Representatives of the East Bay Regional Park District will give a presentation about the Wildcat Canyon Bike Flow Trail project at Wednesday’s East Richmond Height’s Municipal Advisory Council meeting.
According to first alternate council member Bara Sapir, the east Richmond citizens’ group, which is an appointed body that informs Contra Costa County government officials about neighborhood issues, was not informed about the project in advance.
The EBRPD park district board voted earlier this month to move forward with conducting an environmental impact report about the 1.4-mile trail, set to be built along a grazed, grassy hillside in central Wildcat Canyon. It would be accessible via the Mezue, Leonard’s and Wildcat Creek trails.
“(County) Supervisor John Gioia learned about this Flow Trail at the same time that many of us did,” Sapir said in an email to the community. “I suspect none of the county supervisors were informed.”
East Richmond Heights MAC meeting, Wed., Aug. 20, 6:30 p.m., Open Door United Methodist Church, 6226 Arlington Blvd. or via Zoom.
SS Red Oak ship to get 1st major renovation in more than a decade
A two-week project, the Victory Ship Revival, to refurbish the wartime SS Red Oak ship for the first time since 2011, will begin Monday.
Crews and volunteers (including what the group has dubbed Modern Day Rosies) will repair and renovate the deck, masts, tubs, and stack of the SS Red Oak, the last surviving ship of the 747 vessels that were built at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond during World War II.
The SS Red Oak association is partnering with the Rosie the Riveter Trust, the Boilermakers Union Local 549 and the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park to begin this first phase of renovation and revival.
The group has set a fundraising goal of $125,000 to complete this initial work. It is also looking for donations or loans of equipment for the project and seeking volunteers.
There is a $12 million project to further restore and eventually move the SS Red Oak to a berth near the Rosie the Riveter museum and Richmond ferry dock.
The trails access effort by mountain bikers has been going on since 1988. What is seen now in the Wildcat Flow Trail Project is the culmination of many thousands of hours of work with the EBRPD, by like-minded and not like-minded groups. and many hundreds of advocates. It has seen the active presence of local and national cycling organizations and the National Intercollegiate Cycling Association group which serves thousands of high school and junior high school mountain bikers.
This Wildcat Flow Trail Project is not news, nor is the project at hand a surprise unless you are not paying attention. Bara keeps repeating that many folks were no notified. I was one of those, finding out about this from Next Door a few days before the Board Meeting. Bara, and other anti-access folks are trying to make a case that this is skullduggery, some underhanded scheme to keep folks out of the decision-making process. They raise the specter of “lack of transparency.” Unfortunately, unless such claims are confronted with facts, they tend to stick. EW!
Outreach and transparency hit a nerve, but it is nothing less than a smear. Everyone is not notified about everything. For starters, in the Board Meeting on April 25 of this year 200 citizens were in attendance to speak to this issue. I guess someone knows how to stay on top of things. I think, rather, the Bara and the East Richmond Heights MAC has not put effort into staying abreast of its’ nearest and largest neighbor and understanding its issues and tendencies. Easy to do. We have neighbor/neighborhood/City of Richmond concerns. Not much thought of what backs us up to the East till we take a hike or ride.
In fairness, his particular Wildcat Flow Trail Project, one in a laundry list of exciting projects in the EBRPD’s 73 parks, has been under discussion, researched, defined, challenged and tested over a several year period. It has seen 5 major meeting since 2022. The elaborate presentation, by talented and skilled EBRPD Staff, at the last Board Meeting showed a pretty well-informed perspective of a process in good stride; soup to nuts.
Thus vetted, the move to approve the execution of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) challenges the project in unmitigated terms by an independent agency. One way or another more facts and certifications will affect how, or whether, this project goes through. I am not worried about an unfavorable EIR: I know enough about the Canyon, mountain biking, and trail building to have faith that we aren’t doing something stupid.
I think that what is being expressed at bottom is fear; this process presents itself as far along enough with enough integrity that it actually has a chance of succeeding. This is alarming to long-standing anti-access folks not staying abreast of this issue. Transparency /process is a red herring and neither will hold up.
That said, what would it mean to pass the EIR? How else would this be stopped?
I do not want that bike trails. I do not care who it is for or the reasons. I love untouched nature and quiet, this is one of my favorite trails at Wildcat. Any hiking area I’ve been to that has bikers irritates me personally. It’s why I don’t like hiking in Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park and other places you have to share with bikers. I will start voicing my opinion at meetings and stay abreast of the situation.