Endorsement: Vote ‘Yes’ on Prop. D

In 2024, not much went well for progressive voters in San Francisco (or anywhere else in the country). There was one sterling exception: Proposition K won by 55 to 45, putting to rest (so we thought) whether Sunset Dunes should be a permanent park or remain a highway blighting San Francisco’s waterfront. San Francisco got to work creating the artwork and playgrounds and the skate park. They started building something truly special on the oceanfront land that was once the Great Highway.

But, as we’ve seen, some of the same people who wanted it put to a citywide vote decided that somehow Prop. K wasn’t valid because it didn’t go their way. First, newbie Supervisor Alan Wong did their bidding and attempted to get a third re-vote on the June ballot. Thankfully, District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who, despite his historic opposition to the park, decided two citywide votes on the issue, in 2022 and 2024, were enough and blocked that effort.

So opponents of the park gathered signatures and got Prop. G on the November ballot instead. Unfortunately, it’s still way too easy for 11,000, or just 2 percent, of registered voters in San Francisco to force a decision’s re-legislation. That bar is absurdly low. Oakland, for example, requires 10 percent.

Prop. D would get San Francisco more in line with its peers by raising that threshold to 8 percent of registered voters. It would also have made Supervisor Wong’s effort less of a threat to the park, since it would require a majority of the Board of Supervisors to place measures directly on the ballot instead of just four. It would also take away the mayor’s ability to place measures on the ballot.

All of which is why SPUR is recommending a “Yes” vote on D.

And as the San Francisco Chronicle put it in its endorsement of D, this will help reduce the size of the ballot and just make the city more governable. The San Francisco ballot has 10 local measures this year (which is typical) while Oakland has two:

…it’s abundantly clear that 2 percent is too low, leading to wasted time, money and civic energy that could be devoted to more productive ends. Remember 2008 when San Francisco voted on whether to rename a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush?

Or, as the Chronicle summarized it, “You don’t need to be a policy wonk to see that San Francisco has a ballot measure problem.”

Vote “No” on “G” and save Sunset Dunes, obviously. And let’s also take this opportunity to reduce frivolous legislation so we’re not voting on Sunset Dunes in 2027, 2028, 2029, etc. Vote “Yes” on Prop. D.

Check out the rest of Streetsblog’s endorsements here.