St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School in Midtown celebrated its 125th birthday last November. The school opened in 1895 with 60 students in a two-story, four-room clapboard structure at a building cost of $3,600. Today, 312 students from transitional kindergarten to eighth grade attend the parochial school.
To honor its historic contributions to the community, SFAES donated to Loaves & Fishes, which serves homeless and hungry children and adults in Downtown. That charitable effort defines the school’s mission, following in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi.
Raising kids in Pocket means riding bicycles. When my two boys were little, we rode all the time. We rode to Martin Luther King Jr. School each morning, Mountain Mike’s Pizza on Friday nights, Garcia Bend Park on Sundays.
We were lucky. Our house was one block from the Pocket Canal bike trail, which made our trips safe and easy.
But even with the bike trail, there were concerns. To get to school, the kids had to cross Rush River Drive. To get to soccer, they had to bisect Pocket Road. Both crossings were dangerous, especially Pocket Road, which some motorists treat as an autobahn without speed limits.
Since joining the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in January, I’ve settled in and begun the serious work of representing our District 3 unincorporated communities of Arden-Arcade, Carmichael, North Highlands, Foothill Farms and Fair Oaks.
Residents of these communities depend on the county for many essential services, including public safety, waste management and roadway maintenance. I will be accessible and responsive to every diverse neighborhood. That’s a promise, and I expect you to hold me accountable.
Are you old enough to remember bulletin boards at Raley’s or neighborhood newsletters that informed residents about community happenings?
Those days are gone, replaced by social media and Nextdoor, a networking site that allows neighbors to communicate with each other. Staying connected during the pandemic has been a struggle. But it’s easier if you sign up for Pocket Nextdoor.
Nextdoor is headquartered in San Francisco and launched in 2011. Today, more than 236,000 neighborhoods around the world use the site. Pocket residents joined the forum in 2013. From their laptop, Nextdoor members learn about restaurant openings, recommendations on service providers, local crime news, lost pets, items to buy or sell, and more.
For better or worse, the coronavirus inoculation process has been an opportunity for California’s county health departments to show their strengths and efficiencies. Unfortunately, it’s also been a time when counties may come up short.
With more COVID-19 vaccine doses becoming available, the California Department of Public Health placed individual counties in charge of their own vaccination rollouts. The state advised residents to look to their local county health departments for information. That put pressure on Sacramento County Public Health to ramp up to speed.
