April 12th, 2025 was the day of celebration for San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio who spearheaded the campaign which made Sunset Dunes Park, “California’s largest pedestrianization project” a reality.
Supervisor Joel Engardio the leader of the campaign which made Sunset Dunes Parka reality celebrates the moment as a beaming Recreation and Parks Director Phil Ginsburg looks on.
It was a historic day in San Francisco on a sunny April Saturday as thousands turned out for the formal opening of Sunset Dunes Park.The culmination of the victorious Proposition K in the November 2024 election as 55 percent of San Francisco voters approved creation of the two mile park alongside the Pacific Ocean.
Liz Heidhues flashes the “V” for Victory sign as the Snowy Plover waves approvingly
A parade of dignitaries spoke at the event including, but not limited to, Recreation and Parks Director Phil Ginsburg, representatives from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), the California Coastal Commission, the California Academy of Arts and Science and a representative from Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office.
Sunset Dunes Park. A happy place for people of all ages.
The beautiful Pacific Ocean adjacent to Sunset Dunes Park
The mural celebrating Sunset Dunes Park near Judah Street.
Bikes, bikes and more bikes on Sunset Dunes Park
Park Rangers have a quiet day at the Sunset Dunes Park inaugural festival
A group of Sunset Dunes Park celebrants
San Francisco Chronicle – 4.14.2025
Sunset Dunes Park emcee Unique Derique juggled many responsibilities during the inaugural party.
A jazz rock fusion band ‘Children of Lucy’ provided musical entertainment at Sunset Dunes Park.
Sunset Dunes Park is a “PARK IN PROGRESS.”
One celebrant steps up to get a better view.Sunset Dunes Park is welcoming to everyone.
An enterprising citizen offered lemonade to the attendees.
Back home after the celebration blogger Lee proudly displays his “OFFICIAL SOUVENIR” ribbon
The old San Francisco along the Pacific Coast shorelineBanned forever from Sunset Dunes Park in San Francisco
The losers trying to Recall the leader of Sunset Dunes Park
A small group of obnoxious motorists gunned their engines and tried to disrupt the joyful event. Their rotten entitled motorist behavior fell flat when the City blocked the nearby streets to all vehicular traffic. “One family in the protest parade screamed in unison out of their open car windows, mother and children lending their voices to the cacophony. Another protestor, revving his motorcycle, declined questions, and revved only louder when a park supporter asked him to quiet down.“I hate them,” said the supporter, Dee, who withheld her last name for privacy. The Great Highway neighbor and SFUSD paraeducator said she had been on the fence about the issue, but the protestors helped make up her mind. ‘They have convinced me. They’re just a bunch of screaming, tan-truming 3-year-olds,’ “she said. Reported in SF Standard. SF Chronicle photo – Stephen Lam
These guys intentionally blocked traffic on the Lower Great Highway and blew their horns repeatedly. But it was barely audible in the park. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick
Liz Heidhues stands at the bus stop en route to the Sunset Dunes Park celebration. Blogger Lee and Liz have never owned a car. We have made our way through life in San Francisco raising two children utilizing bicycles, public transit and our feet. Using our bodies, our good health, our wits. Never succumbing to the typical American false need for a climate destroying car.
Top photo – Sunset Dunes Park ribbon cutting – Liz Heidhues
There is one solid piece of political news coming out of the California State Bar take down of San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Her hopes of being elected California Attorney General in November 2026 has just taken a major hit. It was just over a year ago that this opportunistic political hustler was playing coy when asked about her political ambitions.
What will she say now? Shameless as she is, Brooke will pitch herself as the aggressive prosecutor who looks out for the interests of the crime besieged average citizen.
Brooke’s apologists will continue to spew forth nonsense. The takedown by the State Bar is just more sour grapes from supporters of Chesa Boudin. The DA she worked for and politically stabbed in the back on her way to calling herself a ‘volunteer’ while earning over 150K to lead his Recall in June 2022. Then being chosen to replace Chesa by now former Mayor London Breed.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 4.8.2025
The State Bar of California is preparing to close out a series of ethics complaints against San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins without reaching a formal decision on whether she did anything wrong, despite finding evidence that she improperly handled a defendant’s rap sheet.
