Parkway Announcement

Drill to simulate Folsom Dam failure
By Sam Stanton - sstanton@sacbee.com
Published 9:59 am PDT Thursday, September 11, 2008

One of the Sacramento area's most popular recreation areas will be closed to vehicles for much of Saturday while authorities conduct a disaster drill simulating a failure of the Folsom Dam.

The William B. Pond Recreation Area in Carmichael will be site of the drill Saturday morning while up to 300 civilian volunteers and emergency personnel work from 8 a.m. until early afternoon, Sacramento sheriff's Lt. Bill Myers said.

The county park typically is busy on weekends with bicyclists, pedestrians, joggers, anglers and others using the area, and people still will be able to walk into the area. Cyclists also will be able to use the bicycle trail that runs through it, county Ranger Supervisor Kathleen Utley said.

The drill for the Sacramento Civilian Emergency Response Team is designed to prepare volunteers to help in the event of a catastrophe.

In this instance, officials will be simulating a failure at the Folsom Dam, either through an attack of some sort or a breach, and will be training people in search and rescue, sandbagging and other techniques.

Officials also will be doing some training for the drill at nearby Del Dayo Elementary School. Fliers and emails have been sent to alert neighborhood residents and cycling and running groups, Myers and Utley said.

Residents can expect a large number of emergency vehicles in the vicinity and might hear loudspeakers.

ARPPS Letter Published

Our letter about the reported cause of many fires in the Parkway being attributed to illegal camping by the homeless has been published, and has particular relevance in light of the recent story of a rape near the Parkway, also reportedly by a homeless person, which noted:

“The attacker is described as white, in his mid-40s, 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 160 to 170 pounds. He had medium-length brown hair and a full salt-and-pepper beard. He was wearing a gray shirt with writing on the front, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. He spoke with a raspy voice and a Southern accent. His appearance was dirty and he appeared homeless, investigators said.”

Here is our letter.

Illegal camping has consequences
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 11, 2008

"Re "Blaze points to homeless" (Our Region, Sept. 7): This article captures many of the concerns that residents near the American River Parkway have been expressing for years about the consequences of illegal camping by the homeless.

"While campfires that become wildfires are the recent focus, the public safety issues surrounding illegal camping have plagued the nearby community for some time and are largely responsible for the inability of families to use the area of the parkway safely.

"We have supported the housing-first approach to dealing with the chronic homeless, and it has been adopted, but it's years away from making a significant difference.

"In the meantime, vigorous sweeps by police accompanied by homeless service programs can help encourage people to connect to the existing services that can help them get off the streets and out of the camps along the river.

"Sometimes the best way to help people – and almost all of us want to help the homeless – is through a little tough love.

– David H. Lukenbill, Sacramento,
Senior policy director, American River Parkway Preservation Society

Growth Limits & Car Sharing

1) In this article from the Washington Post the new bill by a Sacramento area legislator that would give priority to urban development over suburban, is discussed.

An excerpt.

“LOS ANGELES -- California is poised to pass the first law in the nation linking greenhouse gas emissions to urban planning, a departure from the growth approach that spawned the state's car culture and urban sprawl.

“The measure, known as SB375, aims to give existing and new high-density centers where people live, work and shop top priority in receiving local, state and federal transportation funds. The idea is that such developments check sprawl and ease commutes, in turn cutting the car pollution wafting through the Golden State.

“Authored by Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), the bill reflects California's push to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020. Sponsors say the measure is part of a much-needed growth policy for a state whose population is expected to swell to 50 million from the current 38 million in two decades.

"Many places across the country have realized that if you just build spread-out developments, with the expectation that everyone will have to drive for everything, it should be no surprise when the result is excessive burning of gasoline," said David Goldberg, spokesman for Smart Growth America, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group that helps cities and towns plan more workable, environmentally friendly growth.

"SB375 breaks new ground, because it specifically links that pattern of development to excess driving and what we need to do to address climate change," he said.

“Two years of intense negotiations have satisfied several critics of the bill and galvanized support from an unusual alliance of environmentalists, home builders, local governments and affordable-housing advocates.

“But other home builders and several business groups are among the bill's opponents. They say it adds a new layer to an already complicated approval process, opens projects up to delays and frivolous litigation, and could threaten the state's economy.

"It will hamper or completely stop infrastructure throughout the state. It will jeopardize buildings, the transfer of goods and services," said Tom Holsman, chief executive of the Associated General Contractors of California, which is joined by the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Grocers Association and the California Retailers Association in opposing the bill.”

2) This article about car sharing in the central city is a great idea. Several years ago when I lived downtown, I didn’t have a car and got around fine, riding my bike to work and walking most other places, then renting a car when needed.

However, I was also single at the time, and that is the preferred demographic for downtown living, along with childless couples, the retired, and students who can afford the cost.

An excerpt.

“You've got groceries to get at Safeway, laundry at the cleaners and that French restaurant to check out in the suburbs, but, no car.

“Soon, that may not be a problem thanks to an intriguing urban trend being studied for Sacramento.

“Just walk to a nearby parking lot, swipe a plastic card in a "members-only" car, drive it like it was yours for a few hours, then drop it off where you got it.

“Welcome to the eco-friendly world of car sharing, a European concept getting traction in larger American cities from San Francisco to New York City.

“Sacramento city officials have talked recently with two companies – one a nonprofit, the other for-profit – about bringing some form of car sharing to the central city.

"It sounds like a really cool idea," city transportation official Linda Tucker said. "It could be a good fit for the midtown area. It affords people the use of a vehicle without the expense of owning it."

“Tucker said Sacramento officials are only beginning to explore the idea, and aren't sure if it will pencil out here.

“But as more lofts and condominiums are packed into downtown, car sharing could help the city and developers reduce exorbitant parking costs, they say.”

Parkway Vicinity Rape, Reward Offered

As reported in the Sacramento Bee this morning:

Reward offered for information on Sacramento sex assault
By Chelsea Phua - cphua@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The River Park Neighborhood Association is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the man who sexually assaulted a teenage girl near the American River Parkway.

Dave O'Toole, the Association's vice president, said on Monday that the Aug. 19 crime has unnerved the neighborhood, which has experienced only smaller property crimes.

"The crime itself was very exceptional for the neighborhood," O'Toole said. "This was very brazen, and quite frightening because it happened in the middle of the day.

Sacramento police said the girl was walking along Sandburg Drive near Glenn Hall Park around 1 p.m. when the man approached her from behind and forced her into the women's restroom, where he sexually assaulted her.

He later fled on foot in an unknown direction.

The attacker is described as white, in his mid-40s, 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 160 to 170 pounds. He had medium-length brown hair and a full salt-and-pepper beard. He was wearing a gray shirt with writing on the front, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. He spoke with a raspy voice and a Southern accent. His appearance was dirty and he appeared homeless, investigators said.

In addition to the association's $1,000 reward, callers to Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP could also be eligible for another $1,000 reward and remain anonymous.

Dog Parks

The fifth guiding principle of our organization came about as a result of a meeting with Jackie Kuhwarth and leaders of other groups advocating for their particular use of the Parkway who were generally being denied access to the policy shaping decision process.

“5) Continuing exclusion of responsible usage by new Parkway user groups is contrary to the spirit upon which public ownership of a natural resource is predicated.

“Our Approach: The Parkway belongs to all of us. It is a community resource. The Parkway Management Plan should contain no absolute restrictions on user activity, rather a process of study and decision-making. Along with off-leash dog walking, mountain biking, full access for the disabled, inline skating, and a greatly expanded network of picnic and sitting places, there are a variety of new usages that should be under consideration to become part of the Parkway experience.

“Our Guiding Principle: Regarding new parkway usages: Inclusion should be the operating principle rather than exclusion.”

An excerpt from the article in the Bee about dog parks.

“As her dogs splashed through the American River and bounded along Paradise Beach, Jackie Kuhwarth fumed over the citation in her hand.

“Eight years after getting that citation for allowing her dogs to run off-leash, Kuhwarth is feeling a little triumphant.

“Plans for a 4-acre dog park near the American River are on the drawing board. The enclosed expanse for dog owners and their dogs is part of a $2 million building phase at Sutter's Landing Regional Park near midtown.

“The citation prompted Kuhwarth to organize the Sacramento Dog Owners Group and wage a long civic battle for territory on the river where dogs can roam off-leash, plunge into the water and run through the wilderness.

“Her dream is still not realized. But the park near the river is a welcome compromise, she said.

"Small, fenced parks are a wonderful place for people who can't walk," Kuhwarth said. "We're not like a bunch of renegades who advocate dogs running amok."

