MESA Newsletter March 5, 2022

Midtown-East Sac Advocates Newsletter

MESA: Neighbors Bringing Issues to the Table to Strengthen our Community

Hi Neighbors,

Here’s what’s been going on around the neighborhood:

MESA Keeps Growing: Today we gained 10 new members and are now 170 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: Yesterday morning, 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. Past communications indicated this would be from 30th Street through to G or H Street. MESA is hoping for a much more successful outcome than we experienced in this location in early December. Any official communications between MESA and our Councilmember will be included in future messages. Keep an eye out on social media for updates directly from Councilmember Valenzuela.

Meet and Greet March 7 with State Assembly Candidate Josh Pane: Neighbor Josh Pane is running for Assembly and is having a Meet and Greet to kick off his campaign at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center 3/7 from 4-6 pm. Josh has been an early MESA supporter. For more info, click here.

Safe Route to School: MESA has been working with the Mayor’s office on a Safe Route to School program for Sutter Middle School. The Mayor’s team is hoping to have Sutter Middle School’s Safe Route a pilot program for the city. There will be a Community Engagement meeting at Sutter Middle School on March 16th at 6 pm in the Library. Please find the flyer here. MESA encourages you and your friends, to come out to the meeting to find out more about it, and show your support of the idea. Questions? Please send an email to info@midtowneastsac.org.

SacPD Weekly Activity Log: Captain Halstead send along this report for the last week.

Tracking Crime in the Neighborhood: SacPD has been a great partner in keeping us informed of crimes that have occurred in the neighborhood. We also want to track crimes you are dealing with in the community. Please email crime@midtowneastsac.org with info on situations you have experienced.

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.

Criminal Activity Reporting is Working: This past week a MESA member messaged us about a string of window smashings of businesses and vehicles along J Street from Midtown to Alhambra. SacPD quickly responded that they are aware of the situation, believe they know who is committing the vandalism and are working to apprehend that person. They also have a “bait car” in use to apprehend the suspect(s). Also, a person who smashed a car window in the early evening was identified as having a no-trespass order against them. Using this information SacPD is working on finding the person who smashed the car window.

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.

Neighborhood Watch in Action: This past week several MESA members were involved with communicating the new vehicles parked on the E Street underpass area, and called for code enforcement. Those vehicles have moved. After the cars moved, a large fire engulfed one of the encampments there. Keeping our eyes out and calling 911, 916-808-5471 and 311 is making a difference. Please keep this up!

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. 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 commmunity.

Hope for Sacramento/Haven for Hope Model: At our February 5th meeting at McKinley Village Chris Jones with Hope for Sacramento spoke about the creation of a Haven for Hope model here in Sacramento. Check out www.hopeforsacramento.org, or www.havenforhope.org.

MESA Founding Members Meeting with County in 2 Weeks: MESA’s founding members are meeting with County Supervisor Serna and several of his staff in two weeks. 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.

McKinley Park Trash Dash Saturday March 12th at 10 am to noon: 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. Let’s get out, pick up around our beautiful McKinley Park, and make some new friends. For more info, check out Sacramento Picks it Up and our event page here: https://fb.me/e/1fLWTh4uq

Midtown-East Sac Advocates Website: We are putting the finishing touches on www.midtowneastsac.org. We should have it up next week—I think there is just one last lever to pull to make it “ready for prime time”!

Info@midtowneastsac.org: Do you have an interested neighbor who wants to get involved with MESA? Have them shoot us an email at info@midtowneastsac.org and we’ll get them on the list.

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.).