Earlier this year, a sports business site called Sportico estimated the Kings’ total value at $1.84 billion. That amount covers everything, from the team and its sponsorship deals to real estate.
As someone who has followed the Kings and laughed along with their failure since the early 1980s, I thought of two questions: If I owned the team, would now be the right time to sell? And might some Kings owners wonder the same thing?
Raising kids in Pocket means riding bicycles. When my two boys were little, we rode all the time. We rode to Martin Luther King Jr. School each morning, Mountain Mike’s Pizza on Friday nights, Garcia Bend Park on Sundays.
We were lucky. Our house was one block from the Pocket Canal bike trail, which made our trips safe and easy.
But even with the bike trail, there were concerns. To get to school, the kids had to cross Rush River Drive. To get to soccer, they had to bisect Pocket Road. Both crossings were dangerous, especially Pocket Road, which some motorists treat as an autobahn without speed limits.
Like a truck speeding downhill with imbalanced brakes, the plan by Mayor Darrell Steinberg to cure homelessness by giving a roof to every unsheltered person is poised to jackknife and skid out of control. The rubber is already starting to burn.
The Steinberg plan, revealed in January, rests on three cornerstones. First, the proposal requires all eight City Council districts to identify and prepare shelter sites for homeless people. This expectation spreads the pain and creates a veneer of egalitarian sacrifice.
Second, the proposal is designed to limit neighborhood objection. Sure, City Hall is conducting outreach. But Steinberg envisions one decisive City Council vote in June to launch his $100 million housing balloon. It’s all or nothing.
Freshwater fishermen know the best time to catch a sturgeon in the Sacramento River is right about now, early March, when white sturgeon run upstream to spawn. The big fish search for rocky substrate in the river bottom. They love fast-moving, cold water clouded by dirt.
I’m no fisherman. But I hope to wake up one morning and open an email from a Sacramento angler who, in the hunt for sturgeon, has sighted an awesome beast that defies belief, an ancient sturgeon of supreme size and weight whose emergence from the muddy depths can resemble a submarine breaking the surface.
I’m talking about Old Moe.
No Sacramento neighborhood is perfect, but the Pocket and Greenhaven community comes close. There are abundant shops, services and globally flavored restaurants, three supermarkets, churches, housing opportunities for most budgets, miles of bikeways and expansive, manicured parks.
While other prime neighborhoods such as Land Park, Midtown and East Sacramento struggle with increasing numbers of homeless people and campgrounds, Pocket and Greenhaven generally avoid challenges that come from playing host to unsheltered community members.
