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Bee helps kill bridge buzz
Max Lenail's father cites government mindset as one reason for memorial project's halt
In January of 2021, Max Lenail drowned in the San Diego River while attempting to cross over a swollen section of the water near the Jackson Drive entrance of Mission Trails Regional Park. He had just gone for a long run. He was 21 years old and in great shape. An intense storm was soaking him with rain and hail, and he had to decide whether to cross the river using the concrete-encased sewer that served as an unofficial crossing, or turn around, climb and descend the South Fortuna peak a second time, and cross over the river on the other side of the park, at the Old Mission Dam. He chose the unofficial crossing, and his body was recovered from the San Diego River the next day.
If there had been a proper bridge at the Jackson Drive crossing, Max Lenail would likely still be alive today. Realizing this, Max’s mother and father, Laurie Yoler and Ben Lenail, set out to make that bridge a reality. In a recent account shared with me via email, Ben Lenail wrote, "We met other bereaved parents, and we were shocked at how they had become like ghosts, sleepwalking through life. We decided to seek connection and meaning instead. Over the past four-and-a-half years, I invested 3000 hours into the project. I took 18 trips to San Diego, and managed a large and highly-experienced project team representing all major trades. I interacted extensively with local citizen and public interest groups, elected officials, and city and state bureaucrats. My goal: to build much-needed infrastructure for the safety of Park users, and to make improvements to Mission Trails Regional Park, a gorgeous corner of the Golden State — all in loving memory of our deceased son."
On June 1 of this year, Lenail issued a stop-work order on the project. “It's so sad,” he says. “I've been working on it for four and a half years and it's been like pushing a boulder up the hill. But I'm at a real point here of, you know, having to pause and really turn it back to San Diego authorities and say, ‘You know, if you want this, you have to drive it or help me drive it, instead of, you know, making me do all the work and kind of obstructing along the way.’”
Lenail and Yoler raised nearly a million dollars for their project, mostly donations from friends, family, and other supporters. Lenail estimates that 80% of that was spent on surveys and permits — "biological, archaeological, hydrological, and geotech surveys, and a site preparation permit, with the greening and building permits being next" — and that another $500,000 would be required before construction could even begin. (For starters: because they could not cross the river or touch the water, they had to develop a plan to repair the road that would let them access the northern side of the river.)
The couple worked with the The Mission Trails Regional Park Citizens Advisory Committee, The Mission Trails Regional Park Task Force, The Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation, and City of San Diego's Department of Parks & Rec/Open Space. They got the blessing of the Campo Band of Mission Indians and the San Diego River Park Foundation. They got approvals from the community planning groups of Tierrasanta and Navajo, and a pledge of assistance from the city's Development Services Department. And they were given a $1.5 million grant from the state to help with actual construction costs — provided construction ever actually began.
It wasn't enough. "The City requested that the bridge, located in the middle of a wilderness, be fully ADA compliant — a nonsensical requirement. California Department of Fish & Wildlife — always in opposition to the bridge — discovered a potentially endangered bumblebee at the site, thus mandating extensive biological studies of the insect’s presence, lifestyle, and habits; thus adding time and cost."
And on March 21, writes Lenail, "we showed up to a meeting with 20+ bureaucrats from various city, county, state, and federal agencies. The agencies claimed they had never been briefed by the City’s Development Services Department, and were ignorant of the project. This was not true. The state Fish & Wildlife bureaucrats questioned the need for a bridge in the first place. They then dismissed the architectural design of the bridge, and demanded a different one, something completely beyond their purview, according to senior City officials. Bureaucracy, red tape, and regulations had prevailed over the public interest and progress of a much-needed infrastructure project in California."
Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the construction phase of the bridge, which was estimated to run $3-5 million in 2021, has now ballooned to $5.8 million. This is due in part to the fact that they agreed on using a bolder design for the bridge. “Needing a high bridge that could withstand a 100-year flood added to bridge bulk, scale, and structural complexity. A suspended bridge, you know: higher, with an unobstructed view,” Lenail says. “The cost went up, and I think we got caught in some of the inflation and the higher cost of materials. That is a reality today, particularly if projects contain any imported materials" subject to the Trump administration's tariffs.
Other media outlets have been quick to cite Trump's budget cuts as a reason for the project's halt, but an interesting wrinkle to this story is that recent CEQA reforms in California have streamlined environmental reviews on public parks and trails. The current cost increases in construction would likely still put this project out of reach, but if those reforms had been enacted prior to 2021, it's possible that people could have been walking and biking across the Max Lenail Memorial Bridge for a couple of years now.
“It's a sort of mindset, you know?” Lenail says. “Visualizing that the bridge should be built, and acting like an owner on the part of the agencies, and saying, ‘What can we do to help build it?’ Instead of a mindset of scarcity and impediment — saying, ‘Oh, no, it's too hard, and there are too many arguments against it’— it’s sort of flipping the logic and saying, ‘What can we do to come together and make it happen, to build it with an eye towards how it will benefit the public?’ I think we've lost a little bit of that mindset."
Here's something you might be interested in.
