This Earth Day I took to one of my favorite places in the East Bay.  It’s a place burdened with the anticipation of grandeur.  Instead, it’s a quiet peninsula on Richmond’s long Bay coastline.  This peninsula has celebrated many lives, being reborn almost every 20-30 years.  Point Molate has borne names synonymous with great wine, native cultures, Chinese fishing, Naval power, and most recently poorly conceived casino proposals.  Now it carries a new moniker – Hope.

One biological description comes to mind for this forsaken peninsula: The Headlands of the East Bay.  There’s no place quite like it with its rich coastal prairies, Christmas berry savannas and sandy shorelines stones throw from thriving eelgrass beds.  It rivals Marin.  It’s botanically richer than all the other shoreline parks from Richmond to Emeryville, combined.  Even with these unparalleled resources it took the might of dedicated community to save this area from Golaith’s proposal to create an amusement park of a casino meant to attract affluent gamblers, promising urban revival and community renewal with… what, say it again, a new vice.  Richmond doesn’t need a new vice to fuel it’s economy – it needs a sustainable, well-planned economic resource that treasures the natural setting of this site – the citizens clearly promulgated that message.

On Earth Day, as many as 75 volunteers came out to celebrate and clean up the beach.  I took this opportunity to snap a few photos of some our local heroes who put their muscle where their aspirations are.  Thank you Richmond for creating Hope.

References:

Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate – THE group making a difference

Bay Nature article on a casino proposal that looked to rob Richmond of its undeveloped jewel

East Bay CNPS and the Fight for Point Molate articles