There was a party on Sunday to celebrate one year since the opening of Sunset Dunes and Pedestrian Promenade, which was formerly the upper Great Highway. People were listening to music, enjoying the park and talking about possibilities for the future. Many of them said it has become a regular thi ng for them, including those who weren’t sure about the park in the beginning. However, there is still debate and a push to allow cars along this stretch of the road again. “Sunset Dunes is probably my favorite place in the world honestly its somewhere I get to enjoy whether its biking or surfing or skateboarding,” Peter said. At Ploverfest Sunday, there was a community celebration for the stretch of Great Highway that is now a public park. “What’s so great about this park is it’s this 2 mile long, 50-acre blank canvas that San Franciscans fill with all their creativity,” said Lucas Luz with Friends of Sunset Dunes. The interim GM of San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Department Sarah Madland was there to celebrate, too. “We’ve had over 1.7 million visits to this park. We were asked by the voters in December 2024 to turn this place into a park and we’ve added seating, hammocks, art, music, murals, and the people have come,” Madland said. While voters approved Prop K, which closed the road to cars for the park conversion, efforts to allow cars back on the road continue. Richard Corriea is a retired San Francisco police commander and proponent of a proposed initiative to reopen the Great Highway to cars on weekdays. He’s part of a group trying to gather enough signatures by July for a measure to appear on the November ballot. “It seeks to return to the compromise that was in place about the Great Highway being closed on weekends for recreational activity and open on weekdays for folks commuting and traveling around by vehicles to move a compromise use of that area that was working for everybody,” Corriea said. But others see it differently and like the park as it is. “It would be honestly a very very sad day if that were to happen, for me,” Peter said. “We’re less impacted by the traffic changes than some of the folks out here so I can understand their perspective, but for us I think we enjoy it enough we would like it to stay,” Kristen said. Separately, another coalition looking to reopen the Great Highway has filed a legal appeal to try overturning Prop K. Supporters say the focus should be on celebrating one year of the park. This event was actually supposed to happen a few weeks ago but was pushed back because of the weather. ...read more read less