Dear Mayor Steinberg and City Councilmembers,
Regarding Destination Sacramento Program's potential to bring return on investment, the significant barrier of I-5 should not be ignored. We would be delighted to offer the city a pro-bono workshop to explore opportunities to re-connect Old Sacramento to downtown. The City could then request that the resulting human-centered alternatives be included in Caltrans forthcoming I-5 rebuild scope.
Living in midtown over the last five years (without a car), I am very familiar with every street on the grid and the river waterfront, and would welcome the opportunity to help revitalize Old Sacramento.
Kate White, MPA, EcoDist. AP
Associate Principal | Planning | Policy
Arup
560 Mission Street Suite 700 San Francisco CA 94105 USA
t: + 1 415 957 9445 d: +1 415 946 0752
m: +1 415 652 9516
www.arup.com
Mayor and City Council:
As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there's no time to waste. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can make better choices.
I write in support of the proposed Destination Sacramento Program. Critically, I also want to join other commenters in requesting that you direct your staff to continue evaluating further options to remove, narrow, deck, or otherwise remediate the portion of Interstate 5 along the waterfront. That segment of Interstate 5 is a constant and toxic reminder of one of Sacramento’s greatest planning blunders, and it continues to hamper Sacramento by segmenting its urban core. It will also continue to compromise Sacramento’s waterfront, as it represents both a physical and mental barrier between downtown and Old Town.
The time is now to explore options to remove or deck Intestate 5. Caltrans is poised to potentially spend a billion dollars or more to prolong Intestate 5’s tenure through downtown. This is the chance of a lifetime to help come up with better options for the use of the land currently occupied by that stretch of freeway.
If "support" means please deck I5 between the R street pedestrian bridge and J st (that's my dream but anything within those bounds would be better than nothing) then count me in. A self-respecting city respects it's waterfront. Portland, since I grew up there in the '80s and '90s, has built waterfront paths and pedestrian access, and reinvested despite equivalent barriers as Sac's. Sac's waterfront is narrow and uncomfortable, crowded with tourists which squeezes out local usage, confirming local Sacramentans are less important than tourists. Locals need a place to congregate in peace and play, and a decked I5 could be that demonstration of city self-care.
Dear Members of the Council: I urge you to direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. I-5 is a brutal physical barrier separating downtown from its best natural asset. It is also a waste of prime real estate, distinctly unattractive, and a source of unrelenting pollution. By removing I-5, the City could reunite its urban core with historic Old Sacramento and the Railyards, which could become the City’s most desirable areas—and a world-class riverfront destination for locals and visitors alike.
Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there is no time to waste. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the City can make better choices. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the actions to reopen Sacramento's waterfront as an integrated part of the city center. The preservationist efforts in the '60s saved historic Old Sacramento from the wrecking ball, and we are the beneficiaries of that sometimes unpopular battle against what sounded like an economic development plan of bringing the highway right to town. Today, we recognize that life happens at street level and that economic development requires human-scale access. The public spaces envisioned in Destination Sacramento won't be used to their potential if the only ways to get there are the current tunnels and tunnel-like streets. I believe there are ways to remove I-5 as a barrier that manage costs, economic development, access, and equity to the benefit of the City and its residents. I respectfully ask the Council to direct staff to study those options.
Dear City Council:
Please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Old
Sacramento would be an attractive place if it were connected once again to the rest of the city; the waterfront highway must be replaced with parks, housing, and public spaces. Case studies from around the country indicate replacement of highways in urban cores has increased real estate values, general livability, and reduced air and noise pollution (https://amp.businessinsider.com/highway-closing-city-transformation-2018-5; https://www.wsj.com/articles/highways-give-way-to-homes-as-cities-rebuild-11575208801). Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway.
Sincerely,
Kate, resident of district 5
As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. The waterfront is a beautiful public space for wildlife, people, parks, and sustainable development. The freeway, like in so many areas of Sacramento, creates significant divides, blight, and barriers to use. Lets envision a place for people. Sacramento's very own High Line Park. A destination place for people first that bridges a literal gap between the waterfront and downtown.
The mission to revitalize and activate the riverfront is an admirable one, and an important next step for Sacramento in our evolution and growth. However, to overlook the impact that the freeway has had and continues to have in regards to seperating the waterfront would be a mistake. To fully accomplish our goals, and to become the city Sacramento aspires to be, means addressing this gaping scar that runs through the middle of our downtown. Please instruct city staff to investigate any and all options which would mitigate the impacts of the exposed, open air condition of I-5. We need to replace this with parks, open space, housing and other active uses. The city of the future is not one built around cars!
