Sacramento’s New Strategy to Fight Loneliness Starts Outdoors

This story is part of our March 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.

There’s a loneliness epidemic in America that is at the forefront
of public health and city planning discourse. While busy,
transient work lives, screen addiction and other changes carried
over from the pandemic are keeping us apart, there is a
recognition that rebuilding those connections requires
intentional, culturally grounded efforts.

Amid 160 heritage oak trees on ancestral Patwin land, a new
gathering place is being born in West Sacramento. Heritage Oaks
Park is currently under development and will include an outdoor
amphitheater, BMX bike skills course, skate park, fitness
stations, walking and running trails and a splash pad, an
interactive water play area for children. It will also feature
the recently opened Emile’s Cafe, serving coffee, drinks and
to-go snacks for park visitors.

Along Broadway in Sacramento, the Oak Park Sol Community Garden
was recently opened with 15 garden plots, an outdoor kitchen, a
free pantry and library, children’s play area and a grape arbor
“sitting space” designed to build neighborhood connectivity.
Meanwhile in Natomas, plans are underway for the Birds and
Benches project, where various artists will create 12 unique park
benches for people to gather and observe the abundant birds and
waterfowl of the Natomas Basin.

The Oak Park Sol Community Garden just reopened with 15 garden
plots, an outdoor kitchen, a free pantry and library and a grape
arbor with a sitting space. (Photo by Debbie Cunningham)

“I’ve seen how powerful shared spaces can be in bringing people
together,” says Sacramento District 1 Councilmember Lisa Kaplan.
“The Birds and Benches project, created in partnership with the
City of Sacramento Art in Public Places Program, helps North
Natomas Regional Park become a place of further belonging. These
artistic benches invite our diverse community to pause, observe
native birds and wildlife, and most importantly, connect with one
another.”

These are just some of the projects that communities in the
Capital Region are working on to create places for people to come
together.

The isolation challenge

We live in isolated pods, work constantly and often find
ourselves far from family and the traditional support systems
that previous generations took for granted. The pandemic
only intensified what had already become a growing crisis of
disconnection in American communities. While COVID-19 forced
physical separation, it also revealed how fragmented our social
infrastructure had become.

About one in three adults in the U.S. reported feeling lonely in
2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and about one in four reported not having social and
emotional support. The health implications are serious: Social
isolation and loneliness can increase a person’s risk for heart
disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety and earlier
death.

Sacramento County has recognized social isolation as a critical
threat to community well-being. In its 2025-2030 Local Aging and
Disability-Friendly Action Plan, the county acknowledged that
“social isolation and loneliness remain problems in our
communities” and “pose a serious threat to our physical and
mental health.” The county’s needs assessment, which included 26
community listening sessions with more than 500 residents between
2022 and 2024, identified “opportunities that decrease isolation
and loneliness, and build friendships and support systems” as a
top priority under social participation.

“I’ve seen how powerful shared spaces can be in bringing people
together.”

— Sacramento Councilmember Lisa Kaplan

In Sacramento, Ernesto Delgado, the restaurateur who owns
Mayahuel, La Cosecha and others, is working on his vision of
turning Cesar Chavez Plaza into a community meeting place for
people to gather, eat, picnic, drink, talk, play chess and maybe
even dance — similar to the plazas of Mexico City. Hanami Line, a
tree garden inside Robert T. Matsui Waterfront Park along the
Sacramento River, will see its second season of pink cherry
blossom blooms this year. Fair Oaks Village recently completed a
$23 million renovation of its amphitheater and park for people to
meet up and have community events. Friends, couples and families
can be seen walking around day and night.

Farmers markets are a perfect example of community gathering
places, and the Capital Region is lucky to have an abundance of
them. The Midtown Farmers Market, which spans five blocks and 200
vendors, was recognized last year by the American Farmland Trust
as No. 1 in California and No. 3 in the U.S. These markets don’t
just provide food access, but also cultivate community. A Project
for Public Spaces report found that customers experience an
average of 15 to 20 social interactions per visit to a farmers
market.

