The city has it cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. Many people in Sacramento, California USA, particularly the Midtown and Downtown residents, are in an uproar about the rapidly increasing rents (increased by 16.9% in the past year), lack of units available, and almost nonexistent income based or below market rate housing. The median household income in Sacramento, California is $58,322.  However, the people who live in Midtown tend to be students and young professionals and senior citizens.

These members of the human population are up and coming or have limited resources because they are young, have college debt, are single, and many are retired. People under the age of 25 are on average bringing home $31,863.00 a year. And those under the age of 44 are on average annually making $49,362.00 a year. In order to live comfortably, economist suggest that no more than 30 percent of your monthly income is used to pay rent. However, the average apartment in Midtown will cost between $1,200.00 to $3,500.00 a month.The prices may sound very reasonable to people in major cities on the West Coast of California like Oakland, Los Angles, San Jose, and San Francisco and other on the East Coast in Chicago, New York, and Manhattan. However, what attracted people to those cities is high paying jobs. Those cities are pack with skyscrapers full of jobs that can afford a luxury life style, but that is not the case for Sacramento, California. 33 percent of the people in Sacramento, California are considered low wage workers.

According to Nick Miller, with the Sacramento News and Review, “54 percent of Sacramentans spend more than 33 percent of their income on rent, and over 25 percent of these people are spending more than half of their income on rent.” One young lady called Kristina even had her rent increase by 32 percent in just three months, from $1,250.00 to $1,575.00 a month, for a one-bedroom apartment, no parking, and very few modern amenities like a dishwasher, washer and drying machines, not even a garbage disposal. Many of the apartments in Midtown Sacramento, which are not luxury apartments have problems, like drafty windows and doors, moister issues, and some even lack true central heating and air conditioning so there can be issues with allergies.

Unlike the major cities we listed early, the thing that is driving up the rents in Sacramento, California, and particularly Midtown and Downtown is this billion dollar Sacramento King’s Colosseum, which 50 percent of was funded by taxpayer money, but the tax payers had no say in if they wanted this new facility for the basketball team to play in. So now investors are going crazy and trying to create a “World Class City,” I guess they are trying to turn Sacramento, California into New York or San Francisco by building luxury apartments that start off at $2,200.00 a month, and that is causing other property owners to raise their rents on units that may be substandard.

However, you will recall from history class that in 1760s taxation without representation is what caused the 13 colonies to revolt, and was a major catalyst in the American Revolution because the colonist had no way to claim their rights and feared that their property could be take away through debilitating taxes. The problem with this formula that Mayor Kevin Johnson and these investors are using is they are not factoring the differences, they are just trying to sell the masses a convincing dream and glaze over the inconsistencies. “If we can just convince them,” that this is a good idea is the plan. You see, New York is full of high paying jobs and has tons of skyscrapers, so the rents are naturally higher because there is money to be made, and the suburbs are often times hours away from the business district.

And San Francisco is like one of the major financial districts in California, people from all over the Bay Area commute there because again, there are a lot of high rises, with high paying jobs. Sacramento, California is different. The mayor is not factoring in that debt spending and housing is what is driving up the prices in Sacramento, California. It is not because corporations are moving here and just waving a wand and increase wages by 30 to 50 percent. In fact, Mayor Kevin Johnson even proposed paying teens and disabled workers less than the minimum wages everyone else received. Mind you that the Civil Right Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in the workplace, it mandated that government ensure equality of employment opportunity. And speaking of second class city, by 2020, the minimum wage in Sacramento will only be $12.50 an hour, while other places are making $15.00 an hour.

And another problem facing Sacramento, California is generating enough revenue to provide adequate services about protection for the residents. Therefore, many urban dwellers leave the Downtown and Midtown corridors and move to communities like South Sacramento, Elk Grove, and Natomas, which are only 15 minutes away from the Downtown area. So within the time I can drive my car from the supermarket, which is a one mile walk, back to my apartment, find parking, and walk back to a flat that cost a minimum of $1,200.00 a month, someone else could have driven home, parked in the garage, and be sitting back and relaxing. Not to mention, one could get a two story, 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, with a 2 car garage, and 2,300 square feet of living space, with all the amenities you can dream of, on a quarter of an acre lot for $2,200.00 a month.

However, all of these figures are high for many people in Sacramento, California as “246,334 people in Sacramento collect food stamps,” reports Nick Miller, which supplies a household of one person with a “maximum benefit of $194.00 a month, and maximum of $694 a month for a household of four people.” Keep in mind, the average single man spends about $400.00 a month on groceries. And while jacking up the rents, keep in mind it is forcing people out on the street, there are 20,000 homeless people in Sacramento, and 11,354 are kids. It brings tears to my heart that the Mayor, Kevin Maurice Johnson is an embittered man, a man beset by evil temptations, he is a Grinch, stealing food off the tables and putting these darling children out on the streets, so these rich basketball players can get a new place to place basketball, when they already had a home. One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering.