Over the past two weeks, San Francisco Recreation and Park has received 4,263 submissions on what the park formerly known as the Great Highway should be named.
Those nominations provide a window into the hopes, malice, and outright nerdery that San Francisco’s newest and, as of press time, most controversial city park has inspired. Take a look at the park’s over 2,000 name suggestions; some likely, others extremely not so.
The public can vote on a list of 15 names from March 20 to April 2. On April 9, the Recreation and Park Commission will determine the final name for the park.
In the lead
The top suggestions are “Ocean Beach Park” (submitted 178 times) and “Snowy Plover Park” (171 votes, in honor of the adorable, federally threatened shorebirds that skitter along Ocean Beach eating kelp flies, when they aren’t migrating). “You can always find snowy plovers chasing the waves, and the waves chasing the snowy plovers,” wrote one submitter.
“Parky McParkface,” an allusion to the time a British research agency let the public vote on the name of its newest vessel, and “Boaty McBoatface” won overwhelmingly, rounded a distant third at 86 votes.
We have come to praise Joel Engardio and to bury him
District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio, now facing a recall for his co-sponsorship of Prop. K, the ballot measure that closed a portion of the Great Highway to create the new park, was name-checked often; 110 times, to be precise.
A few suggested naming the park after Engardio, in commendation for his “courage to stand up for what he believes” in the face of a not-inconsiderable number of angry constituents (Prop. K was overwhelmingly voted down in the west side of the city, and it was opposed strongest in the areas where Engardio formerly had the most support). “Why not name it after the person who made it happen?” one member of the pro-Engardio camp wrote, suggesting “Joel Engardio Park.”
A significantly larger number (about 40) had a different suggestion: “Recall Joel Engardio Park.” If all the submissions mentioning Engardio in a negative light (“Engardio’s Folly,” “Engardio’s Boondoggle,” “Engardio’s Waterloo,” “Traitor Joel’s,” and “Fuck Joel Engardio” among them) were added together, they would be at least in fourth place.
Fight the real enemy (the park)
At least 170 submissions, without mentioning the supervisor or the recall, cut to the chase and expressed frustration with the new park.
- “The Park Nobody Wanted”
- “The Great Mistake”
- “Nowhere to Park”
- “Freezing Your Butt Off Park”
- “No One in the Sunset Wanted This Park”
“The War on Cars Victory Park,” meanwhile, rose to the defense of park goers as a “tongue in cheek reference to the sentiment that there is a war on cars,” per its submitter.
They call me sand
About 240 submissions honor Ocean Beach’s iconic sand dunes, which used to cover a significant portion of San Francisco, and often defied attempts to corral them in a specific area. Among the suggestions: “Sunset Dunes Park,” “the Dunes,” “Sand Dunes Park” or, more plainly, “Sand Francisco.”
One voter (Ruthie, age 9) nominated “Dune Tansy Park,” in honor of the globular yellow dune flower found on dunes along the Pacific coast, on the grounds that “there are lots of dune tansies and that is a native plant and also because there is the word ‘dune’ and there are lots of dunes.”
Land acknowledgement
At least 180 submissions sought to name the new park after the Ramaytush Ohlone people, who have lived on the San Francisco Peninsula for thousands of years.
- Ohlone Park
- Ramaytush Park
- Yelamu Park
Keep it simple
Many of the nominations, pragmatically, suggested names close to what is already in use, among them Ocean Beach Park, Ocean Park, Sunset Park or, smushing together past and future nomenclature, the Great Parkway or Great Highway Park.
Neighborhood nicknames
About 120 submissions referenced the history of the Sunset, Richmond and Parkside neighborhoods, which border the new park.
“I like that the neighborhoods have sorta always had a bit of an underdog vibe to them. Many scoff at the fog, cold, and the dunes,” one nominator wrote. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city’s westernmost neighborhoods were considered the “outside lands” and deemed desolate and uninhabitable. “Reclaiming the old name ‘Outside Lands’ as a positive,” the nominator continued, “would be a great way to connect our neighborhood’s history to the future.”
Another 160 submissions or so seek to commemorate Playland at the Beach, a historical amusement park along the Great Highway which opened in the 1920s and was demolished in 1972. Some 60 suggested “Playland Park,” and another 36 proposed “Playland at the Beach.”
“My mom (who is 101) lived as a young, single, and pretty gal through the war years in San Francisco,” wrote one commenter, “She ice skated at Sutro, ate ravioli at the really original Original Joe’s, had cocktails at Top of the Mark with guys leaving for the Pacific theater.”
By the time they were born, the nominator continued, Playland was “a rundown shell with a few bumper cars where once it was a vibrant place everyone came to for fun and sea air. So it makes perfect sense to resurrect history for a wonderful new place to play in the city.”
