SFist: Hearings Can Sort of Be Healthy Too

Dave

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:23:13 -0800

This fight isn't about local San Franciscans being able to access a car-free GG Park. Us locals can easily access the park through numerous public transit lines, as others have noted above. This fight is about car-driving suburbanites who want to be able to go from their front doors, hop into their cars, drive to town, get a parking spot somewhere, "recreate" for the afternoon and then drive back home to their suburban lifestyle. I see no reason why us locals should have to provide these folks with parking. You want to drive to the park - fine - get your own city to build a park for you.

sfistjon

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:14:43 -0800

Frak-- apostrophes are my arch-nemesis. Which everyone probably knows.

Catrine

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:33:23 -0800

Jon - just a request, here... Please stop using apostrophes to pluralize words! It's "Saturdays", not "Saturday's".

Elizabeth

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:24:23 -0800

It's nonsense to claim to a twenty minute wait for the N-Judah is a burden on parents and children. A twenty minute wait?. Please. MUNI stops within one block of the park. I see people circling the block, looking for the "perfect" parking space for at least that long!

la la la la I can't hear you

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:45:26 -0800

This is all a big Kabuki drama signifying nothing. Dede says no and that is all that matters.

Mathias

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:34:54 -0800

Crazy talk for crazy times. I've lived a lot of places, but have never witnessed such turmoil over a simple issue. It's a park, why can't we close if for the weekend. Regarding public transit not skirting the park where the closure has been proposed, um hello? There's the 5 and the 21 and the 7, to mention just a few bus lines. I live in the Inner Richmond a few blocks from JFK, look forward to having the weekend to walk with my son in the park, to use the space as it was intended. Does that make me an elite?

NoeValleyJim

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:05:41 -0800

I agree, we should compromise: four days for cars, three days for walkers and bikers. That would be more than fair, right?

Hank Essay

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:19:30 -0800

You tell 'em, m! Good points...

m

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:38:11 -0800

1) There is plenty of car-free space in GG Park. Look at a map. Huge swaths. The park closure people are the ones who have been intellectually dishonest. "Healthy Saturdays" is Rove-speak for "Parks for Some, but Not All". The movement is aimed at screwing people who have the gall to use a car on their day off. 2) If there is such a need for pavement space for children to learn how to ride their bikes, why do the park closure people not pursue the west end of the park, but rather the main entrance to the park for the entire eastern half of the city? 3) NYC has subway lines running up either side of Central Park. SF doesn't. The comparison is ridiculous. 4) BeyondChron should be ashamed of the line about gas prices. They propose that working people spend their weekends with their children waiting for Muni buses in order to get to a park they are paying for with their tax dollars.

m

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:31:05 -0800

DG

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:22:54 -0800

I don't get why they don't just close a different stretch of road in the park. Why does it have to be JFK, which provides access to the De Young and Academy of Sciences? What about Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in the southeast corner? It seems like both sides are being completely ridiculous about this. I applaud Newsom or McGoldrick or whoever is working for a compromise, because there's lots of ways they can make this work.

sfistjon

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:14:09 -0800

Hmmm...I got this from the Examiner: "On Monday, the matter came before the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Economic Development Committee for a vote, but McGoldrick agreed to postpone the vote for a week, while Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office tried to mediate a compromise." And I also remember Gavin saying earlier he was working on something. Sorry, Paul, I didn't mean to step on your toes.

Paul Hogarth

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:00:40 -0800

Thanks for linking to my story in Beyond Chron today. But for the record, it's not Gavin who's trying to broker a compromise -- it's Jake McGoldrick. One compromise that should be made is that if the DeYoung Museum cares so much about the struggling masses of proletarians, they should give them free parking in the garage on Saturdays. After all, they have nothing to lose but museum revenue.

Paul Hogarth

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:54:22 -0800

justin

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:31:54 -0800

Hmmm meinwstAd, JFK is actually not open 1 day a week and open 6 days a week. I like your logic though. Maybe we close it 4 days a week... Friday through Monday!

andy blue

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:04:49 -0800

we need more car free space in our park, in our city, and in our world. sundays along JFK are amazing -- one of the best things going in this town. closing JFK on saturdays WILL NOT prevent access to the the De Young or Academy. please supes, give us one more day a week of a mere mile and a half of space where our children can safely learn to ride bikes and rollerskate.

mdg650hawk

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:46:23 -0800

It would just be nice if there was less intellectual dishonesty. The DeYoung could give a crap about gas prices for working people, seriously. The DeYoung and the Academy want their Golden Gate driveway back, plain and simple. Utterly pathetic that Manhattan (and their Republican mayors) can get this done and SF, the allegedly most progressive, transit friendly city in America, can't.

meinwstAd

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:21:32 -0800

What's wrong with the current compromise? Each side gets one day of the weekend. One day it's shutdown. One day it's not. That sounds fair to me.