Petition for access to Golden Gate Park

Dear friends:

There's a petition on Change.org asking Mayor London Breed and other SF officials to reopen JFK Drive, the main street in Golden Gate Park, to vehicles after the temporary emergency closure order expires. 

Please consider signing the petition. Below are excerpts from emails to city officials. If you agree, please forward this email and post on social media.

You do not need to be a SF resident to sign the petition. Golden Gate Park is visited by people from all over the world, and the closure of JFK Drive affects many people besides SF residents.

Cordially

Howard Chabner

From a senior and disability activist:

I must say that this policy is absolutely cruel. It seems that city officials have a very calloused attitude towards those of us who cannot walk very far and whose knees cannot bend so that we cannot take even one step to get into a jitney, such as the ones provided for the disability community to try to access the lighted trees this past winter. 

Waiting in inclement weather for a jitney is no substitute for being able to drive along JFK Drive, and drive up in front of the Conservatory of Flowers, park on JFK Drive, and watch the light show at night, in the comfort of the family car. In fact, the jitney option is not a real option at all, because for elders having to wait in the cold and be transported in the cold to a site is just not feasible. We are effectively shut out of the park.

It seems that City policy just aims to serve the able-bodied who live close to Golden Gate Park or who are athletically fit enough to bicycle to it. But Golden Gate Park belongs to all of us, including those families with elders and children who might like to drive to and through the Park from the outer districts of the City or from the East Bay or San Jose.

 

The new director of the de Young Museum has made admission free to all Bay Area residents on Saturdays. The de Young includes a world-renowned permanent exhibition of Native Arts of the Americas, Oceania, and Africa. Viewing these exhibitions could be life transforming for thousands of Bay Area families. Please keep access to Golden Gate Park open to everyone. Be fair. Respect. Be kind.

From the SF Tour Guide Guild:

Before the economic disaster of the Covid 19 crisis, we believed that a previous proposal to close all of JFK Drive permanently to vehicles would have been extremely damaging to San Francisco’s reputation as a major tour destination, and thus to our economy, by further restricting the main transportation arteries serving the Park. We maintain this belief. San Francisco’s tourism industry may take years to recover. We therefore believe the City should not impede that recovery by continuing the temporary Covid 19 JFK restrictions and/or expanding the ban on vehicle access to Golden Gate Park.

Other stakeholders will address the issue of access to Golden Gate Park by visitors who are not able to use public transportation, bicycles or walking to get to the Park. These include: seniors; the physically challenged (disabled); families with small children; people with picnic and recreational items too cumbersome for public transportation; and tourists arriving from outside San Francisco to visit Golden Gate Park and/or a specific attraction.

From: Howard Chabner <hlchabner@comcast.net>

Sent: Monday, March 22, 2021 4:56 PM

Subject: Public comment on March 23, 2021 Board of Supervisors and SFCTA meetings – Reopen JFK Drive to cars as soon as the temporary, emergency closure order expires

Dear Mayor Breed, Board President Walton, Supervisors (in your capacities as such and as SFCTA Board members), Commissioners and others:

Please reopen JFK Drive to cars when the temporary, emergency order forbidding cars expires, except, as before the pandemic, for the eastern part on Sundays and some Saturdays.

Before the pandemic, a large percentage of visitors to Golden Gate Park came in cars, including San Franciscans, people who live elsewhere in the Bay Area, and tourists from around the world. 

Those who relied on cars include seniors, people with mobility and other disabilities, families with children, and residents from places within and outside San Francisco where driving is the only feasible option. 

Before the pandemic, JFK Drive was open to all transportation modes, including cars, except the eastern part was closed to cars on Sundays and some Saturdays. That was a fair compromise. In addition, there has been a parking-protected bike lane in both directions on JFK Drive for years (the creation of which resulted in the elimination of many parking spaces).

The closure was imposed by executive order of Mayor Breed at the beginning of shelter-in-place on a temporary, emergency basis in order to provide more space for social distancing. In essence, this has closed much of Golden Gate Park to anyone who can’t walk or bike in, which is inequitable, but it was imposed quickly and justified as one of many temporary measures to deal with an unprecedented public health emergency.

Permanently closing JFK Drive to cars would create a permanent access barrier to Golden Gate Park for countless numbers of people, including many seniors, people with mobility and other disabilities, families, and people from places where driving is the only feasible option.

The closure of JFK Drive to cars during the pandemic has been touted as a success by some, and used to argue for permanent closure. But it hasn’t been a success for those who have been unable to access Golden Gate Park because of the closure. It may be possible to measure the number of pedestrians and cyclists in the park, but it is utterly impossible to measure the number of people who couldn’t go there because of the closure.

Permanently closing the eastern part of JFK to cars would permanently eliminate hundreds of parking spaces. Increasing the number of blue zones elsewhere in the park and in the surrounding areas would be insufficient to compensate for the loss. Disabled people parked not only in the blue zones on JFK, but in regular spaces also, as we do throughout the city. 

When JFK was open to cars, people who couldn’t walk, or couldn’t walk far, could park close to destinations such as the Conservatory of Flowers, AIDS Memorial Grove, Dahlia Garden and others. With permanent closure, they will never be able to. Moreover, increasing the number of blue zones elsewhere would do nothing for the countless number of people who may not be disabled but rely on cars to get to the park.

I live close enough to roll to the park, which I do often when the weather is good, and it is truly delightful. But even though I live close, I'm not able to roll there in cold or rainy weather, or at night. When my mother, age 91, visits from Chicago, we drive to the park to go to the museums and gardens. She can walk short distances, but it isn't possible for her to walk there no matter how good the weather.

Weather matters. Many visitors, whether disabled or not, are unable to stand in the rain or cold waiting for a shuttle, and are unable to walk long distances in the rain or cold.

Terminology matters. Rec Park, MTA and others refer to the days that JFK Drive is closed to cars as “Car-Free” days, which implies freedom and that cars are bad. "Restricted Access” or “Car-Forbidden” would be just as accurate.

The City can’t make the temporary, emergency closure of JFK Drive permanent without doing an environmental impact report. (The original bike plan was tied up in court for years because the City refused to do an EIR.) And you can’t do an EIR about closing JFK without first doing a traffic study of the surrounding areas. 

One example of the environmental impact on the surrounding areas is the increased congestion on Fell Street from Masonic to Stanyan since JFK Drive has been closed. Any study also must include the impact of losing hundreds of spaces in GGP on parking in the surrounding areas. And it’s impossible to do a meaningful traffic study until after the pandemic emergency is over, because current conditions aren’t representative.

Closing JFK to cars permanently would violate Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And the City has a mixed record in defending against ADA lawsuits.

See also Don't shut us out, Seniors left out, because "it's all about the kids," and Howard Chabner and Peter Hartlaub's "bike utopia"