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To the Editor: 

As I read the article about the proposed plan for the Eastshore State Park, my hackles rose when I read the position attributed to the group Albany Let It Be, of which I am a founding member. 

Albany Let It Be does not “oppose the state's plan to restore natural habitat in Albany.” The whole point is there is no need to restore natural habitat because the exuberant plant and animal life there now is completely natural. What is native on an old landfill? Exactly what exists now. 

The essence of Albany Let It Be's position is – don't destroy anything that currently exists now, and allow nature to continue it's own reclamation of this spit of land produced by 40 years of dumping. And the beauty of it is that it costs next to nothing. 

The whole ‘planning’ process has been an insult to the current user groups at the Albany Landfill. For over 20 years, residents of this densely populated urban pressure cooker have felt relief by being able to exercise themselves and their canine companions at the Albany Waterfront. They have painted magnificent open air canvases using washed up driftwood, they have built huts of fennel, and they have constructed little castles in Wonderland. 

Dogs have played alongside toddlers on the tiny but beautiful city beach. And wildlife has thrived along the rocky shores produced by freeway debris. 

Now one more place which made the Bay Area unique will lose out as state park planners move in with their cookie cutter park templates. Say goodbye to it – once they have moved in, it will never return. 

This is the Bay Area – birthplace of some of the greatest statements of human freedom and creativity. We deserve better. 

Jill Posener 

Berkeley