Bee helps kill bridge buzz
Max Lenail's father cites government mindset as one reason for memorial project's halt
Bee helps kill bridge buzz
Max Lenail's father cites government mindset as one reason for memorial project's halt
In January of 2021, Max Lenail drowned in the San Diego River while attempting to cross over a swollen section of the water near the Jackson Drive entrance of Mission Trails Regional Park. He had just gone for a long run. He was 21 years old and in great shape. An intense storm was soaking him with rain and hail, and he had to decide whether to cross the river using the concrete-encased sewer that served as an unofficial crossing, or turn around, climb and descend the South Fortuna peak a second time, and cross over the river on the other side of the park, at the Old Mission Dam. He chose the unofficial crossing, and his body was recovered from the San Diego River the next day.
If there had been a proper bridge at the Jackson Drive crossing, Max Lenail would likely still be alive today. Realizing this, Max’s mother and father, Laurie Yoler and Ben Lenail, set out to make that bridge a reality. In a recent account shared with me via email, Ben Lenail wrote, "We met other bereaved parents, and we were shocked at how they had become like ghosts, sleepwalking through life. We decided to seek connection and meaning instead. Over the past four-and-a-half years, I invested 3000 hours into the project. I took 18 trips to San Diego, and managed a large and highly-experienced project team representing all major trades. I interacted extensively with local citizen and public interest groups, elected officials, and city and state bureaucrats. My goal: to build much-needed infrastructure for the safety of Park users, and to make improvements to Mission Trails Regional Park, a gorgeous corner of the Golden State — all in loving memory of our deceased son."
On June 1 of this year, Lenail issued a stop-work order on the project. “It's so sad,” he says. “I've been working on it for four and a half years and it's been like pushing a boulder up the hill. But I'm at a real point here of, you know, having to pause and really turn it back to San Diego authorities and say, ‘You know, if you want this, you have to drive it or help me drive it, instead of, you know, making me do all the work and kind of obstructing along the way.’”
Lenail and Yoler raised nearly a million dollars for their project, mostly donations from friends, family, and other supporters. Lenail estimates that 80% of that was spent on surveys and permits — "biological, archaeological, hydrological, and geotech surveys, and a site preparation permit, with the greening and building permits being next" — and that another $500,000 would be required before construction could even begin. (For starters: because they could not cross the river or touch the water, they had to develop a plan to repair the road that would let them access the northern side of the river.)
The couple worked with the The Mission Trails Regional Park Citizens Advisory Committee, The Mission Trails Regional Park Task Force, The Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation, and City of San Diego's Department of Parks & Rec/Open Space. They got the blessing of the Campo Band of Mission Indians and the San Diego River Park Foundation. They got approvals from the community planning groups of Tierrasanta and Navajo, and a pledge of assistance from the city's Development Services Department. And they were given a $1.5 million grant from the state to help with actual construction costs — provided construction ever actually began.
It wasn't enough. "The City requested that the bridge, located in the middle of a wilderness, be fully ADA compliant — a nonsensical requirement. California Department of Fish & Wildlife — always in opposition to the bridge — discovered a potentially endangered bumblebee at the site, thus mandating extensive biological studies of the insect’s presence, lifestyle, and habits; thus adding time and cost."
And on March 21, writes Lenail, "we showed up to a meeting with 20+ bureaucrats from various city, county, state, and federal agencies. The agencies claimed they had never been briefed by the City’s Development Services Department, and were ignorant of the project. This was not true. The state Fish & Wildlife bureaucrats questioned the need for a bridge in the first place. They then dismissed the architectural design of the bridge, and demanded a different one, something completely beyond their purview, according to senior City officials. Bureaucracy, red tape, and regulations had prevailed over the public interest and progress of a much-needed infrastructure project in California."
Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the construction phase of the bridge, which was estimated to run $3-5 million in 2021, has now ballooned to $5.8 million. This is due in part to the fact that they agreed on using a bolder design for the bridge. “Needing a high bridge that could withstand a 100-year flood added to bridge bulk, scale, and structural complexity. A suspended bridge, you know: higher, with an unobstructed view,” Lenail says. “The cost went up, and I think we got caught in some of the inflation and the higher cost of materials. That is a reality today, particularly if projects contain any imported materials" subject to the Trump administration's tariffs.
Other media outlets have been quick to cite Trump's budget cuts as a reason for the project's halt, but an interesting wrinkle to this story is that recent CEQA reforms in California have streamlined environmental reviews on public parks and trails. The current cost increases in construction would likely still put this project out of reach, but if those reforms had been enacted prior to 2021, it's possible that people could have been walking and biking across the Max Lenail Memorial Bridge for a couple of years now.
“It's a sort of mindset, you know?” Lenail says. “Visualizing that the bridge should be built, and acting like an owner on the part of the agencies, and saying, ‘What can we do to help build it?’ Instead of a mindset of scarcity and impediment — saying, ‘Oh, no, it's too hard, and there are too many arguments against it’— it’s sort of flipping the logic and saying, ‘What can we do to come together and make it happen, to build it with an eye towards how it will benefit the public?’ I think we've lost a little bit of that mindset."
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