The City of Sacramento invites residents and those who work in the City to complete a web-based survey to provide community input on living and working here. The survey results will be used as part of the city's 2030 General Plan annual report and help capture the community's perspective on livability and quality of life in Sacramento. To complete the survey, follow this link. The survey will be available through Monday, February 13. “Every year, we invite the community to tell us how they feel about living and doing business in our city,” says Tom Pace, long range planning manager. “Hearing from the public helps us ensure we are on the right track as we carry out the vision of the city’

The Sacramento Police Department conducted a 90-day “Hot Spot” study that has shown to reduce crime. During the period between February 8, 2011 and May 8, 2011, police used evidence-based policing by combining research with local crime data to create effective crime-reducing strategies. Two different areas of the city were examined; Downtown and East Sacramento. Police identified 42 “hot spots”, or street segments which generated a high amount of calls for service. Often these calls were associated with violent crimes. Of the 42 “hot spots”, 21 were randomly designated as treatment areas, in which officers proactively spent 15-minute periods each day. Within this time frame officers took

City Utilities is looking for customer input as it faces challenges with aging pipes, increasing regulations The City of Sacramento Department of Utilities, the City’s water, sewer, drainage and solid waste service provider, is seeking residential and commercial customer input on a set of guiding principles that will guide the department’s future services, programs and priorities. Through the initiative called Your Utilities. Your Voice., the department is educating customers about the challenges it faces as well as gathering their opinions about how the department moves forward. “Choices have to be made as we look to the future of the department,” said Dave Brent, Interim Director of t

If you are a local artist, Dancer, choreographer, photographer, filmmaker, etc...Sacramento For Arts’ Sake may invest in your future. For Arts' Sake is a regional initiative to strengthen the arts in Sacramento, especially concerning its investment in creative talent.  Currently For Art's Sake, is seeking input about what artists NEED to be successful in Sacramento. They also want to know more about what it’s like to be an artist here and what might be helpful as you build your craft and your career. For Arts’ Sake Sacramento has three main goals; Strengthen our cultural infastructure, Improve access to the Arts & Arts Education and Invest in Creative Talent. The purpose of this survey i

Sacramento there is always lots of talk about the quantity and quality of theater productions, art events, concerts or music and dance performances, but rarely do we hear people talking about what it takes to be and live as an artist in Sacramento. With all the actors, musicians, visual artists, performers, designers, architects, writers, chefs, and other creative professionals in the region, it makes sense to ask this question, so that we can truly be a place where arts and artists thrive. For Arts’ Sake – the coalition of artists, arts managers and arts enthusiasts seeking to strengthen the eco-system for Sacramento arts and culture – has launched an online survey directed to all the cr

Teaching and Learning Priority School Professional Development: Staffs of the six Superintendent’s Priority Schools gathered at the Serna Center this week for training with Rochelle Herring-Peniston, president of Transformation By Design. Faculty learned the use of Data Wise inquiry protocols, which assist in analyzing student work, and learned how to identify learning goals and teacher learning needs. The sessions used the teachings of Harvard researchers such as Kathryn Boudette, Richard Elmore and Brent Stephens as well as the work of Nancy Love, Linda Darling-Hammond and Walter Doyle. Every Day Counts: Charlotte Chadwick, principal at John Bidwell School, is throwing down the gauntl

For our readers and users who have an interest in online news sites and community journalism, we have a survey that we would like you to take. Reynolds Journalism Institute is doing a research project on local news sites and online community. On their website it states their mission as "reconnecting journalists and citizens around the importance of journalism in a democracy, and using technology to enhance methods that help journalists reach citizens in many ways." The institute is part of the University of Missouri and the Missouri School of Journalism. RJI reached out to Sacramento Press to participate in their research and created a survey tailored to our site. The survey has 36 que

 These surveys mark the beginning of a new commitment by SCUSD to listening to our community, consulting the community on important decisions and providing the public open access to our work in leading the district. We thank everyone for their enthusiastic participation in these historic surveys. The data will be accumulated and we will report on the results of the surveys as soon as possible. We also will contact those community members who provided us email addresses when the survey results are tabulated.  