“It’s ironic that District Attorney Jenkins, who often opposes diversion in court — and thereby closes off an avenue for our clients to better their lives — has now been ordered to complete professional diversion,” San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju said in a statement.
Rather than continuing to investigate the allegations brought against Jenkins by supporters of her predecessor, Chesa Boudin, the state bar has decided that the best way to resolve their complaints is by requiring Jenkins to participate in a diversion program, according to letters that the watchdog agency sent to her accusers in recent weeks, which the Chronicle obtained.
The program is not unlike those offered by the criminal courts to give people accused of small-time crimes a second chance. Jenkins has frequently criticized the overuse and abuse of such programs by people who she has said are taking advantage of them. She has scaled back the use of diversion compared to her predecessor, the Chronicle previously found.
Jenkins ascended to her post after quitting her job as a prosecutor under Boudin to become one of his most vocal opponents in the 2022 recall campaign against him. She was hit with a series of complaints in the aftermath of the election, including from retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Martha Goldin, a San Francisco resident who donated to keep Boudin in office.
Among the numerous allegations that Goldin brought against Jenkins was that she misrepresented herself as a volunteer for the recall campaign, and only later disclosed — when legally required because Mayor London Breed appointed her as interim district attorney — that she earned more than $120,000 as a consultant for three nonprofits tied to the effort.
Goldin and another complainant, Alexandra Grayner, who worked as a prosecutor under Boudin, also accused Jenkins of improperly sharing a rap sheet containing the confidential criminal history of a defendant in a high-profile case highlighted by the recall campaign.
The entitled motorists have an ally in Room 200 at City Hall.
In a brutal last ditch attempt to halt creation of an environmental oasis by the Pacific Ocean, Levi’s scion and billionaire Mayor Daniel Lurie has enlisted his legal fixer to destroy Great Highway Park
Proposition K was approved by 55 percent of San Francisco voters last November.
Daniel Lurie has been Mayor only nine weeks and his attempt to slash and burn the environmental legacy of his predecessor London Breed is evident for any who care to notice.
Rather than come out and publicly say he opposes Great Highway Park, approved by 55 percent of the voters last November, Mayor Lurie enlisted his campaign lawyer to slash and burn the voters will.The only conclusion one can draw from this turning his back on The People is that the Mayor has been bullied into submission by the entitled motorists.
It’s a crass political calculation that the environmentalists who have waged a successful battle can be safely politically ignored.
It’s a shame that even though the proponents of a more pedestrian and cyclist friendly San Francisco have emerged victorious in all the major battles; JFK Promenade, Slow Streets and Great Highway Park the spoiled rotten entitled motorists refuse to acknowledge reality.
Former Mayor London Breed was a champion for the environment and car free streets. She advocated for JFK Promenade and Great Highway Park. Those halcyon days of environmental progress are over.
Former Mayor London Breed, champion of both JFK Promenade and Great Highway Park, signs enabling legislation creating JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park – May 7, 2022 – photo Lee Heidhues
Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 3.10.2025
Opponents of Proposition K, the ballot measure that authorized the closure, and created Great Highway Park last November were expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday arguing that San Francisco voters don’t have the right to close the street to cars.
The lawsuit, led by Jim Sutton, alleges that the city ignored the state’s authority and unlawfully placed a measure before San Francisco voters. Sutton was Mayor Daniel Lurie’s campaign attorney.
Advocates for Proposition K – Great Highway Park. Will Daniel Lurie destroy their success?
The lawsuit also questions how the measure was put on the ballot, saying it bypassed the California Environmental Quality Act review process.
“This lawsuit is about standing up for the people who are being left behind,” said Albert Chow, a Sunset small-business owner and plaintiff. “Seniors, kids, and families will be forced to navigate more dangerous streets just so City Hall can score political points.”
Prop. K passed with 54% of votes in November 2024 after being placed on the ballot by five supervisors, including Joel Engardio of the Sunset, where the stretch of road is located. Approximately 64% of Sunset residents opposed the measure. Some have launched a recall effort against Engardio.
Top photo: Daniel Lurie prays that his Hail Mary to destroy Great Highway Park succeeds.
There are still climate killing cars on Great Highway Park four months after San Francisco voters, by a 55 percent majority, approved creation of the permanently car free sanctuary along San Francisco’s Pacific Coast shoreline.
