Heather Knight is "with the car-free program"

Letter to the editor today in the SF Chronicle:

Regarding “Museums, get with the car-free program” (Heather Knight, Jan. 9): 

Each end of the current car-free John F. Kennedy Drive may as well have a sign stating “Restricted to the young and fit,” as that is the result of the closure, limiting the ability of me and others from accessing the major attractions of Golden Gate Park.

It is not as though the closed area does not already have a bicycle lane, footpaths on either side of the road, an inline-skating area and open space for recreation. Plus, countless other areas of the park for recreation.

For those of us with mobility issues and parents with babies and toddlers, the remaining 6,320 parking spaces Heather Knight mentions are too distant for us to access the museums, etc., eliminating our ability to enjoy the major attractions and discriminating against a percentage of the population.

My bus runs only every 30 minutes, is often late or does not come.

The stop has no seating or shelter, and then I must change buses to reach the park. For older people, up to a two-hour trip each way is too exhausting.

Let’s not be selfish. Open JFK to all San Franciscans.

Suzanne Kirkham

San Francisco

Rob's comment:

From Knight's January 9 column:

Supervisors are supposed to represent the will of their constituents — and the respondents in all but one ZIP code in the city, 94132 in the southwest corner, supported the permanent closure in a just-released survey by the SFMTA and Recreation and Park Department. Nearly 10,000 people responded, and 70.4% supported keeping JFK Drive closed to cars. Groups of every income level and all races and ethnicities also supported it.

But this poll---the same poll?---tells a different story: people overwhelmingly chose the "reopen to cars" option.

The online version of the Chronicle has a more peevish hed on Knight's column: Why I’m not renewing my membership to S.F.’s de Young Museum.

See also Heather Knight and the Big Lie about the pandemic and How the Chronicle failed San Francisco.