Public Comment

Rochelle Nason and Mary Barnsdale have been supporting Norman’s opponent for the East Bay Parks District. Both have indicated their great concern about dogs off-leash. However, dogs, while so important to me and many others, are not the only issue facing our parks. I know the work and the endless hours that have gone into all these issues as I have been deeply involved since 1970 with creating the park that exists on Berkeley’s front porch. As Mayor I led the fight to reform Berkeley’s animal policies from one of killing to one of care, worked to ensure there would be a place for off-leash dogs in our waterfront park, consistently supported off-leash advocates including getting the Park District to stop the use of harmful pesticides at Point Isabel, and I’m currently actively involved in preserving and protecting our irreplaceable natural resources along our East Bay shoreline as safe havens and places of recreation for everyone and the generations to come. To put it simply, I want my grandchildren to catch sight of a Monarch butterfly, see an osprey flying to its nest, as well as walk with their best friend along the shore. 

I have no animosity toward Norman La Force’s opponent or supporters but I don’t like nor understand the divisiveness that is being generated by so much mis-information at a time when the expansion of our beloved McLaughlin Eastshore State Park is sorely threated. Undisputed studies have shown that parks are essential for everyone’s physical and mental wellbeing. No one can deny that all ages today cry out in desperation for the peace that only nature can bring to our daily stress filled lives. Those same studies also point to an economic benefit from our parks. So, why is there such a relentless drumbeat from Nason and Barnsdale? 

Their candidate’s mailer to voters indicates nothing about her vision for our parks. Norman has spent some 38 years facing parks issues without pause. Sure, it has made some local officials and bureaucrats uncomfortable to be questioned, but that’s what happens when proposals are made that involve killing birds, using harmful pesticides, ignoring the presence of toxic chemicals, planning concrete paths rather than earthen trails, creating parking lots and roads and building shopping malls, airports and housing instead of parks. 

There is no dispute that Norman was key in guiding the strategy that resulted in acquiring the land from Santa Fe that was the first step for a park that is hoped will stretch north from Berkeley through the Richmond shoreline. There were decades of listening to hundreds of passionate pleas from off-leash dog advocates, artists, windsurfers, boaters, playing field teams, environmentalists, hikers and bird watchers all demanding conflicting park uses in this new state park. From 1998 (and I have the documentation to prove it), Norman and the Sierra Club supported a set aside for dogs off-leash, but not having the whole park for unleashed dogs because other uses such as setting aside the Berkeley Meadow as a conservation area for the threatened burrowing owl also needed to be accommodated as well. They and the City of Berkeley wanted a compromise that included everyone.  

Then in late 2002 Berkeley was informed by the State that our waterfront park would be designed as a “State Recreation Area.” Sylvia McLaughlin, Norman La Force, Robert Cheasty, the Sierra Club and Citizens for East Shore Parks and the City of Berkeley united to change the designation to that of “State Park.” It was tough going because the State didn’t want to change the classification, but it finally happened so that all the different demands could be accommodated within a vision for a natural area with some recreational uses that would serve all of the people in the East Bay. 

As I said before, it hasn’t been easy, but the journey that took years and years to start from transforming a filled garbage dump, reject a proposed airport, turn down a regional shopping district, to finally become the park we have today, continues without letup. Today, Norman La Force continues that journey to preserve the public’s land at Point Molate into a spectacular park. The City of Richmond has decided that this area with its threatened plant species, butterflies, nesting birds, and off shore eel grass that is so essential to cleaning Bay water and snatching carbon from our fouled air should be developed into around 1,500 units of housing for those with annual income of $200,000 and up! It even involves turning over a small city owned shoreline park to those homeowners! Yes, a lawsuit is necessary – the kind of environmental lawsuit that has won the public so many parks and open space that we need and enjoy today.  

And Norman is also working to clean up the highly toxic chemicals currently flowing into the Bay at the Zeneca shoreline where the City of Richmond recently and unexpectantly felt it necessary to build 2,000 housing units on top of this mass of pollution! Here you can see unrepaired fencing which allows people to wander into an area of radioactive materials!  

Norman is dedicated to cleaning up these problems and that’s why he is needed on the Parks District Board to help us find solutions to these and other problems. In this election only Norman La Force has this record and documented commitment. His opponent is silent, but her election mailer indicates she is supported by the elected City of Richmond officials who support both the development of Point Molate and the Zeneca site. 

That’s why I’m voting for Norman La Force (of Course). It’s not only because I and others will benefit, but the future of my grandchildren and yours that is at stake as well.