'Twas two weeks before Christmas, when all through the town Not a citizen was stirred up, because it was unknown That their money was being given away then and there By town leaders pretending that no one would care ..." Happy Holidays, District Three. What's on your wish list this gift giving season? Safe sidewalks glisten and visions of street bumps dance in your heads? A life-saving stop sign, cross walk or street lighting fires the Yuletide dreams? How far would $100,000 go in your neighborhood? To be in on the holiday fun, contact your City Council member before the Tuesday, December 15th Council meeting and tell them how you want $100,000 spent -- or not. Handy contact info is

From the lofty perches of the power players, in their skyboxes and bank towers, the public may look very small, almost antlike. Deal and decision makers are elevated and segregated from the little people, whose lives they influence. On Thursday, October 29, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced his "Rules of the Game" plan to build an arena and entertainment complex in Sacramento. The press conference was held 25 floors up, with a hazy overview of the city, extending from the historic rail yards to Cal Expo: two potential sites for a new and lucrative sports/real estate venture. In that same sweeping view, the mayor could look down on the central city neighborhoods. From Downtown, Midtown, East

 Three young women navigated the west sidewalk of 18th Street last Friday evening. The one in front says to her friends behind her, "Last time we were down here, I was thinking I might like to live here." The Friday night scene was crackling, with loud music filling the air and cars filling the streets. "Yeah," says her friend, "but you'd need a place with a driveway. There's actually a lot more of them than I thought." The third woman says, "You wouldn't have much of a back yard." The trio crossed 18th Street at Capitol and stopped to reclaim their car from the valet. The street parking or East End Parking Garage may have been closer to whichever business they were coming from, but the

Sierra II in Curtis Park was the location for the ninth and final Town Hall Meeting of the City of Sacramento Charter Review Committee. The crowd of approximately 45 people was on the Baby Boom-plus end of the generational scale. It included members of the public, neighborhood representatives and former, current and candidate public officials, from the Central City, Curtis/Land Park, Oak Park and the South Area. The City Charter legally and procedurally defines the City of Sacramento and its operations. Kevin Johnson's Strong Mayor Initiative, which would dramatically change the City Charter, will be on the June 2010 ballot. Sacramento was founded with a City Charter in 1858. In 1921, d

 (This comment in response to Suzanne Hunt's "Pilot Alley Project To Get $100,000" is too long for a comment and too important to not bring to immediate attention. If the public is ever to have a voice in this matter and the expenditure of those funds, now is the time). Today ground was broken for Jeremy Drucker's Stitch model project in the 17th/18th/L/Capitol Alley.Today would have been the September Alley Activation meeting, which was inexplicably cancelled. At August's Alley Activation meeting, Steve Cohn announced the availability of the $100,000 CDBG funds. He said the money needed to be spent and projects completed within a year and "Let's have a plan together within the next thre

So when Kerridge was quoted on SacPress by Suzanne Hurt saying "I'm invisible," he meant the public is invisible?

Mr. Rich, Sacramento was "an emergent city" when Arco Arena was planted in the agland floodplain of Natomas two + decades ago. The community has had to "endure marginal quality" in the form of the structure built there, supposedly a multi use facility for sports, events and concerts. Many more than two million people would visit if it weren't know by locals as "Echo Arena" due to acoustics that keep many bands and concertgoers away. Was it built to fail in a couple decades or fail to meet rising standards for how the NBA rewards itself, while regular folks can't afford to buy tickets? The community had voted twice (and again since then) to not have the proposed arena built in central Sacramento -- even as close as the then-empty land at Bradshaw Road South of Highway 50. "The easy fix" was for the boosters and developers to buy cheap Natomas agland, build "a cheap, dysfunctional, unprofitable, tattered shed on a suburban floodplain" and reap the profits from selling and developing the agland around the arena. The developers broke their promises about pedestrian oriented development and light rail service. They promised what now would be called "sustainability" and delivered "the suburban model" which you now say is not okay and the notion should not be "enshrined." You mentioned trite cartoons in a comment above. Have you met our local cast of recurring characters, who built their empires and their power on this Natomas legacy, that now you dismiss as unacceptable? This is what THEY created, this is what THEY enshrined for the community. The story is intimately tied up with the recent scandals, investigations and rushed departures in City Hall and the Economic Development Department. "What's worse, what's much worse, is that it putting a hundred million dollars into it now would enshrine the unsustainable and discredited notion that the suburban model is ok." A hundred million dollars is approximately what the Maloof brothers/Kings owners owe the City and people of Sacramento. That would be a nice chunk of change to put into a new facility at the existing Natomas location, where all the parking and freeway access infrastructure exists (minus the Lite Rail connections because the developers reneged and the City let them). The "nearby property" owned by the City is right across the parking lot -- what was the intended baseball stadium. The Maloof's can upgrade to their and the NBA's hearts' content. Arco can be in use until the new facility is ready. Maybe this time they'll even provide the sort of iconic multi use structure you suggest. That is the "sustainable" answer. That is the most feasible answer. What is "discredited" is the reputation of those who care more about short term profits and less about "a giant step toward that mature city by building an icon of culture." Many of the same cartoon characters made their promises, the same broken promises, a couple of decades ago. And now you are using the results they created, as a "dysfunctional" negative example, to argue for giving them the chance to do it all over again, profiting from new land/asset giveaways at public expense, with no public input and no certainty of public benefit in the results. THAT is "enshrining the unsustainable model."

beerzie, don't miss the point. Referring to "our beloved Cal Expo" is not about that particular building. Perhaps you've heard this before, regarding real estate values: Location, Location, Location. That "eyesore" can be removed and the State Fair can be renovated where it is. Moving the State Fair to Natomas because it's a convenience for the big players -- and Cal Expo is the next cash cow in their gunsites -- is a ripoff of the taxpayers of Kollyfonia and the citizens of Sacramento.

Precisely why Mr. Burg's question is so vital.

All those perspectives by group and nothing from the public point of view? "Despite the department’s crises, Sacramento developers have praised Kerridge for his work to establish a customer-focused culture" could read: "Thanks to the department’s crises, Sacramento developers have praised Kerridge for his work to establish a customer-focused culture." They call it "customer-focused.' Richard Rich calls it "public service." Yet no mention of what Kerridge and Thomas' tenure and culture has meant to the community.