Those arguments failed to convince some residents Wednesday night. Opponents of the measure, mostly elderly neighbors from the Sunset and Richmond districts, filled the meeting in the basement of the Milton Marks Conference Center. They booed Prop. K supporters and filled the room with thunderous applause for anyone who demanded that the Great Highway be left alone.

Earlier in the evening, about a dozen opponents of Prop. K stood shoulder to shoulder as Zhao, chairman of the Chinese American Democratic Club, addressed the Democratic Party’s executive committee.

“If it passes, 20,000 low-income people like this will be thrown into chaos,” Zhao said, pointing to the people at her side. “These people have to physically go to work, they’re cooks, they’re cleaners, they’re janitors. They’ve spent decades building our city. Prop. K will break the promise of a pilot program that’s supposed to run for another year.”

Dozens of speakers made oft-repeated arguments against Proposition K: diverting traffic from the Great Highway would increase travel times between north and south, slow traffic in residential areas, lead to more accidents, and, in addition, the highway would be underused anyway.

How many people would justify an “underused” park was open to interpretation during the evening’s public hearing. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency noted that 4,000 people used the park each weekend that Great Highway Park was open.