If the City Council didn't take 3 hearings to address the issue that should have only taken one hearing, and if City staff listened and used resources at their disposal, this might not have cost the city much of anything at all to analyze. It's pretty clear that advocates (namely the CLUCK group) have been open to discussion and are willing to move forward to provide healthy and affordable food for all Sacramentans. Rather than take in the abstract, the Law & Leg Committee should move the issue forward to actually draft an ordinance that can be discussed openly for pros and cons, including the true costs.

Can someone explain to me how Sac High is a closed school? I thought anyone who wants to can attend. Are there stories of students actually being turned away who wanted to go there.

Sac Press is more reliable than the County Registrar tonight. I vote Sac Press to be the new Registrar.

Unfortunately the same people that denied climate change and defended Big Tobacco are now trying to promote DDT as the savior for everything from malaria to bed bugs. Truly integrated pest management is the only sustainable way to control either, without the use of toxic pesticides!

thanks for the story -- seems like a competitive race. nice to see actual competition for a council seat.

Can't wait until they aerially spray communities with pesticides again this spring or summer--see the safe pesticides they use just uncovered in a great article by Environmental Health News as increasingly damaging to our health and waterways: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/pyrethroids-raise-concerns

I have heard that City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond is planning to do a local purchasing law around city contracts--don't know how far it can be extended

I assume that it becomes impossible for a local branch of any store to carry local beers or foods as soon as the entire company becomes large enough.

great conversation starter Steve. I enjoy shopping at Trader Joe's for the type of products they carry but it is true that it is really just a liberal Walmart. (p.s. I can never understand why people are giving thumbs down--whether it is for the content or the quality of the article).

I'm no fan of hers (she's done nothing to support Oak Park and berates her constituents constantly!), but prioritizing local business for city contracts seems like good policy.

very cool article. hopefully agribusiness can't approve this stuff.

It's disappointing that "local" means many of those large national chains mentioned in the article, rather than mom-and-pop stores. How many of these stores source their products from the Sacramento Region? That'd be a good question to pose to them. It's similar to what the Sac News and Review profiled in a recent article about Fresno. While the move by the City and businesses represents a positive step towards recognizing the need for local investment and purchasing, a few low-wage jobs and sales tax, don't take the place of truly local businesses with more local goods. I hope we can move more in that direction.

Movies On a Big Screen is just as awesome as when they were in West Sac. Can't wait to see the above movie and Visioneers next week.

Kathleen, I think the point is that the park may require the SAME amount of upkeep in the short run, but LESS overall upkeep in the long run.

Great article. One more group to add to the list: Environment and Agriculture Taskforce (EAT) Sacramento hosted the screenings of the film "FRESH": www.eatsacramento.org.

Can't wait to see the garden in Oak Park

Shoot. Too bad it competes with all the activities of Urban AgFest: bike tours, movie screenings and dinner: slowfoodsacramento.org.

we need more farmstands everywhere, including the 'burbs.

They are based in the East Bay. See ore here: http://www.peoplesgrocery.org/

Whoa. Opening up K Street? Mayor: World class cities have lots of pedestrian malls. We should be moving towards more of these--not fewer.