Angelique Ashby has served on the Sacramento City Council for 11 years . During her tenure as a councilwoman and mayor pro tem , she has played a role in some major developments for the city , such as the building of the Golden 1 Center downtown and securing California Northstate University to build a new teaching hospital , trauma center and medical center at the shuttered Sleep Train Arena in District 1 , which covers her district of Natomas . In August , she announced plans for a family homeless housing project in Natomas that will serve 200 people .
Ashby has also experienced challenges , including helping to guide the city during the coronavirus pandemic , civil unrest in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and trying to solve Sacramento ’ s homelessness problem . Ashby is a graduate of UC Davis and earned her law degree from University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law while she was a single mother . She is now a candidate for state Senate in 2022 . ( Other candidates include her fellow councilman Eric Guerra and former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones .)
It was a tough 15 months for a lot of people . What was your pandemic experience ? I was mayor pro tem of the city both this year and last . It was a busy time because my dad got sick and ultimately passed away — not from COVID , but the pandemic certainly made the situation worse because my dad had dementia , and he had a rapid decline , and the decline was initiated by isolation and the isolation was initiated by COVID .
I had two school-age children at home . They were doing Zoom classes each day . I took a lot of things on my plate , like child care for essential workers and opening one of the city ’ s largest vaccination clinics , trying to keep our restaurants afloat and working with families on the digital divide and making sure they had access to the internet … making sure people had some measure of support , focusing on kids and mental health , working with the school district to make sure we got books out to kids and everyone had a laptop . We vaccinated 30,000 people in my corner ( district ) of the world here .
You personally experienced the pandemic because of your husband , Zachary Rucker-Christopher . One thing people may not know about me is that my husband is an emergency room nurse , and he is the clinical manager for the emergency room at Sutter ( Medical Center ) downtown . So in the year I ’ m running around being mayor pro tem of Sacramento , being mom to our kids and trying to help my dad , my husband is literally on the front line of this pandemic . … I think having him at home the past year and a half gave me a real sense of urgency to the problem , because just seeing the exhaustion on him , and his care and concern for the nurses who worked for him .
You brought a new hospital to the former Sleep Train Arena site during a pandemic . What other businesses came in ? The ( California Northstate University ) hospital ( will bring ) 3,000 jobs and medical services for people critically in need . It also has a medical campus that will have a medical school . … ( In 2019 ), we recruited Centene , the first Fortune 100 company to choose Sacramento as a headquarter in decades , bringing 5,000 high-wage jobs . I worked hard . It took me seven years on the deal with ( developer ) Dave Bugatto to recruit Centene ( the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the U . S .) to bring their headquarters here . We added small and midsize businesses to this region . We built grocery stores .
Natomas is also getting a $ 40 million aquatic complex . How did you get that ? The North Natomas Community Center and Aquatic Complex was a five-year effort . It started with a feasibility study and community outreach . Students engaged in the process , as well as the swim community and the general population in Sacramento . We decided to build an Olympic pool because there isn ’ t one currently anywhere in the city of Sacramento . The aquatics facility will open in September of this year . It is a joint-use project funded in large part by development proceeds for north Natomas specifically . It also includes funding from the Natomas Unified School District , who will also use the facility . The facility includes an Olympic-size pool , a community center , locker rooms , waterslides , a warmup pool , and a children ’ s splash zone . It is located in the North Natomas Regional Park .
Downtown Sacramento has also seen changes during your tenure , such as the Golden 1 Center . I started the Downtown Sacramento Revitalization Corporation in 2010 . Through that , we built out K Street , we ’ re building out the hotel adjacent to the Golden 1 Center , we built out the Greyhound station . I anticipate we ’ ll get to build a Major League Soccer stadium . I also had a hand in the ( Sacramento County ) courthouse that ’ s in the works in the River District . … I built seven parks , a fire station and lots of businesses during the pandemic in this particular area ( of my district ). We did really well . We were able to stay afloat — opened ( more ) new businesses than we closed . We worked hard to help each other . We put out a lot of notices to go order online and support local businesses .
Sacramento was hit with civil unrest and vandalism during the pandemic . The civic unrest was challenging but not new . We dealt with unrest in this country lots of times but coupling it with the pandemic really was hard . Protesters had a righteous point they wanted to make . They really wanted to be heard . And there ’ s a pandemic too . For the most part , they ’ re trying to be safe . When you talk about the protesters , there was also looting . But when you talk about the people who were really trying to ask for a change
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