Newly elected city council members discuss youth violence at town hall

“I’d much rather invest in the programs that make it to where I don’t have to call 911,” District 4 City Council Member-Elect Katie Valenzuela said at a town hall Tuesday, Dec.1. Newly elected council members Katie Valenzuela, Mai Vang, Sean Loloee and moderator Theresa Clift discussed youth violence, inequity and homelessness at the Sacramento Bee’s town hall on Tuesday. Screenshot taken by Mercy Sosa.

TJ Martinez and Samaha Samy
December 3, 2020

Newly elected Sacramento City Council members discussed prevention of youth violence Tuesday at a town hall following the recent death of two teen brothers who were shot and killed at the Arden Fair Mall.

The Sacramento Bee hosted “Views & Voices Town Hall: A New Direction for Sacramento Leadership” to give city council members and community leaders a chance to discuss how to build a more equitable city, according to their website.

Sa’Quan Reed-James, 17, and Dewayne James Jr., 19, were shot and killed on Black Friday at the Arden Fair Mall after a verbal altercation. Moderator and Sacramento Bee city hall reporter Theresa Clift said there is currently a surge in youth gun violence and youth initiatives can help combat youth gun violence.

RELATED: Candlelight vigil held for two teens killed at Arden Fair Mall

District 4 Council Member-elect Katie Valenzuela said the People’s Budget Sacramento survey showed that communities want and need youth programs to be created or aided. She said funds that normally go toward Sacramento’s law enforcement budget should go toward programs that may prevent the need to call law enforcement in the first place. 

“I’d much rather invest in the programs that make it to where I don’t have to call 911,” Valenzuela said. “By the time you call 911, several things have happened wrong that could have been prevented.” 

District 8 Council Member-elect Mai Vang said Sacramento has to be smarter in how it leverages funding not just as a city, but also as a school district. She said students are a large part of this community and that allocating funds toward programs that can help students is of critical importance. 

“It needs to be a collective responsibility,” Vang said. “It’s time that we actually step up and make it [youth programs and initiatives] a budget priority.” 

City Council Member-elect for district 2 Sean Loloee said education, food and shelter should be readily available to the youth of Sacramento as well. He said seats should be created for the youth of Sacramento in discussions regarding their needs so they can share their views.    

Valenzuela, Loloee and Vang discussed their top priorities as incoming members to local government, with homelessness being a priority for each of them.

“We’re arguably the epicenter of the crisis, we’re seeing a lot of camping, a lot of death unfortunately, a lot of assaults and just a lot of suffering on the streets,” Valenzuela said.        

According to Vang, the spectrum of homelessness includes people living in their cars, college students and even struggling families. Vang said homelessness is not one-size-fits-all and must be approached from a multi-tiered perspective.       

To prevent family evictions and to improve the current homeless population’s living conditions, Valenzuela recommended building small sites around Sacramento that provide bathrooms and locations dedicated to the handling of waste. 

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“We need to get our arms around the crisis, figure out who’s who, what’s what, what do people need, how many folks need mental health services, how many folks just need a leg and some job assistance,” Valenzuela said.

Loloee said quick-fix solutions and throwing money at these issues will not cause real change. He said it is important to think outside of the box to enact lasting solutions.        

 Vang, the first Asian American woman elected to city council representing district 8, said equity, racial justice and COVID-19 are her main concerns.   

“We all know very well that COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate, but the system that we have does,” Vang said. “When we fight and tend to the communities hardest hit, then everyone else does better.”  

Vang said there needs to be a “laser” focus on providing any assistance necessary to all struggling communities and demographics within the city. 

Later, equity reporter for the Bee Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks discussed COVID-19 impacts and inequity with Sacramento community leaders Kindra Montgomery-Block, Janice O’Malley Galizio, Angela Rosas-Chavez and Malaki Amen.     

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Equity reporter for the Sacramento Bee Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks discussed COVID-19 impacts and inequity with Sacramento community leaders Kindra Montgomery-Block, Janice O’Malley Galizio, Angela Rosas-Chavez and Malaki Amen at a town hall Tuesday, Dec.1, 2020. Recently elected city council members and community leaders discussed youth violence, inequity and homelessness at the Sacramento Bee’s town hall on Tuesday. Screenshot taken by Mercy Sosa.

Montgomery-Block, associate director of the Community and Economic Development Center at Sierra Health Foundation said her team of approximately 90 members, certified by UCLA as contact tracers, check in and continuously support all individuals or communities that have been “ravaged” by the pandemic.   

The Sacramento Mayoral Accountability and Community Equity Act of 2020 (Measure A) and the Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter Amendment(Measure C) did not pass in November’s election, but revealed a divide within the voting patterns of the city.        

RELATED: RESULTS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD: Election 2020

“We shouldn’t be shocked that district 8, which is incredibly diverse, would support that measure [Measure A],” Rosas-Chavez, founder and executive director of Chicas Latinas de Sacramento, said. “The equity pieces [of the measure] are pieces you can’t ignore.” 

Measure C received support from Midtown and Oak Park due to “incredible” rent increases both areas have faced year after year, Rosas-Chavez said.        

An October report from Realtor.com shows that Sacramento ranked fifth in increased rent pricing for one bedroom units and sixth for studio apartments.  

“Now in Oak Park, with the new Aggie Square being built, there’s fear ‘How are we going to afford these rents?’ ‘Are our communities going to get displaced again?’” Rosas-Chavez said. “So the fact that Measure C was supported by these communities made sense.” 

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Malaki Amen, Executive Director of the California Urban Partnership, said the CUP focuses on research, educating communities about policies that are under consideration and organizing community action. 

“We are dealing with the need to repair many of the scars of racial wealth gaps, police violence, of needing to address the violence prevention activities and provide resources for those activities in our communities,” Amen said.      

Rosas-Chavez said the root of many social problems is unequal access to resources in Sacramento. She said that the ability to feel safe in particular areas of Sacramento for some residents is a luxury.    

“For Midtown and Oak Park, that ability to feel safe is the ability to know that they’re going to have a home to live in… (the ability to know) next week, a month from now, a year from now, if they’re going to be able to afford those rents or if they’re going to get displaced,” Rosas-Chavez said.