Mayor Darrell Steinberg confirmed on Tuesday that he will seek a second term at Sacramento’s City Hall.
“I haven't made an official announcement yet, but I'm planning to run for re-election,” the mayor said on Insight with Beth Ruyak. “I don't think it's some great secret. I don't know if I'm breaking any news here, but I'm planning to run again.”
The mayor also discussed the impact of Major League Soccer’s announcement that the Republic FC will be its 29th franchise, the challenge of addressing the city and state’s homelessness crisis, and what the city can learn from places like Austin.
The following are highlights from the conversation:
On how the Railyards will change the face of downtown:
“We're not just talking about a soccer stadium. We're talking about a $400 million civic center courthouse. We're talking about a major Kaiser hospital and health facility. We're talking about housing. We're talking about making those central shops. ... And so, we've invested about $30 million of infrastructure, and we're going to get about a billion dollars worth of return in terms of decades if that railyards potential, finally being realized.”
On changing homelessness laws:
“Fundamentally, we have to acknowledge in this society that we have a tacit public policy that says it's OK for people to live outdoors. We are OK with the status quo. I'm not OK with the status quo. And I don't think the majority of people are, either, but until we set the north star as a state, which says first and foremost we have to bring people under roof — because that's the only way for example, that people with severe mental illness and substance abuse can get the help that they need to reclaim their lives — until we change that policy, nothing much is going to change dramatically at the local level.”
On what Sacramento can learn from cities like Austin:
“I want Sacramento to create the next South By Southwest festival community here in the capital city. Why not? They did it in Austin. We could do it even better over time in Sacramento. And that's going to take some funding. Look at how many people turned out for Aftershock and all the hard rock stuff. That's fine. But what if we did that across the board for other festivals? We can do SXSW in the Sacramento way.”
