Sacramento’s quest to balance budget begins with a healthy entertainment industry | Opinion
The entertainment industry stands as a lucrative option for Sacramento.
After a grueling six months trying to balance its budget, the city will still face a $60 million budget deficit next year. They need a genuine economic driver to generate revenue.
For the past two years, the city has shown it is willing to increase parking as a main way to avoid a budget deficit. There are better ways to avoid a shortfall.
On-street public parking meters now charge as much as $6 per hour. Spaces in the Old Sacramento area will increase by $10.
Also, in 2024, the city began charging downtown and midtown parking meters on Sundays and holidays. During this year’s budget talks, the council even considered raising the parking permit fee.
Frankly put, parking fees will not get the city out of a budget deficit. They undermine good faith among people who live in Sacramento and simply want to park their cars.
The economic driver the city needs to invest in is entertainment that would give people reasons to gather and spend money.
Growing Sacramento’s entertainment industry
The Sacramento City Council did get something right recently by voting to approve entertainment zones.
The zones are essentially public spaces that the city has designated as outdoor areas where people can legally consume alcoholic beverages during special events. The city wants to turn our plazas, sidewalks, and streets into open-air social hubs, and that’s a great idea, considering how Sacramento is laid out.
Sacramento’s downtown and midtown areas are both perfect for entertainment. They are walkable areas with parks that are great for big events hosted by companies and also the small businesses that make up the grid.
In order to have an event in a zone, you have to have a permit a public safety plan and operate within the designated hours of 10 a.m. to midnight. The police also have to review the security protocols.
If this entertainment zone works out, there should be another discussion about spreading the zone to the entire grid. The current layout only allows three main zones:
A block-and-a-half stretch of 20th Street, from J Street to Kayak Alley, plus one eastward block of K Street. The area includes establishments like LowBrau, Roscoe’s Bar & Burgers and The Depot.
An 11-block area surrounding the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, including the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, a handful of restaurants, the Sheraton Grand Hotel and the Hyatt Regency.
The half-block bounded by 7th and 8th Streets, and K and Merchant Streets, including an Irish pub and Butcher & Barrel.
They need to expand the zones to include more of midtown, where small businesses are, to grow their business by having the ability to host special events. The current zones include the same usual places for social gatherings, like the Lavender District, where the Midtown Farmer’s Market is held. There are other places in the city that can use this zone distinction.
But the entertainment zones are not the only thing the city is doing.
The city’s Film + Media office announced a new rebate program aimed at encouraging large film and television productions to shoot within city limits. The program, funded by money generated from Measure U sales tax dollars, offers up to $250,000 in total reimbursements for the 2025–26 fiscal year.
The city has its focus in the right place, now they can’t let up.
Sacramento’s entertainment industry needs commitment
Investing in entertainment could create an economic opportunity that could help shake all the negative stigmas of blight and homelessness dogging the urban core of Sacramento. We can be a place where people can have fun and small businesses can thrive. We can be a place where the next box office film is shot.
All this can happen if the city realizes our potential and sees that it becomes a reality. But that will require a commitment from leaders open to preventing burdensome regulations and fees from getting in the way of a small business hosting an event.
