If you Build it, They will Come

Ribbon-cutting for a people sanctuary.  Mayor Trish Spencer wielding the scissors, with
Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Assemblyman Ron Bonta to her left, and Jim Sweeney to her
right holding book.  Mayor-elect Ezzy Ashcraft is behind Jim.

    The Bay Area has a new people sanctuary, known as the Jean Sweeney Open Space Park.  It's on the site of the old Alameda Beltway Railroad. The late Jean Sweeney is the woman who first envisioned it as a park, and then found the clause in a 1924 contract that allowed the city of Alameda to repurchase the property for the selling price.

City Attorney, wearing t-shirt
that cites SCOCA verdict

    That was in 1999.  The city ended up in court, with local legal talent facing off against a Los Angeles firm that had been representing the railroads since the old robber baron days.  But as one of our attorneys told me, that firm had no idea who they were up against.  In 2009, the California Supreme Court ruled the clause valid, upholding a Superior court decision, which in turn had reversed a trial court verdict siding with the railroad.  Then came the hard part, clearing away toxic waste, and planning and building park features.  By Saturday December 15, enough of Jean's dream had been constructed to justify a grand opening.

    Young children swarmed over lawns and slides and swings, while a couple hundred adult islanders listened to interesting speeches: not the least of the reasons why Alameda is a special place is that speakers at official events feel emboldened to talk real.

Slide 12/15/18

Slide 1/1/19

                                         

    California assemblyman Ron Bonta shared a telling anecdote about Jean Sweeney and her husband Jim.  All that happened was that he ran into them once on a deserted beach in Alameda when they were picking up litter.  Nobody else was there to approve or applaud: they were exactly the same people in private as they were were in public.  Jim Sweeney spoke too, holding up a copy of the children's book, The Little Engine that Could. Jean saw herself as the little engine, an unassuming person rising to the occasion because she believed in her vision.

    Cathy Dana, one of Alameda's poets laureate, pointed out that by saving bird habitat, we create a people sanctuary too;  a little dose of nature is vital to the well-being of city dwellers. She connected Jean's vision to the tag line of Field of Dreams,  and read her poem Ode to Open Space, with lines that captured the

12/15/18

exuberance of the young ones:  "the little girl with pink tights and purple cowboy boots/runs and twirls for the sheer joy of it."
    
    Another speaker predicted that Sweeney would become an iconic park, like Tilden in Berkeley, or Golden Gate in San Francisco. Hyperbole due to an overdose of civic pride?  After all, Tilden is 740 acres, Golden Gate 1,017; Sweeney only 22.  Even Alameda's own Shoreline Park on upscale Bay Farm Island is larger, at 32 acres, and Estuary Park, opened in 2018 on the far west end, is a respectable 8. Yet Sweeney Park does epitomize Alameda.  It's inclusive, environmentally aware, and it's a work in progress.

Rotary Club of Alameda Pavilion

     Sweeney's inclusive in part because of its location.  It's on the west side, the formerly Navy side, the more downscale, diverse side, the side that needs open space the most.  It borders four public housing project buildings, as well as the Alameda Food Bank, which feeds the hungry.  And it's also inclusive because we had to stay united during the long years of costly litigation, and because we

Legionnaires at grand opening 

celebrated the victory together and acknowledged everyone's efforts  There were a group of uniformed American Legionnaires present; we were entertained by the Oakland Gay Men's Chorus; and the old train station was restored as a gazebo, with picnic tables, and renamed the Rotary Club of Alameda Pavilion.  Make no mistake, we have the same divisions and presentments as the rest of the Bay Area, but it feels different.  We live closer to each other, not in separate worlds, as in the Oakland Hills vs. West Oakland.

Lawn in front of RC of A Pavilion, Webster Street Gazebo in background

    ReScape California certifies Sweeney Park as environmentally aware with its highest rating, Bay Friendly.  Their criteria are that the park uses appropriate, drought tolerant plants; those plants are nourished from compost made from the contents of Alameda's green bins; and the soil is protected by mulch made from local trees. But that wouldn't be enough if the park didn't attract homo

Jennifer West from Stop Waste

Saplings with Mulcj

sapiens.  The lawns are the greenest and softest in my memory, and Mexican sage and tufts of native grass express well-established local tastes in horticulture.  The play structures look imaginative to this adult, and the children give them their stamp of approval.  Jogging/bike paths wind, dip, and rise across the .6 miles/1 km length of the park, and now they're part of my morning run.  Even on drizzly December mornings, I've never seen fewer than a dozen others.  Today, New Years Day, I ran at noon, and saw well over a hundred, and the parking lot was full.

    And, it's a work in progress: much remains to be done.  A fenced-in band of empty lot runs along the south edge of the park, parallel to the paths.  The play structures, gazebo, and plantings are all on the eastern third, next to a wide swath of bare dirt that extends half the length of the park. Moreover, the bike

To completed in Sweeney v2.0

paths are part of a grand plan called the Cross Alameda Trail, which could one day traverse the island east to west.  Completing that trail, and developing the rest of the park in the Bay Friendly, people friendly way, will require ongoing commitment.  Alameda faces the same budget dilemmas as any other city in the era of stingy public finances.  But we're a work in progress too.

    Ezzy Ashcraft was elected mayor November 6, confirming our reputation as a notably progressive and green city, even for the deep blue Bay Area.  Ezzy was at the Sweeney opening, and on her first day in office, two days

Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft

later, she helped open Alameda's first warming shelter for the homeless.  She's well aware that sea-level Alameda is on the front lines of climate change impact, and thus it behooves us to set a good example of the policies needed to avert catastrophe.  Best bet: more good news for the human beings from the little city that could.


 -- © µ 2019

Full parking lot at Sweeney Park, 1/1/19.