Don't Fall Into the "Both Sides" Trap

We are thrilled to announce that we have crossed a major milestone: our membership now includes over 3,000 people who are invested in the outcome of recreation at Waterdog.

In a recent PROS committee meeting, commission member David Braunstein fell into the all-too-common "both sides" fallacy, implying that those who oppose recreation in the open space should have their views taken with the same weight as the overwhelming majority who support it.

The community has soundly rejected this anti-recreation agenda, as illustrated by failed runs for City Council on this platform by the loudest and most persistent of this minority, Pat Cuviello and Deniz Bolbol. These would-be ringleaders complain over and over, while those who support the Stewards' stance on recreation at Waterdog swell into the thousands. Their attack on the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course was also met with outrage by the community.

This handful of people tries to pit user groups against each other, and pushes a false narrative that this is a battle between hikers vs. bikers. The PROS survey and other public input consistently shows that hikers, cyclists, dog walkers, and runners all want the same thing: a continuation of Waterdog’s decades of successful shared-use policies. To the extent there are two groups, they consist of (1) a handful of people who are demanding radical and wholesale changes to open space policies, and (2) the rest of the community.

Let's reject this "both sides" premise once and for all, implement the sound improvements recently proposed for the open space, and get back to enjoying this incredible resource.