{"id":148068,"date":"2026-01-24T18:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148068\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T18:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:26:10","slug":"san-franciscans-are-sick-of-fighting-about-the-great-highway-its-time-to-move-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148068\/","title":{"rendered":"San Franciscans are sick of fighting about the Great Highway. It\u2019s time to move on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, San Francisco was blessed with glorious sunshine and unseasonal warmth. In response, tens of thousands of locals did what came naturally: They descended on the city\u2019s newest coastal park, Sunset Dunes, which was filled with families, skaters, cyclists, and neighbors enjoying the coast together. Most visitors who have soaked in this park, brimming with life and activity year-round, would say that Sunset Dunes should be cherished, not threatened.<\/p>\n

And yet, despite this overwhelming popularity, a small group of opponents is still trying to rewind the clock and rip out a park that tens of thousands of San Franciscans use every week.<\/p>\n

From its pilot phase in 2020 to its grand opening in April 2025, Sunset Dunes has batted off numerous attempts to close it. Meanwhile, more people are using the park (opens in new tab)<\/a> every day, neighborhood small businesses are benefiting from increased foot traffic (opens in new tab)<\/a>, and studies have shown that traffic conditions remain largely unchanged (opens in new tab)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the same small group of anti-park activists refuses to accept the outcome. First came the failed Proposition I in 2022 (opens in new tab)<\/a>, in which opponents sought to kill the weekend park pilot. Then came a lawsuit (opens in new tab)<\/a>, two appeals to the Board of Appeals (opens in new tab)<\/a>, and another appeal to the California Coastal Commission (opens in new tab)<\/a> \u2014 all of which were denied. Then came a campaign against Proposition K<\/a>, which permanently closed the Great Highway to cars and paved the way for Sunset Dunes. Then came another failed appeal to the Coastal Commission (opens in new tab)<\/a>. Then another failed lawsuit <\/a>attempting to overturn the results of Prop. K. The list goes on.<\/p>\n

Most recently, newly appointed Supervisor Alan Wong proposed a ballot measure<\/a> to close Sunset Dunes, in an apparent attempt to appease this narrow but vocal group of park opponents. His \u201ccompromise\u201d proposal was nothing of the sort, requiring the city to remove the very features that have made the park so successful and well-loved: play areas, a skate park and bike track, ocean-view seating, picnic areas, and public art. All of this at an unknown multimillion-dollar price tag to taxpayers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wong was unable to persuade a minimum of three colleagues on the board to support the measure, and it officially died<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Margaret Ostermann and her poodle Charlie participate in a doggie bike ride at Sunset Dunes in September. | Source: Thomas Sawano\/The Standard<\/p>\n

Now, with every institutional route exhausted, park opponents are once again announcing plans to gather signatures<\/a> for yet another ballot measure this November aimed at \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 closing Sunset Dunes. This would be, one hopes, their last desperate attempt to undo a democratic decision made by voters, upheld by the courts, and reaffirmed at City Hall.<\/p>\n

But this time, more voters across the Sunset and throughout the city are saying they\u2019ve had enough. They like Sunset Dunes. They want it to stay. They bring their kids there to play and their elderly parents there for walks. They\u2019ve discovered local businesses on streets like Irving, Judah, Noriega, and Taraval. Their commutes haven\u2019t meaningfully changed. They want to focus instead on the many serious challenges facing San Francisco and the nation rather than relitigate, yet again, whether a beloved public park should exist.<\/p>\n

The reality is that Sunset Dunes is a wildly popular park that has changed the Sunset \u2014 and the city \u2014 for the better. The sooner we stop treating it like an unresolved controversy and start treating it like the success it clearly is, the sooner we can start investing in its future as a world-class coastal park, on par with places like Crissy Field, Tunnel Tops, and India Basin.<\/p>\n

This fight has dragged on long enough. It\u2019s time to put down the swords, accept the outcome, and come together to plan the future of our coast.<\/p>\n

To be clear: If anti-park activists succeed in qualifying another ballot measure to close Sunset Dunes, we will fight with everything we have to protect the park. And I am confident San Franciscans will once again reject an effort to take away something they clearly love.<\/p>\n

But the better outcome \u2014 for everyone \u2014 is for those who keep trying and failing to close Sunset Dunes to recognize reality. They have lost at the ballot box, in the courts, and at City Hall, multiple times. San Franciscans love Sunset Dunes and will continue to defend it. Advocates on both sides must recognize when an issue is settled. It\u2019s time to put the fight behind us and move forward so we can enjoy our beautiful new coastal park together.<\/p>\n

Lucas Lux lives in the Outer Sunset and serves as president of Friends of Sunset Dunes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, San Francisco was blessed with glorious sunshine and unseasonal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4752,636,9386,73544,101,103,102,104,106,105,27669],"class_list":["post-148068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-city-hall","tag-daniel-lurie","tag-great-highway","tag-recreation-and-parks-department","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sunset-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148068","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=148068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}