“In her perfect world, she envisions a 25-acre dog reserve at the water's edge for her three basenjis.”

Growing up in the Suburbs

I think everyone who did grow up in the suburbs, knows—or will learn at some point in their life—that it is the best place to grow up in America, and that is the focus of this article from New Geography.

An excerpt.

“Suburbs,” the great urbanist Jane Jacobs once wrote, “must be a difficult place to raise children.” Yet, as one historian notes, had Jacobs turned as much attention to suburbs as she did to her beloved Greenwich Village, she would have discovered that suburbs possessed their own considerable appeal, particularly for those with children.

“Although some still hold onto the idea that suburbs are bad places to raise children, in virtually every region of the country, families with children are far more likely to live in suburbs than in cities. Nearly all the leading locations in percentages of married couples are suburbs, from Midwestern towns like O’Fallon, Missouri to Sugarland, Texas, Naperville, Illinois and Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

“In contrast, many of the places with the lowest percentages of children are urban centers. This includes many of the most highly touted urban cores such as Manhattan, Boston, Portland, Seattle and San Francisco.

“This is particularly true among more affluent, middle class, educated family households. Despite the rise in the number of children in a few affluent locales, such as the upper east side of Manhattan, most middle class families tend to cluster outside the city core. Even in Manhattan the number of kids falls considerably below the national average after the age of five.”

The Homeless & Parkway Fires

Once again reporting what many have been saying for years regarding the origin of Parkway fires, adjacent neighborhood crimes, the public safety hazards involved in accessing the lower part of the Parkway around the North Sacramento Cal Expo and Midtown area, the Sacramento Bee publishes an excellent article in today’s paper.

An excerpt.

“As firefighters tried to tame a blaze Saturday along the lower stretch of the American River Parkway and as cars on Highway 160 slowed to watch a helicopter dart overhead to make a water drop, Ralph Plunkett stood in the shade of the overpass, his head bowed.

“It was too soon to tell what caused the fire that raced through the underbrush, shot into the treetops and charred a large swatch of land, but Plunkett, who lives nearby in a homeless camp, already knew whom most folks would suspect.

“The homeless are blamed for the trash, for the persistence of illegal camping, for scores of petty thefts in nearby neighborhoods, for bringing down property values and, in many cases, for the fires that dot the parkway landscape during the summer dry season.

"It's making us look bad as homeless people," said Plunkett, 48, who has been homeless most of the past eight years. "Yeah, it's probably a homeless person who did this, but it's not all of us."

"There are homeless everywhere you look around here," said Vincent Talancon, a member of a nearby neighborhood watch group. "I don't want to speculate, but 95 percent of these fires are started by them, either by accident or because they just want to see fire."

Drought Plans

While the water bank proposal reported on in the Bee is a good idea, an even better one is the completion of two projects approved long ago but still not acted on.

Along with the obvious solution for our area, the building of Auburn Dam (which would double our storage capacity), supported by groups—including us—like the Auburn Dam Council, there is another that would solve the water problems for the larger region and that is the raising of Shasta Dam to its originally engineered height of 200 feet higher than it now is, tripling its water supply, which an 2004 article from the Los Angeles Times describes:

“Concrete solution for water? Raising Shasta Dam's height looms large among ideas to boost state's dwindling storage. By Dave Whitney, November 21, 2004

‘….From an engineering standpoint, it's a piece of cake. The dam, built between 1938 and 1945, was originally planned to be 200 feet taller. At 800 feet, it would have been the highest and biggest in the world.

“Sheri Harral, public affairs officer at the dam, said World War II and materials shortages associated with the war effort led to a decision to stop construction at 602 feet.

"The thinking was to come back and add on to it if ever there was a need to," Harral said. "They started looking at raising it in 1978."

“If Shasta Dam had been built up to its engineering limit in 1945, it is arguable that Northern and Central California would not be facing a critical water shortage now.

“According to a 1999 Bureau of Reclamation study, a dam 200 feet taller would be able to triple storage to 13.89 million acre-feet of water.”

The cost for these two projects is probably in the $20 billion range, a relatively low price to pay for the extra water, hydroelectric power, Parkway and salmon sustainability (from the stabilization of American River water flow and temperature from Auburn Dam) and extra flood protection.

Five Year Anniversary, Part Two

This week is the five year anniversary of our nonprofit corporate formation in the State of California as ARPPS was officially certified by the Secretary of State on September 4, 2003; a fitting time to reflect a moment on our roots.

During the founding period of the Parkway, the County established three nonprofit organizations to help with the fulfilling of their long-range vision.

However, what later became evident was also needed (due to funding shrinkage and mangement ineffectiveness) was an independent and organized focus on developing alternative strategies to fund development and management, which led to the founding of our organization.

As we noted in our initial strategy (also posted on our website) there are five strategic issues of primary concern:

“The American River Parkway is the most valuable natural resource in our community and one of the most valuable in the nation. To preserve it, building on the foundation of our five guiding principles, we propose the following:

“(1) Preserving the Parkway is not an option, it’s a necessity.

1. Work to ensure a long-term funding goal of building a permanent financial endowment for perpetual Parkway funding support.
2. Work to ensure the creation of the American River Parkway as the Rivers of Red Gold National Heritage Area, a program of the National Parks Service, but locally managed by a nonprofit conservancy.

“National Heritage status, while allowing Parkway land ownership to remain as is, and allowing for a local conservancy to manage the Parkway, would ensure a federal funding stream long enough to develop endowment funding, and provide additional benefits that national stature endows upon a natural resource.

1. Work to ensure an existing nonprofit conservancy assumes management of the Parkway, recruiting executive leadership with academic and experiential credentials in nonprofit administration and fund development, and embrace social enterprise fund raising strategies proven successful in other parks.

“A local management conservancy can build a fund development strategy of committed local leadership and social entrepreneurship, through targeted capacity building of Parkway organizations and related social enterprise ventures compatible with the conservancy mission.

“(2) What’s good for the salmon is good for the river.

1. Work to ensure the availability of whatever amount of water is needed to ensure optimal flow and temperature for the salmon.

“To provide optimal water temperature and water flow for the salmon, it is necessary to increase the water storage capacity of the American River Watershed, providing cooling waters and increasing or decreasing flow when needed. While the suggested increase of the water storage capacity of Folsom Dam will benefit the salmon, the community should be prepared to further increase water storage capacity, if needed. The increased pressure on the river, (primarily population-driven), will eventually destroy the river’s capacity to provide the salmon the optimal conditions they need.

“(3) Regarding illegal camping by the homeless in the North Sacramento area of the Parkway, social and environmental justice call upon us to help the poor and distressed person, and the poor and distressed community.

1. Work to ensure all stakeholders realize public safety and compassion for the homeless, illegally camping in the Parkway in North Sacramento, should be equal responsibilities addressed by Parkway management, homeless advocacy organizations, and local government.

“The public safety issue must be of equal concern to helping the homeless. Rapes, murders, beatings, assaults, and robberies occur regularly in the North Sacramento area of the Parkway, and many in the North Sacramento community are justifiably fearful about venturing into it. As a community, we can never give up on the vision that public compassion and public safety are compatible concepts.

“(4) If it can be seen from the Parkway, it shouldn’t be built along the Parkway.

1. Work to ensure visual intrusion by new development is absolutely prohibited forever, with no mitigation.

“Private property owners are not to be faulted for wanting to build large homes or commercial buildings along the Parkway, as it offers some of the most beautiful development sites in our area. However, none of us wants to see the Parkway become Malibuized. Confusion about the building regulations, as now exists, encourages that type of development. National Heritage Area status and the accompanying elevation in oversight will begin to offer the type of protection from visual intrusion caused by new development that current, virtually unregulated, Parkway development is now threatening.

“(5) Regarding new Parkway usages, inclusion should be the operating principle rather than exclusion.

1. Work to ensure local public ownership and local conservancy management operate under the guiding principle that the Parkway belongs to all of the people, who have an inalienable right to recreate within the commons.
2. Work to ensure there are designated seats on the Parkway conservancy management board of directors for organized recreational and sports users, as well as other organized stakeholders.

“As a locally managed National Heritage Area, the management position regarding use of the Parkway will become more inclusive. We will encourage a local conservancy management structure that incorporates all stakeholders and brings organized, responsible users to the decision making process by creating designated seats on the conservancy board of directors. We all want to encourage responsible usage of the Parkway, as legitimate usage is the best antidote to illegitimate usage.”

Parkway Controlled Burns?

The only reason the extreme option—of conducting controlled burns in the Parkway to reduce overgrowth—is even being considered is due to a lack of effective management of the Parkway.

