Ceremony Marks Return of Creek to Land Trust
photos by Mike McGuire
Officials from Sogorea Te Land Trust, the Lisjan tribe, Eden Housing, Caltrans and the Grove Way Neighborhood Association gathered on Tuesday, December 3 to celebrate the return of three acres of San Lorenzo Creek near Ruby Street and Crescent Avenue to the land trust. Eden Housing donated the land, which it had bought along with nearby land to build affordable apartments.
Part of San Lorenzo Creek was returned to the indigenous Sogorea Te’ Land Trust last Tuesday, December 3, and other changes are in store for the area around Crescent Avenue and Ruby Street.
People at the return ceremony saw the beginning of construction of a five-mile-long Creekway for pedestrians and bicycles, beginning at Crescent Avenue and continuing to the Bay. Eden Housing donated a quarter-acre of land to the Hayward Area Recreation and Parks District (HARD) for a trailhead and pocket park in Hayward.
The Creekway will connect the communities of Castro Valley, Hayward, San Lorenzo, Ashland, Cherryland and San Leandro.
Corrina Gould, co-founder of Sogorea Te’ and chairwoman of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, said “I’m amazed by the miracle that has happened. We’re amazed to have this piece of our waterway.”
The Lisjan people, who Europeans called the Ohlone, were the original inhabitants of the land along the creek, which they knew as Lisjan and from which they drew their name, Gould said adding that the Lisjan creation myth is that the people arose from the sacred creek of Lisjan and the sacred mountain that European settlers renamed Mount Diablo.
She thanked Dr. Ann Maris and the other members of the Grove Way Neighborhoods Association (GWNA) for their efforts to save Ruby Meadow and instead have affordable housing built on other abandoned Caltrans sites nearby.
Maris said, once that fight was lost, the GWNA tried to have some good come out of the effort. They wanted the creek itself returned to its original owners, the Lisjan. They also wanted to wisely reuse the 100 large oak trees cut down to build the apartments.
Meanwhile, the Crescent Grove apartments, built on the former Ruby Meadows natural area after considerable community opposition, will be welcoming their first residents soon, perhaps by the end of the year, according to an Eden Housing spokesperson.
There were 6800 applicants for 71 spaces in the apartments, according to Darian Williams of the nonprofit group.
Some 60 percent of the apartment site has been preserved as open space, with some of that open to the public, he said. None of that space had been available to the public previously, Williams added.
In addition to preserving the land, Bay Area Redwoods, a Livermore-based company that makes furniture and other useful items from perished trees said it will repurpose the 330 cubic yards of logs cut to create the housing for tables and other items in common areas of the new apartments, a spokesperson said.