San Francisco, CA
San Francisco to vote on the future of the Great Highway: oceanfront park or thoroughfare
There is a debate over the future of San Francisco’s Great Highway: Supporters of Prop K call it a once-in-a-generation chance for a new oceanfront park, and critics say it is a traffic debacle in the making.
If approved, Proposition K would turn a two-mile stretch of the Upper Great Highway into an open space. That would permanently open the roadway up to cyclists and joggers, like it currently is on the weekends, and weekday traffic would get shifted to other streets.
It’s a debate that goes back to the highway’s closure during the pandemic, and it has divided a neighborhood ahead of a vote by the entire city.
“I came here three years ago,” said Grace Princen “So, during COVID. And they had just started opening up the highway.”
Grace Princen is a Sunset resident, a park volunteer, and a supporter of the plan to permanently close this stretch of the Great Highway
“It’s just really great,” Princen said. “There’s so many people who come out, even if it’s not sunny, even if it’s really foggy or bad weather. There’s always a ton of people here on the weekends.”
“The work we’re beginning today over the next few months is a great start,” said Jane Lew of the “Yes on K” Campaign. “But for it to have maximum impact, we need to pass Proposition K.”
Prop K would close the highway from Sloat to Lincoln. And the way supporters describe it, it’s really not much of a choice.
“The southern part of the highway is already falling into the ocean because of coastal erosion,” said Supervisor Joel Engardio. “So, that’s the lemon. The lemonade is what we’re trying to fix and create here by creating this park.”
“I’ve lived here for 47 years,” said Sunset resident Joe Wiegand. “My first job was working at Playland at the Beach back in 1963.”
Wiegand has spent most of his life living right on the Great Highway. He wants it to remain just that.
“Just says open the Great Highway,” Wiegand said. “This one is ‘No, On K.’”
And like most opponents, the reason is this.
“Well mainly the traffic,” Wiegand explained. “All those cars that are out there there isn’t any other way to get from the Richmond District south of here or for that matter to go north. So that traffic has to go up to 19th Avenue or Sunset, if it just wanted to be on this side.”
“Are we going to be in a situation where people can just say, ‘Well’ let’s close this street,” said John Trasvina with the “No on K” Campaign. “Let’s close Dublin or Persia or Mission Street for whatever reason. We can’t do these things by putting them on the ballot and have everybody vote. That’s why we have supervisors.”
Opponents said the measure sets a bad precedent for closing park-adjacent streets. And there’s frustration that what they feel is very much a neighborhood issue has been handed to voters across San Francisco.
“Having it put on the city ballot was a way for Joel Engardio, our supervisor, to dilute our intense voices because we live there,” complained Albert Chow. “We know what the dynamics are.”
“So, it’s a mixed bag,” Engardio said of the dispute. “There are people who are against it, There are people who want it. And that’s why it’s on the ballot. Because this is not going to go away, this contentious issue, and we need everyone to have a say.”
Supervisor Engardio, who has been threatened with a recall over the issue, said improvements on streets like Sunset Avenue can accommodate the traffic changes.
“I’ve seen the plans for how they’re gonna reroute traffic, and I just don’t think there’s going to be a huge impact on people who are driving through this area,” Princen said. “Especially because the upper part of Sloat is being closed.”
How it would impact traffic, the amount of recreation the park might see on a weekdays: It is a divide people can see in the windows along the Great Highway, or what may soon become the city’s newest park.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” Wiegand said.
Pop K has the backing of a list of environmental groups, seven of the city’s supervisors, and a giant snowy plover.
So, some of the opponents in the neighborhood said it can feel a bit like them against the world.
A “yes” vote would only designate the area as a park. Any redesign or physical transformation would all have to start from scratch, some time following an approval by the voters.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — ABC7 Eyewitness News got a sneak peak as crews put the finishing touches on the floats you’ll see at Saturday’s San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade.
Since it’s the year of the fire horse, you’ll see a lot of horses and fire symbolism on the floats, housed at Pier 19.
“So Year of the Horse, it’s energy, it’s passion, it’s momentum so a lot of things that we’re really hoping to embody in the new year,” said Stephanie Mufson, owner of San Francisco-based The Parade Guys, which designs and constructs the floats.
She said they’ve been building them for about three months, with the designs starting in November.
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“We’re in the home stretch,” she said. “We’ve got a couple of days left and we’ve got a nice little team that’s cranking out all the finishing work that needs to go into it.”
Derrick Shavers was sanding some wood that will be painted and become cherry blossom trees on a float.
“It’s exciting,” Shavers said. “I look forward to coming every year and just creating and making things shine and sparkle.”
