Mar 28, 2023
When I joined the City Council in 2015, our public meetings were relatively benign. There was some tension over subsidizing Golden 1 Center. The city’s contribution to the Jeff Koons art piece “Piglet” caused a stir. Relatively easy stuff to work through.
Then in 2018, with the Sacramento Police shooting death of Stephon Clark and the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, things got serious. Protests led to real anger at City Hall. Obscenities became common at our meetings. Several sessions ended early because they could not be calmed.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s life was threatened at the dais. Councilmembers were called racists, murderers and executioners. At one point City Hall was vandalized. Councilmembers left the building for safety reasons.
Mar 28, 2023
Tahoe Park resident Lynn Bishop joined dozens of other dog lovers last year answering a call from the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter. Foster a dog for the holidays.
Approximately 60 cars lined up for drive-through fostering. “It was like an assembly line,” says Bishop, who took home Roscoe, a 6-year-old unneutered chihuahua mix brought to the shelter as a stray.
On any given day, as many as 345 dogs are fostered through Front Street. Many are not spayed or neutered.
Mar 28, 2023
I have two healthy habits. One is a long walk every morning after breakfast. The other is looking for ways Sacramento political leaders blow opportunities to create a wonderful city.
After a walk the other day, I dug through some Sacramento Library archives. I wanted to learn how various neighborhoods came to be, how industrial operations were shoved north of B Street, how R Street was filled with warehouses, how businesses districts were dislodged from residential streets.
Mar 28, 2023
In 100 years, people can still admire the work of Stephen Michael Bouska.
The master stone carver works in materials that last centuries with proper care. That’s what he hopes—that his work will survive to “help us express ourselves for multiple generations.”
When he first started in stone work, it was out of necessity. As a teenage father, Bouska needed a way to provide for his young family and “feed my soul at the same time.”