Overgrowth issues in an urban/suburban park are ideally handled by a regular maintenance program that keeps the situation in check so that extreme measures with a very dangerous potential downside (like controlled burns accidently igniting fires on the many wood-shingled roofs of homes lining the Parkway) do not have to be resorted to; and the illegal camping by the homeless, from which several fires have reportedly begun, has to be reduced substantially.

However, the Parkway has been running a maintenance deficit every year for several years and overgrowth control has not been done (let alone substantially reducing illegal camping) creating the dangerous situation we now have, of tinderbox vegetation and the consideration of potentially dangerous alternatives.

The Bee reports on the discussion.

An excerpt.

“A spate of recent fires in the American River Parkway, including one near Cal Expo on Monday that climbed dangerously into the trees and even jumped the river, has prompted some officials to wonder: Is it time to renew talk about prescribed burns?

“The fires this summer have left patches of charred fields and singed trees in 10 or more places along the 23-mile parkway. This summer has been especially serious because the drought has left vegetation the driest on record, officials say.

“Prescribed burns have long been controversial in the heavily used parkway, home to abundant wildlife and used by a million people annually. But proponents maintain that if fire experts don't do the burning under controlled situations, arsonists will have their way and cause untold damage.

“The fire that began Monday, for instance, required 150 firefighters to control amid treacherous 30 mph winds. The blaze burned 16 acres of a grass field north of the river adjacent to Cal Expo.

“Ember showers carried by the winds caused the fire to jump the river and burn 16 acres at Sutter's Landing Regional Park, the nature area that was once the city dump. It also jumped the Capital City Freeway and burned 6 to 7 acres in an orchard, according to Lloyd Ogan, a deputy chief with the Sacramento Fire Department.”

Parkway Fire Announcement

Fire along parkway burns large area west of Cal Expo
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, September 3, 2008

A fire that erupted Monday afternoon along the American River Parkway was contained, but fire crews continued to monitor the situation, according to Fire Capt. Jim Doucette.

The fire, which closed the Capital City Freeway for a while, burned an area a mile long and up to a half-mile wide on both sides of the river from just west of Cal Expo to the old city dump. Fire Department investigators have not been able to determine a cause but said the fire apparently started in an area of many transient camps, Doucette said. (highlighting added)

Anyone with information is asked to call the arson tip line at (916) 808-8732.

– Bee Metro Staff

ARPPS Five Year Anniversary

This week is the five year anniversary of our nonprofit corporate formation in the State of California, as ARPPS was officially certified by the Secretary of State on September 4, 2003; a fitting time to reflect a moment on our roots.

First, why our name; American River Parkway Preservation Society.

Our mission fills that out by stating: Preserve, Protect, and Strengthen the American River Parkway, Our Community’s Natural Heart.

It was always understood by us that:

• Preserve means to ensure that the natural environment be preserved for human recreation and education, congruent with the founding principles of the Parkway.

• Protect means to ensure that the recreational and educational assets of the Parkway be adequately maintained for human use.

• Strengthen means to continually add to the Parkway by acquisition of Parkway adjacent land when it becomes available, and enhancing the recreational and educational assets of the Parkway on a continual basis.

We felt then as we do now, that none of these goals can be reached under the current funding or management strategy and we have continually called for a better way.

You can read about our ideas in a summary form on our website news page in two postings; on funding read the January 18, 2008 Press Release, American River Parkway Funding, and for management read the November 24, 2006 Guest Editorial, The American River Parkway: The Case for Management by a Nonprofit Organization.

For more details you can read our strategy, also posted on our website, with follow ups on our strategy included in our annual organizational reports, also posted on our website.

We’ll look at other founding issues for the rest of this week.

The Game Warden & Another Drowning Death

1) A wonderful story in the Bee today about a professional game warden who really gets it, embracing the challenge of hunting with the respect due to the prey, an ancient American tradition movingly kept alive by this warden.

Here is an excerpt.

“In order to catch a couple of poachers illegally baiting turkeys and shooting them from a tree stand, Sean Pirtle woke two hours before dawn, hiked a mile in the dark across an orchard and through the woods and then hid in the bushes…

“At 35, the 12-year veteran of the Department of Fish and Game is fast becoming a legend among his peers.

“He's known for being so dogged he simply will not relent until he nabs a suspect, whether it's someone gunning down deer for kicks, bagging too many ducks in one day, snagging salmon or, in this case, luring wild turkeys with 100 pounds of corn.

“With the opening of dove season Monday and more hunting and fishing to follow throughout the fall, Pirtle and the 179 other game wardens in California are in the busiest part of their year…

“Pirtle is part bloodhound, bulldog, scientist, problem-solver and sleuth. A lover of the outdoors, an avid hunter and a student of nature, Pirtle can't stand to see people breaking the law, taking shortcuts and, worst of all, not respecting the animals they pursue.

“Pirtle's reputation grew even larger recently when he was awarded the prestigious Pogue-Elms Award, the game warden's equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize. The award is given annually to an outstanding warden working in the western half of Canada and the United States.”

2) Sadly, another person died while swimming in the American River—as reported in the Sacramento Bee today—another tragic reminder of how dangerous that seemingly peaceful river can be.

Our condolences to his family and friends.

Caring for the Parkway

Our organization came into being in 2003 as a result of an awareness that the status-quo of the Parkway governing entities and community Parkway advocacy organizations was not sufficiently proactive to preserve, protect, and strengthen our Parkway.

Sadly the Sacramento Bee validated that awareness as the news from December of 2003 into January of 2004 openly talked about having to close the Parkway due to financial woes.

A similar situation occurred in New York several years ago and their response—the one we would like to see the Parkway follow—was the creation of the Central Park Conservancy; which has not only preserved and protected one of the greatest parks in the country, but strengthened it as well.

They have done this through a public/private partnership, an innovative venture philanthropy model for seeking donations and social enterprise profits poured back into the park, that has resulted in a solvent financial situation after years of deficit ridden budgets.

Here is an excerpt of a 2008 report on the Conservancy.

“After its mid-1970s near-bankruptcy, New York and Central Park were in similarly precarious shape. This former urban refuge had devolved into a rectangular showcase of despair. The Great Lawn was nicknamed “The Municipal Great Dustbowl.” Next to a torched building, trash floated in the Harlem Meer. Few could sit and lament this, since so many benches were broken.

“It was another park and another era when I was a university student and our horticulture class made a field trip to Central Park,” Douglas Blonsky recalls. “It was in such disrepair— landscapes were reduced to bare ground, historic buildings and structures were dilapidated and covered with graffiti, garbage was strewn everywhere—that we soon retreated to a bar on Madison Avenue.”

“In 1980, several philanthropists and activists launched the organization that Blonsky now leads. The Central Park Conservancy informally began to address the Park’s urgent needs. It privately funded overdue repairs to Gotham’s battered retreat and rehabilitated the Great Lawn, Turtle Pond, and Azalea Walk, among other areas.

“The Conservancy turned a literal tragedy of the commons into acres of accountability. Under “Zone Management,” the Conservancy divided the Park into 49 separate sectors.

“Each Park supervisor and uniformed gardener is now held accountable for the condition of his or her zone,” explains Conservancy spokesperson Kate Sheleg. “Accountability is the single most important factor that the Conservancy employs in the management of Central Park.” She says this policy “fosters a sense of ownership and pride among the gardeners as well as the volunteers assigned to each zone.” Merit-based pay for Conservancy employees partially reflects how well they clean and cultivate their respective zones.

“Graffiti is removed within 24 hours,” Sheleg adds. “Visible litter is removed by 9:00 each morning and continuously throughout the day; trash receptacles are emptied daily; lawns are carefully maintained; broken benches and playground equipment are fixed on the spot.” Roughly 180 regular volunteers help perform this ongoing maintenance.

“After 18 years of what some called “living together,” the Conservancy and New York City “got married,” with then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani conducting the wedding ceremony. In one of his most innovative, yet overlooked, reforms, Giuliani signed an eight-year contract with the Conservancy that essentially privatized Central Park’s management.

“This is really ensuring, documenting, and making permanent an arrangement that has grown over the years,” Giuliani said as he and the Conservancy’s then-chairman Ira Millstein inked the February 1998 deal. “We are going to leave Central Park better than it is today because of this relationship,” Giuliani predicted.

