Measure WW will help keep East Bay Regional Parks great

The East Bay Regional Park District is one of the world's great urban park systems. The Sierra Club urges voters to help keep it great by passing Measure WW to extend its property-tax support for the next 20 years.

In 1934, in the depths of the Great Depression, the people of the East Bay took a leap of faith by voting to create the Park District - and to tax themselves to fund the acquisition and maintenance of park lands.

Tilden Park was one of the first acquisitions. Many more followed. In 1988 the people of the East Bay passed Measure AA, a further tax, which produced $225 million for acquisition of parklands by the Park District, as well as for city parks and recreational facilities. Measure AA gave the Park District the money to triple its size to almost 100,000 acres of park lands, including the Eastshore State Park, expansion of the Point Isabel dog park, expansion of the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, and new parks in central and eastern Contra Costa and Alameda Counties including the Morgan Territory. We were also able to save from destruction beautiful Round Valley with its precious Native American heritage sites.

The 1988 bond measure was notably well managed. It targeted 27,000 acres for purchase, and 34,000 acres were actually acquired. In addition, the park district succeeded in attracting an additional $80 million in matching grants.

Now we have a chance to keep the faith with our visionary predecessors. Measure AA runs out this year. Measure WW will extend the tax for another 30 years at the same rate, $10 per $100,000 in assessed value. The measure will generate $500 million for the acquisition of parks. It lists areas and projects so that we can know where the money will be spent. Once again 25% of the total will go to cities (on a per-capita basis) for their parks and recreational facilities.

The measure will help many valuable park projects:

• preserving and restoring urban waterways and creeks through acquisition of watershed lands;
• expanding the Eastshore State Park;
• creating more parks on the Oakland and North Richmond shorelines;
• adding more parks in central and eastern Contra Costa and Alameda Counties;
• preserving much of the Concord Naval Weapon Station as open space;
• completing the Bay and Ridge Trails.

The East Bay Regional Park District is our local park district.

The Sierra Club urges a yes vote on Measure WW to continue the vision of a great regional park system.

WhatYouCanDo

Measure WW is a priority campaign for the Sierra Club. Between now and November the Club needs to mobilize hundreds of volunteers to ensure that the measure receives the required 2/3 majority. In 1988 the District's bond measure passed with a bare 68% vote; we must spare no effort to make sure that it gets enough votes again this time.

Come to our Berkeley offices (2530 San Pablo Ave., half a block south of Dwight Way) to help us phone the 1.1 million voters who will decide on Measure WW.

We're scheduling phone banks every Thursday evening from 6 - 9, and every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm. Feel free to invite friends, family, co-workers. Other volunteer actions can be found at the top of this page.

To build the critical mass for such a large-scale campaign, we need early volunteers in the next few weeks.

For more information on the campaign, visit http://yesforparks.org

To volunteer, contact Chapter environmental-community organizer or call (510) 848-0800, ext. 310