There are many reasons for Sacramento’s homeless crisis, and Dr. Gregory Kann, county director of emergency services, has come up with a plan that sounds like it can make a difference.

It’s called TAD, for “Triage to Alternate Destination.” It could be shorthand for “empathy and common sense.”
In the past, when people living on the streets engaged with the 911 system, they were taken to an overcrowded hospital emergency room.

Federal law requires they cannot be turned away without treatment. For this and other reasons, including how a growing number of people visit emergency rooms because doctor appointments are often booked up far in advance, ERs have, as Kann says, “become a public health emergency.”

In 1975, Bill and Denise Dalton opened an English-style pub at 10th and R streets. The building was a warehouse and factory, more than 60 years old, fronted by bricks with high ceilings.

It was an unlikely setting, a traditional English pub in an industrial part of town.

Fifty years later, Fox & Goose Public House is a permanent fixture. The pub helped launch music careers, political careers and hospitality careers. It inspired convivial evenings of laughter and friendship for generations.

Named after Bill Dalton’s hometown pub in Yorkshire, Fox & Goose is more than a good bar, more than one of the city’s best breakfast spots. The Goose’s dedication to community, arts and Downtown is exceptional.

A close-up of musician Nina Simone is captured in blue, black, gray and white acrylic paint. Her face is surrounded by a large black letter “N.” Etched into the glass frame is “WORD.”

Artist Michael Stevenson created this piece for his 2015 exhibition “Civil Rights Civil Wrongs” at University of Texas. Personal experiences were the inspiration.

“My nephews were throwing the N word around very casually,” says Stevenson, a graphic designer raised in Nashville. “It’s a hip thing to do, but once you’re starting to have kids, you think about the history of the word and how hurtful and demeaning it is. So, I took on the N word. Nina Simone fought so hard to eliminate this word. Now my N word is Nina.”

Leyne Milstein has her work cut out for her. Appointed interim city manager after Howard Chan’s dismissal, Milstein is guiding Mayor Kevin McCarty and the City Council through a difficult budget cycle.

A $77 million deficit looms, less if state funds for homelessness materialize.

Milstein is the most dedicated city employee I know. She’s been on the job for more than 20 years. We talked about the budget, her interim role and the future.

“I love this city,” she says. “I have stayed because I love the mission of following the money and making Sacramento a better place.”

Milstein became interim manager thanks to her budget experience. She became the city’s finance director in 2008 and has been running budget preparations since 2017. She knows where the skeletons are buried, unlike an external candidate.

In the age of Ozempic and Sono Bello, The Skinny Garden is trendy and unique.

It was always skinny, stretching two football fields along the backside of Sacramento Charter High School in Oak Park. At its skinniest, the ribbon of plants measures 10–12 inches wide and squeezes between a chain-link fence and sidewalk along V Street.

The garden boasts hundreds of perennials, small trees and art. Wood-plank paintings by neighborhood children line the fence, along with decorative framed mirrors and signs to discourage littering and flower picking. Many plants are identified by metal labels, others go unnamed.

Andy Harris was a pioneer house flipper. By 1988, he was on his third house. He bought them, made repairs and resold for profit.

But he knew the Curtis Park home was special. It was designed by Earl Barnett, the architect who conceived Memorial Auditorium, Sutter Club, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

It was no candidate for flipping.