‘Learn through playing’: North Highlands Parks & Rec celebrates 70 years of community | Opinion
“Come on; we’re climbing to the top,” I said, staring up at a rocket ship in the middle of North Highlands.
Standing next to me at McClellan’s Freedom Park, Recreation Superintendent Rachel Robertson Murray sighed. It was the first sunny day in a week and the playground was still under an inch of water. But she gamely followed me up into the four-story-tall, stylized playset outside the Aerospace Museum of California — only pausing on the last ladder to divulge that she has a fear of heights.
Whoops.
I’d already conducted part of our interview that day while swinging on the swing sets a few blocks away at Karl Rosario Park, where an old shooting range for the military had been transformed into a beautiful mural for the neighborhood — What can I say? I love any excuse to clamber on a playground — so Robertson Murray was being a real trooper about this.
The North Highlands Parks and Recreation District is one of the rare governmental organizations in this neighborhood that takes care of public spaces and engages the community. It is an independent special district, governed by an elected, five-member Board of Directors serving a population of nearly 50,000 people.
Robertson Murray was showing me around some of the 12 established parks — soon to be 13 — that make up the North Highlands Parks and Recreation District, in honor of the organization’s 70th anniversary.
“I don’t think people realize how vital parks are to a society and to these neighborhoods, because this is where you come to play,” she said. “You learn through playing.”
Seventy years. That’s 1955 through today; generations have come and played in these parks — including me; I grew up in North Highlands, and well remember the old McClellan Air Force Base, which closed in 2001 and threw this working-class community into tumult.
Even on a random Wednesday morning, Robertson Murray and I could see people out enjoying the public spaces after so many rainy days stuck inside, and the brightly-painted murals she proudly showed me had nary a scrap of graffiti on them. (She said they’ve found that leaving a wall blank invites tags but hiring a local artist to beautify the space has significantly cut down on property damage.)
And just as I suspected, from the top of the spaceship, we had a great view of the old McClellan Air Force Base, the new McClellan Business Park and the community of North Highlands beyond.
After the closure of McClellan AFB, the federal government said there was an expected loss of $1.5 billion and of 11,000 jobs to the California economy, all of which were once centered in this community enclave off Interstate 80. Over the last 25 years, this tight-knit community in northeastern Sacramento County has melted into disrepair; a forgotten corner of unincorporated county that was rarely mentioned by county supervisors or on the local news unless some crime had occurred — and crimes occurred here often.
Today, North Highlands’ crime rate is higher than both Sacramento County and the nation’s average: Your chance of becoming the victim of a violent crime here is a toe-curling 1 in 160. Roads desperately need repair and garbage wafting down the street is a common sight. Graffiti is ubiquitous and multiple gangs call this community home.
The rise of the massive business park on the old base has helped bring life back to the 8 million sq. feet of unused space, but any economic downturn can and has easily set back this community’s progress. According to Google, the top attractions in North Highlands are the Aerospace Museum, the gun range and a massage parlor. Poverty and homelessness thrive here, too: The county’s Watt Ave Safe Stay Community Campus — a 13-acre property designed to serve 18,000 homeless over the next 15 years — is just down the road.
Yet, there’s an indomitable spirit to living here, and public spaces mean even more when they’re a large part of what little you have. I think these parks mean even more to North Highlanders than the manicured parks you’ll find several miles further up Roseville Road, or across the freeway in Carmichael.
“(Parks) provide a home for people, it ties a community together,” Robertson Murray said. “You can have a birthday party out there or attend an event or maybe it’s just where you take your kid to get their wiggles out.”
“It’s a community safe haven where people can go and enjoy their time. And it’s free, that’s most important.”
A few blocks away, on the Monday morning after Robertson Murray and I climbed to the top of a rocketship, a playground at Planehaven Park was torn down. In its place, a new playset and park will be erected in the coming months, mainly thanks to $200,000 in American Recovery Plan Act funding from the Biden Administration, funneled through the County of Sacramento.
In the northern part of the district, Sierra Creek Park will have a groundbreaking ceremony later this spring. The field will be built out with more than $2.85 million in Prop 68 grant funding and will boast an all-ages playground, stage and amphitheater, community garden, picnic area, fitness area, restrooms, trails and interpretive signage and art.
In the coming months, the recreation side of the district will host their 3rd Annual Mother’s Day Kickball Tournament, the annual Spring Extravaganza & Egg Hunt and the Spring Sports Spectacular, before they move into their busy summer season chock full of summer camps where babies, kids, teens and adults can dance, cook, join a book or movie club, or garden.
Just as I knew it would be, on a sunny day from the top of a spaceship, North Highlands was beautiful. The people who live here want a thriving community and their support of the North Highlands Parks and Rec District for the last 70 years proves that. It is an accomplishment to be proud of — and to protect.
My own memories of North Highlands’ parks and community centers are mainly of Girl Scout events, street festivals, egg hunts, swim meets, volunteer clean-ups and generally wreaking havoc with my friends on pink and purple bikes. Those memories are sacred, and every new generation deserves to have them, too. The work of people like Robertson Murray and the North Highlands Parks and Recreation District ensures they will.
