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Joan Seiwald, one of the women who kept Glen Canyon from becoming a freeway, has passed away

May 12, 2023 by Elizabeth Weise

Joan Seiwald, the remaining Gum Tree Girl. Photo by Bonnee Waldstein

Joan Seiwald, 91, one of a trio of young Glen Park mothers who in 1965 kept San Francisco from building a freeway through Glen Canyon Park, passed away on Thursday, May 11.

Seiwald and her husband Robert bought their home on Burnside Avenue in 1960, just one block from the park. As today, parents spent hours at the park with their small children and Seiwald became fast friends with other moms there, especially Zoanne Nordstrom and Geri Arkush.

Variously called the Crosstown Freeway or the Circumferential Freeway, it was a proposed connector between I-280 near Daly City to the southern edge of Golden Gate Park.

1948 maps showing the freeways envisioned for San Francisco.

The City proposed linking 280 and 101 with a freeway that would have begun where the Glen Park BART station stands today, risen 60 feet over the present baseball diamond in the canyon, cut into the hillside, filled in part of the park, tunneled under Portola, slashed across Laguna Honda, joined Seventh Avenue and eventually tunneled under or rise over Golden Gate Park to eventually empty into the second deck of the Golden Gate Bridge, as the Glen Park News reported in a history of the effort to stop the project.

Close-up of Glen Park and how it would have been impacted by the proposed Circumferential Freeway.

The City’s Public Works Director at the time, Sherman Druckel, came to a community meeting at the time and said that 120 homes and 13 businesses would be torn down.

The first effort was in 1958, but was thwarted through the efforts of another neighborhood woman, Mrs. Hermini “Minnie” Staub Baxter, who led an uprising that resulted in the Board of Supervisors unanimously voting against the proposed freeway in 1959.

The idea came up again in 1965 when the City began taking measurements in the Canyon. Nordstrom came across the workers and alerted her friends Seiwald and Arkush.

Seiwald wrote a letter to the San Francisco Progress in 1965 that you can read here. Courtesy of the Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project.

The three Gumtree Girls organized, writing hundreds of letters, posting notices, holding meetings and tracking down Supervisors at City Hall.

The Gum Tree Girls (L-R): Geri Arkush, Zoanne Nordstrom, Joan Seiwald. Image by SF Rec & Park, courtesy of Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project

“All department heads were men. As soon as the three of us showed up, the men would head for the men’s room,” Seiwald told the Glen Park News in 2000.

Eventually, the City backed down. The Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project held a Gum Tree Girl Festival in 2022 to celebrate their victory.

A fuller obituary will follow.  If you have stories about Joan and her life that you’d like to share, please email news@glenparkassociation.org.

Filed Under: Featured, Glen Canyon Park

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Glen Park Association is at San Francisco Public Library Glen Park Branch.
1 day ago
Glen Park Association

Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library!
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

San Francisco Public Library Arion Press | Artist Books Museum of Craft and Design Rafael Mandelman 🏳️‍🌈 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #InCommunity
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Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library! 
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

@sfpubliclibrary @arionpress @museumofcraftanddesign @rafaelmandelmand8 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #incommunity
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Glen Park Association is at Glen Park Recreation Center.
2 days ago
Glen Park Association

Qi Gong & Tai Chi Thursdays at the Glen Park Rec Center!

Thursdays 2:00PM - 2:45PM
Room #1
Led by led by Ashima Sarin

Beginners and All Levels of Mobility Are Welcome! It’s FREE and drop-in!

(There will be no class the second half of June and July)

📍Glen Park Rec Center, 70 Elk Street

QUESTIONS? CALL 415-239-4007
... See MoreSee Less

Qi Gong & Tai Chi Thursdays at the Glen Park Rec Center!

Thursdays  2:00PM - 2:45PM 
Room #1
Led by led by Ashima Sarin

Beginners and All Levels of Mobility Are Welcome! It’s FREE and drop-in! 

(There will be no class the second half of June and July)

📍Glen Park Rec Center, 70 Elk Street 

QUESTIONS? CALL 415-239-4007
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Coyote Yipps
Friends of Upper Noe Recreation Center
Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project
Open SF History
Sunnyside Conservatory
Sunnyside History
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Tramps of San Francisco
Upper Noe Neighbors

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