Monthly Archives: August 2021

Stockton Blvd Plan: Upcoming Events

Visioning Survey

Be a part of creating a shared vision for the Stockton Blvd area. Take the survey here.

Upcoming events: Strategies for Stockton Blvd

The City is partnering with residents, business owners, landowners, and organizations to strengthen the Stockton Blvd corridor as a vital core for the surrounding neighborhoods and region, maintaining and improving it as a great place for existing residents and businesses while also providing space for future growth.

The Stockton Blvd Plan is a partnership between the City of Sacramento, community members, and organizations to transform Stockton Blvd into a thriving corridor that expands opportunities for, and supports the cultures of, existing residents and small businesses while accommodating growth and centering racial equity.

We will have an activity to prioritize potential strategies to accomplish this under the following topics:

Topic 1. Housing & Anti-displacement.

Topic 2. Inclusive Economic Development

Topic 3. Placemaking, Arts, & Culture

Topic 4. Environment & Public Health

Topic 5. Community Engagement & Building Capacity

Dates

Date: Saturday, September 11th. Location/Time: Colonial Heights Library, 10am-1pm

Date: Wednesday, September 22nd. Location/Time: Will C. Wood, 5:30-7pm. Materials and interpreters will be available in Cantonese, Mandarin, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Spanish.

Date: Wednesday, September 29th. Location/Time: Zoom, 6:00-7:30pm. Register here

Date: Saturday, October 23rd. Location/Time: Colonial Heights Library, 10am-12pm

*In-person events are contingent on County COVID-19 Guidelines. Please note that participants must wear masks while at in-person events. If you feel unwell or have had close contact with a person with confirmed COVID-19 in the last 14 days, please do not attend and stay at home.

Give Your Input, Ask Your Questions

The City wants to hear from you! Here is a list of ways you can stay informed and involved in the process of the Stockton Blvd. Plan:

City of Sacramento General Plan Update, Climate Action Plan, Transportation Priorities: ECOS Comments

On August 23, 2021, ECOS submitted a comment letter to Sacramento City Council regarding the City of Sacramento General Plan Update, Climate Action Plan, and Transportation Priorities. Below are our remarks.

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) would like to request the opportunity for a group of stakeholders to give input to the rough drafts now being developed for the 2040 General Plan Update, Climate Action Plan, and the Transportation Priorities Plan.

We understand that in just a month’s time the Draft General Plan will be issued — we know how difficult it can be to change drafts once published. Also, we believe the Transportation Priorities Plan will be finalized prior to the Draft General Plan.

We would like to give input to both documents in the areas of transportation, land use, climate change, and possible shifts in the City’s budget to support the priorities in the Sac2040Vision Guiding Principles, the recommendations of the Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change, and the provisions of the City’s Climate Emergency Declaration.

COVID has restricted communication and we appreciate the City’s continued planning work since November 2019, including the Sac2040Vision Guiding Principles; virtual workshops; change of single-family zoning to increase housing availability; hiring of a Community Engagement Manager; and passage of the New Construction Electrification Ordinance.

Nevertheless, we ask for the chance to discuss with you and staff the contents of the General Plan and Transportation Priorities Plan, before their initial publication.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

Broadway Bridge DEIR: ECOS Comments

On August 23, 2021, ECOS submitted a comment letter on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Broadway Bridge in the City of Sacramento.

Below are our comments.

ECOS supports the concept of a bridge connecting Broadway in Sacramento to West Sacramento, near 15th Street. This should facilitate infill development near both sides of the Sacramento River and provide a connection between the two cities south of US 50. Development potential is especially promising on the West Sacramento side, since I-5 is not a barrier there. We encourage significant infill development, which would be facilitated by the removal of old facilities such as fuel storage tanks and the railroad tracks serving the Port of West Sacramento. Once a definitive alignment is selected and necessary property acquired, the bridge would serve as a vital link for transit, bicycles and auto traffic. As mixed-use development near the bridge increases (on both sides of the river), the number of pedestrians and bicyclists would also increase greatly.

Photo by Masha Raymers from Pexels

In a “Code Red for Humanity,” UN Warns of Accelerating Climate Crisis

International panel of climate scientists says temperatures will rise for decades, even in a best-case scenario

By Jonathan Hahn | August 10, 2021 | Sierra Magazine

…an intensifying climate crisis is locked in for at least the next 30 years. That is the frightening takeaway from a major new United Nations report released on Monday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, the most authoritative summary of climate science in the world, shows that for the next generation, increasing heat waves and wildfires, hurricanes and floods, drought and sea level rise are now inevitable. And the consequences could be dire—potentially leading to millions of people displaced, thousands of lives lost, and billions in economic damage.

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/code-red-for-humanity-un-warns-accelerating-climate-crisis

Click here to read the full article.

Wildfires, health and money: How to talk about climate change with skeptics

By Mila Jasper | August 11, 2021 | The Sacramento Bee

Monday marked a major day in climate change news. The United Nations published a new report that found global warming will likely rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next two decades, a level that will bring more instances of extreme weather.

…

There’s a lot to process in the report, which runs many thousands of pages. But critically, it suggests that humans still have a chance to put the brakes on and stop warming from going beyond that 1.5 degree increase. Here’s how to understand the report – and how to talk about it with skeptics – according to an expert on communicating climate science.

…

David Colgan is an environmental writer and the director of communications at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability…“What you need is kind of a balance, they need to see a problem and they need to see a potential way out of it,” Colgan said.

Slow and Active Streets

Ralph Propper, board president of the Environmental Council of Sacramento, mentioned one community-level solution that people can focus on: Sacramento’s “slow and active streets” initiative, instituted during the pandemic, was a great way to reduce emissions in the community. But that pilot program ended in July.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article253398155.html

Click here to read the article in full.

Photo from https://www.pexels.com/photo/backlit-breathing-apparatus-danger-dangerous-279979/