Well, we had our hats handed to us. A crushing 3-1 defeat for the forces of good. Batman was beaten down by the Joker, and is now hanging by a thin line over a pot of boiling oil. And yet, somehow Batman always managed to come back. Now we will see if the analogy holds true in this instance.
The campaign is over. The election is over. Incorporation may be over - only time will tell. All I know right now is that I never got involved in this to win a campaign or an election. I'm here because I want a better life for my family. I want my kids to be safe on the streets and in the parks. I'm here because I don't want my neighborhood to change its name to "Happy Endings, California." None of that has changed, so I am still here and planning to fight for my community.
The big question right now is who is with me? Are there still a couple hundred people out there who are willing to stand up for their community? A hundred? A few dozen? Three? I'm hoping there are enough of us left to put together an action plan for how we can best continue this fight.
Let's remember who the enemy is here. We didn't get into this to beat down Stay Sacramento. Granted, Duveneck, Cahill, Blanas and Alcalay placed your children's safety at risk to further their own political agendas. They are slime, and should be treated as such. But the enemy in this war is not Stay Sac, and it's also not the gangs and hookers.
The enemy is Sacramento County, who continues to cut Sheriff's budgets to the point of making patrols nearly non-existent in our area. Who refuses to enforce building and safety codes, despite the penalties from those violations being able to fund the cost of enforcement. Who continues to dump affordable housing in our midst at a rate 5 times as high as anywhere else in the county, setting us up as Del Paso Heights East. Against Supervisors Peters and Yee, who openly abused their positions as LAFCo commissioners in order to stack the deck in favor of the county and Sac City. This is the fight we have to win. Then getting rid of the hookers and the Cahills and the drug shops will be an easy battle.
I'm calling for a new community forum, to sit down together and see where we can go from here. My plans are to host this event on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. We'll do it around 2 in the afternoon so those who want to shop that morning will be able to do so, and hopefully grab a short nap. We should be done in time to warm up leftovers for dinner. Between now and then I'll be securing a location, and getting the word out to whoever wants to come.
I will also be brainstorming. I've already come up with some ideas that could have me certified as clinically insane. But it may take an insane idea to move us forward from here. But spend a little time when you can and jot down ideas for how we can improve the community. Do we still need to pursue incorporation? Is that even an option? How can we, as a non-city, work on the same set of goals that got us started in the first place?
I know this has been a long struggle, and I can't blame anyone for suffering burnout and just wanting it to all go away. But the gangs aren't going away. The whores aren't going away. The head shops and thrift stores aren't going away. So even though I'm tired and busy licking my wounds, I'm not going away either.
Ed, There are many who want to continue. But there must be a much better game plan once we know what the options are. I plan to help with ideas and a factual analysis of the what went awry.
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