Jan 28, 2021
A unique alliance between the police chief and his boss is changing how Sacramento Police operate. For Chief Daniel Hahn and City Manager Howard Chan, the partnership is essential to systemic, progressive improvements in the city’s law enforcement.
Chan and Hahn say police reforms, which include reimagining the way officers are recruited and trained and respond to everything from gun violence to traffic stops, are made possible by the relationship. Reforms won’t succeed without it.
Jan 28, 2021
An Inside reader named Ken Poppers serves as today’s example of someone with a good memory. I’ll play the role of the old sportswriter who needs a reminder.
Poppers emailed me recently and noted my disdain for the Kings and their avoidance of certain fiscal responsibilities in the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit, the Kings cut staff. They also stopped paying all the rent they owe the city for Golden 1 Center.
Jan 28, 2021
Darrell Steinberg is a smart, sophisticated guy. He has a law degree from UC Davis and decades of legislative experience. Sacramento voters figured they were getting a pro when they elected him mayor in 2016. He won a second term without serious opposition last year.
So it’s a mystery why Steinberg has been unable to muster nothing beyond the most elementary, simplistic response to the deepest challenge of his mayoral tenure—the homeless crisis.
Dec 28, 2020
Simon’s Bar & Café is not the oldest saloon in Sacramento. It’s not the biggest or most fancy. Simon’s is something else—a place that for the past four decades embodied and embraced Sacramento’s identity as a political town.
Despite efforts to diversify and pretend otherwise, Sacramento lives on politics. Without the legislators, staff, lobbyists and consultants who fill the Capitol and shape the work done there, Sacramento would be something like Fresno. Simon’s would never succeed in Fresno.
Dec 28, 2020
Sacramento Police have begun a monumental overhaul in culture, recruitment, training and response to establish the department as a national leader for progressive law enforcement.
From the trust its officers derive among community members to its reaction to gun violence, protest marches, mental health emergencies and homelessness, the police department is using data-driven research and street experience to reshape its practices and reform the way it does business.
Dec 28, 2020
The weight of public authority continues to crush a handful of property owners who fought for decades to keep people away from the Sacramento River levee in Pocket, Greenhaven and Little Pocket.
The latest victory for public access comes from the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, the state agency that owns and controls the levees.
In November, the flood board formally canceled its 1996 policy that permitted nine private fences and gates to block the levee. The old policy allowed property owners to seal off public access and create private playgrounds for themselves along the waterfront. The vote to drop the policy was unanimous.
