While there are still plenty of votes left to count, the Prop K measure to make the Great Highway car-free has a comfortable lead, while the big-money effort to slash SF City Hall commissions is way behind.

There is obviously not much joy in liberal-ville this morning after Tuesday's election, but San Francisco progressives can at least celebrate the early results in their local ballot measures.  Votes are still being counted and we’re not yet ready to call these, but the Prop K measure to make two miles of the Great Highway permanently car-free has a pretty decent lead, while the big-money Prop D effort to eliminate a ton of SF City Hall commissions is facing a sizable deficit.  

The latest vote tallies have the Prop K car-free Great Highway measure leading by a 53%-47% margin. Meanwhile, Prop D is currently losing by a 55%-45% margin, so it’s behind by a significant 10 percentage points.

Car-free Great Highway supporters are liking the numbers. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” Yes on K campaign manager Lucas Lux told KQED. “If K passes, it would be a win for the whole city to enjoy the coast in new ways, and it’s reclaiming a space for people to enjoy.”

The two-mile stretch of the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard had of course gone car-free during the pandemic, which was deeply controversial to residents of the surrounding Sunset District, so there was an eventual compromise deal to make that stretch car-free on weekends only. That compromise may not last much longer.

Otherwise, the badly trailing Prop D had meant to eliminate more than half of SF City Hall commissions and empower the mayor with more authority over them. It was bolstered by a staggering $9 million in contributions, more than quadruple what any other SF ballot measure raised, largely from SF Standard owner Michael Moritz. But there were also allegations of criminal conduct that mayoral candidate Mark Farrell was illegally funneling money from the Prop D campaign into his own campaign, and Farrell was hit with the largest ethics fine in SF history over the matter.

A competing measure called Prop E, a more cautious approach to reducing commissions, is currently ahead by a slim 52%-48% margin.

So the SF billionaire class may have plenty to celebrate today, but their investments in Prop D and the Mark Farrell campaign appear to have been an utter waste. Prop D looks likely headed for a loss, and Farrell finished an embarrassing fourth-place behind Supervisor Aaron Peskin.

That said, mail-in, provisional, and other ballots are still being counted, so these percentages can change.

But a number of other SF ballot measures have cruised to comfortable enough victories that we can say that they have passed. The $800 million SFUSD school bond measure Prop A won in a landslide, and the Prop M small business tax cut also won handily. Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s SF “Inspector General” position will be created with the passage of Prop C.

Among the less earth-shattering measures, the Prop I nurse and 911 operator retirement benefits package also won big, the Prop J children, youth, and families funding programs passed by a huge margin, and the Prop O measure to strengthen abortion rights in SF won overwhelmingly. We’d hoped that one would just be symbolic, but it may prove significant.

A handful of other local measures are still too close to call. Notably, the Prop L tax on rideshares to fund Muni is currently ahead 56%-44%, and five other local ballot measures are looking at similar margins that may change in upcoming tallies.

The SF Department of Elections will announce those updated tallies at 4 pm Thursday afternoon.

Related: Great Highway Will Now Remain Car-Free (On Weekends) Through 2025 [SFist]

Image: @zachklein via Twitter