Air Date: Week of September 26, 2025

Sunset Dunes Park in San Francisco used to be a four-lane highway. (Photo: Jack Persons, Friends of Sunset Dunes)

The four-lane Great Highway used to run along the Pacific Ocean on the west side of San Francisco, where it was at risk of flooding from sea level rise. Now it’s been transformed into a park where visitors can bike, walk, skate, and play next to the water. Zach Lipton, a volunteer with the nonprofit Friends of Sunset Dunes, speaks with Host Jenni Doering about this highway’s transformation.

Transcript

DOERING: The four lane Great Highway used to run along the Pacific Ocean on the west side of San Francisco. But in April 2025, this pavement became a little slice of paradise. Now visitors to Sunset Dunes Park can bike, walk, skate, and play next to the water. Zach Lipton is a volunteer with the nonprofit Friends of Sunset Dunes and he joins us now to talk about this highway’s transformation. Welcome to Living on Earth, Zach!

LIPTON: Thank you so much. Glad to be here.

DOERING: So for someone who's maybe never been to San Francisco or to Sunset Dunes Park, what might they find at this park? You know, what is it like?

LIPTON: Sure, Sunset Dunes is a 50 acre park at the edge of San Francisco along the Pacific coast. It used to be a four lane highway and has been converted into a recreational space for people to walk and bike and sit by the ocean, have a bite to eat and just enjoy our Pacific coast. So we brought in eleven local artists to paint murals, five sculptures from around the Bay Area. The city has installed benches made out of logs that have fallen in recent storms from the park with natural log seeding, a bike park and a skate area down at slope, which has become popular. And of course, just the Pacific Ocean View is the star of the show.

DOERING: Yeah, and that wonderful ocean breeze. What about the sculptures? What are some of those things that kids can play around on?

LIPTON: Sure. One of my favorites is a piece that, it's just called Spinning Rock. It's a 20,000 pound rock that is on a spinner. And just the look of delight when kids and adults, when everyone realizes you can just push this rock and start spinning it around. It's a lot of fun. We have a giant octopus the kids love to climb on, some giraffes down by the zoo. So it's been a lot of fun.

DOERING: And by the way, from the pictures that I've seen, it looks fairly flat. A lot of San Francisco famously has some very steep hills, but not so much for this park, huh?

LIPTON: Yes, it is a perfectly flat space, which is great for people, especially riding bikes. I know folks who have come out, learned to ride a bike there during the pandemic as an adult, using Sunset Dunes. And then, you know, they started off shaky and just kind of using it for recreation. And because of the confidence of that, started riding a bike for transportation all around the city. And so spaces like this, I think, are important to help people find alternative modes of transportation and get comfortable using them.

DOERING: So, you know, going from a four lane roadway to a coastal park, how exactly did we get here?

LIPTON: So let's go back all the way to just give you the long version of the history. The entire western side of San Francisco originally was just sand dunes, and in the 1800s some folks started creating a coastal path back when a road really was a recreational facility. This was a place to go ride your horse along the ocean. In time, that road was paved, but it always, for over a century, has been part of the city's Recreation and Parks Department, even though gradually, it kept shifting from a recreational use to really just transportation. Gradually it got widened to four lanes, and then during the pandemic, there was a huge need in San Francisco for socially distanced outdoor recreation, and the city converted a couple of streets to recreational facilities, including what was the Great Highway. And a lot of people really loved it, and just were coming out there for, for a daily walk, for a bike ride, and just to enjoy being there. And a group of friends and neighbors got together and started what was then called Friends of The Great Highway. We started putting on fun events like The Great Hauntway, which is an annual Halloween carnival for kids trick or treating along the road--

DOERING: Oh, cool.

LIPTON: --and other events, and ultimately organizing around what can we do to keep this space and preserve it? A few years ago, it was converted from full time park into part time. Cars would drive on it on weekdays, and people could use it on the weekends. And then ultimately, we ran a campaign, a ballot measure last November for the city to vote on its future. 55% of the city voted that they wanted it to be a full time park. And then we worked quickly with the city, with the California Coastal Commission, to make that vision a reality and start its transformation.

DOERING: Yeah, certainly the pandemic, it really kind of transformed the way that people thought about access to open space.

LIPTON: It really did. And I think there's a lesson there in that a lot of these things, you really have to try them in order for people to see the benefit of them. That we always like to say that the park sells itself more than we can ever explain its benefits to people. And this is something where if a few years ago, you said, yeah, let's turn the Great Highway into a park, people would look at you like you were crazy. But having tried it during the pandemic, and having just had the chance for people to experience it, all of a sudden, it makes a lot more sense. And I think there's a spirit of experimentation there that cities can embrace, whether it's this or other environmental efforts, that it's okay to just try things and see how they go.

DOERING: You know, one of the interesting aspects you mentioned is that this became a full time park by popular vote. How popular is the park now, and how in use is it?

LIPTON: It's definitely very popular. It's become one of the city's most visited parks immediately, which is great to see. We're seeing over 10,000 visitors on the average weekend, we had 13,000 visitors come to our opening day in April. We have several thousand visitors every weekday coming and enjoying the park. At least for me, I think a lot of San Franciscans have, it's easy to take the ocean for granted here, and it's not a city that has been historically oriented along the coast, like a Santa Monica or Venice Beach or something like that. But we are so lucky to have the Pacific Ocean right here in our city, and it's really, I think, connected a lot of us more to the coast. And we're not just, you know, getting a quick glimpse of it as we drive by. We're really spending quality time there as well.

