Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "funding"

4WDD: Complete Streets: West Capitol Avenue Improvements

2011-08-21T16:54:36Z

Please join us on Wednesday evening, August 24th beginning at 5:45pm for this month’s 4th Wednesday Design Dialogue (4WDD).

“Complete Streets” is the inspiring story of the planning, re-design and transfiguration of West Sacramento’s main street area: West Capitol Avenue. The project completely transformed a portion of old highway US 40 with a wide variety of improvements including new, widened sidewalks, re-structured roads, contiguous bicycle lanes, pocket plazas, landscape plantings and iconic bus shelters which celebrate the City’s unique identity.

The re-development of this area has served to foster community spirit by addressing the needs of West Sacramento’s residents and employees and re-vitalizing the area by encouraging new private sector investment as well as complement the city’s Civic Center; which includes Los Rios Community College campus, Yolo County public library, West Sacramento Community Center and transit center.

Come listen to a presentation by MIG, SACOG, the City of West Sacramento and Dokken Engineering as they discuss this amazing project and its process from funding, planning, engineering and re-design to development and completion. Q & A panel discussion to follow.

Presenter:
Mukul Malhotra, Principal, MIG, Inc.

Panel:
Greg Chew, Community Design Program Manager, SACOG
Rick Liptak, President, Dokken Engineering
Bill Panos, Department Head for Community Development, City of West Sacramento

Moderator: Brian Fischer, Brand Aid Media (BAM)

This event is FREE and open to anyone. Refreshments provided.

Please RSVP to info@aiacv.org or call the AIA Central Valley chapter office at 916-444-3658.

Click here for flyer.

What: 4th Wednesday Design Dialog (4WDD) – Complete Streets: West Capitol Avenue Improvements
When: Wednesday, August 24th, 5:45 – 7:30 pm
Where: AIACV Gallery, 1400 S Street, Suite 100, Sacramento

Disclosure: Dalton LaVoie is the co-chair of the 4th Wednesday Design Dialogue Series; a collaboration between the California Sierra Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the American Institute of Architects Central Valley Chapter.

New soccer field is dedicated to Grantland Johnson in Hagginwood Park by councilwoman Sandy Sheedy and Hagginwood community

2011-03-17T16:23:57Z

City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, along with the Hagginwood community, will be gathering Saturday in honor of a new soccer field recently constructed in Hagginwood Park.

The soccer field will be named after Grantland Johnson, a former city councilman and county supervisor representing all of North Sacramento.

“We’re expecting about 60-100 people will show up,” said Jim Cones, director for Sacramento’s Parks and Recreation Department. “Recently we had a grand opening of a park in North Sacramento, and there were several hundred people.”

Cones said the plan to implement the soccer field came from a survey that was conducted in 2008.

“Some of the parks in the city were not as safe as they should be, so the community did surveys, and the No. 1 recommendation from the community was to reconstruct Hagginwood Park,” Cones said.

As part of the master plan to re-design Hagginwood Park, a new soccer field has been provided as an effort to make positive changes in the community.

“The park will be used to promote positive things and leave less of an opportunity for negative influences like drugs or gang violence,” Cones said.

In addition to the need for positive influences within the community, there was a lack of soccer fields for use in North Sacramento.

Sheedy said the soccer field can be rented throughout the year and has been built to meet the needs of the residents in Hagginwood.

The funding for this project was provided by both the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and the Department of Parks and Recreation.

“SHRA contributed $1 million and our budget was $1.3 million,” Cones said.

Johnson grew up in Del Paso Heights and graduated from Grant High School, where he was a
member of the Grant Pacers football team and played baseball on what has now become the Grantland Johnson soccer field.

“It’s the community’s way of thanking Grantland Johnson for his contributions to this city and state,” Sheedy said.

The grand opening of the new soccer field will be at Hagginwood Park from 1 - 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The park is located at 3271 Marysville Blvd.

Cones said the reconstruction of Hagginwood Park is just beginning. There are still new restrooms to be built, parking lots to be redesigned, and a makeover of the entire playground to be done.

Community Conversations in Oak Park

2010-09-18T00:02:59Z

Participants in Thursday’s Community Conversations discussion expressed that a community’s success rests on the shoulders of its citizens.

About nine people gathered around a table at Old Soul at 40 Acres to engage in a civic discussion centered around the question; “What should government do for you?”

Facilitator Brian Fischer prefaced the meeting’s purpose by saying, “the most important thing is to listen and learn from each other.”

Community Conversations organizers are hoping to create an open forum where citizens of all stripes can engage one another in a thoughtful discussion that would help improve the quality of life in Sacramento communities.

Thursday’s meeting was Community Conversations third discussion, and is accomplished as a partnership of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, Capital Public Radio and The Sacramento Bee.

Among the nine in attendance were small business owners, teachers, community activists and a government official.

With a group made up of people diverse in age, experience and background ready to share their insight, Fischer posed the question, “How has the role of government changed in your lifetime?”

