Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

"Motorcycle people feel like . . .a racial minority:' (Continued from page 11) 36 and ORV people feel th ey are th e only people who are being specifi cally taxed or levied upon to provide r eal estate and areas for their own recreation. We set up, through the legislature, the O R V registration program wh ich is supposed to take about one-third of th e fee s a nd put it into a fund wh ich would provide for acquisition, management and so forth where we were going to be adding, hopefully, to the state park and recreation inventory. A very small amount has been done so far , for the u sual reasons, possibly even some of it has been diverted into the general fund or spent in other fashions as we found in part of our scandal of ea r lier this year. That has turned a number of people off who supported t he program we began with . The latest figures show there are more ORV people wh o have allowed th ei r ORV registrations to lapse than there are currently using them, RC: Yes, I've heard that. Bu t it's a time lag between the tim e the money got into the fund and the time it gets spe nt on the property. And that's really the funct ion of a lo usy m a n a geme n t system , I'm no t just b laming m y own department bu t the fact that there's a very complicate d syste m set up in California , much wors e th an a nypla ce I've ever worked. I'm not talking a bo u t the cas h in flow . I m ea n fro m th e point yo u h a ve t he dough a nd get it appropriated, what it ta kes to get that p ropert y p u rch a se d and the n developed . It 's too co mplica ted. We've got some hearings coming up soon with interim committ ees of the legisla ture and I' m hoping to go in an d say here's one wa y you ca n help us. Cut half the red tape in a situation so we can get it down to two yea rs instead of four . I don't think we should ever get to where we're goi ng in and buying propert y in the firs t year. We ought to have a lot of pub lic in put into the p lanning process , In order to protec t the public interest a nd private interest in any of these projects there needs to be a certain amount of time for the condemnation p rocess to be considered before you even go at it . Bu t four years is much too long and there are a lot of sharp speculators a ro und who buy propert y and then ha ve someone drumming u p business a t th e legisla tu re for th em . We ha ve got to put a sto p to that a nd quit ha vin g t he money ea te n up b y inflation . That $8 ,000 ,000 we a re ha ving to spen d on Hungry Valley is probably worth $6,000 ,000 from th e yea r it was conceived , CN : When your department spends $8,000,000 on buying a piece of property they don't have to wait until they have $8 ,000,000 in the bank before they go out and buy it, do they? RC : No , we ca n phase the p roject bu t the re is a d anger in th at. I would prefer , if I had m y druthers , to hav e the $8 ,000,000 to go out a nd bu y the whole thi ng a t once. W h at happens is th a t if you phase it you go in and set the price . Now th e state's the only one who will co me in and buy yo ur property out in the boondocks for cas h . Any rea l estate developer's go ing to buy an option as cheaply as he can at as cheap a set price as he can , T hen he 's going to make som e deal to pa y you off in 40 yea rs to you r benefit and h is tax purposes. Bu t we're the only ones standing around with $8,000,000 in our hands for a given piece of p rope rty. So we go in a n d bu y property for cash , set the price , wh ich mak es the appra isal then go up on the oth er propert ies involved. T hen the nex t yea r we get a nother app ropriation to go in and buy the next th ird an say th e third year you're in there yo u 'r e paying so meti mes double what you started out with. CN: So a Hungry Valley would be bought for $8,000,000 cash ? RC : That's right. But on nature preservation parcels, there are non profit foundations who will go in ahead of us , without any prompting from us , and buy properti es th ey want in the state parks system. They'll bu y t hem as if they were a real estate developer and get them chea ply, get options on them and so forth . Then they'll tal k us int o buying the m and adding them in to t he state park system . They come in for the taxpayer a t sometimes 10% wh at we wou ld ha ve to pay if we went through the normal p rocess. So , maybe it's a good idea to ha ve an ORV trust for la nd or something, that goes out and m akes some of these options and forces the play. It's a m uch q u icker form of acquisition because the n you don't have to go through co urt a ctions and all that. Besid es it's much cheaper . T he re are people who represent these non -profit organizations wh o are tax la wyers, stock b roke rs , p eopl e who a re volu nteering their time , and I' m sure those sa me kinds of people exist within th e motorcycle community, a nd they go out and convince these property owners th at if they will don at e th e property, or if they'll sell th e property a t 20% of its value (a nd th ere ha ve been so me re a lly big thi ngs in Cal ifornia d one wi th t hat. For inst an ce , a $56 ,000 ,000 property purc h ased for $6 ,500 ,0 00 ). The advantage to the propert y owner is that they get to write it off. It 's a gift to a non -profi t associ ation. T hey write it off on th ei r ta xes and the association convinces th em th a t in doing so they're going to com e out far ahead than if they just held on to the property. You could do the same thin g with off-road vehicles and get the park where you want ed it. CN: With one exception. We're up against the uItra-environmentalists who feel that any deeding of an y sp ace anywhere for the use of offroad vehicles is a ga inst their . in terests. RC : Well , I suggest you play their game th en, and go out and buy the p rope rt y. Because t here's sti ll t h is hol in ess attach ed to pri vat e property, even though you ha ve zoni ng an d all these oth er things. You ca n work through th e st ate and the private sec tor as well . Pers on all y, from wh at I can see , th e private sec tor has more success than government do es. CN: In Long Beach here we have Cycle Haven, which is basically a youth oriented mini cycle park. Do you foresee anything in the area of localized urban motorcycle parks? RC : 1 can foresee a great hassl e over