SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The city of Sacramento is trying to safely expand their growing nightlife and entertainment by appointing a new "nighttime economy manager."
With several years of experience, Tina Lee-Vogt was tapped for the new role.
"I think it's tremendous for the city of Sacramento, and I think it shows the importance of the nighttime economy and how vital it has become for the city of Sacramento," said Bob Simpson, who owns several businesses downtown, including Malt and Mash on K Street.
For years, he has worked firsthand with Lee-Vogt and witnessed her commitment to the city.
"When you have a nightlife, you really need to be able to bring in different elements, so that's really the concern. So we're trying to figure out how to have one point of contact that can collaborate with the different folks that are engaged with the nighttime economy," Lee-Vogt said.
That includes code, fire departments and police.
Lee-Vogt acts as the single point of contact for the nighttime economy. The announcement comes at the heels of the 6-month anniversary of the K Street shooting where six people lost their lives.
"You can not have an incident that is that significant without really examining it and looking for ways to change and improve. We're constantly doing that, but I can tell you, it doesn't take an incident like that for our city to move forward in a positive direction," said Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester."
In the last six months, there have also been three different deadly shootings that have rocked the downtown and midtown business areas.
"In Tina's new role, what we're most excited about is that she's already been working with organizations like ours. We work on training like what to do if there's an active shooter. We work on training, like how do you use an ID scanner to make sure that everybody who comes in is logged in," said Emily Baime Michaels, who is the executive director for the Midtown Association.
As they work on the issues they face, they are also sharing community safety and prevention.
"What we don't want is, we don't want it to be a military zone. We don't want to have this outstanding amount of police presence because we don't want people to feel unsafe, because people feel more unsafe when there's a lot of police versus when there's not," Lee-Vogt said.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg says in about they will meet again in the next month and review the position and what actions are being taken.
In other cities, like New York or London, a night manager might be known by terms like night mayor or night czar.
The Responsible Hospitality Institute is a non-profit organization that helps cities shape policy around nightlife economy.
“The goal is to take some of the burden off of police and move it more into planning. If you don’t plan well, it becomes a police problem, and if you plan well, you won’t need as many police,” said Jim Peters, of the Responsible Hospitality Institute.
With Sacramento adding a night manager, 21 U.S. cities have similar programs including New York, Atlanta and Washington D.C.
Some places have seen success. In New York, for example, they have free mediation for conflict between businesses and neighbors with 80% of issues resolved.
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