San Francisco, CA
2024 Election: What to know about San Francisco's Proposition K
Prop K: Opponents worried about traffic, business impacts
San Francisco voters will weigh in on Proposition K on the November ballot, which proposes closing part of the Great Highway to create a park and recreation area from Lincoln Way south to Sloat Boulevard.
SAN FRANCISCO – With not much else to do during the COVID-19 pandemic, people were forced to go out and enjoy nature. In San Francisco, the Great Highway closed to traffic allowing pedestrians to roam freely and take in ocean views.
What is Prop K?
Now, voters have the opportunity to close the popular stretch of road to private vehicles, seven days a week, permanently establishing public recreation space.
The measure, Proposition K, needs a 50%+1 affirmative vote to pass.
The upper Great Highway is a two-mile segment of the roadway.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency boasts this stretch as a 17-acre park with a two-mile promenade on weekends. On weekdays, it is a roadway with an adjacent trail.
What a yes vote means
A yes vote means you want the city to use the Upper Great Highway as public open recreation space, permanently closing it to private motor vehicles seven days a week with limited expectations.
What a no vote means
A no vote means you do not want San Francisco to make these changes.
Who is sponsoring Prop K?
A collective of the San Francisco County Supervisors sponsored the ballot measure including Supervisors Joel Engardio, Myrna Melgar, Dean Preston, Rafael Mandelman, and Matt Dorsey. They submitted the ballot measure in June.
Other supervisors who have cosigned this proposition include mayoral candidate Ahsha Safai and Hilary Ronen.
Prop K is seeing prominent endorsements from Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, State Senator Scott Wiener, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
During the pandemic, the Great Highway was closed to private vehicles between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard.
As the public health crisis waned, city officials tried pilot programs to appease both drivers and those who enjoyed the newfound pedestrian freedom from the road’s closure.
No on Prop K rally held in San Francisco
A rally was held on Wednesday to oppose a measure on November’s ballot that would shut down the Great Highway at Ocean Beach to private vehicles. They say thousands of people use the roadway daily to get to work, to the V.A. hospital or to visit loved ones. The supervisor who authored the measure says the city is working on making traffic flow improvements to other streets that would see impacts from the closure.
Who opposes Prop K?
While the measure for Prop K made the ballot, opponents said thousands of people use the Great Highway daily to get to work, to access the V.A. hospital and to visit loved ones.
They also wanted the focus to be on the traffic impacts to other neighborhoods.
Supervisor Engardio, who authored the measure, said the city is working on making traffic flow improvements on other city streets.
“There is capacity to get people where they need to go in their cars, and have an oceanside park that would bring immense benefit,” said Engardio. “It’s good for the environment, it’s good for local business and it creates joy for generations of San Franciscans.”
Chris Gutierrez, a barista at Ocean Beach Cafe, said he moved to San Francisco a few months ago.
“I’ve heard people say [closing it to traffic] will make greater traffic on Irving Street,” said Gutierrez. But he had a difference of opinion. “I’m always down for more green spaces.”
Sunset District resident Eliza Panike shared a similar perspective.
“I don’t use the Great Highway as a transit corridor. I use it far more when it is a park,” she said.
Mixed reviews
But there are mixed reviews.
“It will divert all the traffic into the neighborhoods,” said Bobby Von Merta, a San Francisco native whose house is along the Great Highway. “You’ll only have one access along Sunset Boulevard there, which if you come down here on the weekends, it’s already backed up right now.”
Engardio said if Prop K doesn’t pass, The Great Highway south of Sloat Boulevard will have to close next year anyway due to coastal erosion.
“Right now, if people want to ride bikes, they can already do it on the Great Highway. There is a path to jog on both sides,” said Albert Chow, owner of the Great Wall Hardware Store on Taraval Street who does not support Prop. K.
In May 2022, the Upper Great Highway was closed to private vehicles on Friday afternoons, weekends and holidays.
According to the SFMTA, in December 2022, the SF Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance to keep this section of the Upper Great Highway as a car-free promenade through December 31, 2025. This ordinance also allowed for a three-year pilot study.
The transit agency’s website says the pilot project ordinance maintains the schedule that the road is closed to private vehicles starting Friday afternoons at 12 p.m. through Monday mornings at 6 a.m. and on holidays.
Voters should note, emergency vehicles, official government vehicles and public transit shuttles would not be impacted by the road closure.
If Prop K passes, it would also require approvals under the California Coastal Act as well as amendments to the city’s general plan.
The current pilot program in place is scheduled to end on December 31, 2025.
The Yes on K – Ocean Beach Park group says the land is owned and managed by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, whose charter states that park land shall be used for recreational purposes.
With San Francisco down three runs,
Police in San Francisco released body camera footage and additional details following a shootout with a robbery suspect that critically wounded an officer.
On Tuesday, the department held a virtual town hall meeting on the incident, which occurred on the night of May 31.
“In the San Francisco Police Department, we recognize that our sworn duty as law enforcement officers is to honor and respect the sanctity of human life. We also know that as police officers, we are sometimes required to use force, including deadly force, in the performance of our duties,” Police Chief Derrick Lew said.
