Sort Smart! Recycling From Home in Our Region

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.

Click here to learn more.

No More Broken Promises

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

E. Coli Measurements in Lower American River still very high

May 28, 2020 | By Ryan Sabalow and Theresa Clift | The Sacramento Bee

As the summer weather begins to hit Sacramento, thousands of families head to the American River to cool off. That was the case over Memorial Day weekend.
Yet, recent measurements of E. coli bacteria in the river have reached the highest limits the testing equipment could detect.
Will Sacramento ever clean up the beautiful American River to a point where it’s safe for all to enjoy?

Click here to read the article.

‘Pure magic’: A street in the Haight closed to traffic becomes the stage for professional cello concerts

May 20, 2020
By Heather Knight
The San Francisco Chronicle

[Shuttering traffic] creates a giant front yard to mingle from 6 feet apart with neighbors who too often go unmet in our busy city. It gives kids, many of whom live in little apartments with no outdoor space, an area near their homes to play. And it creates a stage for whimsical, wonderful things to happen — like live concerts and in-the-street picnics.

Click here to read the full article.

Open Sac Streets for Social Distancing – Presentation May 26

ECOS will be holding our board meeting on Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm virtually. We invite you to join us for the following presentation.

Presentation: Slow Streets Pilot Project, City of Sacramento

Due to the pandemic, we are driving less, and walking and biking more. Many cities have blocked or restricted traffic on streets so walkers and bikers have more room. Also, when restaurants open, they will need to space out patrons – ideally out onto some streets. San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles have embraced “Slow Streets”. How can we get that here?
Speakers: Jennifer Donlon Wyant, City of Sacramento Transportation Planning Manager; and Debra Banks, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, Executive Officer.

Click here to learn more about Slow Streets Sacramento, and for opportunities to take action now: https://www.walksacramento.org/slow-streets-sacramento/

Zoom Meeting ID: 818 6537 7865
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81865377865
Call-in: 1-669-900-6833
No password.

Feel free to share with your networks!

Click here to view the meeting agenda.

ECOS Board Meetings

Join the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) at the ECOS Board of Directors meeting! These meetings are a great place to network with fellow environmentalists and to keep up with the latest local environmental successes and challenges.

ECOS will be holding our board meeting on Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm virtually. We invite you and anyone interested to join us for the following presentation.

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