Dan comment-16307 2009-10-25T17:12:47Z 2009-10-25T17:12:47Z The number of permits processed combined is just only half the number of deputies laid off. Dan 2009-10-25T17:12:47Z Dan comment-16218 2009-10-24T04:45:10Z 2009-10-24T04:45:10Z So what were examples of this "hate speech"? Dan 2009-10-24T04:45:10Z Dan comment-16127 2009-10-23T01:18:52Z 2009-10-23T01:18:52Z Instead of waiting for permission to repost the entirety, why not sum up what the Bee's editorial was and a summary of how Johnson rebuts it? He doesn't even mention the Bee in that editorial. This post could easily be construed as sucking up to Johnson. Dan 2009-10-23T01:18:52Z Dan comment-15578 2009-10-15T00:15:14Z 2009-10-15T00:15:14Z Writing about Pont and his passion for running the restaurant is worth an article, but the article as written seems to want to re-examine the issue of whether the inspection was fair. Fair enough. But the problem is that the reactions of the two sides, as described in your article, don't react to each other. Pont's explanations only make sense if the restaurant was shut down because the inspector thought Pont was rude or if he had violated food preparation rules because things were so hectic. You only mention the actual cause of the closing - cockroaches - once, and you don't talk at all about the severity of the issue. I'm not 100% sure on this, but finding just a couple of dead cockroaches is not enough to warrant a red card. What the inspector apparently found was more than that. So the rest of the article's discussion on the actual inspection focuses on when the inspector showed up, the alleged demeanor of the inspector, and then a confusing couple of paragraphs that are either non sequitiurs or are trying to insinuate that the inspector did wrong by showing up at a busy hour. Which makes me ask, what does any of that have to do with a reported infestation? The inspector alleges that the facility had an infestation. Does that kind of thing happen spontaneously during the lunch hour? If Pont had been less busy serving the customers, those cockroaches wouldn't have been there? I think it's fine to have an article about how great the restaurant is and how much devotion Pont has, and how quickly and thoroughly the problem was fixed, and also whether the county inspection process (and state health codes) are fair. But to try to address the actual inspection and then muddle it up to the point of whitewashing it isn't necessary. Dan 2009-10-15T00:15:14Z Dan comment-15528 2009-10-14T06:44:31Z 2009-10-14T06:44:31Z Wow, could this article be any more one-sided and fawning of the restaurant owner? You practically make it sound as if it was the health inspector's fault for the problems. If only the health inspector hadn't shown up at a busy time, or on that particular day, or have been a little nicer, he/she wouldn't have found all those cockroaches? Really? Isn't it possible to be making great food and also not have completely effective pest control? Dan 2009-10-14T06:44:31Z Dan comment-13051 2009-09-02T13:22:41Z 2009-09-02T13:22:41Z Either they were making a massive profit off of their burger, or the recession version is smaller than the original Dan 2009-09-02T13:22:41Z Dan comment-12584 2009-08-25T02:42:02Z 2009-08-25T02:42:02Z So is Graswich saying that at the time he was at the Bee, all his columns and reporting were motivated by nothing but a drive for profits? Dan 2009-08-25T02:42:02Z Dan comment-12456 2009-08-22T16:25:23Z 2009-08-22T16:25:23Z --- But Graswich’s fans include journalist R.V. Scheide, the news editor at the Sacramento News & Review. “I have always admired R.E. Graswich, especially after he said nice things about me once in his column,” Scheide said. “We also both shop at Swanberg on J’s, which has the best Hawaiian shirts in Northern California.” Scheide also observed that Graswich’s move to City Hall is one of several major career changes. “Throughout his career, Graswich has demonstrated an almost chameleon-like ability to transform himself: from sports columnist to city columnist to radio personality to KJ spokesperson,” Scheide said. ---- These sound like pretty back-handed compliments to me there. Dan 2009-08-22T16:25:23Z Dan comment-10714 2009-07-15T01:35:06Z 2009-07-15T01:35:06Z What? They don't keep a record of when an investigator makes a request to a records keeper for a tape? How does that work exactly? And so how many times did investigators use images from tapes as evidence? Dan 2009-07-15T01:35:06Z Dan comment-10558 2009-07-12T00:43:14Z 2009-07-12T00:43:14Z What reference? The Asian family? It's still in the headline. Dan 2009-07-12T00:43:14Z Dan comment-9914 2009-06-27T00:01:32Z 2009-06-27T00:01:32Z oh come on, not a single Michael Jackson related event in town? Lame Dan 2009-06-27T00:01:32Z Dan comment-9499 2009-06-16T03:56:06Z 2009-06-16T03:56:06Z Kind of an insensitive, lame lede. Dan 2009-06-16T03:56:06Z Dan comment-8504 2009-05-29T13:32:43Z 2009-05-29T13:32:43Z OK, the headline display for this site just has to be fixed. In Firefox, the headline on the front page for this story reads: "Sacramento City Firefighters quickly knock down blaze allegedly" I realize it'll take some reworking of how the list of headlines is styled (unfortunately