People talk. They share rumors. Some of the most interesting chatter in Little Pocket last year involved Sacramento City Councilmember Steve Hansen.
Rumors placed Hansen at several meetings with about 40 residents who own property along the Sacramento River levee. The meetings were private, the rumors said. Hansen instructed his audience to write nothing down. No emails.
Since 1911, the I Street Bridge has faithfully carried trains and cars and people and bicycles on its slender, double-deck span 400 feet across the muddy Sacramento River.
The bridge is an old-timey mechanical marvel. Giant gears pivot the decks sideways, like a sword on a spindle, when tall boats approach. Mark Twain would have loved it, but he died in 1910 and missed the grand opening by a year.
Along North 12th Street, X Street or Alhambra Boulevard, the ubiquitous presence of unsheltered people and their tents, shopping carts, plastic bags, bicycles and detritus suggests Sacramento has no clue how to handle homelessness.
But that impression is wrong. The city does have a clue—recorded in a secret little publication called “Homeless Services Division Playbook.”
I can’t visit my local Starbucks in East Sacramento or Old Soul coffee in Oak Park without panhandlers aggressively hitting me up for money. Or exit my local grocery store. Or take a freeway offramp. Often there are two beggars on my local offramp, one working each side.
I can’t drive down Alhambra Boulevard without seeing sidewalk homeless encampments or observing the slow progress made by homeless people pushing shopping carts piled high.
The name evokes innocence and generosity. Sacramento Children’s Fund Act of 2020. But the details quickly congeal into something more prosaic: money, about $12.5 million a year in city taxpayer dollars, destined for parts unknown.
In March, Sacramento voters may be asked to amend the City Charter and dedicate 2.5 percent of the general fund to a private revenue pool for youth-oriented nonprofit organizations.
Watch out. Tacks and nails have been strewn along the Sacramento River Parkway bike trail near The Westin Hotel. Fencing has been cut and pushed aside at the city’s private park on Bell Air and Seamas in Little Pocket.
This is what happens when public officials ignore public interests and accommodate a fortunate few. Frustrations boil over. Civility disappears.
