Jan 28, 2025
Unlike children, city managers should be neither seen nor heard.
They are more like cinematographers on a movie set, hired to bring light, shadows and texture to a director’s vision and make the stars look beautiful.
As city managers go, Howard Chan wasn’t Hollywood or heaven’s gift to Sacramento. He was a decent bureaucrat, loyal to his lieutenants, but detached to the point of obliviousness.
Significant problems with Chan’s departments, including animal care, parks, public works, even bridge construction, were met with stoicism worthy of Zeno of Citium.
Jan 28, 2025
I keep hoping flood protection agencies will wise up to tricks pulled by people who want to torpedo the Sacramento River Parkway levee bike trail.
The tricks are tiresome. But flood agencies are easy marks. They love to play the fool.
The latest embarrassment happened last year. The game involved five temporary levee fences in Pocket and Little Pocket authorized by Central Valley Flood Protection Board Executive Officer Chris Lief in 2023.
Dec 28, 2024
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.
Dec 28, 2024
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.
Nov 28, 2024
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.”
