Freeways almost ruined San Francisco

I'm here in the Panhandle in San Francisco this park which connects the Golden Gate Park over that way would not be here would it happy for the activists in the 1950s and 1960s who stopped it from becoming a freeway they also stopped their proposal to build a Los Angeles sized freeway network here in San Francisco this video tells the fascinating and inspiring story those activists and how they save San Francisco from the freeway our story begins in 1951 the car was reshaping American cities and more people than ever were buying homes in the suburbs and relying on freeways for their commutes into the central city planners responding to this trend drafted a plan for San Francisco's freeways that would rival Los Angeles the plan called for 25 miles of elevated freeways that carved up San Francisco nobody paid much attention to the plan until the California Highway Commission voted to expedite construction of the Embarcadero Freeway a short stretch of highway from the 1951 plan as construction began on the access ramps for the Embarcadero in 1953 1954 in 1955 San Francisco residents began to realize what destruction these freeways would cause neighborhoods would be destroyed and access to the waterfront will be severed all to serve the needs of suburban commuters it was a bad deal citizen groups proposed alternative designs but the state highway authorities refused to consider tunnels or other modifications in 1955 the San Francisco Chronicle panned the Embarcadero project comparing it to the ugly Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle check out my video on the removal of that freeway to learn more in nineteen fifty six construction began on the Embarcadero proper around that time residents were revolted against a planned freeway to Link San Mateo County to the Golden Gate Bridge County Supervisor and freeway opponent William Blake rallied his fellow Supervisors to cancel the freeway outright mayor George Christopher vetoed the board's resolution but commissioned his own study of the Western route distrustful of state highway engineers in an effort to stall the process the Board of Supervisors commissioned their own study California had a lot of state money to build freeways already but in June of 1956 President Eisenhower signed the interstate highway and defense Act Eisenhower's act gave States unprecedented amounts of money to build freeways for every dollar a state spent on freeways the federal government would kick in nine money was not an obstacle at all and the state could afford to build as many freeways in San Francisco as it wanted and it wanted to build a flush with cash the California Division of Highways designed a statewide highway system that called for 12,500 miles of freeways one-third the size of the federal government's proposal for a nationwide system the California proposal called for the construction of all 25 miles of the 1951 San Francisco plan if it's not clear by now the battle lines were drawn on one side stood the state and federal governments with huge sums of money an engineer's ready to build as many freeways as they could on the other side stood San Francisco residents in their Board of Supervisors who had very real concerns about the traffic and pollution the freeways would bring not to mention the neighborhoods that would need to be leveled furthermore they loved their views San Francisco was then and is now a truly beautiful city and residents did not want freeways to Mar their view the San Francisco Board of Supervisors responding to the state's proposal gutted the 1951 25-mile plan recommending the amount of freeways be cut by 75% this sent lawmakers in Sacramento into a fury as it stalled other projects statewide as well but the board voted unanimously precluding Homero veto like the one in 1956 the mayor whose position on freeways was somewhere between the board and the state worked to produce a revised compromise plan in 1960 Mayor Christopher presented the revised plan it restored only two freeways canceled by the board in 1959 the Western freeway in the Golden Gate freeway though the plan called for the Golden Gate freeway to be built at some later date now compromises and revisions sound reasonable unless that compromise means reviving a freeway that would destroy your house and neighborhood San Francisco residents were not in favor of reinstating the Western freeway to put it mildly the protests and public outcry were fierce supervisor Blake bolstered by 30,000 signatures against the western freeway rallied the board to unanimously shoot it down as well as the mayor's entire revised plan the resident protests were so effective that even the state authorities viewed the western freeway as dead at this point this victory is truly a grassroots one parks advocates revolted against the idea of repurposing parkland for freeways like the Panhandle the environmental movement was just taking off at this point and people worried about the freeways effect on the urban forests the anti freeway advocates were brushed off as dowdy ladies and lusty housewives in the media but despite sexist attacks were able to accomplish their goals an anti freeway lobbying group popped up in Sacramento and led to even more tests and revolts in 1960 to 1961 is also a big year for the San Francisco BART system which did not exist at this time but as it became clear that residents were not interested in seeing their City bisected by freeways mass transit became an attractive alternative and political momentum to build the service began to snowball despite the victories of residents the state government was not ready to give up on San Francisco's freeways that easily in 1962 they came to the conclusion that the problem was marketing the Embarcadero was ugly and not a good poster child for future freeways they decided to design a beautiful freeway that residents would accept right through the Panhandle the city agreed to let the state study the proposal for a Panhandle freeway and a crosstown tunnel the crosstown tunnel was the board's own idea not something the state highway division had devised while they were scheming up ways to put lipstick on the freeway Pig the state tried to play hardball with freeway funding in 1963 the state highway division threatened to shift one hundred million dollars earmarked for San Francisco freeways down to Los Angeles unless the city approved the Golden Gate freeway along the waterfront in 60 days facing this ultimatum the board called their bluff said no to the Golden Gate freeway and endorsed their crosstown tunnel project furthermore the board called for the demolition of the Embarcadero in a completely underground Golden Gate freeway at this point the board was not interested in anything above-ground no matter the cost in 1964 the state released its pig with lipstick the report on the crosstown tunnel and Panhandle freeway unsurprisingly the state shot down the board's crosstown tunnel they said it was too expensive even considering the vast sums of money available to build freeways the state found its own proposal for the Panhandle freeway to be inexpensive and recommended it be built the city looked at the designs for the Panhandle and were not impressed they believed that the state botched the design and sent them back to the drawing board the delay was fortuitous because in 1964 the federal government passed the Civil Rights Act at the time the Panhandle neighborhood was largely poor and african-american state highway engineers and policy makers dubbed poor black neighborhoods as blight and ripe for slum clearance in the form of highway construction the Civil Rights Act now provided recourse for such racially targeted policies the board rejected the Panhandle plan in the city's first black supervisor Terry Francois cast the deciding vote against it internally the state ignored the city's vote and the Highway Commission unanimously approved the pan freeway in authorize the Department of Public Works to begin buying up property along the route in the hopes that the city would change its mind in 1965 the state highway division released its study of an all underground golden gate freeway like the city had asked for only the state's design wasn't all underground it was mostly a depressed roadway no surprise the Board of Supervisors rejected that plan this was really the final salvo in the freeway battle the city and its residents had won Governor Brown no not that one his dad said the greatest tragedy is the lack of courage of San Francisco officials to build beautiful freeways but not so fast in 1966 the zombies of the Golden Gate and Panhandle freeways were reanimated by the state the city and its residents weary after a decade of fighting and opposing the issue looked ready to throw in the towel the initial Board of Supervisors straw poll was six to five in favor of the new freeways supervisor Blake in a last-ditch play told the board that he had to be out of town on City business for three weeks the Board agreed to delay the vote until he came back in that time freeway opponents regain their energy in protests engulf the city when Blake got back two supervisors switched their votes in the freeways were dead for real this time anti freeway activists in San Francisco were some of the most successful of any city in the United States of the 25 miles of freeways proposed in 1951 only a small fraction were built activists in other cities also saved significant parts of their cities from freeways check out this map of the plan for Washington DC's freeway network it would have destroyed DC as we know it an estimated 200,000 housing units would have been destroyed and most of those black households and in recent years cities have even begun tearing down underused and unwanted freeways in San Francisco the city finally removed the hated Embarcadero Freeway after the 1989 earthquake damaged it the same earthquake damaged the northern section of the central freeway and it was replaced with a really pleasant multi-way Boulevard today San Francisco residents don't fear the freeway and her focus on improving Bart in other mass transit services thanks in large part due to activists 50 years ago thinking about so much for all the subscribers to this channel and patrons on patreon if you liked this video give it a like and consider subscribing to the channel

Channel: City Beautiful

Views: 434,452

Keywords: city planning, town planning, urban planning, urban design, transportation planning, freeways, highways, urban freeways, freeway revolts, embarcadero freeway, san francisco, bay area, terry francois, william blake, federal aid highway act, state highway funding, freeway activists, anti-freeway, western freeway, golden gate freeway, central freeway, golden gate bridge, bay bridge, panhandle freeway, board of supervisors, what are the freeway revolts, infrastructure planning

Id: _nSvy8jcNbU

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Thu May 10 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/old_gold_mountain]

This fight put the groundwork in place for grassroots NIMBYism in San Francisco in the Jane Jacobs era. That groundwork is what modern NIMBYs use to fight all kinds of projects at the local level.

I'll be the first to say that many of today's fights against projects at the local level are wrong-headed and handcuff progress as a society, but I'll also be the first to say that I'm very, very grateful they won the freeway fights back then.

[u/david241]

"Neighbors were worried about the traffic and congestion the freeways would bring." Oh man did they not know what they were signing up for.

[u/cronin1024]

I guess it worked. Driving through San Francisco to get to Marin is so slow and painful that most people either don't bother or go the long way. It would be better for the whole bay area if the freeways existed, but worse for the residents of SF.