Newest articles on The Sacramento Press written by Ben Ilfeld

The Sacramento Press welcomes new community manager

2012-10-11T19:51:37Z

For the last three years, customer service functions, outreach and moderation of The Sacramento Press has been more than ably handled by Casey Kirk. Her thoughtfulness and consistency helped improve community engagement and civility. Now Casey is moving on to a fabulous new position outside our company.

From now on, Allison Joy Tritt will be the new community manager. She is taking the reigns of these very difficult functions. I’m writing because this transition will be smoother if we all remember to treat one another with respect on The Sacramento Press.

Our help will allow Allison to better support community contributors and conduct outreach to get accustomed to her new role. Plus, she will have the time to meet members of the wider Sacramento community in person rather than acting as a crossing guard on our site.

A little history

This position is very close to my heart because I held all of these responsibilities when we launched The Sacramento Press. It took me years before we launched to understand even the little that I do about our neighborhoods and all the amazing people who make life so great in Sacramento.

When Casey took over, her learning curve was shorter because she had the opportunity to learn as an intern at The Sacramento Press first. And even though it was a tough job, there were far fewer community contributors and commenters on the site. Plus, if you know Casey, she is infinitely patient in her customer service roles while being unbelievably efficient and hard-working.

Moving forward

Allison will bring her own personality and positives to the job, and she has been a community contributor herself. However, the job has evolved over the last few years, and she will not step in with years of experience moderating comments. This will not be easy.

So please help me welcome Allison by being civil and understanding if we make a mistake or two while she gets a feel for her new role.

As always, our support services are available by emailing support@sacramentopress.com.

Disclosure: I am COO and one of the founders of The Sacramento Press.

Updating: Full arena coverage on The Sacramento Bee and Sactown Royalty and across the web

2012-04-13T17:38:07Z

I'm going to keep this post going as a round-up of developing stories as I follow the arena deal implosion this afternoon. Our expanded coverage is here: http://www.sacramentopress.com/tag/arena

Just a head's up for everyone - The Sacramento Bee is knocking it out of the park with Area (non) deal coverage today. They have a live chat, a reporter in NYC and an editorial that nails the issue dead-on (the owners need to go).

Also, over at Sactown Royalty, the quick recap is on point. As always, the community there steals the show with amazing commentary. Like this gem from kromeace, "I suggest we show up at the arena (walk not park in their parking lot) and never go into the game. Instead we line up at the ticket windows on game night… ask about all kinds of remaining seats, argue the price, finally agree… then when they need are money… simply say we did not agree to the cost, and as a fan we should not have to pay so much. Next… repeat the process."

David Stern weighed in (Our coverage) (Sactown Royalty coverage). KJ had an interesting press conference as well (Sactown Royalty). Our coverage is here. More details below.

I will be collecting great tweets, links and commentary here:

New Editor in Chief: Colleen Belcher

2011-09-27T17:08:16Z

To all staff, collaborators and readers of The Sacramento Press.

I would like to briefly introduce our new Editor in Chief, Colleen Belcher.

For most of you, Colleen needs no introduction because she has personally worked with literally hundreds of contributors and everyone on our small staff. You all know her glowing smile and her indefatigable spirit.

Colleen started working as an intern at The Sacramento Press even before there was a live website. I remember how instrumental she was at setting the tone with that first group of interns and staff. She created a sense of camaraderie with her fellow interns while setting a very hardworking pace for all of us continue to follow.

We hired Colleen as a resource coordinator for our growing volunteer community. Her work greatly increased the quality and quantity of contributions. Her roles included creating and running journalism workshops, coordinating copy editing and assigning media passes.

For the past year and a half, Colleen has been our Managing Editor. She makes sure that there is quality content on our front page every day. This may sound routine, but those of you who read our site when we first started out know better.

There is a huge difference between words on a website and compelling local news and information. Additionally, volunteer contributions often come in waves, so daily consistency is hard to achieve. Colleen has improved our content and consistency so greatly, it is almost impossible to look back.

I would say I don’t know how she does it, but that’s not true – I know precisely how she does it because she wrote down her process as part of her job. She contributed heavily to a handbook on our operations that outlines everything that goes into making this site possible.

Colleen has been instrumental to our success at every level. She has worked with amateurs, interns and professionals and faced down “the daily beast” here at The Sacramento Press. Inside our office and well beyond, Colleen is respected and loved.

So it is with much pleasure that I introduce her to you as our new Editor in Chief, a title she has earned over the course of three amazing years.

Disclosure: I am COO and one of the founders of The Sacramento Press.

10,000 Articles

2011-09-02T22:43:32Z

A couple of days ago, something noteworthy happened on The Sacramento Press: We passed 10,000 articles on the site. These are all original works, and they are all local news and information about Sacramento.

Some are of no real consequence. Some are even factually incorrect. But they are written by more than 1,000 different people with unique and valuable perspectives on our region (some professional, most amateur). Not only that, many of these stories are of major civic importance. All one has to do is visit our front page any day, and the laid-out portion across the top will be filled with stories that affect our daily lives.

Some people don’t like our experiment for one reason or another. We’ve been criticised for allowing amateurs behind the gates. We’ve been criticized for our unique front-end design (the big size of our rating and tagging buttons, for example). We’ve been criticized for our moderation policies from both sides – are they too loose or too strict? Sometimes it is best to pull back and remember what The Sacramento Press is at the root of it.

Our policies, our front-end design, our business model and our community outreach – these are all designed for the community to take ownership of their relationship with the media. At first, this shift will happen on our site and social media platforms, but I expect it to grow. It is our responsibility not only to tell stories or provide a forum for others, but to actively increase the media literacy of our community.

We must create a better-informed populace and be the tool that allows residents to act as engaged citizens. This is a major shift from the philosophy of traditional media, but it is one borne by the technological and economic reality of our day. Our philosophy is the real journalism 2.0. It is a recognition that we are a public trust, and the virtuous circle has widened to demand engagement at human scale.

And I expect that our community will grow into this new role and demand the same of other media outlets. This is the real revolution of new media. It is not the toppling of traditional media – I would certainly not want that – but a popular revolution wherein the community members become full partners in sharing their stories and debating critical issues of consequence to their daily lives.

The Sacramento Press, with its 10,000 original articles, belongs to everyone who reads, comments, rates, tags, flags and writes. It belongs to the community at large, whose members can use it as a living history of the last two and a half years. It is not a product of visionary skill like an iPad or couture fashion. Rather, we have designed a framework to be hijacked by our community, and at this point, I can say conclusively that the community has embraced this concept and is collectively creating something more fun and beautiful than I could have ever imagined.

P.S. - We also passed 1,000 unique authors not long ago. I blogged about it here on our Corporate Blog.

Disclosure: I am COO and one of the founders of The Sacramento Press.

1,000 Unique authors

2011-06-29T03:13:12Z

I'm proud to announce that The Sacramento Press hit a major milestone.

In two and a half years we have published work from over 1,000 unique authors.

A few are employees here and many are interns, but the vast majority are community contributors. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to all of our contributors!

What does this number really mean? There are a lot of big numbers flying around these days. AOL probably has plans for more Patches than we have had unique authors. Facebook just hit 750 million users. Compared to that 1,000 seems so small.

But "small" is precisely the point. Our small team has worked diligently to foster a deeply informed and engaged community. We know many of these people. Many have attended our free workshops. Many more have utilized our free copy editing services. I've attended neighborhood association meetings with contributors and taught people how to use modern blogging tools. We have an open office and several people without computers have come in to write their stories in our newsroom.

I can't believe it, but this really is a vast network for our purpose and scale. It grew person to person. It is made up of purposeful people who believe in the power of community.

1,000 people gives me goosebumps. A couple of years ago I could have predicted 1,000 but I could never predict the texture of the journey. The intensity of local and the joy of it - leaves me speechless.

Editorial: Today I support a strong mayor

2011-03-26T00:43:57Z

During the debate on a “strong mayor” system of government, each side battled over which form of government allowed for the greatest accountability to the public, democratic ideals in decision making and open debate of policy.

After a fateful 5-4 vote not to promote Gus Vina to full-time city manager and his subsequent resignation, I know that the council system we currently have is seriously broken. Why? Not because of the vote itself or Vina’s decision. But because the debate and vote were conducted behind closed doors in a closed session.

I have no idea why the council decided not to promote Vina. Council members refuse to talk with our reporters about the decision. Wait, what? Yes, you and I and everyone else has no idea why we are without a city manager. We, the public, were not party to the decision, and we cannot easily hold the council accountable, because we do not know the reasoning.

The decision over who manages our entire city government may be the most fateful decision in a decade since that person is tough to both hire and fire under the current system. Yet the people were not a party to it. We were not allowed to speak one way or another in a pubic forum. Whatever the reason, we were not told what the council or individual council members were thinking. Here at The Sacramento Press, our reporters have no access to the real story. So the public will continue to go uninformed.

There are many theories about the value of representative democracy. My favorite is that it allows the people to be deeply involved in consensus-building, and that leads to policies more aligned with public opinion. Another is simply that the public has the ability to “throw the bum out” when we get fed up with a leader. As long as our council hides behind closed-door sessions and refuses to talk with the press about the most material of all decisions, we have neither form. We cannot easily throw them out, nor are we deeply involved in policy making.

Which brings me to the “strong mayor” structure of city government. It may be susceptible to corruption and place too much power in the hands of one official, but at least we could throw the bum out.

Editorial: Transparency and scrutiny

2009-10-01T04:13:06Z

There are not a lot of solid rules for starting up a hyper-local site fueled by community contribution. We think, rethink and question just about every policy and design choice for The Sacramento Press.

We strive to act with integrity as individuals and as an organization. Our highest principles at The Sacramento Press are openness and transparency.

Our policy is to allow anyone to publish. Then we and our community read, rate, flag, comment and add to the story. We ask our contributors to use their real names. We ask them to stay local and to disclose their affiliation with the issues they write about.

Recently there was considerable debate here and elsewhere on the Web about our policy of publish first, ask questions later.

I want to open up a debate here about how to do a better job.

The article that sparked off the debate was published by Ronald West, Mayor Kevin Johnson’s brother and a consultant for Sacramentans for Accountable Government (SAG). While he did use his full name, he did not offer disclosure of his involvement in SAG. Soon after the article appeared, the conversation on the article heated up and uncovered these facts.

The response there (in the conversation) and elsewhere was to question whether we should first screen articles in order to make sure authors give full disclosure of affiliations.

