Here’s what’s been going on around the neighborhood:
MESA Keeps Growing: We are now 176 strong! Thank you all for joining, and for spreading the word. Keep up the good work for our neighborhood!
Planned Coordinated CalTrans/City/County Clean-up Activity: Last week Councilmember Valenzuela informed MESA that beginning March 15th there will be a coordinated plan to have shelter for the people living along 30th Street by C and D Streets, and there will be fencing put up along the CalTrans property on 30th Street. MESA witnessed City of Sacramento personnel and Forensiclean in the area on Wednesday. We have also heard from CalTrans that this is scheduled for this coming week. The plan is to put up a fence along the 30th Street CalTrans property to secure the area. MESA is hoping for a much more successful outcome than we experienced in this location in early December. We also want to have less impacts to the Midtown Neighborhood than we saw with the clearing in December, and are committed to having a strong voice for both MidTown and East Sac when these actions are being done.
Trash Dash Tomorrow at McKinley Park: Come out for our monthly Trash Dash in the Midtown-East Sac Neighborhood. We’ll meet out by the Duck Pond at 10 am on March 12th. This is our third coordinated Trash Dash, and the third time’s a charm! Especially around St. Patrick’s Day! Let’s get out, pick up around our beautiful McKinley Park, and make some new friends. MESA will set up a table by the duck pond. There’s a volunteer form that the City is requesting us to fill out. We’ll have that ready for you at our table. I also heard there may be Stanley’s Donuts on offer—but that’s strictly gossip as of publication. Check out the Sacramento Picks It Up website for more details: https://fb.me/e/1fLWTh4uq
Safe Route to School: MESA has been working with the Mayor’s office on a Safe Route to School program for Sutter Middle School. MESA is sponsoring a Community Meeting this coming Wednesday, March 16th at 6 pm at the Sutter Middle School Library (second floor). Let’s get together as a neighborhood and talk about our safety concerns, create some much needed camaraderie, and work on improving our neighborhood. This meeting will be talking about safety concerns, SacPD will be talking about personal safety for students traveling to school, and about MESA’s hope for a Yellow Brick Road/Safe Route to School for Sutter Students to get from Midtown to school in East Sac. Please join us for a Community Engagement meeting at Sutter Middle School on March 16th at 6 pm in the Library. MESA encourages you and your friends to come out to the meeting to keep helping our community Questions? Please send an email to info@midtowneastsac.org.
SacPD Reports: Captain Halstead sent along this Monthly Chief’s Report. Also, please find the recent crime report for East Sac areas here. Happy to get this for Midtown—just let us know if you’d like that included. We know the Midtown Captain!
Crime@midtowneastsac.org: We are up and running with our crime@ email address. Let’s know what’s going on around our neighborhood. Please email concerns and criminal activity to us.
See Something Say Something: I know some of us have felt that criminal activity is not being responded to in the neighborhood. With MESA’s outreach efforts to our local representatives and our engagement with our SacPD, we are expecting more help improving public safety in our community. If you are witnessing criminal activity, report it. The SacPD nonemergency number is 916-808-5471. If it is an emergency, call 911. Put the nonemergency number in your phone so you have it when you need it.
Neighborhood Watch: Several members are interested in setting up Neighborhood Watch programs near them. SacPD has been responsive to our inquiries, and pointed us to connect with the program here: neighborhoodwatch@pd.cityofsacramento.org.
Upzoning: Neighborhood Upzoning and Densification. Sacramento’s proposed 2040 General Plan and recently enacted state laws, including SB 9 and SB 10, eliminate single family neighborhoods and zoning by allowing 6-14 units where there is now one single family house. This could have significant impacts on neighborhoods throughout Sacramento. Meeting on Saturday: to learn more visit SaveSacramentoNeighborhoods.org
What is MESA About?: MESA is a group of concerned neighbors that came together to seek help from our government officials to improve public safety in our neighborhood while working towards real solutions to get help for those who are unsheltered in our community. Our founders are neighbors, business owners, property owners and concerned citizens. As we work through the issues, we identify gaps or issues in the systems or the programs, and work to find solutions that will improve our neighborhood and the lives of those who are unsheltered today. All ideas and solutions are welcome, and discourse about the issue may bring some new solutions to light. Some things we have identified today where each of us can help make a difference is:
- Attend your City Council meetings and comment on agenda items that factor into the quality of life in our neighborhood. We’ll send updates on specific items that we are paying attention to.
- Encourage your City Council members to support our law enforcement. MESA supports our law enforcement officers, and we need to get that message to our Councilmembers.
- We encourage our members to be a part of the solution. We need to be looking at programs, ideas and events that can help us solve the issues affecting our neighborhood. Bring things up and let’s see what could lead to some real solutions to improve the quality of life for our entire community.
Hope for Sacramento/Haven for Hope Model: This past week Hope for Sacramento and MESA met with local businesses about their needs, and about how Hope for Sacramento could provide job training and resources for those experiencing homelessness in our community. We will keep working on this, and other solutions to improve our community. What’s Hope for Sacramento? Check out www.hopeforsacramento.org, or www.havenforhope.org.
MESA Founding Members Meeting with County Next Week: MESA’s founding members are meeting with County Supervisor Serna and several of his staff next week. We are working to identify how to bring more safety to our neighborhood, and get care for the people living unsheltered in our community today. We’ll report back our findings afterward.
Midtown-East Sac Advocates Website: It’s go time! Spread the word about www.midtowneastsac.org to friends and neighbors. We love having a great group involved in bringing issues to the table and working on solutions to strengthen our community. Interested in joining MESA—hit the SUBSCRIBE button. Hope to see you here soon!
Published List of Members: When starting this group many of us were part of the published list of members. These are MESA members who are involved in finding solutions in our neighborhood. For a current list, please click here. Many members have not been comfortable with their information being published, and we completely stand by your confidentiality. If you want to stand up for our neighborhood, and want to be on the published list, please email info@midtowneastsac.org with your name and how you want to be listed (neighbor, business owner, etc.).