Car-free JFK

At the start of the pandemic in Spring of 2020, some select roads here in town were designated as Slow Streets (SS). This meant that anyone visiting these newly crowned Slow Streets could walk, jog, bike, scoot, etc. using both the sidewalk/pavement and the roadway in order to do so a safe distance from others. Motorists who encountered SS signage and barricades were encouraged to 'go around'. In addition to Slow Streets across the city being set up to discourage through-traffic & give wary folk breathing room, 1.5 miles of JFK Blvd in Golden Gate Park was also given a similar status. Even better than discouraging through-traffic, this stretch of road has been blocked off to vehicular traffic, save for a Golden Gate Park (GGP) shuttle bus taking visitors from one end of the park to the other, for the past two years. 

The partial shut-down of JFK Blvd is NOT entirely new. For at least the past 40 years, every Sunday sees this very same closure. (Reader, the Sunday JFK closure is a HIT!) According to a recent city-wide poll, at least 70 percent of the populace want the 24/7 JFK closure (aka: car-free JFK) to extend beyond the pandemic.

Unfortunately, not everybody has been happy with advent of car-free JFK. People have complained that this road closure has resulted in too many parking spaces being lost. But let me tell you: The park still has 3,900 FREE parking spots even with 1.5 miles of road being blocked off. I think many folk are simply bent out of shape because they want convenience. They want Golden Gate Park to be their own personal cut-through when attempting to drive to the other side of town. They want to park right in front of where ever they are going, but, honestly, the park is so well visited nowadays that it is nearly impossible to find what I like to call 'rock star parking'. And I know that this next bit will sound trite, but it's true: GGP is a park, not a car park! 

Some months ago, our mayor introduced legislation to make car-free JFK (remember, it's only a portion of the road) permanent. Three of our eleven city supervisors immediately came out in support of the mayor's proposal. Two came out against and the rest were on the fence. Grassroots groups like Walk SF and Kid Safe SF decided to campaign in support of the new legislation. And I became a volunteer for Walk SF in order to get the word out to park goers that this lovely car-free oasis was actually not permanent and was slated to go away once the pandemic had ended. 

'It's not a done deal?!' If I had a nickel for every time I heard this response from a car-free JFK user...  

Park visitors were dumbfounded that keeping a stretch of road free from car traffic was even up for debate.  

We volunteers, armed with clip boards and placards, asked park goers to, please, call their supervisors and urge them to vote in support of a car-free JFK. We also asked them to sign postcards either addressed to their supervisor, or, if they did not live in town, to the mayor, London Breed. Over the course of a few months we amassed 10,000 postcards in support of the mayor's legislation and delivered them to City Hall.

The Conservatory of Flowers located on car-free JFK

Polar Bear against climate change

A group of cyclists on a pub crawl signing postcards in support of car-free JFK

Above: I drew a somewhat sloppy yellow line along the portion of JFK Drive that is *car-free.

It's just 1.5 miles of Pedestrian Paradise. In most of the rest of the park, motorists have free reign. The streets flanking the park, Lincoln and Fulton, are lined with non-metered parking spots as well. 

The vote on car-free JFK was held on April 26. Public comment began at 11a and concluded at 8p. I can imagine that the this hours-long commenting process was one for the record books. I gave my comment in person at the start of public commenting and then sat and listened to others have their say until around 1.45p. There was meant to be a recess at 1.30p, but it never came. There were so many others waiting either on the telephone or sat in the chamber waiting to express themselves that the supervisors decided to push through sans break until the bitter end. Fortunately, the legislation passed 7-4 and we were victorious!