This Sacramento City councilwoman could be the rare politician who keeps her promises | Opinion

Politics are too often full of broken promises. Often, the best we can hope for is that someone is paying attention, and holding the powerful to account. Sometimes that’s a journalist, sometimes it’s a public citizen and sometimes — though rarely — it’s a politician.

Mai Vang is one such rare elected official. Occupying an interesting space on the Sacramento City Council, Vang is a millennial and the first person of Hmong descent to serve on the dais. She grew up in poverty, and her ascent in politics has mirrored the success of her ethnic community. In one generation, she and they have made Sacramento richer and better.

Vang is one of the council’s youngest members (she just turned 39), and holds a political viewpoint that leans further left than most of her colleagues. Her ability to collaborate and build relationships, however, have helped her bring tangible, positive change to Sacramento’s District 8, which includes the south Sacramento communities of Detroit, Valley Hi/North Laguna, and all of Meadowview, including the Cabrillo and Hampton neighborhoods.

Opinion

Vang has driven impressive economic success in South Sacramento. Her political playbook ought to be required reading for every one of her colleagues on the city council.

Case in point: Two years ago, Vang brought forth an idea for the city to buy a 102-acre parcel of land in Meadowview, directly behind Susan B. Anthony Elementary School and a few miles to the northeast of the Delta Shores shopping center. Until the late ’70s, the land had been used as a testing track for the California Highway Patrol, but it had sat vacant and unused since 1978. When it came up for sale in late 2021 by the U.S. Department of Labor, Vang convinced the council to buy it as a future investment for $12.3 million.

As always, the tide of bureaucracy moves painstakingly slow, but it’s Vang who has kept the city on track to the promises it made when it bought the land.

For the past two years, city staff have been working on a report identifying the possibilities and constraints of the parcel. It’s landlocked, with limited access points. It’s also close to a school and currently serves as a wetland for endangered species such as Swainson’s hawks. But what could it look like in the short-term, middle- and long-term future? And how can it serve different needs for a community that was historically redlined and has, for too long, gone financially ignored?

Can it support temporary housing? What about preservation of the wetlands? What city money can be used? Who will make sure the city stays true to the promises it made two years ago, and the promises it made just last Tuesday to follow through?

Vang holds the answers. The councilwoman holds her constituents’ voices in highest regard, having already hosted seven listening sessions with the community and making a point to focus on the voices of youth, minority-owned small businesses, the elderly and community members who live in an underfunded part of the city.

“Many residents shared the need for more affordable and permanent supportive housing for unhoused folks,” Vang said from the dais. “For every one person we house, three more enter the system. We’ve also got to move upstream.

“We’ve got to figure out an economic opportunity to uplift our families from poverty because many of our families right now in South Sacramento are one paycheck away from being homeless.”

Now that Vang has a city report in hand detailing the possible uses for the acerage, she can go back to District 8 and begin seriously talks about what the land can be used for. She is adamant that it will be a multi-use property.

“(When) we first identified the site and purchased the property, there was a commitment from me ... that we were going to ensure that this property was going to be a catalyst for South Sacramento” Vang said. If possible, Vang also envisions the property as a short-term site for temporary shelter for some of the city’s unhoused residents.

There’s no reason why the property can’t be used as temporary housing in the next few years, or maybe a Safe Ground site, while the slow cogs of government continue to move on a bigger idea. By working toward further economic development for the South Sacramento/Meadowview area, that process could help families and individuals at risk of homelessness, Vang said.

We’re not there yet, though.

A sports complex, desired by the community, would cost north of $120 million. On the other hand, selling the land for residential development could produce $34 million for the city. But declaring it as surplus land is difficult. A homeless shelter, even temporary, would require roads and utilities. City Manager Howard Chan confirmed as much when he noted that the site was not chosen for the city’s newest Safe Ground project because it’s not ready for safe habitation, like the site in District 2 that was chosen by the city manager last year.

“I’ve heard folks (ask), ‘Why don’t we just put 10,000 people in households on the property?’” Vang said. “Y’all, that is redlining homelessness all over again without supportive services and without showing that we are intentional about how we provide services for our community. This has to be a holistic approach.”

The problem is that these big hopes and dreams are at least six to 10 years away from fruition. Mayor Darrell Steinberg noted that he would no longer be on the council to see this project break ground, and even Vang said she may no longer be on the council by the time the project is finished.

Vang’s plan, like so many that have to work through the cogs of bureaucracy, is like planting a tree to provide shade for future generations. A lot can happen in the next several years. But all good public servants know that stubbornly pushing projects through the mire is how you help your people.

When this project does come to fruition, Vang may be forgotten as the person who made it happen. But the difference between a good council member and a truly great one is that the latter doesn’t seek success as a means to gain political points or earn themselves a legacy. That’s Vang — a leader who has the potential to be the greatest council member this city has seen in a very long time.