If transportation is a majority of the emissions we are trying to eliminate, why do we continue to build suburban neighborhoods that require a car to get anywhere a person needs to go? North Natomas is seeing neighborhoods going up that continue to lack grocery stores, coffee shops, and restaurants that people want to walk to. East Sacramento is one of the most desirable neighborhoods to live in because it is walkable, and yet we continue to allow developers to build suburban, car-dependent neighborhoods. We need to enact policy that requires developers to build neighborhoods that include the necessary businesses that neighborhoods need. Developers should be required to include transit in their builds, they should be required to build light rail lines to their developments. The Willow Creek neighborhood has existed for 20 years and not only is there no grocery store, but there are no bus lines that serve that neighborhood. The nearest bus stop is 1-2 miles from this neighborhood. 500 new homes were built in The Cove and another 500 units were built in The Core apartment complex. And yet they built a McDonald's with a drive thru instead of a grocery store, and these residents continue to have to drive miles to get groceries. If we are going to reduce transportation emissions, then we need to eliminate food deserts, we need to stop building car-dependent neighborhoods.
As an avid bike commuter and health professional, I am calling upon our city to do everything within it's power to cultivate and foster active transportation. It's time to catch up to progressive cities throughout our country and make this a priority.
I have read much of the latest CAAP draft and the Quarterly Climate Update.
I appreciate the work that has been done to obtain funding through grants that are in the works or has already been obtained for tree planting, local transportation and modernizing flood gates. I also appreciate Appendix D which outlines costs and sources of funding and agree with the fee for service options, increases in permit costs and property tax and support on-bill financing to make retrofits and electrification possible to EJ community members.
With the winter not too far in the future, I am concerned about the progress with the Severe Weather Action Plan, the Extreme Weather Outreach Strategy and the availability of warming centers especially for more vulnerable residents of the City. I am unsure what being in “Phase 2" means in a practical sense and could not find in the document any clarification re actual progress, dates of implementation etc. We are likely to have more extreme weather at an increasing rate. Our homeless population was hard hit last winter. We have a great need for resilience centers during wintertime and I encourage the City to send out a call for agencies, churches, and other entities that are willing to use their facilities for winter shelter and assistance, if they have not already done so.
I urge the City to follow up with the collaboration with the County of Sacramento and regional entities as mentioned in the CAAP to save costs where possible. I also urge you to take a look at what the County Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force will be recommending about climate action and to work together on tree planting and distribution of excess edible food from businesses in Sacramento.
I also ask the City to reach for the lower cost, high value actions like cool roofs. Utilize help from resources like the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Heat Island Group whose expertise is in cool technology. The Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering, Rishee Jain, states in his article “Data driven Approach to Cooling” that of all retrofits they explored in their study, “one rose to the top: cool roofs. This technology, along with increasing the tree canopy, can be implemented at scale fairly quickly and easily and cool paint does not mean an extra cost. I was very glad to see in the update that the City applied for a grant (task #12) for tree planting through the Federal Forest Service and the USDA.
I am unsure how the Local Food/Local Places programs have developed, now that the EPA/USDA planning action is “complete” per the City’s update. I looked at the websites of each of the three entities - the International Garden of Many Colors, the City Tree Nursery and the Alchemist Kitchen/Alchemist CDC and could find no information about progress made. My concern is about our more vulnerable neighborhoods and food scarcity issues, as well as the assistance with local jobs, training and employment slated to grow with this program.
Recognizing that we are still dealing with a pandemic and that the City is understaffed, the one extra staff position noted in the update for a new intern position for a sustainability specialist is clearly not enough for the work ahead. A suggestion from the Sacramento Climate Coalition at a recent County Climate Task Force meeting was made to hire temporary staff to help with grant writing. I would propose the City do the same as we are at a crucial point with climate change and must treat it as an emergency, just like the pandemic.
I noted in the Quarterly Update the General Plan commitment to action by 2045 was mentioned, as was the City Council’s directing of staff to accelerate implementation of numerous climate actions summarized in the work plan. The update also noted the Climate Emergency Declaration’s 2030 goal and implementing “as much as possible” by that date. What is most frightening to me is what little time is left between now and 2030 when scientists are saying we will reach many major tipping points. As clearly demonstrated by our extreme weather events, both in the US and globally, climate change is accelerating faster than anticipated and we are reaching some of those tipping points ahead of what was anticipated.