In order to promote transparency this sounds like a good idea. However, the interesting thing is that our community actually uncovered these affiliations in the conversation, not us. If we give one person the job to screen then we take power away from our community and give it to someone in our office. That person is fallible and will undoubtedly make mistakes.

There are also gray areas to consider. I am not sure if I feel comfortable asking people to disclose that they are the brother or sister or mother of anyone. We ask people to disclose their affiliation with organizations.

I like a system that allows our community to take everything with a grain of salt, question the author directly and have the support of our editors and staff in asking for full disclosure.

There is some kind of myth about the press that media mega-corporations have concocted over some years: That journalists are like scientists carefully revealing truths without bias. Journalists may strive to be unbiased, but they are not scientists. Neither are editors. I fear that the more we try to control and sanitize The Sacramento Press the further we move from our core mission of openness, transparency and our service to the community.

That said, we do lay out our front page everyday, composed of articles scrutinized by our community and then by editors.

So, theories aside, what happens when someone comes to our site for the first time or lands on a biased opinion piece straight from a google search or an aggregator? How do we tell these people that our site is radically open and that this article is written by someone with skin in the game and not a traditional journalist?

I think that is where our site is broken.

What happens when we make a correction that our community discovered long after the initial publication of the article? And what if the reader doesn’t read the conversation and only reads the article?

I have some thoughts.

One idea: We can create a pop-up that shows the first time someone comes to The Sacramento Press explaining how we work. That way first timers will know that The Sacramento Press is an open platform where anyone can post an article.

We can also create separate forms by which PR professionals can submit press releases which have fields for disclosure - and mark those articles appropriately. We could make separate forms for submitting op-ed pieces, events, news or other information.

We could have an unfiltered section of the latest articles, like the list at the bottom of the front page, that doesn’t live on the front page and clearly states that these articles have not been reviewed by editors.

Please help us build an open and transparent online newspaper. I put it to you, our community— what do you think about our policies? What can we change to make this a better place?

Sacramento's Next Poet Laureate

2009-07-14T06:47:31Z

Introducing Sacramento's next Poet Laureate: Bob Stanley.

Last month The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC) voted to ratify Stanley as Sacramento’s fourth Poet Laureate. Yesterday, he was officially introduced to the SMAC as Poet Laureate.

In a charming introduction speech and reading, Stanley promised to see through his vision of increased awareness of poetry in our region. He also believes poetry can reach a broad audience. He said, “Poetry is something everybody can get into.”

Stanley added, “I like it when it’s just right there on the page. You read it and you know it’s poetry, but you don’t exactly know why. But you get something from it, and you feel like you’ve learned something about a person . . . A good poem tells a story, helps us connect to one another.”

Stanley has been writing poetry since age 14. He has been active in the Sacramento poetry scene since he moved to Sacramento in 1989. Stanley joined the Sacramento Poetry Center in 1998 and since has become more and more involved.

You can find Stanley at readings around town. He performs at Luna’s, Time Tested Books and Underground Books. Last month I attended a reading at Time Tested Books The Book Collector, and it was not only fun, but packed. There were more than 50 people crammed along aisles and out the door. Stanley’s work is engaging and accessible. I found myself lost in his world.

Since 2005, Stanley has been a teacher. He teaches English composition and creative writing at Sacramento, Sacramento City Community College and UC Davis Extension. Before that he worked in his family’s business - an auto parts distribution company.

In addition, Stanley loves music. He sings and plays guitar and banjo. Stanley has been a part of several vocal jazz ensembles at American River College and Sacramento State.

The Sacramento Poet Laureate program has been around since 2000. A history of the program, biographies and accomplishments of past Poet Laureates can be found on the SMAC website here.

This fall, Stanley will be introduced to the Sacramento City Council, and there will be an official introduction for the public.

Here are a couple of Bob Stanley's poems:

the poem is brought to you by

an image of a woman’s face

itself like cloud lit by sun

above a field: dry grass?
Before you know a breeze

transforms oak-stumbled landscape,

lifts long tresses.
The thousand dreams that change

weather, leaves shuddering,

cool rain begins to fall
the way the old man’s mirrored face

dissolved into

something he didn’t want to understand.

--------------------

Ode for the city and county

If you stroll this tree-filled town,

as you move through shade, you might dream of

a coolness that makes heat worthwhile,

you might dream children splashing their brief splash:

children of a great central valley,

old land of oak and open water,

then a land of planting: deep orchard and cotton,

(and still ribboned today with irrigated green)

but now planted full with humanity: we came, we saw,

we conquer and are conquered.
A hundred villages turned into towns, Perkins and Florin, Arden and Arcade, McKinley Park Oak Park Tahoe Park Curtis Park Land Park Fair Oaks River Park River Oaks Glen Oaks Arden Oaks Sierra Oaks. Oaks and Parks: there used to be more, so now we have words for placeholders. Mumbo Gumbo River Cats Rio Linda Rubicon Isleton Java City Tower Bridge Tower Records Loaves and Fishes K Street Elk Grove Folsom Prison Folsom Lake Downtown Midtown Uptown East Sac North Sac get back - all these names, people, places here today because Marshall saw gold flash in the millrace.

Fourteen hundred thousand people call this

levee-bound rice-paddy hundred-year flood plain home.

Once Maidu land, now freeway-crossed, recession-tossed, farmland lost,

across the causeway we roll down fifty, eighty, ninety-nine, five. We drive,

we roll into Capital City River City Camellia City City of Trees: it’s Sacramento,

call it what you will: Sactown, Sutterville, New Helvetia, Sacratomato, Sacto,

just plain Sac.

Land of heat and water, art and music,

county of developers and mortgages succeeding and failing,

city of legislators that come and go,

this country of Kings so close to capturing a crown

for this place that seeks itself the way places do

(people are inhabited by places)

we still grieve as if sport were life.
This place we live, this flat-bottom

skiff that sails through nights and days, clings to its winding

rivers like a levee road. Cottonwoods and oaks

wait for rain, jays cavort, turkeys strut, an occasional quail skitters into

roadside brush. Skunks slip into pipes,

and you and I take a night-walk because it’s cool,

you and I who loved and met and came to this place

just twenty years past. Those twenty years became a life, so that when one asks

on some day we hope remains far off, “Where did you live?”

We’ll say Sacramento – a city, a county, a country threaded

with rivers – American, Cosumnes, and wide Sacramento.

We lived in a land named for a river that was named for a land, a holy

connection of water and earth. And sky. And all things in between.

----------------------

Ernest Hemingway teaches Freshman English

The hour is early, and I see you have been up late. Fog covers the hills behind campus; you show signs of it in your eyes. You may be thinking “the beer was cold and wonderful to drink.” I think this as well. But then I am the teacher.

Writing is like learning to shoot. You raise the gun, but it is heavy, and you fire repeatedly without success. Keep firing. Walk to the target. Inspect the pattern of your shots. This is a serious pastime. Without noting your ability or inability to hit the mark, your marksmanship will not progress. I learned this in Spain, with regard to both writing and women.

Infill house program

2009-04-19T02:47:20Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

You or someone you know may be interested in this new program the City is offering. Please keep in mind that this program may not be available in certain areas of the city, such as historic districts or design review areas.

The City of Sacramento has recently launched its revamped Infill House Plan Program aimed to promote quality residential development on vacant lots within the City. The new and improved program - which provides pre-approved construction drawings at a reduced price, streamlined application process and reduced fees - includes recent updates to the house drawings to reduce construction costs and achieve compliance with the new California Building Code. Plans may be purchased for $1,850.

Ranging from 1,435 to 1,670 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and large open kitchens, the new plans were value-engineered to reduce overall construction costs. In addition, two different floor plans each with three different elevations are available.

Plans include two full sets of pre-approved construction drawings, a site plan specific to the parcel, and an expedited building permit granted less than one week after building permit application. Other benefits of the program include reduced City review and impact fees.

For more information, contact Pamela Morgan, Assistant Planner in the Planning Department at (916) 808-7771, or you can view our website at www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/planning/infill-house-plan-program/. To purchase plans, please contact Piches Architecture at (916) 783-4624, 115 Taylor Street, Roseville, CA 95678.

See more information in this brochure and this flyer.

Free gardening classes start soon

2009-04-17T06:41:24Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

Are you ready to start your garden? Is your yard in need of a make over?

Then good news: Neighborhood Services is sponsoring free green gardening classes! They'll take place in April and May and will cover a range of topics, from improving soil to selecting drought-tolerant plants, as well as City landscaping regulations.

Call Neighborhood Services at 808-6789 if you have any questions.

City of Sacramento, Neighborhood Services Department is proud to present FREE Green Gardening Classes

SAVE THE DATES!

Saturday, April 18, 2009
9 a.m. - Noon
Ethel McLeod Hart Senior Center
915 27th Street

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Boys & Girls Club
5212 Lemon Hill Avenue

Thursday, April 30, 2009
6 p.m.-9 p.m.
Samuel Pannell Meadowview
Community Center
2450 Meadowview Road

Sunday, May 3, 2009
2 p.m.-5 p.m.
South Natomas
Community Center
2921 Truxel Road

FREE Gardening Classes offered to the community include the following workshops:

It All Begins with the Soil
Removing Your Thirsty Lawn
Vegetables and Other Edibles
Drought Tolerant and Native Plants
Fruit and Shade Trees
Pest Management in the Garden
Composting and Worm Farming
City of Sacramento Utilities Department
City of Sacramento Code Enforcement Department

Classes will be taught by professionals including the UC Cooperative Extension Sacramento County Master Gardeners and local gardeners.

Brought to you in partnership with the Code Enforcement Department, Department of Utilities, and the Parks and Recreation Department.

For more information click here to read the flier.

Contributor agreement revision

2009-04-13T05:36:18Z

We have made a significant change to our contributor agreement. This is the agreement between The Sacramento Press and volunteer contributors who write articles.

The major change is that originally our agreement was structured like a newspaper or magazine. It gave The Sacramento Press an exclusive right to the articles published on The Sacramento Press. Now we share a nonexclusive right with all of our writers. They can remix, use, or even sell their work as they wish.

Original:
In consideration of the availability of the website to post your contribution, you hereby grant to us the sole and exclusive right (including any moral rights) and license throughout the world to produce, adapt, print, publish, copy, store in any medium by electronic means and otherwise exploit the contribution or any part of the contribution or any derivative of the contribution in all languages in every form or format whether now known or hereafter invented, including without limitation print, audio, digital and electronic form and in each case to license others to do any or all of the same. We shall have absolute discretion as to the exercise, sale or other dealing of the rights granted herein. You will retain copyright in the contribution. Consent for you to republish the contribution after the submission of the contribution to us for use in _________________________ without charge shall not be unreasonably withheld.

