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Home July 2006 |
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Greenbelt Newswire Photo of the Month
In this edition Volunteer(s) of the Month: Summer Interns This summer Greenbelt Alliance is lucky enough to have eight excellent interns volunteering their time and energy on efforts around the Bay Area. Some interns are helping to increase Greenbelt Alliance's outreach to Bay Area communities. Bill Groen is acting as volunteer manager for the East Bay Field office and doing outreach at farmers' markets in Contra Costa County. Katie Andersen is raising awareness around Solano County's Orderly Growth Initiative and the Napa County Open Space District. In the San Francisco office, Shovaughn Chism (pictured) is doing membership outreach to underrepresented communities and expanding volunteer recruitment. Kendra Froshman is boosting the entire organization's outreach capacity as an administrative intern. Four other interns are focusing on policy analysis and research this summer. In the East Bay, Eden Gallentar has spent several months researching guidelines for Bayside development. Working out of the Sonoma-Marin field office, Analee Pepper has analyzed the Marin County's general plan and monitored the plan's update process. In the same office, Marlene Dehlinger is focusing on the SMART train depot proposed for downtown Santa Rosa and assisting in the Sonoma County General Plan update. In San Francisco, Carey Stone is working on a neighborhood-scale development proposal review and is helping to streamline the Compact Development Team's evaluation process. A big thank you to all of Greenbelt Alliance's hard-working summer interns!
Election Update: Prop 90: It's A Trap After the defeat in June of Napa's Measure A, many people have been breathing a big sigh of relief. Measure A, which was based on Oregon's Measure 37, would have allowed landowners to claim that land-use laws decreased their property values, and would have required the County to 1) pay their claims, 2) allow them to break the law, or 3) get sued. The measure's effect would have been to cost taxpayers millions and prevent the adoption of protections for local landscapes. But just as that threat subsided, a bigger one reared its head. Proposition 90, on the statewide November ballot, is even more extreme than Measure A. It claims to "reform eminent domain" but that is just the bait in the trap; its real goal is to prevent local governments from passing new laws. It would require payment for any new land-use laws adopted throughout the state. This would effectively make it impossible to: protect air and water quality, open space, or endangered species; do any kind of zoning in local neighborhoods; or even pass consumer protection or anti-crime laws. Meanwhile, in Oregon--a much smaller state--2,000 claims have been filed totaling more than $4 billion. That doesn't even include the costs to state and local governments to administer the claims. Who pays? Taxpayers. Measure A was a bad idea. Prop 90 is far worse. To get involved in the campaign to stop Prop 90, visit noprop90.com. To read more about the coordinated attempt to dismantle environmental protections throughout the American West, visit: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=16409.
Alert: Enjoy the Harvest and Protect the Greenbelt Greenbelt Alliance's recent report, At Risk: The Bay Area Greenbelt, found that in 2006, for the first time, Solano County had more land at risk than any other Bay Area county. This is a critical place to focus efforts to protect the greenbelt, and two campaigns need your help. Solano County's Orderly Growth Initiative directs growth toward existing cities, keeping sprawl development off rural county lands. Solano's Board of Supervisors just put the renewal of the measure on this November's ballot, and it's time to let local voters know. One way to take development pressure off Solano County's open space is to provide more affordable homes in existing cities. Greenbelt Alliance is advocating for Vallejo, the county's biggest city, to adopt an inclusionary housing ordinance. This would ensure that new residential developments include affordable homes. You can have fun while helping to get the word out about both these campaigns! Join fellow volunteers on Wednesday evenings or Saturday mornings at the Vallejo downtown farmers' market. To sign up for a shift, email Nicole Byrd at nicole@greenbelt.org (Orderly Growth) or Kate O'Hara at kohara@greenbelt.org (inclusionary housing).
Alert: Make Bay Area Communities More Livable Greenbelt Alliance's Livable Communities Team is gearing up for an exciting new venture to reach out to Bay Area communities that are planning new neighborhoods around transit stations. The first of these communities will be Santa Rosa, an important stop on the proposed Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) System linking Cloverdale to Larkspur. A further opportunity will likely arise in the North First Street area of San Jose in the coming months. Livable Communities volunteers can help to create good neighborhoods around transit by planning Urban Outings and by getting local residents involved in community meetings and workshops. To join this new effort, contact Marla Wilson at mwilson@greenbelt.org.
Summer Reading: Is This Land Yours? Looking for something a little more substantial than a pulpy novel for your summer reading? You could try a new book by journalist Anthony Flint, called This Land. The book examines the growing phenomenon of exurban growth and its whole new scale of land consumption, with big lots, big houses, and big distances from any city. Flint also chronicles the increasing popularity of New Urbanism and smart growth, which has attracted people back to cities and revitalized downtowns. What will America's future look like? Will rising gas prices speed the return to the city and to small-town living, or will car-dependent sprawl prevail? Listen to Anthony Flint and Greenbelt Alliance's David Reid interviewed on KPFA Radio's Morning Show at http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=14582.
Sat Aug 19: Marvelous Marshland Become a Member or Renew Your Membership Support our work to protect the Bay Area's open space and make our cities better places to live. Click here to join or renew, or click here to join our Greenbelt Guardian monthly donor club. Questions? Contact Brianna Swartz at 415-543-6771 or by email.
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