Stacey Willet, a 10-year-resident of Oak Park, said she has seen cuts in funding for education, which have caused a greater divide between the haves and the have-nots. With music and art programs being some of the first to go, students in poorly funded districts are offered a less-holistic educational experience.

It was education that Terre Johnson, who ran for City Council this spring, said played a vital role in the success of his entrepreneurial endeavors. In speaking of barriers to success Johnson said, “The bar is set high to do business, and it’s not available to the uneducated.”

Sacramento State geography professor Robin Datel stated that improving the quality of education would be more feasible if resources were restored to the public sector.

Oak Park resident and neighborhood association member Tom Sumpter suggested that a worldwide reorientation of the standard of living is taking place.

While education remained a topic of discussion for a good portion of the meeting, District 1 Supervisor Phil Serna made clear his beliefs on the role of government.

“(Government) should maintain and enhance people’s quality of life and help those who can’t help themselves,” Serna said.

However, Oak Park resident Aisha McCullough said that she feels not all people are represented by government officials, saying that representation isn’t always “of the people.”

As people challenged the reasoning behind some government funded programs and wondered why they weren’t allocated elsewhere, a common theme surfaced within the group: Citizens need to engage the issues.

Fischer recalled the origins of western society’s structure, stemming in large part from patterns in Greek and Roman government. The government was much like a household where everyone within it had a responsibility to the community.

Today, however, “there is a disconnect between citizenry and government,” Fischer said.

This problem of disconnect became a source of discussion as the group sought ways to bridge the gap.

Professor Datel suggested that a year of mandatory community service be required for students newly graduated from high school.

McCullough said more people should volunteer in programs like AmeriCorps.

Sumpter proposed that a mentoring program be started between high school and grade school students.

“Ingrain community service into the young person’s psyche,” Sumpter said.

McCullough followed that idea by stating that people ages 25-40 need to participate.

“It’s not just about me, it’s about the community,” McCullough said.

Acting as a lone representative for the governmental side of things, Serna challenged those at the table by saying, “When you hold the government accountable, do it with full engagement.”

Serna expressed that people need to change their mentality towards government.

“Government is not them, it’s us,” Serna said.

The group agreed that community service is vital at all levels, and it is the citizen who sets the pace for what does or does not happen in their community.

“Community needs to set the example of what it means to be healthy and prosperous,” Johnson said.

Ultimately, it was decided that a community’s success depends largely on the engagement of its citizens.

Community Conversations will continue to provide a venue for engagement every other month. Fischer said he hopes enough momentum will be created that the conversation will take place monthly. In the meantime, a calendar of future meetings can be viewed at the Community Conversations’ website, and you can also stay up to speed with them on Facebook.

Is Sacramento County CPS really in danger due to recent funding cuts?

2010-05-12T18:59:56Z

There have been many articles in the Sacramento Bee recently about the fact that CPS is losing all of their funding, the State of CA is not giving them money, and terrifying people by telling them children will be in more danger because there won't be enough people to ensure child safety. However, after researching statistics, it became clear to me that Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Child Protective Services (CPS) are crying wolf just so they have another excuse for their incompetency. CPS is in desperate need of a "way out". They are blaming their failures on a lack of money because of recent funding cuts instead of taking responsibility and being accountable for the failures, incompentantcies, and issues relating to cover-ups. These issues of unaccountabililty, failures at every level of CPS, incompetancies, secrecy, and cover-ups are well documented through several investigations into Sacramento CPS.
The Child Welfare League of America provided the following numbers for the most recent studies:
California received $1,795,256,381 (nearly 1.8 BILLION) in federal funds divided into the following categories:
70.8% was from Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance
13.9% was from TANF (a.k.a. WELFARE-food stamps, cash aid)
9.9% was from the Social Services Block Grant
4.2% was from Title IV-B CWS Promoting Safe & Stable Families
1.8% was from Medicaid
1% was from other federal services
That means that the State of CA received $1,271,041,517 (nearly 1.3 BILLION) in federal dollars from Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption assistance. To fully understand the problematic issues with this, you would need to understand how States qualify for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance funds. A bill was passed in 1997, which provides this money to the Department of Social Services in the amount of $4000- $6000 for each child they get adopted out. But wait...there’s more. In the book WARNING! The Truth about CPS, Don Lyons explains that it’s “just a starting figure in a complex mathematical formula in which each bonus is multiplied by the percentage that the state has managed to exceed its baseline adoption number. The states must maintain this increase in each successive year. [Like compound interest.]”. Basically it means that each year the state has to exceed the number of adoptions from the previous year in order to receive these funds. What?
When I first began to understand how it worked, I had to sit back and let it settle with me. I had such a hopeless feeling and the only thing flashing in my mind was the old quote "Money is the root of all evil.". Well yes, of course it is. Then I realized our government is not immune to greed, especially during tough economic times when funding for programs is dramatically cut. Another quote came to mind soon after that. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". I have no doubt that this bill was passed with good intentions. The need to get children adopted into permanent families is very important for a child instead of rotating them from numerous foster homes, group homes, etc. For children that were removed from their homes because legitimate allegations, finding them a permanent home and family is an amazing thing. However, in my opinion, nobody really looked at the huge holes in this bill. The simple fact that they need to exceed their baseline adoptions for the fiscal year, creates a child mill in which more and more children must enter the system each year in order to increase the number of adoptions out of foster care.
The bill that was passed includes a technical support assistance section "to assist State and local communities to reach their targets for increased numbers of adoptions”. It goes on to say the support is for “the development of best practice guidelines for expending the termination of parental rights…the development of special units and expertise in moving children toward adoption as a permanent goal; [and] models to encourage the fast tracking of children who have not attained one year of age into pre-adoptive placements without waiting for termination of parental rights.” By implementing these policies they are putting a bounty on the heads of American children…your children! CPS and DHHS are denying parents rights and setting parents up for failure before they walk out of your home with your child in hand. Without knowledge of their rights, parents have no chance to protect themselves and their children until it’s too late.
The Nation Center for Policy Analysis says it best: “The way the federal government reimburses States [actually] rewards a growth in the size of the program instead of the effective care of children.”
I often hear people upset about “lazy parents” that don’t take care of their kids and live off the “system” with taxpayers’ dollars. However, it is clear by the funding figures I provide above, that only 13% of funding is from TANF (aka Welfare). It is also amazing that 70.8% is for foster care and adoption assistance, but only 4.2% is to promote safe and stable families. Perhaps if our government promoted family preservation instead of family destruction, it would make crime rates go down, decrease inmate population, decrease the homeless population, decrease unemployment rates, and decrease the amount of welfare recipients. This in turn would probably decrease the amount of children that are abused and/or neglected.

