A good way to measure the city’s health is whether smart people invest money here.
By that gage, the recent purchase of the Wells Fargo Tower at 400 Capitol Mall is encouraging news for Downtown.
A partnership affiliated with late local developer Buzz Oates recently paid $117 million for the elegant building. That’s a big drop from 2019, when the tower sold for almost $200 million.
But if Downtown were dead or dying, as some suggested after the pandemic, remote work for state employees and civil disobedience in 2020, these savvy investors would not have made the deal, even for a discount.
After eight years as mayor, Darrell Steinberg knows the homeless crisis will be part of his legacy regardless of the resources, energy and political capital he put into the search for answers.
“I know two things,” Steinberg says. “I think I have been hurt by the expectations I set for myself and I readily acknowledge it. I came in as president of the Senate, author of the (state’s) Mental Health Services Act, and I pushed really hard, and I think the fact that it grew worse not just in the city but in the entire state, people said, ‘Come on. You said it was going to get better,’ and I have to own that.”
Robert Caro’s legendary book, “The Power Broker,” turned 50 this year and holds up remarkably well. The 4-pound tome about the notorious New York urban planner Robert Moses stared down from my bookshelf about half that long before I finally hauled it out and read it.
It takes commitment to open a 1,286-page book, which was even longer before Caro’s editor, Robert Gottlieb, trimmed 350,000 words. But it’s still a riveting read, now in its 74th printing and new digital version.
With concern in Sacramento over the dangers faced by pedestrians and bicyclists on local roads, this is a good time to read about a planner who championed the automobile.
The National Association of Realtors is on a losing streak. They need some wins.
The largest trade association in America with 1.5 million members, the Realtors’ group began its downward spiral in August 2023. That’s when The New York Times published allegations of sexual harassment by the association president.
It was a classic “Me Too” scandal. President Kenny Parcell allegedly engaged in years of inappropriate behavior toward multiple women with no accountability. He denied the complaints but resigned soon after the story broke.
Aggie Square, the innovation hub taking shape at the UC Davis Health Center campus on Stockton Boulevard, is a big deal. One of the biggest ever for the university and the city.
It’s also a big deal for nearby neighborhoods, especially Oak Park, which experienced the downside of being next to the booming health campus while receiving few of the benefits.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a champion of the project with UC Chancellor Gary May, called the $1.1 billion development “the single biggest economic initiative for the city in decades.” He tells me he feels so good about Aggie Square he will deliver his final State of the City speech there Sept. 19.
Sacramento needs new housing in all varieties, locations and price ranges. This reality is part of what makes the American River One high-rise apartment proposal on the American River near Downtown so intriguing.
The 3-acre site at Bercut Drive off Richards Boulevard was home to the Hungry Hunter and Rusty Duck restaurants, torn down years ago.
Now, property owner Steve Ayers, who also owns the Elks Tower, has city approval to build four residential apartment towers ranging from 11 to 18 stories in a city that hasn’t exactly embraced high-rise apartment living.
