Watch out. Tacks and nails have been strewn along the Sacramento River Parkway bike trail near The Westin Hotel. Fencing has been cut and pushed aside at the city’s private park on Bell Air and Seamas in Little Pocket.
This is what happens when public officials ignore public interests and accommodate a fortunate few. Frustrations boil over. Civility disappears.
From a distance, the open field, carpeted with thousands of tiny yellow blossoms, appears as one continuous buttery blanket warming the earth under a flawless sky.
Even better, we are about to walk on it—an ocean of goldfields, sibling to the sunflower and one of many native flora we will encounter.
Sutter Lawn Tennis Club celebrates its 100th birthday in September, which prompts one Grand Slam question: How did the little East Sacramento jewel manage to last a century?
A tempting story would tell how Sutter Lawn’s guardians intuitively aced the future and moved with the times at 39th and N streets. They adapted to changing tastes, acquired nearby properties and relentlessly expanded to become the city’s dominant sports facility.
We asked. And Sacramento City Councilmember Steve Hansen refuses to answer questions about why he opposes public access to the Sacramento River Parkway in Little Pocket.
By keeping silent, Hansen appears to favor the interests of about 40 Little Pocket homeowners while he blocks public access for Sacramento’s 500,000 residents.
Hansen is upset about a column I wrote last month for Inside Sacramento. I criticized the councilman for pushing the city to fence off public access to a parkway near the levee at 35th Avenue and Riverside Boulevard. At Hansen’s request, the city barricaded the access point in May.
As with a rock-star’s farewell concert, finality can be negotiable.
After staging a milestone “final” event that lured a record 2,000 competitors last year, the world’s oldest triathlon did not quite end after all.
Now steered by a Sacramento businessman, the contest that the late Eppie Johnston began in 1974 has new branding. From the starting gun July 20, and for future summers, it will be known as the Great American Triathlon.
The job of visiting every restaurant in Pocket and Greenhaven has produced a surprise. While I expected diverse menus and a wide terrain of tastes and kitchen talent, I was not prepared to see local restaurants acting as community gathering spots and meeting halls. I expected to see people eat and run.
But quick meals and fast exits are not how every restaurant works in Pocket, especially during the afternoon. The food comes quickly, but customers are in no hurry to leave. In this way, our restaurants become unique alternatives to home and work. They become the “third place” identified by sociologists—places where people linger and experience their neighborhoods in neutral settings.
