Criminal Intent
One difference between City Hall today and a dozen years ago when I worked there is we tried to follow the law.
I can’t say we followed every rule to black-letter perfection. But we respected our civic duties. Most of the time.
Think Small
Former Mayor Darrell Steinberg gave the city a sporting gift on his way out the door. The city needs to decide whether to accept Steinberg’s present or return it.
The gift is a term sheet for a minor-league soccer stadium in the Downtown railyards.
In theory, the proposal paves the path for a public-private partnership between Republic FC and the city to build a 12,000-seat soccer grounds in a former toxic waste dump.
Months of negotiation await. Nothing may happen. But the deal is tempting.
Fresh Start
Fresh Start 2100 Q St. deserves an ambitious future By R.E. Graswich January 2024 The good stuff is gone. The presses were dismantled and sold for scrap in 2021, the hand-painted honeybee wallpaper stripped from the cafeteria decades ago. Last time I peeked through...
Officer Involved
Fifty years ago, at 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, 1974, a Sacramento Police homicide lieutenant named Robbie Waters left the bar at Neptune’s Table restaurant on South Land Park Drive and killed Terry Lee Miranda with a bullet between the eyes.
There were mitigating circumstances. Moments before Waters pulled the trigger on his service revolver, Miranda pointed a shotgun at the detective and said, “We want your money.”
Miranda and his crime partner, Christopher Thomas Garland, were young criminals, Miranda 22, Garland 21. Neither expected to meet a plain-clothes policeman in the suburban mall parking lot.
They realized their mistake when Waters said, “I’m a cop. Drop the shotgun.”
Nowhere Bridge
The community is digesting the negligence and coverups that allowed a $12 million unsafe bicycle bridge to rise over Interstate 5 and Riverside Boulevard.
Meantime, Inside Sacramento discovered archival documents that show how the city set the stage for the bridge fiasco by delaying the Sacramento River Parkway bike trail for nearly 50 years.
After announcing a river levee bike trail in 1975, the city let a small group of property owners in Pocket and Little Pocket block the parkway’s completion.
Off Track
I worry about losing these experiences as horse racing dies in California.
First comes the freedom to move around. Horse racing is the only sporting event where fans—real fans, not tourists planted at reserved tables in the grandstand high above the finish line—are always in motion.
With 30 minutes between each race, horse players have ground to cover. Find a quiet place to review the program or Racing Form for the upcoming race. Then get moving. No time to waste.
My first destination is the paddock, the equivalent of a theater’s backstage. From there, look for a betting kiosk, a miniature slot machine that takes your cash, provides a receipt and pays back when your hunch finishes in the money.
