Before March 2020, Sacramento enjoyed a 10-year golden age for small business.
Independent restaurants, shops and galleries opened throughout the city. The transformation was remarkable enough that in 2016 and 2018, we published “Inside Sacramento: The Most Interesting Places in America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital.”
The book featured more than 100 local businesses across eight neighborhoods. Today, much of it reads like history.
I was right when I said the city needs to post signs on major streets telling cyclists to stop riding on sidewalks. I was wrong when I said the city has no such signs posted anywhere.
Turns out there are two signs ordering cyclists and skateboarders to stay off the sidewalk. Problem is both are posted where most people who live in Sacramento will never see them.
The signs are bolted to yellow wooden walls at the Central Pacific Railroad Depot on Front Street in Old Sac.
Since our first edition in 1996, Inside has published an estimated 1,400 works by approximately 400 artists. Because each of our four editions carries its own cover, we showcase an extraordinary range of paintings, photographs and mixed media.
From the start, I’ve selected every cover image. Of all the jobs involved in publishing Inside, curating cover art is my favorite. It satisfies a creative need. Selecting art and writing for the publication bring tremendous pleasure.
People dislike two things: change and the way things are. Anyone who serves on a city council quickly learns this contradiction.
Residents complain about vacant buildings, traffic, homelessness and a lack of affordable housing. Then someone proposes redeveloping a nearby property and groups organize to oppose it.
Councilmembers must navigate this environment.
Voters get to skip the chore of picking a new City Council in November. The city election was canceled, blessedly, when all four incumbents won their seats in the June primary.
I don’t always fall for incumbents. Council shakeups can be good. But this year, after talking to some of the people who wanted to replace them, I knew incumbents were the way to go.
Several people who ran against City Council incumbents didn’t know much about city government. They didn’t know how municipal budgets work, didn’t understand the difference between what labor unions expect and what’s best for the public, didn’t grasp why zoning decisions are paramount.
