It’s a refrain I hear a lot these days, especially when I’m cycling along the American River or through the center of our troubled city.
“Steinberg ran on a promise to fix the homeless problem and it’s only gotten worse. He’s wasted time, money and energy, and there’s more garbage and encampments everywhere. What a failure.”
Now Mayor Darrell Steinberg has put forward his latest plan to attack our chronic homelessness problem—his “Housing Right and Obligation Act.” It’s generating even more heat.
Now we know how Darrell Steinberg’s political story ends. The mayor doesn’t fade away to cheers from sports fans thankful for the soccer stadium he coaxed into existence. There is no stadium. He doesn’t salute a revitalized embarcadero along the Sacramento River. There is no new waterfront.
But there are 11,000 homeless people.
After years of parliamentary gamesmanship, passionate speeches, tax hikes and wasted opportunities, Steinberg will be remembered for one thing—how he took Sacramento and turned it into the capital of homelessness.
A sheriff’s election is often an exercise in maintaining the status quo. Many times, the retiring incumbent picks a favored replacement, and the endorsement is enough to win the race.
Once in office, the sheriff typically wins several re-elections and stays on the job until he chooses to depart on his own terms.
Scott Jones was elected sheriff in 2010, the handpicked replacement for John McGinness. Recently Jones posted on social media, “I have decided NOT to seek re-election as Sheriff of Sacramento County next year, and instead retire after what will be over 33 years with the Sheriff’s Office, including 12 years as Sheriff!”
The sights on lower X Street did it for me. Coming off the freeway, I saw wrecked cars and busted campers and people standing around, a pitiful procession pinned against the gutter like a forlorn carnival that took a wrong turn. Somebody stuck two orange traffic cones partway into the street, warning motorists to steer clear.
Lower X Street, home to warehouses and body shops, never delivered a welcoming hug to visitors who enter the city from river’s edge. Now it arrives with a punch in the face.
Every conversation with constituents begins or ends with frustrations over homelessness. That frustration is a major reason I ran for county supervisor. I knew something bold had to happen to help those in need and reduce the impacts to our businesses and neighborhoods.
Government has an obligation to provide safe sleeping areas, sanctioned camping sites, shelters or car camping areas. There is nothing compassionate about allowing someone with untreated mental illness or addiction to live in desperation, filth and squalor. It’s also unfair to residents and business owners who struggle with the impact of homeless encampments.
She always wanted to be a “nature person.” But owning her own business and playing and singing in bands around town kept Allyson Seconds too busy for life in the great outdoors.
Until she adopted her first dog, Lulu—and everything changed. “I go to the river easily 300 out of 365 days a year,” says the fitness trainer, singer, musician, photographer, avid hiker and certified naturalist.
Between 2006 and 2010, Seconds and her border collie/lab mix made daily treks to Sutter’s Landing Park, a 167-acre recreation area along the American River Parkway. “Those were the pristine days at Sutter’s Landing,” says Seconds, who discovered the area years before it was home to a dog park, skate park and basketball courts. “That was before a lot of people started going there. It wasn’t trashy. It was just beautiful.”
