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A Board of Supervisors committee launched the most recent chapter within the protracted clash over the future of the Great Highway on Monday by advancing a proposal that might maintain the roadway car-free, part-time, by means of 2025.
If accredited by the complete board, the proposed pilot by outgoing Supervisor Gordon Mar, who represents the Sundown District, would maintain in place the freeway’s car-free hours — from midday Friday till 6 a.m. Monday — whereas metropolis workers examine its use.
The three-member Land Use and Transportation Committee moved the plan ahead with “no advice,” and it’s unclear if supervisors will try to amend the proposal when it goes to full board vote.
The plan’s development, nonetheless, is the primary significant motion taken by supervisors since an election by which city residents overwhelmingly rejected a measure, Proposition I, that might have reopened the Nice Freeway to vehicles 24/7. The measure would have additionally reopened the Nice Freeway Extension south of Sloat Boulevard that’s slated to completely shut subsequent yr due to coastal erosion.
However the interim pilot neither totally happy car-free advocates nor the phase of residents who need the freeway totally reopened to vehicles.
Automotive-free supporters say the voters’ resounding rejection of Prop. I, and approval of Prop. J for a everlasting car-free John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, function a mandate for extra car-free and “car-light” areas in San Francisco. Mates of Nice Freeway Park, a coalition vying for an eventual everlasting car-free Nice Freeway, supported extending car-free hours from Fridays at 6 a.m. as a approach for metropolis workers to check its use for a full weekday.
The proposal that the complete Board of Supervisors will contemplate particularly requires the Recreation and Park Division and Municipal Transportation Company to gather and publicly report knowledge on the Nice Freeway’s use by pedestrians and cyclists, in addition to automotive site visitors.
On the opposite aspect of the dialogue, a number of residents on town’s west aspect need the Nice Freeway to completely reopen to vehicles as a result of it serves as one in every of three fundamental arterials that residents use for north-south automotive journey by means of the Sundown.
Primarily based on voter precinct data, the strongest help for a full reopening to vehicles lies within the Outer Richmond and town’s southwestern nook, in addition to some southeastern precincts. The vast majority of voters in these precincts supported Prop. I, nonetheless, voters in every of town’s 11 supervisor districts opposed the measure.
The vast majority of precincts within the Sundown — together with these adjoining to the Nice Freeway — rejected Prop. I, with an excellent or very shut in some precincts.
San Francisco closed the Nice Freeway at the beginning of the pandemic, together with JFK Drive, as a solution to give residents extra space to recreate whereas social distancing. Mayor London Breed reopened the highway to cars on weekdays and components of Friday in August 2021.
Supervisor Myrna Melgar stated Monday earlier than the committee assembly that Mar had requested her to schedule his laws for the Land Use and Transportation Committee she chairs earlier than the election, however she declined. Mar narrowly lost his re-election bid this month to Supervisor-elect Joel Engardio. It’s unclear whether or not a board vote would occur earlier than Engardio is sworn in, although his stance on the Nice Freeway is much like Mar’s.
Michael Flagg, an air high quality scientist on the Bay Space Air High quality Administration District, crosses the Nice Freeway as he makes his solution to Ocean Seaside in San Francsico this previous March. Flagg goes to the seaside every day.
Gabrielle Lurie, Workers / The ChronicleMelgar reluctantly agreed to schedule it in committee after Mar requested once more final week and stated she’s been “inundated” by folks in three camps: those that need the Nice Freeway to shut to vehicles at 6 a.m. Friday, those that need to maintain it as it’s with a midday Friday closure and those that need it totally reopened to vehicles. Many residents within the third group dwell in her district, she stated.
Each Melgar and Supervisor Connie Chan, of the Richmond District, stated the problem stays extremely divisive of their districts and supported taking extra time to develop different potential choices to pilot.
“I feel that is nonetheless very, very contentious and Supervisor Mar is attempting to get this by means of earlier than he leaves workplace somewhat than placing within the work to give you one thing that works higher,” Melgar stated earlier than Monday’s assembly. “I concern the backlash. This has been a yr of backlash, and I don’t prefer it.”
Whereas San Francisco reached its conclusion on car-free JFK Drive with the November election, Monday’s committee assembly instructed that town might nonetheless be years away from a everlasting determination on the Nice Freeway.
“Over the past 4 years, (we’ve had) half a dozen group conferences, a number of city halls, a number of surveys, a (County Transportation Authority) examine, an impartial site visitors evaluation,” Mar, who launched the pilot in July, stated. “When you’ve got any critique of our course of right here, it ought to arguably be that it’s been too prolonged.”
Chronicle columnist Heather Knight contributed to this text.
Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle workers author. E-mail: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByRicardoCano
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