December 2022 – Turtle Island Monument
The City departments of Parks, Recreation & Waterfront and Civic Arts are presenting a new design for the conversion of the former fountain in Civic Center Park to a Turtle Island Monument and for improvements to the surrounding plaza. They met with the Landmarks Preservation Commission on December 1—see the documentation, including the conceptual design, here. No action was taken by the commission. Next they will present it to the Civic Arts Commission on December 7 at 6 pm, agenda here, and to the Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Commission on December 14 at 7 pm. They say they are looking for input from the commissioners before presenting the plan to the public in January, but members of the public can already comment in the commission meetings (all on Zoom). Several CCCC members did express concerns about the new design and the lack of inclusion of members of local Bay Area Indigenous groups and their allies.