Saturdays in the Park - May 18th

by Susan Knight

Members met on Saturday, May 18, 2024, at beautiful Bill Barber Memorial Park in Irvine for our bimonthly Saturdays in the Park event.  After greeting and visiting, we gathered round for a series of presentations and lively discussions.  

Our first speaker was Sandy Exelby, long-time League member active in our Climate Change Task Force.  Sandy reported on the Orange County Coastal Rail Resiliency Study, which is examining how to stabilize the strategic railway that hugs our coastline.  The OCTA rail corridor under study, which runs between Fullerton and San Diego, is especially vulnerable in South County, where erosion has closed a section of the rail multiple times in the last.  Many questions were posed by members as we discussed materials used to shore up the rail; the impacts of the railway and possibly moving it; which entities are involved in the decisions; and where to find ongoing information.  For more, see https://www.octa.net/programs-projects/programs/plans-and-studies/orange-county-coastal-rail-resiliency-study/

In our second presentation, Communications Director Patty Santry talked about the League’s historic role in empowering voters and the importance of this year’s election.  She provided details about the work of League of Women Voters’ partner, Vote Riders, to reach voters across the country through letter writing campaigns.  Patty shared how we can play a part in these efforts - see https://docs.google.com/document/d/15l9304-Xzo1_NGITwtmohg3q9f2TNU5k79j57V7eLC4/edit?usp=sharing

Discussions about voter suppression and voting requirements ensued.  You can find information on voter ID rules on the Vote Riders website here https://www.voteriders.org/ and California voter registration information here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ufh_Yd4zJI7Eo3gxeNXD2k8LIlRoN2qB/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117214435057499206626&rtpof=true&sd=true.