Alan Montecillo [00:01:31] Brian Krans, this story takes place on the far west side of San Francisco. It’s actually where I live currently. I understand you also have some history with this part of the city.
Brian Krans [00:01:43] Yeah, the Sunset was the first neighborhood I lived in when I moved to the Bay Area like 15 years ago. The Outer Sunset is, it’s kind of this surfy vibe. It’s nice, wide open streets. There’s a stop sign every two blocks. Highly residential, single-family dwellings. The Great Highway is a four-lane road split up by a median. And on both sides, it has these sand dunes that naturally just get swept in from the ocean. And a whole bunch of them have these wonderful sea plants growing on them. And it’s just kind of just a really wonderful space. They started opening up during the pandemic to kind of just give people that space to get out and walk around and kind of mingle while also social distancing. I remember going there with my wife and my dog at the time because when it was the pandemic, and also it was a really bad wildfire smoke day, that was one of the few places that had clean air where you could walk around. So it was just kind of this refuge on at multiple different levels.
Alan Montecillo [00:02:57] What were you going out there to do on Saturday?
Brian Krans [00:03:00] KQED sent me out there to go just cover the opening of this brand new park and just kind of get a general vibe of the day. And I was kind of trying to get from end to end to talk to as many people as possible. So I couldn’t think of any other better way to get around San Francisco on a beautiful sunny day than putting on my bubblegum pink rollerblades and grabbing my microphone and just talking to people who were having a good time.
Chris Callerman [00:03:26] You’re ready for some high-speed audio.
Brian Krans [00:03:28] Oh, yeah. I’m with KQED. You want to tell me what you’re doing today? Can I walk with you?
Chris Callerman [00:03:34] Oh sure, why not.
Brian Krans [00:03:37] Great!
Alan Montecillo [00:03:40] On Saturday, it was just a beautiful day, I remember. I mean, what did you see as you rolled through the park? Was it crowded? Was it busy? What were people up to?
Brian Krans [00:03:49] Immediately when I got to the park and I just started rolling around I remember I parked by Pacheco and I was like I’m gonna head down to Noriega where they were having kind of the events for the day and there were tents set up. You can see it was like kind of a special day, but it was just more people out than normal, you know, it was people walking their dogs. They were riding their bikes. They were running.
Brian Krans [00:04:10] What is the dog’s name?
Chris Callerman [00:04:12] It’s Wendy.
Brian Krans [00:04:14] Oh Wendy. I’m really glad you’re not freaked out by rollerblades. What uh, what brings you out today?
Chris Callerman [00:04:19] Oh, the nice day and the great highway, of course.
Brian Krans [00:04:24] I stopped and talked to Chris Callerman who was there with his dog, Wendy. Chris lived in the area. He’s kind of been taking his dog out there at the same time as he has for the last five years when they first started closing it down during the pandemic. And he’s one of the few Sunset District residents who actually voted in favor of keeping it close.
Chris Callerman [00:04:43] Well, we got the dog she loves it and you know, we get a little bit more traffic on our street but not too much. So for us doesn’t really affect us personally too bad. And you know I just love walking out here. It’s awesome.
Alan Montecillo [00:05:00] Brian, it’s not a grand opening without some ribbon cutting and some speeches in addition to all the festivities. So what did you see on that front? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, theys and them, we are moving and grooving. I’m going to bring to the stage Phil Ginsburg, San Francisco Park and Rec General Manager.
Brian Krans [00:05:19] Yeah, under those tents that we saw at Noriega, they started, they had a band playing, they had events for kids and everything like that. And one of the first people to speak was Phil Ginsburg. He’s the general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.
Phil Ginsburg [00:05:33] This is truly a historic day. When we think back….
Brian Krans [00:05:39] Instead, the opening of Sunset Dunes represents the largest pedestrianization conversion project in California’s history.
Phil Ginsburg [00:05:45] Two full miles, 50 acres of transformation from cars to people, from Lincoln to Sloat.
