The Bee ran another article on area crime today, this time on the number of cops allotted to each neighborhood, and how Natomas is clearly getting the short end of the night stick. Too bad it took a rash of violent crimes to awake them from their slumber. I just wish the Bee would have tied it all back to Mayor Heather Fargo’s naivety about crime, and the city council’s failure to provide adequate police presence to an area filled to the rafters with low income housing (but then, if they could, I’d have nothing to write about!)
The Bee’s findings about cop staffing comes as no surprise to this Natomas resident of 8 years. The article reports that Natomas is only allotted 4 cops per 10,000 people, compared to 5.5 cops per 10,000 people for all other neighborhoods in Sacramento. Turns out cops triage our resources and keep a higher concentration in more violent areas. While this seems logical and I believe the police are doing the best with what they have, the fact that the city clearly does not have enough cops to provide minimum police levels is still a major slap in the face of citizens and completely negates heather Fargo’s campaign assertion that public safety has always been her “number one priority.”
Lest we forget, while Fargo was flying around the world on the taxpayer’s dime in a quest to learn how to plant trees and screw in fluorescent light bulbs, “New Sacramento” was filling up with more Section 8 housing than any one community should have to burden (with more on the way).
While she was sipping mineral water and nibbling on gourmet panini sandwiches in luncheons with her fellow Downtown Partnership fat cats, Natomas was quietly becoming the destination of choice for thugs who were well aware of how few cops were patrolling the area.
The good news is that residents are finally beginning to see through the Fargo smoke and mirrors. But let’s not stop short now. If we’re going to fight CRIME Natomas, let’s go after all of the criminals who are ruining the quality of life in our community. As I stated in the Bee’s comments today, the most startling crime ever committed in Natomas was not committed by thug teenagers in hoodies and gold teeth, it was committed by Heather Fargo and her band of Smiling Ray Tretheway city council members who sold prospective homebuyers on the concept of a “New Sacramento,” then demanded higher property taxes for more police protection, a police sub station, and a rec center, then never delivering any of their commitments.
It’s time to stop baking brownies and sweet-talking city officials in an effort to get them to do their jobs. Severe crime problems demand severe discussions with city officials, and often times severe measures such as recalling those who have fallen short of meeting their commitments to their constituency.
Fortunately, the primary numbers reflect Fargo is definitely on her way out, so one of the main problems plaguing Sacramento will be pulled by its root–which is fantastic. Now, in keeping with that real “progress,” I believe it’s time District 1 voters take a good long look at city council member Ray “Getaway” Tretheway and begin discussing whether he can provide the level of service our diverse community demands going forward. I do not believe he can–because so far the only SERVICE Tretheway has ever given to “New Sacramento” residents seems to be LIP SERVICE. And that is simply no longer acceptable.
PS: Props to Holly Brickner for her comments to the Bee reminding people that there is a correlation between poverty and crime and the city has mandated a lot of low income housing –that warrants more cops!! Thank you, Holly!
You should be writing for a major newspaper. Thank you for your consistent, relentless and 100% justified criticism of Heather Fargo and her colleagues who I agree have broken a myriad of promises to our community, and now seem to blow it off like no one remembers. Natomas is very lucky to have you. I stand behind you all the way.
Thanks for your kind words and support.
Joe, maybe you ought to join forces with the Natomas community alliance groups and so forth out there. They might very well need someone like you to play “bad cop” (forgive the pun) for them with the local government. I have been part of many HOA’s and dealt with a lot of city officials, and in my experience the only time they really jump is when they think their jobs are in jeopardy–which we’re starting to see with Fargo. Either way, keep it up. The more voices the better!
Hi Gary/Michelle. Thanks for the suggestion. In all honesty, as Groucho Marx famously once said, “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”
The recent media attention only confirms what many have known for 8 years living here, 1-2 policeman patrol the north area and Tretheway has been negligent in in promoting a safer community, he is a major supporter of low income housing too. Residents really need to put pressure on him and the council to change the housing finance policies, Natomas ranks last in the region regarding the development fees required for section 8 housing, the city charges the least dollar amount for multi housing units. Further, it is still difficult to understand why we suffer with proper policing levels because we live next to Northgate or Del Paso Heights, and the police department and a lame professor from Sac. State say that property crimes is a trade off, beacuse more violent crime requires more police levels, property crimes will increase in unprotected areas. Where do all the tax revenus and sales tax from our community go, probably into the general fund to pay for the Crocker Art Museum and all the developent downtown. It sounds as if our police dept. is negligent too.
Hey Charlie, apparently we don’t need as many patrols because we don’t have as much violent crime as other areas. Sigh. And that one just gets me HOT. Crime is crime. I don’t care if it’s assault or harassing customers at Carl’s Jr, the cops NEED TO BE OUT HERE so they can respond quickly to situations before they escalate. It’s not a question of IF crime will get worse, it’s a question of WHEN.There IS going to be a lot of crime here because of the poverty levels, and while we can’t stop it, we can certainly mitigate it with more patrols and investigative resources… IF Natomas residents DEMAND change
joe joe joe joe you are *all* over it my man. thanks for this. also know i support you even though i dont post comments on the regular. talked to my neighbor at 4th party [we live in regency park near zurlo] and he said you should be mayor of sac. ok he was stone cold drunk but hey, its somethin hahahah -Kevin
I would vote for Joe if he ran for District 1 council seat–in a heartbeat. He is exactly the kind if person the district needs to get things done at city hall. RUN JOE!! I dare ya
Thanks but I don’t think I could even make my mortgage payment on Tretheway’s salary. Isn’t it like $55k annually?