Comstock's magazine 1117 - November 2017 | Page 62

4 MAJOR
AREAS
OF FOCUS
DURING MAYOR CABALDON’S TENURE
YOUTH EDUCATION
Kids' Home Run: During his 2013 State of the City address, Cabaldon an-
nounced FutureReady, an initiative to improve the lives of young people in
West Sacramento through civic engagement, college and career readiness,
and work-based learning. In 2017, Cabaldon (who works in education advoca-
cy for his day job) took his focus on the well-being of children even further, and
announced Kids’ Home Run, an educational and jobs initiative for youth ages
4 to 18. The initiative includes universal preschool, access to a college sav-
ings account for kindergarteners (both locally-subsidized), paid internships
for high school students and free tuition for high school graduates who enroll
in a local community college.
THE RIVERFRONT
Raley Field: On May 15, 2000, West Sacramento unveiled its new $46.5 mil-
lion stadium, during opening day for the Sacramento River Cats minor league
baseball team. The stadium’s construction — on the site of old warehouses and
railyards — was financed using bonds repaid through ticket, concession, adver-
tising and other revenues, and not taxes, much to the satisfaction of residents.
Over the past 17 years, the stadium has hosted hundreds of baseball games,
along with soccer matches, concerts, fundraisers and other events. Raley Field’s
success played a major role in spurring the development of the CalSTRS building,
riverfront housing and The Barn venue — all located near or within the trendy
Bridge District.
FOOD & AGRICULTURE
Urban Farm Program: As other cities in the Capital Region spent time, energy
and headaches to develop urban agriculture ordinances to appease a growing
demand among residents, the City of West Sacramento took a different ap-
proach: It approved an urban farm without an ordinance. No problems arose.
The City’s leadership soon led to a partnership with the Center for Land-Based
Learning and the creation of the West Sacramento Urban Farm Program, which
converts vacant lots into farm business incubators, and provides a training
ground for small-scale beginning farmers. More than 600 volunteers work on
these farms annually, growing over 25,000 pounds of produce per month during
peak seasons.
TECHNOLOGY IN GOVERNMENT
Code for America: West Sacramento was one of seven cities nationwide to
participate in the 2015 Code for America fellowship program, which connects
fellows with local government to better utilize technology to tackle a commu-
nity’s pressing issues. In West Sacramento, those issues involved health care
and food access. The San Francisco-based Code for America is a nonprofit or-
ganization that aims to make government services simple, effective and easy to
use. Under Cabaldon’s leadership, West Sacramento has been at the forefront of
using technology in government. The City, for instance, has worked with compa-
nies to develop or test mobile apps or online tools to improve services, such as
permitting processes for developers and addressing homelessness.
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To this day, the mayor remains regiment-
ed about when and where he allows himself
to feel sadness. He maintains a compartment
in his mind for emotional pain, accessible
through a portal that can be shut as decisively
as it can be opened.
“From the moment of my mom’s passing,
all emotions can be wrapped into that one
space for me; all pain and sadness and loss,”
he says. “I go there when I’m ready to let myself
feel ... a place where I know I can come out of.”
Back in his living room, Cabaldon makes
no effort to fill the silence with small talk after
the interview ends. He doesn’t pretend to en-
joy talking about his mother’s death. He says
he opened up due to a strongly-held belief that
politicians — and people in general — should
“be more authentic and share more than just
their opinions.”
Alone again, he will later describe a stir-
ring confrontation with the backwaters of his
mind that requires a conscious effort to re-
anchor himself as an adult. A journey back to
different periods of life, each era more pain-
ful than the last, up to the searing moment of
Diane’s death, is not a safe path for him. Be-
ing probed about these memories is a “basic
violation of the security of the metaphorical
couch-pillow-fort that I built” many years
ago, he says. That scared boy never found res-
olution. He just matured into something else.
At some point, West Sacramento began
to mature with him. Outside his window,
Cabaldon can watch the nightly fireworks
display above a baseball stadium he helped
bring to town. He can walk outside his upscale
condominium for which he helped lay the
groundwork, and down the waterfront district
he helped engineer. The mayor has worked
feverishly for decades to show Diane that
something good would, and has, stemmed
from her fatal accident. He tells himself that
she is listening, though he doesn’t truly be-
lieve it.
And yet, “Diane would be so proud of him
— beyond the moon and into infinity,” says
Tully, Diane’s sister. “I can’t imagine how
proud of him she would have been.” n
Allen Young is a journalist living
Sacramento. On Twitter @allenmyoung.
in