Unaware they are trespassing on land owned by the Sacramento Kings, hundreds of snowy egrets and black-crowned night herons have taken up residence in a deserted oasis on the north side of Sleep Train Arena.
From a chain-link fence surrounding the grassland, the birds can be seen gliding among cement slabs and rebar, the foundation for a baseball stadium project led by Greg Lukenbill in the late 1980s that never came to fruition.
June 9, 2020
With more people working from home and shopping online during the COVID-19 pandemic, curbside recycling carts have never been fuller.
“Both the City of Sacramento and Sacramento County saw a 15 percent uptick in the amount of curbside recyclables collected in April,” said Erin Treadwell with the City of Sacramento Recycling and Solid Waste Division. “But often, what ends up in the bin doesn’t belong there.”
To reduce cart contamination, the City of Sacramento is partnering with the County of Sacramento and cities of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova and Galt on an educational campaign to make sure curbside recyclables stay recyclable and out of the landfill.
The Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) is expanding three SmaRT Ride on-demand microtransit zones on Monday, June 15 to accommodate increased travel demand to key destinations. The zones include Franklin – South Sacramento, North Sacramento and Rancho Cordova. They are also Adding Electric Shuttles to the “Franklin – South Sacramento Zone.”
With a total of nine active SmaRT Ride service zones, SacRT is the largest microtransit provider in the country, operating with 45 shuttles.
You can view the route maps below.
Click here to read the press release.
By Bill Motmans and Tamika L’Ecluse
June 10, 2020
Sacramento News and Review
“…city leaders have proposed federal stimulus funds for economic development projects, including UC Davis’s Aggie Square (a major real estate development aimed at attracting biotech companies), and bolstering the local tourism industry. Neither of these proposed investments will address the immediate and enormous suffering of families, the elderly and children living in neighborhoods such as Fruitridge, Del Paso, North Sacramento, Oak Park and Meadowview. Quite the opposite, investment in Aggie Square commercial projects without a community benefits agreement that includes a large prior investment in new affordable housing and existing neighborhood businesses, will, over time, increase demand for existing housing and commercial space and further destabilize and displace residents and small businesses.
A new coalition of several organizations working in vulnerable neighborhoods, called Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, was created to ensure that public financial investment builds up Sacramento neighborhoods, rather than destabilize them. Our coalition calls on local elected officials to fulfill their commitments to voters. No more broken promises. Now more than ever, with COVID-19 disproportionately hurting communities of color and disadvantaged neighborhoods, public investment must directly and immediately provide relief to our city’s most vulnerable residents.”
Click here to read the article in full.
Click here to learn more about the work being done by Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, of which ECOS is a part.
Photo by Retha Ferguson from Pexels
On May 26, 2020, ECOS joined other organizations in sending a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom in response to requests from some parties to postpone the implementation of SB 743 (2013). Environmental groups urge the Governor to not further delay the implementation of this very important statute.
Click here to read the letter.
Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.
May 26, 2020 | By Randol White | Capital Public Radio
California’s triple-digit heat is back — and new research shows residents in the state’s most underserved neighborhoods suffer the most when the mercury rises.
Portland State University’s heat-mapping project tapped volunteers last summer in four California metro areas to attach GPS-equipped temperature collection gadgets to their cars and drive along set routes for an hour in the morning, afternoon and evening. They drove through the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Victorville and Sacramento.
The research project was led by Vivek Shandas, a professor who believes this form of heat-data collection can help city planners solve decades-old problems.
“We’re trying to bring the understanding of climate change and the changes happening on a planetary scale down to the individual person and down to the individual city block,” Shandas said.
…
The data collected that day indicates the temperature differentials between neighborhoods can vary by as much as 20 degrees.
Wealthy, tree-canopied neighborhoods are typically cooler, and low-income, asphalt-heavy communities run hotter.
Click here to read the full article.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels.
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