This story in the Bee is a wonderful testament to the deep love so many of us feel for the Parkway, and how important it is to keep it nice and clean for everyone to use; but it also is a deadly reminder of how dirty it gets, largely through the illegal camping by the homeless, and how crucial it is that we discover another way to ensure it remains clean rather than the sporadic clean-up by small organizations that can’t possibly keep up with the mess, or even the most dedicated efforts by one or two volunteers who do so regularly.
Remember that the Parkway is falling behind about $1.1 million annually just in maintenance, according to the American River Parkway Financial Needs Study Update 2006 (p. vii), so it is impossible to care for the Parkway—including regular clean-up—as it was intended to be cared for, let alone to improve it by adding new land and expanding its educational and recreational assets.
The solution we have proposed for stabilizing funding for the American River Parkway is to establish a nonprofit organization to contract with a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) of local government entities, to manage the Parkway and provide a supplemental fund raising capability through philanthropy, which you can read more about on our website’s news page in our press release from January 18, 2008.
This is the model being used by the Central Park Conservancy to manage Central Park in New York—and the Conservancy raise’s 85% of funding needed by Central Park (including paid leadership coordinating the efforts of the many volunteers who regularly clean it up)—and the Sacramento Zoological Society to manage the Sacramento Zoo, which they have wholly done since 1997 under contract with the City of Sacramento.
An excerpt from the article.
“When the annual Great American River Clean Up kicks off at 9 a.m. today [September 20] with 1,000 volunteers destined to collect 20 tons of garbage, Bill Perry, 57, will be among them.
“The retired state worker has become a local legend.
“The oldest of seven children, Perry credits his dad for teaching him to leave a place better than he found it.
“The Bee chatted with Perry about his commitment to picking up trash.
“There's trash everywhere, not just on the parkway. Does it ever drive you crazy?
“I understand that it's bigger than me. I just do my little piece. So I don't lay awake thinking about it.
“Why do you do it?
“I started rowing on the American in 1985 after breaking my kneecap. I couldn't ride my bike for about a year. I would see the trash along the riverbanks. I've always had a lot of pride in Sacramento and I didn't like the idea of the boaters seeing all of that trash because I thought it reflected on our community.
“Did it begin to consume you?
“The American River is just so beautiful. There were times when I worked four or five days in a row. I would take vacation time to do this.
“Though they're not the only ones who litter, the homeless are part of the equation on the lower three miles of the parkway. What have you observed about that population over the years?
“It was almost like society itself. There were drug addicts and mentally ill who were really not approachable. But there were also regular everyday people who were just trying to get by. You can stereotype a whole group if you want, but they are all very different people.”
