{"id":143273,"date":"2026-01-21T16:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143273\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:18:14","slug":"san-francisco-supes-wong-walton-clash-over-push-for-great-highway-compromise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143273\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco supes Wong, Walton clash over push for Great Highway compromise"},"content":{"rendered":"

A SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR on Tuesday defended his opposition to a proposal at last week\u2019s Board of Supervisors meeting that would have placed a new measure on the ballot to decide the fate of the Great Highway that was recently turned into a coastal park along the western edge of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Supervisor Alan Wong, whose District 4 includes the Great Highway, made a failed attempt<\/a> to get a measure on the June ballot that would reopen the Great Highway to cars on weekdays. He blamed, in part, Supervisor Shamann Walton, representing District 10 in the southeast part of the city, for its failure to get enough signatures from other supervisors in time for the Jan. 13 deadline.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Walton said he supports a compromise; he just didn\u2019t like the draft Wong created.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to ballot measures, my priorities are to advocate for things that serve District 10 residents and the city as a whole,\u201d said Walton in an email. \u201cThere are several important issues and critical priorities on the June ballot, and I do not want to be distracted by a measure that was not well thought-out, introduced at the last minute, and constantly changing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"FILE: A car displays an \u201cOpen the Great Highway\u201d sign during a protest against plans to permanently close the Upper Great Highway in San Francisco on July 18, 2024. (Alise Maripuu\/Bay City News)<\/p>\n

In November 2024, San Francisco voters approved Proposition K<\/a>, which permanently closed the Great Highway to cars and created a coastal park called Sunset Dunes. However, the majority of voters in District 4, which includes the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods, were opposed to the closure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Backlash over Proposition K\u2019s passage led District 4 voters to recall their former supervisor Joel Engardio<\/a> in September, with some arguing he led the measure against the wishes of his constituents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Sabotaged by political gamesmanship\u2019<\/p>\n

Wong, who was appointed in December of last year by Mayor Daniel Lurie to fill Engardio\u2019s seat, decided to propose getting a measure on the June ballot to undo Proposition K and restore the compromise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He needed at least three other signatures from other supervisors by Jan. 13 at 5 p.m., but he fell short. Only Supervisors Connie Chan and Chyanne Chen, who had previously said they were against the closing of the Great Highway, got on board. Walton, who has historically been opposed to initiatives that close roads to cars, declined to sign on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wong said his colleague\u2019s approach to the issue has been \u201cbaffling,\u201d especially since Walton previously said he would support reopening the Great Highway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, Walton said he would prefer a citizen-led effort to get the measure on the ballot for the November election.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"San Francisco District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong holds up a document with three signatures in support of a ballot measure to reopen the Great Highway to cars on weekdays on Tuesday, Jan. 13 in San Francisco, Calif. Wong was not able to collect enough signatures from other supervisors needed for the measure to be placed on the ballot for the June 2026 election. (Alise Maripuu\/Bay City News)<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of him signing one signature to put it on the ballot, he is making people gather 10,000 signatures to put it on the ballot five months later in November instead of June,\u201d Wong said in an interview. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make sense at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wong surmised that his plan was \u201csabotaged by political gamesmanship,\u201d because one of Walton\u2019s aides, Natalie Gee, is running against Wong in the upcoming June election where District 4 voters will decide if they want to keep Wong as their supervisor to serve out the remainder of Engardio\u2019s term.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walton supports \u2018community-led\u2019 process<\/p>\n

But Walton said that the last-minute process of creating the measure and the changes in its language deterred him from supporting it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wong did not have a final version of the ballot measure until Jan. 12, the day before the deadline. He sent drafts to Walton on Jan. 8.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only major change, Wong said, was that the proposed weekend closure to cars start Fridays at 6 p.m. instead of Fridays at noon.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had sent supervisor Walton a draft of that legislation and asked him multiple times if he had any questions, if he needed to call me,\u201d Wong said. \u201cI sent each iteration to him, and up to last minute, he told me that he had no questions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gee said in a statement that Wong did not try and lobby Walton in person or visit his office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who has worked at the Board of Supervisors knows that the most effective way to lobby colleagues is in person,\u201d Gee said. \u201cHe needs to take responsibility for his own actions, or lack thereof.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wong doubled down, defending his approach to crafting the measure given the time constraints since he entered office Dec. 3.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"FILE: San Francisco voters approved Proposition K on the November 2024 ballot to permanently close a section of the Upper Great Highway along Ocean Beach to become what is now Sunset Dunes park. (Friends of Great Highway Park via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we shared was very straightforward and simple \u2014 Do you support rescinding Proposition K and reopening the Great Highway on weekdays?\u201d Wong said. \u201cThat\u2019s a straightforward policy matter that folks have taken a position on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In light of Wong\u2019s failed attempt, citizens have taken matters into their own hands<\/a>. The group that organized the recall campaign against Engardio will start collecting signatures for a measure to allow cars back on the Great Highway on weekdays. The road would close on the weekends and turn into a park for pedestrians.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walton said he will support the community-led effort.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI continue to support a compromise from the community around the Great Highway,\u201d he said. \u201cI look forward to supporting the community-led process to get a measure on the ballot in November that will be well thought-out and not rushed and disjointed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR on Tuesday defended his opposition to a proposal at last week\u2019s Board of Supervisors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[45661,26566,757,9386,33995,101,34860,103,102,104,106,105,19147,33997,821],"class_list":["post-143273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-alan-wong","tag-ballot-measures","tag-closures","tag-great-highway","tag-proposition-k","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-shamann-walton","tag-supervisor-joel-engardio","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}