Comments for Parkway Coalition Summit Meeting

This is a copy of the letter sent to the Summit Meeting Organizers prior to the meeting, providing our imput into the proceedings. The minutes of that meeting are posted on the American River Parkway Foundation website www.arpf.org, under Stakeholder Summit on their dashboard.

February 20, 2005

Open Comments for American River Parkway Stakeholder Summit: Saturday, February 26, 2005

I had RSVP’d to attend the meeting on Saturday but am unable to do so, however I still wanted to contribute some comments.

There was an article in the Bee this past Friday, Permanent funding remains elusive for river parkway, by Walt Wiley, that, once again brings attention to the still untold story of how ineffective management and elusive public leadership have brought our community’s greatest public natural resource to such a sad state.

Public leadership for the Parkway still remains elusive, and I applaud the efforts of the Coalition to continue as part of the emerging conversation about how to solve the problems we have gotten ourselves into regarding the Parkway.

The founding visionary thinking, strategic community initiative, and sound management, accompanying the beginning years of our Parkway is rightly praised, but since those early halcyon days, all three have been elusive.

While other regions of the country are using Joint Powers Authority’s (JPA), nonprofit conservancies, and endowments to govern, manage, and fund their natural heritage, Sacramento appears to be allowing theirs to fall into ruin.

Raising taxes, the solution your group seems to be coalescing around through the plan being discussed in the aforementioned article, apart from increasing pressure on already over-burdened tax payers, is a poor funding option, and still doesn’t address the essential problem the Parkway has, which is the lack of dedicated funding and effective management

Raising taxes puts the money into a regional park pot, but still fails fulfilling the very necessary goal of providing separate and dedicated funding exclusively for the American River Parkway, and really does not even address management.

Using models operating throughout the country, the Parkway could be governed by a JPA, consisting of the government entities of Sacramento County, the City of Sacramento, and Rancho Cordova.

Management could be contracted out to a public nonprofit conservancy, which would be a public benefit 501 c (3) nonprofit corporation, subject to public oversight, but more responsive and capable of effective daily management, as well as possessing the tax exemption and community accountability necessary for endowment building.

Through a JPA, if Sacramento County can continue paying $4 million annually, with Sacramento and Rancho Cordova contributing $1.5 million each, that will more than meet the current needed maintenance requirements, exceeding what is now available solely through the County.

The conservancy, under contract to the JPA, could then contract with local fund raising counsel to build an endowment of $25 million, which could produce income to improve the Parkway while the JPA continues to provide funds to maintain it.

The Parkway, because of its national historic value, is also a candidate for designation as a National Heritage Area, which could free up federal funding and support during the endowment building period.

We would like to see this possible designation be called the Rivers of Red Gold National Heritage Area and would encourage your group to investigate the National Heritage Area program as it offers some interesting possibilities in relation to the Parkway.

Our strategy, which we consider a very viable and congruent array of ideas to move us forward, and one that does not include raising taxes, is available on our website, http://www.arpps.org/ .

Sacramento, meanwhile, continues seeking that elusive public leadership, and will continue to hope that your coalition can provide a thoughtful strategic direction for the community, one that relies on independent thinking, is generously collaborative with all public and private interests who play a role in building our community, and inclusive of all points of view.

Take care and have a good meeting.

Sincerely,

David H. Lukenbill, President

American River Parkway Preservation Society www.arpps.org

How Conservancies Work

When talking about seeing a nonprofit conservancy assume the management of the Parkway, (which we do all the time) nothing makes the point better than an example of that model with a conservancy management arrangement that is working.

To give you a sense of the relationship between local government and a nonprofit conservancy at the Central Park Conservancy in New York, the main model we use for what could happen with the American River Parkway, here is some info from the Central Park Conservancy’s website:

http://www.centralparknyc.org/thenandnow/partnership/contract

Public/Private Partnership

In 1998, the City of New York awarded the Central Park Conservancy a management contract that ensures the continuing maintenance, public programming, and capital restoration of Central Park. This contract confirms the City's confidence in its nearly twenty-year partnership with the Conservancy Both the Conservancy and the City of New York have invested to date nearly $300 million in Central Park operations, capital improvements, programs for visitors and volunteers, and endowment; it also has played an increasingly active role in Park management. Under this agreement, the Conservancy will receive an annual fee for services. The amount of the fee will be determined by a formula that requires the Conservancy to raise and spend a specified minimum amount of private funds in the Park on an annual basis. The minimum Conservancy annual expenditure – which can include maintenance, programming and landscape improvements – is $5 million. The annual fee from the City will depend on the Conservancy's expenditures in the Park and on the revenues generated by concessions in Central Park.

