Sacramentans are about to be forced to pay for this arena - watch and learn.

They will call it "loan guarantees" by the City. This means taxpayers. The City will go along of course - the Arena will default on the loans, the taxpayers will be on the hook for the loans.

It is sad that KJ's little committee of local and statewide suckups and sycophants aren't even considering either the do-nothing OR renovate-ARCO alternatives. Instead they've gone full steam ahead on the presumption that building SOMETHING must be done, even though any of the SOMETHING's lack a stable financial foundation -- including the SOMETHING by the Kamilos group.

ARCO is satisfactory in a down economy -- it's not even paid for given what the Maloofs owe the city.

And expanding the building creatively isn't even being considered, despite MANY proposal outlines and sketches and public expressions to do so. Had I had the time, I would have done so myself, but for the utter lack of interest in pursuing a desire for these irresponsible team owners and their overpaid players, not to mention a mayor who has used his office with amazing incompetence and obvious graft...

An arena is NOT a priority at this time, especially when people are starving, and homeless, and barely eking out an existence... Yet this mayor and his backers pursue this burdensome effort to benefit already monied interests seeking to mask the precariousness of their financial house of cards by floating on what will presumably be another period of public largesse while whatever winning proposal gets off the ground....

These same people kvetch about waste in government, yet they pursue the public teet at every chance, especially when presenting a tilting financial architecture in support this build, when they know full well that the dollars they propose from private sources will probably never materialize at least as fully as they project, thus leaving the public to pay for their boondoggle -- and even burying an alternative in their proposal to do so...

This whole arena thing is such a disgusting lie -- from the presumptions of inadequacy in the current facility to the pretty pictures put forth by each proposal while discounting the 'do nothing' or 'renovation' options, which would be a normal inclusion of any strategic plan, as they well know, to engineering a financing scheme the piece parts of which could collapse at any time -- even before this proposal is solidified...

SHAME ON KJ for bringing this to a head, and shame on him for prioritizing basketball over the needs of the poorest among us....

Eh, I don't have to be 'public' to be heard... Somehow, despite opinion contrary to my little spiels, somehow I get heard, even by those who wish I'd go away....

I have a life and a career, and apart from merely expressing my views here and elsewhere, I have little interest, and far too little patience, to do so in some public service role. I have far more interesting things to do with my time.

With specific regard to the arena, I'm afraid I got in this game late -- first there was the Cal Expo / NBA thing, that eventually died last week, and then there was some 'deal' with Kamilos that apparently had been ongoing, but concealed to the public - at least the part of the public that houses me... Then there was KJ's little stunt with his little groupies and such, conflicting with the Kamilos deal.... it's a bit confusing to follow all of these sordid details while trying to run my own firms and have a life as well... After all there are only so many hours in a day... This is all KJ and his tribe do. They're invested in all of this stuff, skirting the surface of any deeper analysis required to strategically plan amongst this communities priorities -- and look at how godawfully they do it...

-- I'm merely a citizen voicing an opinion, albeit a potent one...

My words are my currency in this sphere, and you're right, I do care very much about this city of my birth, and the ebbs and flows and strides and missteps of this city's leaders, good and bad... But as such, words are the currency of all of us who care about communities and those who live in them, and though I prefer a quieter more private life, to those who have good hearts and seek to do so publicly, I bow to you...

Unfortunately far too many, as with the current city leadership in the mayor's office, along with those that enable the less than honorable challenges he poses, seek public office with no will to do good except for the good of those private interests that brought their political lives into being. I would be profoundly ashamed to join their ranks under such circumstances. And they should be profoundly ashamed of posing with mere ephemeralities to 'the people' while executing their amazing harm to the community.

I reserve the right to express my words to counter such hypocrisy and duplicity.... albeit in my quiet private way...

One last note...

Rhonda, I admire your chutzpah very much, and I hope after some time, you will be able to take on the capacity to influence and guide your current slate of representatives, and that perhaps one day you will also be able to serve in a similar role... You bring a wisdom that cuts through the bullshit of this mayor, and that's a precious commodity....

This is outrageous. we have a beautiful arena in Natomas now. We have escalating un-employment, and homeless and the city wants a new arena. Send an email or call your councilman link below . cut and paste into your browser the link below. let your councilman know that if they vote for a new arena they will no longer get your vote when they come up again for re-election. A broken government, federal, state, and a new arena. The hits keep coming.

http://cityofsacramento.org/