Bee Opinionated: Happy Halloween + County spends millions + Anti-Semitism has no home here
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Happy Halloween! I’m Robin Eeeek!pley with The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, wishing you a very scary, spooktacular holiday weekend.
You know what’s truly scary to me? Sacramento County spending millions of dollars on a plot of land in North Highlands that they have zero plans for.
Last Tuesday, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of a property on Watt Avenue in North Highlands for nearly $23 million. The county hopes the formerly industrial site will help place unhoused people in cabins. It also marks the first time the county will provide parking spaces for people living in vehicles.
The problem? The site was only valued at $17 million, and it’s not even for sale. The county is offering the seller more than $5 million above value because they’re afraid they’ll lose out on the site.
But sites like this take years to stand up, and overpaying for this lot won’t stop the NIMBYism that’s bound to happen. The city of Sacramento budgeted $100 million more than a year ago to open 20 shelters and sanctioned camping sites across the city, and not a single one of them has opened.
“Beyond this development, the county should start asking every community to share the burden of sheltering our unhoused neighbors. There is no way to solve homelessness unless we streamline the process,” I wrote in my column on Friday. “If it’s going to require hundreds of millions of dollars to shelter the homeless, it’s the least we can do to make sure that money actually results in shelter.”
Supervisors Rich Desmond, Phil Serna and Sue Frost are holding a joint community meeting on Tuesday in North Highlands to discuss the project. It starts at 5:30, at the Kay F. Dahill Community Center, 6040 Watt Ave. I’ll be there. Will you?
Say Nay to Ye
Earlier this month, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West declared via Twitter that he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”
Then followed “an erratic series of anti-Semitic statements that emboldened neo-Nazis nationwide to freely and publicly project hatred toward Jewish people,” as our board wrote in an editorial last week.
The truth is, Sacramento is no stranger to anti-Semitism, as much as we try to distance ourselves from that hatred.
Sacramento Jews still remember the horrible night in 1999 when white supremacists firebombed three Sacramento synagogues. And just last year, Roseville school board member Heidi Hall posted Facebook comments comparing COVID restrictions to the Holocaust.
UC Davis and its community, too, have struggled for years with anti-Semitism; most recently in September, when white supremacists hung banners a highway overpass near campus that stated the “Holocaust is anti-white lies” and “Communism is Jewish.” And in the last month, swastikas have been found at both UC Davis and Sacramento State.
“There’s no easy way to eliminate the kind of hateful thinking that killed more than six million Jews during the Holocaust. But recognizing that it’s an ugly and pervasive problem that exists here is the first step.”
Say Nay to A
A flier hit my mailbox recently, as it likely did yours — or soon will. And it made “a curious claim,” as California Opinion Editor Marcos Breton put it in a column last week:
It claimed that “Measure A improves air quality, attacks climate change and makes Sacramento County a better, healthier place to live. It will provide the resources to achieve 90% of our regional greenhouse gas reduction target.”
“In another section of the mailer, the 90% figure is omitted,” Breton wrote, “but the claim that Measure A is good for the environment is attributed to the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the regional planning agency known as SACOG.”
That was news to SACOG’s chief executive, James Corless, who flatly called the claim “inaccurate.”
“In fact, this regressive sales tax hike would fund unsustainable transportation projects that would probably cause the region to fall short of its climate goals,” Breton wrote. “After experiencing 116-degree this past summer, we can no longer afford to support any measure that blows up our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Measure A is a bad deal for Sacramento, and voters should reject it.”
It’s almost as if the regional developers and big business interests pouring money into the Yes on Measure A’s campaign have something to gain by its passage…
Some food for thought, before you fill out your ballot.
Opinion of the Week
“...To be willing to put up with this fevered falderal, only to support other victims, does grow my respect for both Newsoms. The governor’s wife knew that she’d be accused of consenting, of seeking favors and even of pretending to enjoy her assault, yet she’s going forward anyway.” — Metro columnist Melinda Henneberger on the bravery of First Partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, to testify in the very public case against a noted Hollywood predator and alleged rapist.
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Don’t forget to keep your hand at the level of your eyes, and have a safe and spooky Halloween,
Robin Epley