Contract with New York City

Under this eight-year agreement, the Conservancy will provide for the Park's day-to-day care. Specified in the contract are: landscape maintenance, replacement of dead trees and plants, mowing and reseeding/resodding, graffiti removal, cleaning playgrounds and comfort stations, clearing walkways; cleaning drains, sewers, and walkways; repairing benches, and maintaining and repairing structures and monuments.

The Conservancy's responsibilities also include providing public programs to educate visitors about the Park's built and natural assets. Over the term of its partnership with the City, the Conservancy has expanded its activities to include all of the above activities; the management contract ratifies those activities.

The City of New York's Role in Central Park

The City of New York retains control and policy responsibility for Central Park. Capital improvements in the Park will continue to undergo public review at each stage of development with advice and consent from the Commissioner of Parks & Recreation. The City of New York/ Parks & Recreation has discretion over all events in the Park, and that will continue. At present, all revenues generated from concessions in the Park go into the City of New York's general fund, and that will continue.

The Conservancy's Qualifications

The Central Park Conservancy is uniquely qualified to manage Central Park. The Conservancy has a proven track record in restoring and managing the Park. With its partner, the City of New York, it brought the Park from its deteriorated state in the late 1970s to its present condition, with major landscapes and historic structures restored and well-maintained. The Conservancy is a model for public-private partnerships for parks throughout the country and has developed an excellent staff of park management professionals.

The Conservancy also has a track record in raising private funds to improve and preserve Central Park. Since its founding in 1980, the Conservancy has raised nearly $300 million in private dollars, which, combined with the City's investment, turned Central Park into a living symbol of New York City's revitalization. Further, of every $1 the Conservancy raises, more than $.80 goes toward direct spending on horticulture, operations, maintenance, education, recreation, and public programs.

The Conservancy's Governance

The Conservancy is and will be accountable to the City of New York. The City of New York retains control and policy responsibility for Central Park.

The Commissioner and officials of the City of New York/Parks & Recreation Department are involved in all Park planning and must approve all of the Conservancy's capital improvements in the Park. In addition, the Conservancy's 60-member Board of Trustees includes the Parks Commissioner and the Borough President of Manhattan, both ex officio, five Trustees appointed by the Mayor of the City of New York, and private sector members representing the City's business and philanthropic communities.

The Conservancy's Community Outreach and Public Review Process

Central Park will always be a public park. The Conservancy will continue to involve the public in the planning of any improvements to the Park. Starting with approval by the Commissioner of Parks & Recreation, the Conservancy's community outreach on capital projects is one of the most extensive and inclusive in the City. For any project, the Conservancy consults with Park users and surrounding communities to help develop its plans. The Conservancy then presents its plans to Community Boards, the Landmarks Preservation and Art Commissions for their review and approval. This process will continue unaltered.

Advisory boards comprised of community residents work with the Conservancy on a range of projects and issues. They include the following, and will be expanded as projects and programs create the need: The Upper Park Community Advisory Committee, the Woodlands Advisory Board, the Great Lawn Advisory Committee, the Central Park Recreation Roundtable, the North Meadow Recreation Center Advisory Committee, the Public Programs Community Advisory Committee, and the Frederick Douglass Circle Community Advisory Committee.

Elusive Leadership

February 20, 2005

Letter to the Editor of the Sacramento Bee

Re: Permanent funding remains elusive for river parkway.
by Walt Wiley, Bee Staff Writer, Friday February 18, 2005

Public leadership for the Parkway also remains elusive:

The article once again brings attention to the untold story of how ineffective management and elusive public leadership have brought our community’s greatest public natural resource to such a sad state.

The founding visionary thinking, strategic community initiative, and sound management, accompanying the beginning years of our Parkway is rightly praised, but since then, all three have been elusive.

While other regions of the country are using Joint Powers Authority’s (JPA), nonprofit conservancies, and endowments to govern, manage, and fund their natural heritage, Sacramento appears to be allowing theirs to fall into ruin.

