August 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 23

Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline -
a new waterfront park with a public access pier - is one of the enhancements
EBRPD is making this year.

and trails open as an essential service
during the pandemic and the SIP
orders. Weekly discussions with the
county health agencies followed,
and safety protocols were developed
to keep staff safe when cleaning restrooms and picking up trash. Many
of the closed amenities were reopened within two weeks. East Bay
Parks staff rose to the challenge of
creating signage and educating both
regular park users and thousands of
new visitors on maintaining physical distancing and wearing masks.
At the same time, staff developed a
reopening plan to ensure equitable
park access to both urban and rural
parks and trails, keeping as many
parks as possible open for all, and
rejecting calls from wealthy neighborhoods to restrict access to locales.
Ninety-nine percent of our parks
and trails have stayed open, and we
continue to reopen those few closed
facilities as safely allowable.

Advocating for Equity
Equitable public access has long
been a focus of the agency. Forty
years ago, at the urging of conservation and community leaders, we
made a huge commitment to provide public access along the urban
shoreline, adjacent to some of the
historically most under-resourced
communities in East Bay. Miller/
Knox Regional Shoreline in Richmond was our first shoreline park,
followed by Martin Luther King
Jr. Shoreline in Oakland and Point
Pinole Regional Shoreline in Richmond, which recently received a
major upgrade with a restoration
and public access project. During
the past 10 years, EBRPD has invested nearly $100 million in these
urban communities and others,
providing both more access and new

park improvements. We know the
need is great and continue to keep
our commitment to do more for social and environmental justice, especially now. This year, with grants and
assistance largely supported by our
legislative delegation, we're opening
three shoreline projects:
* Bay Point Regional Shoreline
Restoration and Access Project
- $5.8 million ($3.9 grant funded, including $750,000 from a
Land and Water Conservation
Fund [LWCF] competitive grant)
* McLaughlin Eastshore State
Park Albany Beach Restoration
and Bay Trail - a connection between the West Berkeley and Albany communities - $14 million
($4.6 million grant funded)
* Judge John Sutter Regional
Shoreline in West Oakland -
new waterfront park with a public access pier - $29.6 million
(funded and developed by Caltrans and MTC/Bay Area Toll
Authority)
EBRPD has and will persist in
making the case with our legislators
for the need of continued enhanced
investment in our vital public access
programs and projects that deliver
access to nature for all. As the economy cratered under the weight of

SIP orders, EBRPD set up meetings
with state and local legislators to
remind them that parks truly are an
essential service and that the surge
in visitation is real.
In the short term, we need to protect the funding we have and proactively seek recovery funds as we
navigate the uncertain times ahead.
A future green stimulus and/or
funding of LWCF could help fix
and maintain parks, increase equitable access and continue parks'
role as part of the health system
while providing needed economic
opportunities for those struggling
financially, even while mitigating some of the effects of climate
change. In the long term, learning
from this moment and keeping the
public's trust will position park
agencies well for future funding.
EBRPD has found that social
media, Zoom meetings, virtual
walk-and-talks and written correspondence are all effective ways to
communicate at a time when elected officials are seeking positive stories. The park and recreation field
has a great story to tell right now,
so let's tell it together!
Robert Doyle is General Manager at East Bay Regional Park
District (bdoyle@ebparks.org).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | AU G U S T 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

21
August 2020 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2020 - Parks & Recreation
