone THE MORE FECES THE BETTER!”]

Eventually he spun the bottle and landed on Alan Wong, who I assume promised him would be sufficiently servile to the most loudmouth residents and had no background in animal care. Sure enough, Alan delivered:

OH MY GOD ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO VOTE ON THIS AGAIN. Dear fellow residents we CANNOT keep having votes on this but I swear to you if this passes I will do whatever it takes to put it on the ballot AGAIN. We can vote on this EVERY TWO YEARS if that’s what you fucking want. God you are fucking sore losers.

By the way, the Chronicle did an extensive study about travel times before and after the closure and, yep, “The numbers show more congestion and a slower commute during rush hour since cars were banned from the coastal side of Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. But some arteries showed no slowdowns at all, and speeds may have even picked up on some roads as drivers chose other routes.” So, a wash.

Meanwhile, inevitably, other Angry Mobsters filed a lawsuit claiming, among other arguments, that the City had insufficiently considered the environmental impact of CLOSING DOWN A ROAD AND MAKING A PARK. That suit got tossed this week.

So what happens now? Alan has until Tuesday to get three other supervisors to sign on and this goes back on the ballot. We already know Connie Chan, who’s never met a road she didn’t like, will be a yes. We’ll see who else wants to join this clown parade.

The Angry Mob has found their true home on Nextdoor, which popularized the “OMG I just saw a brown person in the neighborhood” genre of post. Just go there and look randomly, you’ll find a UGH post soon enough. I’ve read hundreds of them and they’re all the same - “I can’t get to the VA Hospital, my Mom can’t go to Daly City anymore,” it’s like we built a wall around the Outer Sunset, not closed off one street.

But I loved this one, just from a couple of days ago. Dude went back to the 2024 ballot pamphlet to expose the LIES therein:

Did you get that? “It’s not ICONIC! It will be never be ICONIC! They said iconic NINE TIMES!” Parks on berms can never be iconic, look it up chump. 63 comments.

So we have a new thing, it’s different than the old thing, people who liked the old thing are furious. The classic San Francisco story.