Please use the Climate Emergency Declaration powers that allow the City to change or amend ordinances, and take immediate action as if we are in a public health emergency. We are in a public health emergency, a climate emergency, and need to take action for the sake of our children, our grandchildren and future generations, all of whom are not responsible for the increasingly compromised environmental state in which we find ourselves.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Ann Amato, retired LCSW
Member of the Sacramento Climate Coalition
I urge the City Council to increase funding and financing projects that will positively address climate change particularly focused on measures that will encourage bicycling such as completing an integrated network of safe bicycle paths throughout the City connecting all the neighborhoods and business activity centers. Further I urge the City Council enact programs to incentivize the purchase and use of electric bicycles especially for underserved communities.
To further support increased bicycling, I urge the incorporation of speed reduction measures on our streets.
To encourage walking and bicycling as well as to reduce air conditioning emissions I urge the proactive planting of trees that will grow to creat a cooling canopy in all our neighborhoods. I especially encourage requirements for canopy trees for multi family housing. (It is very disheartening to see new multi family housing created without regard for tree canopy!!)
I believe with the comprehensive, system wide implementation of these measures that Sacramento can be a model for the country.
And, I as an 82 year old woman will feel safe taking my EBike to meet my daily transportation needs.
Thank you,
Anne Geraghty
1018 Alkali Lane
Sacramento CA 95814
Good evening City of Sacramento councilmembers and staff,
My name is Anmol Pavade and I live in the Hollywood Park neighborhood.
I am writing to urge the City of Sacramento to join the growing number of municipalities across the nation in adopting strong, comprehensive Safe Routes to School policies in its General Plan and Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. As cited in the City’s Vision Zero School Safety Study, Sacramento had the highest number of speed related traffic fatalities and the most collisions resulting in fatalities or serious injuries involving pedestrians under the age of 15 of any city in California. Within this context, it is not an exaggeration to say students and families must risk their lives to get to school.
Safe Routes to school is a nation-wide movement that has been around for over twenty years. Countless studies have shown its effectiveness in improving safety outcomes for youth and significantly increasing the number of students who walk, bike, and roll to school. Safe Routes to School offers numerous academic, health, and economic benefits for students and families. Such benefits extend to the broader community through reduced traffic congestion, cleaner air, safer roads and sidewalks, and lower rates of chronic diseases related to physical activity and air pollution exposure, and are particularly critical in Sacramento’s Environmental Justice communities.
On a personal level, I am advocating for strong Safe Routes to School policies because our communities deserve to be and feel safe for all.
Thank you for your consideration and for your support in creating a safer, healthier, more active Sacramento.
If transportation is a majority of the emissions we are trying to eliminate, why do we continue to build suburban neighborhoods that require a car to get anywhere a person needs to go? North Natomas is seeing neighborhoods going up that continue to lack grocery stores, coffee shops, and restaurants that people want to walk to. East Sacramento is one of the most desirable neighborhoods to live in because it is walkable, and yet we continue to allow developers to build suburban, car-dependent neighborhoods. We need to enact policy that requires developers to build neighborhoods that include the necessary businesses that neighborhoods need. Developers should be required to include transit in their builds, they should be required to build light rail lines to their developments. The Willow Creek neighborhood has existed for 20 years and not only is there no grocery store, but there are no bus lines that serve that neighborhood. The nearest bus stop is 1-2 miles from this neighborhood. 500 new homes were built in The Cove and another 500 units were built in The Core apartment complex. And yet they built a McDonald's with a drive thru instead of a grocery store, and these residents continue to have to drive miles to get groceries. If we are going to reduce transportation emissions, then we need to eliminate food deserts, we need to stop building car-dependent neighborhoods.
As an avid bike commuter and health professional, I am calling upon our city to do everything within it's power to cultivate and foster active transportation. It's time to catch up to progressive cities throughout our country and make this a priority.
Bronwyn Schweigerdt
Curtis Park
To City Counsel Members and City Staff:
I have read much of the latest CAAP draft and the Quarterly Climate Update.
I appreciate the work that has been done to obtain funding through grants that are in the works or has already been obtained for tree planting, local transportation and modernizing flood gates. I also appreciate Appendix D which outlines costs and sources of funding and agree with the fee for service options, increases in permit costs and property tax and support on-bill financing to make retrofits and electrification possible to EJ community members.
With the winter not too far in the future, I am concerned about the progress with the Severe Weather Action Plan, the Extreme Weather Outreach Strategy and the availability of warming centers especially for more vulnerable residents of the City. I am unsure what being in “Phase 2" means in a practical sense and could not find in the document any clarification re actual progress, dates of implementation etc. We are likely to have more extreme weather at an increasing rate. Our homeless population was hard hit last winter. We have a great need for resilience centers during wintertime and I encourage the City to send out a call for agencies, churches, and other entities that are willing to use their facilities for winter shelter and assistance, if they have not already done so.