“The Conservancy’s contract has spared New Yorkers most of the Park’s operating costs. The Conservancy privately raises approximately 80 to 85 percent of the Park’s budget, while local taxpayers cover the balance. Better yet, rather than simply ladling out ever-higher sums of public dollars, the Conservancy must meet specific targets before the Department of Parks and Recreation taps the fiscal resources of the city. The Conservancy must raise and allocate $5 million annually for maintenance, repairs, landscaping, and public programs. Its contract then grants it $1 million in city funds, dedicated to specific services. If the Conservancy exceeds its initial $5 million expediture threshhold, it can receive up to $1 million more from city coffers.

“The Conservancy also collects 50 percent of net revenue, above $6 million, from Park concessions, which include Wollman Rink’s ice-skating fees, and food sales from 70 pushcart vendors and The Boathouse and Tavern on the Green restaurants. In fiscal year 2006, this generated $1.6 million in additional city payments to the Conservancy. In turn, the Conservancy says 80 percent of what it raises directly covers horticulture, maintenance, recreation, education, and public activities.

“In April 2006, New York City and the Conservancy renewed their contract for eight more years. City Hall committed $25 million to the Conservancy’s $100 million “Campaign for Central Park” capital-repairs plan. (After just three years, this seven-year fundraising appeal already has collected $111 million.) From 1980 through FY 2008, the Conservancy will have spent some $500 million in the Park, only $100 million of it from the city treasury.

"While privatizing Central Park’s management has benefited taxpayers, how has Mother Nature fared?

“Blonsky recalls a December 11, 1992, Nor’easter that barreled up the Atlantic coast, dumping two inches of rain on New York City. This deluge forced silt, leaves, and branches into Central Park’s catch basins, clogging them and causing widespread flooding. Some cars in the Park were swamped, further cluttering things. Ball fields washed away, and footpaths turned to mud. Much of Central Park remained impassable for a week. Another Nor’easter struck Gotham last April 15. The Park barely noticed. Despite a 7.6-inch downpour, it re-opened the next day.

“Clearly, that is because the Park is now green, well planted, and healthy,” Blonsky says. “We clear our catch basins regularly. In the past, they weren’t cleaned. Also, well-maintained lawns, plant beds, and landscaping really absorb rainwater. Over the years, the Park has been transformed in such a way that we now can handle floods.”

“The park thrives in dry weather, too. “My main focus in working in the Park’s 130 acres of woodlands is to create healthy soil and a diversity of plants,” says Regina Alvarez, the Conservancy’s Director of Horticulture and Woodland Management. “This supports a diversity of wildlife.” From manual weeding to careful use of herbicides to planting trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, Alvarez says the Conservancy has helped rebuild the Park’s food web—from the bugs that birds gobble to the flora on which dragonflies spread their wings. “For decades, the general public was damaging the soil and habitat,” Alvarez says. “The Conservancy has begun to reverse that."

Retrieved February 9, 2008 from PERC Reports Winter 2007 Volume 25 | Number 4

Ice Cream & American River Parkway Plan Announcement

1) Giving away ice cream on the Parkway is a wonderful thing to do and so nice for those lucky few who were there to receive it from the old fashioned ice cream delivery bike. A very good thing.

An excerpt from the Bee report.

“Every once in a while, Stewart Katz, the attorney well known for taking on prison-abuse and police-brutality cases, likes to ride his antique ice cream delivery bicycle and – this is the controversial part – give away ice cream.

“In the courtroom or behind closed doors during depositions, Katz is a pugilist, practically seething at injustice and willing to slug it out with anyone on the witness stand. His hourly rate is, by today's standards, a modest $250.

“Then there's the softhearted guy who rolled onto the American River bike trail Saturday, intent on giving away 132 ice cream treats. His son, Alex, 7, sat on the bicycle's freezer box and held a homemade sign, "Free ice cream."…

“Katz bought his post-World War II vintage ice cream bike for $500 on eBay nearly three years ago and set about restoring it. He stripped the paint and the rust, rebuilt the collapsed freezer box and repaired the wheels.”

2) American River Parkway Plan
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, August 30, 2008

Local officials are in the process of updating the plan governing the use of the American River Parkway. The plan controls what gets planted, dictates recreational activities and controls building rules along the 23-mile parkway from Discovery Park to Lake Natoma.

New uses:

• Mountain biking on some dirt roads.
• Updated building aesthetic controls.
• Updated rules on plantings and river flows.
• Seven acres near River Bend Park (formerly known as Goethe Park) zoned for an interpretive center and native plant nursery.
• Bike and pedestrian bridge allowed near Highway 160 and Discovery Park.

Ideas rejected:

• Off-leash dog area.
• Rancho Cordova expansion of Live Steamers miniature railroad

Key votes:

• Wednesday: Approved by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
• Sept. 15: Before Rancho Cordova City Council at 5:30 p.m.
• Sept. 18: Before Sacramento City Planning Commission at 5:30 p.m.
• Oct. 7: Before Sacramento City Council at 6 p.m.
• January 2009: Approval required of state Legislature.

The Wrong Solution & Housing Prices

1) Rather than creating conservation regimes that may extend far into the future—as this editorial suggests even during periods when more than enough water is available—as a response to current dry conditions, the proper response is to capture more of the wealth of water that falls on Northern California during the normal wet years; and that involves dams.

2) The decline in housing prices in California (with a mention of Sacramento) is the subject of this article from New Geographic.

An excerpt.

“To read the popular press, one gets the impression that the collapse of the housing market is concentrated largely in the suburbs and exurbs, as people flock back to the cities in response to the mortgage crisis and high gas prices. A review of mortgage meltdown “ground zero” California indicates the picture is far more nuanced.

“California’s metropolitan areas have seen the greatest median house price decreases in the nation. Each of the four largest metropolitan regions, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Sacramento have experienced median house price decreases of more than 25 percent over the past year... These decreases have not been distributed in a way that belies much of the ‘Back to the City’ hype….

“Sacramento: Sacramento indicates the most unexpected results, with the central area experiencing by far the largest house price declines, at 42 percent. The lowest house price declines were one-half that rate, in the outer suburbs (generally more than 10 miles from downtown), at 21 percent, while the inner suburbs experienced a decline of 29 percent.”

One Parkway Portal

One great benefit of having a single parkway management entity is that you also then get a single portal for information about what is going on in the Parkway, as shown by the Golden Gate National Park Conservancy’s regular newsletters for what is going on there.

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.

As it is now for Parkway info access, there are several portals for information about Parkway events, increasing the difficulty of the public to ascertain what is going on, where, and when.

Here are some of the several portals.

Sacramento County Parks

American River Parkway Foundation

American River Natural History Association

Save the American River Association

Effie Yeaw Nature Center

Water Shortage & Dams

We are seeing the continuing results from the current dry spell, as this article from today’s Sacramento Bee reports—and we pray it won’t be extended much longer—but there have been solutions available for public leadership to act upon and it involves the building of new dams, and perhaps the raising of an existing one.

Along with the obvious solution for our area, the building of Auburn Dam (which would double our storage capacity), supported by groups—including us—like the Auburn Dam Council, there is another that would solve the water problems for the larger region and that is the raising of Shasta Dam to its originally engineered height of 200 feet higher than it now is, tripling its water supply, which an 2004 article from the Los Angeles Times describes:

“….From an engineering standpoint, it's a piece of cake. The dam, built between 1938 and 1945, was originally planned to be 200 feet taller. At 800 feet, it would have been the highest and biggest in the world.

“Sheri Harral, public affairs officer at the dam, said World War II and materials shortages associated with the war effort led to a decision to stop construction at 602 feet.

"The thinking was to come back and add on to it if ever there was a need to," Harral said. "They started looking at raising it in 1978."

“If Shasta Dam had been built up to its engineering limit in 1945, it is arguable that Northern and Central California would not be facing a critical water shortage now.

“According to a 1999 Bureau of Reclamation study, a dam 200 feet taller would be able to triple storage to 13.89 million acre-feet of water.”

The cost for these two projects is probably in the $20 billion range, a relatively low price to pay for the extra water, hydroelectric power, Parkway and salmon sustainability (from the stabilization of American River water flow and temperature from Auburn Dam) and extra flood protection.

Panhandling and the Public Square

As our community—and communities around the country—struggle with the impact of aggressive panhandling on the growth of their downtown cores, the knowledge that the panhandlers are getting training, and that for many, it is more a profession than a need, may cause some concern; beyond that of helping the truly needy.

A recent article examines that.

An excerpt.

"Barbara Bradley, an editor with the Memphis Commercial Appeal, moved into the River City’s reviving downtown about a year and a half ago, loving its “energy and enthusiasm.” But a horde of invading panhandlers has cooled her enjoyment of city life. Earlier this year, she recalled in a recent column, as she showed some visitors around the neighborhood, “a big panhandler blocked the entrance to our parking area and demanded his toll.” Now a nervous Bradley avoids certain downtown areas, locks her car when fueling up at local gas stations, and parks strategically, so that she can see beggars coming before getting out of her car. “When I hear someone call out ‘ma’am, ma’am’ anywhere in downtown or midtown, I run.”

