The Museums Want One More Crack at Ending Car Free Streets

The San Francisco Examiner reports that a new ballot measure has been filed with the City of San Francisco, which its proponents are calling “Access for All.” If successful, the measure would:

• Reverse the Supervisors’ April decision to create a permanent car-free JFK in Golden Gate Park
• Undo the bans on motor vehicles along stretches of Martin Luther King Drive and Bernice Rogers Way that feed into the car-free JFK Promenade
• Reverse the weekend closures of the Great Highway, and
• Transfer management of the Great Highway from the Department Recreation and Parks to the Department of Public Works

The petition was filed by Howard Chabner, who the Examiner identifies as a ‘disability advocate.’ Streetsblog readers with very long memories may remember Chabner for his opposition to the Fell Street bike lanes and other traffic calming measures a decade or so ago. Of course, Chabner isn’t doing this alone. The Examiner notes:

It’s clear that the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the De Young Museum’s parent organization, is involved as well. Four days after the ballot measure was filed, a political action committee called, “Access for All, sponsored by corporation of the Fine Arts Museums and Open the Great Highway Alliance,” registered with the San Francisco Ethics Commission.

While ballot measures can be unpredictable, Access for All has a steep hill to bike up. First, the measure needs to be approved by the City Clerk, who must ascertain that it isn’t seeking to do something illegal. After that, proponents will have a couple of months to gather 9,000 signatures; if they get them, and the signatures are deemed legitimate, the measure would appear on the November 8th ballot. It would only need a hair over fifty percent of the vote to pass – but the most recent polling on Car Free JFK shows that seventy percent of city residents support the project.