Noralto community celebrates accomplishments in neighborhood and pedestrian safety.
In honor of recent improvements in neighborhood and pedestrian safety in the Noralto Community and its surrounding neighborhoods, the City of Sacramento, in partnership with WALKSacramento and California Department of Public Health, will participate in International Walk to School Day. The event, which includes students from Noralto and Harmon Johnson Elementary Schools, will be held Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015 beginning at 7:30 a.m.
Students, parents, and faculty from Noralto and Harmon Johnson Elementary Schools will be walking on newly constructed sidewalks on Acacia Avenue. The infrastructure improvements constructed by the City were funded through a state-legislated Safe Routes to School grant. The project paid for sidewalks on Acacia Avenue and a traffic signal at the intersection of Acacia Avenue and Rio Linda Boulevard.
“Today’s Walk to School Day celebrates major accomplishments in overall safety for the Noralto community and its surrounding neighborhoods,” said Vice Mayor Allen Warren. “I am very proud to have worked with a coalition of parents and faculty who banded together to address public safety concerns, and significantly reduce the criminal nuisances that were ever present near the elementary schools.”
In the last two years, the community worked with the City’s Justice for Neighbors program to resolve unsafe traffic corridors, criminal activity, and blight affecting the neighborhood near the elementary schools.
Walk to School Day participants are asked to meet at three separate locations beginning at 7:30 a.m. including:
- T&Y Oriental Market parking lot, 2835 Norwood Avenue
- Parking lot, corner of Eleanor Avenue and Fairfield Street
- Richardson Park on Fairfield Street
Representatives from City of Sacramento, WALKSacramento, and California Department of Public Health will be distributing giveaways and providing walking safety tips to students and parents. They will then be walking to either Noralto or Harmon Johnson Schools. For questions regarding the Walk to School Day event, please contact Kirin Kumar from WALKSacramento at (916) 446-9255.
About the Acacia Avenue Safe Routes to School Project
The Acacia Avenue Safe Routes to School Project, which is located between Rio Linda Boulevard and Altos Avenue, provides a connection between local schools and the neighborhoods east of Rio Linda Boulevard. The project site is also adjacent to the existing Sacramento Northern Bike Trail, which many students use as a route to school. A new sidewalk was added along the north side of Acacia Avenue, and a traffic signal will be installed on Rio Linda Boulevard.
About International Walk to School Day
International Walk to School Day is a global event that involves communities from more than 40 countries walking and biking to school on the same day. It began in 1997 as a one-day event. Over time, this event has become part of a movement for year-round safe routes to school and a celebration – with record breaking participation – each October.
About the Safe Routes to School Program
Safe Routes to School is an international movement that has taken hold in communities throughout the United States. The concept is to increase the number of children who walk or bicycle to school by funding projects that remove the barriers that currently prevent them from doing so. Those barriers include lack of infrastructure, unsafe infrastructure, lack of programs that promote walking and bicycling through education/encouragement programs aimed at children, parents, and the community.