John F. Kennedy Dr. Closed Saturdays

A portion of John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park was closed for the first time on a Saturday over the Memorial Day Weekend.

The street closure, between Tea Garden Drive and Crossover Drive, was first enacted on May 26. It will remain closed on Saturdays through September.

The closure was part of a compromise that was reached between the park's cultural institutions and some neighborhood groups locked into intense negotiations over the course of several days. Voters had voted twice in 2000 to not close the streets, but the measure was introduced last year by District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick.

Although it was passed by the SF Board of Supervisors by a 7-4 vote, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure. His veto was upheld by the four members of the board who originally voted against the street closures.

This year, McGoldrick reintroduced the measure, which led to negotiations to reach a solution. One of the supervisors who voted against the street closures the first time, Bevan Dufty, told the press he was wavering on the issue and might change his mind. That set the mayor's office scurrying to find a solution.

The compromise called for reducing about half of the roadway originally slated to be closed and limiting the time to six months a year, instead of closing them year-round.

The agreement bars the parties involved from revisiting the issue for the next five years. It also calls for improvements to Middle Drive, which is closed to automobile traffic all year on Saturdays. Improvements call for the street to be repaved, for bathrooms to be improved, and for a vendor to sell food.