not as easy as changing the overflow attribute), but the front page just looks silly sometimes. Dan 2009-05-29T13:32:43Z Dan comment-7105 2009-05-04T12:56:03Z 2009-05-04T12:56:03Z ??? Beachdog gave some very useful and kind criticism that was very much on point, and useful to both writers and readers (who are presumably potential contributors in the future). Who cares who he is, he wasn't attacking the piece ideologically. Dan 2009-05-04T12:56:03Z Dan comment-6794 2009-04-28T01:50:08Z 2009-04-28T01:50:08Z Maybe the reason why we never see Mounties eating doughnuts is bfeel like it should have been a scene in the Howard Stern movie or so Dan 2009-04-28T01:50:08Z Dan comment-6454 2009-04-21T06:01:16Z 2009-04-21T06:01:16Z Two questions? That's it? What are the technical specs of this system? Will the cameras operate any better than the notoriously useless ones in San Francisco? And when the grant money runs out, how much per year will it take to operate this system? Is there audio recording attached to this system? Dan 2009-04-21T06:01:16Z Dan comment-6358 2009-04-18T18:11:22Z 2009-04-18T18:11:22Z Is SacPress ever going to fix how its headlines on the front page get truncated? It looks simply embarrassing. Dan 2009-04-18T18:11:22Z Dan comment-5984 2009-04-12T17:46:03Z 2009-04-12T17:46:03Z And could you clarify the claim "more people are injured and/or killed with their own handguns"? More people are hurt by their own handguns than those who don't own guns (which would be true, by definition)? Dan 2009-04-12T17:46:03Z Dan comment-5983 2009-04-12T17:38:15Z 2009-04-12T17:38:15Z "You have the right to express yourself, but you don't really need a computer" There are many reasons to give pause on liberalizing conceal-and-carry laws, but Officer Lazark pretty much gives the most condescending one, which is, "I'm a police officer and it doesn't seem necessary for a non-police officer to have a gun." Of course it wouldn't seem necessary to a police officer whose purpose it is to protect the public and who has all the support of the state to exercise deadly force when he/she believes it necessary. Dan 2009-04-12T17:38:15Z Dan comment-5947 2009-04-11T18:30:07Z 2009-04-11T18:30:07Z "We were commissioned to go to New York two days after the horrible event. On film we were able to secure photos of the deceased floating upward from where the building was. I believe you saw that photo, and I am happy to share it. " LOL Dan 2009-04-11T18:30:07Z Dan comment-5660 2009-04-07T04:06:09Z 2009-04-07T04:06:09Z The cost stated for editorial seemingly only includes salaries for newsroom. Add in the cost of benefits, an advertising staff, a web staff, support and HR staff, a few lawyers, some infrastructure (even if the Bee ends up doing away with a physical building, servers, laptops, etc. cost money)...and then the likely fact that a lot of advertising is upsold to the web (i.e. buy some advertising in the paper, get some discounted ads on the website), you'd no longer be able to support the kind of editorial staff you have now. Dan 2009-04-07T04:06:09Z Dan comment-5562 2009-04-04T15:18:34Z 2009-04-04T15:18:34Z The Bee did a look at overtime salaries a few months ago: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1489816.html According to this story, 41 out of 50 of the top overtime earners were from the fire department. Isn't that indicative of some kind of staffing problem when you have people working *90* hour weeks? Is the cost-savings in having people spend more than 50 percent of their week at the station so much better than hiring an extra body, that it's worth the reduced efficiency that typically comes with constant hours? Dan 2009-04-04T15:18:34Z Dan comment-5492 2009-04-03T02:52:28Z 2009-04-03T02:52:28Z Hmmm...some guy names himself after an Ayn Rand character and is bitching about the relaxation on campaign finance limits, regulations that are typically on the other side of free speech? But give credit to Steven, campaign finance limits often benefit incumbents by protecting them against outsiders who are not moneyed themselves. Dan 2009-04-03T02:52:28Z Dan comment-5309 2009-03-31T05:29:23Z 2009-03-31T05:29:23Z Maybe they quit it because there are significant logistical problems relying on unpaid or near-unpaid staff to provide work for a publication that has hard deadlines and a daily news hole to fill. This site has been up for how many months and you still let press releases and ghost stories to share the same river as any other legitimate content? The complaint from the Bee's detractors is that it's dying in part because it has less time and resources for important news and for allowing more fluff, and you think at the same time, the solution is to draw from a source that invariably provides less harder news? Dan 2009-03-31T05:29:23Z Dan comment-5141 2009-03-27T12:47:10Z 2009-03-27T12:47:10Z Doesn't seem that you do, either. Dan 2009-03-27T12:47:10Z Dan comment-5062 2009-03-25T04:57:02Z 2009-03-25T04:57:02Z YEAH NYTIMES IS BIASED. PBS IS BIASED. ANYTHING THAT REPORTS NEW IS BIAS BLAH BLAH BLAH Dan 2009-03-25T04:57:02Z Dan comment-4972 2009-03-23T17:39:05Z 2009-03-23T17:39:05Z Not print, but the resources to pay for those lawyers (which print/broadcast advertising has been