Thank you for focusing on the Waterfront. I think this is a great opportunity to keep moving Sacramento forward as a livable urban area. As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there's no time to waste CalTrans has plans. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can continue to build off the Waterfronts investments.
Dear Council, I write to support comments made by individuals below, notably Mr. Segall's, letter, to encourage the Council and staff to explore options deck, remove, or narrow Interstate 5 between downtown and the waterfront. I-5's current role and location badly separates the city from historic Old Sacramento and from its waterfront. The goals of Destination Sacramento are laudable, but will only truly succeed with changes to the freeway that separates it from the rest of the city. As CalTrans begins repair and expansion worth hundreds of millions of dollars, this is precisely the time to explore options to reduce the impact that a major transportation corridor has on our access and enjoyment of Old Sacramento and the water front. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can fulfill its potential.
Dear City Council: As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate I-5 along the waterfront. Building 1-5 along the waterfront was one of the worst decisions ever made for public life in Sacramento, and you have the opportunity to reverse course on this bad planning. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can fulfill its potential.
Dear City Council: As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there's no time to waste. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can make better choices."
Please find attached my comment letter supporting Destination Sacramento and urging the Mayor and City Council to direct staff to consider decking, removing, or otherwise remediating the blight of Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Thank you for your consideration.
As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. The waterfront is a beautiful public space for people, parks, housing and a highway is not the best use of this gem within our city.
Thank you,
Erin Reschke
Dear City Council, Old Sacramento is great and has the potential to be even better with the Destination Sacramento program. However, the few points of connection between the rest of the city and Old Sacramento currently inhibit casual visits from residents like me, who would be much more likely to stroll over there if it were more accessible. For that reason, I think city staff should study options to deck or remove Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Our waterfront will be orders of magnitude more appealing for residents, prospective residents, and visitors alike, if we had parks, housing, and public spaces along the water, instead of a noisy and unsightly open freeway. But we must move quickly on this! Staff should study design options now, so that we can influence plans to rebuild the highway, and recover this critical city asset from the ill-conceived planning of the past.
Dear Mayor Steinberg and City Councilmembers,
Regarding Destination Sacramento Program's potential to bring return on investment, the significant barrier of I-5 should not be ignored. We would be delighted to offer the city a pro-bono workshop to explore opportunities to re-connect Old Sacramento to downtown. The City could then request that the resulting human-centered alternatives be included in Caltrans forthcoming I-5 rebuild scope.
Living in midtown over the last five years (without a car), I am very familiar with every street on the grid and the river waterfront, and would welcome the opportunity to help revitalize Old Sacramento.
Kate White, MPA, EcoDist. AP
Associate Principal | Planning | Policy
Arup
560 Mission Street Suite 700 San Francisco CA 94105 USA
t: + 1 415 957 9445 d: +1 415 946 0752
m: +1 415 652 9516
www.arup.com
Mayor and City Council:
As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there's no time to waste. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can make better choices.
Dear Councilmembers,
I write in support of the proposed Destination Sacramento Program. Critically, I also want to join other commenters in requesting that you direct your staff to continue evaluating further options to remove, narrow, deck, or otherwise remediate the portion of Interstate 5 along the waterfront. That segment of Interstate 5 is a constant and toxic reminder of one of Sacramento’s greatest planning blunders, and it continues to hamper Sacramento by segmenting its urban core. It will also continue to compromise Sacramento’s waterfront, as it represents both a physical and mental barrier between downtown and Old Town.
The time is now to explore options to remove or deck Intestate 5. Caltrans is poised to potentially spend a billion dollars or more to prolong Intestate 5’s tenure through downtown. This is the chance of a lifetime to help come up with better options for the use of the land currently occupied by that stretch of freeway.
If "support" means please deck I5 between the R street pedestrian bridge and J st (that's my dream but anything within those bounds would be better than nothing) then count me in. A self-respecting city respects it's waterfront. Portland, since I grew up there in the '80s and '90s, has built waterfront paths and pedestrian access, and reinvested despite equivalent barriers as Sac's. Sac's waterfront is narrow and uncomfortable, crowded with tourists which squeezes out local usage, confirming local Sacramentans are less important than tourists. Locals need a place to congregate in peace and play, and a decked I5 could be that demonstration of city self-care.
Dear Members of the Council: I urge you to direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. I-5 is a brutal physical barrier separating downtown from its best natural asset. It is also a waste of prime real estate, distinctly unattractive, and a source of unrelenting pollution. By removing I-5, the City could reunite its urban core with historic Old Sacramento and the Railyards, which could become the City’s most desirable areas—and a world-class riverfront destination for locals and visitors alike.
Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there is no time to waste. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the City can make better choices. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity.
