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State of Downtown Sacramento: City leaders break down accomplishments and challenges

More than 50% of the city's downtown workforce is now back in the office, an improvement from the 10-15% following the pandemic.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento leaders held the annual “State of Downtown” breakfast Tuesday. 

The event featured speakers including Congresswoman Doris Matsui and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg who spoke on the accomplishments and challenges facing the city in 2022 and the plans to take those challenges head-on in the coming year.

“We still have a ways to go but we’re on the right track when it comes to making the downtown cleaner and safer,” Steinberg said.

Topping the list of challenges is the homeless crisis. Homelessness in the county jumped 67% since 2019, but the mayor is hopeful the tide is finally turning.

“Now we have a legally-binding partnership agreement between the city and county of Sacramento,” Steinberg said. “We’re now working together like never before and we’re out there on the streets together starting with the X corridor. We’ve got three outreach teams including mental health workers and once we get the beds, we’re going to be able to clean up major corridors of the city but do so in a humane way.”

The crisis has impacted both home and business owners, who said it has become just another hurdle as they try to get more customers in the door following pandemic shutdowns.

“When you’ve got sidewalks blocked and trash and debris, it’s important for not only the psyche of what downtown is but also on the perception of what downtown is, so to say this is our top priority would almost be underselling it. It’s what we’re spending the majority of our time and resources addressing the reality on the streets,” Michael Ault, Executive Director of Downtown Economic Partnership, said.

While life downtown is not quite what it was pre-pandemic, local leaders said workers and customers are coming back, along with their local dollars.

“We had pre-pandemic about 100,000 employees downtown. We were in the 10% to 15% back then. We’re now seeing that pick up a little bit,” Ault said. “We’re a little bit more than 50% back up and when you look at the small sandwich places, they rely on the workers being here.”

There are an estimated 9,300 homeless people living in Sacramento County and only 2,300 shelter beds, something city leaders are hoping to change in the next year.

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