Revised:
You will retain full copyright in the contribution and nothing herein grants to us any ownership rights in the contribution. Thus, subject to limited grant to us as defined herein, you may produce, adapt, print, publish, copy, or otherwise exploit the contribution or any part of the contribution or any derivative of the contribution at your own discretion anywhere in the world and as any law may provide. However, in consideration of the availability of the website to post your contribution, you hereby grant to us a nonexclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right (including any moral rights) to produce, adapt, print, publish, copy, store in any medium by electronic means and otherwise exploit the contribution or any part of the contribution or any derivative of the contribution in all languages in every form or format whether now known or hereafter invented, including without limitation print, audio, digital and electronic form and in each case to license others to do any or all of the same.

We spoke with several potential contributors who did not feel comfortable with our old contributor agreement. We examined our options with an intellectual property lawyer and feel confident that the revised agreement serves our needs while being more open for our contributors.

The new agreement also allows professional bloggers freedom to cross post on our site.

Please take your time and give us your feedback.

Community discusses role of local media

2009-04-03T05:50:30Z

Representatives of local media outlets and community members came together Thursday night to discuss how to make local media better and more reflective of the community. The meeting was organized by the Sacramento Media Group, California Common Cause and Access Sacramento.

There was discussion and debate about the role and responsibility of our local media. Ron Cooper, executive director of Access Sacramento, summed it up when he said, “Media and your influence over media is really a local issue.”

The event was well attended by a diverse mix of community activists, students, and stakeholders. There were representatives of local broadcast stations, newspapers and online ventures.

The debate was lively, civil and structured. The most contentious issues surrounded bias, balance and facts presented by local media.

Another major topic of discussion was the lack of breadth or depth of local coverage.

Surprisingly, there was a lot of debate about the formation of community advisory boards to help media organizations be more responsive to the needs of the local community. Many thought the boards might have too much influence over coverage, and that their roles would have to be narrowly defined.

There was very little talk of the changes in our local media landscape brought on by technological innovation and the recession. But the structure and form of the discussions kept the focus on constructive criticism of the current state of local media.

The event was held at the Coloma Community Center.

All participants were asked to sit at tables based on their interest or primary media of choice. There were tables for TV, radio, newspapers, internet and general media. Each table had seats for 12, and all were filled.

The format was simple. Each group held structured discussions on public affairs, diversity, political coverage, community input and broadband internet access. Then, after the discussion, moderators from each group presented to all participants. Finally, there was time for individuals to speak to the whole group.

There will be a full report detailing the conversations of each media group, and when it is available, I will link to it.

The night was a great jumping-off point for discussions about local media, particularly the challenges that lie ahead.

More importantly, what do you think? Please continue the conversation below.

Census 2009 comes to our neighborhoods

2009-03-25T18:39:23Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

Please be aware that from April through July, Census workers will be in your neighborhood. Please see the attached documents or simply read on:

2010 CENSUS ADDRESS CANVASSING OPERATION UNDER WAY IN OUR COMMUNITY

In preparation for the 2010 Census, the US Census Bureau will be sending out census workers, called Listers, to verify, add or delete addresses with hand-held computers. The operation begins on April 6 and may run until July 19, 2009.

Address Canvassing is an operation in which Census workers will be seen throughout our community with hand-held computers to update the information electronically, via the Global Positioning System (GPS). The Census Bureau will then use these updated addresses and maps to deliver the short ten-question questionnaire by mail, in March 2010, to every known address verified and updated in this operation.

Residents can easily identify census workers by their official white and blue badges, the special hand-held computers and the black canvas bags with Census Bureau’s name and logo on a white background. Residents can also ask Listers to provide the phone number of the Local Census Office (LCO) where they can be verified.

2010 CENSUS ADDRESS CANVASING FAQs

What is Address Canvassing?

The Census Bureau conducts Address Canvassing to update our address and map database to ensure that it is accurate and current -- verifying, adding and deleting addresses. The Census Bureau will use the updated addresses from this first major operation to deliver questionnaires in the mail, in March 2010, or send enumerators, in April 2010, to every address in areas where Address Canvassing is conducted.

When does it take place?

Between April 6, 2009 - July 19, 2009. Census workers, called Listers, will be conducting this operation during daylight hours, seven days a week.

Why do census workers use hand-held computers?

To help ensure the accuracy of the census and improve its efficiency, the Census Bureau has moved away from using pencil and paper to update its address lists and maps. Now, census workers will update the information electronically, using hand-held computers and coordinates from the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS coordinates will be added to each residential structure to make sure it’s recorded within the correct city, county or other geographic unit - which is particularly important when lines for Congressional and state legislature districts are redrawn.

How to identify the Listers?

Residents can easily identify census workers by their official white and blue badges, the special handheld computers and the black canvas bags with Census Bureau’s name and logo on a white background. Residents can also ask Listers to provide the phone number of the Local Census Office (LCO) where they can be verified.

Will the Listers be interacting with residents?

During the Address Canvassing operation, Listers will visit all the places where people live or could live. They must knock on each resident’s door and if someone answers, Listers will explain that he or she is verifying the address for census questionnaire to be mailed in March 2010.

Additional information:
At the link below you will find both high and low resolution images of Address Listers out in the field. Their government badges are visible as well as their over-the-shoulder bags with the large Census Bureau’s name and logo. As you can see in the photos, the census workers are dressed in plain clothes. The same web page also offers a photo of an Address Lister holding the hand-held computer. As with all 2010 Census information, the address information collected by the Census Bureau is confidential by law (Title 13, U.S. Code, Section 9). All Census Bureau employees, including the census workers who collect the address information and GPS coordinates, have taken an oath to protect confidentiality and are subject to a jail term, a fine - or both - for disclosing any information that could identify a respondent or household.

http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/broadcast/photos/census_bureau/010610.html

Editorial: Facebook and community

2009-02-03T03:00:44Z

Jill Duman's column "My View: We need more than Facebook 'friendship'" in The Sacramento Bee today is scary. However, the online comments below the story are encouraging. Link here.

I am having trouble actually putting together a proper response, but I will try.

The thrust of the column is that Facebook cannot replace real friendships and community. That could have made for a fine column. Unfortunately, she uses most of her column to demean those who participate in social networks while dismissing the community these networks foster. Hint: facebook does not replace friendship, it supplements. Facebook is a tool.

Here are a few choice cuts with some of my responses:

"[Facebook] apparently is the grown-up equivalent of asking everyone you know to sign your yearbook. It's Facebook, and it gives people with too little to do (or a lot of work to avoid) a way of creating a personal billboard in cyberspace."

Nice way to start the discussion, demean the people who use online social networking services. Oh, by the way, Jill has a profile on linkedin.com.

The notion that a service like facebook is the equivalent of yearbook signing makes me a little sick. Hundreds of software engineers toil to build something special just so that she can spit on their work. I guess newspapers are just like toilet paper that you can read?

"I suppose there are advantages to using Facebook. It's certainly a good networking tool for the thousands of us who are unemployed or underemployed. It's a way to keep track of family bloodlines and avoid inadvertent intermarrying."

More of the same demeaning. Thanks for the solid insights. She goes on:

"It allows us all to quickly check in and skim headlines from the lives of people wanting to maintain us as friends – here a great job; there a wonderful apartment in the big city; across the country, a new baby."

This is where I find the column takes a turn for the scary. She clearly realizes, through her sarcasm, that Facebook is delivering important news people care about. This is the kind of thing newspapers should stand up and notice! This is the kind of thing newspapers ought to emulate! Instead of celebrating personal and local news, Jill dismisses it. I honestly fear that this kind of thinking is rattling around inside The Bee.

I want our local newspaper to survive and thrive. This is my plea to stop this kind of madness. Facebook is a tool. It is not a community, it is a tool for community building. It is a way to deliver news and information. It is a way to allow for responsiveness and multi-dimensional conversation. Facebook is not your enemy, it is a tool.

Please use it to drive readership and inform young people about local news. Please use it to get feedback from your readers and create rich conversations. Do not print things that demean 95% of young people who graduated college in the last few years. Please stop putting down the readers and writers of the next century. Make an honest effort at this and fight back. Do not fade into the sunset and then blame fantastic services like facebook while you willingly disconnect with the future contributors who want to make Sacramento better.

"I guess what is troubling about all this cybercontact is that it creates the illusion of community without the commitment. Facebook will allow two dozen former friends to reconnect, but will they really do more than exchange e-mail addresses? Will they watch each other's children grow up? Could you really call a long-lost Facebook friend with a dissolving marriage, a positive biopsy or an imploding mortgage?"

I have to say, the answer to all those questions is: YES! I do not want to get into personal details, but reconnecting with someone from high school on MySapce led me to a wonderful and fulfilling relationship with my girlfriend. When someone gets sick or is getting divorced, Facebook can bring so much love from friends. Then those people can go meet up in person.

I suppose if by using Facebook I abdicated my right to actually go see people in person then the column would make some sense, but that is hogwash. Facebook friending is not about relieving you of your duties as a friend, family member, or community member. All it does is allow for a richer relationship with more communication. It is a supplement, not a substitute. People love real community. Online social networking is built on the idea that people love community.

"In a real community, you meet over common ground – the bike path, the dog park, the PTA meeting. You share interests and concerns. And most important, you respond. You're the back-up baby-sitter or kid pick-up. You have the needed hammer, wrench or phone number.

"You'll pick up your neighbor's newspaper when they're on vacation. You'll buy Girl Scout cookies or Boy Scout popcorn. And when someone dies, you'll bring a casserole, go to the funeral and hug the bereaved."

Real communities can benefit using tools like Facebook:

create support for the bike path and organize an event on Facebook to keep it clean once a month.
create a dog park group to pressure local government to add the second gate that is so sorely needed
take the PTA online so that parents who cannot attend can watch a video uploaded to facebook of the meeting and respond with comments below
ask your friends for a recommendation of a baby sitter or see who has time to help watch the little ones (same with pick-up, hammer, or wrench)
The Girl Scouts would make a killing selling their cookies using a facebook application
these days when someone young dies many times their MySpace page becomes a living memorial to that person

Whew! You all get the idea.

One final time: Facebook is a tool. Real communities and real friends communicate and interact in absolutely vital, engaging ways using social networks. You don't have to use them or like them, but please do not attack those of us who do. And if you work for The Bee please ask your editor to respond and distance yourselves from this kind of mentality.

