The Bay Area is a cradle of environmentalism and a region with a rich trove of health and medical research and resources. In this blog, we’ll report on the deepening understanding of how the places we inhabit and the lifestyles we adopt contribute to our own health and the health of our communities.
Encouraging Californians to vote in a contest sponsored by Coca-Cola did not pay off for the California State Parks system. The results are in from the 2011 “America is Your Park” campaign, an online contest, and California didn't win a penny.
Public health advocates had accused California’s parks of selling out the state’s anti-obesity efforts for the remote possibility of winning the money. The state parks had urged residents to vote in the online contest sponsored by Coca-Cola, while health officials have been imploring residents to cut their soda consumption.
The three winning parks, which received $100,000, $50,000 and $25,000 respectively, were located in North Dakota, Minnesota and Missouri. Only one California state park placed in the top 10 in the contest: McGrath State Beach in Oxnard came in sixth place.
“We gave it our best shot in hopes that we could generate some money for the parks system,” said Roy Stearns, a spokesman for the state park system.
In May, the Brown administration announced that it would close 70 states parks, due to California’s fiscal crisis. Since then, a few organizations have rescued a handful of parks.
In the Bay Area, Tomales Bay and Samuel P. Taylor state parks will remain open, thanks to an agreement with the National Parks Service. Henry W. Coe State Park will remain open through 2015 thanks to donations from the Coe Park Preservation Fund.
There’s still hope for Jack London State Historic Park, too. “The Valley of the Moon Natural History Association is hoping to put a plan together to assume the operation of that park,” said Stearns. In early October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill to allow nonprofits to run state parks in lieu of closing them.
© The Bay Citizen, 2012
