The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-14
The City Authorities Have No
Control Over the Great
Highway.
WILL THE ROAD BE REMOVED?
There Is No Valid Excuse for 1t
Remaining There Any
Longer.

Midwinter Fair spur track has been ex-
posed by The CALL fair question is, How
long will the Southern Pacific tracks re-
main without license or franchise on the
ocean boulevard?
Only the Park Commissioners can an
swer that question, for it transpires that
the whole road, excepting that part OF 1t
which traverses the Spring Valley Com
pany's lands, is under the control OF the
Park Commissioners, and the municipal
authorities are reported to have no say
in the matter at all.
OF course, it is peculiar state OF affairs
that the people of San Francisco, through
their municipal servants, should have no
power in such matter. The Southern
Pacific Railroad has planted its rails al
most in the very center of partly macad-
amized boulevard that is calculated to be
one of the most famous driveways in the
world, and unless the Southern Pacific
tracks are speedily removed this driveway
will come to be the most inconvenient in
the world. However, this is the law of the
case. The ocean boulevard, though en-
tirely within the City limits, is not under
control of or amenable to the City authori-
ties. The Park Commissioners have ex-
elusive Jurisdiction over the driveway. 1t
will not be so when the new charter has
been adopted, people are saying, but is so
now, and that it is so denies Mayor Sutro
of the eminent satisfaction it would give
him to order the Police Department to
tear up those railroad tracks on the ocean
boulevard.
1t remains to be seen now whether the
Park Commissioners will continue the OBJ
struction. Already a year has elapsed
since the expiration of tie special privi-
Iege under which the Southern Pacific was
permitted to lay those tracks for a specified
time and a specified purpose. Will the
Park Commissioners have the tracks re-
moved?
A good many people have been wonder
ing why the ocean boulevard was not COM
pleted long ago. About one-half of the
matches driveway has been macadamized
and only needs the proper amount of roll
ing. Everybody who visits that section of
the park expresses regret that the ocean
boulevard, the perfecting OF which was
commenced with a great zest two years
ago, should be in the deplorable condition
in which they now see ii.
Already heavy vehicles running on the
unroIled macadam have cut big ruts along
the roadway, which practically negatives
all the costly work already done on that
portion of the driveway. And then the
Southern Pacific tracks have further ruined
the boulevard until now, except for mile
or so and with horse so tame that it can
be driven side by side with a screeching
Southern Pacific locomotive, the ocean
boulevard is utterly worthless for anything
short of heavy drafting vehicle or
dump cart.
This Midwinter Fair spur track might
have been laid on Forty seventh or Forty
eighth avenue. 1t might have been laid
over any of the numbered avenues from
Forty eighth to Tenth. And if it had
been so laid it would have served every
purpose for which it was laid, to carry
freight into the Midwinter Fair grounds:
and for which it is now used, to carry
loam,an street-sweepings int the park.
And no one would have objected to the
tracks remaining there for years to come,
for these are outside lands-destined to be
reclaimed and valuable some day, of
course, but only a desert waste of sand
dunes and scrub vegetation now and for
some years to come.
But, no, the Southern Pacific wanted to
grab public highway-the most famous
and most picturesque one In the whole
City, the ocean boulevard. The scene to
be witnessed from the ocean boulevard is
unrivaled. Probably there is not another
driveway to compare with this in America
in its natural endowments. About two
years ago the road was graded and partly
macadamized, and long columns were
printed about it in the misrepresentation
the magnificent new driveway Just being
opened up by the Park Commissioners.
1t was a most commendable piece of
work on their part. When the ocean
boulevard should be completed to its con-
nection with the County road to Ingleside
San Francisco could boast a driveway of
even some miles in length that would rank
high among the greatest boulevards of the
world.
But then, suddenly, the work on this
grand enterprise was dropped. Plans were
considered for a $4,000 park lodge to con-
tain living-rooms for Superintendent Nc
Laren and meeting-rooms for the three
Park Commissioners. That $30, 600 would |
Ad'C SOLO d 4OISf 4OlS way IOHdIu COM
plotting that ocean boulevard, seeing that
the grading had already been completed
and the macadam partly laid. Other park
some of lesser importance
than that of the proposed boulevard and |
all of them of greater Importance to the !
public than the proposed stone lodge, were |
inaugurated and carried to a successful |
issue, while the ocean boulevard Ian |
guished, lapsed back into its old state of |
sandiness and became cut up with ruts.
1t was then that people wondered how
the Park Commissioners could possibly |
neglect so important work. Then came |
the answer in the shape Of franchise,
for one year, granted by the Board of |
Supervisors. but conditioned upon the |
and approval of the Park Com
permitting the Southern Pa
c16c Company to lay its tracks:
From point at or near Lakeyille in
this City and County, and connecting the same
with the spur track of said company now at
that point, to point on the line OF the Park
and Ocean Company's track between Tenth
and Thirteenth avenues, to be designated by
the Board of Park Commissioners of Golden |
Gate Park, and thence into the park, subject to
the rules, regulations and requirements of the