By the way, I have a feeling the column will make it onto The Sacramento Press facebook page.

Law enforcement youth development program

2009-01-23T06:26:00Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

The Sacramento Police Department is developing a Law Enforcement Youth Development Program (YDP).

They are seeking a diversified group of young adults between the ages of 13 – 18 years old. These selected students must meet minimum requirements, such as a 2.0 GPA, leadership skills, school attendance, citizenship, and be interested in a possible career in law enforcement. Potential candidates must fill out an application, receive permission from their parents (if under age 18), and pass an interview. Upon acceptance into the program, students will be assigned a law enforcement employee to help guide them through the program.

The program will help guide students through academics and social experiences and direct them towards success. Successful students will have the opportunity to obtain part-time jobs as Public Service Aide's (PSAs), student trainees', record clerks, and Community Service Officers (CSOs) while going through the program.

For more information, please call Sgt. Shawn Rogers 808-0880, Officer Justin Brown 808-0887 or Officer Kris Sundby 808-0889.

Save our school

2009-01-18T19:42:51Z

I recieved this article by email from Martha Damjanovic:

On Wednesday January 21, 2009 there will be a meeting at the Washington Elementary School located at: 520 18th street from 6pm to 8pm

This school has been placed on a hit list to be closed.

The down/midtown neighbourhoods cannot afford for this to happen. How can we become a 24hr family city if we do not have schools for our children to attend. We need to really take stock and find out why the enrollment is down at this school and why at other schools parents are standing in 30 degree weather to get their children enrolled? This school has received several academic awards. The new principal at the school Marilyn Collins has reached out to the community for help. I fear we are dealing with a 30 year old mentality.

Neighborhood Summit 2009

2009-01-16T03:52:56Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

Good Neighborhoods = A Great City

The City of Sacramento's Neighborhood Services Department is proud to present the Neighborhood Summit 2009, a first of its kind here in Sacramento!

When: Friday, March 6, 2009
Time: 8:30-4:00 PM (Continental Breakfast/Lunch Provided)
Where: Sacramento Convention Center - 1400 J Street

Purpose: The mission of the City of Sacramento Neighborhood Summit is to promote communication and partnership between city staff, residents, neighborhood associations, and business owners to help maintain, revitalize, and promote healthy communities.

Free Admission: There will be no cost to attend the Neighborhood Summit event, thanks to the generous support and sponsorship of:

Nehemiah Urban Ministries Initiatives
Common Sense California
Sacramento Consolidated Charities
Sierra Health Foundation

Event Registration: We have a limited number of participant slots for the event. Please register online using the following link : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0XkyB9AVc61bjWoX_2fgiLSQ_3d_3d

The deadline for registering is February 6, 2009. Registration is first-come, first-serve and we have a limited number of slots available. Hurry while we still have room!

Please mark your calendar now. You don't want to miss this event!

For more information, please visit our website at www.cityofsacramento.org/ns or call 808-6789.

Discussion: nightlife during hard times

2009-01-12T12:14:40Z

The other day I was talking with some friends who were concerned about new nightclubs being planned in Sacramento. One of us remarked that we may crossed a line with too many "top 40 playing" nightclubs and not enough patrons.

Many current restaurant and nightclub owners are already concerned that we have reached our limit.

On The Sacramento Press there has been plenty of discussion about nightlife in the central city: here, here, and here.

Many local residents in conversations on the site point out that diversity is the real problem. Nightlife should not mean the same club, the same music, more and more alcohol. Perhaps we have reached the limit for one kind of nightlife but not another?

Two years ago I used to go to nightclubs often and then my friends and I joked that everyone at the club was in real estate. I wonder if this current economic downturn really affected this demographic and others. Is the market for big spenders at clubs down? Clubs make a lot of money on a few key customers willing to buy bottle service (it always makes me think of baby bottles for some reason). Could it be that the demographic for the club-goer market is just as large, but not living as large?

Of course, I am really interested in the idea that the nightlife market has a limit and that we have exceeded that limit. I may start looking into what local business owners think. For now I want to pose the question again on this forum. Is there a limit? Have we reached it?

Community meetings at SCUSD sites

2009-01-07T00:43:35Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

In light of budget difficulties, the Sacramento City Unified School District has been investigating options for school sites that are closed or underutilized. SCUSD would like to hear from the community. Meetings have been scheduled in January and February before the school board evaluates options in spring 2009.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A.M. Winn Elementary School
3351 Explorer Drive

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Freeport Elementary School
2118 Meadowview Road

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
John F. Kennedy High School
6715 Gloria Drive

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Washington Elementary School
520 18th Street

Monday, January 26, 2009
Alice Birney Elementary
6251 13th Street

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Will C. Wood Middle School
6201 Lemon Hill Avenue

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School
2635 Chestnut Hill Drive

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Maple Elementary School
3301 37th Avenue

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Martin Luther King, Jr. K-8
480 Little River Way

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Sacramento Charter High School
2315 34th Street

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Leonardo da Vinci K-8 School
4701 Joaquin Way

For more information, please visit the following website:

http://www.scusd.edu/com_office/fcpro/FacilitiesUse.htm

Next New Year's Eve?

2009-01-06T06:58:20Z

Over the weekend I posted my thoughts from my experience at 10th and K. Now I want to know how we can make New Year's Downtown better.

To get things started I want to propose a change of venue for the ball drop from 10th and K to either Cesar Chavez Plaza or the capitol mall. I think the mall would be better as the crowd could see the ball drop, the Christmas Tree at the capitol and the two fireworks shows over the river.

Oh, and a bigger ball with a longer drop would be nice.

Those are just a couple thoughts from me. What do you think about next year's celebration?

Digital television conversion event

2009-01-06T04:55:27Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

The City of Sacramento Neighborhood Services Department wants to help you prepare for the digital conversion.

We will be assisting with the online application for a T.V. Converter box discount coupon.

What’s happening? The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 requires full-power television stations to cease analog broadcasts and switch to digital after February 17, 2009.

WHEN: Saturday, January 17, 2009
TIME: 10:00 AM -12:30 PM
WHERE: South Natomas Community Center, 2921 Truxel Road

Who will be affected? Anyone using a television set that is not connected to cable, satellite or other pay television services, including sets that rely on antenna or “bunny ears” will need to act to ensure their sets will continue to work after February 17th.

The good news: Congress created the TV Converter Box Coupon Program for households wishing to keep using their analog TV sets after February 17, 2009. The Program allows U.S. households to obtain up to two coupons, each worth $40, that can be applied toward the cost of eligible converter boxes.

Stop by and let us help you with the process!

Editorial: "Flash Mob CIty"

2009-01-05T06:22:18Z

On New Year’s Eve a few friends and I went to Social nightclub to see the ball drop on 10th and K. The place was packed, the streets were packed (12,000 to 20,000 people) and there was a seriously festive atmosphere.

But the ball was small. And it wasn’t really a ball, more of a diamond inside a round cage.

The ball didn’t drop very far. It dropped maybe ten feet.

The whole thing got plenty of media coverage. There were complaints the day after about all sorts of minor incidents. But really who could have expected a crowd of 20,000 people to show up to 10th and K?

I started thinking, without any tradition or expectations all it took to get 20,000 Sacramentans to go party in the streets was a tiny ball drop.

******

There is something here. It seems like any time someone gives us a reason to get together lots and lots of people show up.

Other examples:

When the Kings came to town. We were not rabid basketball fans but we sold out the arena for a decade while the franchise set a record for missing the playoffs for a decade.
The old thursday night markets. They filled up K street. Of course, we were unable to control the violence that came with instant urbanization.
Second Saturday. Is it even about art for most people who attend? It seems more like an excuse to be in a crowded urban center.

Sacramento lacks a crowded residential urban core. Perhaps that is what makes us so flexible. If we hear about something exciting or just “big” we all pile on. And it could be anywhere. As time moves on and technology changes, the more predictable and controllable gathering like selling out ARCO Arena becomes the less predictable and overwhelming event like the ball drop.

We create our urban experience by collectively gathering increasingly spontaneously into mobs that are both hard to anticipate and hard to control. The term may not be perfect, but I would call it a flash mob of sorts.

I contend that Sacramento is a “Flash Mob City.” That may be a good or bad thing, but it is really fascinating to experience.

We are a very connected city. If we are to gather in a city so dominated by suburbs and carefully planned residential neighborhoods not to exceed a certain population per acre we need to stay connected. And new technology, particularly the cell phone, allows these connections to be more frequent, faster and easier.

The combination of our geography, needs and new technology combine to make for a volatile mix.

Sacramento has something new that makes it special. It is not the ball drop or our love of art or sports. It is a population spectacularly flexible and fast moving. We can change our minds and our direction in a flash. We can gather instantly and overwhelm to create an urban Sacramento when we want one, where we want one.

Or I might be a little crazy. Just a thought. What do you think?

Michael Phelps receives a key to the city

2008-12-29T08:06:30Z

I was at the Kings game tonight and a very strange thing happened. Swimmer Michael Phelps was there to watch the game and receive a key to The City of Sacramento.

I know that he is a hero after winning 8 gold medals in one Olympic Games, but giving him a key to Sacramento just for coming to town seemed strange. Perhaps it is not. I want to research who gets keys to our city and why.

I kept thinking what exact meaning the key would have next to his other accomplishments. Would it sit on his wall with his gold medals? Would he point visitors to it and beam?

And who invited him to Sacramento? Was there any money exchanged? Seriously, the whole thing was a bit weird and everyone in the crowd knew it. Was this a favor to the Maloofs or to our new mayor?

I don't think there is anything particularly wrong here and it was really fun to see him around. I just have some questions.

It's the little things we do

2008-12-22T06:44:54Z

From the City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services newsletter The Bridge.

By Yvonne Riedlinger, Program Analyst serving Council District 4

It’s the little thing we do in Neighborhood Services that can make such a big difference. It’s often difficult to highlight just one project or event that we assist residents with because there are so many little things we do to support our neighborhoods. Neighborhood Services staff attends community, neighborhood, and business association meetings to lend support and to answer questions about the City of Sacramento. We refer and listen to complaints of every nature and do our best to resolve those issues or make sure they get to the department and staff who can help. We encourage our neighborhood and business associations during good times, but more importantly during the challenging times.

As we approach the end of the year it’s a time to reflect and look back at the accomplishment we have made, and most importantly those that we did together with our neighbors, such as, Family Movie Nights in the Park, Family Fitness Day, and Jazz in the Park Concerts. It’s also a time to plan for the new year and to think about the accomplishments yet to come.

