Local Parks

What was billed as a Polar Bear Plunge took place in Sacramento Saturday morning with temperatures approaching 60 degrees.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors held off on a development plan for a 4,000-acre nature preserve just north of Rancho Murieta because of concerns about traffic.

Fire officials are asking the public to help identify the person responsible for a series of arson fires along the American River Parkway in recent days.

Not long ago, a stretch of land in the middle of a Carmichael neighborhood was largely inaccessible with its expanse of trees and brush and, of course, weeds.

THE MONEY TRAIL

Swim time is almost over at Sacramento's public pools.

It is no big surprise that, two years after its 50th anniversary, Sacramento County's regional park system is in deep trouble.

With a high-water year and the warm-weather season approaching, the American and Sacramento rivers beckon. This year, the Sacramento County regional parks department has volunteers to hand out life jackets to swimmers and rafters.

The deal is done.

Folks who live near Land Park have done yeoman's work sprucing up one of Sacramento's most cherished green spaces.

It is hardly surprising that Sacramento County supervisors have agreed to pursue an ill-advised deal with developer Doug Ose over the future of Gibson Ranch. Supervisors have been making reckless financial decisions for years. On Tuesday, they added to their legacy.

Politically, it has been too heavy a lift to extend a greenway through Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood.

Sacramento County supervisors Roberta MacGlashan, Don Nottoli and Susan Peters are so eager to unload one of Sacramento County's prized public spaces – the Gibson Ranch Regional Park – that they are willing to run roughshod over a public process to determine its future.

The terrible state of our public parks is no more apparent than in the American River corridor. What was once a carefully balanced quilt mosaic of public ownership and management from the confluence with the Sacramento River to the American's north, middle and south forks upstream is unraveling.

Larry Hoover ticks off an inventory of neglect: weeds left to grow for weeks, trash strewn in underbrush, fallen-down fences and barren patches, especially where the weekly farmers market sets up.

One of Sacramento County's first acquisitions in its fledgling park system was 320 acres in the center of the county. With low rolling hills, views of the Sierra Nevada and rare vernal pools, this seemed like an ideal location for a park.

Editorial series on local parks

Sacramento County parks director Janet Baker stood up before a standing-room-only meeting of the Board of Supervisors in May.

If you are a cyclist, runner, dog walker, bird watcher, picnicker or kayaker who lives within proximity of the American River, there is an easy answer to the question: What is the best thing about living in Sacramento County?

Sacramento has a stated goal of providing a park within a half-mile radius of every city resident. Yet for residents in certain neighborhoods, those goals seem like a mirage.

Sacramento County hasn't run out of money. Yet in terms of managing its regional parks system, the county is morally broke.