Sacramento City Council District 8 Candidates Focus On Crime, Other Issues

Three candidates are vying to represent the eighth council district in the city of Sacramento.

Larry Carr is the incumbent and the former head of the Florin Road Partnership. He outlines the council and police department's plan to reduce crime.

"We invested $1 million into gang intervention," Carr says. "We are working with the police department to enact the new technologies that act as a force multiplier for the police. We've been establishing neighborhood associations where none existed before to help neighborhoods to look out for themselves. We invested $750,000 into infant mortality and a lot of that mortality is coming from neglect and third-party violence."

Chris Baker is a community volunteer and says neighbors and police must communicate.

"Bring them all to the table every month or every other month and talk to all leaders, and go out in the community," Baker says. "And find out where the weakness is, why it's [a] weakness, where the mistrust is, why it's mistrust and then work with the police department and see where their weakness is with those officers."

Ronald Bell is a state employee and former pastor.

"Home burglaries are up in South Sacramento. I would like to bring an infusion of more police officers during the daytime hours," Bell says. "I think we forget sometimes that while many of the residents of South Sacramento are at work, people are breaking into their homes."

Bell says he would make the health of black children a priority. He also says the district's economy requires help.

"A major anchor supermarket closed and what it did was send very bad repercussions throughout that entire strip mall that's causing many of the smaller businesses to close their doors," Bell says. "So, one of the things I will do in office is go out and find a major supermarket to come back."

Baker says improvements to education are vital to improving life in the district.

"I would look at various school districts that's within that boundary and see where we need to fix the problem for afterschool programs," Baker says. "I would look into grants working with the school districts, various other organizations, working with them to see where we need to get these kids to where they need to be as far as graduating, not in the juvenile system, and get them educated in vocational or something of that nature. It's a lot of work, but we can do it, we can find it and find out the reason why they're on the streets."

Carr says schools are part of his plan to improve life in south Sacramento.

"I have a vision for a community that's safe, that has job opportunities, job training, that has afterschool programs, summer programs for kids, that has plenty of public art, a community that comes together," Carr says. "A community that has opportunities for people who made a mistake in their lives to get back into society. We've been working with our community to make that happen."

The eighth council district in the city of Sacramento encompasses the Meadowview, Valley Hi, and North Laguna areas.