#jfkdrive

Subject: Car-Free JFK Drive now and forever - SUPPORT

Supervisors / SFCTA Directors (cc SF Bike Coalition, Kid Safe JFK, and Mayor Breed):

I am a resident of the Haight Ashbury and a frequent user of Car-Free JFK, as a cyclist and a pedestrian.  

I am writing to urge you to take action immediately to make JFK Drive car-free permanently.  

If for some reason this is not possible, I urge you to keep car-free JFK Drive in place 24/7 while any outreach or study takes place around concerns such as disabled accessibility, parking for visitors, and access from parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area that are harder to reach, such as the southeast neighborhoods of San Francisco.  

In addition, I urge you to immediately demand that the Museum Concourse Community Partnership and the Concourse Garage board negotiate in good faith with the city and the museums to reduce the cost of employee parking and expand disabled parking.  While normally we would not want to expand parking under the Transit-First Policy that has been repeatedly and overwhelmingly approved by the voters, we have an 800-space garage directly under the museums that is underutilized, so it makes no sense not to take advantage of it to reduce the demand for parking on our streets in the park.

Finally, I would like to express my concern about the recent report published about community input into the future of JFK Drive.  I was frankly shocked to see no mention whatsoever of safety for families, pedestrians, cyclists, and kids in the "park access needs" discussion, though the report correctly pointed out the high number of injury crashes that has occurred along JFK and other streets in the park.  Isn't a safe and welcoming street the highest priority, far more important than wayfinding?  Perhaps one or more parents of small children who currently use JFK Drive should be included in future working groups.

Car-Free JFK and the associated Golden Gate Park Slow Streets, along with the Great Walkway, are among the amazing silver linings that have appeared during Covid.  It would be completely unacceptable to give them up for any length of time.  Please take all necessary action to keep JFK Drive car-free permanently and never reopen it to cars again.