able to provide). The public records laws do not guarantee release of information; some agencies will be willing to fight the issue in court. Even if they lose, that comes at a cost to the company. And of course, the cost of legal services to defend against an accusation of libel would be prohibitive to most small media entities (traditional or new). Unless the same amount of money flows through new media services as it did the old - which, if it ever does, will take years - these stories will fall by the wayside. Part of Simon's point is that in this interim, when government/corporate agencies become less covered, there is an almost certainty that that poor institutional practices will be entrenched. Dan 2009-03-23T17:39:05Z Dan comment-4970 2009-03-23T17:27:55Z 2009-03-23T17:27:55Z Ah yes, the Bee's current big series on the state of CPS, or how it gave Mayor Kevin Johnson a free pass, were sure signs of a corporate agenda, and probably required no use of the CPRA. Dan 2009-03-23T17:27:55Z Dan comment-4960 2009-03-23T12:46:13Z 2009-03-23T12:46:13Z David Simon, creator of "The Wire", wrote probably the most eloquent piece I've read on what will most likely be lost if big media passes away. There are some stories in which large amounts of cheap labor can dig out that might have been missed before. But stories that require institutional knowledge, constant pressure, and frankly, lawyers, are probably going by the wayside. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022703591_pf.html Dan 2009-03-23T12:46:13Z Dan comment-4924 2009-03-22T14:26:20Z 2009-03-22T14:26:20Z Um, why would this be any more anonymous or easier than previous ways of reporting a crime? Dan 2009-03-22T14:26:20Z Dan comment-4923 2009-03-22T14:24:40Z 2009-03-22T14:24:40Z Use Firefox. Dan 2009-03-22T14:24:40Z Dan comment-4881 2009-03-21T17:18:34Z 2009-03-21T17:18:34Z According to this press release from Rep. Matsui, the food bank received $350,000 through the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill. http://www.matsui.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=51 Dan 2009-03-21T17:18:34Z Dan comment-4706 2009-03-18T03:10:59Z 2009-03-18T03:10:59Z A Sac PD officer told me it meant a corner to find drugs. Dan 2009-03-18T03:10:59Z Dan comment-4685 2009-03-17T04:14:49Z 2009-03-17T04:14:49Z People are mad that there is less money in the budget? No way Dan 2009-03-17T04:14:49Z Dan comment-4616 2009-03-16T04:00:39Z 2009-03-16T04:00:39Z I'm sure in this recession, the market for tent city tourists is limited. Besides, the location of the camp, particularly its location on Union Pacific property, is a huge reason why this camp has been controversial in the first place. Dan 2009-03-16T04:00:39Z Dan comment-4608 2009-03-15T01:24:16Z 2009-03-15T01:24:16Z Why is the location of the camp kept as a state secret, as if it were a secret at all? The debate over its existence has been going for awhile now. http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1629922-a1629773-t46.html Dan 2009-03-15T01:24:16Z Dan comment-4470 2009-03-12T01:13:52Z 2009-03-12T01:13:52Z When a politician makes a speech, it is generally accepted that he or she may not have actually written the speech (which is fine by me, writing is a laborious process, and is probably not always the top priority of a governing figure). When a famous figure issues a ghost written auto bio, the legit ones have a co-author in the byline. However, it is totally expected that a student who submits work is submitting his or her own work; else, what would be the point, if the homework is to demonstrate what the student has learned? Dan 2009-03-12T01:13:52Z Dan comment-4299 2009-03-10T02:13:30Z 2009-03-10T02:13:30Z Let's see, there was a time when McClatchy and every other news company was making huge profits and they had quite a large number of investigative pieces and original reporting. Now they are making much less profit and the paper has shrunk. And yet you think there's an inverse relationship between McClatchy's profit motive and its ability to sustain a free press? Dan 2009-03-10T02:13:30Z Dan comment-4208 2009-03-06T14:23:23Z 2009-03-06T14:23:23Z So, if the city is willing to cut other services to save the firefighters, will the firefighters be willing to reduce their pension packages and other benefits? And what's been the rate of pay raises in the last five years when the region was benefiting from an economic boom? Firefighters are a critical service, but if there's no money, there's no money. Let's not forget what makes up the other part of that small-by-percentage public safety budget. Dan 2009-03-06T14:23:23Z Dan comment-4131 2009-03-05T00:24:56Z 2009-03-05T00:24:56Z Sorry, but I still haven't read any examples of how this would make existing ordinances easier to enforce. Tony Sheppard does bring up one kind of problem which this law would be a deterrent: making it against the law to go someone's publicly parked trash would stop people from mucking up carefully sorted garbage. Does this outweigh the other uintended effects of this law, including deterring people from getting recyclables that were put into the garbage and well-meaning freegans? Seems doubtful. Again, I think the egregious cases are well handled