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Friday, February 10, 2012
Mayor talks to residents at community meeting
by Kathleen Haley, published on January 25, 2010 at 10:07 PM
Storyline: Sacramento Neighborhoods
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Mayor Kevin Johnson talked to residents about local issues including homelessness Monday night.
Johnson spoke at a Neighborhood Advisory Group meeting at the Hart Senior Center in Midtown.
He told residents about remarks President Barack Obama made in Washington, D.C. last week. During a trip last week to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors in D.C., Johnson heard Obama make comments on regional economies and sustainability, Johnson said.
Obama also stressed the importance of communities in neighborhoods, according to Johnson.
Johnson said he learned from Obama’s remarks that local economies need to have a regional focus and that environmental sustainability will be critical to infrastructure and energy needs. Obama’s ideas can apply to Sacramento, Johnson said.
During the question-and-answer session of Johnson’s presentation at NAG, Karen Jacques, founder of the Midtown Neighborhood Association, asked about issues involving homelessness. Jacques asked Johnson if he is addressing homelessness in a regional way.
"(In the past) it seems like Sacramento has taken it (homelessness) on without a lot of involvement from the rest of the region,” Jacques said.
Johnson responded that his program on homelessness, Sacramento Steps Forward, believes that everything it does has must have a regional approach.
There is no way that the city and county can solve homelessness on their own, Johnson said. All the other local jurisdictions must participate in efforts to alleviate homelessness, he said.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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I don't agree with the Mayor on every issue, but I do appreciate how hard he works and his willingness to get out in the community.
We had a good discussion about how furloughs are both slowing the region's ability to benefit from Federal stimulus dollars and how they disproportionately hurt our region's economy. I'm looking forward to working with him on these issues.
As far as his "working hard or willingness to get out into the community"-- that's his job- He is the mayor- He isn't doing us a favor- He is doing the job he was elected into office - and paid- and expected to do and he has NO excuse not to do the job since he has so many city paid special assistants and volunteers. He's suppose to work hard. I don't think we should praise officials for selectively performing when they are public servants- doing their job. ( oh and he surely did an extremely poor job at his so called gang/ youth summit) He's not a volunteer- and he's not going above and beyond expectations. In fact he appears to do just enough to get noticed -running around like a chicken with it's head cut off- and not enough to make a difference!
Homelessness could be resolved with just a little creative use of existing vacant commercial and residential space, including hundreds of thousands of square feet of space available in the Midtown/Downtown area that has all the infrastructure necessary for people of modest means, including access to transportation, social services, food, and other needs...
But business associations and government seem unwilling to think 'outside the box' of conventional wisdom in terms of the use of such available space.
There are quite literally HUNDREDS of vacant buildings, buildings that have been vacant, quite literally for YEARS, that could be used to shelter homeless citizens of the region... And I believe it wouldn't require one additional dime of cost if current assets are used effectively -- certainly more effectively than currently....