Mayor announces major Kennedy Center arts program in Sacramento

2009-10-09T19:05:16Z

With members of the Sacramento arts community, the local education establishment and a representative of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at his side, Mayor Kevin Johnson Friday morning announced a major new arts education initiative in Sacramento.

Sacramento has been chosen from 27 cities to be the Kennedy Center's first civic partner for the "Any Given Child" program, an effort to match arts groups, school districts and the Kennedy Center itself in the promotion of arts programs in the city's schools. After being developed in Sacramento over the next two years, the program will be rolled out nationwide.

"We need to redefine how we look at the arts," said Johnson, standing in the west lobby of the Convention Center. "We need to make sure...arts is an integral part of our community."

Johnson introduced the Kennedy Center's President Michael M. Kaiser, who spoke of the need for not just some children, but "any given child to have a great...systematic arts education." He also praised Johnson's commitment to the arts, citing it as a reason that the Kennedy Center had chosen Sacramento out of all the contending cities.

The emphasis of the speeches was on a "systematic" approach to what has been an ad hoc way of teaching arts in underfunded schools. Kaiser - who has run such storied arts organizations as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the American Ballet Theatre - introduced his comments by contrasting the treatment of arts in the public schools to that of other subjects, which are often considered to be more essential. "Kids don't come home and say, 'We're not going to learn math this year'," he said.

The goal, said Kaiser and other participants, is to create a comprehensive kindergarten- eighth grade system of arts education that is interdisciplinary and in which each year's work builds on the previous year, the same way that mathematics classes move from algebra to geometry to calculus.

Jonathan Raymond, who has been in his job as superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District for only six weeks, said that the first step will be "to understand where we are now," and then to figure out "how we do what works systematically, and sustain it."

The Kennedy Center's Kaiser also noted that this pilot program is entirely funded by the Kennedy Center, a concrete expression of support for an arts community that Johnson touted strongly in his opening comments. Kaiser also said that once the program is developed in Sacramento over the next two years, it will be rolled out in cities across the country.

"But Sacramento will be home to this program," he added.

There was some levity at the conference as well, as when speaker Dr. Ziggy Robeson, assistant superintendent of the Twin Rivers Unified School District, compared favorably a passion for the arts to that for sports, causing Johnson, a former basketball star, to shift with mock discomfort behind her.

Johnson's monthly "For Art's Sake" meetings will continue to be held the fourth Wednesday of every month, from 10-11 a.m., at various locations around the Sacramento area.

Photo credit: Kati Garner

City nabs $56m for redevelopment

2009-07-01T04:18:36Z

The city of Sacramento has won $55.8 million in Proposition 1C funds for infill redevelopment, the city announced late Tuesday.

On Monday, the California Department of Housing and Community Development approved money to help fund infrastructure for four projects: the Railyards, Township 9, Curtis Park Village and Capitol Lofts. Proposition 1C was approved by voters in November 2006.

The $6 billion Railyards project will get about $30 million, said city spokesperson Wendy Klock-Johnson.

The new funding brings the project's total public bond funding to at least $115 million.

“This is a step in the right direction for our city in terms of economic development and creation of employment opportunities in Sacramento,” Mayor Kevin Johnson said. “This is a proactive step towards Sacramento becoming a world-class city.”

Georgia developer Thomas Enterprises broke ground last winter on the infrastructure phase of its effort to transform the historic Union Pacific railyards into a mixed-use district abutting downtown's Sacramento Valley Rail Station.