City Beat
Pocket Beat January 2020
Trees are the first to go. About 3 acres of valley oak and slightly more than one-tenth an acre of Fremont cottonwoods are being cut down and chopped up as crews strengthen the Sacramento River levee from Pocket to Broadway. That means about 153 trees pulled out, with another 178 trimmed back.
“This represents a relatively small amount of vegetation in proportion to existing trees and shrubs,” says a report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
It’s A Star
Broadway. Some call it a diamond in the rough. Others say it’s eclectic and on the rebound.
Once known as Y Street, Broadway leverages its proximity as the southern border of Downtown. It was once home to Sacramento’s midcentury baseball team. The old city cemetery still operates as a tourist destination. The weekend farmers market sells its produce under the freeway. And there’s the iconic Tower Theatre and Tower Cafe.
Steve Hansen’s Secrets
People talk. They share rumors. Some of the most interesting chatter in Little Pocket last year involved Sacramento City Councilmember Steve Hansen.
Rumors placed Hansen at several meetings with about 40 residents who own property along the Sacramento River levee. The meetings were private, the rumors said. Hansen instructed his audience to write nothing down. No emails.
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.
A Secret Guide To Homelessness
Along North 12th Street, X Street or Alhambra Boulevard, the ubiquitous presence of unsheltered people and their tents, shopping carts, plastic bags, bicycles and detritus suggests Sacramento has no clue how to handle homelessness.
But that impression is wrong. The city does have a clue—recorded in a secret little publication called “Homeless Services Division Playbook.”
Killer Meth
I can’t visit my local Starbucks in East Sacramento or Old Soul coffee in Oak Park without panhandlers aggressively hitting me up for money. Or exit my local grocery store. Or take a freeway offramp. Often there are two beggars on my local offramp, one working each side.
I can’t drive down Alhambra Boulevard without seeing sidewalk homeless encampments or observing the slow progress made by homeless people pushing shopping carts piled high.
