I think that Craig Powell and the Sacramento Tax Payers Leagues believes privatization is the cure for providing most city services. Measure B contained no mention of a performance or financial audit which the supporters claim is needed. There is ample evidence of mismanagement but Measure B addressed none of them. It was only about imposing a straitjacket to starve the system. Measure B would have tied any change in utilities rates to the Consumer Price Index which measures the average change in prices of goods and services purchased by households. The CPI has almost no relationship to the cost of providing utilities services to Sacramento. Food and housing make up 60% of the CPI and it has no ability to account for costs such as what other entities charge for disposing of our garbage or the cost of state mandated water meters.

The tree at 18th & Capitol is a camphor (cinnamomum camphora), not camphour. and It is a great tree.

I agree that sin taxes are not the solution to the state's economic issues. I am also a major wine drinker. But after 20 years, I see nothing wrong with a raise in the wine tax from the current 20 cents a gallon. I also do not agree that a tax on soda needs to be regressive. Water is a very acceptable drink. No one needs to drink soda.

I would like to believe this story but it would be much stronger if it gave a fuller account of events. You blame District Attorney Rochelle Hao for being one-sided. That is her job under our judicial system. If Public Defender Hilary Davisson was unsuccessful in proving the smallest facts then she is the one to blame. Was this a jury trial? If so, what evidence did District Attorney Rochelle Hao present to convince the jury that Mr. Russell was guilty? You state that both the victim and eyewitnesses claimed Russell was not the shooter. Was this the factual statements of the witnesses or is it based on their confusion in the difference between dreads and braids?

The ordinance prohibiting taco trucks is another example of the misguided myopic thinking of Sacramento's officials and business leaders. It's the same reckoning that produced the K Street mall mess and an Interstate freeway through the middle of Sacramento's business district. Maybe we should ask each candidate running for the city counsel to take a public stand on this issue. BTW, what happened to the petition? It's been almost two years since it was started.

CPI increases does not necessarily allow expenditures for utilities services to keep pace with inflation. For example, the fuel component of the CPI is only 5 or 6 percent. The price of fuel could double or triple and have only a minimal effect on the CPI. Under that circumstance how would the city fuel the garbage trucks I think you all want to pick up your garbage.

We don't need another voter passed initiative that handcuffs local government's ability to provide needed services. Tying utilities rate increases to the Consumer Price Index has no rational. The CPI has little relationship to the price of fuel or to the cost of providing safe, clean water. There is clear evidence that there are major problems with the management of city services but what we need is public disclosure of how fees for services are being spent and accountability.

Perhaps its time to stop focusing on K Street. Yes it was once Sacramento's major commercial corridor but that was long ago. Over the last 50 years, the city fathers have done everything they could to destroy it. First they demanded I-5 slice through the city thereby cutting K Street off from the river and Old Sacramento. Then they closed K Street to traffic because they didn't like the cruising and were sure they could duplicate a suburban mall. They then expanded the convention center thereby closing K Street off from midtown. Then when light rail came, the city fathers were sure it would bring back foot traffic. I have mix feelings about the benefits of returning cars to K Street but I am sure that it again will not be the magic bullet. It's time to start looking beyond K Street and focus on making the whole downtown area, including J and L streets and the streets between, more pedestrian and car friendly. Or give up and stop wasting millions on foolish solutions. The area just might rejuvenate itself like midtown without the misguided help of the city fathers.