New Sacramento development is great, but let’s keep Midtown affordable for those who made it what it is today

Sacramento’s creatives—traditional and fringe artists, not to mention musicians, restaurant and bar workers, theater people, and the LGBT community—have made the urban core, and Midtown especially, a destination point.

The reason people in Sacramento’s suburbs and exurbs are willing to come to the grid for entertainment, food, events, arts and just a plain old-fashioned good time is the unique mix of people.

And it should come as no surprise that those are the same people who can’t afford to live in a lot of the proposed new housing, such as those that are being included in development plans for both the new Kings arena and the Whole Foods project.

The very people who make the central city so vibrant make too much money to qualify for government assistance, but not nearly enough to buy loft condos, or pay $1,500 or more a month in rent.

Here’s a clue: In Midtown, $1,500 a month isn’t affordable. It might be in other California cities, but unless developers want to chase all the talent to north Sac—not necessarily a bad idea over the long term, but it will cost the grid in “cool”—keeping rents down in the heart of the city is crucial to keeping the creativity pumping.

We’d really like to see developers acknowledge this reality: Affordable housing is an issue that affects people who you don’t normally think of as poor.

We’re also talking about everyone who isn’t the top 30 percent of wage earners. This includes a fairly large segment of the creative class, the people who come up with the ideas, the art and music.

So, as more and more apartment and housing projects submit plans with the city, we challenge Sacramento’s leaders to keep the central city affordable for those who made it what it is today.