So, it’s with pleasure the Neighborhood Services Department and I take this opportunity to thank the residents of Council District 4 and the neighborhood and business associations including, capitol Area R Street, Fremont Park, Richmond Grove, College Plaza, Freeport Renovation on the Move, Newton Booth, Land Park, Z’Berg park, South Land Park, Little Pocket, Upper Land Park, Southside Park, Beverly Way and the Greater Broadway Partnership, for working together to accomplish all the “little things.”

Tell us about your experience with The Sacramento Press

2008-12-21T03:56:31Z

Over a month ago I asked everyone: what is wrong with The Sacramento Press?

It was an attention grabbing headline, but more importantly it opened an honest conversation between all of us who run and write and read The Press.

Now I am asking for broader feedback: tell us what you like and don't like about The Sacramento Press. Give me suggestions for our operations, marketing and sales.

The last time I asked we got feedback that helped us build out a better help section, fix bugs, add features, and even begin a path towards changing our legal agreements.

We are always looking to improve our site and operations. We don't have all the answers, but I hope we continue to ask the right questions.

Youth gang prevention and intervention campaign

2008-12-21T03:35:09Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

The City of Sacramento, Office of Youth Development (OYD), Sacramento Police Department, and U.S. Attorney’s Office are working together on the campaign. The campaign is designed to divert youth from gangs. The campaign consists of billboards throughout the City of Sacramento, public service announcements aired on local television stations, and hundreds of posters.

Research has shown that effective, community based programs can keep at-risk youth from joining gangs, and rehabilitate those already in gangs. Accordingly, the campaign links parents, adults, and young people to the City of Sacramento’s information line, 3-1-1, which will connect them to a wide array of youth programs and resources currently operating in our community. These programs and resources not only focus on gang prevention and intervention, they also provide academic support, job and life-skills development, and employment assistance.

In addition, calls emanating from this campaign will be tracked, and when appropriate, OYD staff will conduct follow-up inquiries with callers who require additional assistance. Most of the funding for the campaign comes from Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal grant program that focuses on reducing gang and gun violence through education and early intervention. Additional contributors, in the form of time and/or money, include CBS Outdoor (donated billboards), the Astone Agency, and Fresno’s “Valley Crime Stoppers."

For more information and to view the attached information, please visit the Office of Youth Development's website at www.cityofsacramento.org/Youth-Development/

City of Sacramento offers grants for improvements to historical properties

2008-12-20T09:28:06Z

The City of Sacramento Development Services Department announces:

Under a City ordinance passed last fall, Sacramento property owners looking to improve a historic structure may be eligible for financial assistance. The Historic Places Grant Program will award up to $62,500 in quarterly grant funding, with a total of $250,000 to be awarded over the course of the coming year.

The grant program, a collaborative program of the City’s Development Services Department and Sacramento Heritage Inc., aims to help preserve, rehabilitate, restore or reconstruct historic properties throughout Sacramento. To be eligible for funding, the property must be a City designated landmark or “contributing resource” in a historic district, or determined eligible as a landmark or contributing resource and nomination application submitted. In addition, the proposed work must comply with the City’s adopted Rehabilitation standards, and it must involve or work that affects the exterior of the structure or property, such as façade, roofing, porch, stairs or window repairs, or building stabilization. Work on significant, publicly-accessible interiors may also be considered.

Approved projects may receive matching funding for up to 50 percent of the project costs under $25,000, but no less than $1,000. Funds require a 1 to 1 match and will be provided on a reimbursement basis. Consideration may be given to waive the matching requirements if an applicant can demonstrate their household annual income does not exceed 80 percent of median in Sacramento County for the preceding year. In addition, emergency grant awards may be provided for eligible buildings that are determined immediately dangerous.

To apply for the grant, property owners can visit www.cityofsacramento.org to download an application, or contact the Development Services Department at 311 or 916-264-5011.

Applications for this last round of nominations are due to the City of Sacramento’s Preservation Office by Friday, January 16, 2008. The Preservation Office is located at 300 Richards Boulevard.

The grant program is a collaborative effort of the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Heritage, Incorporated, which is a non-profit organization whose Board of Directors are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council. The board includes representatives from the City’s Preservation Commission, Planning Commission, Housing Code Advisory and Appeals Board, and The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Commission, as well as at large members with expertise in preservation, history, construction, housing and finance. All applications are reviewed and grants awarded by Sacramento Heritage Board using ranking criteria established by the City Council.

On the move in Council District 1

2008-12-15T05:07:44Z

From the City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services newsletter The Bridge.

By Brit Irby, Neighborhood Resources Coordinator serving Council District 1

During the busy autumn season, where can you find your Neighborhood Resources Coordinator? You can find her coordinating City Department booths and bringing helpful information for your neighborhood special event such as the Alkali Mansion Flats Celebration, the Creekside Community Fair, or Celebrate Natomas. Or maybe you’ll catch her working with business representatives and the City to help revitalize Chinatown Mall. You’ll likely sit next to her at a neighborhood meeting for Gardenland/Northgate, Valley View Acres or the Natomas Community Association, where she’ll be making community announcements and offering follow-up information when applicable. Perhaps you’ve seen her assisting the Department of Utilities on their recent Knock and Talk project in Natomas, or promoting a Parks and Recreation neighborhood meeting to discuss future plans for Jefferson Park. She’s also providing guidance and informational materials to community members starting a new neighborhood association, such as the up and coming South Natomas Neighborhood Association.

Whether it’s co-facilitating Area 4 Leadership meetings or driving through an area to follow up on a concern, there is one place you’re sure to find your NRC…in the neighborhood.

If you’d like more information on any of these events, meetings or neighborhood groups, please contact Brit Irby at birby@cityofsacramento.org or visit www.cityofsacramento.org/ns.Brit Irby with NSD intern Michel Huizar at Celebrate Natomas 2008.

The Photo caption: Brit Irby with NSD intern Michel Huizar at Celebrate Natomas 2008.

The reach of outreach

2008-12-14T05:47:21Z

From the City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services newsletter The Bridge.

By Derrick Lim, Area Manager serving all Council Districts

Neighborhood Services has engaged in a great deal of community outreach this year. Upon reflection, several themes come to mind in relation to levels of service and customer service. Neighborhood Services can do a better job of articulating outreach levels of service, which in turn results in better customer service to the public.

Using Olympic medals as an analogy, outreach can also be categorized into three major categories: gold, silver, and bronze.

Gold is the highest level because the objective is not only to get the word out, but to also get more than 50 residents to attend and participate. Neighborhood Services experience tells us a minimum of 6-8 weeks is needed to craft and implement a strategy. In addition, resources are needed for translation, partnering with community nonprofits, and establishing new contacts. Going for the gold is getting harder in these challenging economic times, and we need to work smarter to achieve it with limited resources.

Silver is the intermediate level of outreach. Getting the word out is important to neighborhood groups. There may or may not be an expectation of neighborhood participation. Resources may or may not be available to engage new participants.

Bronze is the basic level of helping only to get information out. There is no expectation of turnout or community participation. Translation assistance may be involved if resources are available.

Let me know what you think of these themes. Your feedback will help Neighborhood Services fine tune its outreach levels of service, improve its customer service, and maximize the reach of outreach.

Our strength: our diversity

2008-12-14T05:34:44Z

From the City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services newsletter The Bridge. A message from the Director of the Department of Neighborhood Services, Vincene Rogers Jones:

Hello neighborhoods!

I'd like to ask you a question, but one I'm sure you will help me answer. If I may be perfectly honest with you, we can do more than we have done in listening to and learning from each others’ cultures. Acknowledging that anything less is to be satisfied with things as they are.

What am I trying to say? If a picture paints a thousand words, why haven't we seen a broader multi-cultural connection, like a train as it picks up passengers headed to the same destination? I am writing of our culturally diverse region, which is so rich in heritage and strong in our contributions of time, talent, and commitment to sharing our many traditions, all while becoming citizens of this great country and state. Perhaps the answer to my question is that without the fundamentals of inclusion in this great salad bowl of cultural life, we have a bridge that we need to cross, a gap that needs to be filled.

Neighborhood Services is committed to filling in the gaps, to ensuring that inclusion is a part of what makes good communities great. Sacramento is rich in ideas, principles, and beliefs of respecting the essence of all cultures. I recognize that to weave a basket that can hold a future promise, we have to cross a bridge between your culture and mine. Don't you think now’s the time?

Neighborhood Services certainly does!!!

That is why we are bringing this "special edition” of The Bridge with inserts in Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese. It’s one step forward as we invite all Sacramentans to work with us in filling that basket with our hopes, dreams, and best efforts for the future.

Please enjoy and happy holidays
to one and all!!

The Sacramento Press will re-post the English Language version of The Bridge over time, but if you want to read any of the other editions contact me at support@sacramentopress.com.

Link to Full Business Journal article

2008-12-12T18:42:08Z

That didn't take too long. Apparently there is a link to the whole Sacramento Business Journal story about The Sacramento Press.

Earlier this morning I reported that the article was hidden behind a pay wall.

I just got an email from Nicholas Walsh, Marketing Director of The Sacramento Press with this link to the full Business Journal article.

This is a story about all of us: employees, writers, and readers. I want to thank Melanie Turner who wrote the story and Dennis McCoy the photographer.

Business Journal article about us hid behind a pay wall

2008-12-12T17:36:48Z

Today The Sacramento Business Journal has a story about The Sacramento Press.

This is a story about all of us readers and writers and I wanted to share it with all of you the moment it went out. But I can only share the first few sentences, click here for the story.

Most of the story is blocked unless you have a subscription to the Journal. This is called a pay wall. I don't know how long the story will be stuck behind this pay wall (maybe only today), but when it is full, live, and free on the web I will post an update and a link.

I do want to thank Melanie Turner, the author of the story, for her hard work sitting through our ramblings for literally hours. I also want to thank Dennis McCoy who took a really great photo for the article. I am looking forward to sharing your work with all the readers and contributors of The Sacramento Press.

Not so free parking

2008-12-11T20:46:33Z

As of today, we can all pay our parking tickets from The City of Sacramento online with credit cards.

I just got an email from The City of Sacramento stating as much with a link to this page.

Editorial:

Awesome. This will make it easier for everyone to pay the fines.

On the other side, what took so long?

Midtown night life issues meeting tonight

2008-12-10T21:17:20Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

Vice Mayor Steve Cohn, the City of Sacramento & the Midtown Business Association invites you for a discussion on Midtown Night Life Issues.