Brian Krans [00:05:57] And then Phil Ginsburg introduced District 4 Supervisor, Joel Engardio. He was a loud voice behind closing down the park to traffic and a large proponent of getting it open.
Joel Engardio [00:06:07] What will our grandkids and great grandkids think of this new park called Sunset Dunes? Will it become as iconic as the Gold Rush and the Golden Gate Bridge in the century to come? Yes, it can!
Brian Krans [00:06:29] He did address the controversy surrounding the park, like he kind of backed into it, but he just talked about how, like when the Golden Gate Bridge opened, there were some people who were like, oh, we don’t like this, this is bad. But that the crowd there that Saturday was witnessing kind of the same great event unveiling in San Francisco’s history.
Joel Engardio [00:06:51] Imagine the social media posts if they had Nextdoor in 1937? And for the people standing at the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937, for us standing at Sunset Dunes today, or when we face anything in life, there is a choice. We can choose to advocate for the future with hope and joy. Let’s hear it for joy.
Alan Montecillo [00:07:24] Let’s talk a little bit about some of the frustration and anger about this park. I mean, we’re talking about the opening of this park, not just because it’s, you know, a new park in the city, but because it is a controversial one, particularly for residents who live nearby. So tell us a little about that anger for folks who don’t know and how much of it you saw during this grand opening.
Brian Krans [00:07:46] I think one of the most telling things about this, and this goes back to Prop K in 2024, when they were just, you know, do we keep this open as a park? Over on the west side of the city, they voted overwhelmingly against it because they were concerned about traffic concerns and everything else that’s gonna come with it, where other parts of the city were more in favor, even like the Mission, Tenderloin, Dogpatch, all them, they voted in favor of it. And so there’s still this continuation of people who are just really unhappy about what happened. So on Saturday, since they were gonna have public officials speaking about how this is so great that they themselves decided to stage their own protest. It started at the Irish Cultural Center just over on Sloat. There’s some nice loud vehicles going, revving of motorcycle engines and honking of cars and they were just gonna drive down to kind of land where people were gonna be speaking just on the other side of the dunes and start honking. A lot of the people were Sunset residents that were concerned.
Jen Doherty [00:08:50] I was part of the group that opened the Great Highway. We were no on K because this whole thing is just a nightmare.
Brian Krans [00:08:58] Mostly they feel betrayed and one of the people I talked to was Jen Doherty
Jen Doherty [00:09:01] And we have bumper-to-bumper traffic on the block with exhaust coming in our windows. Music, noise, bumper- to-bumber can’t get in and out of our driveways without having to wait.
Brian Krans [00:09:12] For them, it’s a lot of quality of life issues. I mean, if you lived on a quiet street, and then they closed down kind of the main thoroughfare to get around all that, people are now backing up. She’s talking about, you know, there’s exhaust coming in from the cars when they’re backed up. And when you live in the sunset, that’s kind of, the whole point is, there’s not a whole lot of cars. You know, there is kind of this open space. And so now they feel like that’s kinda being encroached on. And one of their main complaints they had is that there was a compromise. The great highway would be closed on holidays and weekends and things like that, but it would remain open during the week. So commuter traffic could get through. And now they just say, it’s just kind of a big headache.
Alan Montecillo [00:09:51] One thing I’ve observed just from seeing some of those folks around the neighborhood is there really does seem to be a sense of betrayal and anger at supervisor Engardio specifically for, for really leading the charge on closing the great highway, certainly there’s frustration about the park, but how much of that anger did you hear directed at Engardio?
Brian Krans [00:10:12] You can’t untangle the people who wanted the park open to traffic and the recall effort for Joel Engardio. Every single one of the cars had the yellow “Recall Engardio” sign on them. And then I spoke to a woman named Selena Chu. She’s the vice president for Chinese American Democratic Club. And she was holding a sign that says recall Engardio
Selena Chu [00:10:34] I actually supported Joel. I volunteered for him before he was elected for the one whole year.
Brian Krans [00:10:42] And she told me just about, it was about the whole process about how everything was done, that it was really making people angry. They kind of felt like left out of the process since this affects them directly.
