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Campaign for McLaughlin Park
on State Parks Commission Agenda
for September 28
Naming parks after people adds a human element and story to open space. Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP), a shoreline advocacy nonprofit, has spearheaded a campaign to rename Eastshore State Park as McLaughlin Eastshore State Park after San Francisco Bay champion and citizen volunteer Sylvia McLaughlin. The proposal will be on the agenda of the California State Parks Commission on September 28.
CESP is committed to this campaign because Sylvia McLaughlin represents the many citizen volunteers who worked to preserve the San Francisco Bay shoreline. Sylvia McLaughlin is co-founder of CESP and Save the Bay and she was instrumental in establishing the Eastshore State Park. CESP was founded in 1985 as a result of Santa Fe Railroad’s proposed fill and development on the Berkeley shoreline. CESP brought shoreline advocates together to stop this development, preserving the land that became the Eastshore State Park.
The Eastshore State Park runs 8.5 miles through five cities from the foot of the Bay Bridge in Oakland to just north of the Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond.
CESP has worked on the McLaughlin Eastshore State Park campaign for more than two years. The first milestone in the renaming campaign was when ACR 55 (Skinner) was passed by the State Assembly in 2011. ACR 55 recommended that the CA State Department of Parks and Recreation implement the name change. But, the Department never acted.
CESP and McLaughlin Eastshore State Park supporters are now looking to the State Parks and Recreation Commission to take action at its September 28 meeting in Santa Monica, CA.
The Commission meeting agenda is available to view on its website at http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27190.
In the meantime CESP continues to gather support by letter, resolution and email and the list of supporters continues to grow. Current supporters include all cities through which the park runs. The cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Oakland, and Richmond, as well as Alameda and Contra Costa Counties have passed resolutions of support and more than 600 individuals have shown support by letter, postcard and petition.
CESP will share the community’s enthusiasm for honoring Sylvia McLaughlin at the State Parks and Recreation meeting on Sept. 28. CESP is calling on individuals, businesses and organizations to show support for McLaughlin Eastshore State Park. Please call the Commission at 916/653-0524 or send email and letters of support to: State Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Caryl Hart and to State Parks Dept. Interim Director Janelle Beland, c/o CESP at: director@parks.ca.gov, lnastro@parks.cca.gov, eastshorepark@hotmail.com. Or send a letter to the State Parks and Recreation Commission c/o CESP at P.O. Box 6087 Albany, CA 94706.
