The Sacramento Bee interviewed Erika Guzman, one of our community organizers, as part of a recent initiative to increase their solutions-focused climate change reporting. We commend Sacramento Bee for taking action to include more local environmental justice narratives in their reporting, and look forward to the full release of these stories. Please visit the original article to take part in their climate solutions questionnaire.
“Hello, neighbor,
A group of Sacramento residents called on us two years ago to do more to “highlight the need to transform our infrastructure and economy in response to climate change.”
This letter carried 24 signatures and came from an alliance of local government and business leaders and sustainability and equity advocates.
“The Bee’s watchdog coverage fuels our region’s media ecosystem,” they wrote. “You have an important role in scrutinizing our local response and influencing our local leaders to pull together to ensure a thriving, livable future for our communities.”
We read their letter and met with their representatives to learn more. We took their concerns seriously. This led us to embark on a newsroom effort to focus on climate coverage that matters most to you. We sought initial support for this effort by joining the Solutions Journalism Network’s 2023 Climate Beacon Newsrooms Initiative, a cohort of newsrooms working to transform their coverage of the climate crisis to regularly include rigorous, community-informed, equity-focused solutions journalism.
We want our coverage to equip you and your neighbors with knowledge that helps you envision and build a more equitable and sustainable world. This process started by listening to a diverse group of residents on what matters to them when it comes to climate change.
The Bee in late 2022 and early 2023 spoke with 14 residents to learn what they saw as the region’s greatest climate challenges and focus on responses they felt should be highlighted. The interviews started with people who had signed the letter in 2021, but branched out as we asked interviewees to recommend other people who might offer a unique perspective. The sample of people who shared their time and insights with us represented Sacramento’s diversity in terms of age, gender, income, race and ethnicity.
We want to keep listening, but we also have an obligation to report and write. We have taken four story ideas that came out of those interviews, and we have put them before you to decide what solution would be most useful for us to investigate.
Please take a moment to read our reporting propositions and to guide our coverage by filling out the survey.”
Story 1: “What’s going to happen to our businesses?” Sacramento’s Gardenland/Northgate Neighborhood Association President Marbella Sala said she wondered when learning about the push to have businesses and homes go electric.
In 2021, the City Council adopted an ordinance that requires new construction to be all electric, which has benefits for the climate and for the pocketbooks of residents. Though the city’s ordinance applies to new construction and allows exemptions for restaurants, Sala said restaurant owners in Northgate wanted to do their part. The neighborhood association is working with the city and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) to offer economic support to move these restaurants away from gas cooking and to provide training for how to cook staples like carnitas in convection ovens.
Our reporting proposition: We’ll look at how local restaurant owners have advocated and been empowered to lead our city’s transition to electric appliances.
Story 2:
The push to phase out gas-powered lawn care equipment in California has a significant effect on Latino workers in the landscaping industry, said Erika Guzman, a community organizer for United Latinos.
A switch to electric mowers and leaf blowers requires money to buy new equipment and overcoming logistical challenges, like where to recharge batteries. The cost for California landscaping companies to go fully electric is estimated at $1.29 billion.
Guzman, whose family is involved in the landscaping business, said there is a willingness among landscapers to adopt technology that is better for the environment if there’s financial support for the transition.
Our reporting proposition: We’ll examine how the burden of electrifying the lawn care industry can be shared.
Story 3: Transportation is Sacramento’s greatest contributor to greenhouse emissions. And a city-commissioned report recommends prioritizing new development areas where people can easily get around via public transportation, biking or walking.
The R Street Corridor is one spot that shows what a walkable, public-transit-connected district looks like, said Steve Cohn, who serves as chairman of Sacramento Metro Advocates for Rail and Transit (SMART) and is a former member of the City Council.
Our reporting proposition: We’ll look more closely at the success and the limitations of the R Street Corridor development.
Story 4: Until early 2023, Sacramento had a fleet of 260 electric vehicles available through car-share operator Gig Car. The company’s contract with the city required 20% of designated pick-up and return areas to encompass lower-income communities.
Still, the home area of the EV fleet was out of reach for many Sacramento residents living in areas such as Natomas where public transportation is inaccessible, said Angela E. Hearring, a parent and member of the Equity Advisory Committee for Link21, a group focused on improving access to rail transit in Northern California.
Gig Car made the business decision to stop operating in Sacramento at the end of February, but that doesn’t change the fact that a key to meeting our city’s climate goals involves broader adoption of electric vehicles.
Our reporting proposition: We’ll investigate models for equitable, cost-effective car-share programs.
Read more at the Sacramento Bee.
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