 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
Home February 2006 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
Greenbelt Newswire
In this edition
Volunteer of the Month: Najinja Chang After doing a long solo bike tour in Japan, Najinja Chang wanted to find out more about other bike tours. She also had a strong interest in environmental protection, and wanted to see how American non-profit organizations function. Volunteering to help with Go Greenbelt! made perfect sense. Since October, Najinja has been promoting Go Greenbelt! and lining
up sponsors for the week-long Bay Area bicycle tour. Thanks to her hard
work, riders will enjoy a broad selection of prizes to reward them for
raising funds to protect Bay Area open space. Najinja has also helped
coordinate publicity for the ride by contacting radio and television media
as well as local gyms and training clubs. That means more people will
hear about the ride, and get a chance to do it. Thanks, Najinja!
Alert: Signature Drive Kicks Off for Santa Clara County Land Conservation Initiative In Santa Clara County, a new initiative is headed for the November ballot. The Land Conservation Initiative would amend the Santa Clara County General Plan to better protect hillsides, farmlands and other valuable rural lands. The General Plan is the blueprint for the county's growth, especially in unincorporated areas, and right now, it needs to be strengthened to protect those areas from suburban sprawl. The Land Conservation Initiative would do that by reducing the development potential in rural areas. Today, it only takes three votes from County Supervisors to change the
General Plan and allow poorly planned development on rural lands. The
Land Conservation Initiative will lock in protection for rural areas,
requiring a vote of the people for changes in land protections. The measure
will help to direct new growth into existing communities, and will preserve
the long-term viability of farming and the overall quality of life in
Santa Clara County. For more information, click here. Volunteer as a signature gatherer! Contact chris@openspace2006.org. Write a letter to the editor of the San Jose Mercury News to support
the initiative! Email letters@mercurynews.com.
For recent media coverage, click here.
Action Alert: Create Livable Communities in Contra Costa County Ninety percent of Contra Costa County's residents cannot afford the average-priced home. To address this massive problem, the County Board of Supervisors is considering an inclusionary housing ordinance. This would require all housing developments to include more affordable homes. Providing housing options that match local needs is key to creating livable communities and protecting the greenbelt from development pressure. The problem is, the Board of Supervisors has been considering this policy for five years. With each day that passes, Contra Costa County is losing the opportunity to create livable communities. New developments continue to go up without helping to address the housing affordability crisis. Local workers are forced to look further away for homes, fueling sprawl and worsening traffic. It's time to act. Greenbelt Alliance is calling on Contra Costa County to adopt an effective inclusionary housing ordinance now. Contact the Board of Supervisors and urge them to adopt an effective inclusionary housing ordinance now. Click here for a list of supervisor's phone numbers. To volunteer or speak up at meetings, contact Kate O'Hara.
Action Alert: Sign Up to Make Calls for Greenbelt Protection Help protect threatened open space around the Bay Area! This spring, several important land use decisions will be coming up around the region and Greenbelt Alliance needs volunteers to reach out to local voters. You can help by spending an evening in San Francisco or Napa calling voters about issues that will affect the greenbelt. San Francisco phone banks will start on Tuesday and Wednesday, March
21st and 22nd. To sign up, contact Cheryl Scott by email
or by calling 415-543-6771.
Special Event: Member Outing with Birds and Blooms, April 2 Join us for our first members-only outing on April 2nd! (If you're not a member, you can join today or sign up on the outing.) We'll be exploring the East Bay's Briones Reservoir. This pristine watershed is not open to the public and requires a special permit to visit. We'll be accompanied by a birding expert who will help us identify the diverse waterfowl who visit the reservoir, and we'll enjoy plentiful wildflowers along the way. Take advantage of this opportunity to visit this hidden gem of the greenbelt and meet fellow Greenbelt Alliance members! Spaces are limited and reservations are required. To reserve a spot, call 415-255-3233.
Event: Register Now for Go Greenbelt!, the Bay Area Bike Tour, April 23-29 Greenbelt Alliance's 17th annual Bay Area bike tour will be April 23-29, 2006. Sign up today for the week-long, 480-mile ride. Get a whole new view of the Bay Area at the peak of wildflower season, while you raise funds and awareness to save local open space! Register today! Visit gogreenbelt.org.
Sat Mar 4: Solano Scramble Become a Member or Renew Your Membership Support our work to protect the Bay Area's open space and make our cities better places to live. Click here to join or renew, or click here to join our Greenbelt Guardian monthly donor club. Questions? Contact Melissa Wright at 415-543-6771 or mwright@greenbelt.org.
Thank you for reading! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Greenbelt Alliance Newswire email list or because a friend from the list forwarded the message on to you. For more information, please visit http://www.greenbelt.org. To unsubscribe, simply send an unsubscribe request to info@greenbelt.org. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
