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After closing since March, the reopening of six major recreational lakes and the surrounding parklands in the East Bay Hills has crowned a number of park openings as the Indian summer sweeps through the Bay Area.

The Del Valle Reservoir and Quarry Lakes opened last week and have reopened to the public along with Lake Chabot, Los Vaqueros and San Pablo Reservoirs and other lakes.

“We sold out our 23 rental boats on Monday,” said Kent Hintzman at Los Vaqueros Marina. “At the weekend, pontoon boats were the first to sell out, and after an hour and a half we run out of boats.”

Of 350 parks and recreation destinations in the Greater Bay Area, all but about 30 are now open to the public in some form, including all but a few lakes and most beaches in the states and counties.

In warm weather in the region this week, many parks are under fire warnings. For full details on what is open and closed, see The Chronicle’s Outdoor Guide and Tracker.

Outside with Tom Stienstra

Three main areas will remain closed after the late summer forest fires: the interior of Point Reyes National Seashore; the East Bay Hills in the Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness and the Round Valley Regional Preserve; The heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains in the Big Basin Redwoods and nearby Sam McDonald, Memorial and Pescadero Creek County Parks.

Here’s the view over the Bay Area:

San Francisco: With COVID restrictions mandating the wearing of masks, social distancing, and disinfecting common surfaces, all but a few parks and recreation areas are a breeze. Party boats had a successful salmon (and halibut) run at Fisherman’s Wharf, with the season open until November 8th.

The most famous closings are parking in the Candlestick State Recreation Area, which is only allowed on foot or by bike, and Thornton State Beach, which remains closed and where access from the cliffside parking spaces is a long-term problem.

Marin: After the Woodward Fire, most of the Point Reyes National Seashore is open, including Pierce Ranch, Drakes Estero, Drakes Beach, Mount Vision, Limantour Beach, and Palomarin – as well as camping at Wildcat Camp and the boat docks in Tomales Bay. The gated park area is bounded by the Bear Valley Visitor Center, Limantour Road (although the road is open), Arch Rock, and the coast south of Wildcat Camp. The road to Point Reyes Lighthouse and Chimney Rock Headlands is closed at the turnoff to Drakes Beach.

Elsewhere, all of Marin County’s beaches, 39 wildlife sanctuaries, and boat ramps are open.

Peninsula: In San Mateo County, 14 of 23 county parks are open. The main closings are the parks that were in the zone of the CZU Lightning Complex on the edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

All 26 protected areas managed by the Midpenisula’s Regional Open Space District are open, including Long Ridge and other protected areas on the edge of the CZU Lightning Complex.

The boat ramps at the harbors are open at Pillar Point, Oyster Point, Coyote Point, and Redwood City. In the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, hand-launched car-top boats are accessible (at high tide).

Santa Cruz Mountains: On the edge of the CZU Lightning Complex zone, Castle Rock, Portola Redwoods, and Butano state parks have reopened, with limited campsites in Portola and Butano.

In the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Redwoods State Park in the Big Basin and the adjacent Little Basin are closed for at least a year after most of the park’s infrastructure has been destroyed.

The Skyline-to-the-Trail is of course closed, as are the trail camps along the route.

Three county parks south of La Honda are currently closed for fire fighting: Sam McDonald, Memorial, and Pescadero Creek County Parks.

East Bay: Of the 73 parks in the East Bay Regional Park District, all but a handful are open. The most notable fire-fighting closures are in Round Valley, Morgan Territory, and the Sunol-Ohlone Wilderness.

In hot weather this week, news that all but one lake (Anza) in the hills of the East Bay is open could bring welcome relief to thousands of residents nearby.

Major recreational lakes now open for boat trips include Los Vaqueros (north of Livermore), Chabot Lake in the Castro Valley, Del Valle (south of Livermore), San Pablo in El Sobrante, and Quarry Lakes in Fremont.

Other lakes open for hiking but not boating include Lafayette, Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton, Contra Loma near Antioch, and Briones (near Martinez).

Santa Clara County: Santa Clara County’s 29 county parks are open (along with all open spaces).

Camping is possible at Coyote Lake, Grant, Mount Madonna, Sanborn and Uvas Canyon. Boating is possible again at the reservoirs Calero and Lexington (with reservation for the start). Park reservations are now required for Uvas Canyon every weekend at www.goutsideandplay.org.

Tom Stienstra is the outdoor writer for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom

The post Most Bay Space parks reopen, together with East Bay lakes appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

By Brett Walton, Circle of Blue

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of blue; Great Lakes Now on Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring news and information to the audience about the effects of climate change, pollution and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. You can find all works HERE.

