Category Archives: Essays
East Sacramento Says: Save Our Neighborhood Councilmember Cohn
My name is Ellen Cochrane and I am the president of East Sacramento Preservation. I represent more than 300 members and 100s of other deeply concerned East Sacramento residents.
I’d like to say that ESP is grateful and supports the work of our fellow neighborhood groups speaking in opposition of this project.
East Sacramento Preservation opposes the planned McKinley Village for several reasons, not least because it proposes to invade our streets with 3,500 more cars per day.
All of us who drive on H or J Street, or Alhambra Blvd, between 5-6 pm, or cautiously navigate Folsom Blvd. know the consequences this increased traffic burden will cause.
The project’s traffic scheme will increase traffic in these area and also add a whole new hot spot in the north side of the neighborhood with the proposed 40th Street Exit.
The developer stubbornly refuses to compromise on matters of great importance to us. But let’s take a broader look at things. It’s neighbors, all of us volunteers, many who work in the day, going up against a wealthy, politically well-connected, professional development machine. No wonder citizens feel abandoned. We need to level this playing field.
The developer has wealth, access to media support, political insiders to do his bidding, hired professionals to manipulate facts to his advantage. What do we have? That’s why I call on our Councilman Steve Cohn, our elected representative, to truly represent us. Mr. Cohn has given 19 years of service. He has championed neighborhood projects, alternative energy sources and supported Sutter’s Landing. Neighborhood services are the most important part of a councilmember’s job. We elected him to speak for us, to be our voice, to defend the fragile, classic neighborhood we share and cherish. He knows this project is bad, bad in and of itself, and bad for this neighborhood.
When we met in his office a week ago his voiced concern about being the sole vote against the development. We want hin to not care about that. We elected him to not mind being a solitary vote if that vote is a pro-neighborhood vote, if it’s a vote of conscience, if it’s the right vote, and the right thing to do.
Mr. Cohn stand up alone if you have to, but please stand up for us. We also ask you to lead. Other council members should and must heed your recommendations about this unhealthy project.
There is absolutely nothing good in the McKinley Village development for us. Nothing. Even its name is thievery. It’s not good infill. It’s not smart growth. Smart growth does not harm and alienate neighbors.
So far you have not intervened to change this project or avert a crisis in this neighborhood. You haven’t publicly challenged the absurd falsehoods in the Draft EIR.
This is the eleventh hour: we ask you to assume leadership. We remind you, and everyone, that we still retain the power of the vote.
Once, when we expressed our traffic concerns, A McKinley Village representative said to us, “You people live in an urban world. Get used to it.”
Please defend us so we can say, East Sacramentans will fight for their neighborhood. Get used to it.”
East Sacramento Preservation Essayist, Pat Lynch, Considers the DEIR
The EIR Gospel
by Pat Lynch
The EIR. It’s big as a Bible and every bit as mythical. It stands for Environmental
Impact Report (though some think it means Errors Implanted Relentlessly) and is
commissioned by developers to help them sail through a largely ceremonial city
process that purports to assess the worth of their projects.
The first stage in the EIR process is the NOP (Notice of Preparation). The NOP is
supposed to give you a chance to raise concerns that will be routinely dismissed by
the developer and his acolytes. Add an E to NOP and you have NOPE which is the
answer you will get to your requests and allegations.
For example, some of us asked the developer of the proposed McKinley Village (McVillage) to add two way car access to the Alhambra Street bike/pedestrian exit that would relieve our streets of traffic invasion. “Not economically feasible” he said. Later, after many more voices were added to this request, he changed his answer to “not technically feasible.” Aha. What before was too expensive had now become physically impossible. Whosoever seriously believes this must change the N in NOPE to a D (DOPE) because lo, you have become one.
After this comes the DEIR, or Draft EIR, more aptly called the DAFT EIR. Anyway,
the current McVillage Daft EIR is riddled with illogic and absurdities but quoted with
stubborn reverence as Truth. For the developer, it’s holy writ. But let’s look at one
of the proclamations they expect us to accept by faith alone. It’s that a “Traffic
Study” has determined that 3, 500 more cars a day invading quiet East Sacramento
streets will be of “insignificant impact.” But this traffic “study” is a driver-centric
sham that counts only the number of times a driver pauses. It doesn’t ‘study’ or
even consider the impact auto traffic has on residents—exhaust pollution,
pedestrian safety risks, and the inevitable erosion of neighborhood character.
Who composes these EIRs that smooth the way for injurious projects? In the
present case it is Dudek, a consulting firm hired by the developer. Dudek says it
stays “focused on moving projects methodically through planning, analysis,
development and implementation.” Pro-project, paid by the developer, avowedly on
his side, these hired high priests write the EIR. How, in view of this, can any sane
person regard that document as a tome of objectivity? But people do. Naturally the
developer quotes it chapter and verse. Some City Council members say they believe
it. Other people believe it because they want to believe it. Never mind that it is a
preposterous concoction of falsehoods, believers have faith so as to move
mountains, or blast holes in your levee and funnel traffic down your street.
In keeping with a ritualistic pretense at democracy we are permitted to comment
on the Daft EIR and our objections and other heresies will be noted in the sacred
text of the final document. But noted does not mean ameliorated. Most of our
comments will be dismissed with technical verbiage employed to disguise magical
thinking. And what of those neighbors who object to the process itself, to its
stacked-deck unfairness and slippery relationship with truth—will they be blessed
with more balanced and accurate procedures in the future? No. Nor will their
elected representatives heed them and mend the process. Why? Because, behold,
neighbors giveth not great sums to their representatives. And you have only to look
at the public record to see that developers make donations of ‘significant impact’ to
city politicians.
None of this is news, of course. The EIR is largely a work of fiction, its traffic
study a creepy fraud, its authors for hire. How can neighbors defend against such a
set-up? In the case of McVillage, ECOS (the Environmental Council of Sacramento) and
Physicians for Social Responsibility have joined multiple neighborhood and
environmental groups to oppose the conclusions of the Daft EIR. Will that matter?
Will the developer and his EIR employees accommodate the wishes of those who
live here?
Imagine having truly objective and trustworthy analysts. Monks, say.
Incorruptible, environmentally educated Buddhist sages from a remote monastery,
paid not by the developer, or the neighbors, or the politicians, but from a purity
fund to which all contribute an identical amount? Now that might produce a study
we could respect. You can look for this when they plug in the snow-blowers in Hell.
Meanwhile go to the McVillage site itself, that bowl of land between the railroad and
freeway. Look around. Imagine the place crammed with giant suburban houses with
at least two cars per house. Visualize those cars charging down your street. Every
day. Every night. You can see the snarling nightmare now. But wait. The EIR says it’s
“insignificant.”
Ultimately everything comes to this: what do you believe: the EIR or your lying
eyes?
Posted in Essays, Uncategorized
Tagged Angelides, calming traffic, city of sacramento, DEIR, East Sacramento, East Sacramento Neighborhood Associations, East Sacramento Preservation, EIR, Environmental Impact Report, McKinley Village, meagan garcia norris, NOP, Notice of Preparation, riverview capital investments, Smart Growth, Steve Cohn, traffic calming, Traffic Study, train
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