Fruitful Thinking

Fruitful Thinking

Like many of us, Jeff Durston was quite troubled by the rhetoric coming out of the Republican primary in 2016. So what did he do? He wrote a children’s book.

“I wasn’t consciously thinking, ‘How can we resist this?’” Durston says. “I started thinking about how we could push back against the values we don’t support. My daughter was 3 at the time and we would read books to her every night. I realized that a lot of children’s books are passing down core, fundamental values like friendship, acceptance—human themes.”

Bridge Building

Bridge Building

Since 1911, the I Street Bridge has faithfully carried trains and cars and people and bicycles on its slender, double-deck span 400 feet across the muddy Sacramento River.

The bridge is an old-timey mechanical marvel. Giant gears pivot the decks sideways, like a sword on a spindle, when tall boats approach. Mark Twain would have loved it, but he died in 1910 and missed the grand opening by a year.

Never Forget

Never Forget

In honor of Veterans Day, I offer a “soldier’s story” of life in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. My experience exemplifies a time shared by millions of other young men and women who served honorably—and is a tribute to those who no longer have a voice.

I served a 14-month tour in Vietnam, from Dec. 13, 1968, to Feb. 17, 1970. My unit was First Field Force Vietnam, 6th Battalion, 84th Field Artillery, stationed in An Khe in the Vietnam Central Highlands. Midway through my tour, I was transferred to Nha Trang.

Anatomy Of A Gate

Anatomy Of A Gate

She asked for a No Parking sign. City Councilmember Steve Hansen built a gate instead.

She lost access to her property. And the public lost a historic access point to the Sacramento River Parkway levee in Little Pocket.

Months after Inside Sacramento and retired attorney Jim Geary asked the city for documents relevant to Hansen’s new gate on Riverside Boulevard, important evidence has emerged.

Late Arrival

Late Arrival

This dates me, but when I was The Sacramento Bee’s urban affairs writer in the early 1990s, the newspaper sent me to Indianapolis, Boston, Portland, St. Louis and Toronto to report on how those cities transformed once-busy downtown railyards into new attractions, housing, jobs and broader tax bases.

Doggone Good

Doggone Good

If you take your pet to Sacramento Animal Hospital on H Street, you’re probably familiar with the adorable brightly colored animal portraits that decorate the treatment rooms.

They are the works of multi-talented East Sacramento artist Nikki Solone, who has been making art for as long as she can remember, but got turned onto her biggest creative niche—pet portraits—almost by accident.