Even in the richest countries, basic water services are not universal. At least 1.1 million people in the US don’t have hot and cold running water in their home and a shower or tub to bathe in, according to a new study.

This “poverty poverty” is highest in cities and most acute in cities like San Francisco with the greatest income inequality.

The lack of sanitary infrastructure is not just limited to the homeless. Katie Meehan, lead author on the study, said this was an important finding.

Although the study found that poverty poverty is closely related to traditional indicators of marginalization such as income and race, Meehan said other factors play a role. Poverty poverty is also linked to housing: tenants and people living in mobile homes are more likely to lack full plumbing services than homeowners.

Meehan said that focusing on these structural issues, where there are legacies of discrimination, is one way to redefine the problem of water access. Rather than looking at building more pipes or increasing supply as a technical matter, Meehan prefers to ask why the pipes were not initially expanded to specific areas.

“This brings poor people’s attention to the institutions that produce poverty,” Meehan, senior lecturer in human geography at King’s College London, told Circle of Blue.

The study, published Nov. 2 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, recorded the country’s challenges in accessing water in broad but differentiated gaps. It found that 73 percent of people live in metropolitan areas without a full installation. Almost half live in the 50 largest cities in the country. Households headed by a black person were 35 percent more likely to have incomplete plumbing than white households. Tenants in major cities were 61 percent more likely to have incomplete plumbing than homeowners. In neighborhoods with higher income inequality, the likelihood of plumbing was higher.

The high number of city dwellers without full plumbing is an interesting finding that contradicts the typical representation that plumbing deficiencies are most common in rural areas, Meehan said.

Although New York and Los Angeles had the largest number of people living without a complete installation, San Francisco had the highest population under these circumstances. Portland, Milwaukee, and San Antonio also had high relative numbers of poverty poverty.

Sera Young is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Global Health at Northwestern University and focuses on household water insecurity. Young, who was not involved in the study, praised the research to debunk the idea that inadequate plumbing is primarily a rural problem.

“Water security is a global concern, and here in the US we’re not immune,” Young wrote in an email to Circle of Blue. “The 1.1 million people living in poverty in the US are likely not just an underestimate, the numbers have likely gotten worse since 2018.”

Meehan agreed that the numbers are most likely an undercount and the results are the “low end” for those who lack plumbing. The data for the analysis comes from the American Community Survey, a questionnaire administered annually by the US Census Bureau and sent to households. Data from 2013 to 2017 were used in the study. When it comes to sanitation, running hot and cold water as well as a shower or bathtub for bathing are currently queried. At the request of Congress, the Census Bureau stopped asking if homes had toilets in 2016.

Stephen Gasteyer, associate professor of sociology at Michigan State University who was not involved in the study, said it would be helpful to fill an information gap: estimating the number of people in the United States who are lacking water and sanitation.

Gasteyer, who studies access to water, contributed to a separate report published last year that looked at not only access to water but also toilet facilities. This report, using previous census data that included the toilet question, estimated that 2 million people in the US do not have these services.

These types of numerical ratings are just a start, Gasteyer said. The next step is to investigate why the numbers are high in certain areas and not in others. One of the weaknesses of the census data is that it is not clear why a person claims to have no plumbing services. Is it because your water has been turned off for several months because of unpaid bills? Or is it because there is no pipe connection to your house? Or do they live on the street but have a postal address?

“If we want to fix the problem, we have to understand what’s behind the data,” said Gasteyer. “We need to do case studies to understand the mechanisms, not just the numbers.”

Gasteyer said the study’s finding that tenants are more likely to have poor plumbing is consistent with his experience working on field work to access water in Mississippi. Activists there told him it was difficult for tenants to hold landlords accountable for poor service.

Meehan is similarly fascinated by the mechanisms by which poverty alleviation occurs. The census data provides a comprehensive overview but does not explain the process for a specific city.

“Does it tell you how the engine works? No, ”said Meehan. “That requires additional research.”

Read more about access to water at the Great Lakes Now:

Lack of utility data obscures customer water debt problems

Millions of Americans are plagued by water debt at a time of COVID-19

Minority communities are questioning the EPA’s election boost

Michigan governor publishes a $ 500 million water infrastructure plan

Questions and Answers from Policy Experts: Continue to advocate for safe drinking water with elected officials

Featured image: Detroit house that turned off water in 2014. (Photo by J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue)

The post Who within the U.S. Is in ‘Plumbing Poverty’? Principally City Residents, Research Says – Nice Lakes Now appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.