by the existing ordinances; you don't need an extra law to make trespassing more of a crime. This all just seems like lawmaking for the sake of lawmaking, and that's a bad mindset for a city council to have. In any case, I think Steve's premise/proposal that the recycling money "saved" by this ordinance could go to help the homeless people who lose this income is unfounded. Dan 2009-03-05T00:24:56Z Dan comment-4122 2009-03-04T18:48:37Z 2009-03-04T18:48:37Z Steven> You still don't address any of my objections, the most prominent of which is: what nuisance forms of bin scavenging are not covered by the current ordinances on trespassing and property damage? You really think it's within a city's interests to punish people who go through curbside garbage and don't leave any kind of mess? Is it in the environment's best interest for redeemable materials (that weren't put in the recycle bin) to be left in otherwise unsorted garbage bins? Yes, Sacramento has a $50 million deficit, part of which will be mitigated through reductions in the police force, and yet you think it's worthwhile to divert that reduced police force towards arresting people who, while it in for themselves, are helping to sort out our mess. And unless I'm totally wrong about the finances of all this, I think it's a bit pie-in-the-sky to think that money from recycling could be diverted to the homeless or any other program. Recycling costs money. The whole purpose of CRV is to fund recycling. Recycling, with the exception of precious metals, is not a money maker, which is why we pay CRV in the first place. So if everyone's recyclables are untouched, you really think there's money left over, after the city has paid for its expensive recycling contracts, to fund homeless programs? Dan 2009-03-04T18:48:37Z Dan comment-4095 2009-03-04T14:26:17Z 2009-03-04T14:26:17Z What a joke of a do-nothing law, nothing more than a publicity stunt if this description of it is accurate. Is the problem with these people going on your property and taking recyclables? There's already a law that deals with that, it's called "trespassing." Is the problem with these people leaving debris behind after their search? I'm sure the vandalism, prop. damage and littering laws cover this. How much of a drain revenue, in official numbers, is the problem of taking recyclables? And how much would it be in "real" numbers, that is, assuming that operating recycling centers, including the maintenance, labor and fuel for the recycling fleet, cost money...how much is being lost when you consider than people picking through garbage to find the valuables and directly depositing them into a redemption center is certainly more efficient than a sort process in a recycling center? And unrelated to the environmental and revenue impact issues, I can see why some politicos would jump to pass a law that flies in the face of California v. Greenwood, which ruled that garbage searching wasn't a violation of the 4th amendment, and so was a traditional way of embarrassing public figures who were dumb enough to leave incriminating evidence in their garbage bags. Would this law survive judicial scrutiny when a private investigator is arrested for violating it? Dan 2009-03-04T14:26:17Z Dan comment-4061 2009-03-01T18:47:40Z 2009-03-01T18:47:40Z Progressive causes, such as? Dan 2009-03-01T18:47:40Z Dan comment-4060 2009-03-01T18:42:04Z 2009-03-01T18:42:04Z Why is a cut-and-pasted press release about a publicity event the top story of the site Dan 2009-03-01T18:42:04Z Dan comment-4005 2009-02-28T17:31:12Z 2009-02-28T17:31:12Z Not to be a downer, but how exactly is this place thriving? If it's making a healthy profit or even breaking even in these days, there's no evidence of that in the article. I hope they're doing great, but with the closing of other great independent bookstores even before the economy tanked, I'm a little skeptical that any independent store is actually thriving, absent of hard sales figures. Dan 2009-02-28T17:31:12Z Dan comment-3970 2009-02-28T00:59:06Z 2009-02-28T00:59:06Z I went to this a few years ago...apparently it used to be one of, if not the biggest banjo gathering around. Don't know what's at this show, but I was extremely disappointed that the banjo-rama I went to either did not have bluegrass or had very little of it (all of the main acts I saw were clawhammer...which is OK, but a little too old fashioned) Dan 2009-02-28T00:59:06Z Dan comment-3886 2009-02-27T01:27:44Z 2009-02-27T01:27:44Z Yeah, teenagers have always been great and well-behaved ever since the Leopold and Loeb incident. Dan 2009-02-27T01:27:44Z Dan comment-3884 2009-02-27T00:50:53Z 2009-02-27T00:50:53Z I thought this article, with the all-caps, was satire. Dan 2009-02-27T00:50:53Z Dan comment-3883 2009-02-27T00:49:22Z 2009-02-27T00:49:22Z Internet Archive, at archive.org, has been around for more than a decade. The link that this article provides, archives.org, is a spam site. Dan 2009-02-27T00:49:22Z Dan comment-3811 2009-02-25T05:30:23Z 2009-02-25T05:30:23Z trapper said it best: take a chill pill. Dan 2009-02-25T05:30:23Z Dan comment-3847 2009-02-25T03:43:54Z 2009-02-25T03:43:54Z Is it possible to do mass firings of police? Dan 2009-02-25T03:43:54Z Dan comment-3808 