Raising taxes, apart from increasing pressure on already over-burdened tax payers, is a poor option, and doesn’t address the essential problem the Parkway has, which is the lack of dedicated funding and effective management.

Raising taxes, though the plan being discussed, puts the money into a regional park pot, but still fails the needed goal of separate and dedicated funding exclusively for the American River Parkway.

Using models operating throughout the country, the Parkway could be governed by a JPA of Sacramento County, the City of Sacramento, and Rancho Cordova. Management could be contracted out to a public nonprofit conservancy, which would be a public benefit 501 c (3) nonprofit corporation, subject to public oversight, but more responsive and capable of effective daily management, as well as the tax exemption and community accountability necessary for endowment building.

Through a JPA, if Sacramento County can continue paying $4 million annually, with Sacramento and Rancho Cordova contributing $1.5 million each, that will meet the current needed maintenance needs, exceeding what is now available, while the conservancy contracts with local fund raising counsel to build an endowment of $25 million, which could produce income to improve the Parkway while the JPA funds maintain it.

The Parkway, because of its national historic value, is also a candidate for designation as a National Heritage Area, which could free up federal funding and support during the endowment building period.

A viable strategy, that does not include raising taxes, is available on our website, www.arpps.org .

Sacramento, meanwhile, continues seeking that elusive public leadership.

Sincerely,

David H. Lukenbill, President
American River Parkway Preservation Society

Photos Jan/Feb 2005

Photos of the ghettoed part of the Parkway are at this link: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nslc@pacbell.net/my_photos

Trail of Fears

Sacramento News & Review Article: December 2, 2004

Trail of fears

The American River Bike Trail is idyllic, as long as you don’t get maced, mugged or beaten with a rock

By Jason Probst

Retrieved from : http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-12-02/news2.asp

Observers say the trail’s first five miles east of Discovery Park are the most problematic.

Encompassing 32 miles from downtown Sacramento snaking east into Folsom, the American River Bike Trail is a regional jewel of recreation and outdoor splendor. But some enthusiasts point to a discomfiting trend of incidents--including muggings, vehicle burglaries and assaults--that suggest public safety on the trail is sorely lacking. Those trail users argue that a combination of understaffed park rangers and law-enforcement agencies can make an everyday outing turn ugly.

Lloyd Billingsley, who has eluded two attempted muggings while riding on the trail, said he saw a sheriff's deputy with an M-16 on July 4, while riding between Watt Avenue and Goethe Park.
"He's sort of ready to rock and roll with this thing. I stopped and asked what was going on," Billingsley said. "He said someone was out there shooting off a gun. But I talked to some people at the park, and they said there have been four people robbing bike riders."

Between May 10 and June 30 this year, there were six robberies, assaults or combinations of the two reported on the trail in the Northgate and Del Paso Heights areas. In one incident, the victim was stabbed before the assailant took money; in two, the assailants pointed a gun or what appeared to be a firearm; and in another, a victim was hit with a stick.

According to reports filed by the Sacramento Police Department, in all cases, the suspect descriptions were different, as was the method of operation.

In addition to those, since 2002, there have been 11 other reported cases of assault or battery on the trail, two robberies, one rape and one attempted rape. In one case, a bicyclist was seriously injured after riding into a head-high length of what may have been fishing line strung across the path.

For Skip Amerine, the daily commute means getting on his bike at his home near Hazel Avenue and riding to downtown Sacramento; he's been making the 40-mile round trip for 16 years and proudly maintains that it's much better than taking Highway 50 into the crowded downtown commute.

But he still remembers the June evening in 2001 when he was heading home from work. At mile 3.7, he came upon two white, male skinheads who parted, ostensibly to let him go by. When he passed, he was pepper-sprayed.

Luckily, Amerine's glasses deflected most of the chemicals, and he was able to ride to a call box down the trail.

"I called the police and fire people to come out, and they came in about 20 minutes," Amerine said. The two suspects, whom he says he was able to glimpse with his good eye, were never caught. "My major issue with enforcement of the trail is that county Parks and Rec. are spread real thin," said Amerine.

Amerine isn't bitter about the incident, despite the fact that it could have been much worse had the pepper spray disabled him at his 20-mph-plus pace.

Bill Rhea wasn't so lucky. In July 2000, paddling with a friend in the American River at Goethe Park, Rhea came across a half-dozen young skinheads throwing rocks at him from the bank. He approached the group in his canoe and asked them to stop. Rhea was trying out a new flat-water boat and readying himself for Eppie's Great Race.

