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Newsletter
Fall 2004
Save The Baldwin Hills Conservancy
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review
(CPR) has proposed eliminating the Baldwin Hills Conservancy in
the historic African American heart of Los Angeles to save $262,000
per year. The CPR recommends abolishing the Baldwin Hills Conservancy
by terminating state funding and removing state-level majority
participation on the governing board of the Conservancy. The Conservancy
is implementing the Master Plan for the Baldwin Hills Park, a two-square
mile area that will be the nation's biggest natural urban park
in over 100 years. The Park will provide the diverse and park-poor
region with green space for recreation, conservation, education,
and economic benefits.
At the same time the CPR recommends abolishing the Baldwin Hills
Conservancy, the Governor has signed legislation to create a new
conservancy for the Sierra Nevada that could cost the state as
much as $10 million per year. The Governor's own press release
says the new Conservancy will promote resource conservation and
economic benefits in the counties within the Sierra Nevada region.
California Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman says people
living within the borders of the new Conservancy will be able to
protect the environment in which they live while influencing the
prosperity of their communities. State officials cannot justifiably
provide these benefits to some communities, while taking them away
from the diverse Baldwin Hills communities. All communities are
entitled to a fair share of the benefits of conservancies and natural
lands. The solution is not to pit one conservancy against another,
but to distribute the benefits fairly for all. "I think people
sometimes think they can do things like this, believing that this
community won't have people to speak up for them, but they're wrong," Executive
Director Robert García told the Los Angeles Times on October 22,
2004. "This is a human rights issue and fundamentally an issue
of equal justice." The City Project has submitted public comments
to the CPR on behalf of a diverse alliance of social justice organizations,
conservationists, and other community groups to preserve the Baldwin
Hills for all the people of California.
The City Project's work has also been highlighted in front page articles
in the Los Angeles Sentinel and the Los Angeles Wave. The City Project's
Assistant Director Erica S. Flores has appeared on National Public
Radio, and was featured on the November 14 edition of Channel 5
KTLA's Pacesetter program.
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