Readers weigh in below on Tim Redmond’s 10/18/2024 piece “The Beautiful, transit-friendly Great Highway Park: I should live so long.” To submit a letter to the editor about our content, click here.
To the Editor:
First, it was always pointless to keep in operation a freeway that loses 32 days average per year to wind and sand closure. Plus, due to coastal erosion, the highway is being shut down forever from Sloat to Skyline Boulevard in 2026.
With no improvements, the Great Parkway has become the third-most visited park in San Francisco since the weekend closures to traffic.
Large parks in San Francisco, like Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, have not been fully planned from the beginning. They evolve from public input, private/public development proposals, and in the case of the Great Parkway with public input before the SF Park and Recreation Commission. I have heard of proposals by Eric Mar to make the Great Parkway into a Burning Man/Playland by the Beach synthesis to just leave it alone, plant native vegetation, and let walkers, bicyclists, and skaters rule. Development can and should be by evolution and public input down the road/parkway and not necessarily now.
—George Davis
To the Editor:
In response to Tim Redmond’s rather snide “I should live so long” comment on the closure of Great Highway and future park: To my mind, he misses the point. Just reclaiming the highway from cars and turning into a non-motorized space along a glorious strip of ocean is victory enough. adding a few benches and public art is a great start.
Let Mother Nature’s wind and sand dunes do the rest. Yes, better transportation for the West Side, affordable housing, Park and Rec programs are needed. but that’s a totally different issue than closing the road. Telling drivers that their convenience is not the only consideration needed in creating a better city is victory of this vote .
Lezak Shallat
Tim Redmond responds:
Good points, all. Maybe we just let nature reclaim this area. My point was that some folks are talking about a grand new park, and there’s no money for that. Oh, and if we want this to be a real park, serving all the people of San Francisco, we need to pay for real public transit to get them there.