One of the men "picked up a big baseball-sized rock and hit me in the head with it, like a club," he said.

The blow inflicted a compression fracture of the skull, 2.5 to 3 inches wide. He tipped over in his canoe but made it to shore to try to recuperate. The group fled, and his friend and witnesses were left to deal with the scene.

After reconstructive surgery, $72,000 in medical bills and six weeks of recuperation, Rhea returned to work with the state's Franchise Tax Board. He battled problems with equilibrium that lasted a year, and he managed to get his driver's license back after it was suspended because of his injury.

"The doctor said if it had been a half inch in either direction, I would've died instantly," he added.

Rhea also said he contacted the sheriff's office to hopefully find his assailant.

"I called them six or eight times," Rhea recalled. "They said, 'Don't call us; we'll call you.' I was very upset over that."

However, a law-enforcement source, who declined to be named for this story, said that incident would fall under the jurisdiction of the park rangers.

Dave Lydick, chief ranger for Sacramento County Parks, said his staff of 14 covers 26 miles of the trail--5,000 acres in all. A ranger most likely will be the first person to show up at an incident report.

"There's been changes over the years," Lydick said. "The sheriff's department used to have a unit in the unincorporated part of the parkway, eight on horseback and four on motorcycles. But that was in the early 1990s, before budget cuts."

Billingsley said his weekend outings on the trail have been increasingly problematic in the past one-and-a-half years. He typically rides from Discovery Park to Natomas and back. Last March, he had just entered the path along Garden Highway for his ride; up ahead, three men came into view--one lying down in the middle and the other two lurking on either side.

"I was thinking it was a fake," recalled Billingsley, 55. "I just kept going and didn't slow down." When he got to within approximately 20 feet of the seemingly downed man, "he jumped up out of the way."

It was the second time it's happened to Billingsley; in both cases, he kept pedaling, refusing to slow down, and got by without a confrontation.

"Just around Discovery Park, you have homeless types there. Sometimes it looks like the yard at Folsom Prison," Billingsley said. "People yell stuff at you for no apparent reason. I shouldn't have to carry a .45 to go for a bike ride."

After the incident near Garden Highway, Billingsley said, he called the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. "If I'd waited for them to give me an answer, I'd still be on hold. I waited about 15 minutes before hanging up," he said. "I called back the next day. The lady that answered just kept saying, 'Sir, do you realize how many of these we have?'"

Although the bike trail runs though a variety of law-enforcement jurisdictions--including Sacramento police, the Sacramento County sheriff, and the Rancho Cordova sheriff--people who have had incidents on the trail report similar responses when phoning in a crime.

On October 20, Sacramento cyclist Tim Freeman called 911 after seeing a man who appeared to be planning to burglarize vehicles near the Fair Oaks bridge. "I would soon realize how completely useless 911 is at a time like this," Freeman later wrote to the other members of his cyclists e-mail group. "As I'm waiting for 911 to even pick up, I hear the crisp 'pop' of a window breaking, and a car alarm goes off."

Once Freeman got through, his frustration only increased: "After a five-minute report of what was happening, the operator says it's a county issue and transfers me. I end up having to tell the sheriff's operator the same story. They took my cell number and said they would have someone check it out."

Freeman tracked down the victims in the parking lot and suggested they stay until police came, but he added that he's having second thoughts about parking his own vehicle there in order to use the trail.

"I know that law enforcement is strained, and a minor crime like this is probably low on the priority list, but I felt really frustrated by the lack of urgency and the impartiality that 911 emergency portrayed," he wrote. "I really got the impression that it was the first priority for them to see if they could pawn it off on another jurisdiction."

Of the several cyclists, runners and paddlers interviewed for this story, most agreed that the especially problematic portions of the trail are within the first five miles east of its beginning at Discovery Park, as well as in the Northgate and Del Paso Heights areas.

Walt Siefert, executive director of Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, says that having more people on the trail would make it safer, but that solution has problems, too.

"It's real tough. On the one hand, we want people to use the trail. But on the other, especially the first four or five miles of the trail, it's hard to recommend to people, especially women riding alone, that they venture out there," Siefert said. "We'd like to have more eyes on the trail, but we don't think it's as safe as it could be right now."