THIS IS IT: Last chance to protect Knowland Park!

By admin on November 9, 2014 in Campaign Updates, Featured on Homepage, Nature & Wildlife, Oakland Politics

Please come to Oakland City Council meeting

Tues 11/18 starting 5:30 pm

Oakland City Hall at 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza

Council Chambers, 3^rd Floor

Please RSVP here if you can attend: bit.ly/knowlandmeeting.

Beautiful & wild Knowland Park is home to native wildlife, including rare and threatened species, and it was deeded to the city of Oakland to remain a public park forever. The Oakland Zoo wants to take over the heart of it (77 acres of prime habitat on western ridge) for an exhibit of species that are now regionally extinct due to development! …plus restaurant, gift shop, offices and meeting rooms, and a gondola ride that will transport Zoo visitors uphill to the ridgetop development. This is not conservation. Once the chain-link perimeter fence goes up and the richest portion of Knowland Park is bulldozed, it’s gone forever―habitat significantly damaged, no free public access.

This could be it―giving Zoo management the go-ahead―unless we can convince the City Council to vote down this horrible plan and demand that the Zoo consider alternatives below the ridgeline. We can do this with your help.

Come to the City Council meeting on Tues 11/18 to stand up for your park.

Help us to tell the City Council they must not vote to give away our public parkland. The Zoo has room to build their project BELOW the ridge. We can still have a great Zoo and save Knowland Park.

Note: You can sign up for a 1-minute statement, or if you don’t want to speak, you can cede your time to other speakers.

FYI, the City Council will be voting whether to approve 52 acres for a “conservation easement.” While that sounds like a good thing, it’s actually a penalty being required as a condition of the Zoo’s project permit, only because Zoo management insists on building their big project on top of prime habitat for a threatened species, and refuses to consider the recommendation of the state Fish and Wildlife agency that they move the project.

Please join us in our final appeal to the City Council. We need every single supporter to stand with us. Thank you!