Sacramento Mayor Steinberg reflects on lessons learned, divisiveness in final State of the City

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With 82 days remaining in his 8-year run leading Sacramento’s City Council, Mayor Darrell Steinberg delivered his final State of the City speech in the shadow of Aggie Square along 2nd Avenue Thursday morning.”I never thought the job of mayor would be easy. But I guess I never expected that anything could be tougher than being Senate leader during the worst recession in 50 years. For not the first time in my life, I turned out to be wrong,” Steinberg began his speech after expressing gratitude to those who have supported him.Steinberg explained that he chose this location, the Aggie Square project, as a symbol of differing viewpoints coming together in a transformational partnership that led to an economic investment in the city.Watch Steinberg’s full address in the video below “This is not just another project. It will produce $5 billion annually for the six-county region in new ongoing investment,” said Steinberg. “But what makes Aggie Square truly aspirational? It defies the current political belief that you can’t possibly make progress with people and organizations you disagree with.”In the nearly 45-minute speech, Steinberg also outlined three things he’s learned in his time leading the city.Three key lessons learned by mayor:If not willing to take risks, will always settle for lessNeed to protect health and safety of citizens and neighborhoodsPrincipled conflict is healthy and necessary for real progress Steinberg also listed a series of accomplishments ranging from a reduction in crime city-wide by 13.5% this year and a reduction in homelessness.”While homelessness rose statewide, Sacramento saw a 41% reduction,” said the mayor.During his speech, the mayor also addressed the current political climate and the issues he’s witnessed at council meetings.”This is a hard time to be rah rah about principled compromises. We experienced the difficulties of civil dialogue and compromise many Tuesday nights at City Hall … Division, distrust and dysfunction are far too often the norm in our civic and political lives. I’ve always believed that civility is not a weakness. We can be tough on the issues and easier on the people who see it differently,” said Steinberg.The mayor also teased “some major initiatives and and announcements that will come close to rivaling Aggie Square.””I will leave that little teaser out there for today … stay tuned,” he said. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter