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Home May 2006 |
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Greenbelt Newswire Photo of the Month
In this edition Volunteer of the Month: Jenn Fox According to her fellow riders, Go Greenbelt! rider Jenn Fox had a smile on her face for all 480 miles of the Bay Area bike tour! A longtime Greenbelt Alliance supporter and avid cyclist, Jenn had always wanted to be a part of Go Greenbelt!. After years of sponsoring friends and hearing about their experiences, Jenn decided 2006 was the year to do it herself. To raise money for the ride, Jenn asked for sponsorships instead of birthday presents. She's happy she did, calling Go Greenbelt! "the most rejuvenating, beautiful, and inspiring vacation I have ever had. And, while I was riding through incredible surroundings, my friends' donations were helping Greenbelt Alliance protect these areas." Jenn's involvement with Go Greenbelt! is an extension of her love for cycling and the outdoors. Jenn is also a Board Member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, leads hiking and biking trips around the world, and works as an environmental engineer helping the Bay Area save energy. Jenn, we look forward to you being a part of Go Greenbelt! for
many years to come. Thank you for your support and dedication! And thank
you to all Go Greenbelt! riders and volunteers who help to make
the Bay Area a better place to live.
Announcement: At Risk: The Bay Area Greenbelt Greenbelt Alliance has released the 2006 edition of At Risk: The Bay Area Greenbelt, a survey of the region's open space and the risk of sprawl development. While the land at risk has decreased significantly since the last survey, in 2000, there are still 401,500 acres of farms and open space at risk of sprawl development in the next 30 years. That's an area the size of 13 San Franciscos. Today, 1 out of every 10 acres of land in the Bay Area is at risk. In Solano and Contra Costa Counties, that number is 1 out of every 5 acres. For the first time, Solano County has the most land at risk of any Bay Area county. Click here for more information on the report. Click here for interactive maps—you can fly over the land at risk with Google Earth, or see animated maps of how the Bay Area has changed over time.
Election Update: Napa County and Santa Clara County, June 6th 1) Vote NO on Napa County Measure A, the "Unfair Payment" Initiative On June 6th, Napa County residents will decide a measure with major ramifications for the county's landscapes and quality of life. Measure A would allow property owners to claim that a decision of the Board of Supervisors had reduced their property value, and would require the county to pay or be sued. The payments would come out of taxpayer dollars, and would benefit a few large landowners and developers. A similar measure passed in 2004 in Oregon and has resulted in over $3 billion in claims. The independent fiscal analysis of Measure A estimated it would cost Napa taxpayers between $1.34 million and $2.95 million per year. Over the years, the decisions by Napa County's residents and their elected leaders have ensured a high quality of life and protected the county's famous farmland and vineyards. The passage of Measure A would tie the county's hands to protect land and would cost taxpayers millions. Measure A would be bad for Napa County. Vote NO on Measure A. More information is available at www.NoOnMeasureA.com. 2) Vote YES on Santa Clara County Measure B, the Park Charter Fund More information is available at www.YesOnParks.com.
Announcement: Take A Survey, Improve Our Website, and Enter to Win a Prize! Want a chance to win great prizes and help Greenbelt Alliance at the same time? Enter to win your choice of a one-year Greenbelt Alliance membership, or a book bag containing two fascinating books about the Bay Area. Please take our short survey to help us learn more about what you—our members, friends, and supporters—would like to see on our website. Completed surveys will be entered in the prize drawing. Hurry! This survey closes at midnight on June 21st. Just go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=251112193821 If you have any friends who would be interested in taking our survey and being entered in the drawing, please forward this on to them. Thank you in advance for helping us improve our presence on the Web!
Action Alert: Support More Affordable Homes in Vallejo Eighty percent of Solano County's residents cannot afford the average-priced home. As a result, local workers are forced to look further away for homes, fueling sprawl and worsening traffic. The City of Vallejo, Solano's biggest city, can address this problem by adopting an inclusionary housing ordinance. This would require all housing developments to include more affordable homes. Providing housing options that match local needs is a critical part of creating livable communities and protecting the greenbelt from development pressure. Greenbelt Alliance is calling on the Vallejo City Council to adopt an inclusionary housing ordinance and to start this process by directing staff to draft an ordinance. Show your support for more affordable housing options in Vallejo:
Feature: In Memory of Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs, the activist and self-taught intellectual who revolutionized urban planning, died on April 25th at the age of 89. In the 1950s, her analysis of her own working-class New York City neighborhood extended outward as she walked all over the city, examining what made neighborhoods work. She looked at how people interacted on the street, how the design of a place influenced where people chose to go, how their presence made streets safer, and drew from this a new way of seeing—and creating—cities. Jacobs laid out her observations in an enormously influential book published in 1961, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. In the book and in life, Jacobs opposed the destruction of vibrant neighborhoods for massive redevelopment schemes and freeway construction, and criticized sprawling suburban development for drawing resources away from cities, draining them of their natural vitality. Jacobs later moved to Toronto, where she continued to be an outspoken advocate for walkable, livable places all her life. Wed May 31: Phone Bank for the Greenbelt 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 .
Thank you for reading! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Greenbelt Alliance Newswire email list or because a friend from the list forwarded the message on to you. For more information, please visit http://www.greenbelt.org. To unsubscribe, simply send an unsubscribe request to unsubscribe@greenbelt.org. |
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