TONIGHT, Wednesday, December 10th
5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Ethel MacLeod Hart Senior Center,
Redwood Room East

Learn about:
● What constitutes a violation & how to report
● Parking
● Entertainment & Special Event Permits
● Best Practices from other Cities

Have your questions answered by:
● City staff
● Police and security
● Business owners
● MBA

Please attend this important meeting!

City of Sacramento Urban Forest Services Committee December 8, 2008

2008-12-09T06:45:38Z

Tonight the City of Sacramento Urban Forest Services Committee met to receive and comment on proposed changes to the tree appeals process. The proposed changes would move appealed tree removal hearings from the Parks and Recreation Commission to the Planning Commission.

The meeting was civil but contentious. Representatives from Winn Park Neighborhood Association and Newton Booth Neighborhood Association attended to present letters from their boards opposed to the ordinance change. Committee members expressed mixed views of the change.

This was a "receive and comment" meeting so there were no official votes on actions. But an unofficial vote on whether to recommend the proposed ordinance change to the broader Parks and Recreations Commission split 3 - 2. Cynthia Cooke, Leo Lujan, and Patrick Lynn voted in favor. George Raya and David Tamayo voted against. No matter the outcome of that vote either way the full Commission will discuss the proposed ordinance change.

The proposal would change 12.56.120 and 12.64.060 of The Sacramento City Code relating to appeals of decisions on tree removal and maintenance permits. The process to remove a tree is not simple. If a decision to remove a tree is appealed it currently moves through a review process in the Parks and Recreation Commission. The appeal process would be the same, but under the proposed change the Planning Commission would review the appeal. The criteria used to review would also stay the same.

Response

2008-12-08T23:16:26Z

Joe Benassini, the Manager of Urban Forestry Services for the City of Sacramento, responded to citizens concerned about the tree on 16th street coming down with this public email:

All;

The tree in question was removed as a part of the improved streetscape adjacent to the Hot Italian restaurant. The tree had a major limb failure and had other structural problems that might not have been apparent to a passer by. The City Arborist made the call to remove and replace the tree and include an irrigation system in an effort to improve the canopy cover, not to lessen it. The cost of removal and replacement was borne by the applicant, not the city. The fact that the tree was not posted was an oversight by the arborist. However, posting is not required by the City Code. It is done as a matter of our general policy.

There are no plans to remove all liquidambars. However, the City Council has requested that staff review options for removal of trees that are often problematic, including liquidambars and other trees, due to root intrusion or other issues. City code allows a process for individuals to request removal and replacement of street trees, but it is by no means automatically granted.

The mission of the urban forestry division is to support a safe, healthy, and sustainable urban forest for Sacramento's communities. While it may not always be apparent, our decisions are based on the best interest of the residents, property and business owners, and visitors to Sacramento.

Joe Benassini
Manager, Urban Forestry Services
Department of Transportation
City of Sacramento

Tree on 16th street bites the dust

2008-12-08T04:22:56Z

A friend of mine wrote an email wondering about another tree going down in our city:

A neighbor called me to tell me that a healthy Liquid Amber on the east side of 16th street across from Fremont Park was suddenly cut down. Neighbors around there did not know it was going to be cut down because the city failed to post a removal sign!

I have also heard that UFS plans to remove ALL Liquid Ambers. Is this how they plan to do it--in secrecy?

Further, why are we spending money on removal of healthy trees when we are far behind on replanting?

There is some kind of remodeling/building going on there. Is that the reason? Please find out why this happened and is this city policy now?

If anyone has any information please post it in the conversation below. I hope that this tree was diseased or there was some kind of slip-up.

Update: This is the response from the Manager of Urban Forestry Services.

Neighborhood opposition to change of tree appeals process

2008-12-08T04:07:29Z

I received this letter representing Newton Booth Neighborhood Association's opposition to the proposed change of the tree appeals process. The process of change is being rapidly pushed along. I have a feeling there would be more opposition if there were more time, more review, or more media coverage.

Normally, I would not post this kind of letter directly. I want neighborhood associations to speak for themselves using our tools. But because time is short and there is a meeting Monday, December 8th 5:30 pm I feel I have to post this letter.

More information is here, here, and here.

Newton Booth Neighborhoods Association
P.O. Box 161466
Sacramento, CA 95816-1466
www.newtonbooth.org

December 7, 2008

The Newton Booth Neighborhoods Association (NBNA) firmly opposes moving the appeal process to remove trees from the Parks and Recreation Commission to the Planning Commission on all development related issues.

The proposed change will enable the Development Services Manager and staff to order tree removal any time a developer wants trees destroyed. The public would then have to appeal any proposed tree destruction to the Planning Commission instead of the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Planning staff and commission have no expertise in trees. This is wanton destruction of healthy trees that provide shade for all pedestrians (especially seniors, children and disabled persons) who have to move around in Sacramento's 100+ degree summer weather. These trees also provide valuable shade to buildings and helps to lower cooling costs which is important in today's climate of increasing energy costs, decreasing resources and defeats the ability for Sacramento to become a sustainable city.

Sacramento is known as “the city of trees” and we should all work to keep this phrase alive.

Sincerely, Kevin Turner
2008 NBNA Chair
krturner@jps.net

Sutter's Fort Christmas tree lighting ceremony

2008-12-07T08:41:55Z

It took about thirteen extra seconds, but at the end of a rousing countdown Midtown got its own Christmas Tree.

Here is the video of the countdown.

Tonight the Midtown Business Association, The City of Sacramento, and California State Parks all helped light up the beautiful Christmas tree at Sutter's Fort on the corner of 26th and K streets.

Vice Mayor Steve Cohn, California state assemblymember Dave Jones, and Mayor Kevin Johnson all had kind words for the crowd.

There was plenty of cheer in the crowd. Sometimes living in Midtown it feels like there are no families or kids in the nighborhood, but at this event families and children were front and center. The kids running around playing and festive atmosphere warmed my heart and the tree was beautiful.

J street will also be lit up for the holiday season. To read more visit the Midtown Business Association myspace page.

Who stocks Southside Park lake? The California Department of Fish and Game

2008-11-30T02:24:29Z

You can fish in downtown Sacramento. The lake in Southside Park has been stocked with fish for the past year by The California Department of Fish and Game.

I spoke with a Joe Ferrier at The Department of Fish and Game about the history of the program. Ferrier said that the program to stock urban lakes started fifteen years ago when Fish and Game got a grant from the federal government under the Sport Fish Restoration Act.

About five years ago a sewage spill contaminated the lake and Fish and Game stopped stocking the lake until about one year ago. Ferrier said that at that point the lake water was no longer contaminated and likely cleaner than ever.

Due to budget constraints Southside Park lake is stocked only twice a year with Trout in the winter and Catfish in the Summer.

The Southside Park lake is actually a great habitat for fish. Even without the stocked fish Ferrier suggests there may be other fish living in the lake. Species include Blue Gill, Carpie, Carp, and Catfish. Ferrier said, "That [lake] gets . . . fish that breed out there all the time. Even though there was a fish die-off during the spill, it is a pretty productive lake."

Private vendors submit bids to stock Sacramento's urban lakes. The fish planted in this program do not come from The California Department of Fish and Game fisheries.

In order to get updates about which urban lakes will be stocked soon call this prerecorded line: (916) 358 2872.

Free parking, Midtown shopping, and a tree lighting

2008-11-27T02:10:32Z

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces:

City of Sacramento’s Annual Gift to Shoppers Downtown and midtown visitors need not pay parking meters on designated days. Shoppers in downtown and midtown Sacramento will once again enjoy free on-street parking during select days of the holiday season.

Designed to encourage holiday shoppers to patronize downtown and midtown businesses, the program will be in effect during the post Thanksgiving weekend: all day Saturday, November 29, and Sunday, November 30. (Thanksgiving Day is always a parking meter holiday.)

The program will resume during the holiday period beginning Saturday, December 6, through Thursday, December 25. During this period, on-street, metered parking will be free starting at 4:30 p.m. weekdays and all day on Saturdays. Parking is always free on Sundays, except in Old Sacramento.

Please note that the free parking zone will extend from “I” to “L” Streets and from 3rd to 29th streets, and only applies to metered on-street parking spaces. See attached map.

Midtown Shopping

The Sacramento MBA would like to invite you to join in the Holiday Cheer and Shop Local this holiday season. We have planned a day full of fun for you and your families on Saturday December 6th, 2008. Festivities will begin at 10 a.m. and last through out the day with Midtown's FIRST EVER Tree Lighting in Sutter's Fort Park (26th and K Streets) at 5:30 p.m.

While you're out an about, check out J Street in Midtown. The Midtown Business Association has decorated the J Street corridor with holiday lighting, wreaths and much more! Parking's free so why not check out all that Midtown has to offer?

For more info and updates check out MBA's MySpace page
myspace.com/mbasacramento or call 442-1500.

Be safe out there and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Our Vision

2008-11-22T06:36:55Z

I wrote this document a couple of years ago when Geoff and I were just developing a set of ideas that would eventually lead to The Sacramento Press. it is our vision. We are working hard every day to make this a reality. And so far, with your help, we are getting there.

Compare the words news and information. News is a form of information. It is quick, disposable, always up to date,
decimated from a few to many; it is new. Information is much broader. It can be old or new, it can ﬂow in any
direction (between people and organizations in webs and bursts).

Disregard the traditional parameters of a newspaper. Imagine instead a greater variety of information. There is more
of it now; it is freer ﬂowing. There are more sources, more end users. End users can be sources. Interaction can
create new information through synergy and synthesis of ideas. Old ideas interact with new ones. History, news,
and interactivity form storylines rather than articles. It is lightning quick.

This is a dream and a nightmare because now news is so simple, so ﬁltered and easy to use. These new forms of
information may not be, and this system may overwhelm rather than inform. It is time to take a risk and apply new
filters to information, to better inform people about relevant issues. Some new ideas about ﬁlters may be technical in
theory, but the end result should be simple: a great user experience. These ﬁlters, and the powerful search tools used
to affect them, will present a simple user interface that looks and feels intuitive and provides relevant information to
a wide variety of users. Share our vision. Imagine the possibilities with us . . .

Ok, I know it is a little cheesy. And maybe there are some lofty platitudes in there. But its a dream for us and right now we get to live it out with all of you. Thank you.

If you want to know more about us just click the green "storyline" tab on the right of the page or visit the help section.

The very beginning of The Sacramento Press

2008-11-15T17:53:51Z

Recently a reader emailed and asked me about The Sacramento Press as a business. What is our direction? How do we make money? Why would anyone want to write for The Sacramento Press?

