Good urban design doesn’t always need good decision-making, but it helps. So how should decisions be made about local community issues? Say, if you want to close a road to cars?
In San Francisco debate has raged about a 2.4km stretch of John F. Kennedy Drive, which runs through GoldenGate Park. One commentator called it “one of the most divisive culture-war issues of the past two years”.
The road was first closed to cars during the pandemic, but in April this year the mayor proposed they make the change permanent. Campaigners on both sides held rallies, wrote submissions, argued their case.
Opponents said the closure discriminated against the elderly, people with disabilities and those who lived far away. Supporters pointed to all the car parks at the periphery. Everyone who came, they said, including the elderly and infirm, enjoyed the safe walking and cycling in the park.
The council voted to keep the road closed to cars. But that wasn’t the end of it. A petition called successfully for a binding referendum, called Proposition I, to let cars back in. The city countered with its own binding referendum, Proposition J, to keep cars out.
It’s called direct democracy. There were two ballots, held at the same time, because both sides wanted to give their supporters something positive to vote for. In California, they’ve decided that’s important.
If both measures passed, the winner was to be the one with more votes. It both failed, the status quo would prevail.
Voting took place as part of the US mid-term elections last month and the outcome was decisive: 61 per cent opposed Prop I and 59 per cent supported Prop J. The road stays closed to cars.
There are problems with this kind of direct democracy. One is that it usually leans against change: people tend to vote for what they know.
On JFK Drive they overcame this by making the change before putting it to a public vote. People got to have their say on a real thing, not a plan or an abstract idea.
Another problem is that it makes voting really hard. In 1988, Californians were confronted with 29 referendum questions, on top of long lists of candidates for national and state roles. When voting becomes a mission, it favours people with the time to do it.
And it can lock in privilege. In 1978, Californians voted to permanently suppress property taxes, creating all manner of distortions ever since.
But our council democracy is also far from perfect. Voter turnout is low and it’s common to hear from people who feel they haven’t been listened to. Mayor Wayne Brown wants to address this by giving more power to local boards, but he hasn’t yet said how.
We’ve had our own debates about roads through parks: on Maungakiekie and other maunga and in Cornwall Park during lockdown. Some suburbs have had very heated debates about street use.
Is there an optimal way forward? Faced with the triple problem of congestion, road safety and emissions, could Auckland create a trial series of low-traffic neighbourhoods, bus priority lanes and cycleways, refine them over a few months and then hold a public vote on whether they should stay?
Car-free: It started during the pandemic and now it's all the time.
Rally in support of keeping JFK Drive in San Francisco free of cars.
Design for Living appears weekly in Canvas magazine.
