The leaflets blanketing windshields and doorsteps in the Marina District over the past week show a familiar urbanist dream: families walking hand in hand through a car-free waterfront park, with an unobstructed view of the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.
Permanently closing all four lanes of Marina Boulevard to private vehicles, the document argues, could make way for the construction of 900-plus homes and make that dream a reality.
The pitch is a familiar one to anyone even tangentially following the political back-and-forth that closed the Great Highway to vehicle traffic and converted it to the park Sunset Dunes.
In fact, the flyer directly states that the idea is “inspired by Sunset Dunes.”
At the bottom of the document is a box clarifying that it is an ad paid for by Friends of Marina Park. And, it says, the “community proposal” is aligned with San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Sunset Dunes Park, and the No on G campaign, which aims to keep vehicles off the Great Highway.
However, the San Francisco Ethics Commission has no record of a committee or filer by that name. And none of the purported allies of Friends of Marina Park have heard of it either.
So if this ad is fake, what were the intentions of its creator?
A map of the proposed car-free park shown on the flyer runs from the Presidio to the Marina Safeway, which so happens to be the site of a controversial proposal by Align Real Estate and Albertsons to replace the grocery store and surface parking lot with a 800-unit housing complex that would dwarf everything around it.
Since the project has roiled residents and Mayor Daniel Lurie alike, it would stand to reason that the creator of the flyer wants to confuse voters and conflate support of a public park with opposition to the pending redevelopment.
Source: Courtesy of a Marina resident
But Lori Brooke, who founded Neighborhoods United and the recent YesAnd! coalition (opens in new tab) to oppose projects like the Marina Safeway, said she doesn’t know who made the flyer, even though it echoes talking points her groups have made about building more housing while preserving environmental protections and community space.
One of the key points the flyer makes: “Reserve public space now so future growth supports a healthy, livable Marina.”
“It’s certainly an interesting idea,” Brooke said. But neither she nor anyone she knows made it, she insists.
Brooke said she first saw the flyer posted last week on Nextdoor, where there is always lively discussion about what’s happening in the Marina — from anger about the Safeway project to February’s chaotic F1 race.
Despite lawsuits filed against the project, Align’s proposal is poised for streamlined approval by the city. Some residents have taken to imagining alternative developments that would appease local housing mandates while preserving the neighborhood’s charm, Brooke said.
Align Real Estate declined to comment other than to say that it was the first time the firm had seen the flyer.
Rachel Clyde of the SF Bicycle Coalition said the group was unaware of the flyer until it was alerted by The Standard. “We did not endorse this proposal, and we did not approve the use of our chain-ring logo on this flyer,” she said.
Same goes for Friends of Sunset Dunes, which, in addition to having its logo used without permission, had its name misattributed on the flyer.
These are all hallmarks of an astroturfing scheme clumsily put together with AI via a prompt such as: “Do Sunset Dunes, but make it in the Marina.”
Still, an actual human had to go through the trouble of printing them out.