Why a 40-Year River Parkway Near Completion Still Waits and Why Public Urgency Matters More Than Ever

Source: International Business Times

For more than four decades, the San Joaquin River Parkway has been shaped by a vision that began in a community response to development pressures along a vulnerable floodplain. According to Sharon Weaver, Executive Director of the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust, the organization was formed in the late 1980s after local residents pushed back against proposals that would have transformed the river bottom into large-scale residential and commercial projects. "People recognized early on that this landscape was too important to lose, and they came together to protect it in a way that would serve future generations," she says.