Nov 28, 2021
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.
Sep 28, 2021
Abandoned cars don’t hide well. They are filthy from sitting in the wind and sun.
Windows are covered with dust. Tires slump as the air slowly drains away. Cobwebs grow in wheel wells. Anyone walking past can tell, yes, no doubt, there’s an abandoned car.
Pocket and Land Park have never been known for attracting large numbers of abandoned cars, but this historical trend is shifting. In recent months, abandoned cars have been found on Havenside Drive, Greenhaven Drive and 43rd Avenue. A resident named Duwayne Brooks, who enjoys daily neighborhood walks of about 1½ miles near his Pocket home, tells me he has found more than 30 abandoned cars in recent weeks.
Aug 29, 2021
The homelessness crisis continues to grow. My office receives more calls, emails and online posts about this issue than any other.
The growing population of people living unsheltered on our streets, parks and open spaces brings human suffering to our doorsteps and represents a failure of government to provide safe and sanitary shelter and meaningful treatment programs for addiction and mental illness.
Mar 28, 2021
Raising kids in Pocket means riding bicycles. When my two boys were little, we rode all the time. We rode to Martin Luther King Jr. School each morning, Mountain Mike’s Pizza on Friday nights, Garcia Bend Park on Sundays.
We were lucky. Our house was one block from the Pocket Canal bike trail, which made our trips safe and easy.
But even with the bike trail, there were concerns. To get to school, the kids had to cross Rush River Drive. To get to soccer, they had to bisect Pocket Road. Both crossings were dangerous, especially Pocket Road, which some motorists treat as an autobahn without speed limits.
Feb 26, 2021
For better or worse, the coronavirus inoculation process has been an opportunity for California’s county health departments to show their strengths and efficiencies. Unfortunately, it’s also been a time when counties may come up short.
With more COVID-19 vaccine doses becoming available, the California Department of Public Health placed individual counties in charge of their own vaccination rollouts. The state advised residents to look to their local county health departments for information. That put pressure on Sacramento County Public Health to ramp up to speed.
Nov 27, 2020
Like many people in Pocket, Little Pocket and Greenhaven, Cassandra Fong is eager to see public access finally come to the Sacramento River Parkway. When she learned Army Corps of Engineers contractors plan to tear down private levee fences that block public access to the parkway, she said, “Hallelujah.”
But Fong wasn’t completely ready to celebrate. She knows the fences have been an eyesore and insult to public accessibility for almost 50 years. And she knows the handful of property owners who control the fences may not accept the fact that the river parkway is finally open.
“Perhaps we need to set up a committee or group of people who will continue to ‘police’ the area so that these same people don’t start building new privately owned encroachments,” she wrote to me.
