San Francisco officials celebrate opening of Sunset Dunes as controversy remains
On Saturday, San Francisco officials celebrated the opening of the newest city park on what used to be the Great Highway next to Ocean Beach. However, the controversy surrounding it remains as the city hurries to establish the park as quickly as possible.
In November, voters approved Measure K, closing the Great Highway to traffic, but at the time there was no money or even a real plan for the park they wanted to replace it. Now, just five months later, they proclaimed it to be "opening day."
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Sunset Dunes," announced Rec and Park General Manager, Phil Ginsburg.
That's the new name of the park--
Sunset Dunes
--chosen from suggestions sent in by the public. But that's not the only input the public had in turning what was, for about a century, a major vehicle corridor, into a place to walk and ride bicycles.
"That's what I voted for," said Measure K supporter Lidia Eng. "I voted for a place that can be open. Because we just need more space for the kids to just roam around, play around, stuff like that."
"No matter how you voted at the ballot five months ago, come on out and enjoy the park," said Ginsburg. "You know, the election happened. Now it's a park. And we want this park to work for this community."
But it doesn't work for many living in the area. As a compromise, the highway had been closed on weekends for recreation since the pandemic.
But neighbors complained that shutting down the road completely would make getting to their homes more difficult and divert weekday commute traffic onto their streets.
Stephen Gorski, whose home overlooks the Great Highway, has been a vocal critic of the plan to close the road permanently.
"The Park people basically put out a statement saying, 'I know everybody's had their differences about this, but now you have to come together and celebrate this with us.' I'm not in the mood to celebrate this," he said.
There is still a lot of anger over the city-wide vote and, during Saturday's ceremony, a small car caravan circled the block promoting a recall attempt against the area's supervisor, Joel Engardio, who came out in support of Measure K.
But Sasha Pixlee, who lives just a few blocks away, disagreed with the protestors in the caravan.
"They complain that traffic's a problem and what are they doing?" he said. "I mean, I think it's just very selfish. Adding a little time to your commute versus this (park)? It seems a very easy tradeoff."
But despite Saturday's large, festive turnout, the neighbors aren't giving up.
They've filed a lawsuit over the way Measure K was put on the ballot and a court hearing is scheduled for June 3.
Which may be why "opening day" was rushed into place by the city even though Sunset Dunes still has no funding and, except for one new piece of art, plans for the park are simply concepts.
"And that's what's so silly," said Gorski. "They'll have a decision in less than two months. If the judge says Prop K was illegal, then it has to be reverted to the compromise. I think they're trying to think we're stupid, that they're going to say, 'Well, we spent all this money and put art and did everything' No!"
But despite the objections, the voters have spoken. And as the city scrambles to create a park as quickly as possible, a judge will have to decide whether putting a halt to it is worth overturning an election.
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CBS News
25-05-2025
- CBS News
Recall election of San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio likely after signature verification
It's looking likely that a recall election for San Francisco District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio will happen. Recall organizers said city officials have verified that more than 99% of signatures sampled on Friday were valid. Now, "Recall Engardio" posters are popping up throughout the Sunset. Resident Selena Chu agrees with it. "Hold him accountable and ask, where's our voice in this decision-making?" Chu said. Chu has lived in the sunset since 2011, she doesn't feel Supervisor Engardio is listening to his constituents. "He was elected to be the District 4 Supervisor, but instead of coming to us, he went for the whole city, but I think it needs to start here," Chu said. Engardio angered many Sunset residents, including Chu, when he sponsored and voted for an initiative, known as Prop K, to close a two-mile stretch of the upper Great Highway to cars and instead create a park. Citywide, Prop K passed with more than 54% of the vote, but the majority of Sunset and Richmond district residents, the areas closest to it, opposed it. "With the closure, it does add 15-30 minutes extra, per morning, to my commute," explained Chu. "Some people on social media ask, 'Why don't you just wake up earlier?' accusing me of being lazy. It's not a matter of that." This change impacts her everyday life and takes away something she can never get back, her time. She said Engardio didn't hold townhalls to hear from the community. But in a statement to CBS Bay Area, Engardio said he's confident the majority of voters would oppose the recall and approve of the work he's doing. "I'm working with SFMTA to further improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety," Engardio said. "I'm fixing problems big and small for residents, supporting merchants, and working with the mayor and my colleagues to pass legislation that addresses pressing issues on public safety, housing, and our local economy. I'm continuing to do the job of supervisor as I always have." So far, the Department of Elections has only done a random sample of signatures. They still have to verify every one of the nearly 11,000 signatures, and that could take weeks. Chu was one of the people collecting signatures with the Sunset United Neighborhood Group. She believes the recall will get on the ballot. "We did our own validations prior to submitting," Chu said. "We double checked, we triple checked, we quadruple checked to make sure we have good signatures prior to submitting." Engardio is a former journalist and was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2022. He was a notable supporter of the successful recall of several board members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin, but he was critical of the recall effort against him. "If there's a recall every time we disagree with one issue, we won't have a functioning government," said Engardio. Chu argues the recall is not about one issue, but how he handles issues. "That's his distraction from actually listening," Chu said. "He's still not listening. He still doesn't get it. It's not about the great highway. It's about how he works. We pay someone with our tax dollars for representation for the sunset district and that starts with town hall meetings."
