105 results for author: CESP

New Berkeley waterfront park should be hit with nature lovers

October 5, 2006 - Kristin Bender BERKELEY Ñ State and regional park leaders opened a 17-acre slice of the Berkeley Meadow on Wednesday afternoon, lauding it as a great spot for walking, relaxing, bird watching and people watching. Restoration of the former garbage dump marked the first completed phase of the Eastshore State Park General Plan, adopted in 2002 after 25 years of work by park leaders, elected officials and community watchdogs. The 8.5-mile-long Eastshore State Park is 2,000 acres of uplands and tidelands along the waterfront of Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Albany and Richmond. "There is some fantastic bird watching here. Both ...

‘Garbage into gold’: 8 1/2-mile-long, 2,002-acre Eastshore State Park is dedicated after more than 30 years of hard work

October 5, 2006 - Carolyn Jones It took more than three decades, hundreds of people, a dozen public agencies and plenty of creative financing, but in the end they did it: They turned eight miles of garbage dumps into one of America's largest urban parks. "We spun garbage into gold," said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates on Wednesday at the official dedication of the Eastshore State Park, much of which has been completed. About 200 people helped unveil the 8.5-mile strip of tidelands, meadows, beaches and trails that stretches from the Bay Bridge to Richmond and boasts sweeping views of Mount Tamalpais, the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco ...

Activists, officials christen Eastshore State Park

October 5, 2006 - By M.S. Enkoji Just after World War II, on the hills rising from the San Francisco Bay, Sylvia McLaughlin would look down from her Berkeley home and watch as heaps of garbage slowly filled in the watery expanse. "That was a time when people considered their waterfronts dumping grounds," she said. But as the bay's eastern shore seemed destined to close in on San Francisco, McLaughlin envisioned something different on the scrappy shoreline. She helped found one of several movements that galvanized the fight to rescue the waterfront, restore and preserve it. On Wednesday, she got to take her bow. Now 89, McLaughlin journe...

State Park’s New Section Opens After Long Delay

October 5, 2006 - by Corinna Matlis After 20 years of lawsuits and compromising, community volunteers and politicians are finally celebrating the dedication of a landfill-turned-meadow at a Berkeley state park. Officials from several area cities and environmental groups joined state park staff in a ribbon-cutting that officially opens a section of Berkeley Meadow, just north of the marina, to the public. The meadow, which is part of the Eastshore State Park system, sits on reclaimed land that was used as a landfill throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Several trails now crisscross the meadow, where park planners have restored many native ...

Gambling venues bet big on Prop. 68

Aug 7, 2004 by Erin Sherbert In San Mateo County, gambling interests are betting big bucks on Proposition 68, having dumped nearly $3.5 million into the campaign. Leading the pack in monetary donations is Magna Entertainment Corp., which operates both the Bay Meadows Racecourse in San Mateo and Golden Gate Fields in Albany. Magna has given about $1.7 million to Proposition 68. Bay Meadows Main Track Investors LLC has contributed $992,000 while the two cardrooms, Lucky Chances and Artichoke Joe's, have contributed more than $400,000 each. To date, Proposition 68 proponents have received about $12 million, all from race tracks and cardrooms ...