Everyone in the safe-and-livable streets community owes a debt of gratitude to District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, the man who saved Sunset Dunes.
Last week, when I was reporting on District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong's abortive attempt to kill the park, I asked some friendly supervisors about who on the board might support his proposed referendum. They immediately guffawed and said some version of "well, I'm not."
I also spoke with District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen's staff. Although they were non-committal, Chen eventually signed Wong's bill, along with District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan.
Chan's auto über alles credentials are, if nothing else, consistent. She opposed the JFK Promenade. Her supposed "compromise" proposal for Sunset Dunes was to allow drivers to use it except on weekends—unless traffic is bad, in which case they can use it on weekends too. Sometimes I wonder if Chan thinks her constituents are literally cars. By signing Wong's retrograde letter, all she did was give more ammunition to her opponent, Scott Wiener, in the race for Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat, considering how popular Sunset Dunes is citywide.
All of which means the "no" vote that really killed Wong's effort came from an unlikely source: Supervisor Walton's office.
Walton has made an impressive journey to become an ally for safe streets. In 2020, along with then-District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, he almost killed Caltrain as part of a naked power grab to get a veto vote over the Caltrain board, riders be damned. In his fight to maintain JFK Drive as a dangerous surface-level freeway, he compared the push to turn it into a promenade to the Jim Crow, "segregationist south" (yes, he really said that). I'm sure that had nothing to do with MAGA-billionaire-chemical-weapons heiress Dede Wilsey, who funded the anti-JFK Promenade effort.
And, up until now, Walton was definitely on the record opposing Sunset Dunes. It was just assumed he would sign any attempt to destroy it.
But, apparently, those days are over. Supervisor Walton is finally putting some value on the lives of people not in cars. He's pedaled into the light.
Now, before some reader smacks me upside the head in the comments section, no, I'm not naive (well, not that naive). Yes, I realize his staffer, Natalie Gee, is running against Wong for the District 4 seat. And yes, I realize Walton's refusal to sign made Wong look like a goofball, especially with the perpetually aggrieved, recall-Engardio/close-Sunset-Dunes crowd. Walton helped Wong estrange himself from both sides of the Sunset Dunes vs. Great Highway fight.
And yes, Walton was quoted in Mission Local's excellent coverage saying that he and Gee would support an effort to kill Sunset Dunes in November instead (in a high-turnout, citywide election it's almost unimaginable that a majority of San Francisco voters are going to change their minds from 2024 and tick the box that says "destroy the park"). But that's got to be just to give himself and Gee cover, no?
Or maybe Walton, who is termed out, realized that continually antagonizing people who care about safe and livable streets, especially on issues that have already been legislated multiple times, is a sure way to lose the long game in politics. Look how his buddy Aaron Peskin's mayoral run turned out (he lost, badly). Perhaps Walton figured it's become smarter to emulate the career of Dianne Feinstein, who was pivotal in getting the Embarcadero Freeway torn down (along with the earthquake). Surely, he's seen the early success of New York's Zohran Mamdani or the accomplishments of Paris's Anne Hidalgo. Both made bike lanes, transit, and safe streets central to their campaigns and ideologies.
Bottom line, Walton saved San Francisco from a pointless re-vote on Sunset Dunes. Maybe he even saved Sunset Dunes itself. Advocates for safe and livable streets should thank him for his change of heart. Be sure to call or email.
