The sidewalk under this Capital City Freeway overpass in Midtown Sacramento often serves as a sad and squalid home for a dozen or more tent-dwellers. During the weeks that these two gentlemen lived there, they kept it relatively tidy.
It has been five years since I moved from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Midtown Sacramento—this is my first time living in a city. As you may have heard, this place is in the midst of a kind of Renaissance, and it is a great place to live. Except for one thing: I don’t go a day without having to experience at least a twinge of trauma caused by the fact that there are hundreds of people in this neighborhood who are forced to live on the street.
I live four blocks from McKinley Park, a cultural resource that features a big rose garden, an awesome public swimming pool, outdoor yoga twice a week, and my granddaughter’s favorite playground. Walking there involves traversing one or another freeway overpass, under which I have witnessed way too much human suffering. I can’t seem to get used to this—it always provokes a mix of emotions ranging from heartbreak to anger; I don’t get mad at these folks I consider victims, but at the social and political forces that keep them where they are.
Here is a statement that should not be controversial: The primary cause of homelessness in California is a lack of housing supply and the accompanying increase in housing costs. It took California a few decades to fully recognize this, but thank goodness, the California legislature and the Newsom administration seem to have finally figured it out. Just a month ago, the state committed $200 million to move 7,300 people out of encampments and into housing.
Let More People Live in the Suburbs
I have a number of friends who, no matter how much they enjoy visiting my neighborhood, wouldn’t dream of living here because of what they view as a deplorable and dangerous situation. In theory, they might prefer city living over life in the suburbs, but not with things as they are now.
Frankly, this basic human desire for order and safety is what gave us the suburbs in the first place. Ironically, as Jon Vankin’s article about the movement to abolish zoning laws shows, there is a vicious-cycle relationship between the laws that protect American suburbs and the housing crisis that is the main cause of the homelessness crisis.
Should Zoning Laws Be Abolished?
Zoning laws that restrict new housing development cause environmental damage, racial and class segregation, and force people into cars creating traffic. Now, a new movement wants to abolish zoning in the United States.
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• How a Developer Plans to Bypass San Jose Building Requirements
A Denver-based developer is using a controversial tool to force through plans to demolish a nearly seven-decade-old swim and tennis club in San Jose to make way for housing.
(07/13/2023) → San Jose Spotlight
• Housing Nonprofits Drop Suit Against City of Palo Alto
The two nonprofit groups that had sued Palo Alto over its failure to approve a housing plan by the state's deadline have withdrawn their lawsuit.
(07/12/2023) → Mountain View Voice
• Santa Clara County to Open Mental Health Residential Facility
In less than a month, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center will have a psychiatric resource to help fill the treatment gap between acute care and long-term stability with a new 28-bed adult residential treatment center at 650 S. Bascom Ave. in San Jose.
(07/12/2023) → San Jose Spotlight
• Caltrans Proposal for El Camino Bike Lanes Catches Palo Alto Off Balance
A new proposal by Caltrans to install bike lanes along El Camino Real has Palo Alto officials and bike advocates wondering what—if anything—the city can do to influence the proposal.
(07/12/2023) → Palo Alto Online
• Drones, Satellites and AI: How California Fights its Unpredictable Wildfires With Big Data
As nights warm and droughts intensify, past models predicting fire behavior have become unreliable. So California is working with analysts and tapping into new technology to figure out how to attack wildfires. Gleaned from military satellites, drones and infrared mapping, the information is spat out in real time and triaged by a fire behavior analyst.
(07/11/2023) → CalMatters
• How Sacramento State Fostered a Diverse Student Body Without the Help of Affirmative Action
Sacramento State is one of the most diverse colleges in all of California—a state that stopped allowing race to be a criteria for admission in its public academic institutions in 1996 with the passage of Proposition 209.
(07/11/2023) → Read the full The Sacramento Bee report
• Porter Has Slight Lead Over Schiff, Lee in Race to Replace Feinstein
Rep. Katie Porter was the choice of 19% of likely voters, just ahead of Rep. Adam Schiff at 16% and Rep. Barbara Lee at 13%, a June survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found. PPIC also found that in the race for the White House, 50% of the state’s likely Republican voters support former President Donald Trump.
(07/14/2023) → Read the full The Sacramento Bee report
• Ending Mono Lake Diversions to Los Angeles: Good for the Environment, Bad for the Climate
The environmental costs of ending water diversions from Mono Lake to Los Angeles would be mixed: It might help a shore bird habitat but would require changes that increase carbon emissions.
(07/12/2023) → CalMatters
• New Cal State Chancellor Must Deal With Misconduct Allegations, Massive Budget Gap
Mildred García will take over a system confronting a budget shortfall, declining enrollment and complaints about how Cal State officials have handled sexual misconduct allegations.
(07/12/2023) → CalMatters
• Study: Climate Change Is Changing the Ocean’s Color
In the magazine Nature, a team of scientists reports that they have detected changes in ocean color that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These color shifts have occurred over 56 percent of the world’s oceans.
(07/12/2023) → YubaNet
• San Diego Tops San Francisco in Average Monthly Rents
For the first time, San Diego has surpassed San Francisco for average rental rates, making the All-American City the nation’s third-most expensive rental market, according to a Zillow report. But San Jose had the nation’s highest monthly rent with $3,411.
(07/11/2023) → Read the full report