Cyclists and skaters take over JFK

Westside Observer

Letter to the editor in today's SF Chronicle:

Move the skaters

Concerning “A parking nightmare” (Letters, June 2): 

Regarding the letter on parking nightmares and no longer being able to go to certain public venues, there is a parking nightmare in the east end of Golden Gate Park every day after about 10 a.m. — it’s worse on weekends — which keeps a lot of people, particularly seniors who drive, from going to the museums, the Japanese Gardens and other venues there. 

This is because John F. Kennedy Drive has been hijacked for skaters and bicyclists, eliminating hundreds of parking places.

Before this area was closed, every space along JFK Drive was taken on Saturday afternoons ... so now hundreds who could have parked there have to give up and go home. 

There is a better alternative for skaters that would not eliminate any parking spaces, has no traffic to speak of and has a much smoother surface.

This is Middle Drive West, just as long as the currently closed-off area on JFK Drive. It runs south and east of the Polo Field. Skaters could skate there in peace and seniors could enjoy their museums again.

Chad Krimmel

San Francisco

See also "Don't shut us out" and Closing JFK to cars and the anti-car movement.

US policy on indigenous Americans

In today's NY Times:

“The policy of removal, except under peculiar circumstances, must necessarily be abandoned, and the only alternatives left are to civilize or exterminate them,” Interior Secretary Alexander H.H. Stuart in 1851.