New Info! Palm SpringsCity Council meeting on November 3rd!

[Florian]

Good turn out at the city council meeting tonight. The mayor commented on it a couple of times. Really hope we can get the city involved and on our side in this.

-Florian

[bluerail]

You missed it zip. It was good, like Florian said, good turnout and a lot of concern was voiced. Cynthia stood up for the Message Board and gave a good speech. Several others did as well, from Desert Trails group and CVHC.

....as well as a lurker, and Perrys partner in crime.

....well, one of them anyway.

[Florian]

Desert Sun article from last night's city council meeting ► http://www.mydesert.com/article/2010110 ... -land-swap

Basically the council will ask the BLM to exclude the two sections that contain hiking trails from the land swap. Section 16 for Skyline and section 36 for Garstin, Berns, Theilman, and other trails.

-Florian

[Marknhj]

It was a good meeting. The most encouraging aspect was Ginny Foat's summation after the public comment period ended. She noted that it was the outreach efforts by those concerned that alerted the council to the real implications of the deal. She seemed genuinely concerned that such valuable resources to Palm Springs could be taken away in the future, while acknowledging that the Tribe and it's present leaders do a great job in managing and protecting their land. She proposed that the Council draft a new letter expressing their opposition to the deal unless the two parcels we are concerned about are withdrawn from the proposal, and said that this recommendation was a direct result of feedback from local hiking groups. The letter will be completed by the next council meeting, November 17, and then sent by the deadline date of November 19.

However, let's not take the Desert Sun's headline at face value. Ms. Foat emphasized that hikers should continue with their outreach efforts particularly to Mary Bono-Mack and Barbara Boxer. All those who spoke did a great job in clearly explaining their (our) worries; Cynthia, not surprisingly, was outstanding in her presentation and even got in a pitch for this board...

[Ellen]

My dear San Jacinto family,

Thank you so much for attending the meeting. I woke up yesterday with a headache which proceeded to get worse with light sensitivity and nausea. Ended up spending the evening in my bedroom with the lights out

I am so glad that Cynthia stood up for us -- we could not ask for a better advocate. She and other wonderful friends from this board were also there for me in my hour of need.

Bless you all,
Ellen

[cynthia23]

Props to everyone! How great to see so many people from the board, and thank you each and every one for sitting through 120 action filled minutes of democracy in action (I have a renewed respect for the tedious work city officials do.) And major thanks to CVHC and the Desert Trails people for really organizing this, getting the media there, etc. I'm very encouraged by the PS City Council's response and our chance of succeeding inthis endeavor has just improved. However I agree with Mark that we musn't 'rest on our laurels", because the PS City Council can only influence, not control this. We need to all write Barbara Boxer, Ken Salazar at the interior department, and of course John Kalish. These are our most important actions ...Stop the Swap!

T-shirts, anyone?

[Ellen]

Howdy Saint Cynthia

I will keep writing. Never did get a response from John Kalish -- I'll send another letter as well as to Bono-Mack, Boxer, Salazar, etc.

Yea on the T-shirt idea.

STOP THE SWAP if you want continued Miles of Smiles,
Ellen

[Florian]

I hiked up Murray Hill this morning to celebrate the council's actions. Saw this sign near the Garstin trailhead ► http://www.flickr.com/photos/fboyd/5146262539/

The CV Hiking Club does pretty good PR! And here's me at the top ► http://www.flickr.com/photos/fboyd/5146865682/

-Florian

[Florian]

I made an audio recording of last night's city council meeting. It's not great quality. If anyone wants i can email. It's pretty big at 4.5 meg.

-Florian

[bluerail]

yeah, the cvhc guys and girls are pretty damn serious about their hiking.