Members of the Sacramento City Council Tuesday embraced the recommendations of the Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change and voted to move forward immediately on 10 first-year action items, including creating ‘slow streets’ for pedestrians and people-pedaled vehicles only and crafting an ordinance to require future buildings to run entirely on electricity.
July 31, 2020 | By Felicia Alvarez | Sacramento Business Journal
Expansion plans at the UC Davis Medical Center and Aggie Square are continuing to pick up momentum.
On Friday, the University of California Davis released the draft environmental impact report for its long-term development plans at UC Davis Medical Center. The draft report captures all 146 acres at the campus, including the university’s planned tech hub, Aggie Square, and approximately $1.9 billion in new facilities and renovations for the medical center.
The Environmental Council of Sacramento has been working with a coalition of community members and advocacy groups to ask UC Davis to ensure that the community also benefits from this investment. Click here to learn more about the effort.
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.
There is still time for city residents to participate in the 2040 General Plan update and Climate Action Plan’s virtual community questionnaire, as the deadline has been extended until June 19. The previous deadline for public input was June 5. Click here to learn more.
Sacramento City is updating their general plan, including the City’s Climate Action plan. We need Sacramento City residents to fill out this online community questionnaire to make sure everyone’s needs are represented. Participate by June 19, 2020 to help the City prioritize key proposed strategies around six general topics which will be part of the 2040 General Plan. You can choose to provide input on all six topics, or just one! You might be impressed by the ideas proposed; we were!
The six general topics presented in this virtual workshop for public input are:
Livability
Mobility
Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Economic Development
Sustainable Growth
Each of these general topics has specific questions for participants and opportunities for additional input. ECOS encourages all of our members and allies to spend approximately 30 minutes responding to this survey opportunity by June 5th, 2020. It is very important that our City government receives robust input and support from progressive, environmentally-conscious citizens.
The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) laments the death of George Floyd as the result of racist policing. Recently we redoubled our efforts to improve the environment in the Sacramento region, which is usually more dangerous for our residents of color. We recognize that historic racist “red-lining” policies have led to the segregation of neighborhoods. For example, air pollution tends to be worse in under-served communities, which are often near sources such as diesel truck traffic.
We believe in equality for all regardless of race and reflect this believe in our environmental work. ECOS supports affordable, transit-oriented housing, and sues to prevent suburban sprawl such as the expansion of freeways. We have been lobbying for more funds for public transit and active transportation. We have urged local jurisdictions to provide more services for our increasingly large homeless population. We helped found “Sacramento Investment Without Displacement”, which is pushing for a “community benefits agreement” for Aggie Square: UC Davis plans to double the size of its Med Center, but not provide housing in our most gentrifying neighborhoods.
Together, we will make our region more environmentally friendly and healthy for Sacramento residence those who are most effected by inequality.