DOERING: Yeah, and by the way, how easy is it to get to the park?

LIPTON: Absolutely, there are two light rail lines that go directly to the park. A couple of our bus lines go there. It's connected to the city's bike network with a car-free path leading there. And of course, if you want to drive there, there's plentiful parking as well, so lots of options.

DOERING: Some of the neighborhoods just adjacent to the Great Highway, which is now Sunset Dunes Park, voted no on this ballot initiative at a rate of more than 80%. What are the concerns of people who are opposed to it?

LIPTON: I've heard a few things. I think there were definitely some concerns about traffic, but the studies before the park opened, and then the studies that we've seen since the park has opened have been incredibly consistent. What we've seen overall is a change of about one to four minutes at rush hour less at other times in terms of drive times north-south across the city since the park opened. And the trade off for that is, we get a wonderful coastal park. It's also something where the road, the Great Highway, there are three different parts to it, and the southernmost part of the Great Highway was set to close anyway, due to coastal erosion threatening the city's wastewater infrastructure. So because that was happening, traffic patterns were going to need to change no matter what. So it was really a question of, where are people going to make that left turn inland if they're driving south, and if we make that left turn a little earlier, we can enjoy this wonderful coastal park instead. So that was definitely one concern, though I think both studies from the San Francisco Chronicle and the city's own data have borne out that traffic has really been okay and been just as predicted. I think there's a broader issue where of just sort of a fear or reluctance of change people are used to, this is the way it's always been, and this is the way they'd like it, and that's, that can be hard to adapt to.

DOERING: Well, it sounds like, you know, as the coast changes and erodes, and you know, certain parts were going to be shut down anyway, like you said, this sounds like a great silver lining as part of adapting to this changing future.

LIPTON: Exactly, change is going to happen one way or another. The ocean is going to win in the end. That is, we can't fight the ocean. So in terms of coastal adaptation, sea level rise adaptation, this is really an opportunity to create a great public space to do what's right for the environment. And ultimately, you know, I think it started to win people, even its critics, over just being able to be there and see the space. Certainly not everyone, but the great thing about public spaces and parks is that they're for everyone to enjoy.

DOERING: So, you know, this park doesn't show up necessarily as a huge green swath on the map when you like, look at Google Maps or something like that. A lot of it is this roadway, but I understand there's also an ecological dimension to the park's transformation. How might Sunset Dunes Park contribute positively to the natural environment there?

LIPTON: There absolutely is. The sand dunes adjacent there have been neglected for a very long time, because when it's a roadway, the priority is preserving it as a roadway and pushing lots of sand around with bulldozers and invasive species all around it, invasive ice plant. So it's really not been treated as the environmentally sensitive area that it is. And the beach right adjacent there is home to the Western snowy plover, which is a federally endangered species. So this is a real opportunity to re-imagine that and do what's right for our coastal habitat. So we've started with the city and the National Park Service a dune restoration pilot where we had 100 volunteers transplanting native rye grass to introduce more native species to the area. That's been successful, and they're going to continue that effort during the planting season this fall. And it's also an area where this connects Golden Gate Park to Fort Funston and other natural areas south of there. So it's really about creating a green corridor all along the western edge of the city. Long-term, we're going to follow the science, and there are technical studies underway to analyze the effects of sea level rise on the area and to ultimately craft a plan for the dunes that will restore habitat and create a resilient coast that future generations can enjoy.

DOERING: So Zach, as someone who grew up in San Francisco, how are you hoping this park will transform the city and maybe influence its culture?

LIPTON: I think San Francisco has a bit of a tradition of doing things like this. The city tore down the Embarcadero freeway on our eastern edge of the city, and that's turned into a great waterfront promenade that is a popular tourist attraction. And I think that this is an opportunity to do something similar on the western side of the city, and really bring our city closer to the coast, and give people a reason to come out to the ocean and enjoy it and just have a better relationship with our Pacific Ocean.

DOERING: How do you think the story of Sunset Dunes creation could be a model for other cities looking to transform their spaces?

LIPTON: This is really something any city can do. It doesn't require years of study or millions of dollars in capital projects. You can just create public space like this and watch it evolve and see what happens. And so many of our cities have, you know, 99% of our streets or more are devoted to just the throughput of private car traffic from point A to point B. And really it's, you know, what if we shift that balance, even just 1%? All of a sudden, it opens up so many possibilities for transformation, and for the environment, for how we relate to public space and community space, to just be with each other. And I just want to stress that this is something that people in any city can do. You can get together with your friends and your neighbors and transform public space. And it really doesn't need to be an expensive, big public works project. This is something that anybody can take part in and make their city a better place together, and that's really been the most rewarding part of this, is just getting to work with everyone and making new friends and making the city a better place.

DOERING: Zach Lipton is a volunteer with the Friends of Sunset Dunes nonprofit in San Francisco. Thank you so much, Zach.

LIPTON: Thank you.

 

Links

Read more about Friends of Sunset Dunes

The San Francisco Chronicle | “Has the Great Highway Closure Led to a Traffic Nightmare? This Is the Most Complete Data Yet”