 Hmong Women’s Heritage Association helps boost participation in district surveys By Maria L. LopezIn an effort to ensure the greatest participation possible in two historic surveys, the Sacramento City Unified School District is teaming up with the Hmong Women’s Heritage Association (HWHA) to assist parents and students in completing questionnaires about the district’s budget and strategic plan from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Association’s offices, 2245 Florin Rd. The first-of-its-kind endeavor to involve Sacramento residents in improving their public schools involves a pair of surveys on school improvements and the district’s budget. Every Sacramento community member

 SCUSD superintendent urges community to weigh in before surveys close one week from today The Sacramento school district’s historic public surveys on its budget and strategic planning have drawn more than 11,000 responses so far, and Superintendent Jonathan Raymond Tuesday urged parents, teachers and students to take the surveys before the Feb. 9 deadline in one week.  This first-of-its-kind effort to involve Sacramento residents in the improvement of their public schools involves a pair of surveys on school improvements and the district’s budget. Every Sacramento community member—including parents, teachers and other employees of the district—is being asked to respond to the surveys t

 SCUSD budget gap grows by $10 million School district facing eighth year of reductions   Story By Maria L. Lopez Photo by BigEducationApe.blogspot.com Surveys by K12 Insight Sacramento City Unified School Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond announced today that the district will need to reduce its 2010-11 general fund budget by $28 to $30 million. The projection was readjusted after review of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposals. Raymond said the district had expected to trim $18 million from next year’s budget but revised the estimate after the Governor’s proposals were released. Raymond said that since 2002-03, SCUSD has cut more than $144 million from its budget. “W

A little over two months ago, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts chose Sacramento over 27 other cities as the first partner for the "Any Given Child" program. The program, which promotes arts education, will be developed in Sacramento over the next two years before rolling out nationwide. Mayor Kevin Johnson emailed the following survey regarding participation in the Any Given Child program: In October, the Kennedy Center announced that it would pilot its Any Given Child program here in Sacramento with the goal of providing access and equity in arts in education to all students. Since then, we've been hard at work focusing on this welcome opportunity to expand arts opport

The City of Sacramento departments of Transportation and Economic Development invite residents to complete a Web-based survey to provide feedback on the K Street Vehicle Traffic Study. The survey results will be used by city staff and the project team to understand public sentiments about the idea and what features would be most important if the City went forward with a trial conversion.   To complete the survey, visit the project Web site at www.cityofsacramento.org/KStreetVehicleTraffic. The non-scientific survey will remain active until Saturday, August 22 at 12 noon.   Residents and interested parties are also invited to attend a community meeting on Wednesday, August 26, from 5:3

Hours before Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was forcefully exiled to Costa Rica on June 27, he met with seven delegates from Sacramento. The seven were: Bill Camp, executive secretary for the Sacramento Central Labor Council (SCLC); Bud McKinney, a sheet mill worker; Chris Bender, a union representative; Greg Larkins, president of IBW Local 340 and a political organizer for the SCLC; Arturo Aleman, a consultant, Kate Allen, a graduate student at UCLA and summer intern for the SCLC and Dion Archuleta, a canner at Campbell Soup in South Sacramento. The following is an account of their experiences in Honduras over a three-day period in which an alleged coup d’état took place. Background

Several months ago I had the opportunity to discuss with Vice Mayor Lauren Hammond the concept of an opportunity site study for re-use ideas on the Stockton Blvd. commercial corridor.  She verbalized a concept targeting a large amount of vacant land centrally located on Stockton Blvd within the city limits.  Subsequent conversations with representatives of SHRA, city council and the Stockton Blvd Partnership resulted in outreach to the Urban Land Institute for a collaborative study of the opportunity site.  A panel of distinguished representatives of The National Urban Land Institute (ULI) arrived and was welcomed to Sacramento Sunday evening. The ULI panel was commissioned to provide th