Posted by
Katy Grimes on Sunday, March 29, 2009 7:57:08 PM
Since I am never short on opinion, I receive a great deal of snarky email suggesting that I could do no better than the professional politicians who perpetually run and hold offices. Harumph.
I beg to differ. And while I have no desire to ever lower my standards and run for a political office, I can tell you what I would do if I was the Mayor of Sacramento, in a Strong-Mayor city, of course..
1. Require Regional Transit to charge EVERY Light Rail and bus rider the same amount for tickets. That means, no subsidies for anyone - especially for welfare recipients. It is called Mass Transit - not Welfare transit. When I am Mayor, perhaps one day, decent people will be comfortable riding the bus and trains to their jobs because the low-life who currently permeate mass transportation will be stuck in their hovels instead, unable to terrorize good, working people.
2. Shut down all city food closets and "shelters" that receive government money, except for Loaves and Fishes. These shelters have popped up all over, inflicting crime on decent neighborhoods along with massive amounts of property damage. With so many vagrants refusing to seek employment and instead sucking off Sacramento's liberal "kindness," Sacramento's "homeless" population has multiplied. Instead of treating the problem, Sacramento just feeds the symptoms. Offering anything other than work to the majority of deliberately homeless, only keeps them around, encouraging them to break into houses, cars, and panhandle their way to meals.
3. Sell off every City-owned building on the K Street Mall to private owners and businesses. Since Sacramento is the biggest slumlord on the K Street Mall, it only makes sense to kick out the slumlord and get some fresh ownership on the blighted K Street corridor. No government should ever be in the real estate business.
4. Fire every manager, supervisor and honcho at The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and bring it under the wing of the City Council. SHRA is nothing more than a taxpayer-funded subsidy for liberal scum sucking shady property owners. If you buy a piece of property in a "redevelopment" area of the city, all you have to do is apply to the SHRA for "redevelopment" money to remodel your blighted building, pay lower taxes on it than anywhere else in the city, and sell it to another developer for an excessive amount of money, which they will then "remodel" and turn into Section 8 housing... while the rest of Sacramento pays outrageous property taxes to subsidize it.
5. Replace the City Attorney with someone who is not a friend of Heather Fargo and can behave professionally, in a non-partisan manner.
6. Run my own slate of candidates for the Sac City School Board - people who are not politicians or bureaucrats, or "educators." Perhaps the board should be replaced with parents... people who actually care about the education of our children. Oh, and they must have an (R) after their names otherwise I wouldn't trust them with the finances.
7. Privatize the garbage pickup in the city.
8. Privatize all city park maintenance.
9. Terminate all city office workers and re-hire only those who are willing to work without union membership. Maybe then, the citizens of the city would get better service.
10. Enforce the "part-time" aspect of City Council members and take away their City Hall offices. Since they represent a district within the city, they should live and work in offices in their districts.
11. Cease all references to Portland by the City Manager. The 25-year era of Portland that Ray Kerridge comes from was wrought with corruption, graft, and thievery - nothing to brag about. Yes, Portland made use of it's River, but with a little research, it's pretty easy to deduce that the cost and criminal activities surrounding the "development" was staggering. If I was an official from Portland, I think I'd leave it off my resume.
12. Work with every city Mayor in Sacramento County to put enough pressure on the Sacramento County Supervisors that they all resign (in shame) and run a new slate of real, concerned citizens. Sacramento County is "operating" with such a huge deficit, they should all be fired for negligence. (not to mention their stellar oversight of Child Protective Services, the Airport and the Library). It's as if only the incompetent who are unable to function in the private sector run for County Supervisor seats anymore.
Roads, crime, river, levees, there's so much more. Stay tuned. The "If I was The Mayor of Sacramento" series will continue.