They paved paradise.

[tim]

California is on the verge of closing 80% of its state parks. Can you imagine Año Nuevo as a bunch of mansions:

or imagine Mount Diablo as a private resort?


I don't live in California anymore, but if you do, read the full list of closures and write your state representatives now. What's more important, saving places that will never come back if we turn them into strip malls, or keeping rich people's tax bills low? What is the state going to do the next time they need more money -- sell the Golden Gate for scrap metal?

You owe it to the sea lions:


This could happen by July 1.

Thanks to armchairshrink @LJ, who says it much better than I, and who also notes:
"The good news is, the budget committee proposed adding a $15 fee to vehicle licensing fees to keep CA State Parks open. Additionally, the fee would waive all day-use fees for CA licensed cars, which basically means in 2-3 visits, the fee has paid for itself. The problem is, the fee proposal needs to pass with a 2/3rds majority in the state legislature and needs to be approved by Arnold."

Comments

What does it mean to close the parks?

[wkfauna.livejournal.com]

I've looked around a lot and can't find a straight answer. Does it mean that the bathrooms will be locked, the interpretive centers unmanned, and the beaches and forests unguarded, or does it mean that no one can enter the grounds? Have you found that out anywhere?

Re: What does it mean to close the parks?

[tim]

Well, technically Arnie wants to cut funding rather than close the parks, which means the park system won't be able to pay employees or do any maintenance. I was kind of extrapolating when I speculated about the land being sold, but that would be the logical conclusion.

Re: What does it mean to close the parks?

[wkfauna.livejournal.com]

Ah, so basically eg the state beaches will become just regular beaches, with no lifeguards or facilities? It won't mean that people can't go to that beach anymore?

Re: What does it mean to close the parks?

[wkfauna.livejournal.com]

PS: do you have a link to the actual official text of the proposal? I also couldn't find that anywhere.

Re: What does it mean to close the parks?

[tim]

I'm not sure whether they're even talking about consequences yet. You can probably imagine what happens to public land when there's no authority figures around whatsoever, though.

Re: What does it mean to close the parks?

[wkfauna.livejournal.com]

I dunno. There's a whole lot of beaches on highway 1 north of Santa Cruz that are not state parks but that are beautiful and mostly unspoiled.

Re: What does it mean to close the parks?

[tim]

Not sure there is one other than:
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/StateAgencyBudgets/3000/agency.html
which is hard to wade through.

This might help, though.

Re: What does it mean to close the parks?

[tim]

Well yeah, but it helps that the land around there tends to fall into the ocean occasionally :-) Not all state park land shares that property (not even beaches... just look at SoCal; people are definitely willing to screw around on the coast there).

[asrabkin]

This is a very misleading description of what was proposed. Nobody, as far as I know, is contemplating selling them. The proposal is basically to leave them unstaffed, unmaintained, and locked until state revenue increases.

This isn't actually obviously crazy. There's a defensible argument that state parks should be a lower priority than, say, schools or the highway patrol. Nobody is going to die or have their life ruined if the parks are closed for 18 months.

(I personally think the park cuts are stupid. I think this is Ahnold trying to punish the state for not voting the way he wanted.)

[tim]

leave them unstaffed, unmaintained, and locked until state revenue increases.

There are some termination-proving issues here.

[asrabkin]

In general, it's not possible to prove things about the future in politics.

But I think in practice there isn't significant danger of the CA state park system being closed longer than is necessary. There's going to be steady and intense public pressure to reopen them. It would be an obvious sign of success and renewed prosperity, and our next state governor would likely want to capitalize on that.

[tim]

Sure, like the public pressure I'm suggesting in this post that people should apply.