City Beat
Making Tracks
The new parkway trail atop the Sacramento River levee north from Garcia Bend Park to Arabella Way will not disturb song sparrows, bank swallows, burrowing owls or western yellow-billed cuckoos.
The trail might interrupt the landing pattern of a Swainson’s hawk or two, but that’s not likely. Turtles, beetles, snakes, shrimp, badgers and Chinook salmon will not be impacted by the construction work.
Pocket residents are still a couple of years away from being able to walk, run or ride bikes on the new trail. The recreational project must wait for completion of levee repairs, which are underway by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency and Army Corps of Engineers.
City’s Death by Drugs
As a wife and working mom whose family lives in Land Park, I am thankful Cecily Hastings shed light on the drugs and homeless problems in our city with her column, “Is Sacramento Dying?”
It’s clear our city, county and state leaders are not willing to do anything but exacerbate the situation.
The roots of the crisis are not homelessness itself, but drugs. Sacramento has a drug crisis, not a homeless crisis. We have people whose addictions have caused mental illness. They can’t make decisions for themselves. So they live on the street.
Share The Pain
It’s a clever maneuver to help solve a problem that has bedeviled Sacramento politicians for decades.
Struggling to make good on a 2016 campaign promise to end the scourge of homelessness, Mayor Darrell Steinberg has widened the field and press-ganged the Sacramento City Council into action.
From Pocket to North Natomas, Steinberg wants to spread the homeless pain.
“I have asked my eight colleagues on the City Council to all commit to providing at least a minimum of 100 additional beds for triage shelters for the homeless in each of their districts,” Steinberg said at a City Hall press conference.
Bikes Get Left Out
For people interested in building barrooms, restaurants, bowling alleys, fraternity houses, hotels, motels, auto dealerships, poolhalls, retail shops, hospitals, nursing homes, batting cages, dog kennels, yoga studios, brewpubs, churches, theaters and cardrooms, Sacramento civic authorities publish a chart about bicycles.
The chart proves how serious Sacramento is about bikes. It leaves nothing to chance. It explains exactly how much bike parking is required for each type of building and business.
Guests Welcome
People who stay in short-term rentals when they visit Sacramento don’t need to be next to the Capitol, convention center, Golden 1 Center or Old Sac. Short-term rental guests seem to prefer D Street.
Why D Street? It’s impossible to say how that humble byway became the boulevard of choice for the Airbnb crowd, but the numbers don’t lie.
Inside Publications filed a Public Records Act request with the city to examine short-term rental documents. The request produced insight on short-term rental permits—149 issued so far. And there it was: D Street had seen more licensed short-term rentals than any other—six.
Two-Wheeled Confusion
Jerry and Candace Furlong live in Arden-Arcade but enjoy Downtown. To get there, the Furlongs sometimes ride bikes. The trek is about 10 miles each way, enough to produce a healthy sense of accomplishment.
Earlier this year, the Furlongs biked to the movie theaters next to Golden 1 Center. The day was warm and lovely. Everything was fine until they arrived at Downtown Commons. At that point, the bikes became a burden.
