The Parkway has been severely understaffed with rangers for many years, one of the major reasons the Lower Reach of the Parkway is virtually off-limits to the adjacent communities due to widespread illegal camping and the crime associated with it, and increasing the ranger patrols for the whole year, while beefing them up for the holidays, makes much more sense than banning behavior—drinking—many do responsibly, even on holidays.
Editorial: Dry river parties
Booze ban on holiday weekends worth try
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The California Legislature is rapidly closing a strange loophole that Sacramento County supervisors created in their effort to clean up the act of holiday revelers along the American River Parkway.
Last year, the supervisors approved a ban of all alcohol along the banks of the American River, the turf that they control. But the supervisors could not ban alcohol on the thousands of rafts that float down the river on the Fourth of July, and over Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. The waterway itself is under the jurisdiction of the state. If rafters managed to get the booze on board, the floating party would be legal. Fortunately, Assembly Bill 951 by Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, is about to close that liquid loophole.