"She’s not alone. Cities have overcome myriad obstacles in revitalizing their downtowns, from lousy transportation systems to tough competition from suburban shopping malls. But nearly 15 years after New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his police chief, William Bratton, vanquished Gotham’s notorious squeegee men and brought aggressive panhandling under control, other cities are facing a new wave of “spangers” (that is, spare-change artists) who threaten their newfound prosperity by harassing residents, tourists, and businesses. Unlike their predecessors in the seventies and eighties, many of these new beggars aren’t helpless victims or even homeless. Rather, they belong to a diverse and swelling community of street people who have made panhandling their calling.

"Like most countries, America has always had its share of itinerant travelers, vagabonds, and hoboes. But panhandling became a more pervasive and disturbing fact of urban life in the 1970s—a by-product of the explosion in homelessness that resulted from rising drug use and the closing of state-run mental institutions, which released scores of helpless psychiatric patients back into society. Though studies showed that only a small percentage of homeless people panhandled—mostly alcoholics and drug addicts seeking their next fix—the sheer numbers of street people still meant lots of beggars. By the crack epidemic’s late-eighties peak, New York City in particular was home to a massive panhandling presence. A 1988 survey by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority found that 80 percent of subway riders disliked the constant harassment. “I was raised never to pass a beggar by, but there are too many of them and I’m sick of it,” one Manhattanite told the New York Times. “I feel like this is becoming beggar city.”

"The problem soon turned from irritating to alarming in “beggar city,” as incidents of aggressive panhandling leading to violent crime began showing up regularly in the headlines. In 1988, an itinerant panhandler on Manhattan’s Upper West Side murdered his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter, whose dead body he then stuffed into a baby carriage and took out on his rounds, along with the girl’s still-living brother. A year later, an aggressive panhandler stabbed to death a 32-year-old computer engineer in a confrontation on West 114th Street in Manhattan. Shortly after, in the Bronx, an 18-year-old boy died from stab wounds inflicted by a panhandling immigrant who knew just four English words: “Give me a dollar!”

"The escalation—and other cities faced it, too—shouldn’t have been surprising. “If the neighborhood cannot keep a bothersome panhandler from annoying passersby . . . it is even less likely to call the police to identify a potential mugger or to interfere if a mugging actually takes place,” wrote political scientist James Q. Wilson. One change in policing that had contributed to the growing disorder, observed Wilson, was curtailing foot patrols in favor of squad cars. In the past, an officer on the beat would discourage panhandlers; now he just drove on by.

"New York, fed up with the disorder, began to crack down on panhandling in the early nineties. The effort started in the subways, spearheaded by the Bratton-led Metropolitan Transit Authority police, who combined policing with outreach efforts for homeless beggars willing to come in off the streets. The cleanup continued when Bratton became Giuliani’s first police commissioner in 1994 and took on the squeegee men—insistent panhandlers who intimidated Manhattan drivers by washing their car windows and then demanding payment. After a study by criminologist George Kelling found that three-quarters of the squeegee men weren’t homeless and that half had felony records, cops began arresting them for blocking traffic. That put an end to the shakedowns in a matter of weeks."

Continue reading the article.

Komodo Dragons & American Environmentalists

There have been many wonderful benefits, and unfortunately, also many tragic results of the environmental movement, and a recent article from the Wall Street Journal reports on one of the tragic ones.

“KAMPUNG KOMODO, Indonesia -- At least once a week, an unwelcome intruder crawls under a clapboard wall and, forked tongue darting, lumbers its way into Syarif Maulana's classroom.

"Then, everyone screams, there is no more school, and we all run away very fast," says the 10-year-old boy. "We are very afraid."

“The intruder, a Komodo dragon, is the world's largest lizard, an ancient, fierce carnivore found only on a handful of remote islands in eastern Indonesia. Reaching 10 feet in length, the dragons feed on buffaloes, deer and an occasional human. Just a year ago, a boy about Syarif's age died in a dragon's jaws, his bones smashed against rocks to facilitate reptilian digestion.

“That killing, and a spate of other close encounters, has fanned a panic in the dragons' main habitat, the Komodo National Park. Touted by Indonesia as its "Jurassic Park," this rocky, barren archipelago is home to some 2,500 dragons and nearly 4,000 people, clustered in four fishing villages of wooden stilt houses.”

“These locals have long viewed the dragons as a reincarnation of fellow kinsfolk, to be treated with reverence. But now, villagers say, the once-friendly dragons have turned into vicious man-eaters. And they blame policies drafted by American-funded environmentalists for this frightening turn of events."

Continue reading article.

Dams Look Very Attractive

In counterpoint to this Sunday opinion piece in the Bee, dams are the most attractive way to solve the water problems in the state of California—and specifically addressing the provision of a stable water supply to Southern California with water stored behind those dams in Northern California—it is necessary to build the peripheral canal.

Most experts know this as do wise legislative leaders such as Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Along with the obvious solution for our area, the building of Auburn Dam (which would double our storage capacity), supported by groups—including us—like the Auburn Dam Council, there is another that would solve the water problems for the larger region and that is the raising of Shasta Dam to its originally engineered height of 200 feet higher than it now is, tripling its water supply, which an 2004 article from the Los Angeles Times describes:

‘….From an engineering standpoint, it's a piece of cake. The dam, built between 1938 and 1945, was originally planned to be 200 feet taller. At 800 feet, it would have been the highest and biggest in the world.

“Sheri Harral, public affairs officer at the dam, said World War II and materials shortages associated with the war effort led to a decision to stop construction at 602 feet.

"The thinking was to come back and add on to it if ever there was a need to," Harral said. "They started looking at raising it in 1978."

“If Shasta Dam had been built up to its engineering limit in 1945, it is arguable that Northern and Central California would not be facing a critical water shortage now.

“According to a 1999 Bureau of Reclamation study, a dam 200 feet taller would be able to triple storage to 13.89 million acre-feet of water.”

The cost for these two projects is probably in the $20 billion range, a relatively low price to pay for the extra water—even for Southern California—hydroelectric power, Parkway and salmon sustainability (from the stabilization of American River water flow and temperature from Auburn Dam) and extra flood protection.

Sierra Chipmunks & Dirt Building

1) There may be many natural reasons for critters seeking higher ground—as reported by the Bee—since ancient times it has been a way to move farther away from danger or seek food, though the continuing narrative of global warming being caused by the progress of human civilization would have us conclude otherwise; it is good to remember that hundreds of scientists recently reported to the Senate that was not the case.

An excerpt from the Bee article.

“For years, climate change was a story told largely via melting snow and ice. Now, species and ecosystems are feeling the heat, too. Butterflies are expanding their ranges northward. Migratory birds are arriving earlier in the spring. And here in the Sierra and in other mountain ranges around the world, species not considered migratory at all – from stately conifers to diminutive chipmunks – are on the move, creeping upslope toward cooler, more hospitable abodes.

“Along with that movement comes stress and danger. Ultimately, national parks such as Yosemite could lose significant portions of their mammal species as habitats unravel due to climate warming from the buildup of greenhouse gases, according to a 2003 paper published by the National Academy of Sciences.

"Animals that can fly are in pretty good shape," said David Graber, chief scientist for the National Park Service in California. "Animals that are relatively static have a much more limited ability to move. If climate changes faster than they can find new habitat, they're out of business."

2) Sometimes the old ways are still the best ways as this exciting project shows with its dirt and straw benches…very cool, but if volunteers cannot continue to build these, one wonders what the cost will be for the project built with paid labor.

An excerpt from the article from today.

“Sometimes in order to be good to the earth, you have to become one with the earth.

“That explained all the muddy feet and hands at the new "Good Project" in West Sacramento, where development company LJ Urban is building 35 environmentally friendly homes.

“The vertical single-family units on the 1.62-acre plot are known for using sustainable products such as wood trim harvested from trees on the site and kitchen countertops made from recycled paper. The list goes on.

“So when it came time to build two benches in the public area of the property, it was a safe bet they wouldn't be normal benches.

“The stylish, curved benches came together Saturday with the most basic materials taken from the job site – dirt, sand and stone. It's similar to the cob-style earthen structures built in England and elsewhere that have stood against the elements for hundreds of years….

“Noting there are cob homes in England still standing after five centuries, Baker said, "This method has been used for 10,000 years. People all around the world have been building their houses like this."