2009-02-24T04:44:13Z 2009-02-24T04:44:13Z What's the occupancy rate in the tower? Dan 2009-02-24T04:44:13Z Dan comment-3721 2009-02-19T04:19:35Z 2009-02-19T04:19:35Z This must be cribbed from The Onion. Dan 2009-02-19T04:19:35Z Dan comment-3618 2009-02-17T14:18:45Z 2009-02-17T14:18:45Z Is it true Hina's Tea may be closing? Dan 2009-02-17T14:18:45Z Dan comment-3617 2009-02-17T14:17:41Z 2009-02-17T14:17:41Z I've always called it the Potluck Capital. It's extremely diverse, but more of a mishmash of discrete cultures clustered next to each other than an actual melting pot. There are a huge number of parks. And each one seems to be holding some kind of picnic/potluck...and everyone in Sac does it. Also, potluck reminds me of the Midwest, which Sacramento is the closet to being of any California major city. Dan 2009-02-17T14:17:41Z Dan comment-3603 2009-02-16T04:12:04Z 2009-02-16T04:12:04Z Wow...the bikes got stolen in Midtown, in one of the nicer areas? I don't see how this is anything but a PR disaster for Sacramento's public safety image. Let's face it, if such a high profile theft were made in Stockton or Elk Grove, we'd be joking, "Ha ha, of course they got jacked in that crime ridden ----hole." Cue state lawmakers and budget jokes... Dan 2009-02-16T04:12:04Z Dan comment-3481 2009-02-13T01:17:34Z 2009-02-13T01:17:34Z No I don't have a source for that top figure, but I'd like to see counterexamples if you have them. I'm generalizing from the fact that the vast majority of the online content-creating sites in existence now have failed to recoup investments. This includes Huffington Post, Pajamas Media, Digg (more of an aggregator site, but we'll throw it in for good measure), the aforementioned Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. The Washington Post had a notable failure in its Loudoun Extra despite having legendary developers behind it. For sites that actually pay their writers, some money has been made (not sure if Salon and Slate have made more money than has been invested in them, but they're chugging along) though they are pretty rare and have suffered the same kind of deep cuts (i.e. Gakwer...Gothamist maybe?) than traditional media have had recently. Locally, I can think of one notable failure, Prosper Magazine, which had a pretty forward thinking group of technologists but did not make it past a year. I'm not sure if any of your examples you mentioned count as profit-making...Newwest is able to pay people but I haven't read anything that says that it has made return on investment (nor should we hold it to that standard...yet). Bakersfieldvoice is a subsidiary of the Bakersfield Californian. Ohmynews is doing well in S. Korea but shuttered its entire Japan branch last year. CPM figures are from Gawker's and Chicago Reader, other sites too that I don't remember off the top of my head. But the number varies widely (LinkedIn claims to be making $75 cpm). Local sites may get better rates than a national brand, but I suspect the volume is lower. It's true that traditional media in general (including music/movie sales, Oscar watchers, etc) have been on a decline in the traditional ways of measuring them; the upshot was that there was there were just as many readers/viewers, if not more due to online distribution. The NYTimes has had roughly the same number of subscribers (if we lump local and worldwide together) as it did a decade ago...which is a bad thing considering population growth. But they obviously have a far, far greater reach from their website, and far more ways of telling their stories than they did in 1999. And yet, they're still struggling. The issue, particularly with them, has not been about how to innovate, but how to turn that into money. Traditional media may have been on a steady decline in circ. numbers but the hope was that in a decade, online revenues could substantially make up for lack of traditional revenue. Obviously, when the traditional model suddenly drops out while you're transitioning, that's a problem. But the failure wasn't necessarily in the lack of innovation. I'm not bagging on Sacramento Press; it's just started and has plenty of room to grow and innovate. But I don't think we should automatically assume that the Bee is struggling just because it's old and didn't make changes fast enough, just as we shouldn't assume that new ventures have a better-than-even-chance of succeeding because they aren't stuck in the old ways, whatever that means. Dan 2009-02-13T01:17:34Z Dan comment-3423 2009-02-12T13:21:28Z 2009-02-12T13:21:28Z While the Bee could do more to up its new media cred (if money grew on trees), the belief that selling Twitter ads could somehow make a dent in their tens in millions in expenses, or even break even as a venture, is something out of the 90s dot boom era. Twitter itself is not making money, nor is it expected to even in the next few years. Facebook, with 110m+ users, is also not reporting a profit, and the prospects for its advertising is far, far more lucrative and solid than Twitter's. MySpace can only report a profit because of an ongoing $800m deal with Google and that deal was considered to be a wash for Google. So what makes you think that the Bee, or any one else, can make money off of what