Group Forms To Counter Opposition To Ocean Avenue Red Lanes Project

Pro-transit riders have begun organizing in favor of the Ocean Avenue red lanes.

Fourteen people joined meeting organizers Stan Zhang, James Wen and San Francisco Transit Riders organizer Jaime Viloria in the Ingleside Branch Library’s community room on Wednesday evening to discuss the anticipated Ocean Avenue red lane installation and ways to educate others on its benefits to transit riders and drivers. The meeting comes in response to recent efforts by other residents and organizations to stop the implementation of the transit-only lanes.

Viloria said District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar and District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen are "interested in revisiting" the red lanes, putting the group in a good position to accomplish their goal.

“We just want to organize people who are more pro-transit, ” Wen told The Ingleside Light. “That’s one goal. The next goal is to counter, I think, some of the misperception or misinformation about the project, especially that we’ve been seeing up and down the corridor.”

This installment of the K Ingleside Rapid project has led to quite the controversy on Ocean Avenue, with city leaders and organizers hosting several meetings to discuss it, and has led to some business owners placing “No Red Lanes On Ocean Avenue” signs in their windows.

Last month, Chinatown Merchants United of San Francisco’s new chapter, which is dedicated to the merchants of the Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside neighborhoods, hosted a meeting at Golden Coast to express opposition to the project.

Attendees at Wednesday’s meeting heard an informational presentation and participated in discussions on what the project means to each other and ways to educate those around them.

Prior to this gathering, Wen, Viloria and Zack Subin had created an online petition with testimonials that would be sent to city leaders.

“I noticed it’s about 50-50,” Sunnyside Neighborhood Association Vice President Jon Winston told The Ingleside Light. “When you walk down Ocean [Avenue], it looks like it’s 100% against the transit lanes because the emotions are high and the signs are really well done and they’re everywhere. People are motivated by genuine fear. People’s livelihoods are at stake, but I just wanted to come here to make sure I wasn’t a Martian.”

The main concern from most present was on the merchant response.

“It feels a lot like the merchant association has taken a Trump kind of approach where policymakers make policy based on facts and an interest group, because of their feelings, want to change the policy,” Carlos Nai said.

Other residents like Indigo Rosenberg and Gavin Visco shared similar sentiments, saying that it has been frustrating and sad to see. Visco added that he hopes business owners can be more open to the “positives of the project.”

“I want to feel safe because I've witnessed so many accidents,” said Rosenberg, who lives between Ashton and Victoria avenues and relies heavily on the K. “It just feels frustrating. I wish business owners would consider residents and stuff as well because I don’t think all of the residents are down for stopping the red lanes.”

Some participants, like David Gutzwiller, brainstormed ways in which they can talk to businesses or their peers in a non-confrontational manner. Others also shared how they were concerned about the transitional period following the lane’s implementation.

The group plans to host monthly meetings until this portion of the project is complete, with the next gathering scheduled for mid-August. Zhang added that they want the meetings to be more of a neighbor-to-neighbor small group discussion for participants to freely share their thoughts and hear what they actually value while obtaining accurate information.

“We don’t want to go hard against the opposition,” Viloria said. “We want to make sure that we do this as honest as possible, and we want to see that there are a lot of folks that support it.”