Apr 28, 2026
Eleven years ago, a cardiologist told me to walk. He said this while I was in bed at Mercy General Hospital counting staples in my chest that closed a surgical incision from a four-way heart bypass.
The doctor told me not to drive for three months. If I got into a crash and the airbag went off, about $250,000 worth of medical artistry would be wasted. Every day since, I’ve walked.
A favorite place to walk is the Sacramento River levee in Pocket and Greenhaven. I climb the levee at Garcia Bend Park or Zacharias Park. The river is beautiful.
Apr 28, 2026
For seven decades, Sacramento State University wandered through the academy’s lost forest, praying higher education gods would take the school seriously.
Now there’s a leader with a new approach. President J. Luke Wood is turning Sac State’s weaknesses into strength, jujutsu style.
Wood backflips his critics. If the academic world thinks the Hornets are a circus, Wood provides the clown show.
Apr 28, 2026
Homeless crises are nothing new in Sacramento. The first one happened in August 1850, when outrageous real estate prices caused people to camp on land that didn’t belong to them.
Everybody had guns in 1850. The guns went off when city officials tried to clear camps around Fourth and J streets and Tahoe Park. Five people died and six were wounded before things calmed down.
Mar 28, 2026
Here was a great deal for someone tired of paying rent in Land Park. New Benson and Sedar homes with atrium entries, double master suites and oak cabinetry, starting at $85,900. A 30-year mortgage fixed at 11.9%. That’s how banks got rich in 1982.
Say goodbye to landlords. Move 4 miles down Riverside Boulevard and own a piece of the dream. Welcome to Greenhaven Pocket.
I missed my chance. When I bought a house in Pocket in 1990—three bedrooms, two baths, built six years earlier by Winncrest—prices had skyrocketed. I paid $183,000. Soon after escrow closed, recession hit. The home instantly lost value.
Mar 28, 2026
Even vagrant musicians get pretentious when they plug in for more than one night. They declare any extended stay a “residency.”
Residencies are popular with entertainers who play Las Vegas. But as the Vegas A’s stumble into the second of three seasons at West Sacramento, nobody calls the interlude a residency.
I’ve heard “couch surfing” and “camping” to describe the A’s. But residency? When it comes to West Sac and the A’s, show biz pretensions can’t get to first base.
Major League Baseball sees the badlands between Oakland and Southern Nevada as a practical joke. In sports lore, old time baseball players were notorious pranksters. Just for laughs, they set shoes on fire. They called it a hot foot.
Mar 28, 2026
Pity the pedestrian, lowest creature on Sacramento’s evolutionary ladder. Cars are king. Bicycles come next. Then homeless people, who have more agency than a resident who wants to take a walk.
I learned this by accident, never thinking it was true until I realized there’s no other explanation.
Pedestrians need to face facts. The city has no love for us.
I made this discovery while researching a column last month about my friend who stands his ground when bicycles barrel toward him on city sidewalks.
