Toward More Complete Streets Around Sacramento Schools

Terry Preston's role as a complete streets advocate began long ago as a parent volunteer at his child's school. It was at this school that Terry set up a series of weekly walking Wednesdays, which laid the foundation for his current role as Complete Streets Coalition Coordinator for the Walk Sacramento community partnership. Through the coalition's involvement with a local Sacramento, CA, school district and the skillful procurement of funding, the streets surrounding schools are now safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and bus riders alike.

The Complete Streets Coalition has community planning councils that provide advice and recommendations on new land use projects. Their role as an educational clearinghouse for communities was especially useful for the Natomas Unified School District when they recently received funding from the school board on a school bond measure. Preston notes that Natomas was the first school district in the U.S. to ever include infrastructure improvements around the school in a bond measure. "Most bond measures are used to rebuild an entire school," he said. "But I said 'Why not include this other stuff too?'" The school district used the money for physical projects such as widening sidewalks, creating safer intersections, and making new crosswalks.

The school district received a $500,000 state grant to continue physical improvements and hire a full-time Safe Routes to School coordinator. This grant proposal, written by the district's assistant superintendent, would complement the school bond by allowing for ongoing physical improvements in the one to two block radius around district schools.

Other school districts in Sacramento have not yet followed suit on the groundbreaking changes made in the Natomas Unified School District, but Preston is hopeful. "I'm hoping for that important move forward." Walk Sacramento intends to continue its partnerships with county schools, he adds, "in order to get more money to what they have already been doing so successfully."

Resources

Sacramento, CA Community Partnership Page

Complete Streets Resource