Step Over the Delirious Drug Addict to See Sacramento’s Urban Dreams Art

Sacramento’s new Urban Dreams Art Experience is really interesting, and will surely make people smile when they see any of the 12 new pieces of free-standing art, including the giant squid on top of Mulvaney’s, a fabulous local restaurant.

However, while Midtown Sacramento welcomes the objet d’art, the city should start with the human element – the homeless drug addict encampments throughout Midtown, and the sidewalk filth they leave.

“Step into a living, breathing dreamscape during the Urban Dreams Art Experience from August 9 – September 14 where Midtown will be transformed into an open-air gallery of wonder with 16 large-scale, immersive art installations,” the Urban Dreams Art Experience website says.

It should say, “Step over the Delirious Drug Addict” into a living, breathing hellscape.

As the Globe recently reported, “The City of Sacramento Department of Community Response received a $12.35 million ‘Encampment Resolution Funds grant‘ to purchase and construct additional tiny homes for homeless vagrants.

And it wasn’t just $12 Million in taxpayer funds for another 100 tiny homes, another $6,274,629 and $6,832,903 in government (taxpayer) grants fund the two non-profit organizations tasked with managing the homeless drug addicts and the new 100 tiny homes.

This is on top of the City of Sacramento providing tiny apartments in a renovated old downtown hotel which cost more than $445,000 per unit for about 250 square feet of living space.

There are many more examples of the ineffective “housing first” policy – old motels renovated, trailers provided, shelters, and none of it has worked, and billions in taxpayer funding spent, and we still have thousands of drug addicted homeless vagrants living on city streets.

So while the art projects are beautiful, it feels more like lipstick on a pig; the art would be better displayed in a clean and safe city where residents and visitors didn’t have to step over passed-out or sleeping drug addicts.

In conjunction with Sutter Health’s Midtown Second Saturday, The Urban Dreams Art Experience is presented by the offices of Mayor Kevin McCarty and Supervisor Phil Serna and is a collaboration between Midtown Association, Visit Sacramento and Sacramento Valley Spark.