Should Urban Parks be Cash Registers?

  • Posted on 31 August 2006
  • By Joe Young

Threats to openness, tranquility,and green spaces take many forms. Locally, LA's urban parks are increasingly under pressure to generate revenue to pay for municipal functions, but at a heavy cost: The loss of the very openness that makes urban parks so valuable.

Nobody likes to pay taxes. Yet municipal governments need money. From parking violations fees to sewer fees, governments seek funds for general purposes. Urban parks have not been immune.

There are many ways to squeeze funds out of urban parks. Some are entry fees, parking fees, and feebased services.

Emerging Green Media Amplifies the Environmental Choir

  • Posted on 31 August 2006
  • By Nate Springer

The chorus of environmental voices just got louder. Television channels, print and online magazines, and hundreds of web-logs mark the emergence of a new green media. Bearing names like 'Grist', 'Plenty', and 'TreeHugger', they are savvy and hip, and their voices project beyond the choir of green groupies to resonate among a growing audience.

Roadrunners Attack West Coyote Hills

  • Posted on 31 May 2006
  • By Dean Wallraff

Angeles Chapter Conservation Chair

On Feb. 25 about 50 members attended the Angeles Chapter's first-ever all-day conservation retreat at the Community Center in El Monte. The program, 'Tricks of the Trade: A Toolbox for Conservation Activists,' was developed by long-time conservation activists Marcia Hanscom and Lynne Plambeck.

Railroad Riders Revisit Historic Roadside Restaraunt

  • Posted on 30 April 2006
  • By Wynne Benti

Baker, Calif., with its fast food restaurants and Route 66-style motels is the last semblance of 'civilization' when you exit I-15 into Mojave National Preserve. Narrow, two-lane Kelbaker Road winds its way south through vast desert lands, where rugged mountain ranges float atop dry lake beds, monstrous bajadas, or giant alluvial fans, touching blue sky on the distant horizon.

Thirty miles down the road, where the bajadas meet, a lone Spanish-style building appears along railroad tracks, very out of place in this mix of cholla and Joshua trees.

Bay Cleanup or Boondoggle?

  • Posted on 30 April 2006
  • By Rex Frankel

Sprawl-Ridden L.A. Cleans Up Its Act - or At Least Acts Like It's Cleaning Up

Undoing poor planning and fixing urban environmental problems is going to cost local taxpayers billions of dollars. Or it could pay for itself.

Cows, Federal Agencies Dump on Public Lands

  • Posted on 30 April 2006
  • By Danila Oder

Get the Scoop on Freeloading Cattle Ranchers in Book on Welfare Ranching

Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West. Ed. George Weurthner and Molli Matteson. Island Press, 2002.

Bob Wheatley, 1916-2006

  • Posted on 30 April 2006
  • By The Editor

Bob Wheatley passed away Feb. 6. He was 89 years old.

Wheatley was very active in the Sierra Club, serving as chair of the Rio Hondo Section for several years and helping to found the Lower Peaks Committee. He received Chapter Awards in 1981 and 1988 for Outings Service and in 1992 for Special Service.

Documentary on L.A. Air Pollution Will Leave You Breathless

  • Posted on 30 April 2006
  • By Tom Politeo

On April 1, businessman and community activist Ken Melendez stood behind the microphone at a meeting room packed mostly with Wilmington residents.

It was a beautiful rain-swept morning and Melendez said he would get emotional. He kept his word.

New Task Force to Take on Griffith Park Planners

  • Posted on 30 April 2006
  • By Delphine Trowbridge

Nineteen Chapter members met March 20 to create a task force that will go beyond opposition to the Griffith Park draft master plan and instead develop a Sierra Club vision for the park. Dean Wallraff, Conservation Committee Chair, conducted the meeting. The group adopted the following mission statement:

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