I guess we’re doing another ballot measure on whether the Great Highway should be car-free, because Supervisors Alan Wong and Connie Chan figure it could net them extra votes in the upcoming 2026 elections.
Whether the Great Highway should be car-free has been one of SF’s most divisive and high-profile political battles for more than five years running. And a one-sided 55%-45% Prop K victory for the car-free Great Highway ballot measure last November did not resolve the controversy; jilted Sunset voters promptly recalled their Supervisor Joel Engardio, and Richmond District Supervisor Connie Chan has declared she wants a do-over ballot measure to completely relitigate an election from just 13 months ago over what we now call the pedestrian park Sunset Dunes.    
Mayor Daniel Lurie has wisely avoided this whole food fight, but last month he appointed new District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong to replace the ousted Engardio. And once sworn in, Wong told reporters that he voted no on Prop K, putting him squarely in line with the Sunset voters who overwhelmingly want cars back on the Great Highway, but very much against the rest of the city’s populace that wants the thoroughfare to remain the car-free Sunset Dunes park.  
Now Wong is escalating the fight to bring cars back to the Great Highway. The Chronicle reports that Wong announced he also wants a repeat ballot measure to make us vote again on the car-free Great Highway, a vote that could theoretically happen on the June 2, 2026 primary election.
Oh, and did we mention that Alan Wong’s reelection will also be on that exact same June 2, 2026 primary election?
“At the end of the day, I believe my values align with the majority of the district,” Wong told the Chronicle. “I’m prepared to sign onto a measure that would need four supervisors to be placed onto the ballot to restore the compromise.”
Needless to say, the people who made the Sunset Dunes park happen are pissed.
“Supervisor Wong, after promising he would participate in a public process to hear from District 4 residents, betrayed his constituents by announcing that he plans to sign a ballot measure to close Sunset Dunes,” Friends of Sunset Dunes president Lucas Lux said in a press release. “He has yet to meet with constituents in a single public forum regarding this issue, despite promising that he would. Instead, Supervisor Wong made backroom deals after having a few closed-door meetings with park opponents and political groups.”
Still, it may seem like a shrewd political move for Wong to give his constituents exactly what they want. Or maybe in retrospect it will not seem so. Mission Local reports that Wong never reached out to Connie Chan, thus far the de facto leader of the ballot measure effort, and Chan’s office was effectively blindsided by Wong’s Friday-before-Chrismas announcement.
“Supervisor Chan still supports the compromise,” Chan’s legislative aide Robyn Burke told Mission Local. “But we were not made aware of what Supervisor Wong’s proposals were and haven’t been reached out to.”
On a purely practical level, getting a ‘cars back on the Great Highway’ ballot measure would need four members of the SF Board of Supervisors to sign on to such an effort by January 13. You’ve already got Chan and Wong saying they’d back such a measure. Supervisors Chyanne Chen and Shamann Walton are also on record as wanting cars back on the thoroughfare, so that right there looks like the four necessary votes.
Not so fast. D10’s Chyanne Chen sounded noncommittal when commenting to the Chronicle Friday that “I want to make sure I do my own homework and hear directly from constituents” before making her decision.
But for Connie Chan, who is running against Scott Wiener for Nancy Pelosi’s old seat in Congress, raising some hell to bring cars back to the Great Highway is fabulous advertising for her November 2026 race. Even if that ballot measure loses, and I’ll bet you my left lung that it will, Chan can charm west side voters with tales of how she went to bat for them while Wiener was off at some YIMBY realtor gala or whatever.
The political calculus for D4 Supervisor Alan Wong is much different and — much more urgent. Wong is up for reelection on the very same June 2 day of that theoretical vote to bring cars back to the Great Highway. He surely figures this offers the wind at his sails as voters go to the polls that day.
But he’s also up against Great Wall Hardware owner Albert Chow (a leading recall organizer) and Shamann Walton legislative aide Natalie Gee in that June 2 election. Both opponents have far stronger bona fides in opposing Prop K than Wong ever had. Plus the Sunset native Wong only moved to District 4 “in recent months,” Chow and Gee have D4 roots going back uninterrupted for decades.        
So if Alan Wong wants to make his reelection on June 2 powered by people who want cars back on the Great Highway, he might be in for a rude awakening when he learns who those voters’ first choice for District 4 Supervisor might be.
Related: Supervisor Chan Proposes Possible Ballot Measure to Bring Cars Back to Great Highway, Which We Just Voted On [SFist]
Image: Alan Wong via Facebook
Sutter Health is continuing to provide gender-affirming care to minors despite federal pressure; last weekend’s viral incident has gained Hazie’s in Hayes Valley a lot of new customers; and City Hall honors its history and celebrates the holidays with a new animated light show.
‘Yule’ want to see these photos of the SF fire stations participating in the 2025 Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition, who’ve decked the halls out hard with freaking festive fixtures to bring joy to the world.
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Joe Kukura is an SFist staff asst. editor / reporter who has been published in almost every San Francisco publication, including Hoodline, SF Weekly, Thrillist, and Broke Ass Stuart.
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