Selena Chu [00:10:53] We’re just a whole bunch of ordinary people coming together because we really felt like, you know, Joe, you knock on our door and you told us you supported the compromise when you ran for a District 4 Supervisor against Gordon Mark. And now you have turned around…
Brian Krans [00:11:11] People I spoke to, they didn’t just vote for Engardio or support him. They hosted him in their homes. They helped campaign for him. Like these were people who were very, very in his favor. And now, you know, scorned, they are just on the opposite side of the fence and they want him gone.
Alan Montecillo [00:11:37] Brian, this dispute over the park slash highway has been going on for a while, we should say. There’s many different chapters of it culminating in the election and now this recall campaign. I guess in theory, the park opening for real officially is the nail in the coffin for people like Jen and Selena and other residents who are upset about it. I mean, is it the nail on the coffin?
Brian Krans [00:12:10] Yes and no, there’s still a legal challenge. I mean, a group did file to have an injunction to prevent the park from officially opening, but that obviously didn’t work, and that’s going through the process. And then there’s the recall campaign, which doesn’t really impact the park per se, but that could make a difference in the representation on the council, especially if a judge with a lawsuit says, whoa, this was put on the ballot improperly, this has got to go through the board of supervisors. And then you might have a newly elected sunset representative that says, you know what, maybe I’m against this park. Even supervisor Connie Chan is pushing to get this back on the ballot, to have basically reverse it, to have voters say, no, we actually want this open back to traffic. So it’s kind of just a jumbled mess right now.
Alan Montecillo [00:12:57] What’s the status of the efforts to, you know, push back against this park?
Brian Krans [00:13:02] Well, there’s a hearing for the lawsuit that filed by residents, and there’s hearing for that in early June. And it’s just gonna look at the merits essentially, just being like, is the argument that this, they circumvented state environmental law, does that have any merit? Should this have gone through the Board of Supervisors? A separate effort outside the lawsuit is to have it go back to voters again. And then as far as the recall campaign against Joel Engardio, they’re still gathering signatures, unaware where that’s going, but they have a deadline next month coming up.
Alan Montecillo [00:13:39] So what is the plan for Sunset Dunes going forward? Is there gonna be more money spent on it to make improvements, for example, to make it even more of a park?
Brian Krans [00:13:48] Yeah, the city has the early plans out, you know, they installed a pump track. The big thing is they took out stoplights. So there is kind of like a move towards the permanence. But there’s also they received a million dollar grant to do a lot of further study on traffic and environment. The park open, but it’s still in its very, very early stages. And they have a lot of listening sessions and meetings coming head where people like, well, we want this and we want. This but even right now as I skated down the road, it doesn’t quite yet feel like a park. It just feels like a road that’s open for now.
Alan Montecillo [00:14:29] One thing that I found really interesting from hearing Supervisor Engardio talk about this is that he’s really talking up this vision of something that’s going to really leave a legacy in the city. He’s talking about, you know, grandkids and great grandkids. He’s taking about how this park could become as iconic as the Golden Gate bridge someday. I mean, that’s quite a, a bold vision that’s sort of thinking years and years ahead. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of anger locally against this park right now. What do you think it would take to realize that vision, considering everything we’ve talked about?
Brian Krans [00:15:02] Well, I think the big thing is gonna be is whether or not people use it. We talked to some people who were residents of the area. They were completely, oh my gosh, this is amazing. It’s so nice to have this locally. But if there just be enough people to justify it, and also there’s gonna be traffic safety issues. It still has that air of like, let’s wait and see. But at least as far as Saturday’s grand opening, there was just that general excitement. Again, it was a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco. No reason not to get outside. Go for a run, completely uninhibited with the sounds of the ocean over on the side of you. And if you’ve ever done any kind of activity down there, it’s hard to be contained on that little short sidewalk. So at least people were just really happy to have what they have while they have it.
Alan Montecillo [00:15:56] Brian, thank you so much.
