By VIJI SUNDARAM, NEW AMERICA MEDIA
SAN JOSE, Calif. ― U.S. Congressman
Mike Honda (D-San Jose) said that California’s parks and other open spaces must
be preserved at all costs, and selling them off to close budget gaps would be a
violation of public trust.
“Public lands have been acquired with
public dollars,” said Honda, who is a member of the House Appropriations and
Budget Committees, and chairman emeritus of the Congressional Asian Pacific
American Caucus. “They are a community’s pride. I don’t believe in selling them
off (to close) temporary budgetary deficits.”
Ron Sundergill, senior director at the
Pacific Region Office of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), said
that unlike in the eastern part of the country, where many parks tell the story
of U.S. ethnic history, the west coast has neglected to use the park system to
tell the history of its ethnic leaders.
“One of the things we’re very
concerned about is a lot of the stories that need to be told, haven’t been
told,” Sundergill said. “On the east coast, parks talk about the civil war. On
the west coast, (our parks) haven’t told immigration stories.”
By doing that, he said, parks will be
able to draw more ethnic communities, something they have not been able to do
so far.
He said he is currently working to
have a park in Los Angeles that talks about the contributions of such Chinese
Americans as You Chung Hong, a well-known Chinese American civil rights
attorney of the 1920s, who was born in San Francisco but practiced in Los
Angeles.
“As we create new parks they will
bring jobs to the communities, and those who visit these parks will bring money
to our communities,” Sundergill said, adding: “For every dollar invested in
national parks, we can get $10 in gross national revenue.”
Honda is a longtime conservationist.
He created the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority, as well as co-sponsored
a bill to help to ensure that 300 acres within the city of San Jose could
become a park. The congressman often has said that open spaces could reduce the
emission of greenhouse gases, which are contributing to climate change.
