The supporters of Prop. K talked over and over during the campaign about a new “park” at Ocean Beach. Some of the opponents worried that the fancy new waterfront park will just spur more development along San Francisco’s coast.
State Sen. Scott Wiener was among those who celebrated the new “park” in a rally Saturday:
“This has been a contentious issue, but I am confident that years from now, we will all look back and say, ‘Why was this even controversial? ’” state Sen. Scott Wiener said at the rally. “People are going to love this park so much, so let’s keep moving forward.”
Maybe that’s true, some day, “years from now,” when San Francisco has vastly improved public transit on the West side, so nobody needs a car, and Donald Trump is long gone, and the nation and the state and the city have reduced economic inequality by taxing the rich to pay for things like nice new parks.
Oh, and new housing near the beach is affordable to the working class, not just to rich people, because that new tax money has turned housing into a public good.
I can’t wait to take the new high-speed subway out to the new park (on those rare days when it’s nice out, if the rising sea level hasn’t turned the park into a swimming pool).
But for now … it’s not happening.
Despite the campaign promises, there isn’t going to be a fancy new park along Ocean Beach any time in the foreseeable future.
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Prop. K didn’t include any funding for improvements of any sort, from infrastructure to road replacement. The city’s maxed out its bond capacity, and as far as I can tell, there’s no extra money in the Rec-Park bond fund, which can’t be diverted for projects that the voters didn’t approve, and there won’t be another park bond for years to come.
With a massive budget deficit, incoming Mayor Daniel Lurie is not going to find the cash to pay for anything new at Ocean Beach, and Rec Park has and in the immediate future will continue to have nothing in its budget to fund operations and maintenance.
I emailed Tamara Aperton, the Rec-Park media person, and asked where the money might come from for all these improvements. She didn’t respond.
So for now, it won’t be a grand park, as supporters envisioned. It’s going to be a strip of roadway that’s closed to cars, with a few chairs, some public art, and a few other improvements paid for by private donors.
Nice place for kids to learn to ride a bike (except for the wind and fog, and the fact that a lot of them will probably drive there). Nice place for the bicyclists who ride through Golden Gate Park to add some fun to their ride.
But a lovely new waterfront park, with native plants and sculptured sand dunes and bathrooms and playgrounds, served by adequate public transit?
I should live so long.
