City to Honor 'Belt Line' Activist Jean Sweeney

Jean Sweeney, a long-time Alameda resident and civic activist whose efforts were instrumental in enabling the city to purchase former railroad property at a bargain price, is being honored by the city council.

Council members are expected to approve on Tuesday a resolution declaring Nov. 1, 2011, as Jean Sweeney Day and directing that any open space eventually created from the Alameda Belt Line property be named the "Jean Sweeney Open Space Preserve."

Sweeney, a retired teacher, is a member of the Restoration Advisory Board for the former Naval Air Station Alameda (now Alameda Point) and a former member of the city's Northern Waterfront Committee. But she is perhaps best known for her role in the Belt Line purchase, where her research turned up old documents that helped the city buy the property for less than $1 million. She also spearheaded an initiative that required the land to be used for open space.

You may read more about those efforts at the Alameda Open Space website and the archives of The Island. Click on the PDF above to read the city proclamation in full.