Measure Y was a 1974 tax over-ride that raised funds for capital improvements to Berkeley's parks. Former Mayor Shirley Dean and former Parks & Recreation Commissioner Ed Bennett were instrumental in the conception and passage of Measure Y.
The planning process that ensued was the last time the City of Berkeley looked at the overall park system from a master planning perspective, with the goal of providing each neighborhood with a minimum of park acreage.
Measure Y funded school parks, Cedar/Rose Park, George Florence Park, Bateman Park and the expansion of existing parks. The Measure Y process proposed funding a park at Halcyon Court, which wound up not happening until 1998, when neighbors organized the development of a park there.
Today there are very few possible places for park expansion, and the few large parcels that might be appropriate for park land are worth millions of dollars. We are indebted to the park activists of the '70s.