would require a significant amount of hacking (since Twitter, AFAIK, doesn't have a built in ad delivery platform, particularly for the end client) and strategery (training an ad rep to make the pitch, merging this system with the existing McClatchy ad delivery platform)? I don't know what the rate per ad impression is these days but the pre-recession rate seems to have averaged around $10 per 1000. I imagine the rate is less for Twitter which is generally not original content, but a feed of links. But let's propose a generous 100,000 viewers per day (which would make that single Twitter page more popular than all but the largest media sites on the Net)...that amounts to $100 a day, times 365...that's $36,500, about enough to pay an entry level reporter without benefits. The Internet doesn't magically create money for you, putting your content on the Internet doesn't make money appear automatically. The idea that the if only media companies could've jumped on the Internet earlier (and by most accounts, McClatchy did, which is why the own most of the city.com names, like sacramento.com or miami.com. Sacbee.com, as far as I know, is still the largest site in town), they'd be rolling in the dough, is an opinion totally naive of actual Internet economics. 99% of the most popular media sites make only enough profit to cover hosting fees and salaries for the main writers. Mega-sites like Huffingtonpost, which require developers beyond maintaining a Wordpress account, aren't making money. Even Gawker, the granddaddy of all profitable media sites, has made vast cuts and continues to do so. The New York Times is also struggling, and no one can accuse it of being backwards. Its programming operations are sophisticated enough to be committing code to major open source projects, and it is light years ahead of any media site as far as trying out new forms of storytelling. It's such an obvious and dull explanation, but traditional media is failing primarily because of the failing economy (and the drop in ad budgets). They are also losing ad dollars to the Internet, but the advertisers are paying a lot less money for ads than they were in print or TV or radio. Any one who is going to start a new media site on the premise of "old media is failing because they're old and don't know the Internet" is going to fail just as badly as the many, many unprofitable new media ventures have. Dan 2009-02-12T13:21:28Z Dan comment-3413 2009-02-12T00:58:38Z 2009-02-12T00:58:38Z So last week, everyone took turns hitting the fat easy pinata that was the Bee guest column on how Facebook isn't awesome. But apparently, this column, which rehashes a complaint that is older than the invention of the radio, is a fresh take on human relationships? I'm surprised the obvious connection wasn't made between any decline in neighborly relationships and the spread of the Internet, and yes, that includes Facebook. If you are spending time connecting to people outside of your physical geography, you have less time to spend with your neighbors. Dan 2009-02-12T00:58:38Z Dan comment-3381 2009-02-11T12:39:30Z 2009-02-11T12:39:30Z Isn't the problem not that there's a budget deadlock, but that there's a budget shortfall? There's no guarantee that these projects will be funded even when the budget does get approved...especially for people working on a bank project. Dan 2009-02-11T12:39:30Z Dan comment-3314 2009-02-09T13:58:32Z 2009-02-09T13:58:32Z Two solutions...you can easily disable application requests, or you can defriend the people who are so quick to put on small-time apps that have access to an account's private information. Dan 2009-02-09T13:58:32Z Dan comment-3238 2009-02-07T21:32:32Z 2009-02-07T21:32:32Z If it's a Super Wal Mart, yes, it will provide groceries, most likely at a rate more affordable than most places. Wal-Mart is far from perfect, but the advantage of having one store have relative dominance is that Wal-Mart has been able to push a green (and efficient) agenda on its suppliers. If our economy was comprised of nothing but small-chain and independent stores, the supply chain would be hideously inefficient and fractured. And let's be realistic. The reason why no small independent places will go to Elk Grove is because Elk Grove isn't designed for it, having screwed itself into a hole with its development strategy. Better for the citizens to have a cheap, centralized place to shop while they shore up their savings in order to get the duck out of Fodge rather than them driving up to Sacramento to do their bulk shopping. Dan 2009-02-07T21:32:32Z Dan comment-3234 2009-02-07T14:17:58Z 2009-02-07T14:17:58Z I don't see many unemployed people smiling either. A place where low-middle-class families can buy stuff to survive is a lot more important than a bunch of mom-and-pop stores that have everything marked up. Dan 2009-02-07T14:17:58Z Dan comment-3105 2009-02-04T23:36:57Z 2009-02-04T23:36:57Z 'Instead, the new bar will focus on tried and true cocktails that for some reason have fallen out of favor." They may be forgotten classics, but they became classics because they're so good,"' What exactly are these so-good-we-forgot-them cocktails and what is the likelihood that the profit margin (and volume of