Friday, December 06, 2024

What's next for the Great Highway?

Photo by Michael Durand


The four-lane highway overlooking Ocean Beach became the site of one of the most heated political disputes in San Francisco this election cycle.

Proposition K, a ballot measure which aimed to permanently shut-down the stretch of the Upper Great Highway (UGH) from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard and convert it into a full-time city park, passed Nov. 5.

Supporters find excitement in the expansion of the City’s part-time public space, which has been closed to most vehicles on weekends and holidays since 2020. Opposition for shutting down this space largely comes from residents who commute to Daly City and the South Bay via the highway, along with those who have concerns over the rerouting of commuter traffic.

Despite being shot down by approximately 60% of Sunset District and 70% of Richmond District voters, the measure passed citywide by 54.7%, with support coming mostly from the City’s eastside residents.

Now, the City is quickly working to fully activate the space as a “car-free promenade” by early next year. On Nov. 21, the City was awarded a $1 million grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy to fund art projects, water fountains, trash bins, event programming and dune restoration.

The City is also in the process of applying for a Coastal Commission permit, which is needed before the space can be actualized as a city park. 

The current weekend shutdown agreement remains in-place until the City obtains this permit, or until the already scheduled end of the program on Dec. 31, 2025, whichever comes first....


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Group photo

Everybody smile!
Kevin Drum
This is the Flaming Star Nebula, aka IC 405, a combination emission/reflection nebula in the Auriga constellation.

I took this picture Sunday night after a multi-month layoff, and it was the best night of astrophotography I've ever had. Usually something goes wrong during the imaging session—it's always weird and different each time—but the sky was perfect on Sunday and everything went great. 

I set up the scope with no trouble, pressed Go, and it took pictures steadily for the next eight hours with no complaints. 

In the end, I got more than 100 subs of four minutes each, partly because it was a long winter night and partly because everything went so smoothly. This is by far my most productive session ever....
Rob's comment:
Like all pictures of the cosmos, it looks like a flaming nothingness, which, I suppose, is a form of cosmic realism. Not that there's nothing there but that there's nothing human, except the fact of the picture itself.

Later: I should add that whatever of human interest is there is so far away that we'll never know about it.

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