San Franciscans who opposed the closing of the Great Highway to make way for the city’s newest park say they have new legal ammunition in their war: a concrete skate park that’s nearing completion.
Anti-park factions were already angry about the swift transformation of the two-mile stretch of road, but the skate park’s construction this week has enraged them further.
Livable SF is among those suing to overturn Proposition K, arguing that the city ignored the state’s authority in putting the measure to voters. The nonprofit’s concerns over the skate park were heard by a judge Monday at a closed-door case management conference.
The group claims that Judge Jeffrey Ross expressed concerns about the roadway modifications, but others contest that. Ross could not be reached for comment.
“The city told the judge this was just a ‘light touch’ — something temporary. But let’s be honest: that’s rebar and concrete going into a coastal roadway,” Livable SF said in a statement. “That doesn’t look temporary to any reasonable person.”
The anti-Prop. K activists believe the city shouldn’t make significant changes to the road, which has been transformed into a park called Sunset Dunes, before the court decides its fate. But park officials say it’s no sweat to remove the skate park, public art, and exercise equipment it has installed if the court decision goes against voters’ will.
“While the same group of anti-park zealots fail to impress a judge with their complaints about hammocks and fitness equipment, thousands of regular people are enjoying the amenities so much that Sunset Dunes is already the city’s third most visited park,” said Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes Park.
San Francisco is one of skateboarding’s most historic and significant cities, and the Recreation and Parks Department has begun embracing this legacy through the construction of skate obstacles in public places. Skaters are happy when sanctioned ledges and ramps pop up, and their general reaction to the design at Sunset Dunes has been positive — aside from concerns about weather conditions on the city’s western edge.
“It will be fun if there isn’t 40-mile-per-hour wind and sand everywhere,” said Mike Stornaiuolo, 36, an Outer Richmond native who runs a popular skateboarding nostalgia Instagram account.
Maintenance will be key to the skate park’s success, said local skateboard historian Ted Barrow.
“If they don’t intend to sweep sand continually out of the skatepark, it will turn rusty and sandy and neglected very quickly,” he said.
Still, he’s excited about the new park, which will feature granite ledges, a straight quarterpipe that will allow skaters to grind over the road’s median, a flatbar, and an embankment — and predicts other skaters will be, too.
“I now have more of a reason to go than I ever would have before,” Barrow said.
Some non-skaters are skeptical. Alan W., a retired lawyer from Twin Peaks who was visiting the park Wednesday, predicted that the city would be sued if a kid fell.
But Sunset local Eva Martin, who was watching over her three kids as they biked around the pump track, said she’s pleasantly surprised by how fast the city transformed the highway into a park. The kids seemed to agree as they grabbed snacks from her purse and rolled in the sand.
“It’s the California dream: a pump track by the ocean,” Martin said. “We were worried that it would just be a closed highway with nothing on it. But they’ve done so much so fast.”
Austin Kanfoush of Kanfoush Custom Concrete, who is pouring concrete at the new skate park and also built the skate obstacles at U.N. Plaza, predicted that construction would be complete by the end of next week.