Time to stop and smell the flowers with Sunshine Ray Tretheway and his staff! Here we have included a few of our favorite quotes from two Tretheway letters that appeared on the Natomas Buzz (http://www.natomasbuzz.com) web site recently.

The first set of bites are from Tretheway himself in response to a resident’s status update on the North Natomas Financial Plan, in which the resident pleads with community members to come to city council meetings to convince the regal council that North Natomas deserves a FRACTION of the money originally promised to them.

The second set is from a Tretheway handler (ok, not really, but I have always wanted to use the word “handler” in a sentence) in response to Mary-Anne V’s recent Sacramento Bee article that exposed the staggering amount of low income housing the city has handed North Natomas residents, and prepared it for the staggering amount of future low income housing on the way.

Ray’s letter on the Natomas Buzz web site (our comments in italics)

Greetings,

Thank you so much for getting the word out on the North Natomas Finance Plan Sure, Ray, the community is used to doing your job for you.

Our goal in this update was to put together a realistic finance plan that reflected the needs of North Natomas as more people have moved in. So, in other words: the original plan was NOT “realistic” and did not take into account how many people would ultimately live in North Natomas, and when we were done cramming a kabillion high density housing projects, condo plexes, and apartment campuses into it we finally realized this year that we need a do-over??

When the finance plan was originally adopted in 1997, before I was elected to the city council, we expected the city’s general fund to cover the cost of building the second fire station West of I-5 at Arena Boulevard and El Centro Road and provide additional funding for the North Natomas Community Center.. Not sure why Ray is telling us he was not on the council when the plan was drafted other than to imply “Hey, it aint my fault!” but the fact remains the original plan sucked, and kept on sucking all the way up to…

This year I knew that we needed to ensure these projects would be fully funded, and working alongside community members the updated plan that city staff will present to the city council includes full financing for the fire station. Bear in mind friends, the fire station the city DID manage to get built in N Natomas is now on the city-wide rolling “brown out” carousel, despite the fact that the city just gave the entire fire force a 10% raise!I haven’t a clue as to how Ray intends to get another fire station built when the city can’t even fully fund the one that’s out here.

The plan also collected funds for a portion of a police substation, and we are exploring having the police and fire station be a joint-use facility, and begin planning the facility once the plan is adopted by city council. Chief Rick Braziel told a befuddled crowd of N Natomas residents at the “public safety meeting” that they were scouting a site on the West Lake side of I-5… where there are no crime problems. Nice, huh?

The finance plan will also contain full financing for the North Natomas Community Center, which we will soon begin planning. Fargo has said she waited 20 years for HER community center to be built in SOuth Natomas, so don’t be surprised if it takes another13 years to get this one built.. long after your kids have taken off for college..

At this point it looks like the finance plan will be heard at city council in late August or early September, and the council will definitely look forward to hearing from you about your support of the proposal. I will let you know as soon as we confirm the date that we will hear the item and provide you with time to write, email and call the other members of the city council to let them know your opinion. Ray would of course prefer you send all your complaints and feedback to his email address–since he doesn’t ever check it, and does not respond to emails unless they reflect well on him.

Tretheway’s District Director letter sent to Mary Anne V at the Bee protesting her article about low income housing excess in North Natomas (8% now, 15% planned)

Mary Lynne—

I gave myself some time to reflect and breathe a bit before writing, but I am frankly disappointed about your article on inclusionary housing. Ah, INCLUSIONARY HOUSING is the PC correct buzzword for LOW INCOME HOUSING now. Got it.

You told me that the article would take a “global approach” to the issue of inclusionary housing. The article did not come close to that end. First, you did not quote a single person who lives in inclusionary housing, and so you failed to even look and investigate the working people of Sacramento who have benefitted from this policy. Heh. Be happy she didn’t interview people who own homes across the street from them dude.

Second, you ignored facts. If you were looking at the area with the most amount of affordable housing you would have examined the central city, which has by far the highest amount of inclusionary housing in the city. We EXPECT a lot of low income housing in the “central city” not in the city’s suburb!

