Two rivers converge in Sacramento. By at least one important measure, however, they couldn’t be more different.

The American River provides wide-open public paths on both levees that frame it, all the way to Folsom Lake. A cyclist or an ambitious hiker can freely travel more than 30 miles along the river’s edge.

The Sacramento River, however, brings a walker or cyclist up short. From the confluence with the American River, the public path along the Sacramento runs about five miles, to 25th Avenue, where it abruptly ends in a locked gate spanning the levee. It is the first of 12 such impediments that chop up public access to the Sacramento River shore in the Pocket and Little Pocket neighborhoods.

The city of Sacramento is reviving a long-stalled plan to bring down the fences. The goal is an unbroken public path running another 10 miles to Freeport. The idea is stirring old emotions that kept the plan in the shadows for 15 years.

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