Kevin Johnson was elected mayor twice without talking about basketball. An NBA All-Star for the Phoenix Suns, Johnson downplayed his sports legacy on the campaign trail.
He wanted to be known as a business and education leader from Oak Park. He saw himself as a local success story and visionary, not an old jock.
This year’s mayoral election brings another Kevin with basketball history. The candidate is Kevin McCarty, state assemblymember and former city councilmember.
The future of dangerous fences across the Sacramento River levee may depend on letters written during the Vietnam War.
The letters contain fence authorizations granted by the Army Corps of Engineers. They date from 1968.
It’s unclear whether the letters really exist. Authorities can’t or won’t produce the paperwork for public examination by Inside Sacramento.
Many years ago, Ray Kerridge, then city manager of Sacramento, invited me to lunch. Between his salad and my cheeseburger, he asked a profound question.
If I were on City Council, where would my loyalties stand—with the district that elected me, or the entire city?
I fumbled for an answer and made up something diplomatic. If I didn’t look after people in my district, nobody else would. But my City Council decisions would impact everyone in town, not just one council district. My loyalty goes to the city.
Take comfort in watching the city’s levee bike path experts work a room. Assurance flows from their understated confidence, never brash, always sincere. To hear them speak is to realize the Sacramento River Parkway bike trail is on schedule to arrive in 2026.
Momentum is tangible.
City engineer Megan Johnson and engineering consultant Matt Salveson lead the bike trail team. They bring decades of professional experience. They understand the challenges and embrace the rewards.
Their calm, patient recitation of data, dates and facts soothes like therapy.
People file lawsuits for money, publicity or vengeance. District Attorney Thien Ho is different. He wants documents.
Ho’s lawsuit against city officials over negligent management of homelessness brought relief to residents and outrage from Mayor Darrell Steinberg. A key target of Ho’s litigation was overlooked: pretrial discovery.
Ho wants the city to enforce local ordinances and state laws and clean up the streets. To understand why the city failed, he needs to see private emails, text messages and memos that guided city officials to their acceptance of tent camps and drug markets.
The city wants the suit dismissed.
Generations of families loved Land Park Plunge and Riverside Baths. They celebrated the pool’s opening every April, rode bikes, walked or took the No. 2 bus down Riverside Boulevard.
They splashed in “artesian” waters on summer days. They swam on moonlit nights. Admission was 25 cents, kids a dime.
Then Land Park Plunge and its diving boards, patios and dressing rooms disappeared, dropped from conversations, expunged from memories, an embarrassment best forgotten.
Today nothing memorializes the significance of a once-grand community sports and recreation center. Let’s pretend this never happened. But it did happen.
