Caravan protest in Sacramento seeks community investment, accountability of the wealthy
A group of workers and activists rode in a caravan of vehicles Wednesday afternoon to the lavish home of a wealthy Sacramento real estate developer as part of statewide protest demanding California’s millionaires and billionaires to invest in underrepresented communities hit the hardest by coronavirus pandemic.
About 60 people in about 30 vehicles started their caravan at the planned site of a University of California, Davis development project near Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood, before the demonstration headed to the home of Angelo Tsakopoulos, the founder of AKT Development.
“This is a coalition effort as part of a statewide day of action to divest from billionaires and invest in underrepresented communities,” said Zach Freels, a lead organizer for AFSCME Local 3299. “Sacramento is a historically segregated community, and it’s time that changed. It’s time that property lines weren’t divided up by freeways or public institutions, like the University of California. And it’s time that billionaires paid their share to make that a reality.”
Freels was speaking of UC Davis’ plans to develop Aggie Square on its medical center campus near Oak Park, which include designs for the 25-acre “innovation hub” project. Freels said the university and the city continue their plans to break ground build at Aggie Square in the heart of a traditionally segregated community.
The first phase of development plans for about 8 acres that will include educational buildings, student and affiliate housing, a market plaza and a transportation hub for transportation, university officials have said.
From Aggie Square site to developer’s home
After a news conference at the Aggie Square site, the caravan of demonstrators moved to just outside the gates of Tsakopoulos’ home. He said he was not home when the demonstrators arrived and he doesn’t believe anyone else was home at that time either.
Tsakopoulos said protests and demonstrations play a crucial role in a democracy and he supports anyone’s right to make their voices heard, “as long as nobody gets hurt. That’s what is important.” There were no reports of injuries in the Sacramento protest.
“They might have some good ideas,” Tsakopoulos said during a phone interview with the The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday evening. I don’t know who these people are, but they’re welcome to send us a letter. We’ll respond.”
AFSCME Local 3299 is the largest employee union for the UC system and represents 24,000 service and patient care workers on campuses and hospitals.
The union on Wednesday was joined by other labor organizations and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. The alliance is a grassroots community organization that works to improve communities with more than 15,000 members throughout the state.
Help needed for Californians struggling in pandemic
The demonstrators demanded that the wealthy respect the lives of their workers and tenants, and pay their fair share in taxes to invest in programs “desperately needed by Californians struggling in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a news release.
affordable housing, access to healthcare, support for public education, and workplace protections.
When told that the demonstrators on Wednesday were demanding that millionaires pay for a fair for all recovery from the pandemic, Tsakopoulos said, “They’re barking up the wrong tree.”
He said the demonstrators should be talking to local, state and federal government leaders to ensure everyone pays their fair share, especially “the guy in the White House.” Tsakopoulos was referring to President Donald Trump, a man Tsakopoulos said he and plenty of others are working hard to replace.
Kristin Lopez, who is with the alliance, said the wealthy can afford to make sure that everyone has housing during this COVID-19 pandemic, but they’re not doing that.
“Well, it’s important to me because we need to hold the super wealthy accountable for the fact that they are letting this burden... this financial burden during this crisis fall people that are already living paycheck to paycheck,” Lopez said during Wednesday’s protest. “I can’t afford to be alive, and I’m doing better than most.”
Gate gets minor damage
Outside Tsakopoulos’ home, it appeared that one of the demonstrators damaged a portion of his front gate. Tsakopoulos said he saw the minor damage when he arrived home after the protest. He said it looked like an ornament on top of the gate was torn off.
“They broke a small part of the gate, no big deal,” Tsakopoulos said.
His home wasn’t the only residence that was a part of Wednesday’s protest throughout the state. Other demonstrations occurred outside the homes of “prominent billionaires and millionaires,” including Elon Musk of Tesla, Bruce Karsh of Oaktree Capital, Irwin Jacobs of Qualcomm and Phil Tagami of California Commercial Investment Group, according to the news release.
The demonstrators said they were seeking affordable housing, access to health care, support for public education and workplace protections.
“They need to know that we see them, and they can’t keep the system the way it is,” Lopez said. “The system is designed so that they’ll be OK and we will suffer. We are the ones losing our homes.”
