By Savannah Blackwell

Two dozen protesters gathered at the corner of Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard on the sunny afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 20, to sound the alarm about the city's plan to turn the northern side of the intersection, at Golden Gate Park, into a four-lane thoroughfare leading to the 800-space underground parking garage being constructed under the Music Concourse.

As motorists passing by honked in response to a sign urging, "Honk against widening roads in Golden Gate Park!," the protesters handed out leaflets to passersby and waved signs such as one saying, "Public Process Steamrolled."

Pinky Kushner, an Inner Sunset resident and one of the protesters, expressed dismay that wealthy private interests behind the garage appear to be on their way to getting the plan through official city circuits.

"This is the best demonstration of their greed and lack of allegiance to park-related issues," said Kushner, who has been active in efforts to keep private interests from expanding in the park for decades. "This is not just about a few advocates [expressing opposition]. This runs counter to everything San Francisco has always stood for. We tore down a major freeway, and we began by not allowing the Panhandle to become a freeway. We've blocked freeways from downtown to the ocean, but now they're talking about building a freeway into the park.

"This is 1960s thinking, and we're now in the year 2004."

For their part, city officials shepherding the new plan through, and the representatives of the private interests behind the garage, say there will be no impact from the expansion on traffic in the Inner Sunset. Planning Department staffers recently released a report saying the project did not require further environmental review.

"We think this is a good solution," Carolyn MacMillan, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum's deputy director for marketing and communications, told the Bay Guardian. "We believe this will cause less traffic. We think it will serve the city best to have an entrance and an exit on both sides [of the garage]."

The conflict marks the latest battle in a roughly eight-year struggle over attempts by the de Young and the California Academy of Sciences to get around the problem of motorists' lack of access to the institutions during the Saturday closure of JFK Drive. They've pushed through an underground parking lot, now estimated to cost roughly $50 million, in between the two institutions. The 1998 measure authorizing the garage called for private dollars to fund the construction under city auspices. Its primary purpose was to create a "pedestrian oasis" in the park and reduce the impact of cars.

Meanwhile, proponents of the road widening acknowledge that it's a far from ideal solution, but they blame the situation on activists who filed suit over a previous plan.

"If we had not been sued, I believe the project and the city would be in a better position, and the design would be in a better position," Mike Ellzey, executive director of the city's Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority, told us. "Clearly what we're doing is in direct response to the court order."

In response to a lawsuit, Superior Court Judge James Warren ruled last August that the city's plan for funneling auto traffic to and from the underground parking garage did not comply with the text of the 1998 measure. (Activists cited a number of ways in which the project violated that proposition, but Warren discounted those arguments.)

Warren decided the city could not construct an entrance or exit inside the park (as the previous plan called for) "without first attempting to design a dedicated access route to that entrance that itself begins at a location outside the Park."

So officials with the Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority and the private Music Concourse Community Partnership – the outfit that is associated with wealthy financier and Wells Fargo heir Warren Hellman, is funding the garage's construction, and has largely driven the project – came up with the idea of widening the northern side of the Ninth Avenue and Lincoln intersection into four lanes and declaring it the official dedicated entryway.

Activists contend the plan won't fly with the judge because the intersection constitutes an opening into the park and is, therefore, technically inside the park. (Ellzey, in contrast, told us the intersection is considered outside of the park.)

"That's the big banana," Chris Duderstadt, an activist with the Alliance for Golden Gate Park, said. "I don't think the judge is going to buy it."

Some city officials, including those with the Municipal Transportation Authority – which oversees Muni – say they can't support the plan. Sup. Chris Daly, for one, is opposed – though it's not clear whether the Board of Supervisors can reject it.

Sup. Tom Ammiano planned to introduce a resolution Nov. 23 asking the Recreation and Park Commission to let the MTA come up with a design for a new entryway and hold hearings on it by February.

At this point, the Inner Sunset Merchants Association, the local chapter of the Sierra Club, Walk S.F., and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition have all gone on record as opposed.

"We're going to fight [them] to the bitter end," the SFBC's Josh Hart has vowed. He told us SFBC members faxed in some 600 letters of protest to the Recreation and Park Department, which will consider the plan but may only reject it by a two-thirds vote.

Even so, on Nov. 16 (several days before the protest), with member John Rizzo voting against, the concourse authority voted to go forward with the four-lane road.

Museum officials want to expedite the plan and are counting on the garage being completed in time for the reopening of the museum in October, 2005.

Representatives from the Inner Sunset Merchants Association said they were only recently contacted about the project. Pat Christiansen, a representative of the organization, read a letter penned by the group's vice president of community relations expressing opposition.

"I personally addressed the [environmental impact report] for the garage and at that time requested further traffic studies South of the Park. It was stated at the time of the EIR that traffic patterns South of the Park would not be affected by the garage and an inadequate survey of one southern intersection was performed," Craig Dawson wrote. "To think that the Inner Sunset will not suffer irreparable damage should ANY of the plans for a Southern entrance be approved is FALSE."

Activists are hoping they might get a more sympathetic hearing with the Board of Supervisors. The matter is to be heard by the board's Finance Committee Nov. 24. Daly has said he might be willing to hold up the concourse authority's budget over the issue, but he said activists need to contact other supervisors as well. Ammiano, who opposed the 1998 measure, has expressed concern as well. The supervisors have jurisdiction over traffic circulation inside the park.

"I'm against the garage in the park. I've asked Rec and Park to hold up on this," Daly said. "But I'm going to need backup."

Efforts are underway to have the Music Concourse designated a landmark. Contact Kathy Howard of Friends of the Music Concourse at (415) 710-2402. Protesters encourage residents to write to their supervisors if they're opposed to the new entryway plan. To join the fight against construction of the underground garage, call Katherine Roberts of Trees Not Cars at (415) 933-8967.