Public Comment

More than 115 years ago, just across the Bay in San Francisco, influential conservationist John Muir founded what is now the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States. Since then, the Sierra Club has embodied Muir’s credo to "do something for wildness and make the mountains glad." Its members, who now number over 1.3 million, work tirelessly to protect communities, wild places, and the planet itself. 

And what of the Sierra Club’s birthplace? The San Francisco Bay Chapter now represents more than 30,000 members in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Francisco Counties. The Northern Alameda County Group serves nearly 10,000 members within the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, Emeryville, Alameda, Piedmont, and San Leandro.

 

The Sierra Club’s meteoric national rise has been paralleled by prodigious local successes. In 1930, Sierra Club leaders realized the operation of Mt. Tamalpais, a popular destination for Bay Area residents, as a state park. In 1957, they successfully lobbied for the establishment of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART). In 1991, the Sierra Club chapter persevered in creation of the Eastshore State Park, which, on a clear day, offers an inimitable view of the Marina and Golden Gate beyond. 

But these successes have not come without some significant growing pains. Many geographic areas represented by both the chapter and the group still suffer from record levels of pollution leading to high risks of cancer, asthma, and heart attacks among a disproportionately affected minority population. An unending barrage of state cuts to the Bay Area’s public transit systems have made more difficult the management of an increasingly dense local population while still meeting much-needed greenhouse gas reduction goals. And even within the organization itself, the Bay Chapter and County Group contend with financial pressures, after the national club board has drastically cut the funding allocation to both.  

Concerted efforts are needed to broaden the Sierra Club’s base with new, more diverse, and vibrant members and hear all voices; this year’s Sierra Club elections offer a unique opportunity to bring in new blood, new energy, and new diversity to the organization’s leadership. Three candidates running for leadership positions can steer this vital club in a direction that will tackle these challenges. Igor Tregub, a 2008 UC Berkeley alumnus and Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner, and Mario Juarez, a respected young Oakland Latino community leader, are running for the Executive Board of the Northern Alameda County Group. Kathy Neal, a renowned African-American small business owner, is a candidate for the Executive Board of the San Francisco Bay Chapter. 

If elected, we will work on retooling local and regional economies from the blue-collar jobs of the 20^th century to green-collar opportunities of the 21^st; enhanced mobilization and coalition-building around environmental justice and public transit accessibility issues; and growing the club with new initiatives, events, and fundraisers that would appeal to a number of different Bay Area denizens. Equally significant is our commitment to reaching out to youth, listening to their priorities, connecting them to the wonders of our environment and bringing them into the Sierra Club fold. 

All three of us are dynamic members of the Sierra Club Northern Alameda County Group. In addition, Igor is a Berkeley Rent Board and Labor Commissioner and Regional Council member of the Progressive Jewish Alliance. Mario is a small business owner who is active in Oakland’s Fruitvale area community affairs, as well as a former Oakland Parks Commissioner. Kathy, a public outreach and project management consultant, formerly served on California’s Integrated Waste Management Board where she advocated for a strong waste reduction agenda. 

We are strongly devoted to the Sierra Club’s mission “to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth” and are ready to roll up sleeves to constructively move the organization forward. We are absolutely committed to welcoming and hearing a diversity of opinion. We seek your support and ideas. Please contact us at SierraClubSlate@gmail.com or check out the local Sierra Club website at http://sanfranciscobay.sierraclub.org so we can all start working together. 

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