Photo: Cheryl Reynolds
This majestic golden eagle from Native Bird Connections was our neighbor yesterday at the Wild Birds Unlimited Open House. Two eagles can definitely out-draw some chatty women with beaver pictures, but it was lovely to be in the shadow of their greatness. The day started out with a stranger walking up in a worth a dam t-shirt, which is always great fun. Then a fantastic chat with MDAS about finding help for their web page which included many lovely compliments about ours. (Thanks Michael, wherever you are!) I then learned that the MDAS member had attended a meeting recently in Oakland where one of the others was wearing a t-shirt advertising an actual dam with the slogan “Worth A Dam” on the front. (!!!) A good idea is always stolen.
We met a charming young woman who had attended the November meeting at the High School. I’m always fascinated when I meet people who were there, who cared passionately, but who didn’t speak up because others seemed to have the issues covered. All day we were able to have a nice discussion with the herb society about beavers being a keystone species, and chat with a very interesting woman who works for the city of Berkeley and knew Janet Kennedy from way back in her “salad days”. She was very disappointed to learn that she was not pro-beaver, and gave us suggestions about winning her support.
Later in the day came an intriguing conversation with an serious-looking man who stopped to talk about beaver management, and then about “city management”. It turned out he was very instrumental in the fight to block the Tony La Russo project at Hidden Lakes Park, remember that? No one objected to ARF, just the location of carving out their very limited recreation space. He talked being notified about the issue at the last minute (No!) and and a city that made a poorly thought-out plan with no regard to its residents.(No!) and dealing with several sneaky Brown Act Violations (NO!).
The meeting was right before thanksgiving, and he had printed flyers from his office and called all his friends and neighbors to attend. Gary Bogue was involved, and here’s the part of the story I just love. Apparently Gary knew a young woman who had been birding Hidden Lakes for the past 6 years, and had taken meticulous notes on what she’d seen where. Turns out there were more variety of birds in Hidden Lakes than in all of Briones, including one very rare bird right at the location of the intended ARF building. Game. Set. Match.
They eventually won their case, and got the project stopped. He commented wisely that one of the best parts for him was letting the children see that civic response could be important and powerful, and that every voice could participate. It reminded me of a certain November 7th, nearly two years ago, when uptown, downtown and out of town got together for a dynamic civics lesson.
One of the things we talked about was the “Great Highway Four Divide”. I told him how much power and influence I thought south of 4 had, and he smiled with surprise, saying “Wow, we always feel ignored.” I thought that was funny, and important. I definitely think its the reason we were successful at that November meeting, because both sides of four were there with a powerful voice. It made me think that finding common ground between these places would be powerful and hugely healing for the city. The truth is both areas feel their needs are ignored in critical ways, and share an inherent mistrust of the other. It is probably no accident that our working against each other allows the council more freedom to push their own agenda forward.
Divide and conquer.
