How to use city streets

Jeffrey Tumlin

Letter to the editor in today's SF Chronicle:

San Francisco’s oasis

“S.F. debating whether to bring cars back to scenic coastal road” (June 24) has some valid points on both sides of the issue. No one group is going to be 100% happy so why not settle for a compromise, something sadly missing in America today? It doesn’t have to be “My way or the highway.”

I did shake my head at one thing in the article. The proponents of keeping the road closed to all traffic stated: “the closure created a space to safely recreate with children — an oasis where pedestrians and bicyclists can enjoy the city’s natural abundance without fear about safety.” 

Hmm, an oasis. Isn’t there a beach and the ocean on one side of the highway and Golden Gate Park on the other side? Seems like they both qualify as an oasis better than a cement highway.

Joe Mac

San Francisco

Rob's comment:

Yes, for the anti-car movement, "a cement highway" is best used for anything but those wicked motor vehicles.

Recall Heather Knight's statement last year of the anti-car case:

San Francisco finally has some European-style outdoor plazas, like the shuttered blocks of Valencia Street and some roadways where kids can safely learn how to ride their bikes, skateboarders can do tricks, and families can walk their dogs right up the middle...We’d be crazy to give them up. 

Here’s hoping San Franciscans can gather in big numbers again someday soon on these streets to bike, jog, walk — and yes, hug our friends...

Who doesn't want to watch those brave, charming skateboarders do tricks? And why not let dogs crap in the middle of the street? They crap everywhere else in the city. 

Even though experts worry about children on bikes and traumatic brain injury, let's use city streets without cars to teach our children how to ride bikes. 

And what about hugging our friends? Surely we need a lot more room to do that.