sales) will offset the money lost on not serving more popular drinks, especially in a recession? Dan 2009-02-04T23:36:57Z Dan comment-3104 2009-02-04T23:23:00Z 2009-02-04T23:23:00Z Not really. The funny is in the passion. Dan 2009-02-04T23:23:00Z Dan comment-3057 2009-02-04T11:18:55Z 2009-02-04T11:18:55Z Yep, that's my point (I imagine Duman gets some kind of freelance rate, but it's certainly not nearly enough to think that the Bee considers her to be the next Marcos Breton) Dan 2009-02-04T11:18:55Z Dan comment-3055 2009-02-04T03:52:33Z 2009-02-04T03:52:33Z Holy shit, I don't know what's funnier, the lameness of the original column, or that someone felt the need to write a passionate rant against it, as if some crank in Davis was in danger of dismantling Facebook with her critical newspaper column. I don't know the exact process in how columns are picked, but my guess is that it went something like this: 1) Community member agrees to write something for the Bee for a fee probably comparable to what SacPress writers get. 2) She turns in rambling column near deadline, 3) Editor decides that a rambling local opinion is a little bit better than grabbing something generic from the wire. 4) Column is printed. Dan 2009-02-04T03:52:33Z Dan comment-2558 2009-01-21T04:19:32Z 2009-01-21T04:19:32Z wtf Dan 2009-01-21T04:19:32Z Dan comment-2438 2009-01-19T02:44:29Z 2009-01-19T02:44:29Z Hard to believe, but sometimes the newspapers do feature stories that are only peripherally related to the main news to give variety to people who read through the paper. Dan 2009-01-19T02:44:29Z Dan comment-2428 2009-01-17T05:10:02Z 2009-01-17T05:10:02Z How many animals do you think your particular house (or worse, subdivision) displaced/killed? An airport is a big house, therefore, it's not unexpected that the wildlife in that area will be disrupted. Dan 2009-01-17T05:10:02Z Dan comment-2300 2009-01-15T14:06:16Z 2009-01-15T14:06:16Z ...meanwhile, the rest of the country is in a vicious freeze. It's a little premature to be feeling guilty about SF sinking into the sea. Dan 2009-01-15T14:06:16Z Dan comment-2268 2009-01-15T01:35:06Z 2009-01-15T01:35:06Z OK, so it's fine to write a puff piece that basically amounts to an advertisement for a deserving business...but come on, do you really need to make it obvious with statements like 'This respectful interaction leaks down to the members themselves. The "creepy gym vibe" does not exist at Pipeworks.' Really? How long were you there? How many people did you interview to see if they ever experienced other patrons staring in attraction to them? And then you don't finish the following sentence: "Certainly every woman who has ever felt the silent stare while working"...? Dan 2009-01-15T01:35:06Z Dan comment-2104 2009-01-10T14:07:22Z 2009-01-10T14:07:22Z Driving 55 while everyone else drives 65, or even having half the drivers drive slow and the others fast on a freeway, increases the chances of an accident significantly. I don't think saving 1-3% of gas consumption, if even that, is worth putting lives at risk. Dan 2009-01-10T14:07:22Z Dan comment-1879 2009-01-06T01:29:01Z 2009-01-06T01:29:01Z http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=chinese+fire+drill Dan 2009-01-06T01:29:01Z Dan comment-1878 2009-01-06T01:26:20Z 2009-01-06T01:26:20Z Huh? People CAN already go out on any weekend they want to. Or do you mean, why can't people go out on any weekend and get catered to by business owners like they do on Second Saturday? It might have something to do with that it's a considerable amount of effort and cost on the owner's end to participate in SS. Think about it. What makes SS well attended is that not only are there a lot of people out at once, the galleries have new exhibits, which is not the main reason for everyone to go out, but is the main driver of movement during the night. There's no way Sacramento galleries could refresh exhibits even twice a month. So, if in a given month, the art is going to pretty much be the same week to week, people don't need to have a must-go on their monthly calendar, which means foot traffic is going to be spread out more among the Saturdays...which will make going out on Saturday even less of a must-do because seeing the mass of people is a large part of the appeal. So with this reduced traffic...how do you expect business owners to afford to put up a great SS experience for vastly diminished returns? Every Saturday (not counting weather variations) are like the ones before and after it. The reason why those businesses are able to provide extra staffing and expenses on SS is because the critical mass of foot traffic makes it worth it. Make every Saturday a "Second Saturday" and it's not economically feasible any more. You might as well ask why can't Sacramento have a lively cultural and nightlife scene like London or NY. Dan 2009-01-06T01:26:20Z Dan comment-1877 2009-01-06T01:00:12Z 2009-01-06T01:00:12Z A "Flash mob" refers to events that are spontaneously planned and attended. Something like Second Saturday, by definition, cannot be a flash mob event. I went to SS almost every month I was in Sacramento, and that's because it was the only remotely cultural event in town, and it was fun to see people. That doesn't