The Sunset District did not exactly roll out the welcome mat for their new car-free Great Highway, as on the very first night of its new car-free status, a mural in the park was vandalized in what may have been an act of protest.
After a years-long, contentious debate and SF voters approving the closure last November, the Great Highway was finally closed and made into a car-free park this past Friday. KQED reports the closure of the nearly 1.5-mile stretch of the highway between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way officially happened at 5 am Friday. But not even 24 hours after the closure, the Chronicle reports that someone vandalized a new 60-foot mural that was painted in an area that is now slated to become a public park.
The damage to the mural is seen above. The mural is located on Judah Street at Ocean Beach, and we cannot determine with certainty if this was an act of hostility by Sunset District opponents of closing the highway. But according to a press release from car-free advocates Friends of Ocean Beach Park, the mural’s artist Emily Fromm “has been verbally harassed multiple times, and another artist working on a similar project at Taraval has also reported experiencing repeated harassment from opponents of the park.”
The vandal (or vandals) even marked up the part of the mural that depicts the old amusement park Playland at the Beach. Who would deface Playland at the Beach???
“While I do not know why the mural was vandalized — because the markings were random and unspecific — it likely had something to do with the closure of the Great Highway, a divisive issue,” Fromm said in an interview with KGO. “The artwork is intended as a gift for the neighborhood, regardless of that change. Vandalizing the artwork will have no impact on that voter-approved issue.”
The Friends of Ocean Beach Park group sure suspects this was the work of car-free opponents, and maybe the Recall Joel Engardio crowd who are so infuriated with the Sunset District supervisor for supporting the measure. The photo above is undated, and it’s not clear exactly where this “Joel Lie$ #Recall” graffiti was sprayed, but Friends of Ocean Beach Park released this photo along with their press release denouncing the vandalism. They also included the image below, which is also undated, but part of what the group says is a pattern of vandalism going back years ever since the park was closed to cars at the start of the pandemic.
But KGO had a Sunday report that the mural is being fully restored, after a team of volunteers joined the artist Fromm on Sunday morning. The restoration is not yet fully complete, but there’s another volunteer session on Wednesday to complete the touch-up work.
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And as we mentioned last week, there is now a lawsuit to force cars back onto the highway, brought by various car-free opponents. That lawsuit was announced at a press conference last Tuesday, and Courthouse News was on the scene. Their photos show that cause is now basically now tied at the hip to the Recall Engardio campaign, and the press conference was contentious. A passerby flashed a thumbs-down gesture at the ralliers, and one pro-car protester responded by shouting, “A bike slut! We got a bike slut over there!”
According to Courthouse News, the so-called bike slut was “the driver of a black Subaru.”
Image: Friends of Ocean Beach Park
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