“In addition to building benches, the outing Saturday served as a workshop for earthen structures and involving the community. About 25 eager people signed up for Saturday's dirty work.

"I think it's great," said Carla Dhillon as she mixed mud and straw by stomping and kneading with her bare feet. "It's labor-intensive, but that's not always a bad thing."

Solar Freeways

Solar power is being used to power the lights on freeways in Oregon and it appears to be a pretty good idea—though still very expensive—according to this news story from the Harvard Government Innovators Network.

An excerpt.

“In an attempt to spur the spread of solar power, the Oregon Department of Transportation on Thursday unveiled the nation's first solar panel project on a major U.S. highway.

“At the interchange of Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 near Tualatin, a row of solar panels about 5 feet wide and two football fields long will start generating electricity by the end of the year.

“The panels will feed electricity directly to PGE's systemwide grid and account for 28 percent of the energy needed to power lights that illuminate the highway's sweeping interchange at night.

“Oregon's deal with Portland General Electric will give the utility its first ownership stake in a solar project and generate business for two new Oregon solar manufacturers. SolarWorld, a German company with operations in Hillsboro, will supply solar panels; and PV Powered, of Bend, will provide an inverter, an essential device.”

The Best Car? Hint, “Brown Wingtips”

If anything, other than our Constitution and baseball, can be said to represent the American ideal, it is our great love affair with cars. For Americans cars have always been much more than just about transportation and this great story from The American looks into our ongoing and deeply held love affair with our cars.

An excerpt.

“What’s the best-selling car of all time? I took an informal poll recently and made it a point to ask some people who are real car buffs. I got some interesting answers. One person said 1957 Chevy. Two people guessed Ford Mustang. Another thought it was Volkswagen’s beloved and iconic Beetle. Still another guessed the best seller was the Model T Ford. Someone came up with yet another Ford product, the once ubiquitous Taurus. Two people guessed the best seller had to be the Toyota Camry, because, as one of them said, “You see’em all over the place.”
“Well, the answer is none of the above.

“The closest guessers came up with the Beetle and the Model T. Both of these cars rank among the highest in sales. But no, the best-selling car of all time is the Toyota Corolla. That’s right, the nondescript compact Corolla, a sort of automotive wallflower introduced in 1968, has notched over 32 million sales around the world. And the figure keeps climbing.

“The second-best seller is not a car at all. It’s the Ford F series pickup truck, which has been around in various iterations since 1948. The F series has sold somewhere close to the Corolla figure (some estimates actually put it higher). But F series figures should probably be “asterisked” because the trucks range from the normal F-150 pickup to several larger heavy-duty models that some would say are different vehicles entirely. It is significant that these trucks have achieved a worldwide sales ranking while selling almost exclusively in the U.S. market. Americans love their pickups. And Ford’s “classic” pickup, the F-150, continues to be the best-selling vehicle in the United States year after year...

"Introduced in the United States in 1968, the Corolla was a homely little coupe or sedan; 60 horsepower, rear-wheel drive, stick shift. It was priced around $1,700 and it looked it. But it didn’t rattle. It had few exotic parts to break down. In fact, you could beat the hell out of it and it kept going.

"As the car has evolved over the generations—mainly as a sedan but also through various coupe and station wagon iterations—it has kept its Toyota bloodlines and remained true to its rather conservative virtues. One review of the newest Corolla notes that while its kickier rivals the Honda Civic and Mazda 3 “are the running shoes of the compact class, think of the Corolla as a nice pair of brown wingtips.”

Body Found Near Parkway Announcement Update

Body found near parkway under overpass at Howe
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, August 22, 2008

The body of an elderly man was found under an overpass Thursday morning near the American River Parkway, authorities said.

Coroner's officials have not released the man's name, pending confirmation of his identity.

Authorities said no foul play is suspected.

The body was found under the overpass at Howe Avenue and University Park Drive, a police dispatcher said.

The body was reported to police at 8:15 a.m., she said.

– Niesha Lofing and Chelsea Phua

Body Found Near Parkway Announcement

Body found under overpass near American River Parkway
By Niesha Lofing - nlofing@sacbee.com
Published 11:17 am PDT Thursday, August 21, 2008

Sacramento County Coroner's officials are investigating a body found under the overpass near the American River Parkway this morning.

The body was found under the overpass at Howe Avenue and University Park Drive, a police dispatcher said.

A citizen called Sacramento police at 8:15 a.m. after finding the body, she said.

Sacramento County Coroner's officials are on scene.

Check back at www.sacbee.com for details as they become available.

Climate Change & Liberals/Conservatives

While it is always difficult to come to agreement when two sides are far apart on issues, it is still possible to agree on something larger than either might be willing to look at—compromising on vision—and that is the approach taken in this thoughtful article from the BreakThrough Institute.

An excerpt.

“For 20 years, liberals and conservatives have been locked in a debate about the relative seriousness of climate change. Conservatives have either denied that it was happening or played down its significance, while liberals and environmentalists have tended to see it as ecological apocalypse meriting either extreme personal sacrifice or a supposed cost-free regulatory fix.

“That debate is now undergoing a major shift. Conservatives like Jim Manzi, Newt Gingrich and others recognize that humans are affecting the climate and that something should be done about it. Liberals and environmentalists, like Joe Romm and most recently Al Gore, are beginning to recognize the political futility of peddling sacrifice, and have started emphasizing the need to make clean energy cheap. To be sure, both camps are still far apart in their view of global warming, with Romm seeing it as a future hell on earth and Manzi viewing it as little more than a rounding error. But if we fixate on these radically divergent views of the problem we risk missing some signs of agreement over what should be done about it.

“The Model Muddle

“Liberals and conservatives both rely on highly complex climate and economic models to inform their views of what should be done. The problem is not so much that the models are inaccurate as that they must, by their nature, produce a wide range of possible future scenarios. Models thus offer very little certainty upon which to base our actions. Will global warming result in so little damage that it is not worth investing any amount of money in cleaner energy sources? Or will it undermine the basis of human life on earth, which would merit extreme investments and personal sacrifice? Change a single decimal point on one of the hundreds of inter-related ecological or economic inputs -- faster-than-expected emissions from China, melting tundra, diminished albedo, slower rates of deforestation, faster economic growth -- and voila! you've constructed a radically different world.

“One of the largest uncertainties is also the one that will have the largest impact on our ability to deal with the problem: technological innovation. If we bought enough of them, could solar panels one day become cheaper than coal? Could new air capture machines suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it underground so cheaply as to obviate the need to slow emissions?”

City Expansion

Though this editorial appears not to agree with the folks who are considering expansion of their city boundaries, the essential concept of expanding spheres of influence is one that has been traditionally used by municipal governing entities to plan for the future, and as such it is a wise strategy to employ.

The concentration on the central core of cities as the hub of business, also mentioned by the editorial as the concept that should drive public planning, is no longer the idea driving the reality of business location and municipal growth, which is occurring much more in the suburban rings, or as William Bogart, the author of Don’t Call it Sprawl: Metropolitan Structure in the Twenty-First Century, notes:

“The dominant intellectual approach to describing cities during the twentieth century was the monocentric city model. In a monocentric city, all commercial and industrial activity takes place in the central business district, while the rest of the city consists of residential areas. This description was reasonably accurate as recently as 1950 in most cities…

“Even by 1960 observers such as Jane Jacobs and Jean Gottman had discerned a new structure for metropolitan areas, although popular interpreters of their work have neglected this insight. This new structure was called the polycentric city, in recognition of the multiple centers of economic activity that now comprised the metropolitan area. While some people have recognized this change for more than forty years, it still has surprisingly little impact on the design of public policy…Local governments and private individuals devote great resources to reverse the exodus of businesses from the downtown. Some of this activity is appropriate, but much of it has an impact resembling that of King Canute’s orders to the tide.” (p. 9)

Telecommuting

This article from New Geography looks at one of the most over-looked but growing trends in professional work, that can—as it is already doing—dramatically cut energy consumption.

An excerpt.

“The rapid spike in energy prices has led politicians, urban theorists and pundits to pontificate about how Americans will be living and working in new ways. A favorite story line is that Americans will start trading in their suburban homes, move back to the city centers and opt to change everything they have wanted for a half-century --- from big backyards to quiet streets to privacy --- to live a more carbon-lite urban lifestyle.

“Yet, there has been little talk about what could be the best way for families and individuals to cut energy use: telecommuting. For more than a decade, the number of telecommuters, both full-time and part-time, has been growing rapidly, gaining more market share than any other form of transportation.