I think it is best to start at the beginning. Geoff and I wanted to cover local news. We were both working other jobs at the time and The Press was just an idea. We wanted to start a traditional newspaper, brick and mortar, with regular paper editions and a full staff of writers. Plus we wanted to have an online edition with a focus on community debate. We put together a business plan and had some consultants take a look. It didn't go well. This was in 2003 and even back then most people realized paper newspapers were part of a mature industry heading for a slow decline.

The advice of the consultants? Cut costs in three areas: paper, delivery, and labor. We weren't really too happy. Essentially these people just gutted our dream. We tried a few other plans on paper, but nothing incredible happened until I stumbled upon The Northwest Voice, a community newspaper in Bakersfield, CA. I was able to speak with their editor at the time Mary Lou Fulton. She was cheery and encouraging. And she had reason to be, The Northwest Voice was pioneering a new era in community journalism: citizen journalism.

Over the next two years Geoff and I crafted our business plan and talked about technology. Our goal never changed. We still wanted to find a way to get more local, neighborhood news out there and let people debate and discuss in a civil forum. We refined the concept to its core; let people do what people love to do:

Tell stories
Have conversations

So how were we going to run with low enough costs to make it happen? Being online only we not only eliminate costs associated with the rising price of paper, but also the rising costs of delivery (like gasoline).

Better yet, the price to host a site online is going down, not up. What about labor? Did we want to get rid of reporters? Our consultants from 2003 wanted us to be an aggregator and just show content other news outlets already wrote. But the catch is that Geoff and I got in this business specifically to get more local coverage, not just point to the very little local news that other outlets provide. Plus, there are other great options that aggregate local content from weblogs in Sacramento (like ipso sacto). Also, Geoff and I realized that not only do reporters want to get paid, but many do not want to cover neighborhood level stuff. I'm talking about sending someone out to cover a little league game, lack of lighting at a basketball court, or a house being torn down. These are things that matter to the community, but they lack the spice that would entice a great professional to do great work. Finally, wouldn't the people who care most about these local events be the best to cover them? The reporter we send to a little league game may know a ton about baseball, but do they know the names of these little players? I know that I would rather read a piece written by someone who lives in a neighborhood everyday than someone sent to cover it for one day.

Today Geoff and I want to be part of a mixed solution. There is a place for a spectrum of local coverage from professional to amateur and from very structured to independent blogging. The Sacramento Press is a place where we want to empower you to tell your local stories. We encourage you to become a community contributor and write. If your story is great, we will put it on the front page. If you want help copy editing, email your draft to journalism@sacramentopress.com. We will be hosting workshops if you want to improve your writing skills. It is time to come together and build a more vibrant Sacramento.

No on Proposition 8 rallies intensify in Sacramento

2008-11-10T14:34:03Z

After Proposition 8 passed last week there was an immediate response. I walked out of a late lunch in midtown into a large rally for No on 8. That rally had a very serious tone of anger and disappointment.

Yesterday afternoon there was another No on 8 protest. This one was much bigger with thousands of people marching on the Capitol. The tone was already more hopeful and defiant. Protesters carried signs instead of the candles of last week's rally.

The Sacramento Police and California Highway Patrol presence was strong. They followed protesters down the Capitol mall and L street to Lavender Heights on the corner of 20th and K streets.

After yesterday's rally I got a chance to speak with some protesters and I hope they will come share their stories of what it was like to be on the ground and in the middle of the event. If you were at the events please share your experience by becoming a writer.

Suggestions from a Sacramento Press reader

2008-10-28T23:01:31Z

I received an email from a reader the other day. He had lots of suggestions for us to work on. I asked him if I could post his email and my response so that everyone could join in the conversation. He said yes.

The email and responses do get a bit technical, so please ask questions in the conversation below if you want to know more about anything. This is the kind of feedback we want from readers and writers.

Here are the suggestions in the email:

Insecure login page. You should put both the login form and the form processor behind ssl. I *often* use insecure wireless and someone could easily grab my password (which most people would use elsewhere). The best solution to this problem would be to support something like openid[1] (at least for commentors if not editors also).
Major RSS feeds are hard to find. I'm guessing it is available for the front page but I can't (and more importantly Google Reader can't) find it.
Neighborhoods. An auto-complete for sacramento neighborhoods would be helpful (in the profile). Also, maybe instead of just "Southside Park" there could be a "neighborhood" section?
Personal Info... You collect a *lot* about your contributors (are ya'll really planning on calling me on the phone?). Perhaps you should loosen those requirements and/or state on your privacy policy how you intend on using (and keeping safe) our information.
tagging... it took me a minute to figure it out but I like it! I wonder if others can see my tags? How do you plan on keeping the vocabulary clean/small/etc. Visualization can become a problem when there are a ton of tags.
look and feel... I like it. The site seems clean and very easy to use.
links. Can you add a way to link to a specific comment on an article? Usually this is down by doing something like <a name="comment123">I think ...</a> then one could link to http://sacramentopress.com/article/foo/#comment123

And here are my responses:

The technical points you made I have forwarded on to our development team. I wanted to take a moment and address the points you made.

Login. I love Open ID and we may hook into them in the future. As for security, I want to talk with our technical team more before I dig a hole for myself.
RSS feeds. Working on it. We have 2 components to the splash pages. The top area is laid out by an editor. The bottom area is a list of new articles. We are reworking the bottom area to have buttons for the hottest and most discussed new stories and we will include an RSS feed when we make the revision.
Neighborhoods. Our entire operation is in beta right along with the site. This includes marketing and sales. We chose to limit our market to Southside Park neighborhood, Richmond Grove, and some surrounding areas. We will be expanding to cover other neighborhoods very soon as we make changes and have a more stable and usable site. At that point, we will move neighborhood by neighborhood around the city and eventually cover everyone.
Personal Info. We do collect a lot of personal information especially if you are a community contributor. Are we really planning on calling you on the phone? Absolutely, that's why we ask for it. When I say absolutely, this does not mean we are going to call you to advertise, but our goal is to have working relationships with our Community Contributors and treat them as a true reporter would be treated. We also need to know who you are if we choose to promote an article you write to our front page or one of our section pages. For casual users, the sign-up is easy. If you want to be a Community Contributor we are truly entering into a sort of partnership and the bar is higher. This is intentional and I would love to continue this dialog with you.
Tagging. Tags are a great tool, I'm glad you were able to figure them out and see their use. We have certain limits in the system to handle long tags (we shorten them or don't allow them). Our visualizations scheme uses an algorithm to determine what tags are most used and what tags to show. We have thought a lot about tags and we will be refining the system as we see it grow.
Look and Feel. Thank you, we worked really hard to get it to this point and we are not done yet. The design of the site will be slightly revised in the next couple of months to make sure that literally every button is just right.
Linking to a specific article is actually harder than it looks. We are working hard to get that feature out and make it light weight. We are always looking to optimize speed and keep things clean in the code and we may need to innovate behind the scenes to get it right the first time.

One more note. We have already crafted a solution to #2. RSS feeds. Our system now supports feeds for our front page and all splash pages. We are still working on making lists on these pages smarter.

What is wrong with The Sacramento Press?

2008-10-16T19:44:57Z

The Sacramento Press is an amazing tool. Our development team built the site from the ground up to be clean, fast and useable. But most of all it is a flexible platform. Why the focus on flexibility? Because we know that we will not get everything right the first time around. We know there are bugs. We know there will be usability problems and design flaws. We need your feedback. Our goal is to be responsive and flexible, not perfect. We strive to be always better.

Our operations are also designed to be responsive and flexible. We want input on how to make our terms of use better. We need your feedback about our privacy policy. We have posted both as storylines on the site so that you can comment on specific terms and begin the conversation.

Up and down our operation our goal is to meet your needs and exceed your expectations. In order to serve the public we need an open conversation with you. Please join me on this storyline and give us feedback. Just add your comment to the conversation section below. What do you like about the site? What is worng with the site? What plainly does not work? How can our terms or business model be better?

We pledge to be open, honest and transparent. As Operations Manager for The Sacramento Press, I pledge to be active in conversations about our site and operations.

Violations, revisions and contacting us

2008-10-14T06:07:28Z

VIOLATIONS OF THIS POLICY

Any improper collection or misuse of information provided to Sacramento Press is a violation of our Terms of Use and should be reported to privacy@sacramentopress.com.

If you choose to use the Web Site in any manner, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages and of the provisions related to jurisdiction and application of law of the state of California. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. Non-material changes and clarifications will take effect immediately, and material changes will take effect within 30 days of their posting on this site. If we make changes, we will post them and will indicate at the top of this page the policy’s effective date. We therefore encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.

CONTACTING SACRAMENTO PRESS

If you have further questions about our Privacy Policy please email your questions to: privacy@sacramentopress.com.

(END OF PRIVACY POLICY)

Security

2008-10-14T06:04:42Z

SECURITY

We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect the information collected about you. Access to such information is restricted to individuals who need it in order to provide you a good experience with the Web Site. Employees who violate these confidentiality requirements are subject to our disciplinary process. Where third parties provide support services, we require them to conform to our privacy standards.

(Privacy Policy continues in next article, "Violations, revisions and contacting us")

Changing or removing information

2008-10-14T06:03:04Z

CHANGING OR REMOVING INFORMATION

It is important that the information we maintain about you is accurate and complete. If you have reason to believe that we have information about you that is incomplete or inaccurate, please write to us at: {431 I street, STE 107, Sacramento, CA, 95814} or email us at support@sacramentopress.com so that we can update this information.

(Privacy Policy continues in next article, "Security")

Links

2008-10-14T06:02:04Z

LINKS

The Web Sites may contain links or frames to other web sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site, to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by Sacramento Press at this Web Site.

(Privacy Policy continues in next article, "Changing or removing information")

Minors

2008-10-14T06:01:05Z

MINORS - UNDER AGE 18

The Sacramento Press Web Site is intended for use by person over age 13. We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register and/or use the Web Site. If you are under 13, please do not send any information about yourself to us – of ANY KIND. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from someone under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.

If you believe that we might have any information from or about someone under 13, please contact us at privacy@sacramentopress.com.

(Privacy Policy continues in next article, "Links")

How we use our information

2008-10-14T06:00:25Z

USE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED BY SACRAMENTO PRESS

We limit the sharing of information with others not directly affiliated with Sacramento Press. Thus, we will not without your consent, share with any third party any information that can personally identify you (such as your name, address, date of birth). We may in the aggregate use non-personally identifiable information (“NPI”) to provide us and our advertisers with information that is useful for us to help manage the Web Site more effectively or our advertisers understand who are users are.

