April Special District Roundup
In Which: HARD allows axe throwing at Rowell Ranch. HUSD is also stalked by districting lawyer. And BART Police look to buy more AR-15's--for your safety, they promise.
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these because too dang much has been going on in Hayward. Thankfully a 5th Tuesday has granted me some breathing room to dip into what our Special Districts are up to.
Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD)
HARD is our local recreation and parks district—the biggest in the state of California, I’m told. If you see one of those green signs with the 3 trees on it, that’s a HARD park. The also run tons of recreation programming, especially in summer. Let’s see what they’re up to in Hayward.
Axe Throwing Coming to Rowell Ranch
At the behest of the Castro Valley Rotary Club, HARD will be temporarily waiving its restriction on axes in public parks to allow the Rotary Club to host a BBQ, AXE, and BREW Fundraiser on May 10th. It doesn’t strictly impact the City of Hayward at all, though I know Mayor Salinas has a soft spot for the Rowell Ranch Rodeo which will be held on May 18th and 19th.
I mostly thought it was interesting that there was a specific prohibition on axes in HARD parks. Given how common it is, I’m sure there’s no undue risk in combining drinking and axe throwing—no matter how bad of an idea it seems to be.
HARD and HUSD Partner on Facilities
Given that they’re two of the biggest land-holders in the City, it’s interesting to see HARD and HUSD join forces on providing some much-needed community space around Hayward. They’ll be leveraging the Civic Center Act to provide community space for “social, educational, and cultural activities.” As someone who has been flat-out denied the use of HUSD facilities in the past for community events, this would be huge.
They plan to use a platform called “Facilitron” which should open up a lot of sites for use starting in July of 2024. Here are just some of the ones in the offering:
Bidwell
Bret Harte Field (Sun Gallery)
Fairview Elementary School
Schafer Park Elementary School
Sunset Swim Center and Futsal
Cannery Park/Burbank Elementary School
Palma Ceia Elementary School/Park
Ruus Elementary School
And many other, besides. It’s possible that this may mostly be of benefit to HARD to run programming in the HUSD facilities and vice versa, but if members of the public can get in on the action, this could be a game changer for hosting events.
Did Someone Say Districting?
HARD is also looking at transitioning to districts, but as an agency that doesn’t even conducts elections unless its forced to, this will be an interesting change. There doesn’t seem to be the same amount of urgency as the school district and City, though the HARD board is visibly the least representative of the three.
There was no timeline, but it would be a huge benefit to residents to actually get a little more representation on the HARD board—it might even be worth expanding the number of board members, though the chances of that happening are slim.
Hayward Unified School District (HUSD)
HUSD is all things education in Hayward. They govern all of the public and charter schools in the City and parts of Castro Valley and Cherryland. It’s arguably the agency that gets the most public engagement because it’s hard to care about something more than the wellbeing of your child.
More Districting???
Attorney Scott Rafferty has been a busy busy lad in Hayward. After opening a lawsuit against the City of Hayward, he’s also gone after HUSD to force it into districts. Again, this is something that should have happened a long time ago. Unsurprisingly, HUSD is pushing back against the idea that it will need to have districts in time for the 2024 election.
Although the timeline hasn’t been set yet—that and a plan will be presented at their upcoming May meeting—they’re going to have districts, for sure, in time for the 2026 elections. I’m a lot less sure where HUSD Board members live, so I’m not sure if there will be district-based conflicts—not to mention what the districts would even look like—but maybe shifting to Districts will make meetings less hostile, though I’m not holding my breath.
Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
Hayward has two BART stations within its boundaries, so it’s good to keep an eye on what our local commuter rail is up to. Often times they don’t have a lot going on in Hayward, but it’s always worth checking in.
BART Police to Acquire More AR-15 Rifles
BART police have jurisdiction within the City of Hayward and they’ve just recently released their annual Military Equipment report—as is required by state law—though it was a consent item on the agenda, and likely got zero discussion. In looking through the 37 page document, BART police is looking to buy an additional 30 AR-15 rifles.
Currently BART police are apparently assigned shotguns for patrol use, which seems wholly unnecessary and dangerous. Now they’re looking to transition to AR-15’s—known to blow limbs off of bodies—as “a more accurate and precise weapon system, the patrol rifle.” Every sworn officer is going to be equipped with one of these while on patrol and many of them will have suppressors so that… I guess we don’t get deafened while they shoot people around us?
According to the report they’re also going big on crowd control training—almost certainly having nothing to do with mass uprisings and protests in response to the genocide in Gaza—purchasing hundreds of rounds of Less Lethal Impact Munitions Systems. Think things like smoke grenades, sponge rounds, bean bags—you know, the kind of things that don’t necessarily kill you but can remove an eye or explode a testicle. They allege the “less lethal” rounds “[help] with de-escalation of violent encounters and helps reduce the likelihood of officers having to resort to lethal force to end a violent confrontation.”
They’re also looking to buy 40mm pepper spray rounds—which sounds nightmarish—to help “better serve and protect the BART District, passengers, stakeholders, and enhance the safety of officers and the overall BART community by bringing critical incidents to a swift and safe resolution.”
This is another reminder that we keep us safe, not the police. They’re out here with riot shields and guns that shoot pepper spray rounds designed to penetrate walls—you know, for de-escalation.
Consolidation Conversations
There’s not a lot of details—I don’t have time to watch the meetings—but BART is very concerned about SB 1031 which proposes to consolidate all of the various transit agencies of the 9 county Bay Area under the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).
I’m not an expert on this and I can see both sides of the argument: there can be an increase in cross-functionality and alignment of services to better help transit riders, but there’s also a risk of losing local autonomy to address region-specific issues. I like the idea of having more coordination between BART and AC Transit, but I also know that the layers of bureaucracy can bog things down in a major way and stop good things from happening.
If you’re a local transit nerd who has thoughts about this, I’d love to have a chat with you about it sometime.