Sacramento's Mayoral election 3/29/16

I attended Monday night's ECOS board meeting where the candidates for Sacramento Mayor, Darryl Steinberg and Angelique Ashby, made their pitch for the environmental vote (ECOS is a 501c3 charity, so it can't endorse candidates).

Former State Senate leader Darryl Steinberg went first, touting his role in promoting cap-and-trade and SB 375, a bill setting regional air quality targets. Most of us know cap-and-trade is as likely to favor Wall St. traders as it is to produce effective greenhouse gas control, and one activist present confided in me that SB375 is doomed, like most local planning, to failure. (I'll append my little editorial about the planning process after the signature)

Steinberg made no mention of the Unearned Increment -- a gigantic gift to land speculators that allows them to sell development-approved ag land for 50 - 100 times what they paid for it, tax free! -- preferring to believe that somehow deadlines to develop entitlements would prevent speculation. Personally, I'd believe anyone announcing a tax or curtailment of that unearned increment gift would be dismissed as "not serious," and would face serious, well-funded opposition, if not assassination, so I really expected no better (and got the same from Ashby).

Steinberg excused his role enabling the Kings' subsidy by saying Sacramento risked losing an "economic asset." Really, Darryl? Economic asset? No economic studies of pro sports characterize them as anything other than economically neutral, at best. Discounting this additional gift to the plutocracy as simply defending downtown's economy was quite a stretch. But Ms. Ashby also voted for the Kings' subsidy, so on this issue they are virtually identical.

One admirable thing not mentioned that Steinberg has done was his role in promoting proposition 49. That was the initiative to advise legislators that the public wanted to amend the constitution to make regulating money in elections legal (overturn "Citizens United"), and declaring corporations are not people, so do not have rights like humans. The Supreme court, which removed it from a previous ballot, is reconsidering prop 49, and as far as I know it's still an open question about we will vote on it in the 2016 election. The politics that favor it say it brings out the vote. Do we need that extra inducement to vote in a presidential election?... Who knows?..

Ms. Ashby started slow, recounting her bona fides as an incredibly ambitious single mother with a law school education. Catering to the enviros, she noted how much she had done for the trees in the City.

To her credit, she also stated unequivocally that she would make sure the rail yard developers provided the housing needed to make transit viable there. Originally touted to contain 12,000 housing units, the rail yard has gradually diminished promised housing to 6,000 units, and finally to 3,000 units.

Housing is what would make the often-longed-for "24-hour" city, since people would stick around rather than commuting to the 'burbs and leaving behind a hollowed-out down town. Compact development is also very important for viable transit. Berkely planner Robert Cervero observes densities of 11 - 13+ units per acre within a walk of transit stops, or neighborhoods with small shops, are what make them viable. Otherwise, not enough customers mean transit becomes the red-headed stepchild, always begging for subsidies. (10 units / acre = duplexes, 20 = 2-story apartments)

Neither candidate sought to tie viable transit to good planning, and only Ashby said she'd stand up to developers. That's contrary to her reputation, as Mayor Johnson's "mini-me"--in other words, someone who would continue his developer-friendly practices.

Overall, there weren't too many surprises in each candidate's presentation. Steinberg touted his state legislative experience while Ashby touted her local experience. There's another mayoral candidate, but apparently he was unreachable, and is slated for a later appearance.

Who would I vote for? I live in the County, and don't think there's much daylight between the two...