'Park Access for All' Rejects MTA Study on Saturday Closure for Golden Gate Park.

Any Way You Add the Numbers the Study is Flawed; Closures Violate the Law

SAN FRANCISCO -- Please replace the release dated February 15, 2007 with the following corrected version due to multiple revisions.

The corrected release reads:

'PARK ACCESS FOR ALL' REJECTS MTA STUDY ON SATURDAY CLOSURE FOR GOLDEN GATE PARK 

Any Way You Add the Numbers the Study is Flawed; Closures Violate the Law

The Park Access for All coalition today denounced a transportation study conducted by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) examining conditions for Saturday closure of Golden Gate Park, saying the study is flawed.

"We sincerely hope that San Francisco will not base its decision to close off access to its most important urban park and cultural institutions on a random clip-board survey taken on two Saturdays and Sundays in August," said Ron Miguel, President of the Planning Association for the Richmond. "We warned the city from the onset that this was a faulty way to conduct research and also premature, since the Academy of Science and its huge influence on visitor patterns can not be recorded as a part of the study."

Park Access for All, which includes the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, the District 11 Council, as well as The Arc of San Francisco, the California Academy of Sciences and the San Francisco Botanical Garden, also question how city leaders can even contemplate Saturday closure of Golden Gate Park when the city is already in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act with its Sunday closure.

"How can Saturdays even be considered when Sundays are out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act?," asked Tim Hornbecker, Executive Director of The Arc of San Francisco, one of the country's leading advocacy groups for disability rights. "The City of San Francisco is in violation of the law; adding another day of closure will only add insult to an existing injury."

In November 2000, San Francisco voters rejected two ballot measures related to Saturday closures on John F. Kennedy Drive. More recently in May 2006, Mayor Gavin Newsom supported the will of the voters and vetoed legislation which would have created Saturday closures, thereby severely limiting access to persons with disabilities and senior citizens to Golden Gate Park 112 days out of the year.

"The City of San Francisco should conduct a more thorough examination of this issue before it cuts off access to Golden Gate Park for almost one-third of the year to a significant portion of the population," said Steven Currier, President of the Outer Mission Residents Association. "For example, there has been no serious recognition of Middle Drive West as a current and permanent Saturday car-free zone in the park. For a city that is always asking people to think outside the box, there has been a surprising lack of vision when it comes to accommodating everyone inside Golden Gate Park."

The members of 'Park Access for All' include:

A.Philip Randolph Institute, Bayview Hunters Point Coordinating Council, California Academy of Sciences, Cayuga Improvement Association, Clement Street Merchants Association, Conservatory of Flowers Campaign Committee, District 11 Council, FDR Democratic Club, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Friends of Lands End, Friends of Sutro Park, Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association, Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association, ISC, San Rafael Chapter, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, North Park Neighbors Association, Oceanview, Merced Heights, Ingleside - Neighbors in Action, Outer Mission Residents Association, Park Access for All, Planning Association for the Richmond, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Richmond Community Association, San Francisco Botanical Garden Society at Strybing Arboretum, San Francisco Dahlia Society, San Francisco Garden Club, San Francisco Independent Living Resource Center, San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, San Francisco Orchid Society, San Francisco Parks Trust, Save America's Treasures, Stow Lake Corporation, Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People, The Arc of San Francisco, The Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, The Coalition to Save Ocean Beach, The Dahlia Society of California, United Cerebral Palsy of the Golden Gate.