For months now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Parks and Recreation have been wringing their hands over our beloved jewels and whether or how or which to close. Used to be the state could brag of superior public education from kindergarten through university, and being the center of the entertainment universe, and being a bastion of progressive thought. California was he envy of the nation. Now we pretty much just have the parks, though for how much longer who knows.
Word on the street is that the state will pony up the names of 100 state parks in the next week. When they plan on closing those parks is another matter entirely. Everyone agrees that closing the parks is for all practical purposes just plain impossible. You can throw a chain over the parking lot of Francis State Beach, but tourists will just park along Kelly Avenue and its tributaries. If there are no restrooms, they will just use the bushes. No trash can, no problem.
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For months now representatives from the local chamber of commerce, city and county governments and Assemblyman Jerry Hill’s office have been meeting to plan ways to keep Coastside parks open should word come down that they are on the chopping block. Some privy to those discussions are privately a little chafed by the lack of information coming their way. Just how much does it cost to operate beach parks and what do they bring in from various sources? They are, after all, our parks.
State Parks spokesman Roy Stearns told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that officials hope a militia of park lovers takes shape in the coming weeks, each member hell bent on policing any newly shuttered parks. OK, that’s not exactly what he said. But close: "We hope there is a kind of statewide neighborhood watch where people make a call if there is something that shouldn't be there," he told the newspaper.
That’s the plan? Oh dear.
Hill says he expects state officials to be open to “creative solutions” to keep local parks open. Take heart: those ideas are coming from San Mateo County folks. Perhaps there is hope.
-- Clay Lambert
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