Parks and gardens

On Jan. 15, Alchemist Community Development Corporation partnered
with Leadership Sacramento to celebrate the revitalization of Oak
Park Sol Community Garden, a space that has served the
neighborhood for 15 years. The garden was originally created to
reclaim a vacant lot in a historically underserved area.
Leadership Sacramento spent a year enhancing the space to allow
new opportunities for programming, working together, growing food
and building relationships around shared purpose.

“When the pandemic hit, the community garden model wasn’t working
consistently, with individually rented plots and collaborative
care for shared spaces,” says Joe Robustelli, director of food
access with Alchemist CDC. “We’ve been taking over plots and
turning them into community plots where the produce contributes
to a free farm stand and supports our Community Food Connections
program with Sacramento City Unified School District, where we
deliver locally grown food to families in need who don’t have
access to healthy food.”

Sacramento city officials are also rethinking how public spaces
can foster connection. “We have over 230 parks that are used for
recreation and community gathering,” Jason Wiesemann, park
planning and development services manager, explains.

Emile’s Cafe in West Sacramento is already open at Heritage Oaks
Park, which is under construction and will feature an outdoor
amphitheater, skate park and BMX skills course. (Photo by Debbie
Cunningham)

“At Muir Park in downtown, plans are proposed to transform an
underutilized space into a community hub. The city is proposing a
community garden and a futsal court (similar to soccer). The
proposed improvements have been supported by members of the
community and are set to be voted on at the City Council soon,”
he says.

The city is also adding lighting to sports fields and courts.
Currently, they are adding lights to the ball fields at North
Natomas Regional Park and futsal courts at Tanzanite Community
Park. The lighting will allow extended playing hours. They are
also updating the electrical system at Southside Park to
accommodate larger community events like food truck gatherings
and concerts. These improvements aim to activate spaces during
different times of day and for different purposes, recognizing
that community happens in many forms.

The Department of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment has
developed the Volunteers in Parks program. The VIP program is the
department’s structured approach to engaging community members in
the care, activation and stewardship of Sacramento’s parks. VIP
was established to help us move beyond one-off volunteer events
and toward a more intentionally sustainable volunteer model that
supports staff capacity while strengthening community ownership
of public spaces. The program creates clear pathways for
individuals, families, community groups and partners to
participate in park-based volunteer opportunities, including park
cleanups, tree planting, beautification projects and ongoing site
stewardship.

According to Wiesemann, “The VIP program has been a great
success, with over 1,000 registered volunteers. A variety of
events are available to all members of the community throughout
the year.”

Threads of Belonging

This spring, artists will unveil the city’s first textile mural
across the vast wall of Valley Hi-North Laguna Library in South
Sacramento. Its plans cast a vibrant picture of textile
tradition, which reads left to right, starting with a bright
orange floral motif representing the Palestinian poppy set beside
an elusive optical whirlpool of blue designed to the measurements
of phi. The mural ends with squares of home, with red and green
patterns.

Created by three cultural bearers, Pachia Lucy Vang, Ren
Allathkani and Jamie Cardenas, the handwoven mural weaves
together the textile traditions of Hmong, Filipino and
Palestinian communities. But the real work of Threads of
Belonging isn’t just the finished artwork. It’s what happens in
the workshops leading up to it, where community members gather to
stitch, learn and connect.

“I think that gathering and even community is something that I’m
still actively building and learning how to do,” says Vang, a
textile artist and lecturer for UC Davis’ design department.
Vang’s work centers on Hmong textile traditions. “Growing up, I
remember women gathering together to sew and to make and to
embroider together, and then finding a sense of relief through
being able to talk to someone that they trusted.”

The decision to create Threads of Belonging as a public mural
rather than a gallery installation was deliberate. Galleries can
be intimidating and inaccessible, Vang notes, while murals carry
a history of activism and belonging to communities. The planned
location in the heart of south Sacramento, where many Filipino,
Hmong and Palestinian families live, will ensure the work reaches
the communities it represents.

As Threads of Belonging takes shape over the coming months, Oak
Park Sol Community Garden flourishes with new programs, and
Heritage Oaks Park and Birds and Benches, the Capital Region is
quietly building a model for a post-pandemic community. It’s one
that honors traditional ways of being together, while meeting the
needs of contemporary urban life.

Comstock’s Editor Judy Farah contributed to this story.

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Sacramento’s New Strategy to Fight Loneliness Starts Outdoors

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