WTF Castle Rock State Park Closing.

http://www.mercurynews.com/california-budget/ci_18156854
In the latest setback to Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to close one-quarter of California's state park system to save money, 16 of the parks he is proposing to shutter cannot legally be closed, federal officials said Friday, because they have received federal money that requires parks to remain open.

"This funding is a grant to the state, like a contract," said Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. "It is linked directly to the deed of these lands. It says the state makes a commitment to provide these places for public use in perpetuity. To not do that is essentially a breach of that contract."

The affected parks include Castle Rock State Park in Santa Clara County [...]

Coleman said the key question is whether the National Park Service will allow California to keep parks on the closure list open for one or two days a week and still qualify as "open," or operate a park with volunteers, or even take all the rangers out and leave the gates open to satisfy the law.

This is great news! I would imagine this is the first of many road blocks the state will run in to before they can close the door on our land.
There's some great comments on this article as well, closing a few acres of forest isn't going to save the state.

Castle Rock does't have to cost much to operate, the ranger is an asshole, the out house is dank, and who sells warm water. I think I can climb without these. Damn I should be there right now, maybe when they close I'll be able to bring the dog there.

canyonclimber wrote:Can anyone answer this? If this is public land how can they keep us from accessing our land? Seems to me that the only thing that is taken away is the management of the land. All over the west there is lots of state and BLM lands that we have access to and most is minimally managed. If a state park is closed can't I just park outside and walk in? Is this trespassing on our public land? Does anyone know if this issue has ever been to court? I mean, has anyone been sucssesful in challenging this? How can they deny access to our land? Closed or not, our taxes still pay for that land and it is still ours to use, with or without management.

The difference is availability of services and limitation of liability. While they can't explicitly prevent you from entering the parks, they can close the roads (due to maintenance concerns since the roads are non-vital) and issue trespassing tickets along with any SAR calls.

Rick Blair wrote: Real estate listings will always mention if a property is next to parks/open space, it can add a considerable amount of value. There are examples all over the country of non government entities providing parks and opens space. For this specific argument I think it would be great if California keeps raising taxes ( especially on the rich ), it will probably happen. It will be interesting to see how that works out, after all, I don't live there. As long as the fed doesn't bail them out...

So the fact that people want to live near an area they can't build on is indication to you that they won't build on it given the opportunity? Tell that to the Access Fund.

Interesting. So the Republicans run our country into the ground for 8 years, turn it over to the Democrats to fix, and immediately start complaining the current state of things? All of you Republicans take a good long look at the state of not just what you hold dear, like the parks etc, but at the whole country and realize, this is what you voted for. The Dems have actually done a decent job at slowly the bleeding. It is going to take a few more years to let the wound heal. I am sure just in time for another Repub POTU to come in and screw everything up again.

Look at history, it is the same cycle over and over...

Rough wrote:Interesting. So the Republicans run our country into the ground for 8 years, turn it over to the Democrats to fix, and immediately start complaining the current state of things? All of you Republicans take a good long look at the state of not just what you hold dear, like the parks etc, but at the whole country and realize, this is what you voted for. The Dems have actually done a decent job at slowly the bleeding. It is going to take a few more years to let the wound heal. I am sure just in time for another Repub POTU to come in and screw everything up again. Look at history, it is the same cycle over and over...

What a silly fatuous statement. The statement is intellectually dishonest, based on implied distortion of fact, oversimplification, bias, and selective judgement. It shows the same keen analysis as George Bush'es "Either you are with us or against us", or the ever popular 'We will win because God is on our side'. Rush Limbaugh would be proud.

State governments always do this type of thing first: close down services used directly by the tax-paying public such as DMV, parks,libraries, etc. Then the state cries that it must raise taxes so it can continue its wasteful, profiligate spending habits. However, while all of us in the private sector experience layoffs, the public sector employees just don't seem to suffer like we poor and stupid private sector workers. Funny how that works. AZ did it by closing several state parks and interstate rest areas (bring a piss jar in your car). The City of Phoenix did it by attempting to charge for use of the city parks. It costs $25 per person to go to the Phoenix Zoo...just screw the working class. Cali has a $19.1 billion budget deficit and unfunded pension liabilities of over $500 billion, yet the state will find new ways to squander money. Frankly, I'm tired of paying taxes so 47% of the US population can sit on its fat ass and do nothing while the remaining serfs work for others' bling. Every body should pay some taxes, especially if you are on the freakin' government dole.

From what ive read everybody has it all figured out. dont forget to vote

It's time to "Occupy" the parks, and clean up afterwards. No?

Scott Saifer wrote:It's time to "Occupy" the parks, and clean up afterwards. No?

................like!!!!

So the government is the only entity capable of managing land for conservation and recreation? ***

WTF????..............Save us Access Fund!!!!!!!!!

pointing a finger at a political party for the problems is like pointing a finger at the Bloods vs. the Crips and blaming gang violence on one and not the other.

interesting analogy. I like it.

FWIW

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.…;ao=2

portolaandcastlerockfound.org/

muttonface wrote: Look at history. I don't have a solution, but I know that pointing a finger at a political party for the problems is like pointing a finger at the Bloods vs. the Crips and blaming gang violence on one and not the other. The

Yup. . . .

-----------------------------------------------------

Save me Occupy protestors, and Occupy the Parks!
Most moronic idea yet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

mat wrote:FWIW sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.…;ao=2 portolaandcastlerockfound.org/

"Castle Crags State Park, near Mount Shasta, is closed for the winter and on a closure list for July."

We're talking about a different Castle Rock, but that place looks mighty sweet and should definitely be open too.

Colin-

I was assuming the thread is about the Castle Rock in the SF Bay Area. Honestly, I read very little of the thread before posting my reply so perhaps I am off base. I have no idea what Castle Crags State Park is. The only thing I got out of the linked article was this:

"
"At this point, there are no closures for walk-ins," said Brian Barton, a public safety specialist for State Parks, in regard to the new policy. "The public needs to understand there are no facilities. Anything that costs money is off when the park is closed. No garbage service, no sewer (restrooms), no water, no camping."
"

I hope that no state park gets closed. But if they do, this type of closure sounds reasonable.

Castle Rock with a closed gate to the parking lot, no bathrooms and no trashcans but still open to the public would not be so bad.

Sorry I do not understand all the politics up thread, and sorry my English is horrible.

Wha? Dude, your "English" is better than 99.957% of all other MP'ers. (I actually collected and computed all of the data myself, so know that number to be very accurate).

Now go back to whatever in hell you and yer type are from, ya foreign freak. . . and quit writin' so damn well while yer at it!