"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.""
"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)."
"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."
District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton cast the decisive 'no' vote that prevented a referendum, preserving Sunset Dunes as a car-free space. District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong sought to reopen the park to drivers but failed to gain board support. District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan signed Wong's bill, with Chan proposing a limited-driving compromise that still favored cars. Walton had previously opposed several safe-streets measures, including moves against Caltrain and the JFK Promenade, and had criticized promenade proposals using charged comparisons. Walton's office ultimately halted Wong's effort and kept the park intact.
Read at Streetsblog
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