Lake Merced Update, April 2004

There is not a lot of news at the lake this month, but quite a bit away from the lake.

As I’m sure you’ve read in the daily tabloid, our new mayor, Gavin Newsom, is replacing both General Managers with responsibility for the lake and its surroundings, PUC and Rec & Park.  I have written to Gavin requesting a broad national search for fully qualified replacements, and suggest that any and all of you with an interest in Lake Merced do the same.  We’ve received a lot of top-level attention during the past couple of years, and we don’t want to lose that.

Saturday, April 24 will be CalTrout Day at Lake Merced.  Mondy Lariz is planning a big event, with emphasis on fishing for the kids.  And he needs lots of help.  To volunteer visit the CalTrout Day web site at http://www.caltroutday.org/, or send Mondy an e-mail at [email protected].

Rick Thall, from DPW, is ready and raring to go on the preparation of a Master Plan for Lake Merced.  He’s tentatively been budgeted for $500,000 to support this effort.  But like other allotments from Rec & Park’s Open Space Fund, that allocation may not be real.  Any help you can provide convincing the City to protect this program will be appreciated.  By the way, I’ve developed a half-hour photo essay on issues at Lake Merced to be addressed in the Master Plan that I’d be happy to present to any groups that are interested.

Friends of Lake Merced recently joined the Alliance for a Clean Waterfront, a group of some twenty organizations including such familiar names as the Golden Gate Audubon Society, the Neighborhood Parks Council and San Francisco Tomorrow.  While it may seem that the waterfront is a bit out of our area, the Alliance is placing a high priority on developing the City’s recycled water program, a subject that is important to us.  Also the Alliance is promoting the use of stormwater to develop treatment wetlands, a program that also applies to the Vista Grande Canal. 

We’d like to see the Recycled Water Master Plan become a section of the Clean Water Master Plan; that’s where it logically belongs.  And we had hoped the recycling program would then gain the leadership of Julie Labonte.  Unfortunately for us, and for the Clean Water Program, Julie’s considerable talents have been recognized, and she has been promoted out of that job.  We hope that she will be replaced quickly, and with equally capable and energetic leadership.

That’s all this month.

John