In this story from today’s Bee we see West Sacramento beginning to embrace their river waterfront, (part of which is planned to become like the Parkway) and make the Sacramento River a more integral part of their community.
Here is an excerpt.
West Sac plan stirs imagination
Development plans for the waterfront on the west bank of the Sacramento River raise expectations.
By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, May 6, 2006
As a child, Dean Unger dined with his parents at the Captain's Table restaurant on the bank of the Sacramento River. He remembers his imagination drifting across the water to West Sacramento.
"The sun would bounce off the water and almost blind you," he said.
He wondered what it was like on the other side of the river. "You get that sparkling view of Sacramento," he said. "All those little things intrigued me."
They still intrigue him.
Unger has sunk his money into a rough-hewn patch of riverfront sandwiched between the Tower Bridge and Pioneer Bridge in West Sacramento. And amid the industrial squalor of old railroad tracks and sheds, he still envisions sparkling views.
Thirty years after Unger dined along the river with his parents, a landmark plan to transform the Sacramento River's west bank is moving toward a 2007 groundbreaking. Unger's 14.5 acres with its 1,500-foot stretch of waterfront would be part of the crown jewel.
The West Sacramento City Council recently backed a specific design plan for the major portion of a roughly 3.5-mile promenade and trail rimming the city's riverfront. The walkway would be anchored by an expansive, open plaza and would feature artful lighting, sculpted designs and fountains on a bluff overlooking the water for about a mile between the two bridges.
In the less urban neighborhoods beyond the Pioneer and Tower bridges, the outer portions of the promenade would be more rural in character, much like the American River Parkway.
