Sacramento has turned its back to its own river. A park atop I-5 would change that | Opinion
Today it is hard to imagine that Sacramento’s forefathers wanted a downtown severed by four freeways and highways, but that happened.
Routes 5, 50, 80 and 99 created all kinds of access to the urban core upon their construction well over half a century ago. But they also killed some of Sacramento’s soul.
The elevated and below-grade spans, the noise and the visual barriers bifurcated the capital city. Interstate 5 committed a particularly egregious civic sin. Paralleling the Sacramento River, I-5 has separated the city from its waterfront. A river city disconnected from its signature river.
Sacramento’s Downtown Partnership and Congresswoman Doris Matsui deserve credit for wanting to alter the status quo. Matsui is seeking $5 million to study the construction of a four-acre park above where I-5 now passes below grade between Capitol Mall and O Street.
I-5’s construction through town sentenced Old Sacramento to a form of eternal solitary confinement. The historic district is valuable real estate but one of the least accessible stretches of the city. An adjacent park would create the possibility of visiting the river on foot.
Known as the Sacramento Stitch Park Riverfront Reconnection Project, the open space would be created atop the 10-lane span of I-5 for two blocks. This idea is right for so many reasons.
Looking forward, the civic consensus is that downtown’s future is less about its historic concentration of government workers. A more diverse downtown must emerge over time.
The Downtown Partnership, the private non-profit dedicated to improving Sacramento’s urban core, has been pitching a vision of more housing, education and research, arts and entertainment and a reconnection to the river.
If this park is a catalyst for a renaissance of the surrounding area, this qualifies as a climate change adaptation project. The more Sacramento can maximize the potential of its urban core, the greater the benefits are to the entire region. Reimagining I-5 is an important step toward reimagining downtown as a whole.
Looking back in history, these freeways and highways committed environmental injustices that have never been addressed. Communities were ripped apart for construction. Adjacent residents now have to endure noise and pollution 24 hours a day in perpetuity.
This new park is hardly a comprehensive form of reparations. But it would mitigate a fraction of the damage that the roads have caused. Matsui and the Downtown Partnership should be creative in pursuing pots of state and federal monies to convert this idea into a reality.
Governments will have to play a disproportionate role in the downtown’s future because government - state, federal, city and county - owns more than half of the 66-block downtown..
The conversation in downtown Sacramento now is determining which government lands can be repurposed for higher uses rather than being occupied a fraction of the time by workers who do not want to be there. In the meantime, that space above the below-grade Interstate 5 is just that, unused space awaiting a bit of vision.
One of the region’s most inspiring achievements was to preserve the American River as the jewel of the parkway, a natural oasis surrounded by civilization. But the parkway has no counterpart on the Sacramento River.
Downtown Sacramento can never reach its potential so long as it remains disconnected from its namesake river. Altering the damage that freeways have inflicted on Sacramento’s soul will require nothing less than a recalibration of the local mindset.
What exists now is simply wrong. Ideas such as this park above an interstate are how to make the future right.