San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
People love the new Great Highway park. Do they love it enough to spare Supervisor Joel Engardio?
What controversy? Being able to take a snooze in a beachfront hammock on a sunny afternoon has made all the turmoil over closing the Upper Great Highway to create Sunset Dunes, San Francisco's newest park, worth it. At least it did for Fred Reynolds, who lives nearby, when I spoke to him on a recent Saturday. 'I thought it worked very well during COVID,' Reynolds said of the pandemic closure of the roadway. 'So, it seems like a natural progression. I think it's turning out to be a great asset for the city.' Now the question is if Reynolds' neighbors feel similarly enough about the park and its new amenities to extinguish their political furor. While San Francisco voted to pass Prop K in November, closing the Great Highway to cars, Sunset residents overwhelmingly opposed the measure — and responded to its passage by revolting against their supervisor, Joel Engardio, who championed the roadway's closure. The campaign to recall Engardio said it had enough petition signatures from District 4 residents by Thursday's deadline to submit to the San Francisco Elections Department for a ballot measure. If the signatures are certified, the department must hold a recall election 105 to 120 days afterward. There's also a lawsuit seeking to reopen the Great Highway and the possibility of a ballot measure to reverse Prop K. The recall campaign also opened another front in the city's moderate-progressive political war. Meanwhile, Sunset Dunes park, the source of all this acrimony, opened officially to great fanfare on April 12. Politics aside, it's still doing well. Sunset Dunes is still largely a four-lane road. There's new murals, paintings on the asphalt, sculptures and some added amenities, such as hammocks and tree trunks repurposed into seating. That's enough for Sunset Dunes to become the third most-visited park in the city during the week, averaging 3,400 visitors a day, and fourth overall on weekends, averaging 7,800 visitors a day, according to the Recreation and Park Department. 'I've been coming out on the weekends pretty much, but I want to start coming out at night every day just for exercise, too,' Sunset resident Osmond Li said after trying out a piano set up for visitors. So far, 62% of the visitors to Sunset Dunes are from San Francisco, and 35% of them are from the adjacent Sunset, Parkside and West Portal neighborhoods, according to the Recreation and Park Department's sensors that can track cell phone registrations. A 'honeymoon' surge to a new park is normal, but 'weekday consistency suggests lasting success. Our numbers there have been higher than expected,' said Tamara Barak Aparton, a spokesperson for the Recreation and Park Department. Is all that foot traffic translating into more sales for area businesses? It's probably too early for anything conclusive, but I checked with a couple of businesses I talked to just after the November election. Andytown Coffee Roasters co-owner Lauren Crabbe said her count of foot traffic at her Outer Sunset shops is up 20% over last year, compared to 5% at her Richmond District location. 'There's obviously something going on there beyond just the weather if we're seeing one neighborhood performing better than the other,' Crabbe said. At Aqua Surf Shop in the Sunset, store manager Dagan Ministero, who opposed Prop K, said he hasn't had an influx of customers since the park opened. 'I don't know if it's just the nation overall, but business is kind of down these days,' Ministero said. 'I haven't seen an increase.' Traffic congestion was one of the chief concerns for Ministero and many opposed to closing the Great Highway. Traffic is at or below pre-pandemic levels on the lower Great Highway adjacent to the park and nearby 46th Avenue, according to monitors set up by the group Friends of Sunset Dunes. However, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is collecting more comprehensive data on the area's traffic conditions that it expects to release this summer, according to Parisa Safarzadeh, a spokesperson for the agency. 'We do anticipate that with every road change there is an adjustment period,' Safarzadeh said, noting that new traffic patterns and potential problems become clearer after drivers settle into routines. To help traffic flow, there are new stoplights at Lincoln Way and 41st Avenue, and at Sloat and Skyline boulevards. Sunset Boulevard, the closest major north-south route, has been repaved. Speed bumps were added to some streets near the Great Highway to discourage cut-through traffic. Safarzadeh said traffic data will be evaluated to determine if further changes are needed. 'It's too early to even understand what that would look like.' Drivers accustomed to using the closed 2-mile stretch of the Upper Great Highway from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard will bear the brunt of these changes. Anecdotal evidence suggests commutes could be longer and not everybody is happy. Ministero said he's witnessed several fender benders in the area that he attributed to an uptick in traffic and that better infrastructure changes should have been in place before the closure. 