City Council approves first contracts to improve safety in downtown and Old Sacramento
The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday approved the first contracts to improve safety throughout the city as part of a larger plan to use $112 million in federal funding to help the community and businesses bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $1.9 million in contracts approved in an unanimous vote by the City Council included funding to continue PopUp youth activities program around the city and to improve safety and cleanliness in downtown and Old Sacramento. Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the funding will support small businesses by creating a cleaner and safer environment for visitors.
“I’m proud that we have consistently put our federal Covid relief dollars out to work on behalf of our community,” Steinberg said in a news release. “They will also keep young people in our neighborhoods safe by giving them productive and entertaining ways to spend their evenings.”
A series of brazen nighttime shootings this summer in Old Sacramento prompted the Sacramento Police Department to increase patrols in the city’s oldest commercial district. In a city survey, Old Sacramento residents, business owners and property owners said more needed to be done to stop street partying, intoxication, erratic driving and activities like cruising, which can add to congestion.
In October, elected officials announced a plan to spend $61.7 million in investments from federal funding to help the community and businesses quell the violence, including $5 million for revitalization of the downtown core and Old Sacramento. The investments are how Sacramento wants to spend $112 million from the federal American Rescue Plan. The City Council on Oct. 19 voted unanimously to approve the first portion of the city’s spending plan.
The contracts approved Tuesday included $800,000 for pedestrian scale lighting, security services, and other enhancement projects in the Old Sacramento Waterfront. City officials plan to spend an additional $4.2 million to install more lighting and security cameras in Old Sacramento.
Janie Desmond Ison, who has owned Steamers Bakery & Cafe since 1994 in Old Sacramento, told The Sacramento Bee in October that the “nighttime issues are very real.” She said security cameras and improved lighting should reduce the number of people who go there with the intent to cause trouble and increase the number of those who act responsibly.
Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who represents Old Sacramento, downtown and midtown, has said the violence prevention money will go to all areas of the city impacted by violent crimes; not just Old Sacramento.
“With these kinds of investments, we’re creating a path to recovery for many of our businesses downtown that have been impacted by the pandemic,” Valenzuela said in the news release. “I’m also excited to see us vote to spend $1.3 million to extend PopUp programs aimed at engaging youth in the area. These programs are a fantastic example of a preventative and pragmatic approach to issues concerning youth, and I’m very happy to see our city continuing to support them.”
The PopUp program, which was launched in 2019 by Sierra Health Foundation, includes events staged on weekend nights by two dozen non-profit organizations in Sacramento’s disadvantaged neighborhoods. Chet Hewitt, president and CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation, said the PopUp program was started because of disruptions by young people at Arden Fair Mall and quickly turned into a “robust youth engagement program.”
“By centering on fun, social activities in communities with little for young people to do, the PopUp program is now a safe space and home for youth of all backgrounds,” Hewitt said in the news release. “The fact that more than 115,000 youth have attended and over 150 youth have been employed is an example of how investing in a community-based solution can both keep our city safer and help our young people thrive.”
With Tuesday’s approval, the city’s has spent a total of $8.08 million on the PopUp program since it began.
The contracts approved Tuesday also included $1.1 million for the Sacramento Downtown Partnership to expand the schedule for pressure washing and trash cleanup, hire two nighttime security guards and enhance the lighting in the J, K and L street corridors between Seventh and 13th streets, city officials said. Lighting improvements will include sound-activated lights that would create an interactive experience for visitors to K Street.
“These investments will provide critical amenities and create a safer and more enjoyable experience for those visiting and working in downtown and Old Sacramento,” the Downtown Partnership’s executive director Michael Ault said in the news release.
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 1:04 PM.
