Tomorrow is an historic day

It's time to vote again! Please don't forget! If you're discouraged because your candidate is polling behind in California or you think your vote doesn't matter because your candidate is polling far ahead, IT DOES MATTER! There are many down ballot issues that will be decided this election. It's important that you take your opportunity to make your voice heard. Take a book and some water and a snack and go be a part of history.

If you don't vote you will miss your opportunity to speak out on these issues:

• Sacramento Mayoral Race
• Community College Funding (Measure M)
• Utility User Taxes (Measure O)
  
• Numerous School Board seats
• State Assembly Races
• Congressional Race
• State Propositions including: High Speed Rail, Children's Hospital Bonds, law enforcement funding, renewable energy requirements and funding, minor abortion waiting period and parental notification, veterans bonds and redistricting

Those of you in Natomas, please make your choices very carefully. If you were my best friend and we were sitting down to coffee, I'd caution you on the school board election in particular. Do you really want someone who is an incumbent, who sat through all the land deal mess and said nothing? Who says she has "learned her lesson" at the expense of our students? Sue Heredia has had eight years to learn her lesson and improve schools in Natomas. No thanks. I'll be picking 3 new school board members. Bruce Roberts, Patricia Adams and Briza Trujillo Cardenas have put in the time, energy and effort to make Natomas better. It's time we give them a shot where they can make a difference.

Important questions left unanswered in the mayoral race

The Bee took the least effective route to endorsement in the mayoral race this weekend, an absurd attempt to get the election to extend until November. Really people, what happens if we accidentally elect Muriel Strand? It's possible, with the Bee's plan, that whomever the candidate listed at the top of the ballot would be elected. We've seen voter mistakes before so why would our editorial board want to encourage it?

Perhaps it is time the Bee took a serious approach to journalism and started asking some hard hitting questions. I've been thoroughly impressed with the research and detail that Joe Sacramento has put into these questions and I strongly encourage you to email Mayor Fargo (hfargo@cityofsacramento.org) and ask her these questions yourself. A few of Joe's best and my favorites:

In the 2008 State of the City address you disagreed with the Corps of Engineers’ AE flood zone designation, and stated you felt the levees were “strong as ever” —-yet in the KCRA debate with Johnson you agreed with him that we are in fact in severe danger of catastrophic flooding, and you were working hard with agencies to bring the levees up to 100, then 200 year flood protection levels. Can you please discuss the conflict between your two statements?

When members of the Metro Chamber recently complained that you were not responsive to their emails and inquiries, your response was that your job was complicated, and that your limited staff “triaged” requests daily–a word that paints a picture of a frantic hospital emergency room. If your office is so inundated with inbound help requests and questions from folks in our city who need your help, how do you justify missing 125 days of work since Oct 2005?

The NNFF (North Natomas Financial Plan) is said to be in flux now, and residents have heard that a $36 MILLION rebate to developers is even being proposed. Residents in N Natomas are paying EXTRA for amenities and public safety measures that were promised to them in the master plan for the area. What can North Natomas residents expect in terms of your commitment in seeing these broken commitments repaired? And, is it true that a $36 MIL rebate to developers is on the table?

Railyard Project gets the green light

Speaking of eyesores, the Railyard project got a green light from the City Council on Tuesday. Over the next 20 years, in theory, the project will begin to develop downtown into a "real" city. We'll see jobs, stores, mixed use housing projects, a cultural center and a major infill project take form.

I'm in support of the idea of the railyard project, I really am. But is this the city council to do it? So far we've seen the arena fall through, the completely botched development of North Natomas, the big hole known as The Towers and the troubled Aura Condo project. Sure, it's a down market but it wasn't in the 90's when they approved the debacle of North Natomas. The city surely has had an economist or two studying the market and preparing for fluctuations, right?

As a longtime resident of Sacramento, I'm ready for an all new council full of young, entrepreneurial talent with bold ideas, creative plans and a environmentally friendly way to make Sacramento really shine. This council is none of those... We can only keep our fingers crossed that the next election cycle will bring out some new blood.