The Great Highway

I heard that The Great Highway was closed north of the city line last week, when I learned that Ocean Beach was being closed along with the last of the open spaces in San Francisco. I assumed that closing The Great Highway there was an attempt to really drive home that Ocean Beach was closed; it’s a sprawling beach that can be accessed by crossing The Great Highway for a couple miles. I didn’t think the strategy would be all that effective, as it’s the street parallel to The Great Highway that people park on to go to the beach, but I assumed it was the best they could do to close a massive beach that has infinite points of entry.

Yesterday I was determined to run as I recognize I need some outdoor exercise at least once a week and Mondays is a good day for me to get it. I was trying to think of a spot where I could run, knowing that almost all the trails I usually frequent are closed. Then I remembered there is a path that runs between The Great Highway and the neighborhood to the east of Ocean Beach, and decided it would be impossible for them to close that off. I decided to give it a try, knowing that if somehow they had closed it, I could always run around Lake Merced again, which I knew for sure was open.

Driving over to that area, I saw that the Great Highway really was closed, as my friend had shared with me. Again I tried to determine what they were hoping to accomplish by closing such a long stretch of highway when that wouldn’t effectively keep people away from the beach.

When I got there, I was shocked to see people running and biking on the Great Highway. Was that why they had closed it? To give people more space to be outside? It’s the perfect stretch of road to close as no other roads intersect with it for a long, 2+ mile stretch between the zoo and Golden Gate park. You can close it to traffic without diverting many cars, and there is an easy detour in the street parallel. The idea that they had closed The Great Highway to give people more space to be outside, after closing almost everything else, made me so happy.

I ran right down the middle of The Great Highway yesterday, even though the path was also open. I did it just because I could, and because I probably won’t be able once the shelter-in-place is over. Getting to run down one of the most beautiful highways in the state is a special perk right now.

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I’m going to be bringing my kids there tomorrow to ride their bikes. It’s a flat stretch with two lanes open in either direction, which makes it the perfect place for them to ride. After a week spent entirely on our property, it’s invigorating to know we have a new outside space to explore.

It looks like they are no longer attempting to keep people off Ocean Beach either, so that is another place we can go. The parking lots are closed to keep the crowds down, but I saw people streaming past a parked police car and two rangers, so they clearly are okay with people being on the beach in some capacity. Perhaps they only ride up and down now to enforce social distancing. I wonder if they realized it was better to give people that huge space where they can be outside and safely social distance, or they just couldn’t enforce the closure of such a massive beach with so many access points.

I know there are important reasons to close the outside spaces, and I know most people accept their closure without giving it a second thought. I have definitely been struggling with it more than most people I know, though I have enough friends who also panic at the idea of only walking in a short loop around their house to know that I’m not totally unreasonable in my despair. My friend, who is from Chicago, said she thinks us Californians, who prize our outside spaces and live in high COL areas partly because of the beautiful outside areas and the mild weather that lets us enjoy them year around, find it especially hard to stay inside for weeks at a time. In Chicago people are used to staying inside for the better part of the winter, but here in San Francisco we never have to shelter from the cold like that. It feels very foreign to us to stay inside for weeks, or months, at a time.

At the end of yesterday’s run I felt better than I have in weeks. Moving my body under the sun, and in the fresh air, reinvigorated me after so many days spent hunched over my computer at home. I know we need to do everything we can to stop the spread of this horrible virus, and I very much appreciate that the city has given us a place to stretch our legs safely, away from others. For once, I was so happy to see that “Closed” sign.