Cars continue to pollute Great Highway Park four months after the passage of Proposition K. Cars should have vanished by now.
The OCEAN BEACH landmark near Great Highway Park
We took this photo montage the afternoon of February 18th. A graphic exposition of the land and streets nearby the newly voter mandated Great Highway Park.
Liz passes by an exercising couple.
Why the delay in implementation of the voter mandate?Where is it, San Francisco City Hall??
Hands up for Tai Chi.
Two old guys parley off the beaten path in the park while practicing martial arts.
San Francisco is full of fascinating people and places.Great Highway Park will add to the international city’s allure.
The well trodden path only a wanderer can appreciate.
Two elves in the bush.
During our trek, we met the genuinely friendly inhabitants of this great city. They were not sitting in their cars. They were out enjoying nature and cherishing the environment.
Liz sitting on a log in Golden Gate Park musing about Great Highway Park while birds sing in the background.
Lee stands amongst the remains of a fallen tree in Golden Gate Park.A group of young students learn about nature off the beaten path in Golden Gate Park near The Chain of Lakes.Liz was greeted by a Recreation and Park staff member in Golden Gate Park.
Explore the natural unspoiled scenery sans the Car of the two neighborhoods running the length of Ocean Beach.
A coot in her home territory.Orange mushrooms in the park. Colorful and potentially deadly.
It is as easy as a walk in the park when you toss your car keys and put on comfortable shoes and a backpack.
Lee surrenders to the impassable path in Golden Gate Park.
Be aware that the car-craving penchant to drive rather than walk to stores a short distance from your home may not be a common occurrence.
A Waymo leads the caravan of climate killing vehicles through a section of Golden Gate Park where cars can still pollute.
But be assured it’s a healthier life style than sitting in a car and experiencing road rage.
Luna and her owner greet Liz and Lee.
It’s always a Dog’s Day in Golden Gate Park.
Cycling on a beautiful February morning in Golden Gate Park.
Father and child enjoy a February cycle in Golden Gate Park.
The go-getter shopper expending the time and physical exertion to turn a shopping trip into an outing can show off their photos. To natives and tourists alike, giving insight into what’s uniquely San Francisco.
The San Francisco Fire Department hook and ladder truck. An essential tool for the safety of all citizens and animals.
Entrance to the now shut down Equestrian corral in Golden Gate Park.
A worker from Rec and Park, dog walkers, a legacy business dog stylist, the servers at the historic Java Beach Café where the colorful N-Judah train reaches the end of the line at the Pacific Ocean, and a fashion model-looking Hungarian shopping at Safeway, all are staples of San Francisco life.
Lee peers through a portal as the Muni Metro rumbles by.Portal to the San Francisco Muni Metro ‘N’ Judah line.
The end of the Line …or the beginning .. of the N Judah line in San Francisco.
We saw many aspects of the legendary San Francisco people oriented culture. From a Hippie mother and daughter reminiscing over lunch at the Café to a class of school children studying the habitat and wildlife of Golden Gate Park.
Liz and Lee enjoy their triple decker sandwiches at Java Beach Cafe.
The people oriented and the politically charged, the nostalgia for what’s gone and the anticipation for what’s to come. All juxtaposed together as only two San Francisco old timers can view and appreciate it. The genuine San Francisco as experienced during our adventurous outdoor trek through the Richmond and Sunset districts on a beautiful day in February.
A community wall of art at Judah and 43rd Avenue in San Francisco.
Liz swapped Italian heritage stories with Matt the dog groomer who bathed our dogs for years.
A colorful display drying food in the sun graces the front and balcony of a pink home.
An old house in the Sunset neighborhood displaying a poster, “VOTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM.”
Newly constructed affordable housing adjacent to an old funky house with roped off CAUTION tape on 43rd Avenue
Our trek through the Park was ostensibly about shopping for staples at Other Avenues, a supporter of Great Highway Park, the worker owned co-op store, and the monolithic Safeway at Ocean Beach Supermarket at either side of Golden Gate Park.
Liz proudly displays her Miyokos plant butter. The alternative to saturated fat.
Soak in the occult at the bath soap section of Other Avenues Co-op.
Liz in Safeway at the Beach holds aloft her organic bananas at the end of the trek.
We are waiting for the scene of cars being towed from car free Great Highway Park. We have never owned a car.
