Mike Ellzey: Local hero
In fact the garage is completely invisible from the Concourse itself. Even the entrances to the garage are barely visible. Walking along Fulton one can clearly see the northern entrance across from 10th Avenue. But walk up Martin Luther King Blvd. from Ninth and Irving toward the Concourse, and you have to be looking for the controversial southern, inside-the-park entrance to even notice it.
The remodeled Concourse itself is in fact a "pedestrian oasis" as per Prop. J, since the 200 parking spaces that used to be on the Concourse are now gone. The traffic next to the Concourse in front of the de Young is now nothing more than a trickle---an infrequent #44 Muni bus, cyclists, and an occasional auto dropping someone off in front of the museum.
Mike Ellzey was vilified by the so-called defenders of Golden Gate Park during his tenure as Executive Director of the Concourse Authority. He received threatening phone calls, was spat on, and even threatened with a baseball bat on one occasion. His offense? Carrying out the will of the city's voters and Prop. J that promised the city a garage under the Concourse to be built entirely with private donations.
The more than $50 million for building the garage was raised by Warren Hellman, who was also vilified by garage opponents on the city's fringe left. The rest of the Prop. J mandate: turning the Concourse into a "pedestrian oasis" and guaranteeing easy access to that part of Golden Gate Park to everyone. Ellzey and the Concourse Authority delivered spectacularly on all of those mandates.
Mike Ellzey and Warren Hellman have delivered a huge gift to San Francisco. Oddly, I haven't seen any gratitude expressed by anyone yet. Let me be the first, then: Thanks boys, for a job superbly done!
Labels: Concourse Garage, Golden Gate Park
posted by Rob Anderson @ 3:31 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Wow, you really know how to totally miss the point. The garage causes traffic jams at its northern entrance, and when the (illegal) southern entrance opens in two years, will cause more inside the park. The new concourse configuration has cars running through it, even though Ellzey promised they wouldn't.
And the concourse stinks of exhaust, both from the cars running through it and from the vents coming out of the "invisible" garage (where there used to be cherry trees). Some local hero!
I pass by the Fulton St. entrance to the garage often, and Iv'e never seen a traffic jam there. The southern entrance is already open and has been for months. It is not illegal according to Proposition J and the Superior Court. I walk through the Concourse often and have a completely different impression. Speaking of auto exhaust, as per Prop. J, the 200 parking spaces that used to be on the Concourse itself are gone, which does indeed make it more of a pedestrian oasis.
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