Even though Sacramento police told you there is no correlation between crime and inclusionary housing, you ran a graphic showing where recent robberies took place and their proximity to complexes that offer inclusionary housing, implying there is a correlation. PLease! How many kids who executed the 30+ home invasions and robberies in Natomas lately came from middle or upper class families? Are you sure you want to do that study Dan? And who cares what the police say; they are also the ones that told N Natomas residents “These kids aren’t really getting anything in these robberies.. just purses, wallets, cell phones and laptops…” God bless the police for the job they do, we love them with all our hearts, but the job of the police is to serve and protect, and I really wish people would STOP turning to them for psychological, sociological, and socio-economic expertise.

But what was most disturbing to me is the hypocrisy of the Bee. Really? On June 17, 2008 the Bee lamented that the City of Sacramento should “take mixed-income housing citywide.” Then, a month later, the Bee declares, “Natomas crime wave raises question about low-income housing,” implying with their headline and graphics that people who live in affordable housing are the cause of a sudden increase in home invasion robberies that recently took place in Natomas, and for which police have made 12 recent arrest. I wonder why the Bee a month ago advocated for a policy that last week it is saying causes additional crime. Where exactly do you live Dan? Perhaps you should come spend some time in N Natomas to understand what’s it’s like to live next door to a low income SUPER PLEX like the ones you have built out here. Have you watched the fight videos on Youtube? Is Tretheway’s entire office a sandbox with everyones’ heads buried deep in it ?

It is truly unfortunate that some people look at inclusionary housing as code for racist attacks, and hopefully you read some of the comments posted about your article and were equally disturbed. Take the following one by screen name “sacisforsaps”.. oh Dan is that all you got? A quote from an anonymous comment on the Bee that could have been made by a user in Michigan for all we know? How inflammatory of you.

I don’t know what disturbs me more…this comment, or the fact that 4 out 5 people found this comment helpful. Dan, try to focus on the ISSUES, please. There is cause and effect. You are doing a classic Fargo-esque reactionary thing where you become obssessed with effects and not causes. Stay focused on the cause, please.

For some reason the Bee has committed itself to destroying the great work that the City of Sacramento as well as countless community members have done in Natomas. Huh? “GREAT” work? Maybe YOU are the one in Michigan. Have you ever even BEEN to North Natomas Dan? The only thing great about N Natomas is the residents. Everything else is up for debate.

From your October 30, 2007 article “A paved-over plan?: In North Natomas, visions of a community neighborhood got lost in a caroriented suburb” to the most recent article about inclusionary housing, the Bee only looks at the negative sides of Natomas, and fails to point out the 38 new parks that have opened. Never mentions the Benvenuti Performing Arts Center, which is a joint project between Natomas Unified School District and the City of Sacramento .. Yeah, Charter School… you loved it so much that you just plopped down another SUPER PLEX of very low income emergency shelter housing right nearly right on top of it. Nice !

..You did not discuss the new fire station that opened, the understaffed one on a rolling brown out schedule now with the improvements along Del Paso Road, of the nearly $4 million of capital investment in the Regional Park. You have decided that your narrative will be “Natomas is a broken promise” and take whatever data you find, not analyze it, or put it into perspective, and publish it. Dan, N Natomas IS a broken promise. It’s a paved over maze of stucco and concrete and doesn’t even have a visible plot of land for a church .. or a bowling alley.. its bike trails cross streets everywhere and even go right into cement center mediums… Dan are you kidding me? Half the familes have bolted. What planet are you on?

And not just publish it, but on a day that Senator Barrack Obama, the presumptive Democratic Nominee for President met with General Petraeus, and Texas evacuated towns because of an incoming tropical storm, the top story on the front page of the Sacramento Bee is Natomas has affordable housing….disappointing. You don’t know disappointment sir.

Start with the attendance center that opened in Natomas . ….. Dan check out the truancy stats for Natomas schools. Give me a break.

The library that is currently under construction in North Natomas will be a great amenity for the Natomas community. This building is collaboration with Natomas Unified, the community college and the city of Sacramento . When completed the 22,645 square foot facility will not only have over 140,000 books but 49 open access computer stations, four express checkout stations, a computer lab with 36 computer stations, and a mobile lab with 20 wireless notebooks. Even though you were not able to be at the ground breaking, even though we sent you a press release, I look forward to seeing you at the grand opening in Fall, 2009. will be a true miracle if this thing gets done.

I look forward to your coverage of these issues, and telling the whole story about inclusionary housing in the future. I look forward to the city STOPPING the low income housing pile up in N Natomas NOW. Send the rest over to West Lake! And build the job center there instead of another strip mall!

Source: http://www.natomasbuzz.com