Saved by the Bay

Today I visit the Berkeley Marina. I’ve not been in a long time to watch the waves.

It’s a wonderful respite: 

joggers, one blue heron, black birds, kids, and that guy that rides his rollerblades

while being pulled by a kite.

A garbage dump for seventy years, all wrapped up in plastic then covered with dirt then native plants. Nice touch. Chunks of concrete to bind the whole mess together round its edges.

They kept going like this, filling in more and more, all around the bay, until

a third of what was water was turned into land and they weren’t going to stop 
until it was all filled in, Berkeley right up against San Francisco against Oakland.

But.

Three East Bay women

Kay Kerr

Sylvia McLaughlin and

Esther Gulick

said, “STOP!”

And the filling in of the bay was stopped and now Berkeley’s not any closer to

San Francisco and these red-shouldered black birds are tweeting loudly in my ear.