'I feel like it was kind of putting the cart before the horse,' Ministero said. Despite his opposition to the Great Highway's closure, Ministero, who lives in the Richmond, said he loves the new public space and surfs the area almost daily, despite the 'problematic' traffic. Sunset voters who felt betrayed by Engardio now appear to have a chance at retribution by recalling him. Or can the new park win them over before Election Day? Either way, the park will remain. We can throw Engardio out and relitigate this at the polls and the courts. But to what end? Engardio has a vested interest in making sure Sunset Dunes is a success, so ousting him could jeopardize that. No doubt, commuters will be inconvenienced. I live in the Sunset, and I'll be one of them, too, when I drive. We should make sure the city upholds its responsibility to make traffic improvements. Because in the end, Sunset Dunes could become a great city asset, and that's what we should all want. Harry Mok is an assistant editor, editorial board member and columnist for the Opinion section.
San Francisco Chronicle
14-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Organizer of Supervisor Joel Engardio recall resigns days before deadline
One of the lead organizers behind the campaign to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio resigned Tuesday, only days before a signature-gathering deadline. Vin Budhai said he was stepping down from the recall effort due to 'ongoing creative and strategic differences regarding the direction and execution of the effort.' Budhai was one of the public faces behind the opposition to Proposition K last fall, which passed, creating the Sunset Dunes Park and permanently closing the Great Highway. 'My commitment to holding Supervisor Engardio accountable remains unchanged,' Budhai said in a statement. 'I continue to believe that a recall is warranted and necessary for the future of our community.' The recall effort kicked off in February against Engardio for his support of Prop K, which passed with more than 54% of the vote across San Francisco, but was opposed by the majority of residents in the Sunset and Richmond districts, which are closest to the new park. The 2-mile stretch of the Great Highway was closed to cars on March 14 and the new park — named Sunset Dunes following a namingcontest that included numerous anti-Engardio entries — opened on April 12, when thousands flocked to the oceanside stretch to celebrate the new park. Budhai's resignation comes only nine days before the May 22 deadline for the recall campaign to submit 10,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Budhai previously declined to share how many signatures the campaign had collected. 'I wish the committee and all those involved in the campaign continued success as they carry this effort forward,' Budhai said in a statement. Other west side residents have been pushing voters to 'Stand with Joel.' Engardio has also received high-profile support from Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, who donated $25,000 to the supervisor's cause. Some opponents of the recall have cited the cost of a recall election which they say wastes taxpayer money, and the fact that Engardio is up for reelection in November 2026 as reasons for their opposition. 'Not every Sunset resident is going to agree with me on every issue, but I'm committed to working with residents on issues that make the Sunset a great place to live,' Engardio previously said in response to the recall effort. 'I respect that people are going to disagree on how to use our coast. It's humbling to see a majority of my district opposing the ballot measure, so that's why I'm working so hard to address the core issues people had about the ballot measure. Sunset Dunes Park has also seen obstacles in court, a lawsuit filed alleges the closure of the Great Highway as unlawful. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include LivableSF, a nonprofit started by Budhai; Sunset hardware store owner Albert Chow; former District 7 supervisor candidate Matt Borschetto, and Outer Sunset resident Lisa Arjes. The issue of the park could also be sent back to voters if the recall campaign qualifies for the ballot. In her April 5 column in the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon, Supervisor Connie Chan wrote that the recall would present an opportunity to send a ballot measure to voters to reopen the highway to cars. But Chan would need six supervisors to make the election citywide, as only District 4 residents would be able to vote on an Engardio recall. She'd further need three more supervisors' signatures for the potential measure to reopen the highway to be placed on the ballot. Board President Rafael Mandelman said at the time that he does not see the need to revisit the issue of the Upper Great Highway.
