Weekend Roundup: Great Walkway Saved Again, Amtrak Joe Speaks

Here are a few Streetsblog news nuggets to start your weekend.

Great Highway Promenade (or whatever the kids are calling it these days) saved again.

Compromising with car-brains who want automobile access all the time everywhere is basically impossible. Or at least that’s what people who want the Great Walkway eliminated proved this week with their latest attempt to destroy this weekend oasis once again. From a Walk San Francisco statement celebrating the coastal commission’s decision to throw out yet another appeal of the weekend-is-for-people-not-cars compromise:

Advocates for the Great Highway Park are holding a little celebratory get together Friday/tonight at 4:30 p.m. at Noriega & “The Way.”

Amtrak Joe Biden still loving California and Nevada’s high-speed rail projects.

“Remember, the last president — he kept talking about ‘Infrastructure Week’? He had ‘Infrastructure Week’ for four years and didn’t do a damn thing,” said President Joe Biden at Tuesday’s campaign stop in Las Vegas. During the speech he reminded people of the $3 billion going to the Vegas high-speed rail (HSR) project which will join to California’s HSR project, for which he also secured $3 billion to complete the first segment in the Central Valley. “That train is going to go 220 miles an hour,” said the president.

“All of us high-speed rail and climate advocates are warmed by the president’s no-hesitation endorsement and proud funding of California’s Central Valley project, now over two-thirds completed, and to the Las Vegas Brightline Project to the L.A. Metrolink Station east of Los Angeles,” wrote Rod Diridon, Co-chair of the US High Speed Rail Coalition, in an email about the speech. Diridon added that advocates are pleased with “… his enthusiastic announcement of over $6 billion in HSR grants … We’re on our way, as long as our ‘Railroad Joe‘ continues to be president!”

Ferry service between Jack London Square and Western Alameda is getting closer

It’s the ultimate indignity for cyclists and pedestrians in Western Alameda and Jack London Square — the only way to cross the 800-feet of water between the two without a car involves over 1,000 feet of backtracking to take a bus through the tunnel (and no, sorry, walking through the Posey Tube suicide-ledge/hellscape is not a real option). But that’s going to change soon enough thanks to a plan to provide free ferry service. Streetsblog has learned that major renovations are complete and Woodstock the ferry (seen above) was moved Thursday from shops in Richmond to the Jack London marina. There’s still work to be done (Streetsblog has a request in for updated information) but service is supposed to start this spring. Look for more info in the coming weeks.