The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote this spring on whether to maintain Golden Gate Park's John F. Kennedy Drive as car-free to the public.
While some de Young Museum officials and San Francisco supervisors have publicly renounced a permanent "car-free JFK," many concerned residents are starting their own advocacy groups to ensure that the roadway remains open for pedestrians.
"I’m a dad, and during the pandemic, I began to care a lot more about local issues and having access to safe a safe space for our daughter to play and to be in less stressful places," Luke Bornheimer, the organizer of Kid Safe SF, a nonprofit group aiming to bar cars from driving along JFK, told KCBS Radio's "Bay Current" on Wednesday.
"I came across JFK, and I just wanted to make a difference," he added. "I saw this opportunity to advocate for this space to become permanent. Many people didn’t know that it was supposed to be temporary."
JFK Drive has been closed to traffic since April 2020, to allow residents to roam freely through the 1.5-mile roadway that leads to the de Young Museum and the Rose Garden. The roadway was declared "car-free" as an emergency order at the beginning of the pandemic, but families, bicyclists and park-goers are claiming that a permanent car-free roadway allows for a more accessible environment for San Francisco residents.
Helena Nordstrom, Associate Director of Communications for the de Young Museum, told "Bay Current" that keeping JFK Drive open will impact the museum and its staff in the long run.
"We have seen a 50% drop in attendance this last summer. Some attendance drop is due to the pandemic, but the road closure does decrease access to people who do not live in walking or biking distance to the park," Nordstrom said. "Free ADA parking was also reduced by over 50%, so the closure has hit members of the community with disabilities."
But San Francisco resident Carol Brownson, who has mobility issues and depends on an electric scooter for transportation, said that a traffic-free roadway has been a blessing for her during the pandemic.
"I’m not anti-car by any means, but once I became disabled, I couldn’t drive," Brownson added. "I got this scooter, and it opened up a whole new life for me. JFK and all the exploration is amazing."
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