SAN FRANCISCO — From the highest of the Hamon Statement Tower on the de Younger Museum, with its sweeping views of San Francisco, John F. Kennedy Drive cuts a mild curve by way of Golden Gate Park beneath. It’s, today, a street with out automobiles, put aside for pedestrians and bicyclists for the reason that starting of the pandemic, which compelled the museum to close down for practically a 12 months.
However because the de Younger comes slowly again to life, this six-lane street has turn out to be a flash level, pitting two traditionally influential constituencies — cultural establishments and park lovers — in opposition to one another in a divisive debate about public area, the humanities and the priorities of a metropolis rethinking its future after the pandemic.
For park-goers, closing the street to automobiles has proven what may be and needs to be: A broad boulevard that cuts by way of the town’s premier park, reworked right into a secure, quiet refuge for folks to get pleasure from on foot, Rollerblades, skate boards and bicycles.
For the museum, the closed street has turn out to be one other impediment because it tries to attract folks again to an establishment barely off the crushed path. The street closing has reduce off the vehicular strategy from the north facet of the park, made it harder for vehicles to make deliveries and eradicated free parking spots, together with some put aside for folks with disabilities.
“It’s the very last thing we want as we attempt to reopen and get the museums again up and functioning, ” mentioned Thomas P. Campbell, the director of the Positive Arts Museums of San Francisco, which oversees the de Younger.
The de Younger, which is thought for its assortment of American, African and Oceanic artwork and artwork of the Americas, along with in depth holdings of costumes and textile work, has been urgent to reverse the ban on automobiles on the 1.5-mile stretch that runs by the museum. Its objections have been echoed by the California Academy of Sciences, a natural-history museum throughout the road. The museums need to return to the prepandemic coverage of closing the street solely on Sundays and a few Saturdays.
However park lovers mentioned that the explosion of bikers, joggers, runners and scooters throughout the pandemic was proof of the necessity to completely ban automobiles from the street. Jodie Medeiros, the chief director of Stroll San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy group, known as it a “silver lining to an actual robust pandemic” that far outweighed any inconvenience suffered by the museum.
“We noticed the advantages of this by way of the pandemic and we need to preserve it that method,” mentioned Medeiros. “It is a small slice the place folks can let down their guard, be extra relaxed.”
The talk is shaping up as a check for the humanities neighborhood at a time it’s grappling with declining revenues, competitors for philanthropic {dollars} and the problem of bringing guests again after a 12 months of shutdowns.
Few cities can match San Francisco for the dedication its authorities and philanthropic donors should the humanities. That devotion is mirrored in its community of advantageous museums, in addition to the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony, all of which have lengthy performed distinguished roles in society life right here.
However the museums and their supporters could also be outmatched on this combat — an previous guard utilizing old-school strategies because it confronts a coalition of well-organized, passionate advocates who’ve packed conferences of the board of supervisors and have surprised museum executives with barrages of assaults on social media.
Megan Bourne, the chief of workers for the museums, mentioned they have been confronting a coalition that had been organizing for 20 years. “It has a big voice within the metropolis,” she mentioned. “It has an excessive amount of affect of how the roads are used.”
However it’s not solely park customers and advocates who’ve applauded closing the roads within the 1,017-acre park to automobiles. Metropolis recreation officers mentioned they have been delighted by a pointy enhance in bicycle site visitors for the reason that shutdown started. The town counted 664,437 bikes on the street between October 2020 and April 2021, greater than 5 occasions the bike site visitors measured throughout those self same months two years earlier. They mentioned they have been intent on discovering an answer that might construct on these positive aspects, whereas accommodating among the museums’ considerations.
Earlier than the Covid shutdown, officers mentioned, three-quarters of the automobiles that handed by way of the park used the drive as a shortcut to keep away from the site visitors lights and congestion of the encircling metropolis blocks.
“It might turn out to be much less handy for some guests that would like to park only a few steps from the museum at no cost all day,” mentioned Phil Ginsburg, the overall supervisor of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Division. “We get it. However that comfort needs to be balanced with this unimaginable enhance in wholesome park makes use of on J.F.Ok.”
The Positive Arts Museums of San Francisco, the group that runs the de Younger and Legion of Honor museums, took in $68.5 million in revenues in 2019, the 12 months earlier than the pandemic. That dropped to $56.4 million final 12 months. Whereas donors and the town contributed extra money in 2020, the museums noticed a pointy decline in earned earnings, as admissions revenues dropped to $2.3 million from $9 million the prior 12 months.
At occasions the talk has grown heated.
“What you’ve gotten are museums which are stuffed with the richest and most linked folks in San Francisco and so they need to inform us who can play within the park,” mentioned Matthew Brezina, a bicycle owner and a frontrunner of the motion to shut the streets.
“They’re on public land,” he mentioned. “They’ve been having their method with this road for many years.”
Campbell, the director of the Positive Arts Museums of San Francisco, mentioned that advocates of closing the street had seized on the pandemic as “the proper alternative to push this by way of.”
The street had provided 280 free parking areas inside a half-mile of the museum’s entrance, and 17 for disabled folks inside 1 / 4 mile of the doorway. There may be an adjoining 800-car storage, however it prices $5.25 an hour, and extra on weekends.
Campbell took a customer to the highest of the tower and pointed down on the drive which was, on this weekday morning, pretty empty — no automobiles, after all, however not many pedestrians both, although it will refill because the day acquired later. “All of us share the imaginative and prescient of zero accidents and fewer automobiles, however the abrupt closure, underneath cowl of the Covid disaster, with out full evaluation, is basically impacting entry to the park and entry to the museums,” he mentioned.
Ike Kwon, chief working officer of the California Academy of Sciences, mentioned his patrons had complained of congestion on alternate routes to that museum. “It actually does have an effect on these with mobility challenges, and likewise folks with youthful youngsters who come from distant,” he mentioned.
Shamann Walton, the president of the board of supervisors, argued in an op-ed within the San Francisco Examiner that banning automobiles was “leisure redlining”; reducing off the park to folks with disabilities and minorities who don’t stay close to Golden Gate.
But many individuals imagine that even throughout this tough time for the humanities — and in a metropolis identified for its vibrant arts scene — the priorities in a post-Covid world have turn out to be clear. David G. Miles Jr., a roller-skater who has been pushing to ban car site visitors from the park for 40 years, mentioned he doubted automobiles would ever return, irrespective of how a lot the museums object.
“Folks need the park closed to automotive site visitors,” he mentioned. “There’s an vitality that’s stronger than it’s ever been. You may combat all of it you need, however I believe they’ll lose this. The folks need this.”
Campbell, who beforehand served as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York till he was compelled to resign within the face of strain from trustees and workers, mentioned he had been unprepared for a way fraught this combat would turn out to be.
“It is a very political metropolis,” he mentioned. “There are some very highly effective lobbying teams just like the bike coalition. We don’t really feel that our standpoint is being taken under consideration as metropolis establishments.”
The board of supervisors, which can make the ultimate resolution on the street later this 12 months, has requested for extra examine of the problem within the face of excessive feelings on either side, however significantly from Golden Gate denizens who’ve been combating this battle for many years.
“They’re much less skilled at advocacy and this kind of civic engagement than the bicycle coalition and the opposite teams of activists who’re pushing for a car-free J.F.Ok. Drive,” mentioned Gordon Mar, a member of the board of supervisors whose district abuts the park. “The management of establishments just like the de Younger and the Academy of Sciences don’t have interaction in native policymaking and political efforts as a lot as the people on the opposite facet.”
