Railyard Recycled

So here’s a new (-ish) video about the Sacramento Railyards project. The Center for Creative Land Recycling is one of many partners – public, private and nonprofit – trying to redevelop Sacramento’s historic (and historically blighted) former Union Pacific railyard.

240 acres of abandoned railyard has been spooning the north-west corner of downtown Sacramento for years. City leaders hope to transform this rail-etched wasteland into a downtown annex with housing, retail, office space, and entertainment and cultural venues, not to mention development of the riverfront.

It’s a massive project – 240 acres is almost as big as the City’s existing business district – and progress has been painstaking.

Part of the reason is the railyard has rail tracks – go figure. City leaders broke ground today on shifting the tracks a few hundred feet north of their current footprint to make room for development of the railyard’s front end. Just moving the tracks will take 18 to 24 months.

I hope Sacramento doesn’t give up on this. The Railyards Project presents a lot of technical and financial challenges, and we’re not going to see a vibrant Downtown 2 sprout out of the ground in time for Christmas shopping. But in the long run, a collective push toward this vision, I think, is worth it.

The Railyards will test our commitment, as a community, to investing in ourselves over the long haul. It will also remind us of the possibilities for a downtown that doesn’t sit next to Mad Max territory.