Sincerely,
Sophie Wenzlau
Dear City Council,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the actions to reopen Sacramento's waterfront as an integrated part of the city center. The preservationist efforts in the '60s saved historic Old Sacramento from the wrecking ball, and we are the beneficiaries of that sometimes unpopular battle against what sounded like an economic development plan of bringing the highway right to town. Today, we recognize that life happens at street level and that economic development requires human-scale access. The public spaces envisioned in Destination Sacramento won't be used to their potential if the only ways to get there are the current tunnels and tunnel-like streets. I believe there are ways to remove I-5 as a barrier that manage costs, economic development, access, and equity to the benefit of the City and its residents. I respectfully ask the Council to direct staff to study those options.
Sincerely yours,
Mark Wenzel
Dear City Council:
Please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Old
Sacramento would be an attractive place if it were connected once again to the rest of the city; the waterfront highway must be replaced with parks, housing, and public spaces. Case studies from around the country indicate replacement of highways in urban cores has increased real estate values, general livability, and reduced air and noise pollution (https://amp.businessinsider.com/highway-closing-city-transformation-2018-5; https://www.wsj.com/articles/highways-give-way-to-homes-as-cities-rebuild-11575208801). Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway.
Sincerely,
Kate, resident of district 5
As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. The waterfront is a beautiful public space for wildlife, people, parks, and sustainable development. The freeway, like in so many areas of Sacramento, creates significant divides, blight, and barriers to use. Lets envision a place for people. Sacramento's very own High Line Park. A destination place for people first that bridges a literal gap between the waterfront and downtown.
Thank you,
Alix Ogilvie
The mission to revitalize and activate the riverfront is an admirable one, and an important next step for Sacramento in our evolution and growth. However, to overlook the impact that the freeway has had and continues to have in regards to seperating the waterfront would be a mistake. To fully accomplish our goals, and to become the city Sacramento aspires to be, means addressing this gaping scar that runs through the middle of our downtown. Please instruct city staff to investigate any and all options which would mitigate the impacts of the exposed, open air condition of I-5. We need to replace this with parks, open space, housing and other active uses. The city of the future is not one built around cars!
Dear City Council,
Thank you for focusing on the Waterfront. I think this is a great opportunity to keep moving Sacramento forward as a livable urban area. As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there's no time to waste CalTrans has plans. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can continue to build off the Waterfronts investments.
Dear Council, I write to support comments made by individuals below, notably Mr. Segall's, letter, to encourage the Council and staff to explore options deck, remove, or narrow Interstate 5 between downtown and the waterfront. I-5's current role and location badly separates the city from historic Old Sacramento and from its waterfront. The goals of Destination Sacramento are laudable, but will only truly succeed with changes to the freeway that separates it from the rest of the city. As CalTrans begins repair and expansion worth hundreds of millions of dollars, this is precisely the time to explore options to reduce the impact that a major transportation corridor has on our access and enjoyment of Old Sacramento and the water front. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can fulfill its potential.
Dear City Council: As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate I-5 along the waterfront. Building 1-5 along the waterfront was one of the worst decisions ever made for public life in Sacramento, and you have the opportunity to reverse course on this bad planning. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can fulfill its potential.
Dear City Council: As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Sacramento would prosper if it replaced its waterfront highway with parks, housing, and public spaces -- but there's no time to waste. Please ask staff to study design options in time to influence plans to rebuild the highway, ensuring that the city can make better choices."
Please find attached my comment letter supporting Destination Sacramento and urging the Mayor and City Council to direct staff to consider decking, removing, or otherwise remediating the blight of Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Thank you for your consideration.
As you move forward with the Old Sacramento program, please direct staff to study options to deck, remove, narrow, or otherwise remediate Interstate 5 along the waterfront. The waterfront is a beautiful public space for people, parks, housing and a highway is not the best use of this gem within our city.
Thank you,
Erin Reschke
Dear City Council, Old Sacramento is great and has the potential to be even better with the Destination Sacramento program. However, the few points of connection between the rest of the city and Old Sacramento currently inhibit casual visits from residents like me, who would be much more likely to stroll over there if it were more accessible. For that reason, I think city staff should study options to deck or remove Interstate 5 along the waterfront. Our waterfront will be orders of magnitude more appealing for residents, prospective residents, and visitors alike, if we had parks, housing, and public spaces along the water, instead of a noisy and unsightly open freeway. But we must move quickly on this! Staff should study design options now, so that we can influence plans to rebuild the highway, and recover this critical city asset from the ill-conceived planning of the past.
Please see the attached comment letter. I would love to further discuss and can be reached at csegall@gmail.com
Best,
Craig Segall