Monday, January 14, 2008

Coe Legs


Camphone 11, originally uploaded by Sabine Dukes.

Ouch.

They still hurt.

But man, was that worth it. Nine of us headed out to Coe on Saturday. It was an incredible Juneuary day. Birds a twitterin and streams a flowin.

And hills a rising. Lordy there are some hills to climb in that park. Ann mentioned that Serpentine trail would be a tough climb and we might have to walk a little.

A little?

I'm quite sure I push walked more than I rode. I even had time to stop and take a picture with the phone.

But it was so very much worth it to get to the top and see nothing. Well, not really nothing, but nothing man made, save for the observatory on top of Hamilton.

At 90,000 acres, Coe is the largest state park in No California. Because it is so large a park, it can maintain its wild habitat, with very little influence from encroaching populations. I imagine it is what California used to be, back when the Ohlones migrated seasonally to harvest the rich wildflowers.

How precious to have preserved such a chunk.

Unfortunately, it is on the list of parks to get the axe under Schwarzenegger's budget proposal.

48 State Parks to be CLOSED.

CLOSED.

In the history of our state park system, no Governor has ever closed a state park to meet a budget. What an utterly dreadful legacy we would leave to actually CLOSE a state park.

The cut would "save" $13.3 million from the state budget, as part of an effort to fill a $16 billion gap. That is less than 1% of the shortfall.

Just seems a stupid way to save some chump change.

Many its just an act on the Governor's part, or maybe the State Parks is just gesturing, or maybe it would really happen.

Sure, we'd probably still get to ride in these parks, but thats not really the point, is it?

More info on the proposed closures here. And a sign it and send it thingie is here.

12 Comments:

At 8:44 PM, January 14, 2008, Blogger jen said...

Signed and sent.

Thanks, I didn't know about this. The local weekly is lagging, which is a tad unusual.

 
At 9:46 PM, January 14, 2008, Blogger Margin Walker said...

OK, signed and sent for me too, or will be just as soon as I get done editing the form letter to read somethin' like
"Closing parks to save money is about the stupidest idea I have ever heard. What the hell are we paying you people for?"
you know, I think it reads a little better slimmed down a little. And no offense to jen, but anybody who didn't know about this already should really be checking the donut king blog more often.

 
At 7:43 AM, January 15, 2008, Blogger beth bikes! said...

what a dumbface. and 10% cuts to public education?! that is crazy huge.

however, i am all about early release of inmates. make it 220,000 for all i care.

 
At 8:36 AM, January 15, 2008, Blogger Ippoc Amic said...

I didn't know about that park...there were so many listed...gonna sign now...

 
At 9:05 AM, January 15, 2008, Blogger tash said...

You can also send a letter to the gov: http://gov.ca.gov/interact

It's super easy and worthwhile - we need to have our State Parks open!

 
At 9:09 AM, January 15, 2008, Blogger jen said...

oopsy.

guess i'm not part of the in club. i'll try to catch up.

;-)

 
At 11:32 AM, January 15, 2008, Blogger Itinerant Rick said...

If the numbers you cite are correct (did not get out the old calculator), 13.3M out of 16B is less that 0.1%. If true, a useless exercise in light of what would be needed to balance the budget. Wordcrafting my own version of the message to send, then it will be on its way.

 
At 5:38 PM, January 15, 2008, Blogger ~ lauren said...

yes, what a dumbface.

i can't even comment about it. but i signed and sent.

the education thing too has me hoppin' mad.

what a mess. what a mess.

 
At 5:56 PM, January 15, 2008, Blogger Velo Bella said...

I agree about the education thingie too.

Our state has its priorities all goofball. More on prisons and less on education just means even more on prisons later.

And closing parks does wonders for our tourist economy.

Short sighted silliness.

But we voters are to blame too. We want it all, but don't want to be taxed for it.

Everyone cheered hurray when Ahnold did away with some kinda fee on DMV registrations. That little change is $6 billion of our $16 billion deficit.

 
At 11:42 AM, January 16, 2008, Blogger place_holder said...

yeah, why not increase the dmv registration fee back to what it used to be, but also make it insanely high for pimp cars. triple the traffic violation fine as well.

there's what... 38 million human in this state? we can keep those parks with a price tag of $13.3mil open, can't we?

you guys decide... i'm an alien.

 
At 10:40 PM, January 16, 2008, Blogger EB said...

That is incredibly sad. I hope it's just a scare tactic.

 
At 8:24 AM, January 17, 2008, Blogger Brian Peterson said...

VB wrote: "And closing parks does wonders for our tourist economy."

Oh the irony of the governor doing those TV ads last year about visiting the state of California and showing all wonderful things to do out doors in our state.

Thanks for the link to the parks site, I had not seen that yet.

 

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