{"id":491899,"date":"2026-10-10T20:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T20:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491899\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T20:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T20:52:14","slug":"the-kid-forward-campaign-to-keep-the-great-highway-closed-to-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491899\/","title":{"rendered":"The kid-forward campaign to keep the Great Highway closed to cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

For six years, the fight over the Great Highway has been about traffic, safety, and who gets a say in the Sunset. With four weeks to go before the election, the campaign to keep Sunset Dunes car-free has landed on a simpler pitch: happy kids.<\/p>\n

Last month, the park got its first playground. Shipwreck Cove, a ship-shaped play structure that sits a few feet from Ocean Beach, was built with $800,000 in private donations raised by Friends of Sunset Dunes, the group that backed the 2024 measure that created the park. The structure opened as a one-year pilot that can be extended. Within days, it was full of children.<\/p>\n

It quickly became campaign fodder. The campaign against Proposition G, a ballot measure that would reopen the road to cars on weekdays, is running two ads on Facebook and Instagram: one about the cost of reopening the road, the other about losing the park benches and playground. Both leaned into the emotive issue of children. As a soothing voice makes the campaign\u2019s case, video of the park in action shows a boy climbing down from the new playground. Another ad provided by the campaign shows children (opens in new tab)<\/a> gathered on top of it, saying \u201cwe love Sunset Dunes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the kids monkeying around on the playground smack in the middle of Sunset Dunes, it isn\u2019t hard to find parents who plan to vote against Prop. G.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ChildrenThe No on G campaign is telling voters that voting \u201cyes\u201d on the ballot measure means voting \u201cno\u201d on the park. | Source: Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard<\/p>\n

Most have seen signs supporting or opposing the measure in neighborhood windows or the ads in opposition. Yet when they\u2019re asked to recall what they remember from the videos they all say they remember the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember a kid being happy,\u201d said Emily Novia, whose son is 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cVideos of the park, the kids,\u201d said Rolando Contreras, 35, watching his 21-month-old son Teo toddle up a play structure\u2019s steps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The debate about whether to reopen the Great Highway to cars has revolved around concerns about displaced traffic clogging nearby residential streets and making them unsafe. Those supporting the park have attempted to dispute those claims with their own crash metrics. But the ads convey a more emotional message: Voting \u201cyes\u201d on G means voting \u201cno\u201d on kids.<\/p>\n

Sunset Dunes opened in April 2025, five months after voters approved Proposition K, which permanently closed a two-mile stretch of the Upper Great Highway. The highway had been car-free on weekends since 2022, after a pandemic-era full closure. Prop. G, which qualified for the November ballot by signature petition in July, would reopen the road to cars each week from 4 a.m. Monday until 6 p.m. Friday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AKids playing on the Shipwreck Cove playground is shown in No on G ads. | Source: T\u00e2m V\u0169 for The Standard\"ASunset Dunes, along with its playground, are popular among young families. | Source: T\u00e2m V\u0169 for The Standard<\/p>\n

The city controller estimates that reopening would cost about $9.8 million upfront, mostly for new traffic signals, plus $500,000 to $1.9 million a year.<\/p>\n

The ads highlight the gulf in campaign cash between the two sides. The \u201cyes\u201d campaign has received $101,000 (opens in new tab)<\/a> in contributions and has spent $59,000, according to the city\u2019s Ethics Commission. Add a zero to both those numbers, and you\u2019d still be short (opens in new tab)<\/a> of what the \u201cno\u201d campaign has raised and spent. The \u201cno\u201d campaign has spent $183,000 on literature and mailers and $60,000 on TV ads, according to Ethics Commission filings, while the \u201cyes\u201d campaign has spent $4,300, all on radio ads.<\/p>\n

Framing a political issue as a matter of children\u2019s welfare can be effective. Campaigns need voters\u2019 attention and trust, and children command both, according to political strategist Jim Ross.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are using one of the most powerful spokespeople you can have, which is kids,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n

No on G campaign manager Lucas Lux claimed the campaign isn\u2019t focusing on kids and is telling all park users that voting \u201cyes\u201d would close it. He also disputes the Yes on G campaign\u2019s claim that the Great Highway can be both a park and a road, since reopening it to traffic would require removing seating and the playground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we had before was a road closure,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a park.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThreeShipwreck Cove, a playground in the middle of Sunset Dunes, opened last month. | Source: T\u00e2m V\u0169 for The Standard<\/p>\n

Ryuka, 5, said he\u2019d prefer to keep the park \u2014 and the playground \u2014 over a road during weekdays.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayground,\u201d he said softly, avoiding meeting this reporter\u2019s gaze. \u201cI like the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what would improve the park, which sits feet from Ocean Beach, he was decisive.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore sand,\u201d he said, burying his hands in the stuff.<\/p>\n

Ads separate from the \u201cno\u201d campaign but featured on its Instagram page (opens in new tab)<\/a> argue that car crashes in District 4 have declined since the Great Highway closed and that Sunset Dunes is the city\u2019s third-most-popular park.<\/p>\n

Ryuka\u2019s mom, Denise Leo, 50, supports Prop. G because it would restore the road for weekend commutes. She drives Friday mornings for work as a library aide in San Mateo and wants the option of taking the Great Highway, rather than 19th Avenue. The pathway above the highway always worked when she wanted to go for a run, anyway. Or, wait, does she oppose G?<\/p>\n

Told that a \u201cno\u201d vote keeps the road closed to cars, she paused. In 2024, she pointed out, it was the \u201cno\u201d vote that kept the highway open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna vote to open it,\u201d she said, looking at her son. \u201cEven though he likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n