anyone of the proposals. Bu t I'd be willing to look at it with an open mind. W ith noise levels and regu la tions being what th ey are I thi nk it will be a to ugh go to find an a rea where it won't be offens ive to resid ent s. If the noise level can be dea lt with , I ca n't see any reason for these areas not bei ng closer to ho me, bu t I ca n tell there's going to be a big ba ttl e over it. The a dverse image of m ot o rcycl e ra c ing in neighborhoods is going to ca use a lot of problems , It's not an eas y question to answer. You have to deal with it on a case -b y-case basi s. CN : One question our readers often ask is " H ow come that guy can ride his horse out there and run me off the trail? He doesn't have to pay nothin' to ride that horse and yet I have to buy a green stickle a n d pay sales ta x .." RC : I don't kn ow if t ha t's fai r . I don't kno w because we don 't ha ve many OHV parks, what the fee structure is, Right now the cost of opera ting the parks in general if you ta ke all the whole mixed b ag wh ich is a pretty complicated thing, it's running about 35 % of our ma intenan ce and op eration costs . We coll ect 38 % of wh at it costs to operate those parks. One interesting thing is that we are paying 69¢ per visit right now . That's what it costs to run the sta te parks system. In 1967 it was 25¢. People are sayin g, oh it' s outrageous when looking at that in crease. I pegged it off against the stan dard inflationary rate that th e federal reserve calcul a tes ea ch year and found that we a re ac tually spending less per visit than we were 10 years ago . We are doing it at 23¢ in 1967 dollars instead of 25¢ a nd I want to go to the legislatu re rig ht awa y and ask them for t he other two cents. CN : OK, but how do I answer the people who a r e complaining th a t horses can ride in Griffith Park and b ikes can 't, yet they don ' t buy licenses or for all we know pay taxes on the darn things either ? RC : 1 do n't know. Tha t's a good point. What they go t with th e green stickie pro gr am was an entry int o the system. Before th a t it was a N O. I think what p robably th ey consider now is that the state isn 't sa ying no, but it's saying maybe and it's been operating very slo wly with t h ei r particular interests. CN: We get a lot of letters which in effect sa y, I've been bu ying that thing four yea rs now and all I've go tt en is a bunch of trouble, Now the cops t h a t cha se me a r e riding Husqvarnas instead of d riving cars. And so they sa y, I'm not goi n g to buy it an ymore . " The green stickie program was an entry into the system. Before that it was a NO ." RC : Well , I'm coming in new on it , but a lre ady I ca n see that the state's ap propria ted about three or fou r times the amount of money that's come in from th at program . I think th e peopl e should be impatient wit h us but I hope they don 't jump off the boat just because the boat 's mo ving slow. 1 hope to be able to speed it up . If we can get som e legislation that will speed up th ose acquisition a nd development processes , I would hope I ge t support fro m th e motor cycle com m unity as well as the bird lovers and all ot her recreationalists because it's the system th at's fouled u p . There m ay be som e intent somewher e in the Department of Parks and Recrea tion against off· ro ad vehicles, but I think basically that wou ld be solved by my being fa ir with the people who use those vehicl es, and th en toge ther straigh tening ou t this awfu l system of ac q uiri ng property and development . CN: Once you r department starts taking affirmative action, action that can be seen, you will probably see an upsurge in green stickie money. RC : I think you used an interesting term - affirmative action - because I get a feel ing th e motorcycle people feel like they are a racial m inorit y as far as outdoor recreation goes , and that may be a vali d wa y to look at it. Affirmative action m eans you open up th e opportunity for t he people who do what their p referen ce is. I can't tell you I'm go ing to be 100% wit h you , but I' ll promise you I' ll be up front on the issues and you'll kn ow where I stand on th em . CN: By the way , are you a member of the Sierra Club, Mr. Cahill? RC : No , a nd I' ve never been a mem ber either . I was the second staff mem ber on th e President's Cou ncil on Environ ment al Qua lity, which was formed in 1970 , I was staff b iologist during the first year. I've been the presid ent of th e Conserva tion Council t he Al a sk a fo r H aw a ii a nd Conservation Society, both of which are prett y mil itant environ mental groups , bu t I haven't ever been I invo lved with the Sierra Cl ub . M y ba ck g r ound h as b een in N ational Parks. I was in cha rge of law enforce me nt in Yosem ite . I was a park su pe rinten den t in Hawa ii a nd in bet ween I was a ra nger in two big I wilde rness p arks in Alaska . I ran th e Pacific p arks system in Alaska for a I couple of years , We had conflicts with I motorized and non -motori zed users I (wh ich , by th e way , were very well resol ved, I t ho ught) . T he b iggest public hearing in the history of Alaska 1 (a nd this includes the nuclear tests public h e a r in g s and t he Alaska I pipeline) was a hearing held on zoning a half-million acre state park adjacent to half the population of Alaska between motorized and non -mot orized unlim ited use . There were th ree TV ca meras an d a bout 1,200 people in this enormous auditorium (and that's a large group of people for Alaska , the entire po pulation is less than 500,000), The issue was , should sno w mach ines or should skiers get to use th e pa rk ? The resol ution was skiers got h alf the wat ers hed and snow machi nes go t the other ha lf, leaving the wildern ess open to skiers . Alth ou gh there was a lot of scream ing a t th e time , it was handled very well. But tha t's wha t th e public hearin g p ro cess is a ll a bo ut. People ge t to ge t up and have th eir say . If we don 't do that , we don't ha ve a gene ra l public hea rin g process; we have a super-court trial. One of th e crosses you bear in a jo b like this is you hav e to go out and hold those meetings to hear what the people have to say. Even if you ha ve to hear th e same th ing over and over again, it 's the only righ t solution. •

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