Author: David Lewis

Opinion: Don’t Let Trump, Cargill Pave San Francisco Bay

The following Opinion piece was published on June 5, 2019, in the San Jose Mercury News. Since our great awakening in the 1960s, the Bay Area has become a proud leader in protecting our local environment, from the redwoods and ridgelines to San Francisco Bay. We stopped shrinking the Bay with landfill and garbage dumps, cracked down on polluters and treated our sewage. We started restoring old salt ponds to lush tidal marshes for wildlife and flood protection, creating hundreds of miles of Bay Trail and shoreline parks. But some wealthy developers don’t care, despite decades of being told, “no, we won’t …

Oakland should play by the rules on a new stadium

Read this OpEd from our Executive Director, David Lewis originally published on March 27, 2019 in The San Francisco Examiner. If the A’s take shortcuts that endanger public interests and the environment, they will lose support. Fielding a winning baseball team is hard, but all teams have to play by the same rules. Building on the Bay shoreline is also hard, because we’ve wisely created rules to protect what we treasure for the public’s benefit. Those rules preserve natural areas for wildlife, beaches and trails for recreation, ports and airports for commerce. When someone tries to avoid or bend those …

BREAKING NEWS: Trump’s EPA eliminates Clean Water Act protection for Cargill’s Redwood City’s Salt Ponds

Cargill and DMB announce new effort to build in the Bay. As we warned in December, Cargill and developer partner DMB have colluded with the Trump Administration to advance its anti-environment agenda. EPA Administrator Wheeler has issued a jurisdictional determination that the federal Clean Water Act no longer protects Cargill’s salt ponds in Redwood City. The EPA’s decision is contrary to the law and the facts – EPA’s detailed 2016 review of the salt ponds concluded 1,270 acres of the ponds are in fact “waters of the United States” and deserve the Clean Water Act’s legal protection against filling. U.S. …

“Cease and Desist,” Caltrans ordered to stop trashing the Bay

On February 13, after a seven-hour hearing, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board voted unanimously for an unprecedented Cease and Desist Order against Caltrans. Now the state’s transportation agency must speed up trash removal from freeways and state roads and stop it from polluting creeks and the Bay, or face $25,000-a-day fines. This extraordinary victory capped off a two year plus advocacy campaign Save The Bay waged, backed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 75 Bay Area elected officials, partner organizations, and thousands of supporters and action-takers. Follow along the timeline to victory below. Save …

Trump Threatens to Take Funding From Flood & Restoration Projects

President Trump is threatening to rob $2.5 billion from California flood and habitat restoration programs to build his border wall, including shoreline projects right here in the Bay Area. This direct attack on San Francisco Bay would put our shoreline communities and wildlife habitats at risk. We can’t let that happen. There’s a lot at stake and as I told the San Francisco Chronicle, this is unacceptable. Please take action NOW to stop President Trump and protect people and wildlife in the Bay. Call Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. (suggested comments below) Washington D.C. Office: (202) 225-4965 San Francisco …

Cargill Salt and Trump Administration Try to Gut Clean Water Act Protection for San Francisco Bay

We have just learned that the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to give away its power to protect clean water and wetlands in San Francisco Bay and make it easier for Cargill Salt Co. to pave Redwood City salt ponds for luxury homes. President Trump’s Acting EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, is preparing to declare that Redwood City salt ponds are not “Waters of the U.S.” protected by the Clean Water Act or Rivers and Harbors Act. This action surrenders federal government jurisdiction to regulate or permit development on that site, overturns decades of legal precedent and overrules previous protections supported …

Your Bay on the Ballot: 2018 Election Results

Bay Area voters showed again this week that we understand climate change is upon us, and we will invest to keep our communities and San Francisco Bay safe and healthy. In fact, we are ahead of voters in other parts of California – and that meant some mixed results on priority ballot measures endorsed by Save The Bay Action Fund. Your votes made a big impact in this election, producing victories on most ballot measures in our Bay Smart Voter Guide, which benefit San Francisco Bay’s people and wildlife in a time of rapid climate change. Together, we passed measures …

Yes on Measure V for San Jose Affordable Housing

As San Jose grows and becomes more expensive, too many hardworking families are being forced out of the city they love. San Jose needs housing to reduce the hours and hours of time workers spend commuting. Affordable housing can reduce commute times and help decrease emissions that lead to pollution and contribute to climate change. Measure V authorizes $450 million of general obligation bonds to acquire, construct and complete affordable housing in San Jose. Alleviating the critical shortage of affordable housing is essential to creating Bay Smart Communities that improve Bay Area sustainability. Measure V will produce and preserve housing …

Yes on Measure T for a Bay Smart San Jose

Decades of neglect and lack of investment in San Jose’s urban infrastructure have left neighborhoods highly vulnerable to natural disasters and drought, leaving disadvantaged communities shouldering too much of that vulnerability. The February 2017 Coyote Creek flood forced 14,000 people to evacuate and caused $100 million in property damage. San Jose also struggles to comply with regulations to reduce trash and other pollutants from the city’s stormwater that flows into San Francisco Bay. Measure T authorizes $650 million of general obligation bonds to protect vital infrastructure and people from earthquakes, floods and other disasters, and preserves natural open space. Bond …

YES on East Bay Regional Parks District Measure FF Shoreline and Open Space Parcel Tax Extension

The East Bay Regional Park District provides Bay Area residents with access to public parks and trails along the San Francisco Bay Shoreline, an oasis destination that goes beyond the bustling urban development. Measure FF funds protection and enhancement of urban parks by extending the current annual parcel tax on property owners in parts of western Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. It extends the tax of $12/year per single-family parcel and $8.28/year for multi-family units, raising approximately $3.3 million annually for the parks.

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