We agree completely with this editorial that the planned Indian Heritage Center in the Parkway is a very important addition to our region. The Center will be of significant statewide import as well as national, further clarifying the national heritage value of the American River and its original residents.
It is of such importance that we cannot envision it not being approved and the argument that it doesn’t fit in the Parkway plan is misrepresented as it is in the same general purpose and category, though obviously of much larger size, of the already existing and recently expanded Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Ancil Hoffman Park.
Finally, what could be more natural and environmentally important for the Parkway than a center celebrating the heritage of its original residents who were, in many respects, the original environmentalists.
Editorial: Opportunity in danger
Don't let Indian Heritage Center slip away
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The dream of building the California Indian Heritage Center on the banks of the American River Parkway near Northgate Boulevard may be slipping away. On March 1, the state task force guiding the effort to build the $150 million Indian interpretive center voted to abandon a city plan to split the facility between two locations.
In that plan, one section would have been on the north side of the river along the parkway and the other on the south side at Richards Boulevard. The city planned to build a pedestrian bridge to connect the two.
Citing "land acquisition complexities" and the "costly and uncertain bridge component," the CIHC task force voted to halt all negotiations to acquire land on Richards Boulevard and to refocus its efforts on the north side of the river along the parkway.
That means that the city of Sacramento needs to regroup and redouble its efforts or risk losing the project entirely. That would be a shame.
The initial decision by the CIHC task force to build its interpretive center on 201 acres along the parkway was a real cause for celebration. Minutes from downtown Sacramento, the site sits amid a lush riparian landscape of valley oak, cottonwoods and horsetail reeds. The interpretive center could help rescue that stretch of river, which homeless campers have occupied for years. More than that, the center is envisioned as a tribute to the original inhabitants of this land. It would be a wonderful educational opportunity for all Californians and a first-rate amenity for Sacramento and the region.
