Dec 28, 2024
After eight years as mayor, Darrell Steinberg knows the homeless crisis will be part of his legacy regardless of the resources, energy and political capital he put into the search for answers.
“I know two things,” Steinberg says. “I think I have been hurt by the expectations I set for myself and I readily acknowledge it. I came in as president of the Senate, author of the (state’s) Mental Health Services Act, and I pushed really hard, and I think the fact that it grew worse not just in the city but in the entire state, people said, ‘Come on. You said it was going to get better,’ and I have to own that.”
Dec 28, 2024
It took Jay Walker two years to lose his job, marriage, house and car. He called it a run of bad luck.
Problems began when the Army veteran found himself miles from home. After 18 years of sobriety, he went on a “weeklong drunk,” he says, before securing a shelter bed in North Sacramento.
The shelter was good for a cot and meals, but not much else.
“At 6 a.m. during the weekdays, they’d kick you out,” Walker says. “We all used to go down to Loaves & Fishes to hang out.”
Dec 28, 2024
I cannot repair a modern appliance. Troubleshooting computer problems, reprogramming the home security system and installing child car safety seats stump me. Shameful.
My feeble attempts at Mr. Fix-It are soon abandoned, followed by a call or text to my son or daughter-in-law. It begins with, “Do you know how to…?” When your 8-year-old granddaughter is better at operating the TV remote control, you admit shortcomings.
Plants are my strength. I am a plant rescuer. I can fix a plant, and nurture it to health and long life. Herbaceous or woody, deciduous or evergreen, once a plant enters hospice care, I perform miracles.
Dec 28, 2024
Two Midtown breakfast spots span the spectrum from old-fashioned to new-fangled. Both create delightful mornings with excellent cooking.
Nov 28, 2024
One of the most inspired quotes about cities comes from planner and architect Daniel Burnham, whose vision for the Chicago lakefront sparked an aesthetic renaissance still paying dividends generations after his death in 1912.
“Make no little plans,” Burnham said. “They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever growing insistency.”
That seems to be the mindset at Sacramento State, where President Luke Wood and Athletic Director Mark Orr have ambitious but vague plans for a new multi-purpose stadium to propel the school into a major athletic conference, such as the Mountain West or Pac-12.
Nov 28, 2024
Despite its deep farm-to-fork roots, Sacramento is not an easy place to find locally raised and processed poultry.
When scanning the meat section at area stores, local poultry seems almost invisible.
There are large California operators—Mary’s Chicken and Diestel Ranch—but few local producers. Searching for local birds, I found Sinclair Family Farm in Newcastle.
Situated in the Sierra foothills, Sinclair boasts a range of humanly treated meat products. Karin Sinclair told me her farm provides much more than poultry. She raises and sells meat from cows, sheep, pigs, rabbits, ducks and goats, plus chickens and turkeys.