I urge the City to follow up with the collaboration with the County of Sacramento and regional entities as mentioned in the CAAP to save costs where possible. I also urge you to take a look at what the County Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force will be recommending about climate action and to work together on tree planting and distribution of excess edible food from businesses in Sacramento.
I also ask the City to reach for the lower cost, high value actions like cool roofs. Utilize help from resources like the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Heat Island Group whose expertise is in cool technology. The Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering, Rishee Jain, states in his article “Data driven Approach to Cooling” that of all retrofits they explored in their study, “one rose to the top: cool roofs. This technology, along with increasing the tree canopy, can be implemented at scale fairly quickly and easily and cool paint does not mean an extra cost. I was very glad to see in the update that the City applied for a grant (task #12) for tree planting through the Federal Forest Service and the USDA.
I am unsure how the Local Food/Local Places programs have developed, now that the EPA/USDA planning action is “complete” per the City’s update. I looked at the websites of each of the three entities - the International Garden of Many Colors, the City Tree Nursery and the Alchemist Kitchen/Alchemist CDC and could find no information about progress made. My concern is about our more vulnerable neighborhoods and food scarcity issues, as well as the assistance with local jobs, training and employment slated to grow with this program.
Recognizing that we are still dealing with a pandemic and that the City is understaffed, the one extra staff position noted in the update for a new intern position for a sustainability specialist is clearly not enough for the work ahead. A suggestion from the Sacramento Climate Coalition at a recent County Climate Task Force meeting was made to hire temporary staff to help with grant writing. I would propose the City do the same as we are at a crucial point with climate change and must treat it as an emergency, just like the pandemic.
I noted in the Quarterly Update the General Plan commitment to action by 2045 was mentioned, as was the City Council’s directing of staff to accelerate implementation of numerous climate actions summarized in the work plan. The update also noted the Climate Emergency Declaration’s 2030 goal and implementing “as much as possible” by that date. What is most frightening to me is what little time is left between now and 2030 when scientists are saying we will reach many major tipping points. As clearly demonstrated by our extreme weather events, both in the US and globally, climate change is accelerating faster than anticipated and we are reaching some of those tipping points ahead of what was anticipated.
Please use the Climate Emergency Declaration powers that allow the City to change or amend ordinances, and take immediate action as if we are in a public health emergency. We are in a public health emergency, a climate emergency, and need to take action for the sake of our children, our grandchildren and future generations, all of whom are not responsible for the increasingly compromised environmental state in which we find ourselves.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Ann Amato, retired LCSW
Member of the Sacramento Climate Coalition
Item 18
I urge the City Council to increase funding and financing projects that will positively address climate change particularly focused on measures that will encourage bicycling such as completing an integrated network of safe bicycle paths throughout the City connecting all the neighborhoods and business activity centers. Further I urge the City Council enact programs to incentivize the purchase and use of electric bicycles especially for underserved communities.
To further support increased bicycling, I urge the incorporation of speed reduction measures on our streets.
To encourage walking and bicycling as well as to reduce air conditioning emissions I urge the proactive planting of trees that will grow to creat a cooling canopy in all our neighborhoods. I especially encourage requirements for canopy trees for multi family housing. (It is very disheartening to see new multi family housing created without regard for tree canopy!!)
I believe with the comprehensive, system wide implementation of these measures that Sacramento can be a model for the country.
And, I as an 82 year old woman will feel safe taking my EBike to meet my daily transportation needs.
Thank you,
Anne Geraghty
1018 Alkali Lane
Sacramento CA 95814
Good evening City of Sacramento councilmembers and staff,
My name is Anmol Pavade and I live in the Hollywood Park neighborhood.
I am writing to urge the City of Sacramento to join the growing number of municipalities across the nation in adopting strong, comprehensive Safe Routes to School policies in its General Plan and Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. As cited in the City’s Vision Zero School Safety Study, Sacramento had the highest number of speed related traffic fatalities and the most collisions resulting in fatalities or serious injuries involving pedestrians under the age of 15 of any city in California. Within this context, it is not an exaggeration to say students and families must risk their lives to get to school.
Safe Routes to school is a nation-wide movement that has been around for over twenty years. Countless studies have shown its effectiveness in improving safety outcomes for youth and significantly increasing the number of students who walk, bike, and roll to school. Safe Routes to School offers numerous academic, health, and economic benefits for students and families. Such benefits extend to the broader community through reduced traffic congestion, cleaner air, safer roads and sidewalks, and lower rates of chronic diseases related to physical activity and air pollution exposure, and are particularly critical in Sacramento’s Environmental Justice communities.
On a personal level, I am advocating for strong Safe Routes to School policies because our communities deserve to be and feel safe for all.
Thank you for your consideration and for your support in creating a safer, healthier, more active Sacramento.