“This seems certain to continue with the proliferation of broad-band technology -- as well as the effect of high gas prices. By 2006, the expansion of home-based work doubled twice as quickly as in the previous decade, and now is close to nine million, according to the National Highway Travel Survey of the Federal Highway Assn.

“Nationwide, according to the Gartner Group, in 2007 13 million workers telecommuted at least one day a week, a 16 percent leap from 2004. That number was expected to reach 14 million this year. In addition, more than 22 million individuals, according to Forrester Research, now run businesses from home.”

Water Use

The water from the American River is getting short and one water agency, as reported by the Sacramento Bee, has asked its customers to reduce their use.

It is obvious that Sacramento needs more water and the obvious solution for our area is the building of Auburn Dam, which would double our storage capacity, and is supported by groups—including us—like the Auburn Dam Council.

An excerpt from the article.

“The Sacramento County Water Agency is urging all customers to immediately cut water consumption 10 percent, due to a reduction in surface water supplies from the American River.

“If customers don't achieve the 10 percent request, the agency could call for stricter measures, such as limiting landscape watering to designated days.

“The agency normally gets about 10 percent of its supply from the river via Folsom Lake.

“The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently notified the agency, however, that this supply will be reduced 25 percent due to the drought.

“Because the agency had already consumed much of its allocation due to high customer demand, the result is a total halt in river deliveries.

“It is now relying entirely on groundwater for the remainder of the year, said Herb Niederberger, water agency division chief.

“The agency serves about 60,000 customers between Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove.”

Social Entrepreneurs & Business Friendly States

1) Quoted in the front page of this new book is a truism I—and all the folks who read history—have known about for some time, which is: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable men.” (George Bernard Shaw).

The book is The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, and it appears, though I haven’t read it yet, to be documenting that those persistent and often unreasonable folks who just won’t give up on a problem they see worthy of attacking (they are my favorite kind of people) are those leaders vitally needed by our culture to jump in and tackle the problems most people would just prefer to ignore, but they refuse to.

2) As a capitalistic country, and as one of the most innovative states in that country, California should be among the leaders in its appeal to business, but it is just the opposite. Because of all the various forms of anti-capitalistic rhetoric and legislation that has been a staple of our fair state for a few decades, California is becoming anathema to business; and that is not a very good thing.

It also appears that the states with the most hostile business environment also are now having the most dismal budget problems…a connection…you think?

This article looks at that, and here is an excerpt.

“Shortly after he was confirmed as governor of New York earlier this year, David Paterson told a group of business executives that when he received congratulations from old friends he hadn’t heard from in years, he was surprised how many no longer lived in New York. "All of them basically said the same thing," Paterson told the group. "'Good luck in New York state, but we can't pay the taxes. The opportunities aren't there.'”

“After that experience, Paterson presumably can understand the complaints of corporate executives recently surveyed by Development Counsellors International, which advises companies on where to locate their facilities. More than four in ten of them have ranked New York as the worst state to do business in--second only to California in unfavorable mentions. The most common gripes included high taxes and anti-business regulations. Joining New York and California on the list of most unpopular states were New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts.

“The DCI study, coming as it did amidst growing talk of state fiscal crises around the country, is particularly revealing. Of the approximately $48 billion in accumulated budget shortfalls that the 29 states with projected deficits are facing, $33 billion, or two-thirds of the gap, is concentrated in those five states considered by corporate executives to be the least friendly to business. Meanwhile, among the five states ranked as having the best business environment, Texas and North Carolina have no projected budget gaps, and Georgia, Tennessee and Florida are facing shortfalls amounting to about $4.1 billion, or less than one-tenth of the states’ total.”

Homelessness & the River

1) The issues are directly connected as the lower part of the American River Parkway, North Sacramento, Cal Expo and Midtown have experienced varying degrees of illegal camping in their areas of the Parkway by the chronic homeless—the subject of today’s editorial in the Sacramento Bee—making it a difficult and often unsafe venture into the Parkway for residents of the adjacent communities.

We have supported the most effective measure developed to address chronic homelessness—the Housing First approach—but still appreciate the concern it might be taking a bulk of the resources other homeless folks could use.

And while that is true, it is also the result of a well thought out strategy to attack the problem at its most resistive point in the hopes that further down the line others will also benefit.

In that sense it is similar to the broken-windows concept of policing or the three-strikes concept of judicial sentencing in the criminal justice system, both strategies focusing huge resources on the perceived worst area of the problem and both have worked wonderfully in the jurisdictions where they have been utilized.

2) As the two rivers become more embraced by our communities and more of us are able to live on or close to them, the need for increased resources directed towards their upkeep and enhancement becomes much greater, and the current method of just using taxes to accomplish that is a method leaving a lot to be desired.

It is important to 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).

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—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 about living on the river.

“Livin' on the river beats rollin' on the river any day – even if the lifestyle includes mosquito invasions, septic systems and a four-minute walk to bring in groceries from the car.

“John Gomez and Genny Sowards schlep their purchases to their boat from the Riverbank Marina parking lot, yet these two "live-aboards" don't mind the trek to their dockside retreat off Garden Highway.

“The Genny Lynn, their 45-foot Chris-Craft Commander, was the most unusual abode encountered on a recent trip down the Sacramento River, but not the most unexpected.

“That honor goes to Bob and Sue Danelz's cozy mobile home on the American River, which features a yard lush with zinnias and petunias, oodles of green ferns and multitiered views of the river.”

"The sunsets are incredible, the animals (including a flock of peacocks) amazing, the lifestyle perfect," Sue Danelz says.

Water Leadership & Low-Income Housing

1) California’s US senator is showing great leadership on the water issue by calling on state legislators to realize that we face a real catastrophe if we do not deal with our wholly inadequate water supply infrastructure, in this article from the Sacramento Bee.

An excerpt.

“Warning that California faces catastrophic water shortages from a worsening drought, Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday upbraided state lawmakers for failing to rally behind a proposed $9.3 billion water bond for the November ballot.

“Feinstein has joined Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling for major improvements to state water storage and delivery systems. But their water bond plan has run aground in the Legislature.

“Lawmakers, particularly Democrats, have been loath to support the program, which would include $3 billion for water storage and $1.9 billion to repair levees and restore the ecosystem of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

“Legislative efforts to place the measure on the November ballot have also stumbled amid the state's bitter budget standoff.

“In a speech to the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Feinstein urged lawmakers to end the budget stalemate and put the water infrastructure proposal on the ballot.

“She warned that that the state's water supply is drying up, with a decreasing Sierra snowpack that could shrink by 40 percent by 2050 due to global warming.

"The last major addition to California's water systems was in the 1960s," said Feinstein, who parts with fellow Democrats in calling for new dams and other storage. "Our state had 16 million people then. We have 38 million now, and we have the same water infrastructure."

2) The best point inferred in this commentary is that our experience over the years concentrating lower-income people in large projects doesn’t work, but what also doesn’t work are large investments in job and education training; another experiential based lesson—after decades of Great Society programs—we’ve learned.

What does seem to work is what has worked for generations in this country, small grassroots organizations, many driven by faith, working with people who truly want to be helped, and inspiring them to begin obtaining the tools to help themselves.

Coercive programs, whether mandating developers devote a certain percentage of housing to one group of people or another, or pushing concentrated housing for the chronic homeless into already suffering communities, just have no record of having worked.

Accepting responsibility, being prepared to work hard, and exercising free will still drives the desire for transforming an individual life, whether climbing up from poverty or changing a destructive life style, and probably always will.

Grassroots programs, usually developed and managed by folks who have “been there” are what traditionally have shown the transformative promise government—with all good intention—tends to promote and fund.

An excerpt from the commentary.

“One thing we have learned in more than 40 years of anti-poverty programs in the United States is that when large numbers of poor people are concentrated into single neighborhoods, it becomes much more difficult for them to get out of poverty. Thus, the whole thrust of U.S. housing assistance over the past 15 years has been towards helping people move to opportunity – such as the Hope VI program to demolish large public housing projects and replace them with mixed-income units, the Housing Choice Voucher Program to assist people to choose where to live, and inclusionary zoning ordinances, designed to ensure a mixture of market rate and affordable units in all new developments.

“The sad truth is that the scale of our housing assistance to low-income people in this country is tiny compared with the need. We need more housing assistance and we also need investment in education and job training, expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and more of the support low-income parents need to enter the job market including child care and health insurance.”

Endangered Species & Endangered Roads

1) The Endangered Species Act looks to be somewhat endangered itself, which might be a very good thing.

Excerpts from the Los Angeles Times story.

“WASHINGTON — The Bush administration Monday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.

“The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species…

“Bob Irvin, senior vice president of conservation programs at the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, questioned how some federal agencies could make the assessments, when most do not have wildlife biologists on staff.

