Sacramento State is a jewel in the region, Mayor Kevin Johnson said during his state of the city speech on Feb. 25. One of his priorities is to be committed to expanding the relationship between the city and the university.

Johnson said he is dedicated to the principles established in the August 2008 Memorandum of Understanding signed by President Alexander Gonzalez and former mayor Heather Fargo. It was implemented to showcase the relationship between Sac State and the City of Sacramento, highlighting that the university and city will work together to create projects beneficial to both.

“We don’t just want to sign a document once a year,” Johnson said. “When I campaigned for mayor, Sac State was the most under appreciated resource in the Sacramento region. I think there is so much potential here, and I’m ready to take it to the next step.”

Johnson said that he would be meeting with Gonzalez on Feb. 26 to discuss the relationship between the university and the city.

Gonzalez said that they would be discussing the memorandum and how the city and university can work together in the future.

“It is my view that the university and the city are one,” Gonzalez said.

He went to say that some of the plans Johnson mentioned in his speech could be facilitated by the university-city relationship, including Johnson’s call for Sacramento citizens to perform more community service.

Gonzalez said Sac State has already united with the city in this fashion, including the work Sac State’s engineering program did with the city to examine waste disposal.

He added that the city has been communicating with the university ever since the memorandum was signed, noting that City Manager Ray Kerridge and his staff spearheaded the communication effort.

Gonzalez expects Johnson to be very involved in the ideals expressed in the memorandum and hopes that future projects.

“We haven’t gotten to that level yet,” Gonzalez said. “But we’re not going to have a bridge to nowhere.”

During the speech, Johnson talked about the importance of making Sacramento a key city in the nation’s development of green technologies.

“For green tech, you need capital, research and intellectual capital,” Johnson said. “Sac State has two of those three.”

Leaders within the region have already been working to make Johnson’s dream of Sacramento as a green technology central. Included in this is the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce’s new Clean Tech Green Pages, a directory of green technology companies within in the Sacramento area.

Johnson said these progressions will create more employment opportunities in the region, including possible jobs and internships for students.

Sophomore anthropology major Stephanie Solorio said that she is hopeful for Johnson’s efforts with the school, but doesn’t think he will follow through.

“I think he will try,” Solorio said. “But he won’t be able to succeed because of the economic crisis. I support him completely, but he will most likely not follow through.”

Faculty Senate Chairman Bruce Bikle said he thinks Johnson will be able to make improvements to the relationship between Sac State and the city.

“Our relationship with the city is not like going to a stadium and seeing the Coor’s sign,” Bikle said. “But quietly things are happening.”

Associated Students, Inc. Executive Vice President Roberto Torres supports Johnson and the memorandum saying it is apparent that Johnson wants a strong partnership between the university and the city.

“The fact that he came to Sac State for the state of the city says we’re in his radar.” Torres said.

He did stress that students need to be included in the conversation with Johnson and Gonzalez on projects the school and city might collaborate on, like the 65th Street redevelopment and transit services.

Johnson’s speech also discussed how he plans on making Sacramento a destination city, not just the midpoint between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe.

His vision includes updating downtown’s landscape with the Railyard Project, the K Street streetscape project and the River Dock promenade project, getting a new arena for the Sacramento Kings and increasing Sacramento’s police force, making the city one of the safest in California.

Michael Mette can be reached at [email protected].