Outgoing Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg was the good man we thought he was | Opinion

One of the first times I wrote about him, Darrell Steinberg was a young state Assemblymember carrying legislation to require California cities and counties to share their sales tax revenue. His proposal made good sense, and nobody was surprised when it was crushed by local governments accustomed to scrapping for their piece of the limited sales tax pie by rezoning farm fields for auto malls and shopping centers.

Back then, I was a land use reporter for The Bee, and my path intersected with Steinberg when he got involved in growth-related topics. He continued taking on big, thankless issues, but he started winning.

I remember sitting in his office diving into the details of Senate Bill 375, his 2008 legislation requiring California’s regions to plan for growth in a more environmentally sustainable way. He was always available to talk and maintained a mastery of the facts.

Like many journalists, I couldn’t help but like Darrell Steinberg. He cared about public policy, freely handed out his cell phone number, and always seemed to be trying to do the right thing. He was consistently rated the smartest member of the Legislature. When he was elected Senate President Pro Tem in 2008, Sacramento’s hometown politician became one of the most powerful elected officials in California.

A year or so after he was elected mayor, I decided that after more than 30 years as a reporter and editor, 27 of them at The Bee, it was time for me to do something else. A couple of lunches later, I was Darrell Steinberg’s communications director. Four years after that, I became his chief of staff.

If you don’t know what that means, let me describe the layout of the fifth floor of City Hall. The chief of staff’s office is directly connected to the mayor’s. You are in most meetings. But even if you aren’t, you can hear every word through the door unless you plug your ears. It’s an architectural flaw, but also useful.

Let’s just say I know what makes this man tick.

Darrell Steinberg really is the guy we thought he was. He’s smart, passionate about the issues and overwhelmingly kind in a way we should all aspire to be. I have heard him call mothers who have lost their children to shootings, acquaintances whose children are struggling with addiction, and friends diagnosed with terminal illnesses. I have seen the stacks of blank cards on his desk that would become thank-you notes and expressions of compassion in condolences to dozens of people every month.

He genuinely loves spending time with the people of Sacramento, insisting that his calendar be packed with community events large and small. Because of this, he is beloved by many who don’t occupy positions of power or privilege. I was once walking down J Street with him when a Regional Transit bus driver pulled over and insisted he climb aboard the bus to shake her hand.

And I haven’t even gotten to the work of governing.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, unsheltered homelessness, and the idea that Darrell Steinberg promised to solve it.

He obviously didn’t solve it. Neither did the mayor of any city in this country, particularly on the West Coast, where skyrocketing housing costs, court rulings and the explosion of fentanyl created a perfect storm for proliferating tent encampments.

Darrell Steinberg pushed the city bureaucracy as hard as he could, and more effectively than anyone else in city government ever could or did. He led his fellow mayors in making a big ask to state leadership. They pulled down billions of dollars for local governments to address this issue. State funding through the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program now pays for more than 95 percent of the City of Sacramento’s roughly 1,500 shelter beds. When Mayor Steinberg took office, there was no HHAP funding, and the city had fewer than 100 shelter beds.

The mayor has evolved on enforcement against encampments, as have most well-meaning people who want to treat others humanely but also understand that we can’t allow our neighborhoods to be trashed. Sacramento has struck the balance between enforcement and compassion reasonably well of late. The 2024 Point in Time Count found that unsheltered homelessness has dropped 41 percent county-wide since 2022.

There’s so much more, such as the new Safe Credit Union Convention Center and Performing Arts Center. An unprecedented amount of support for arts groups and cultural institutions kept them afloat during the pandemic. The Aggie Square innovation campus at UC Davis might not have been built if the mayor hadn’t successfully mediated with parties to the lawsuits filed against the project.

There are thousands of new affordable housing units, many of which were built with help from a state funding source — the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program — that the mayor created when he was Senate president.

Last minute additions: The new $321-million Republic FC stadium and entertainment venue at The Railyards; and a funded plan to revamp The Waterfront. These huge community amenities were written on our office whiteboard as planes we had to land.

Mayor Steinberg sought to bring people together. I hope I’m a little kinder, and more open-minded, from the years I have spent in his company. And I hope Sacramento will be, too.