Title
Recommendation to Name the New Park Known as Alameda Point Neighborhood Park as Whale Park. (Recreation 10051400)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Alameda Point Neighborhood Park (Park) opened in 2021 and serves new and existing Alameda Point residents as well as the broader community. It is a small, neighborhood-sized park with an aquatic themed playground. The Recreation and Parks Commission (Commission) followed the four-step process detailed in the City of Alameda (City) Facilities and Street Naming Policy (Naming Policy). This process included naming discussions at three Commission meetings and two community-wide surveys. The Commission unanimously recommended the name Whale Park to the City Council.
BACKGROUND
In October 2021, the City Council updated the City Naming Policy. The goal of the updated Naming Policy is to broaden the naming criteria to allow greater diversity, equity and inclusion as well as broader community input at public Brown Act meetings. Therefore, standing criteria is written into the Naming Policy that names should reflect diversity, equity and inclusion to intentionally broaden the representation of people in our community.
The Naming Policy provides for a four-step public process that was followed by the Commission.
On December 9, 2021, the Commission received a presentation on the Park describing the location, background and any identifying features. At that meeting, the Commission approved the naming criteria for this park as "The history of naval maritime, natural landscape and wildlife at Alameda Point."
Staff then conducted a community-wide survey to solicit name ideas for the Park based on the established criteria. The community survey included four new parks for efficiency. These included Alameda Point Waterfront Park, Alameda Point Neighborhood Park, Alameda Landing Waterfront Park and Alameda Marina Park. The first three of these parks are being presen...
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