I laughed when I heard several dozen people who live near the Sacramento River levee tried to hijack the Pocket Greenhaven Community Association. Why would anyone hijack a neighborhood group? The answer is unclear. But desperation over public access to the levee may play a role.
The Pocket Greenhaven Community Association is a comical target for hostile takeover. The group’s most impactful discussions involve where to string Christmas lights along Pocket canal fences.
Pity the company town. Dependent on one big employer and lacking economic diversity, it soars and crashes on lonely shoulders. The company town flies without a safety net. It’s all or nothing.
Sacramento is a company town that never learns its lesson. A dozen years ago, the Great Recession furloughed state workers, shrank government paychecks and wrecked businesses along J, K and L streets.
The recession exposed the city’s economic vulnerability and over-reliance on government workers. Did Sacramento respond by diversifying its economy? No. The city became even more dependent on state employees. In the last 10 years, the local state workforce has grown by about 17,000. Now it’s up to 82,000.
There’s one rule in professional sports honored by every player, coach and team owner. The rule is this: Never blame the fans.
In private, free to speak their minds under the sanctity of the locker room, players, coaches and owners joke contemptuously about fans. But such words must never be spoken in public.
There comes a time when rules should be broken. It’s time to hold Kings fans accountable for enabling an awful team. It’s time to blame the fans.
Abandoned cars don’t hide well. They are filthy from sitting in the wind and sun.
Windows are covered with dust. Tires slump as the air slowly drains away. Cobwebs grow in wheel wells. Anyone walking past can tell, yes, no doubt, there’s an abandoned car.
Pocket and Land Park have never been known for attracting large numbers of abandoned cars, but this historical trend is shifting. In recent months, abandoned cars have been found on Havenside Drive, Greenhaven Drive and 43rd Avenue. A resident named Duwayne Brooks, who enjoys daily neighborhood walks of about 1½ miles near his Pocket home, tells me he has found more than 30 abandoned cars in recent weeks.
Every now and then someone who knows my history as a sportswriter asks if I can recommend a good sports bar. It’s a fair question. I love bars and am flattered when people remember amusing stories I wrote about the Kings when I covered the team 30 years ago.
But I’m not much help when it comes to modern sports bars. Public House Downtown at 16th and L streets is bright and friendly and has countless beer handles. Ink Eats and Drinks at 28th and N is excellent for lunch with a ballgame on TV because the bartenders know to keep the sound turned to zero. Nobody in a bar should be forced to hear sports announcers.
Back in March, when my friend and saloonkeeper Simon Chan died from COVID, I wanted to figure out what Simon meant to Sacramento. I contacted another friend and saloonkeeper, Randy Paragary. “Simon was here for the best of times,” Randy told me. “Not as much fun now.”
Five months later, Randy was dead from a virulent pancreatic cancer. Simon’s death was drawn out over months with hospitalizations and respirators. Randy went fast, barely four weeks from diagnosis to last breath. Sacramento was at its best with them and will never be as much fun without them.
