We, the concerned citizens of Sacramento, California, demand that our elected leaders not commit scarce public resources towards the construction of a Downtown arena, in accordance with our previous wishes as proven with the resounding defeat of Measures Q & R in 2006. At this time in our city's history, we know that we can ill-afford the leveraging of public property for up to 50 years just to build an arena for an elite few. As we face a multi-year budget crisis, as we lay off police officers and firefighters, as we shrink further our parks staff and close city pools, we would rather see any use of public resources go to the restoration of those services before they go to help millionaires that lost their family fortune in Las Vegas. We are not the "nay-sayers"; we are the stewards of our home city, and we know that the road out of the current mess our community is facing is not the further use of exotic lending schemes nor the rosy promises of out-of-town developers. Fix the pipes that deliver our water, fix the roads we need to drive every day to get to work and home again, focus on the schools where our children go to learn and dream of a better future. Quit spending all of your time pandering to the disillusions you spew in the media and get back to doing the people's work.
Why is this important?
The proposed leveraging of publicly-held resources for up to 50 years to pay for an arena is the wrong choice to make at this time in Sacramento's history. Those funds would be better used to put more police officers on the street, keep firefighters on the job, fix our crumbling infrastructure, and restore the services that have been slashed for our city parks and other amenities.
