Davis Policies Halt Years of Neglect at State Parks

Cleats are back on the pier at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe. If you are a boater, this is no small matter.

If you are a user of any state park at all, in fact, it is one more sign that these facilities are being rejuvenated after years of neglect and deterioration.

Up here at the lake, the cleat restoration means a boating family is much more likely now to find room to tie up and savor one of California’s gems: an alluring bay carved by a glacier, sitting in a spectacular granite bowl beneath towering peaks and waterfalls.

The main man-made attraction is historic Vikingsholm Castle, probably the finest example of Scandinavian architecture in America. There’s also a nice beach and toilets, all run by the state. Until recently, the castle’s sod roof leaked badly, causing extensive wood rot and crumbling plaster. All that has been fixed and the toilets upgraded.

Visitors have two ways to get here: a steep, one-mile hike--or by water. There is a small-boat tie-up: a stationary pier with an adjacent floating dock.

I began carping in a column four years ago about the abysmal, dangerous boating setup, with its protruding nails, jagged metal, listing dock and cleatless pier. Gov. Gray Davis ordered repairs two years later, but parks bureaucrats purposely left cleats off the pier. Wanted to limit boat tie-ups to the small dock, they explained.

After more squawking last summer--why have a pier if it can’t handle a boat?--five cleats were screwed on. And two weeks ago, I tied up there at a landing that’s now sturdy and safe.

For years, the Emerald Bay pier was symbolic of a state park system in sorry disrepair because of cost-cutting. Now, it is evidence that these parks--267 units in all--are slowly making a comeback under Gov. Gray Davis, like him or not.

But Davis apparently is not getting much public credit for the parks’ resurgence or other environmental advances. A recent statewide poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that only 35% of people approved of the way the governor “is handling environmental issues.”

Still, they thought Davis--by a 12-point margin--would do a better job on the environment than Republican Bill Simon.

Based on Simon’s right-wing positioning during the primary--his constant preaching about “public-private partnerships”--you’d think his ideal park would be, say, Disneyland’s California Adventure, with a public access road.

Simon opposed Proposition 40, a $2.6-billion parks, anti-pollution and land purchase bond measure that voters approved by a mini-landslide in March. Now, attempting to reposition himself toward the center, the GOP gubernatorial nominee has promised, if elected, to sponsor a $1-billion bond issue aimed at developing and rehabilitating parks.

Davis endorsed Prop. 40 and campaigned hard in 2000 for Prop. 12, a $2.1-billion bond issue oriented toward urban parks. It was passed by a whopping 63% of the vote.

Rusty Areias, who resigned as state parks director this year to run for the state Senate, recalls that “Davis told me, ‘Fix the existing parks, but I want new parks where people live.’ ”

Read: “voters.”

“The governor believed L.A. is the most park-starved metropolitan area in the country, despite the beaches.”

So the state has purchased downtown land and dedicated $84 million for a new L.A. river parkway. Davis also slashed visitor fees by roughly half. That lured more low-income people to parks, increasing usage by an estimated 30%, to 90 million annual visits. So far, lawmakers trying to close a $23.6-billion budget gap have not been tempted to restore the old fees.

More important, soon after taking office Davis set aside $157 million in general fund money for deferred maintenance. That’s what got the Emerald Bay pier repaired, plus hundreds of other decrepit facilities: filthy restrooms, rusty drinking fountains, broken barbecues, eroded trails....

Around L.A., there have been scores of fix-ups: at Will Rogers, Leo Carrillo, Malibu Creek, Topanga, Bolsa Chica....

Here at Tahoe, rangers plan to install a new water plant at D.L. Bliss park, so campers no longer have to boil their own water. Rusty water lines are being replaced at Sugar Pine Point.

Throughout California, they’re making many park trails accessible to the disabled--removing barriers and smoothing grades. On the north coast, there’s an 11-mile accessible path through redwoods.

“The disabled used to have only flat little asphalt trails behind the visitors’ center,” notes Don Beers, the north coast trails supervisor.

Parks barely register a blip on the voters’ priority list. But they do make life more enjoyable for millions of Californians who do not happen to have their own parks in the backyard, a beachfront condo or a private deck over a lake.