After years of fighting and a ballot proposition that spurred a recall campaign, a two-mile stretch of San Francisco’s west coast will officially become a park April 12. The last day to drive on the Great Highway will be March 13.
In the meantime, the public can weigh in on what to call the new park, which has thus far been referred to as the Great Highway Park or Ocean Beach Park. Residents will be able to provide feedback at a virtual meeting March 18, when the Recreation and Parks Department will select finalists. Voting will be open until April 2.
At a blustery press conference Saturday afternoon on the Great Highway, Recreation and Parks Director Phil Ginsburg said his department had received more than 250 name suggestions, including “The Great Parkway” and “The Coastline.”
He described the park as “the largest pedestrianization project in California history.”
“While the wind is ripping a little bit, we are warm and vibrating with excitement,” he said.
Ginsburg added that since it first closed to cars in 2020, the Great Highway has consistently been one of the city’s top three most-visited parks.
After the park status becomes official, the city will install murals celebrating “surfing, sea life, and neighborhood history,” as well as skateboarding features and a bike pump track.
“When we take space that was for cars and it becomes a park, it is always successful,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, long a champion of pedestrianization projects. He cited as examples Patricia’s Green in Hayes Valley, Crissy Field, and, most recently, JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park.
The 2020 closure of the Great Highway to cars was one of several efforts to give residents more outdoor recreation space during the early pandemic, and voters approved a permanent park by passing Proposition K in November. In December, the park won state approval.
But the initiative remains divisive. While voters passed the ballot measure by a 10-point margin, nearly every precinct in the western half of the city voted against the closure, and No on K demonstrators made themselves heard at both the Proposition K victory party and Saturday’s press conference.
Even among those who support the park, there are disagreements about specifics. Mike Nohr, 62, an area resident, said he is against any art installations that might obscure his view of the waves.
“People should be able to come out and just enjoy the ocean,” Nohr said.
Artist and curator Devon Bella, who lives in the Outer Sunset, is also concerned about the installations.
“We found the process to be highly rushed,” Bella said, bracing against the stiff breeze. “There was no transparency.”
She added that she is concerned about the environmental impacts of asphalt painting and in the near term would rather see dance and other performance art that won’t have permanent impacts on the area.
Bella said she is helping to organize a series of “listening sessions” at which local artists can share their thoughts on the installations at the park.