A car being towed on Street Sweeper Day at 43rd and Irving. This is the fate which should await the motorists who violate The Great Highway Park sanctuary.
We won by a 55 percent majority. Open The Great Highway Park NOW!!!
Top photo: Lee stands frustrated as cars whiz by on what should be car free Great Highway Park.He’s been assured the car free oasis is coming soon.
SAN FRANCISCO – BALBOA STREET LUNAR NEW YEAR FESTIVAL
Lee Heidhues 1.18.2025
On a cool, crisp January afternoon in the Outer Richmond District of San Francisco a huge crowd turned out for the Lunar New Year Good Luck Parade.The Year of the Snake is fast approaching and this hip multicultural neighborhood wants to be in on the action.
There was plenty of action for a dedicated blogger to document.
Nearby the corner of 37th and Balboa where the speakers platform was erected for local dignitaries to address the throng
There were vendors, music and the to be expected contingent of local politicians.
San Francisco’s new Mayor Daniel Lurie, District One Supervisor Connie Chan, Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman and Chief of Police Bill Scottjoined the festivities for a little hand shaking and politics.
A group of women beautifully dressed for the occasion.
A neighborhood resident greets Supervisor ChanA diverse crowd of all ages checked out the Lunar Fest.
The historic 99 year old Balboa Theater. A fixture in the outer Richmond District.
Chris Canning, Captain of the Richmond District Police Station chats with a young resident.
As night descended the Lion Dancers entertained.
The Lion Dancers on Balboa Street approach 37th Avenue.
The band with vocalists, keyboards and drums seriously got down for the crowd.A vocalist from the San Francisco Global Healthcare Lions Club rocked the fest goers.Michael Durand, publisher of the Richmond Review eyes the blogger
A car free space on Balboa Street between 35th and 39th Avenue
The mainstream media and the political world is blazing with scorn.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who happened to be in Ghana when the fiery conflagration broke out, is being politically burned at the stake for the deadly disaster engulfing Southern California.
A typical headline.
“Stone-faced LA Mayor Karen Bass refuses to answer questions about absence as wildfires rage across her city“-New York Post headline – 1.8.2025
Of course the mainstream media, corporate world and their bought politicians are picking on the softest target. Why?
The mainstream goes hard after LA Mayor Karen Bass
The real culprits are the corporations. They have ruled California for decades and are responsible for the area’s water supply and fire prevention infrastructure.
More properly stated, criminal lack of it.
Don’t expect the billionaire class to be pilloired in the media or raked over the coals in any legislative investigation.
The luckless Mayor will be driven from office and the ruling class will breathe easier. If that’s possible in the toxic air of Los Angeles.
Excerpted from The People’s World 1.14.2025
LOS ANGELES—Remember the movie Chinatown?
That 1974 epic starring Jack Nicholson told how politics and greed, mixed with more than a little violence, led to a fortunate few early in the last century seizing control of the Los Angeles water supply at the time when the city was starting the sudden and phenomenal growth that has made it the nation’s second largest.
“People are gonna be mad when they find out they’re paying for water they’re not gonna get,” an undercover source tells the Nicholson character in one of the movie’s key scenes.
Which pretty much sums up the situation Angelenos—and, indirectly, the rest of us—now face: Despite spending millions of taxpayer dollars over decades to construct one of the world’s most-extensive infrastructure projects to transfer water from naturally rainy Northern California to naturally parched Southern California, there’s not enough available water to fight the monster fires now ravaging L.A.
The lack of the water needed to provide fire hydrants that provide water rather than fail has nothing to do with Mayor Karen Bass, as the new York Times and much of the corporate media claims but has much to do with corporate greed instead.
And climate change only makes things worse, scientists report. It’s fueling the out-of-control winds that have made The City of Angels a flaming hell on earth.
The fires have left federal, state and local Fire Fighters dazed, frustrated, short-staffed and exhausted, at least 23 people dead so far and sent billions of dollars’ worth of homes and businesses literally up in smoke.
The only things missing now that were in the movie are its violence, the ultimate identity of some of the biggest beneficiaries–Corporate farmers and, Greenpeace says, fossil fuel firms—and the downwind impact as dangerous smoke from the monster fires drifts eastward over the continental U.S.
Lee's Perspective 