The Kassis Property: one of the city’s last pieces of open space

By Scott Thomas Anderson | January 27, 2021 | Sacramento News and Review

The Kassis property includes 40.7 acres that form an alluvial terrace on its upper plateau, and a lower basin that stretches along the river in the 100-year floodplain. There are 335 trees in the formations, split by a grassy, 30-foot-high bluff at the edge of a quiet neighborhood. For years, the property was owned by John P. Kassis. After his death, its title transferred to members of his family.

“Concerns about this project? Where to start?” said Ralph Propper, president of the Environmental Council of Sacramento. “We’re very concerned about protecting the last significant open space along the American River.”

Click here to read the article in full.

Click here to learn more about the property.

Where is the Kassis Property?

Here is a map showing exactly where the property is.

As Trump Again Rejects Science, Biden Calls Him a ‘Climate Arsonist’

By Peter Baker, Lisa Friedman and Thomas Kaplan | September 14, 2020 | The New York Times

The Environmental Council of Sacramento was mentioned in the New York Times! Our Board President Ralph Propper was quoted regarding Trump’s denial of climate change as California burns.

Mr. Trump flew to California after weeks of public silence about the flames that have forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, wiped out communities and forests, burned millions of acres, shrouded the region in smoke and left at least 27 people dead. But even when confronted by California’s governor and other state officials, the president insisted on attributing the crisis solely to poor forest management, not climate change.
…
“Raking the leaves and forest floors is really inane. That doesn’t make sense at all,” said Ralph Propper, the president of the Environmental Council of Sacramento. “We’re seeing what was predicted, which is more extremes of weather.”

Click here to view the full article.

Photo from publicdomainfiles.com.

Innovation without gentrification?

By Graham Womack
April 1, 2020
Sacramento News and Review

The promise and pitfalls of Aggie Square in Oak Park

“The reality is Aggie Square could be the best thing for the neighborhood, and it could be the worst thing for the neighborhood,” said Sacramento City Council member Eric Guerra, whose district is directly east of UC Davis Med Center.
https://sacblog.newsreview.com/2020/04/01/innovation-without-gentrification/

Even a UC Davis official—Hendry Ton, the university’s associate vice chancellor for health equity, diversity and inclusion—has questions about Aggie Square causing gentrification and displacing residents.
“I think there’s a lot of questions about that and I certainly have questions about that as well,” Ton said. “I think that the potential is that if the people in Aggie Square and the university are thoughtful and careful and collaborative about this, this can be a very significant force for good in the neighborhood.”
So far, however, collaboration hasn’t exactly been smooth, with officials and residents clashing on plans to ensure the neighborhood benefits from the project.
A group connected to the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative, known as Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, has been working on a legally binding community benefits agreement for Aggie Square.
A January draft of the agreement called for local hiring from nearby zip codes, anti-demolition policies to protect homes and enrollment of at least 50 percent of Medi-Cal recipients living within five miles of Aggie Square.
“We believe that this project has a lot of potential to be successful. But it also has a lot of potential to displace working families.”
Gabby Trejo is executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together.
“We want to see Aggie Square be successful,” said Gabby Trejo, who has been working on the agreement and serves as executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together. “We believe that this project has a lot of potential to be successful. But it also has a lot of potential to displace working families. And we want to make sure that working families in our region are protected.”
City leaders have yet to commit to a community benefits agreement, however. Guerra and Councilman Jay Schenirer, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, are instead working on a letter of intent, which city leaders declined to provide.
“I’m less concerned about the type of document and more concerned about an honest agreement… that will last longer than whatever we call the agreement,” Guerra said.
But Trejo and Sasso said the letter is insufficient. “We’ve seen other folks be bad actors in that things are promised and then they’re never delivered,” Sasso said.
https://sacblog.newsreview.com/2020/04/01/innovation-without-gentrification/

Click here to read the full article.

ECOS’ Involvement

ECOS is a part of the Sacramento Investment Without Displacement coalition to work towards preventing the displacement of long-time residents and local businesses that could occur as a result of this significant, new project at the UC Davis Medical Center.

Click here to learn more about Aggie Square and ECOS’ involvement.

Image credit: Edna Winti, 2016/366/238 Proceed with Caution

Will local officials listen on 2020 transportation measure?

December 10, 2019
By David Mogavero (Former ECOS President)
Sacramento News and Review

What Transportation Measure?

In the next several weeks, our elected officials are writing a measure for the November 2020 ballot to levy a sales tax for transportation funding in Sacramento County.

How You Can Help!

Go to sacta.org/a_board.html, find the name of your elected representative who sits on the board and call, email, text or ask them for a meeting.
Tell them:
– You don’t want more roads, but want more transit and safer streets for bicycling and walking.
– You won’t be fooled by a measure that funds the road project down the street (that your neighbor told the pollsters they like) but sacrifices the quality of our county’s future
– You will only support a transportation measure that moves our community to a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable future.
-This is most critical for those who live outside of the city of Sacramento, including in Citrus Heights, Arden Arcade, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove and North Highlands, etc.
– Please contact your representative now and voice your concerns. By February, it may be too late.

Read the full article here.

Photo Courtesy of Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA)

SacRT to modernize light rail system, increase train frequency to Folsom

August 14, 2019
Emily Hamann
Sacramento Business Journal

“Sacramento Regional Transit District is in the beginning stages of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to upgrade its light rail system, which will include more frequent service to Folsom.
Most of SacRT’s current light rail cars are reaching the end of their useful life, and will start costing SacRT more money in maintenance and repair costs. So SacRT is upgrading to new low-floor cars. The doors on low-floor cars are level with the street, which eliminates the need for elevated platforms at light rail stops.
Most of the state funding for the project is directed toward upgrading the Folsom line, which is aimed at reducing traffic congested corridors. Some of the funding is also coming from the settlement of a lawsuit between Caltrans and the Environmental Council of Sacramento. The environmentalist group had sued Caltrans over a plan to add carpool lanes on Highway 50. As part of an out-of-court settlement, Caltrans agreed to pay $7 million toward improving the Gold Line, which parallels the freeway. “

Read the full article here.

ECOS in the News!

May 16, 2019

Check out the Sacramento News and Review article about what Sacramento residents think about the climate crisis, transitioning to clean energy, the growing number of green jobs and more. Alexandra Reagan, Director of Operations for ECOS, says that the premise of clean energy killing jobs is false.

“Environmentalists are often portrayed as being anti-growth, but most of us, except for a few extremists, are perfectly aware that the population is growing and that building is going to happen, so it’s just about how we do it,” she said.

“I think the environmental waves of the last 150 years have left behind social justice, and we’re trying not to do that this time. We want fair jobs and living wages for everybody. …We can address the environmental crisis and economic issues by creating green jobs.”

Climate change consensus