Gateway Park: the Bay Area's answer to the Statue of Liberty?

This story is about a piece of land that you’ve probably passed through thousands of times without ever noticing it. It’s the acreage immediately below the Bay Bridge where it hits the East Bay. It’s a strange place, both wild and industrial, and a group of planners and engineers is working to turn it into a signature park for the Bay Area – a place they say could have international stature – our version of the Statue of Liberty. KALW’s Nathanael Johnson went to the first public planning meeting last week to hear what people were saying about the proposed Gateway Park. 

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Imagine a vast, grassy space, filled with dramatic industrial sculpture. Families gather around barbecues while children run and play, right down to a waterfront where waves lap on a concrete terrace. Now imagine this parkland looks out from under the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge, the tallest suspension structure in the world. That's just one vision for 50 acres of unmolded potential beside Highway 80 that planners have started to call "Gateway Park." Planners solicited ideas for the space at a meeting last week. A lot of the people there had some official interest in this, like Beverly Lane and Mike Anderson – who work with the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

BEVERLY LANE: how has the coalition gone in terms of discussions – brainstorming 

MIKE ANDERSON: It’s been great! Everyone is having a good time, you know it’s just like money is no object and everyone is coming up with great ideas. 

LANE: Dream on and make some drawings… 

ANDERSON: I’ve done this before this is the good times, the bad times you gotta pay the bills, there is no bill yet. 

They're in a conference room full of people near the Lake Merritt Bart Station, looking over poster boards showing maps of the area, images of what the park could look like, and what it looks like now – which is patches of broken up asphalt and dry brush. At this stage, it's kind of a blank canvas. Jeff Hunt is a community member who has  a few ideas on how to fill it.

JEFF HUNT: I’d be interested in seeing hiking trails spots for bird-watching board walks along the marshy areas. Concerts – I’d like to see a amphitheater. 

And designers say that an amphitheater might work in this spot, because, unlike most parks, it’s not quiet. It will be sandwiched between the highway  on one side, and the port on the other. Across the freeway to the north are restored marshlands. Darcy Rosenblatt, who is working on the environmental assessment of the park, says that all adds up to a unique opportunity: 

DARCY ROSENBLATT: You know here it really feels like you are not in the middle of a big urban area. You know this is half the size of Golden Gate Park and you get these amazing views. I’m a park planner and when I got out there I said wow, this is different because it’s not pristine by any means – you are right there by the bridge – but it’s got a real sense of place – and you see this from one perspective but then you turn around and see this odd but gorgeous industrial view too. 

 And, she says, the noise from the freeway isn’t overwhelming.

ROSENBLATT: You hear the traffic you definitely hear the traffic, but it’s not like you can’t talk you can hear each other and it becomes like a background noise when you are on that part of the park. Especially if there is a wind. And you are at a different level you are closer to the water than you are the bridge. 

The spot provides a new perspective on the bridge; it’s a place where people might go to watch the cranes unloading cargo ships, and planners think that they might try to incorporate the industrial nature of the location, rather than trying to cover it up. But that industry will also make accessing the park a challenge, according to urban planner Karen Alschuler. She’s standing in front of a map of the Bay Area, with strands of yarn pinned to the area representing the park. As people pass by, they take a strand and pin it to the place they are coming from. 

KAREN ALSCHULER: And this will define our challenge, because once this map is completed tonight we will see where the great majority of people are coming from and there are many challenges to get to the site. So we will build a constituency for finding ways to get over under around the highways the railroads and other encumbrances that are in the way. It can be done; you can get there now, but we want it to be something that really feels comfortable and safe and welcoming to people and bicyclists or pedestrians and we want them to find their way easily through the maze. We see doing the park well as absolutely entwined with getting the access right. 

Getting it right will require funding – but that stage is still years away. For now, planners are looking to the public for the creative thinking so they can make something that’s worth building. What else should go in this park? A transportation museum? A kayak rental? Pieces of the old bridge? Some iconic piece of public art? 

In Oakland, I'm Nathanael Johnson for Crosscurrents.