SF Lawmaker Faces Growing Backlash for Supporting Great Highway Closure

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A San Francisco lawmaker is facing increasing criticism from his constituents and some local groups for supporting a ballot measure to permanently close the Great Highway to car traffic and turn it into a park. 

District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, who represents the Sunset District, caught many residents off guard when he co-sponsored the proposition. They said he should have consulted them before backing the measure, which has caused divisions in the community. Some people have urged the supervisors to change or withdraw it from the November ballot.

And some vowed to vote against Engardio at the next opportunity.

“I don’t consider him my supervisor anymore,” said Patricia Arack, who lives near the Great Highway and leads the group Concerned Residents of the Sunset, founded in 2020 in objection to the artery’s closure at the time. She supported Engardio in the district’s previous election, expecting that he would maintain the status quo — the thoroughfare hosts cars during the week and closes to cars on weekends so that people can walk and bike along it.

The Great Highway’s hybrid use is slated to cease at the end of 2025. The ballot measure, which Engardio sponsored alongside four other supervisors and Mayor London Breed, would discontinue the hybrid use ahead of schedule. 

The San Francisco Public Press asked Engardio if he ever told his constituents and his district’s various community and political groups about his intent to co-sponsor the ballot measure.

He did not directly answer that question. Instead, he had “generally talked about the future of the Great Highway when asked about it at various town hall meetings or other group settings since last year,” he said. “I’ve talked about the vision for an oceanside park.”

“I should have done a better job explaining to constituents that putting this on the ballot gives people who oppose the park a chance to vote against it,” he added. 

But messages about his intent to put his name on the ballot measure did not reach many in the neighborhoods he represents, based on the Public Press’ interviews with those people and groups in recent weeks. 

Many westside residents said they were concerned that citywide voters would approve the measure without understanding the local impacts that they feared it would have, like worsening traffic in residential areas and on 19th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.

Lack of public outreach 

So far, two prominent organizations with predominantly Chinese American members have come out against the ballot measure: The Chinese American Democratic Club voted to oppose it last week, and announced their position Tuesday on social media platform X; and the Sunset branch of the Chinatown Merchants United Association of San Francisco opposed it in June, with the full association following suit July 1.  

Representatives from both groups said Engardio had not consulted them in the lead-up to publicly supporting the measure, with the Democratic Club’s leader, Josephine Zhao, expressing anger about it. 

Albert Chow, owner of Great Wall Hardware and president of People of Parkside Sunset, a neighborhood group with merchant and resident members, also said he was frustrated and bewildered that Engardio did not consult him.

Many of the supervisor’s constituents had similar feelings. 

“He did not say one word to a very significant number of people in his own district who are against it,” Arack said, referring to the ballot measure. “He just did it.”

Like Arack, Wendy Wong voted for Engardio in the last election but said she now plans to vote for someone else next time around if the incumbent has competition. 

“Usually, he will reach out to the community and want to hear from the community, but then he did not do that part” when it came to the ballot measure, Wong said. 

Selena Chu, who used to support the supervisor, said the local Chinese community went the extra mile by campaigning to get the “right person in office,” and Engardio seemed like that person — but now it appears that he is not listening to them.

Great Highway issue ‘pitting neighbor against neighbor’

The highway has been a popular destination as a park since its closure during the pandemic, with millions of visitors since April 2020 and major events that have each drawn an average of more than 10,000 people, according to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Proponents of the permanent closure say it would increase safety for pedestrians. And it would create an alternative path along the coastline for people with limited mobility who might struggle with sand, like seniors or those in wheelchairs.

In a June blog post, Engardio explained the potential economic and other benefits of transforming the Great Highway into a park, and how vehicle traffic might shift to accommodate it.

“For two years, the park was tested during COVID,” said Anne Marguerite Herbst, who runs an art gallery near the Great Highway. “This is how we know what a success it is, and how many people from other areas of the city came out to use the beach, to use the park, to ride their bikes, whatever. We’ve lived this dream.” 

She had voted for then-incumbent Gordon Mar in the most recent election for District 4 supervisor. But when Engardio co-sponsored the ballot measure this year to close the highway, she made a “360 degree” turn, she said, and now plans to vote for him.

She is one of the many passionate people on either side of the issue, who are often at odds.

“This has been so divisive,” said Alyse Ceirante, a former tenant advocate who has lived blocks away from the Great Highway for 38 years. She is a member of Open the Great Highway, a group that opposes the street’s closure. “This is pitting neighbor against neighbor.” 

Ceirante stopped posting about the issue on neighborhood social media platform Nextdoor after users sent her responses that she called “abusive.”

Sunset resident Stephen Gorski received a threatening call after voicing his opposition to the measure in an interview on CBS news, he said. 

People are “really at each other’s throat on this issue,” Chow said. He called it “dangerous” to the community’s harmony. 

At a neighborhood event that Chow hosted last week, Engardio sat down with People of Parkside Sunset members and heard their opinions, which were mixed, on the ballot measure. 

That night, Chow confronted Engardio. 

Chow told him that, in the past, “We talked about all kinds of things to make Sunset better. Why was this the one thing that you just hid it from us?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you a heads up,” Engardio replied, “but it’s been a topic front and center for years.” He explained to Chow and others that by putting it on the ballot, he wanted to give voters control over the Great Highway’s future. Otherwise, supervisors would probably legislate its closure after its hybrid-use mandate expired, he said.

Pressure to withdraw measure

The supervisors put the measure on the ballot on June 18, their last possible day to do so. That left westside residents little time to organize and create a competing measure, Chow said.

That’s why he is trying to persuade Engardio to alter the measure he co-sponsored or remove it from the November ballot. The deadlines to amend or withdraw it are July 26 and July 30, respectively. 

Arack, of Concerned Residents of the Sunset, is also pushing for the measure’s removal. In a Letter to the Editor, published Wednesday in the Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon, she called for retaining the Great Highway’s hybrid use.

“Now is the time to withdraw this flawed initiative from the ballot,” she said, “and plan for the inclusion of all stakeholders in a decision that is a compromise.”

Editor’s note: On July 17, 2024, this story was updated with information about the popularity of the Great Highway’s hybrid use as a park, as well as potential benefits if it were fully converted to a park. On July 18, it was updated with a reference to Supervisor Joel Engardio’s June blog post further explaining how that conversion could work.

Also, this article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.