‘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

City Announces Temporary Ban On Residential Tenant Evictions

The Sacramento City Council adopted an ordinance on March 17 to establish a temporary ban on evicting residential tenants unable to pay rent due to a loss of income caused by the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

“It is vital for us to protect residential tenants during this tenuous time,” said Assistant City Manager Michael Jasso. “This ordinance is part of the City’s efforts to address the financial impacts of the disease on renters locally, the population most at-risk of swift housing displacement.”

Click here to view the article on the City of Sacramento’s website.

Why is this an environmental issue? People need to have the option to live near their jobs and other every day destinations. This means making sure there are enough affordable, quality residences in the urban core of Sacramento, even in the face of a pandemic. If people who work downtown cannot afford to live downtown, we are not going to meet our region’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. To do our part as a city, Sacramento must find ways to reduce the need for workers to commute every day.

ECOS Comments on Aggie Square NOP

UC Davis has an opportunity to lift up rather than disrupt the Sacramento Campus’ surrounding community. Investment alone is not enough; these major investments must be coupled with anti-displacement strategies to ensure that existing residents will equitably reap the benefits of these improvements. We hope [UC Davis] seize[s] this opportunity to demonstrate what a true relationship between the University and the community can bring.

ECOS Comment letter dated March 10, 2020

On March 10, 2020, ECOS submitted a comment letter on the Notice of Preparation for an Environmental Impact Report on the UC Davis Sacramento Campus 2020 Long Range Development Plan Update (LRDP), which will serve as a project-level EIR for Aggie Square Phase 1.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Comment Deadline for Aggie Square NOP: March 10

A Notice of Preparation for an Environmental Impact Report on the UC Davis Sacramento Campus 2020 Long Range Development Plan Update (LRDP) was sent out on February 7th, including plans for Aggie Square. You can view the Notice of Preparation here: https://ceqanet.opr.ca.gov/2020020161/2/Attachment/037ZSy?fbclid=IwAR11J3x0kcTDuqaWrZGL3wrdoaisrX_g4rCpL_8gF8rbNK1vtQlWjSD714M

From the introduction of the Notice:

“Each campus within the University of California system periodically prepares a long range development plan (LRDP) to guide campus development in anticipation of projected growth of student enrollment and new university-added programs. The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Sacramento Campus 2020 LRDP Update will propose general types of campus development and land uses to support projected on-campus population growth and to enable expanded and new program initiatives for the UC Davis Sacramento Campus. The 2010 LRDP remains in effect as the guiding land use document for the UC Davis Sacramento Campus, and its overall program of growth and development remains accurate. The proposed 2020 update to the 2010 LRDP will largely focus on making minor adjustments to the 2010 LRDP land use plan and policies. UC Davis will prepare a supplemental environmental impact report (SEIR), as required by Public Resources Code (PRC) Sections 21080.09 and 21166, to evaluate the environmental effects of incremental growth under the 2020 LRDP Update through the year 2040. The 2020 LRDP Update SEIR will be a program EIR that can be used at a program-level in the environmental review of subsequent campus development projects, as well as a project-level EIR for the Aggie Square Phase 1 and Replacement Hospital Tower (RHT) projects.”

The deadline for comments is March 10th!

You can email your comments to environreview[at]ucdavis[dot]edu.

OR you can submit your comments via postal mail to:
Matt Dulcich, AICP
Director of Environmental Planning
Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship
University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616

What are the concerns?

It’s possible that Aggie Square can exacerbate gentrification in the surrounding Sacramento neighborhoods, or it can lead to economic growth through increased opportunities for local residents.

How do we invest in the neighborhoods most impacted by UC Davis without displacing existing residents and local businesses?

Click here to learn more about the Environmental Council of Sacramento’s concerns about the impacts of Aggie Square.