Events, News & Blog
Newest Sonoma County regional park to welcome visitors next year
Author MARY CALLAHAN
Pieced together through $23 million in taxpayer-funded acquisitions over more than a decade, the Mark West Regional Park and Open Space Preserve will open for once-a-month “park preview days” while the county conducts a multi-year environmental review and master planning for permanent operations.
The property is now officially public parkland after its transfer from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District last month, making it the third-largest property in the regional park system next to Tolay Lake and Hood Mountain.
“This is going to be one of the jewels of the system, for sure,” said Bill Keene, general manager of the Open Space District.
Purchased in six different chunks from three families, the new park puts hundreds of acres of wilderness within minutes of urban communities while preserving critical watersheds and wildlife habitat, officials said.
Sonoma County’s Regional Parks have an extensive winter program.
San Francisco gets $15 million federal grant to start sprucing up Market Street
Author J.K. Dineen
The long-anticipated overhaul of San Francisco’s Market Street has received a push forward in the form of a $15 million grant from the federal government.
On Tuesday, the Department of Transportation announced the city would receive $15 million for the first phase of Better Market Street, a $604 million project that will bring pedestrian, bicycle and public transportation improvements to 2.2 miles of Market Street between Octavia Boulevard and the Embarcadero.
Phase one of the project will cost $71.5 million and will focus on the stretch of Market Street between Sixth and Eighth streets. Improvements in this phase will include roadway resurfacing, streetcar track replacement, new and upgraded traffic signals, and a new F-line streetcar turnaround loop at McAllister and Seventh streets.
Breaking: Protected Bike Lanes on Valencia Approved
By Kristen Leckie on December 4, 2018
Safety can’t wait on Valencia Street.
That was the message we made clear at the SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Board meeting this afternoon, backed by 40 speakers and following nearly 500 submitted letters of support. Our urgent calls for change made a difference, as the SFMTA Board unanimously approved protected bike lanes on Valencia between Market and 15th streets.
Powerful testimony was shared over nearly two hours of public comment on this item. Our community organizer, Andy Gonzalez Cabrera, shared a story from streetside outreach where they connected with a man who bikes here every day but was injured after being doored. Speaking in only Spanish, he told Andy how he struggled to communicate with the driver because of language differences. When others stopped to see if he needed to go to the hospital, he refused because he didn’t have health insurance and didn’t want the police to show up.
A wide range of people spoke, including a sixth-grader from Friends School, parents who bike with their children on Valencia, and many people who have been hit by drivers while biking along this corridor.
At the end of the day, these are the people who are impacted when the City delays action for street safety, and that’s why we mobilized and showed up in numbers to make this protected bike lane a reality.