June 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 53

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Park Task Force members. " They are so
proud that part of their effort resulted in
getting this park...They were real proud that
they were able to convince the city and all
of the rest to invest in this part of the river....
This isn't just a run-of-the-mill waterfront
that's a nice place to bicycle; it also has this
component that is unique and very forward
thinking. "

Sylvia McLaughlin, Berkeley
At the dedication ceremony for Berkeley
Meadow in April, the East Bay Regional Park
District recognized 94-year-old Sylvia
McLaughlin for her decades of work on behalf of San Francisco Bay and Eastshore
State Park and it also posthumously honored
her fellow advocate Dwight Steele.

" These two, Dwight and Sylvia,
were an unstoppable team, leading
a ragtag group of organizations and
iconoclastic individualists to strike at
the heart of corporations who would
destroy and despoil the bay shore,
strike fear in the hearts of those who
would bring the wrecking ball to the
habitats of our fellow creatures, who
would deprive the public of access
to our waters, " Citizens for East
Shore Parks President Robert Cheasty said at the dedication.
McLaughlin is the only surviving
co-founder of Save the Bay, a regional organization dedicated to protecting
and restoring San Francisco Bay. Save The
Bay was founded in 1961, as the " Save San
Francisco Bay Association, " by three East
Bay women-McLaughlin, Kay Kerr, and Esther Gulick. The dumping of garbage and
filling in of the shallow waters of the bay off
the city of Berkeley at sites like Berkeley
Meadow was in fact what originally motivated the women to take action.
" We could see them putting garbage in
every day, " McLaughlin says. She was motivated " because of the beauty of the area,
and that was the same thing that motivated
my colleague Kay Kerr. "
Their efforts led to the establishment of
the Bay Conservation and Development
Commission (BCDC) in 1965. One of the first

" The technology of constructing gabions, while it's fairly simple, requires a learning curve, " Hinkle says. After some early
struggles, experts from Florida with previous experience were
brought in to direct the way the gabions were packed and placed.
At a cost of about $8,000 per linear foot installed, the gabions may
seem expensive but Hinkle says that traditional sea walls in New
York can typically cost more than $10,000 per linear foot, depending on the depth at the site and
whether any parts of the previous wall can be
reused. Construction of this phase ($7.5 million)
was funded through a federal Transportation Enhancement grant and a New York State Department of Transportation grant, with the remainder
funded by New York City. The recently completed Phase Three was constructed by the New
York Economic Development Commission with
input from the Designing the Edge project.
In fact, Harlem River Park now has six different

coastal zone management agencies in the
world, the BCDC plans protection of the bay,
regulates shoreline development, and ensures public access. Since its establishment,
most filling in of the bay has been prohibited and public access has increased from
four miles of shoreline in 1969 to more than
200 miles today.
As early as 1972, McLaughlin began advocating for using the largely undeveloped
east shoreline of the bay as a park. The former landfill at Berkeley Meadow that she
fought to close is now the largest component of Eastshore State Park. She helped
found Citizens for East Shore Parks in 1985
to oppose commercial development of the
shoreline and champion creation of a single
shoreline park on the remaining open space
along the East Bay shore from the Oakland
Bay Bridge north to Albany and into Richmond. She was also a member of the NRPA
Board of Trustees from 1974 to 1976.
" We were all working together, " McLaughlin says of her work on behalf of parks. " It
was a natural thing where we were all interested in preserving the views and shoreline
so that people could enjoy it more. "
" My colleagues and I would look out on
this area and see the shoreline and water...
gone, " McLaughlin continues. " So many
people are enjoying it now out on the trails.
It's very gratifying. "
-Elizabeth Beard

Crumbling and
biologically
sterile steel sheet
wall has been
replaced with
terraced porous
gabion wall.

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