A local website, saveslo.com, is endorsing three candidates—Heidi Harmon, Brett Strickland, and Aaron Gomez—as a team for SLO mayor and City Council positions on a platform that includes, among other priorities, wanting to legalize night hiking on city open space trails. If elected, these candidates intend to repeal the existing city fine for night hiking on open space trails, e.g., Bishop Peak! Peakside neighbors: think late-night neighborhood disturbances, sirens, hillside lights, and expensive helicopter rescues!
Furthermore, from website comments, it appears they are unaware of potential ecological damage, e.g., lighting, that their night-hiking actions could have on local terrestrial vertebrate fauna, i.e., amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. This locally produced saveslo.com website also offers no understanding of how long it has taken, and how much it has cost, to preserve our city’s greenbelt.
Asking city residents to allow night-hiking will definitely degrade the precious open space ecology that many have spent thousands of hours trying to preserve over the last 20-plus years. For the open space creatures, I urge residents to consider non-support of these candidates.
— Richard J. Krejsa – San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2016.