mean Sac has some unique combination of qualities that makes people attend these events. Dan 2009-01-06T01:00:12Z Dan comment-1863 2009-01-05T03:56:17Z 2009-01-05T03:56:17Z Um...the term "California stop" does not refer to an actual stop just because it has the word "stop" in it. Just like if you get arrested for doing a "Chinese fire drill" on I-80, you can't argue in court that the officer said you were doing a "fire drill." No wonder the judge got so annoyed; I would be too if you were being obstinate about what the purpose of slang is. Dan 2009-01-05T03:56:17Z Dan comment-1844 2009-01-04T20:14:11Z 2009-01-04T20:14:11Z I think the "Front Page" centered headline needs to be removed. First of all, what purpose does it serve? If you can't tell that you're on the front page from the lead photo and story arrangement, then that's bad. second, it draws too much visual attention to itself...and then has no function at all, despite being in the same style as the headline-link font of the other stories on the front page. Dan 2009-01-04T20:14:11Z Dan comment-1736 2008-12-29T21:31:58Z 2008-12-29T21:31:58Z Given Sacramento's lack of athletic celebrities as of late (though the Grant Pacers also got a key; Fargo gave the Maloofs a key), why wouldn't KJ want to share in Phelps's accomplishments? The interesting question is why Phelps would ever come to town in the first place. Maybe an ongoing relationship with Maloofs? Dan 2008-12-29T21:31:58Z Dan comment-1732 2008-12-29T16:07:14Z 2008-12-29T16:07:14Z "Unethical"? Who are these people who find fashion unethical, unless you're only talking about blood diamonds and fur coats. I think you mean "superficial". In any case, can you name any of these pieces of fashion that might inspire others to greater things? I think many believe that fashion is more of a way to separate the poor from the rich; i.e. the people who have to spend proportionately more money on paying their mortgage and food bills versus those who can spend money on maintaining their personal style for others to see. This is kind of an odd essay to write during a depression. Dan 2008-12-29T16:07:14Z Dan comment-1726 2008-12-27T17:40:02Z 2008-12-27T17:40:02Z A massive music/tattoo artist tour was just canceled due to economic reasons: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/inaugural-musink-festival-tour-canceled-1003920525.story Dan 2008-12-27T17:40:02Z Dan comment-1614 2008-12-23T00:56:42Z 2008-12-23T00:56:42Z I think that philosophy undervalues your writers, who (presumably) have to do real research, reporting, and editing to produce the article. Discussion that is derivative of the article should be seen as complementary to the article, but not equal to it. On the other hand, I understand that for ad placement purposes, presumably, people would rather have their ads placed at the top of a page and next to the premium content, not next to comments (which may or may not exist for any given page)...and so comments may just get more space for practical reasons. Dan 2008-12-23T00:56:42Z Dan comment-1608 2008-12-22T13:46:54Z 2008-12-22T13:46:54Z The design is poorly thought out. A third of the content area is devoted to widgets that are barely relevant to the site's overall use...how often do you expect your users to flag or up/down thumb an article (theoretically, it should only be once per article). There's not a single popular website out there that gives more than a couple lines of space in small icons to these tools. Meanwhile, your comment section is given the full width of the content area...I'm sure your comments are great, but do they receive priority over your writers? The storyline feature is interesting, but ultimately just an over-complicated way of doing "Related stories" links, which are far more efficient and easier to understand. Also, the storyline bar randomly pops up on stories, which I'm sure is not helpful to the first time users. And where's the crime news? Dan 2008-12-22T13:46:54Z Dan comment-1607 2008-12-22T13:40:44Z 2008-12-22T13:40:44Z 49 GRAMS? That's like taking 50 all-mercury thermometers, breaking them, and drinking all the liquid. If there were that much mercury in 6 pieces, or even 600 pieces of sushi, Jeremy Piven and a lot more sushi eaters would be long dead by now. Dan 2008-12-22T13:40:44Z Dan comment-1540 2008-12-17T13:55:37Z 2008-12-17T13:55:37Z Those tools on the right side are way too big...does it seem wise to devote a 300x400 px space to the thumbs up/down/tag features which only a minority of people will use and is far secondary to actual content (and ads) on your site? Dan 2008-12-17T13:55:37Z Dan comment-1399 2008-12-15T14:45:06Z 2008-12-15T14:45:06Z "You can shut your eyes and march into the first door you come to and call for a drink, and the chances are that you will get it." - Twain Ha ha Dan 2008-12-15T14:45:06Z Dan comment-1398 2008-12-15T14:34:56Z 2008-12-15T14:34:56Z Um...maybe you should rethink your comparison. There are not only 17,000 people in the downtown area. Many more than that travel through that area on a given day, so the crimes per capita ratio should be adjusted for that. Just like it would make no sense to look at crimes committed on the light rail per RT employee. Dan 2008-12-15T14:34:56Z