Acting Commander Thomas Harvey delivered a multimedia presentation of the incident. Shortly before 10:30 p.m. that night, a license plate reader alerted officers about a vehicle associated with an armed robbery entering San Francisco on the Bay Bridge.
Officers found the vehicle, a gray Toyota Camry sedan, traveling northbound on Fifth Street from Folsom Street. Drones and other resources were requested as part of a plan to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle.
Around 10:40 p.m. officers attempted to stop the vehicle at Mission and First streets in the city’s South of Market.
In bodycam footage, officers are heard ordering the driver to turn the vehicle off. One of the officers is heard saying, “He’s gonna take off. I think he’s gonna take off.”
The driver led officers on a pursuit, which ended with the driver striking a concrete median on Bayshore Boulevard near Jerrold Avenue.
Harvey said as officers told the suspects inside the vehicle to come out with their hands up, the driver emerged from the vehicle and fired at police, striking an officer. One of the officers, identified as Brittany Taylor, was struck by gunfire.
Several officers returned fire, striking a passenger in the vehicle.
Harvey identified the officers who discharged their weapons as Officer Rachel Carranza, Officer Jeremmy Catiller and Officer Angela Maniego.
Taylor is receiving medical treatment for her injuries at a local hospital.
“I also want to send our best wishes to our officer in her continued success in recovery and also want to thank the public for the overwhelming support that we’ve received,” Lew said at the briefing.
The passenger, later identified as Ariunsanaaa Dolgorsuren, was arrested and is currently receiving medical treatment for his injuries, police said.
The driver of the vehicle left the scene on foot across Bayshore Boulevard, through a Chevron station parking lot and eastbound Jerrold Avenue. Shortly after 12:15 a.m. on June 1, police received a call that the suspect was inside the gate of the Bayshore Navigation Center.
Officers arrested the suspect, later identified as 36-year-old Norris Reed III of Oakland. Video from police showed officers seizing two firearms from Reed, which were determined to be a .40 caliber Glock 23 handgun and a 9mm privately manufactured handgun with no serial number.
Reed faces multiple charges, including four counts of attempted murder, assault with a firearm upon a police officer, resisting an executive officer with force or violence, reckless evading, being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and conspiracy.
Jail records show Reed is being held without bail, with his next court appearance scheduled for June 11.
Dolgorsuren is also facing four counts of attempted murder, assault with a firearm upon a police officer, resisting an executive officer with force or violence, conspiracy and shooting from a motor vehicle
The shooting remains under investigation by multiple entities, including the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, the police department’s Investigative Services Division and Internal Affairs Division, along with the Department of Police Accountability.
A new mural in San Francisco is getting lots of attention as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on the fight over birthright citizenship this summer.
Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco’s Chinatown, cemented birthright citizenship in the U.S. more than 120 years ago.
“I am an American” is written in both English and Chinese with Wong Kim Ark’s portrait at the corner of Sacramento Street and Grant Avenue. The mural is located near the corner where Wong Kim Ark was born in the 1870s to Chinese immigration parents.
Norman Chuck, known as “Vogue,” along with Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong of Twin Walls Mural Company, have been working on the project for the past month.
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Wong Kim Ark,” Chu said.
“It tells us that we belong here and we matter just as much as the next person,” Vogue said.
“Both my parents were immigrants from China,” Vogue went on to say. “I am a first-born American, so it directly relates to me.”
The mural and a bronze plaque are on display at the Chinatown corner for people to stop and learn.
Wong Kim Ark was refused entry back into the U.S. after a trip to China under the Chinese Exclusion Act. Wong Kim Ark challenged the Supreme Court on his right to be called an American citizen and won his case in 1898.
“We want this mural to not also educate but also be a part of the community where people can see themselves reflected in these spaces, in Wong Kim Ark,” Chu said.
“A lot of our aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents came through Angel Island, and that shouldn’t be something that’s looked at as a negative,” Perez-Wong said. “We’re what makes this community vibrant.”
California and other states are suing President Donald Trump over his executive order to end birthright citizenship. For San Francisco, it means the story of “Wong Kim Ark” is more relevant than ever. Gia Vang reports.
The artists collaborated with the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum (CHSA), community and family members on the project. Each image on the wall has a story to tell, reflecting Wong Kim Ark’s life like his village and passport photos. There are also images that reflect the Chinatown community, like a vendor or family.
“The story of immigrants, the story of people who were born here who shouldn’t be considered foreign because they were born here, it’s birthright citizenship,” Perez-Wong.
The artists hope when people walk by, they will see the layers of history that spark curiosity and celebration.
“This is a legacy mural for me,” Vogue said.
“I had a little kid walk by and he read, ‘I am an American,’ and I just remember he boldly and proudly said, ‘I’m a Chinese American,’ when he walked by with his mom,” Chu said.
San Francisco leaders on Friday commemorated nearly 130 years since the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed birthright citizenship to everyone born in the country, including the children of all immigrants. Sergio Quintana reports.
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