SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As California’s capital city rebounds from the pandemic, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is laying out what he wants the future of downtown to look like.
During the annual State of Downtown breakfast inside the newly renovated Sacramento Convention Center, Mayor Steinberg called on public-private partnerships to spur development in downtown.
Steinberg, a staunch advocate for the homeless, mentioned the homelessness just once during his highly optimistic speech focused on developing downtown.
“I will never shrink from talking about and working hard on the tough problems, but if all we ever talk about is homelessness, that’s all we will ever talk about,” Steinberg said.
The mayor, who took office in 2016, touted successes like breaking ground at Aggie Square in Oak Park and approving plans for the new California Northstate University teaching hospital in Natomas.
“A real investment plan for job and industry growth, adaptive reuse, climate progress and affordable housing,” Steinberg said.
He called for an Enhanced Infrastructure Finance District that could be used to keep investments in the downtown area.
Facing the tail end of a pandemic that forced many of the city’s 91,000 downtown workers to work remotely, the mayor and tourism leaders called for the governor to bring back the state workers who make up a majority of those working in the downtown area.
Still, the looming issue of homelessness has many who live, work and visit downtown concerned about how the issue will be addressed.
WATCH ALSO:
