BERKELEY — The sloped, meadowlike landscape overlooking the shimmering blue bay waters at Brickyard Cove is so scenic that it almost seems artificial — and that’s because it technically is.
A century ago, all that was there was shallow, marshy seawater. Then came years of industrial work near the shore that turned the cove into a dumping ground of dirt, trash and all kinds of waste.
But a decades-long fight to conserve the Bay has transformed the Brickyard Cove into what it is today: a verdant hillside that’s tall enough to command a view of the San Francisco Bay’s coast and skyline.
In a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday, the East Bay Regional Park District recognized the new shoreline access point as a monumental achievement for local environmentalists.
“This park is an outstanding achievement for open-space protection,” said Elizabeth Echols of the park district.
Under blue skies on Saturday, cyclists glided past the grassy knoll from which birdwatchers could also spot glimpses of the Albany and Emeryville coastlines, along with a full view of the Bay Bridge. The parkland now plays host to brand-new picnic tables, interpretive signs and water fountains. A sign at the parking lot below makes clear the new rules of the land: “No Dumping.”
The cove is officially part of the McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, which stretches 8.5 miles from the Bay Bridge to Richmond along the coast. It is named for Sylvia McLaughlin, a Berkeley resident and co-founder of Save the Bay who fought to protect the open space against development.
For a good part of the 20th century, much of the parkland was privately owned by the Santa Fe Railroad, which juggled visions of developing luxury hotels or shopping centers on top of it.
But McLaughlin, with the help of other conservationists and local elected officials in Berkeley, pushed back against further infill dumping in the Bay’s waters.
Her efforts weren’t necessarily rooted in environmentalism — which was still in its nascent stages as a legitimate form of activism in the U.S. — but rather out of an instinctive desire to preserve the beauty of the coast.
“Sylvia would be very proud,” said David Lewis, the current executive director of Save the Bay. “And she also wouldn’t be satisfied. She would say, ‘Yeah, this is great, we need more of this,’ especially in places that still don’t have enough shoreline access.”
As a candidate in the 1980s for Berkeley City Council, now-State Sen. Nancy Skinner had run on a platform that was based “almost entirely… to take back our waterfront and make sure it’s publicly accessible and preserved forever.”
The cove, a rare shoreline access point along the East Bay, is also a unique front of natural preservation in a predominantly urban area.
Santa Fe Railroad’s ideas for development — which included, at one point, building a new airport on the land — had been enticing for their promise of jobs and tax revenue.
For the land to end up looking how it does today is an instructive victory for environmental awareness, said Mayor Jesse Arreguin at Saturday’s ceremony.
“Berkeley’s East Shore Park is really the jewel of Berkeley,” Arreguin said, adding later that “creating spaces like this is vital to getting people the opportunity to experience nature firsthand and to gain a better understanding and respect for the natural world.”
Lewis, who grew up in Palo Alto, recalled passing by Brickyard Cove on bicycle trips with his children down the San Francisco Bay Trail, which connects to the cove.
It was still a collection of dirt hills back then, and only in the mid-2010s did regional park officials begin growing vegetation there. Now, the land resembles a golf course green.
“This isn’t a natural hill, but it’s great to repurpose this as a place where people can get some elevation and see what’s around them,” Lewis said. “It really gives people a sense of place when you can get a slightly higher spot, and see where you are relative to where you came from.”
As he spoke, a butterfly coasted past — perhaps the first sign that the former dump could play a new role in the rich history of the East Bay.
Source: www.mercurynews.com