The Myth of the Status Quo

- Warning -
This post includes a good amount of both politics and history. Forgive me for putting you to sleep. But stick with me, and there will be a reward at the end.

Over the past four years I've spoken with a bunch of people about incorporation, and I've heard just about every reason/excuse both for and against incorporation. There are a large number of pro-cityhood folks out there, and a smaller, but still signifigant number of people who don't want to see the communiy improve. So be it.

But what I don't get are the people who just keep saying they want everything to stay like it is. Heck, Stay Sacramento even made that their name, even though this area isn't, and never has been, a part of Sacramento City. And even when we incorporate, we will still be a part of Sacramento County. So the Stay Sacramento folks can rest easy. No matter what happens this fall, we will be just as much Sacramento as we ever were. But I digress.

I've lived in this area for almost 14 years now, and life has been good. Well, mostly. Over the past year or two I've started to notice the decline. Like the morning I dropped my kids at school, then headed down Edison across Watt, where three of our local working girls were soliciting for business. Keep in mind this was directly acros the street from the junior high where my son will be attending next year. I can't help but think there are better ways for him to learn about those sorts of things. That's why God created health class.

The Sheriff's Dept has already issued a statement saying that because of budget cuts and manpower shortages, prostitution will be pushed way down the scale, and it's doubtful they will respond to reports of hookers working our streets. Every update and revision to the budget looks worse, not better. But somehow people keep believing things will get better if we just don't rock the boat. Sorry, I don't see it. And the situation is mirrored when you look at drugs, gang activity, burglaries, etc.

But, let's play pretend for just a moment. Let's say that for now, crime on our streets wasn't rising. Let's say all of our parks were safe places to send our kids, even if they stayed out a little after dark. Let's even say that the county had a change of heart and started considering streets and sidewalks as somewhat important. What happens then?

Hey, if I had a working crystal ball, I'd be at the track instead of sitting at my keyboard writing this. But I can look around, and I see what appears to be taking shape.

Those of you who have studied WWII history, or better yet, lived through it, may remember that Britain and France had a policy of appeasement. They saw Hitler mobilizing Germany's armies on a foreign border, such as Poland, so they scheduled a meeting. At the meeting they would wag their fingers, and Hitler would respond: "Poland? I don't want Poland! I have never wanted Poland! I would never think of attacking Poland! I am happy with the status quo! I will never attack Poland!!!" Then, the French and British delegates would board the train for home, and Hitler would give the order to attack Poland.

This happened over and over again, until Germany controlled a huge chunk of Europe. Lather, rinse and repeat. And the Brits and French kept their heads buried firmly in the sand.

Of course, the big threat mobilizing on our borders is annexation by the City of Sacramento. Until my crystal ball repairman shows up to take a look at the thing ("our representative will be there sometime between 10 am and never."), I can't predict that Sacramento will make an annexation move if we don't incorporate. But I do know that the city included Arden Arcade as a "special interest area" for possible annexation in their 30 year plan: http://www.sacgp.org/documents/05_Part3.10_SpecialStudyAreas.pdf (page 4). Listing a community as an area of interest is the first step toward annexation.

Sacramento's Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) has rules that govern the processes for annexation and incorporation. One of those rules is that while any sort of process is in progress for an area, no other process can be started. So while the incorporation question is on the table, the city can't move forward with annexation. But once the election is over, if we should fail in our bid for cityhood, then the gloves can come off.

At that point the next step will be to declare our area within Sacramento's "Sphere of Influence." Basically that means that they are claiming to have economic, political, and social influence on our area. LAFCo has to approve this, but it's a no-brainer. How many of our residents shop at Arden Fair (in the city)? Attend events at Cal Expo (city)? Spend the occasional Saturday in Old Sac? Of course they have influence over us. That doesn't mean they control us, or that they should, but influence? Undeniable.

Compared to the four years spent on incorporation, the sphere of influence can happen in a heartbeat. They petition LAFCo to include us, there is some time for public comment (not that anyone listens to it), and they make a decision. A month or two, tops. And once the city has gotten the declaration, we have lost any possible chance for incorporation, or any other way to speak for ourselves.

After the sphere is settled, some time passes, mainly to make it look like Sacramento isn't in a hurry to get our tax revenue. Then they send another petition to LAFCo, this time to annex us as a part of their city.

Many people I've spoken with see this as a simple issue. If the city petitions for annexation, we vote that down, just like incorporation. The problem is, we don't get to vote on annexation. We get sixty days to get a certain number of signatures on petitions. I'm not sure of the number, but it's huge. Something like a fourth of registered voters - 15,000 or so. Keep in mind it took the better part of a year for an organized group to gather less signatures than that to start incorporation, even using paid signature gatherers. There won't be an organized group to fight annexation, and the time span is shortened to a fraction of what we had. Think we can pull that off? Sorry, but I have my doubts.

As I said earlier, I have spoken with a lot of people about incorporation in the past four years. The nearly universal truth is that no one in Arden Arcade wants annexation. Even Stay Sacramento has stated publicly on several occasions that they do not want to see annexation. But like Chamberlain in WWII, they either can't or won't see the mobilization taking place around them. And not wanting to be annexed won't mean a thing when it happens.

A successful incorporation effecively takes annexation off the table forever. That is in addition to the benefits we've discussed previously (and more we will be adding soon). That alone should be enough reason to emphatically support cityhood.

***

Now, for the promised reward. My lovely wife has created a new group page on Facebook: "You're an Arden Arcadian". The idea is to build community by sharing common (and probably a few uncommon) memories and feelings about life in this area. I liked the idea so much that I decided to adopt the phrase "I Am an Arden Arcadian" for this blog and some other actvities I had in mind.

I'm in the process of designing some pro-cityhood t-shirts. This will be a limited run of maybe 50 shirts or so, although I reserve the right to expand that if someone wants to put them up for sale to raise money for incorporation. If you want to get one of these limited edition masterpieces (yes, I am that good - I will post the artwork when it's finished), find my wife's Facebook group, join it, and then share a special memory, or something that makes you feel good about being an Arden Arcadian. My totally unbiased wife will pick the 5 best postings, and those people will get one of the shirts. I'm going to run the promotion through the end of September, to allow plenty of time to post, and still have time to show off the shirt (and your passion for cityhood) prior to the election.

So go, get started!