SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As city leaders in Sacramento grapple with the homelessness crisis, community groups have pushed back against some of their plans.
Now, the lowrider community is speaking out against the city's new safe ground site at Miller Park, which occupies a street that they have cruised for decades.
"It was almost like a stab in the back," said Joe Moreno, who said the lowrider community was not consulted by the city when it made the plan. "We feel that we want to keep the park. We still utilize the park every weekend."
"When you say Latino, you know you're going to say lowriders, because that's our culture, that's who we are," said Fabio Huizar, president of the Gardenland Northgate Neighborhood Association.
Dozens of classic car enthusiasts on Saturday packed the Vida De Oro Arts Center on Arden Way for a meeting with District 4 Councilmember Katie Valenzuela.
"I want to own my own mistake, as unintentional as it was," Valenzuela said. "Now I've gotten myself into a little bit of jam. As of this week, we do know of 60 households that are going to move into those tents, and as of this week I have nowhere else for them to go," she said.
Valenzuela said her office would help the lowrider community find a new site to cruise and look into ending anti-cruising policies she said were "racist."
"Please bear with us," said Andrew Pendry, who moved to the Miller Park Safeground this month after the W/X site closed. "We're trying to get our lives in order and get moving on and out of here."
