Open space inside of Petaluma continues to grow and get dramatically better for all of us. Helen Putnam Park for example has expanded twice over the past ten years and maintenance continues to improve. The River Park didn’t even exist six years ago and I don’t think most people are aware of the massive planning effort currently underway to turn that into a huge multi-use open space playground both on the peninsula and on the Hopper Street side.
Other folks are in quiet talks to try to acquire land for a significant Upper River Park along the Petaluma River upstream of the Lynch Creek fork. We’ve got Schollenberger on the south edge of town and also along the river. This photo is in Lafferty Ranch east of the town and up on the mountain where we finally have docent led access just over the past three years. Hopefully one day there will be a central park like component to the fairgrounds but at least so far the “no public access” sign came down not that long ago. With our recent sales tax there is now some money to improve all of our existing parks in town. The SMART train bike pathway is its own major addition to public open space just within the past ten years. And our recent street improvements not only help out cars but also encourage hikers and bikers to use our most important public space - our streets.
As a guy who has backpacked most of the eastern Sierra, even though that is increasingly a set of tales from days gone by, I really enjoy being able to walk out my front door and access most of this on foot or on bike. Of course our river itself is arguably some of our most important public open space as well. Need to pull out that kayak a little more often myself.
I’m sure that there is another 3 or 5 public open spaces in town that I should have mentioned.
