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San Francisco Board Sailing association letter

 
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Riptide



Joined: 15 Jan 2011
Posts: 411

PostPosted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 12:46 pm    Post subject: San Francisco Board Sailing association letter Reply with quote

Dear Sailors,
The entire east beach was designed for western style parking so that wherever you parked there was a grassy area to rig your equipment and hang out. The current park planers envision a more pedestrian oriented redesign that removed all near beach parking and added a massive parking lot in the back that would have removed 50 percent of the lawn area and the loss of hundreds of parking spaces. NPS tried to rush through a major redesign last year, but they violated many NEPA requirements, The San Francisco Board Sailing Association went to bat against this, so it was stalled. This included making the promenade 30 feet wide instead of the current 20 feet width.
A maintenance project ongoing just replacing the promenades surface, removing the decomposed granite and replacing it with a proprietary material called park tread. http://www.parktread.com/. The National park service also has secretly taken away the front row rigging area between the front row parking and the promenade it self. The sneak in of the sidewalk fulfills the current park planners goals.
The entire east beach area is protected by legal covenants in the original EA of 1996, and sailors are considered original stake holders and shale have a say so in any changes to east beach.
This loss of rigging area though mostly only used when the park is at its maximum utility is a bad omen as the NPS has chosen to sneak this change in.
The current administration has lost it's knowledge base from the history of the park through retirements and transfers, and unfilled positions. Golden Gate National Recreation area which includes crissy field does not currently have a permanent park superintendent , they are rotating in someone every 3 month from another national park.
There is more, many may not know that the berm at the western end of the parking lot was specifically designed and built as a sailors lookout onto the water for safety, a few years ago it was roped off with a sign on top saying to stay off of it, this probably happened by the loss of the intent of its function by whomever coordinated the new cable post fencing for the protected native habitat areas.
The muddy lot just west of the bathrooms at east beach crissy field was designed as multi use grassy area as part of the western style parking plan. In 2013 the Americas cup event was held and there was unauthorized use of that area by limousines and shuttle buses that ruined the lawn. The Americas cup gave remediation money to the NPS, but it was not spent. It was a muddy mess. The park service shut the water off and all the grass died, then came the drought. So now in 2017 it is a dust bowl or mud swamp depending on weather.
All this has pushed the sailors and picnickers and others user groups into a smaller grassy area.
For the National Park service to not maintain east beach as originally designed and for the NPS to let area degrade, in my opinion, that they have changed the original design by not maintaining and restoring the lawns. This plays into that redesign last year as they referred to it as overflow parking and reaching it's useful life, instead of its original designation of multi use lawn and maintaining it as such, if you want the grass to die it will die.
Many Sailors are very concerned and other are very laissez-faire about this.
Besides Crissy Field the the SFBA is involved in protecting and enhancing access in the entire San Francisco bay area, from the Toll Plaza, Corta Madera estuary now in serious threat of losing access, east bay parks district Alameda Crown Beach, pt Emory, the race track, third ave, coyote point, etc.
The San Francisco Board Sailing Association needs your support.
http://www.sfba.org/join-us.html
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Riptide



Joined: 15 Jan 2011
Posts: 411

PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Larger donations can be sent to PayPal

Using: president@sfba.org
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poussin



Joined: 14 Sep 2000
Posts: 191

PostPosted: Mon May 01, 2017 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just sent in my $25.00.
All of us should jump on this.
It's in our best interests to have a say as to the developement of
our access and rigging area.

Cheers,

Greg
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usa4



Joined: 30 Mar 2009
Posts: 93

PostPosted: Mon May 01, 2017 4:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the reminder of what a great organization we have and its vital role in the continued use of making Crissy Field a safe a fun place to come to. I've renewed my membership as well!
sb
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