The so-called “Regents Road bridge project” is a 50-year-old idea that has never been built for very good reasons: it is environmentally destructive, a poor traffic solution and hugely expensive. The city currently has no money to build this $37 million dollar bad idea. It’s time to let it go. When the road was first drawn as a line on the map across Rose Canyon it was 1959. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. In the north city area of San Diego there was no UCSD, no I-805, no I-5, no University City. There were few roads and lots of open space where plants and animals thrived and people — kids and adults — had places to get out and enjoy nature. Those who moved into the first homes in south University City in the early 1960s watched the cows and horses that still lived in Rose Canyon. Kids played freely in the canyon: They swung from ropes tied to sycamore branches, floated down Rose Creek on inner tubes after rains and explored nature on their own as a part of growing up. What has happened since then has changed not just the landscape of San Diego, but the daily life of children and adults and reversed our priorities. Now, instead of few roads and lots of open space, we have almost nothing but roads, buildings and parking lots, and only the last remnants of natural areas. We have traded a world of nature for a world of concrete and cars. And today’s parents no longer feel it is safe to allow their children the freedom to go off and explore nature on their own. Kids spend a lot of screen time — and not much green time. What has happened to Rose Canyon in the last 50 years? In 1979, the city dedicated a large part of it as Rose Canyon Open Space Park Preserve. It was one of a wave of new open space parks, whose purpose was to protect environmentally important areas and provide opportunities for low-impact recreation and scenic enjoyment. In the 1990s, the city granted Rose Canyon another important and powerful layer of environmental protection: it included the canyon in the Multiple Species Conservation Program. This is a conservation plan, negotiated with federal and state agencies, to protect habitat for native plants and animals. Rose Canyon is a last remaining urban greenbelt that stretches across the city, surrounded by development. (For those unfamiliar with this part of Rose Canyon, the rail line runs through it when it makes the long jog inland north of SR-52.). It connects to the east to thousands of acres of open space at MCAS Miramar, and to the west to San Clemente Canyon (Marion Bear Memorial Park). Rose Canyon provides wildlife habitat and serves as an important wildlife corridor, through which animals can move in search of food, shelter and mates. Protecting Rose Canyon also helps protect the water quality of Mission Bay, as Rose Creek flows through the canyon and south to Mission Bay. People from across the city come to Rose Canyon to run, bike, hike, walk their dogs and enjoy nature. The Regents Road bridge project would build a four lane high-speed road through the heart of Rose Canyon Open Space Park Preserve at its widest, most peaceful and most scenic area, the area most used by people. This is not just a bridge: almost half the distance of this project would be a cut-andfill road built by bulldozing a scenic hillside much used by wildlife and filling a wetland. Down in the canyon, the road would connect to a massive concrete bridge almost 100-feet-wide with eight large supports. The park would become a noisy, ugly, urbanized place, its essence destroyed by concrete, traffic, graffiti and trash. What is the alternate vision? We have something priceless in Rose Canyon Open Space Park Preserve: a last remaining swath of nature that is accessible to urban residents without driving for miles. Forty-five hundred students attend school within walking distance, and an increasing number come to the park for first-hand experiences in nature. Preserving this park will cost the city nothing: we already own it. All we have to do is not destroy it. If the city did actually build this road, no one will ever say 50 years from now: wow, cool, our traffic problems are solved. If, on the other hand, we preserve the park, people 50 years from now will look at its scenic vistas, listen to the birds and thank those who saved it. In the past 50 years, proposed roads throughout California have outlived their time and will never be built. During the 1960s and 1970s, residents battled to save Tecolote Canyon: they stopped a landfill, then a maintenance yard, then a four-lane road with housing developments. Finally, in 1977, the City Council dedicated it as Tecolote Canyon Natural Park — and no one misses that road. Those who support the Regents Road bridge project claim there is only one connection between north and south University City: Genesee Avenue. Actually, there are three connections: Genesee Avenue, I-805 and I-5, a total of 20 lanes, with four more planned for I-805. The community is only about 2.5 miles-wide: 24 north-south lanes ought to do it. State and federal agencies have made it clear the city would have a hard time getting the necessary environmental approvals for this project and encouraged the city not to pursue it. The city’s own traffic studies have shown it to be a poor traffic project. It has become a boondoggle, pushed for by contractors because they would make millions working on it. Friends of Rose Canyon brings hundreds of people a year into the park for first-hand nature experiences, including students, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the general public. It’s free to join at www.rosecanyon.org. Come to one of our nature events. Get to know Rose Canyon Open Space Park Preserve — and why it’s worth preserving. — Deborah Knight is executive director of Friends of Rose Canyon, a nonprofit organization.