Citizens for East Shore Parks Celebrates 30 Years of Advocacy for East Bay Shoreline Make it a day at McLaughlin Eastshore State Park on Saturday, November 7
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CESP celebrates 30 years of advocacy for McLaughlin Eastshore State Park on November 7.
Albany, California – October 19, 2015 –Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) will commemorate 30 years of advocacy with a celebratory brunch on Saturday, November 7, 10:30 am – 1:30 pm, at the Berkeley Yacht Club followed by a day of activities in the Park. At the event, CESP and Sylvia McLaughlin (Emeritus Co-Chair CESP and Co-Founder Save the Bay) will honor:
Tom Bates, Mayor of Berkeley, for his leadership in forging visions
Pat O’Brien, former General Manager of East Bay Regional Park District, for his public service; and
Norman La Force, Sierra Club activist for years of environmental stewardship
Activities in the Park will take place throughout the day with an early morning Bird Walk, Dragon Boats, guided nature walk and Mobile Visitor Center, Sierra Club walk from Emeryville to Berkeley, and activities at the Shorebird Nature Center. McLaughlin Eastshore State Park is uniquely citizen-inspired.
CESP galvanized the opposition to commercial development of the shoreline, championing public access and a single shoreline park on the remaining open space along the east shore of San Francisco Bay from the Bay Bridge into Richmond. The Park runs 8.5 miles through 5 cities: Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany and Richmond.
“McLaughlin Eastshore State Park is one of the most outstanding achievements in the history of open space protection; it is the result of decades of citizen efforts to protect San Francisco Bay as a public open space resource.”—Major General Anthony Jackson, former CA State Parks & Recreation Director
About Citizens for East Shore Parks
Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to counter development proposals put forth by Santa Fe Railroad to build large-scale developments on its shoreline properties in Albany and Berkeley. Although a number of people shared the dream of an open shoreline and the idea of a park along the shore, no group existed to advocate for this dream to become reality. Environmentalists from the Citizens for the Albany Shoreline, Emeryville Shoreline Committee, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Save the Bay, and the Sierra Club banded together to form the CESP. Other like-minded environmentalists quickly joined, as did elected and appointed officials who shared the vision of a shoreline park. Over a period of 30 years, area residents and organizations have fought to preserve more than 2,000 acres of open space in one of our nation’s most densely populated urban regions.
The mission of CESP is to create a necklace of shoreline parks from the Oakland Estuary to the Carquinez Strait.
Contact: Patricia V. Jones Executive Director
Phone: (510) 524-5000
Website: www.eastshorepark.org
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