City Council approves recovery spending plan, including Old Sacramento safety upgrades
Jason Minow, owner of the Sacramento Sweets Co. candy store in Old Sacramento, spoke with two police officers on Tuesday morning about the city’s plans to make visitors and workers feel safer there, especially at night.
He’s hoping more lighting and security cameras will deter violence that has recently marred Old Sacramento, the city’s oldest commercial district. Minow said the brazen gun violence over the past few months, including a shooting in July that killed two people and injured four others, didn’t appear to be random. He said more needs to be done to prevent gun skirmishes like that.
“If they become a deterrent, that would be good,” Minow told The Sacramento Bee. “People that come down here that want to get in trouble, they’re looking to get in trouble.”
In an effort to quell the violence, elected officials and local business leaders gathered Tuesday to speak about the City Council’s plan to spend $61.7 million in investments from federal funding to help the city bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic, including $5 million for revitalization of the downtown core and Old Sacramento.
The city will install 19 security cameras at key locations in Old Sacramento, along with lighting improvements to existing streetlights, buildings and at the pedestrian level. The city hopes to eliminate pockets of darkness.
“This is a real shot in the arm here. That’s what we are doing here today. This investment I hope will be a booster,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said during a news conference at City Hall. “It will speed-up the comeback, inject a dose of confidence into our communities especially our business community.”
The listed investments is how Sacramento wants to spend $112 million from the federal American Rescue Plan. The City Council on Tuesday evening voted unanimously to approve the first portion of the city’s spending plan.
$41 million to address homelessness
The list of investments also includes $41 million to implement the city’s plan to address homelessness adopted in August; $8.2 million to help small businesses citywide; $1.5 million for gang violence prevention and $1 million to help create a trained pipeline of workers to fill jobs at the planned UC Davis Aggie Square innovation district, according to a news release from the Mayor’s Office.
After speaking to about 100 local businesses over four meetings, Councilman and Vice Mayor Jay Schenirer and his team developed the outline that formed the foundation of the spending plan approved Tuesday.
“What we did is we actually went out to the business community and said ‘What is it that you need to be successful as we open up the city,” Schenirer told reporters. “So my hope is that’s really a beginning of a different type of relationship, where we’re working together to not only identify the problem but collaboratively and collectively come up with the solutions.”
The investments also include $1 million for vaccine outreach and education; $3.5 million for the Sacramento Inclusive Economic Development Collaborative; and $550,000 for the Center for Workers’ Rights to continue the Coronavirus Job Protection Helpline. After these expenditures are made, there will be $50.4 million of the federal American Rescue Plan left for the city to spend.
Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, said it’s been the most challenging time he’s had in the past 20 years working for the organization. For nearly two years, he said downtown has been challenged by COVID-19, social protests and about two-thirds of downtown employees working from home.
He said they expect many to return to their downtown jobs early next year, and that experience needs to be a positive one.
“Downtown has had not just challenges but businesses, as you’ve heard, that are holding on. Many have closed, we want them to come back,” Ault said during the news conference. “These funds are going to be critical for us to reopen downtown.”
Midtown internships for college students of color
Emily Baime Michaels, executive director of the Midtown Association, said this funding will go to enhance maintenance services to ensure “we have a clean, safe and welcoming and beautiful” commercial district as more return to businesses there. She also said the money will go to creating internships for first-generation men of color attending college and to help small businesses and promoters host safe community-minded special events in midtown.
Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said her first experience in the city was visiting Old Sacramento when she was a student at UC Davis.
“It’s an incredible representation of the businesses and the energy of our city, and I’m really, really happy tonight that we’re going to be making a vote to help support them in their recovery efforts,” Valenzuela said about Old Sacramento.
Valenzuela, who represents Old Sacramento, downtown and midtown, said there’s so much more in the investment spending plan for the rest of the city, including help for workers to find jobs and set-up Sacramento for a real equitable recovery as it emerges from the pandemic.
Youth violence prevention
And the violence prevention money will go to all areas of the city impacted by violent crimes; not just Old Sacramento, Valenzuela said. But she said the plan is for some of that money to go to local youth intervention groups, such as Brother to Brother and Voice of the Youth, who can have their intervention experts there in Old Sacramento to stop violence before it erupts.
Shortly after one of the recent shootings, Valenzuela went for a nighttime walk through Old Sacramento with members of Voice of the Youth. She said she was amazed at how many young people the intervention experts knew and greeted there, and she believes they have the capacity to curb the recent trend in violence there.
The mayor said the top priority for Old Sacramento is security and safety. City officials held a community meeting in late July to hear from locals to try to address some of those problems.
A follow-up survey for Old Sacramento residents, business owners and property owners that received over 106 responses found that more needs to be done to stop street partying, intoxication, erratic driving and activities like cruising, which can add to congestion.
Scott Ford, the district operations manager for the Old Sacramento Waterfront, said the City Council’s spending plan will make a significant investment in the city’s original commercial district, which continues to welcome a diverse group of entrepreneurs. He said the district is fundamental to Sacramento’s identity and economy.
“Old Sacramento Waterfront is the most unique neighborhood in our city, a place which belongs to all of us. One which we all should be proud of and one which we should all feel safe to enjoy,” Ford said in the news conference.
Increased police patrols
In response to the shootings over the summer, the Sacramento Police Department has increased patrols in Old Sacramento, said Officer Karl Chan, a spokesman for the department.
“As a regular practice, the Sacramento Police Department provides increased staffing in the downtown area during busy evening hours,” Chan said in an email to The Bee. “In addition to this increased staffing, the department has increased downtown staffing further, including dedicating officers specifically to Old Sacramento, in response to recent crime in the area.”
Janie Desmond Ison has owned Steamers Bakery & Cafe since 1994 in Old Sacramento, and she says 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.
Ison said Old Sacramento workers, business owners and visitors have the right to feel safe as they walk to and from parking garages, nearby hotels and other businesses. She said these neighborhood investments are a good first step and they can’t come fast enough as businesses “come up from the fog of COVID” and head toward the holiday season.
“The challenges for small business owners seem to grow,” Ison told reporters. “And at the very top of that list are the challenges we face with security and safety of our employees and our guests that patronize our businesses, whether they’re from across the world or across the river.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2021 at 4:14 PM.
