"During the coronavirus pandemic, the city closed a stretch of a four-lane highway along San Francisco's Pacific Coast and made it an automobile-free sanctuary where bicyclists and walkers flocked to exercise and socialize under open skies and to the sound of crashing waves. But with the post-pandemic return to school and work, resentment grew among neighborhood residents who relied on the artery to get around."
"The action also speaks to San Francisco's long history of "Not In My Backyard," or NIMBY politics. Since the 1970s, the formerly bohemian city's unusually direct form of democracy has increasingly empowered small, local groups to block development with wider social benefits, resulting in a relatively small city that competes with New York and Los Angeles for the title of worst housing crisis in the country."
During the coronavirus pandemic, a four-lane Pacific Coast highway segment was closed to automobiles and used as an open-air recreational space for walkers and bicyclists. A district supervisor placed a citywide ballot measure to convert the two-mile stretch into a permanent park, prompting resentment from residents who depended on the artery after the post-pandemic return to school and work. District voters will decide a recall of Supervisor Joel Engardio. The episode reflects San Francisco's long-standing NIMBY politics, a pattern of local opposition that has constrained housing development through height limits and empowered small, affluent groups at public planning meetings.
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