A virtual community meeting took place on Tuesday, March 18 at 6 p.m. to review and narrow down the names. From March 20 to April 2, the public will weigh in to determine the name among the finalists.
Snowy Plower Park in close second spot? Considering how nobody seams to care how owners let their dogs chase these birds up and down the beach, that’s surprising. Not. A reminder how vapid ppl are.
My thought too. Their kids chase the birds, too–when the parents are standing their looking at their cell phones instead of watching their kid about to be swept out to sea. I bet these people also call themselves ‘environmentalists.’
“You can always find (dogs) snowy plovers chasing the waves, and the waves chasing the (dogs) snowy plovers,” wrote one submitter. Closing this four lane highway will destroy snowy plover habitat by giving even more access to people and dogs. It’s like naming a planned community that tore down all the oak trees to build it, “Oak Grove.”
They plan to put a damn STAGE right in the middle of Plover habitat.
They lie about the “environmental concerns” as often as they breathe.
The “boaty mcboatface” meme is so played out. It was definitely funny the first time, but the 150th? not so much.
McLying Engardioface.
And the lawsuit against the park finally showed up on the Court’s files. Better late than never, I suppose. No preliminary injunction, or any other motion on file, however. I’m guessing that the most that comes of this is, perhaps, an injunction against naming the park “Parky McParkface.”
Ocean Beach itself is the park – a National
Park (GGNRA). It is also a border to a coastal wilderness. The park to be named here is an abandoned road, a slab of asphalt to provide more room to bike, walk and jog along the water. Very nice, but I hope we place more value on taking care of the beach and its natural ecosystem.
People on the west side did not vote to close the Great Highway.
If people on the east side want a street turned into a park why not close off North Market Street from the Van Ness Avenue to 19th street? That would make a better park with far easier access for the east side voters.
Your east side geography is a little off, but may I direct your attention to Patricia’s Green and the central freeway removal? Not only was it wildly successful for the neighborhood, it’s the one place where residents and merchants are trying to figure out how to EXPAND their car-free weekend street space into a more permanent fixture.
Not even close to accurate or comparable…
Reminder. The land in question is owned by San Francisco Parks and Recreation. In other words, by everyone in San Francisco, not just some on the west side.
Today, the Great Parkway is the third most visited city park in San Francisco, and will probably surpass the Marina Green for number 2.
Lol, no it isn’t, it’s owned by the handful of “non-profits” that have been written into the City Charter by corrupt Phil Ginsburg and his Breed-era graft machine. Don’t be fooled, you have no right to build or design any aspect of “our park” without being green lit by Billionaire real estate developers. Also way more people visit the beach itself than the fake “park” trying to gin up numbers to keep corrupt Engardio in office so he can springboard to corrupting higher office. But nice try?
Shrinkage Park.
The traffic over the past few days has been so bad. Chain of Lakes is packed with cars and traffic controllers. Fulton has cops because of speeding cars. Cars are running the stop sign at Chain of Lakes at Lincoln because it’s immediately after the new traffic lights. And per usual the bicyclists are still running all the stop signs. But the bicyclists want to take over the roads for “safety”. We are not all so privileged to bike all day long. Commuters don’t want to spend time in our cars and now we are forced to be in stop and go traffic and less time outdoors with our family members.
Who cares what they call it? I’d like non-biased (if that is even possible- reporters rarely talk to Vin et al) reporting on the lawsuit. How about interviews with Richmond residents? What about federal implications? Are they going to have to pay back the California State Highway Fund for funds taken to build the raised walkway?
Zero Vision Prominade
They should at least be honest with themselves and call the park “In your face locals” since the people living there did not want it. A space should be dedicated in a small corner of “the park” for Joel after he is re-called and named: “R.I.P back stabber”.
“Developer Land Grab Park”
“Politics Park” or “Gentrification Landing”? Liar’s Loop? Development Dunes.
@mealy – “YOUR [sic] BRINGING TROUBLE Park”
Screw the East Side Voters Park
I like Traitor Joel’s Park, has a nice ring to it. Regardless, this park is a disgrace. A reminder that money and out of touch transplants who work from home is what San Francisco cares about the most.
Why not “Lawsuit Land”, as the city is being sued for illegally implementing the closure of a highway?
Power to the attorneys in winning back the highway!
This is a slap in the face of Joel’s constituents who didn’t want the roadway closed it has now made commute times longer than before for what a strip of asphalt along the beach
Not without a fight!
We should all link arms and protest the opening. They won’t ride bikes through human chains without getting caught up in something they’re not ready for :
Sunset residents’ righteous indignation at being sold out by a downtown liar.
My God, our nation has become an authoritarian fascist state and many are whining about maybe having to drive around a block or wait 5 minutes in traffic? And many are wasting funds on a ridiculous lawsuit that is going nowhere. No wonder we cannot have nice things in this country anymore. People are so selfish they miss the forest for the trees.