March 26, 2007
Compromise Can Be Healthy Too
It looks like there might be peace in our time as a deal is in the works over the whole Healthy Saturdays thing. Apparently, city officials are trying to work out a compromise between fans of the plan and supporters of the Dede Wilsey Shrine to Her Wilsey-ness. No details have emerged yet, but apparently Gavin has been meeting with both sides to figure something out.
The battle over Healthy Saturdays was sort of at a stalemate until a study was released saying that attendance to the museums were up on Sundays when John F. Kennedy Drive was closed. That put a lot of pressure on opponents of the plan to come up with a rational reason to no longer support the initiative. It was enough to convince Warren Hellman and that dude has a lot of sway over things.
Disabled activists (or as Matt Smith calls them, suckers) are still unhappy with all this and threatening to raise a ruckus over it all. In other words, this still isn't quite a go yet but it's looking like something is in the works. SF Party Party is also reporting that Sophie Maxwell, who at one point voted for closure, is back on the fence and are looking for people to get her off of it.
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It's all, 100%, about Dede. What she says goes.
I wonder if she could be convinced to comment on SFist like fellow socialite Jennifer Siebel did?
Early contender for SFist line of the week: "supporters of the Dede Wilsey Shrine to Her Wilsey-ness."
Nevermind that this has been voted down in elections and is opposed by those who live and work in the bordering areas of richmond and inner sunset districts. According to Chris Daly, "The initiative process is a time-honored democratic practice here in the state of California. The voters of San Francisco are very intelligent about initiatives" (about the minimum wage/health care/time-off initiatives passed by city voters). Apparently deference is due only when the voters agree with the Board.
C-O-M-P-R-O-M-I-S-E
The will of the voters came about via the competing propositions (G and F) which split the vote and Prop. F won 45.1% of vote, and Prop. G won 38.1%. That's about as much of a mandate against Healthy Saturdays as Bush had in the last election.
Also, a six month trial period has never come before voters.
The mayor will always be a puppet for the Wilsey clan and the other blue blood old town guard. It is pathetic. They even pick out his vapid girlfriends. San Francisco needs a mayor like Michael Bloomberg, a self made man who does not have to answer to the uptown crowd.
What ticks me off is they proposed relocating the Dede Young before renovations and the proposal was refused. WHY? Dede Wilsey makes me sick.
The only way I'll step foot in the DeYoung is if Wilsey dies, they mummify her corpse, and put her on display inside.
Here's a compromise:
Close the WEST END of the park on Sundays. It:
-the same hood doesn't have to deal with the parking/traffic issue on BOTH weekend days, spreading out the pain.
-folks who want more freedom to bike, have large areas of the park on BOTH weekend days
-people that need to drive in still have one weekend day where they can drive to the museums, etc on the East End.
Everyone wins, NO?
No. Everyone does not win that way. That's the cold, hilly area of the park. Hardly conducive to people teaching their kids to ride bikes. It's harder to get there for people who live in other parts of the city, it's farther away from the restaurants and bike rental places.
It's farther away from that stupid garage, which some people need to cart their bikes out there so they can ride without fear of being run over.
Dede Wilsey and her ilk said "give us our garage and we'll support healthy saturdays." They got their god-forsaken (not to mention illegal) garage (which incidentally every time I go by has the VACANCY sign out) and then proved themselves hypocritical lying assholes.
Plus, it's a continuity issue. On Saturdays this part is open, on Sunday it's this part? Give me a break. Voters couldn't even figure out the difference between the two propositions. They're supposed to figure out the difference between two different areas?
bluecanary--
Sorry, I don't buy any of your arguments. I laughed out loud actually--- it's further away from the restaurants??? it's "colder"?? oh noo!!! lol
People can drive their cars with bikes to the hoods by the west end of the park... that's quite easy. And i thought the whole idea was not driving to the park anyway? The buses all go to the west side of the park as well as the east side.
*my* point is that even though I jog and am lucky enough to walk to the park, I think it would be selfish of me to demand that no one ever be able to drive to the park all weekend long. I recognize that for some, driving is a lot easier, and the weekend is the only time off many have to enjoy the park. I'm happy with the current state of affairs. I don't expect the park to cater ONLY to me and the way *I* want to use the park -- it's for everyone.
I'm gonna have to side with bluecanary here, I live a block from JFK and think it's high time we had the entire weekend to use the park as it was intended. The argument that the west end of the park is colder and not useful for children bicycling or learning to bicycle is completely valid (have you seen how broken the asphalt is on the west side? It's a mess). And yes the park IS for everyone, but it's not for people to drive through. As long as the handicapped have a way to access the museum (which they will according to Supervisor McGoldrick's plan), then it's absolutely right that JFK is closed to traffic on Saturdays.
Here's hoping that finally we get it together enough to actually make the park car-free on Saturdays, do justice to the founder of Golden Gate Park John McLaren's vision, what a wonderful thing it would be.
P.S. Kudos to SFist for coming up with "supporters of the Dede Wilsey Shrine to Her Wilsey-ness."
A few comments:
1. Will of the voters. Not only were there competing propositions on the ballot in 2000, but the current Healthy Saturdays legislation includes a free, accessible shuttle/tram to improve disabled access along JFK Dr. I would have voted against both ballot measures in 2000, but with the shuttle/tram - along with many other steps to increase disabled parking - I am FULLY in support of the current legislation. In short, the current proposal is a vast improvement from the both confusing, competing ballot measures in 2000.
2. Driving/Parking. PolePosition writes: "I think it would be selfish of me to demand that no one ever be able to drive to the park all weekend long."
No one be able to drive to the park? People can drive to the park on Sundays and will be able to drive to the park on Saturdays too if 1.5 miles of care-free JFK is extended. They just won't be able to drive on 1.5 miles of JFK Dr, which doesn't mean they can't drive to the park.
If someone needs to drive to one of the museums, they can get dropped off at a drop-off zone, park in the utterly unoccupied garage, or park on any number of open roads.
The Mayor's own independent study revealed that on-street parking occupancy is practically the same on Saturdays as on Sundays - in the park and in surrounding neighborhoods. In addition, more than half of surveyed visitors on Sunday said they found parking within 5 minutes and more than 75% said they found parking within 10 minute.
All people are asking for is a 6-month trial to stop debating these projections and let's see what the real impacts of this trial legislation will be.