KCET Guest Blog Vehicle Fee? Keep State Parks Open for All!

Mainstream environmentalists are working on a November 2010 ballot measure that would require a $15 fee per vehicle to generate $400 million dedicated to state parks. That could work. But we should not trust the department with that kind of money, unless it first has a strategic plan to improve parks and recreation for all.

The working poor with limited or no access to state parks need to get their fair share of the benefits of a regressive tax to fund state parks – for example, through park funds earmarked for park poor and income poor communities; local green jobs in parks to keep students in school and out of the regular job market while learning life-long lessons in stewardship of the earth and its people; and Transit to Trails to reach state parks.

In the 1920s, California became the first state in the nation to have a strategic plan for state parks, a plan drafted by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. It is time once again to develop a vision and for state parks that will maximize public access to and support for the parks while ensuring the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes.

Read the rest of this blog post by Robert Garcia on KCET’s SoCal Parks . . .

Sinkyone State Park in the Lost Coast Wilderness