As the owner of a florist shop, I’ve been in the business of emotions for two decades helping folks mark special occasions and milestones. But today those occasions are as scarce as people in Downtown Sacramento. And my emotions revolve around a lifeless and mostly empty Downtown as I struggle with how we can bring it back to its old vibrant self.
I remember how devastated I felt in March when the pandemic shutdown orders were issued. I felt the rug had been pulled out from under my feet. There is nothing worse than experiencing a loss of control over your life and livelihood after years of successfully managing a business.
Trucking and charity might seem like an unlikely pair. But for Desiree Caldwell Amaral—founder, owner and director of operations for Elite HR Logistics—helping people find lifelong careers and giving back to her community have always been inextricably linked.
For the past 20 years, Sacramento-based Elite HR Logistics has worked with numerous nonprofits, especially those focused on helping children, while simultaneously growing into one of California’s premiere employment agencies for all kinds of industries across seven states.
In 1998, after years in ad sales, Caldwell Amaral decided to switch careers and discovered an affinity for recruitment—particularly for jobs in the trucking industry.
Sometimes I wish Inside Sacramento had an award called “Local Sports Person of the Year.” I know the guy I would nominate for 2020: Dusty Baker. He’s at the top of his game at age 71. And while the year was miserable and Baker did his best work in Houston rather than Sacramento, he will always belong to the city he calls home. He’s a paragon of leadership, integrity, pride, hard work and perseverance. He’s also pretty good at baseball.
As 2020 began, Baker was unemployed in Sacramento, his career finished. It was a bittersweet end. Baker has been involved in professional baseball since 1967, when he was a senior at Del Campo High School and drafted by the Atlanta Braves.
I am a Black man, a cop and honored to be Sacramento chief of police. I hold this job at a perilous time. Countless progressive chiefs across the country, many Black, are being removed. They are collateral damage in the Black Lives Matter movement, scapegoats for a racist reality they didn’t create.
In a recent op-ed in the Bee, I discussed our police department’s response to summer protests that spread across the country. The response from retired law enforcement officials, and others, was immediate. Emails, letters, voicemails and social media posts were critical of SPD’s strategy and me personally.
Anyone who reaches 100 and is still active has mastered the art of aging. But to reach an advanced age and work every day, stay sharp, physically active and self-sufficient puts you in another category—what gerontologists call “super-agers.”
Sacramento artist Wayne Thiebaud is the ultimate super-ager of today’s art world. He’s famous around the world for creating colorful paintings and drawings of commonplace objects—pies, lipsticks, paint cans, ice cream cones, pastries and hot dogs—and for landscapes and figure paintings.
In times of crisis, trust is the city of Sacramento’s most valuable commodity. This is true when it comes to fires, floods or COVID-19. Residents put their trust in city officials and staff to respond quickly, efficiently and effectively to help people in need.
As city manager, I am proud of the work the city has done to protect and support all Sacramentans during one of the most challenging chapters in our history.