Bon was painting mountains for a float, making sure everything is perfect in time for the parade.
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“It’s one of the few parades that actually happens at night still,” Bon said. “So we got to make sure all the lighting is in check, and people are safe on the float. It’s all in the details, just for it to walk by you for 10 seconds.”
Ten seconds that bring so much joy to those watching the parade.
Here’s how you can watch the parade on ABC7 Eyewitness News on Saturday, March 7.
Coverage starts at 5 p.m. wherever you stream ABC7.
SF Chinese New Year Parade 2026: How to watch ABC7 Eyewitness News live coverage
If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
Copyright © 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.
San Francisco, CA
Celebrated San Francisco historic landmark, the Huntington Hotel officially reopens
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — First opened as apartments in 1922 and converted into a hotel two years later, the Huntington was once a playground for socialites and Hollywood stars.
It shut its doors in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and remained shuttered until this week, following new owners and a million-dollar, top-to-bottom renovation.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for The Huntington Hotel in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood Monday.
The hotel officially reopened on Sunday.
Mayor Daniel Lurie attended the celebration for the hotel on California Street.
“This is another sign that San Francisco is on the rise, when you have major institutions and major hotels reopening,” Lurie said. “We’re seeing it in Union Square. We’re seeing it now up here on Nob Hill. This is an exciting moment for San Francisco.”
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The hotel, known for its iconic sign, will be restoring the landmark sign to its former glory.
Many say it’s a symbol of what’s going on in San Francisco.
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“It came to symbolize San Francisco’s decline during COVID when it shut and it now, I think, symbolizes San Francisco’s rebirth,” said Greg Flynn, Flynn Group Founder, Chairman, and CEO. “It’s sort of the perfect symbol of it because it’s coming back better than it ever was.”
Alex Bastian, President and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, said hotel occupancy rates are up in 2024.
“Our data team crunched the numbers, and the four-week rolling hotel occupancy rate for San Francisco Bay Area hotels is 55.1 percent as of January 17 of this year. Compare that to January 17 of 2021, during the pandemi,c when it was 13.1 percent.”
Of course, the Super Bowl helped.
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“There’s no marketing campaign better than what we achieved as San Franciscans,” Bastian said. “The mayor and his team really elevated the game. They did an incredible job. We are so fortunate, as a city, because so many came here and they left their hearts here in San Francisco.”
Eyewitness News wasn’t allowed to gather video of the hotel’s features, but the hotel provided renderings of a sample room.
Matthew de Quillien, The Huntington Hotel General Manager, said the hotel has 143 rooms, many of them suites. Also, the Nob Hill Spa, Arabella’s Cocktail Salo,n and a reopening of The Big Four Restaurant, featuring its famous chicken pot pie.
“Our owner was able to find the original recipe from the 70’s and we remastered it and we’re … serving it to our guests,” de Quillien said.
He said rates range from $600 a night to $7,000 a night for its Presidential suite.
The restaurant opens to the public on March 17.
If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
Copyright © 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Walk SF and Families for Safe Streets held a vigil Monday evening to honor a 2-year-old girl who was struck and killed by a driver Friday night in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
The crash happened just before 9 p.m. at Fourth and Channel streets near Oracle Park. Police said the child’s mother was also injured and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver remained at the scene, and authorities said drugs or alcohol are not believed to be factors.
Community heartbroken
Community members gathered at the intersection Monday to light candles and lay flowers. Among them was the Howard family.
“We’re just heartbroken and sad,” said Hidelisa Howard.
“I was thinking about heartbroken parents, someone who cannot get their daughter back,” said John Howard.
The intersection is designated as part of San Francisco’s 2022 High Injury Network, identifying streets with the highest concentration of severe and fatal traffic crashes. Speed cameras were recently installed in the surrounding neighborhood.
Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk SF, called the crash a tragedy, noting a previous fatal collision involving a child at Fourth and King streets several years ago.
Traffic intensifies
Parents in the area said traffic has intensified with nearby events and development.
“We love having people here in the neighborhood, and it’s brought a lot of life to the area,” said Hidelisa Howard, who lives nearby. “But at the same time, we have people coming in from out of the area. They’re not familiar with the streets, they’re running the lights, they’re running the crosswalks.”
District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey said the intersection has been problematic.
“Sometimes people go too fast. I don’t know that this was the issue here, but we need to do everything we can to make our neighborhoods and our streets safer,” Dorsey said.
On Monday, crews with the SFMTA repainted crosswalks and re-timed traffic signals at the intersection.
“It just feels like there’s so many young children in this neighborhood that there should be improvements made to the way that the traffic flows around here,” said Aanisha Jain, a San Francisco resident.
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