California State Senator Mark Leno's Senate Bill 792 would authorize the sale of state parkland within the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, on San Francisco Bay, to the South Florida-based Lennar Corporation, for condo development.
On Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009, the KPFA Weekend News produced a report on California state Senate Bill 792. It included the voice of San Francisco's 3rd District state Sen. Mark Leno, the bill's author and advocate, and my own, as a San Francisco writer and activist opposed to privatizing any California state parkland.
I could not be more opposed to the sale of Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, to Lennar or any other corporation or to the precedent it would set. Nor could I be more opposed to the privatization of state prisons, health and human services, or coastal waters at Tranquillon Ridge off the coast of Santa Barbara, so coveted by oil and gas drillers.
I oppose all these ridiculous proposals to privatize the whole state of California in response to the state budget crisis. Eager corporate buyers and many politicians, including most of all Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, are using the state budget crisis to push "structural readjustment, like that which the IMF and World Bank impose on debt strangled Africa, with relentless pressure to privatize every acre of land and every other natural resource, including even fresh water, because, as the IMF and World Bank argue, Africa " now, like California " just can't afford to own any of its own parks, wildlife preserves or natural resources anymore.
In their fight against the push to privatize their state park, Bayview Hunters Point activists are fighting the privatization of California as hard as anyone I know. They're fighting for all of us, so I hope that other Californians who don't want to see the whole state on the auction block will contact their Assembly representatives and ask them to vote against Senate Bill 792. Readers can obtain contact information for their California Assembly representative by typing their zip code in on the California state website, Know Your Legislature.
I protested to KPFA Weekend News Producer Anthony Fest as soon as I heard Sunday's broadcast because, by saying that he is "working with the Sierra Club and ARC Ecology on amending his legislation, Sen. Leno had " intentionally or not " given listeners the false impression that the Sierra Club and ARC Ecology support privatization. On the contrary, both organizations were on the long list of coalition members opposing it, and I had submitted that list to KPFA News.
That list also includes Stop Lennar Action Movement (SLAM), People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), San Francisco Bay View newspaper, Caravan for Justice, Idriss Stelley Action and Resource Center, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, Audubon Society, California Native Plant Society, Chinese Progressive Association, Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, San Francisco Green Party and many others.
ARC Ecology Director Saul Bloom told me the next day, on Aug. 24, 2009, that:
1) He had, as of Aug. 24, 2009, not yet seen an amended version of the bill;
2) He still opposes it;
3) ARC and the Sierra Club both oppose any privatization of state parkland; and
4) They would, at most, take a neutral stance on an amended SB 792, with boundaries to preserve as much parkland, tideland and native habitat as possible.
Since the KPFA Weekend News broadcast, San Francisco's 12th District Assembly Member Fiona Ma has emerged as SB 792's advocate, opposing San Francisco's 13th District Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, who voted no and spoke adamantly against the bill before it passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee on a 9 to 2 vote. San Francisco's other state senator, 8th District Sen. Leland Yee, also voted and argued against the bill before it passed out of the state Senate on June 2.
San Francisco Supervisors John Avalos and Chris Daly have proposed a resolution by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that would instruct the City's Sacramento lobbyist, Lynn Suter, to argue against the bill.
Here's an audio clip of the KPFA news segment downloaded from the KPFA website and posted to YouTube.
And here is ARC Ecology Director Saul Bloom in his own words on the day following the broadcast:
"We have not seen any amended version of the bill yet and until we do, we oppose the bill. And it should be clear, in no uncertain terms, that the Sierra Club and ARC Ecology will at most be neutral on this bill. We do not support the sale of any state parkland, especially not Candlestick. Public parks are for future generations.
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