In late April, Devil's Teeth Baking Company owner Hilary Passman placed an "Open the Great Highway" sign in the front window of her Outer Sunset bakery. At first, no one mentioned it — but this weekend, Twitter users took notice.
"We got an email from someone who said, 'you have the best breakfast sandwiches in town, you've given thousands of dollars to my kid's school, and I will never shop at your place again,'" said Passman.
"The part that's most upsetting to me is the complete lack of civil discussion. I think it's shocking. I've been accused of helping children get hit by cars, which is crazy."
Devil’s Teeth has received a few negative Yelp reviews, as well as comments and messages on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (“The betrayal! Such tasty treats supporting bad policy,” wrote one person on Twitter), but some have expressed their support for Passman’s position instead.
“I started patronizing Devil's Teeth BECAUSE of the sign, and I will continue to do so,” commented another person on Twitter. “It took a lot of courage for them to post that sign and I have nothing but admiration for them because of it. (Plus, they have really good ginger cookies. I highly recommend them!).”
Ever since the Upper Great Highway closed to cars during San Francisco's first shelter-in-place order in March 2020, Sunset District neighbors have argued passionately over the highway's fate. Many have grown fond of its transformation into a pedestrian and bicycle promenade and want to keep it car-free; others want it reopened to cars as soon as possible.
Passman, who lives in the Sunset, is in favor of reopening the Great Highway to cars.
"I believe it is less safe in the neighborhood now," she said. "I see people driving around the bollards that are put up, I see motorcycles speeding through. People are not stopping at stop signs. I think pushing all the cars onto the Lower Great Highway makes it a lot less safe, including for kids ... I see a bunch of bicyclists going on the Great Highway at stunning speeds, right near where kids are playing. I believe there are other places for kids to play — my kids play on the beach or in the park all the time."
Passman also added that the highway closure has created major traffic congestion.
"Getting from one Devil's Teeth to the other on the outer avenues is maybe 30 to 40 minutes on a weekend," she said; Devil's Teeth also has an Outer Richmond location at 3619 Balboa St.
In April, the SFMTA installed stop signs, speed cushions and a speed table in the area to help address these concerns. Currently, the agency is collecting data on the effectiveness of these traffic-calming measures, and plans to share their findings with the public later this summer.
Passman also says she doesn't think pedestrians and bicyclists are actually using the road enough to make it worth it, in her experience of walking by the area "six times a day." But according to CTA data, 4,000 pedestrians and cyclists have used the roadway every weekday for much of the last year, and as many as 6,000 have used it on weekends.
While many share Passman's point of view, 53 percent of San Francisco residents are in favor of keeping the Great Highway closed to vehicle traffic post-pandemic, according to a recent survey by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
“Having the highway open for people to use just really transformed how the neighborhood felt, how it just was such a sense of community,” said Heidi Moseson, a Great Highway Park Initiative representative who lives on the Lower Great Highway. “… My kids learned to bike there, but it's really become so much more than that. I think it's about mobility and access and equity. I used to drive my kids to school, now I bike them. I used to drive to the grocery store, now I bike because it feels safe and beautiful.”
While Moseson admits that there has been some overflow traffic in the neighborhood streets as a result of the Great Highway closure, she says she has not noticed a big impact at peak commute times.
“I think, yeah, we need to do more to address the traffic concerns, but I think in the middle of a climate crisis, a mental health crisis, a public health crisis, the solution is not reopening a four-lane highway along the ocean in a space that has become so prized to so many people,” she said. “Let's keep working together to keep doing traffic-calming measures, and figure out a way to stop prioritizing cars as the sole form of transit and acknowledge that there are lots of other forms of transit: public transit ... walking, running, biking, scooting, wheeling.”
Emotions run high in discussions of the Great Highway’s future — so high that some are declaring on Twitter they will take their breakfast sandwich business elsewhere after learning of the Devil’s Teeth owner’s stance on the issue.
“We’ve been going there for 5+ years every Friday for ‘Devil’s Teeth Friday Ride,’” commented one customer. “It was always the perfect way to start the day. We’re just going to have to find some new spot.”
But Passman says she wasn't expecting this level of online backlash for posting her sign in the window.
"I don't even feel that strongly about it," she said. "I think it should be open, but if it's not open, I'm still happy to be living in the Sunset ... I think the thing that's so upsetting for me is that I put a sign up in the window, and the backlash has been vitriolic and not connected to the main issue."
Moseson suspects there are more complicated factors at play behind why the Great Highway debate has gotten so heated.
“I think it feels personal for people,” she said. “We’ve all had, and in many ways are still in, a very relentless, hard year. We thought a lot about what it means to be safe and healthy personally for our families, and I think … [there are] just very different perspectives on what safety and health looks like.”
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