PARKS & DEMOCRACY
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| Tank Hill Natural Area Photo by Nature in the City |
Hearing on Charter Amendment for Rec & Park Commission
FRIDAY, June 18th
Board of Supervisors Rules Committee
City Hall, Room 263
10 am
People say San Francisco is one of the most democratic cities in the country. If one just considers the amount of City information available on the internet, then the description resonates. In the realm of the actual decision-making, commissions and committees, task forces and working groups, all create a voluminous number of public input opportunities into the decision-making process of our city's government. While it may not reach the level of a New England style (or Iroquois) town hall, San Francisco's system of government is famously inclusive, to the point of people complaining that things take too long to get done.
In fact the progressive trend of democratization of government is very important, not only so that more people have a say, but also, more importantly, so that decisions made are actually just and sustainable, having represented the most voices. This Friday, the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee will hear public testimony on a proposed amendment from District 5 Supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, that would share appointees to the Recreation and Park Commission between the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor, who currently appoints all commissioners. Supervisors elected by district are much more directly accountable (and more accessible) to the people than the mayor, and thus, having the Supervisors appoint a subset of the Recreation and Park Commission makes logical sense from the standpoint of democracy - assuming that more and better democracy is the goal. More...
Learn more about the Recreation and Park Commission Charter Amendment and why it is needed at www.takebackourparks.org!
Rec & Park Commission Meeting
THURSDAY, June 17th
City Hall, Room 416
4 pm
Please take note of item numbers 13, regarding Candlestick Point, and 16, the Grandview Trail Restoration plan, as well as those in between. The agenda is available online!
UCSF Mt. Sutro Community Meeting
June 30th
Faculty Alumni House, 745 Parnassus Avenue (at 5th)
6:30 pm
Attend the 2nd of three community workshops to express your voice on the implementation of an ecological restoration pilot project. The university hopes to achieve success to build support for natural resource management of Mt. Sutro. You can find the full agenda and presentation here.
SF Examiner: Residents Aim to Help Rare Type of Butterfly
Check out the SF Examiner article published June 13 about Nature in the City's Green Hairstreak Corridor! Please take note that our Founding Director's name is Peter BRASTOW, not Brawstow, and, according to lepidopterist Liam O'Brien, the species is endemic to the Franciscan bioregion (defined as the San Francisco airport to Muir Beach), NOT "widespread across the United Kingdom... " A nice piece highliting our wonderful project, nonetheless.
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| Tiger Swallowtail on Buckeye Photo by Ruth Gravanis |
San Francisco Butterfly Count Results Are In!
The 16th San Francisco Butterfly Count was held on June 7 and reported a record turnout of counters! Even though the day was foggy 775 individual butterflies of 24 species were recorded! Check out our website for the full results.
Access to information is exactly what we promote at Nature in the City. Working hard to tell people that the city has wonderful natural areas and rich biodiversity that they can enjoy and that they can help is part of making sure people - from all backgrounds - have the information they deserve. When we give testimony about nature in the city at public meetings at City Hall, we are providing a community service to the public, the substance of which is otherwise fairly lacking from within City government, though the City owns many acres of natural lands in San Francisco. Habitat restoration itself always strives to be as democratic as possible through engaging and empowering local communities and making choices transparently, based on decision-making that always involves agencies, environmental organizations and neighborhoods.