In response to threats of large-scale developments on Albany and Berkeley shorelines, local environmentalists banded together in 1985 to form the Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) to fight for a shoreline park.

The culmination of CESP's vision came on December 6, 2002, when the State Park's Commission unanimously approved the Eastshore State Park. The 8.5-mile-long Park contains 2,000 acres of uplands and tidelands along the waterfront of Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Albany and Richmond.

CESP continues to work to preserve the natural resources and facilitate the recreational and educational opportunities of the east shore of San Francisco Bay, creating a necklace of shoreline parks from Oakland to the Carquinez Strait.

Volunteers Clean-up Albany Shoreline
on Earth Day

575 pounds of garbage and 53 pounds of recyclable materials!

Volunteers came out on a perfect Bay Area sunny day to show their Albany shoreline some love by cleaning it up to celebrate Earth Day!

Families, groups and children joined in the scavenger hunt for stuff and brought it proudly back to be weighed. We collected 575 pounds of garbage and 53 pounds of recyclable materials.

We also had eight creek clean-up sites in Richmond and San Pablo where about 300 volunteers joined in and collected 4800 pounds of garbage and 200 pounds of recyclables.

We thank all who made our clean-up a success!

Sponsored by:

CESP, the Watershed Project, City of Albany, the Sierra Club and the UVa Club of San Francisco

Coffee and juice donations provided by:

Peet's El Cerrito, Starbucks El Cerrito Plaza, Starbucks San Pablo Avenue and Trader Joe's El Cerrito


Albany Visioning Chooses Open Space

The Albany community has come together for open space and recreation for the Albany Waterfront, envisioning only nominal "green" development for its shoreline.

On April 19, 2010, the Albany City Council unanimously voted to accept the Voices to Vision Report and to treat it as a living planning document that reflects Albany residents' waterfront vision. Mayor Joanne Wile joined the Council in praising the public participants and Fern Tiger & Associates for their hard work and dedication to producing an open, inclusive, comprehensive process and result.

Albany began this intensive two-year process to develop a community vision for the waterfront at the urging of environmentalists, including Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP), the Sierra Club, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS) and other community leaders.

See the Full Story >>

April 19 - Visioning Presentation


Richmond General Plan

The Richmond City Council is finally looking more closely at the Draft General Plan and starting to make decisions about zoning changes. We have seen one small victory- the new General Plan specifies mostly park and recreation land uses for the derelict Terminal 4 at Point San Pablo, which will open the way for this former industrial site to be a public park.

TAKE ACTION TO: Make sure the Richmond City Council adopts a plan that leaves a legacy of open space and not warehouses on the North Richmond Shoreline.


Citizens for East Shore Parks endorses 2010 PARKS INITIATIVE

State Parks Petition Passes the First Hurdle

Patricia Jones, CESP Executive Director and volunteers at State Parks Advocacy Day in State Capitol steps, March 8, 2010

Hurray! The State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010, an initiative to restore funding to state parks, has qualified for the November ballot. Thanks to Citizens for East Shore Parks volunteers, who contributed their time and energy to help gather signatures, about 763,000 signatures were submitted, exceeding the minimum of 433,931 required by California State law. Election officials verified all those signatures and on June 10th approved the initiative for the statewide ballot.

We may have overcome this hurdle, but we have a long battle ahead of us. California residents will now get a chance to vote on the measure in the upcoming election. We will need your help to ensure that the public approves the initiative. Please help us spread the word to Save Our State Parks!

If approved by a simple majority of voters, the measure would raise roughly $500 million a year, a significant increase from the current annual budget of $380 million. The ballot proposal would give 85 percent of fee revenue to CA State Parks.

For More Info: State Parks Initiative


OAKLAND SHORELINE:

Stay tuned to this project which will celebrate a memorable gateway to Oakland, a new park, and an access point for pedestrians and cyclist crossing the new Bay Bridge East Span.

For more information: www.BayBridgeGatewayPark.org

In the News: Big ideas sought for Oakland Bay Bridge park


Grand Plans for Gateway Park: Landmark Park at Eastern foot of Bay Bridge


SOUTH BAY: Environmentalists Fight Redwood City Project

Environmental leaders are gearing up for a protracted fight over plans to build a 30,000-resident development at the Redwood City salt flats.

More than 90 current and former elected Bay Area officials last week demanded that Redwood City immediately halt the Saltworks project, which would bring up to 12,000 housing units, offices and retail to the shoreline.

"We all have a stake in what happens in Redwood City," said Contra Costa County supervisor John Gioia. "It's about habitat, biological diversity. The bay defines our quality of life and who we are."
 See the Full Story >>


All About Parks


- Courtesy of The Trust for Public Land