"Clearly, that's a case of asking the fox to guard the chicken coop," Irvin said, adding that the original law created "a giant caution light that made federal agencies stop and think about the impacts of their actions. What the Bush administration is telling those agencies is they don't have to think about those impacts anymore."

“But Dale Hall, who directs the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the move would not apply to major federal projects and would give his agency more time to focus on the most critically endangered species, rather than conducting reviews of projects that pose little threat.

"We have to have the ability to put our efforts where they're needed," Hall said, adding that individual agencies will have to take responsibility if their projects do harm a protected species. "This really says to the agencies, 'This law belongs to all of us. You're responsible to defend it.' "

2) If global warming turns out to be something other than man-made, as hundreds of scientists recently testified to the US Senate might surely be the case, then seriously impeding the ability of our economy to grow and our citizens to travel about, will prove to be a disaster, and this recent hold-up of the highway 50 expansion is one example.

An excerpt from the Bee article.

“In what appears to be a California first, state highway officials are shelving a major Highway 50 widening plan in Sacramento until they can study whether the expansion will contribute to global warming.

“The state Department of Transportation announced Tuesday it will not fight a Sacramento court ruling that the agency conducted an incomplete environmental review for a project that would add lanes on the congested Rancho Cordova freeway.

“For commuters in the fast-growing Highway 50 corridor, it means no new freeway elbow room – if any at all – until at least 2014.

“The added lanes, planned between Sunrise Boulevard and Watt Avenue, would be designated for carpools, buses and high-mileage vehicles during morning and afternoon commutes.

“The freeway already has carpool lanes between Sunrise Boulevard and El Dorado Hills, and Caltrans officials have talked of extending carpool lanes into downtown Sacramento.”

Downtown Edge

The downtown edge—including midtown—is, in many ways, becoming the heartbeat of downtown, and perhaps its continued steady resurgence can help pull the core of downtown into some semblance of beauty and safety and spread the inviting neighborhoods all the way to (and embracing) our two rivers…wouldn’t that be something!

An excerpt.

“There's a lot to like about the condo-retail complex rising inside a former Wonder Bread bakery warehouse in downtown Sacramento.

“But Bay Miry, of the project's D&S Development team, is proudest of an unlikely element: the loft staircases.

“Some are spiral, some cantilevered, some made of wood, others of concrete.

“No two are alike. Same goes for the "true loft" housing units, which are under construction and range from 550 to 900 square feet. They're on the market for $215,000 to $390,000.

"One thing we've learned in this market," says Miry, while touring the 95-year-old brick complex at 14th and R streets, "is you can't do cookie-cutter."

Chronic Homeless & Wind Power

1) While it is good news, from the Sacramento Bee today, that the number of chronic homeless has dropped—as they are the primary ones who camp in the Parkway in the North Sacrament, Cal Expo, & Midtown areas—it is not so good news that Sacramento has chosen to concentrate housing service to the chronic homeless, which will replicate the neighborhood degrading situation currently existing in the Richards Blvd., 12-16th street areas where a large concentration of homeless services exist serving (among others) those illegally camping on the Parkway.

An excerpt.

“It might be hard to tell from a visit to a local soup kitchen or while walking downtown Sacramento's K Street Mall, but local and national efforts to find shelter for people who are homeless for extended periods are working, officials say.

“Sacramento officials report that from January 2007 to January 2008 the number of chronically homeless was down 5 percent, even as the total number of homeless within Sacramento County increased…

“The Sacramento program got off to a quick start by identifying homes that groups of recently homeless people could share.

“Five larger facilities with onsite supportive services are in the process of being approved and built. Those facilities will add 260 permanent beds for people looking to get off the streets. The program hopes to build or find 1,600 housing units over 10 years.”

2) The Bee reports on a major wind/wave power project that could develop 40 megawatts of clean electricity, while the Auburn Dam could produce 400-600 megawatts.

An excerpt.

“The Electric Power Research Institute estimates enough wave power can be extracted from coastal waters to account for about 15 percent of California's electricity production. Wind could provide up to 110 percent, according to a Stanford University study published last year.

“Wind power off California's coast is now just a thought among power developers, and there are no concrete plans to erect turbines at sea. But optimism is fueled by NASA and university studies indicating wind over waters off picturesque Cape Mendocino is strong and consistent enough to become one of the nation's best sources of electricity.

“Offshore wind and wave technologies are promising, but they're untried. They also raise concerns about potential damage to the coast's prized vistas and fish industry.

“One proposal to draw electricity from waves off the Mendocino coast already has generated problems for developers, government agencies and coastal residents.

“Moreover, the potential for wind and waves depends on someone building transmission lines to connect offshore power to the state's grid.”

Windmills & Salmon

1) The windmills coming in through the Port of Sacramento for the new wind farm by Rio Vista and they are some pretty big guys, as reported by Bob Shallit.

An excerpt.

“In a boon for the port's summer business, Escondido-based enXco Inc. is delivering 11 shiploads of massive components destined for the company's new Shiloh II wind farm near Rio Vista.

“About half of the parts – made in Germany and South Korea – are sitting on the ground at the port's West Sacramento facility. The rest are due in coming weeks.

“Once all have arrived, they'll be transported to the Shiloh site, where 75 turbines are expected to be in operation by year's end, eventually producing 150 megawatts of electricity for PG&E, says enXco spokeswoman Sandra Briner.

“These are big turbines, 271 feet high. Each has four sections and three blades that are 148 feet long. A complete unit weighs about 277 tons.

“Multiply that by 75 and you have better than 20,700 tons of energy-producing parts coming through the port. It's a huge piece of business – worth about $275,000, Luken says – and likely to grow, given federal tax credits offered to wind farmers.”

2) The salmon in the American River are a central part of the allure of the Parkway and that is why one of our guiding principles is: “What’s good for the salmon is good for the river.” With the settlement of people in the valley and the continued growth of our region, the need for dams to hold back the flood waters and provide for additional water storage became a priority, and to retain the salmon in the river, hatcheries are used.

While it is understandable (many folks romantasize wildness) to revere the wild salmon over those from the hatchery, as this opinion in the Bee does, the reality is that hatchery salmon, as with most species helped by human beings throughout history, have become an important part of the aquatic ecosystem and readily breed with the wild salmon, resulting in time—one assumes—in a stronger and more adaptable species that has learned to live within the world man has shaped by his need for water, the same water so beautifully populated by salmon—wild and hatchery.

Cattails & Housing First

1) Along with the building up of the soil that these acres along the Delta planted in tules and cattails accomplish, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, they are really beautiful.

An excerpt.

“On one side of the gravel road are hundreds of acres of corn. On the other is a much different crop that scientists hope will enable farmers to rebuild sinking islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, combat global warming and make a profit at the same time.

“The alternate field is full of tules and cattails that are being grown by the U.S. Geological Survey on about 15 acres on Twitchell Island, about 5.7 square miles of rich but fragile peat soil 30 miles south of Sacramento…

“The plants can grow high enough to dwarf the average adult. As they die and decay, they slowly build up the peat. The soil under the 15-acre site has risen 1 to 2 feet since the project was moved there in 1996.”

2) The Housing First approach (which we supported and Sacramento later adopted) to helping the chronic homeless—who are the majority of homeless who have camped in the Parkway in the North Sacramento, Cal Expo , Midtown area for years—has helped, reducing national chronic homelessness by 30% , according to a new report noted in this news article.

An excerpt.

“WASHINGTON -- The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation's streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent -- to 123,833 from 175,914 -- between 2005 and 2007, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

“Housing officials say the statistics, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development collects each year from more than 3,800 cities and counties, may reflect better data collection and reporting and some variation in the number of communities reporting on an annual basis. But the officials attribute much of the decline to the "housing first" strategy that has been promoted by the Bush administration and Congress and increasingly adopted across the country.

“In that approach, local officials place chronically homeless people into permanent shelter -- apartments, halfway houses or rooms -- and then focus on treating addiction and mental and health problems. HUD defines chronically homeless people as disabled individuals who have been continuously homeless for more than a year or have experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.”

Parkway Educational and Public Safety News

1) The educational aspects of having nature centers on the Parkway is tremendous, as this wonderful story relates, and it would be real nice for the communities in the region to have more nature centers along the 31 mile stretch of the Parkway to serve more kids and families as this one is doing.

2) The nature centers can also serve as a ranger station (as the Effie Yeaw Nature Center does) and that is something other areas of the Parkway, like the North Sacramento area, need desperately; and another news item indicates two more rangers have joined the Parkway force, and that is very good news.