By Pam Stello and David Helvarg
The Sierra Club joins the Point Molate Alliance and many Richmond residents in thanking Governor Gavin Newsom for signing a state budget that includes $36 million for the East Bay Regional Park District to achieve a community park at Point Molate. This is in line with the state’s commitment to “30 by 30”: protecting 30 percent of the state’s lands and waters by 2030, as well as its pledge to environmental and climate justice and focus on helping under-parked communities such as Richmond achieve equity.
Among those who helped champion the funding for what could become Richmond and the East Bay’s crown jewel of public parks are our highly accomplished State Senator Nancy Skinner, East Bay Regional Park District Director for Richmond Elizabeth Echols, County Supervisor and BCDC Commissioner John Gioia, and Governor Gavin Newsom.
For more than 25 years the Park District’s Master Plan, as well as the Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s San Francisco Bay Plan, have called for a regional park at Point Molate. For 20 years, the Sierra Club, the Point Molate Alliance, and many allies have fought to protect the more than 400 acres of natural headland, woods, wildlife, native grasses and offshore eelgrass meadows at Point Molate.
In 2008, 75 percent of Richmond voters (along with 71 percent of all East Bay voters) approved Measure WW which included funding for a shoreline park at Point Molate.
This new state funding brings closer the day when the residents of Richmond will realize their long-held vision for a world-class park on the Point Molate headland. The value of parks for people is reflected in the small public beach park that makes up only about 5 percent of Point Molate, yet became a scene of refuge and renewal for hundreds of families from throughout the community during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Along with more than 700 species of insects, plants and animals — making it a “biological hotspot” on SF Bay where one can encounter ospreys and eagles, leopard sharks and river otters, sea hares and mule deer — Point Molate includes several sacred sites of the Ohlone people, a historic Chinese fish camp, the world’s largest pre-prohibition winery and wine castle, and a World War II Navy fuel facility that played a key role in powering America’s “arsenal of democracy.”
There are still many steps to go before the vision of a regional park including recreational, cultural and outdoor educational opportunities exists at Point Molate. But today is a historic step forward thanks to those who made the State of California’s bold commitment possible.