We may share NPI with other companies in order to provide our users with access to products and services we believe may be beneficial to them. However, we require these companies to use this information only for the limited purpose for which it was shared. We do not allow them to disclose it to others without our prior approval.

We may share any information we collect about you when requested by any legal authority whether or not as directed by a court order.

(Privacy Policy continues in next article, "Minors")

Miscellaneous

2008-10-14T05:58:26Z

18. Waiver. No waiver of any breach of any provision of these Terms of Use shall constitute a waiver of any prior, concurrent, or subsequent breach of the same or any other provisions hereof, and no waiver shall be effective unless made in writing and signed by an authorized representative of the waiving party.
19. No License. Nothing contained on the Site should be understood as granting you a license to use any of the trademarks, service marks, or logos owned by The Sacramento Press or by any third party.
20. Entire Agreement. These Terms of Use, together with the Privacy Notice and any other legal notices published by The Sacramento Press on the Site, shall constitute the entire agreement between you and The Sacramento Press concerning the Site.
21. Applicable Laws. The Site is controlled and operated by The Sacramento Press from its offices in the State of California. The Sacramento Press makes no representation that any of the materials or the services to which you have been given access to are available or appropriate for use in other locations. Your use of or access to the Site should not be construed as The Sacramento Press’s purposefully availing itself of the benefits or privilege of doing business in any state or jurisdiction other than California. These Terms of Use shall be construed in accordance with and governed by the laws of the State of California, without reference to its rules regarding conflicts of law. You hereby irrevocably consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state or federal courts in Sacramento County, California in all disputes arising out of or related to the use of the Site or Service.
22. Acknowledgment. By using the Service or accessing the Site, you acknowledge that you have read these Terms of Use and agree to be bound by them.

Ability to accept terms and severability

2008-10-14T05:56:27Z

16. Ability to Accept Terms of Service. You affirm that you are either (a) more than 18 years of age, (b) an emancipated minor, or (c) possess legal parental or guardian consent, and, in any case, are fully able and competent to enter into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations, and warranties set forth in these Terms of Use, and to abide by and comply with these Terms of Use. You further affirm that you are over the age of 13, as the Site is not intended for children under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the Site. There are lots of other great websites for you. Talk to a parent or guardian about what websites are appropriate for you.
17. Severability. If, for whatever reason, a court of competent jurisdiction finds any term or condition in these Terms of Use to be unenforceable, all other terms and conditions will remain unaffected and in full force and effect.

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, Miscellaneous, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

Indemnity

2008-10-14T05:55:28Z

15. Indemnity. You agree to indemnify The Sacramento Press for certain of your acts and omissions. You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless The Sacramento Press, its affiliates, officers, members, managers, employees, consultants, agents, and representatives from any and all third party claims, losses, liability, damages, and/or costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs) arising from your access to or use of the Site, your violation of these Terms of Use, or your infringement, or infringement by any other user of your User Account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. The Sacramento Press will notify you promptly of any such claim, loss, liability, or demand, and will provide you with reasonable assistance, at your expense, in defending any such claim, loss, liability, damage, or cost. This Section shall survive the termination of this Agreement.

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, Ability to accept terms and severability, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

Warranties, liability and affiliated sites

2008-10-14T05:54:18Z

12. No Warranties. The Sacramento Press does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information displayed, uploaded, or distributed through the Service by any user, information provider or any other person or entity. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, memorandum, or information shall be at your sole risk. SACRAMENTO PRESS HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES. SACRAMENTO PRESS IS MAKING THE SITE AVAILABLE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. YOU ASSUME THE RISK OF ANY AND ALL DAMAGE OR LOSS FROM USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE OR THE SERVICE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SACRAMENTO PRESS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE SITE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NONINFRINGEMENT. SACRAMENTO PRESS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE OR THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.
13. Limited Liability. SACRAMENTO PRESS’S LIABILITY TO YOU IS LIMITED. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SACRAMENTO PRESS BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, OR LOST DATA, REGARDLESS OF THE FORESEEABILITY OF THOSE DAMAGES) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR ANY OTHER MATERIALS OR SERVICES PROVIDED TO YOU BY SACRAMENTO PRESS. This limitation shall apply regardless of whether the damages arise out of breach of contract, tort, or any other legal theory or form of action.
14. Affiliated Sites. The Sacramento Press has no control over, and no liability for any third party websites or materials. The Sacramento Press works with a number of partners and affiliates whose internet sites may be linked with the Site. Because neither The Sacramento Press nor the Site has control over the content and performance of these partner and affiliate sites, The Sacramento Press makes no guarantees about the accuracy, currency, content, or quality of the information provided by such sites, and The Sacramento Press assumes no responsibility for unintended, objectionable, inaccurate, misleading, or unlawful content that may reside on those sites. Similarly, from time to time in connection with your use of the Site, you may have access to content items (including, but not limited to, websites) that are owned by third parties. You acknowledge and agree that The Sacramento Press makes no guarantees about, and assumes no responsibility for, the accuracy, currency, content, or quality of this third party content, and that, unless expressly provided otherwise, these Terms of Use shall govern your use of any and all third party content.

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, Indemnity, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

Prohibited uses and termination

2008-10-14T05:52:51Z

10. Prohibited Uses. You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate any security features of the Site or Service, including, without limitation:
1. accessing content or data not intended for you, or logging onto a server or account that you are not authorized to access;
2. attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, the Site, or any associated system or network, or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization;
3. interfering or attempting to interfere with service to any user, host, or network, including, without limitation, by means of submitting a virus to the Site or Service, overloading, "flooding," "spamming," "mail bombing," or "crashing;"
4. using the Site or Service to send unsolicited e-mail, including, without limitation, promotions or advertisements for products or services;
5. forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or in any posting using the Service; or
6. attempting to modify, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise reduce or attempt to reduce to a human-perceivable form any of the source code used by The Sacramento Press in providing the Site or Service.
Any violation of system or network security may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability.
11. Termination. The Sacramento Press may change, suspend or terminate any aspect of the Site or the Service at any time and for any reason. The Sacramento Press may (a) restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to the Site or the Service and/or (b) suspend or terminate your User Account if we believe you are in breach of these Terms of Use or applicable law, or for any other reason, without notice or liability. Once your User Account has been terminated or you have been banned from using the Site or Service, you may not thereafter use or access the Site or Service in any way, including under a new User Account or identity. The Sacramento Press maintains a policy to terminate the Site use privileges of users who infringe the intellectual property rights of others (including those of The Sacramento Press).

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, Warranties, liability and affiliated sites, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

Intellectual property laws and copyright infringement

2008-10-14T05:33:05Z

8. Compliance with Intellectual Property Laws. When accessing the Site or using the Service, you agree to obey the law and to respect the intellectual property rights of others. Your use of the Service and the Site is at all times governed by and subject to laws regarding copyright ownership and use of intellectual property. You agree not to upload, download, display, perform, transmit, or otherwise distribute any information or content (collectively, "Content") in violation of any third party’s copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights. You agree to abide by laws regarding copyright ownership and use of intellectual property, and you shall be solely responsible for any violations of any relevant laws and for any infringements of third party rights caused by any Content you provide or transmit, or that is provided or transmitted using your User Account. The burden of proving that any Content does not violate any laws or third party rights rests solely with you.
9. Copyright Infringement. The Sacramento Press has in place certain legally mandated procedures regarding allegations of copyright infringement occurring on the Site or with the Service. The Sacramento Press has adopted a policy that provides for the immediate suspension of the User Account of any user who is found to have infringed on the rights of The Sacramento Press or of a third party, or who otherwise violated any intellectual property laws or regulations. The Sacramento Press’s policy is to investigate any allegations of copyright infringement brought to its attention.

If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any User Content or other content infringes upon your copyright, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") by providing our copyright agent with the following information in writing (see 17 U.S.C 512(c)(3) for further detail):
1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material;
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail;
5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
The Sacramento Press’s designated copyright agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement is:
```
				Macer Media LLC
				Attn:  Copyright Infringement Agent
				431 I Street Suite 107
				Sacramento, CA 95814
				Email: copyright@sacramentopress.com
				Phone: 916-443-5403
				Fax: 916-443-6825.
				
```
You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section 9, your DMCA notice may not be valid.

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, Prohibited uses and termination, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

Rules of Conduct

2008-10-14T05:31:59Z

9. Rules of Conduct.
1. No objectionable content. You agree not to upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish on, the Site any libelous, defamatory, obscene, sexual, pornographic, abusive, or otherwise objectionable or illegal material. The Sacramento Press reserves the right to decide whether User Content is appropriate and complies with these Terms of Use.
2. Engage in Courteous Debate. In a community full of opinions and preferences, people always disagree. The Sacramento Press encourages active discussions and welcomes heated debate on the Site, but personal attacks are a direct violation of these Terms of Use. You agree that you will not threaten, verbally abuse, personally attack, or otherwise take any action or use any language intended to defame, offend, harass, or harm any other user, individual, group, or business. You further agree that you will not reveal any personal, non-public information of any other user, individual, group, or business, and that you will not deliberately disrupt discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages, or "spam."
3. Use respectful language. Like any community, the online community flourishes only when users feel welcome and safe. You agree not to use language that abuses or discriminates on the basis of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual preference, age, region, disability, etc. Hate speech of any kind is grounds for immediate and permanent termination of your User Account.
4. Use the Service only in a noncommercial manner. You agree not to, without the express approval of The Sacramento Press, distribute or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation of funds, advertising or solicitation for goods or services. The Sacramento Press aims to provide a place for people to share and discuss topics related to the news. Self-promotion, advertising, and posting links to drive traffic elsewhere for your personal or financial gain is prohibited.
5. Disclosure of Relevant Personal and Professional Affiliations. You agree to include a "disclosure line" within any article that you submit for publication by The Sacramento Press if you have a personal or professional interest in the subject matter of such article. The "disclosure line" should clearly identify the nature of your personal or professional interest in the article. For instance, if you submit an article for publication that describes a fundraising event that your company sponsored, you need to briefly identify the nature of your relationship with your company, including your job title, in the "disclosure line". You further agree to edit the "Occupation" and/or the "About Me" sections of your User Account, if appropriate, to include any relevant affiliations prior to submitting any article for publication by The Sacramento Press in which you have a personal or professional interest.
6. Help keep the Site civil. If you feel that an article or comment is disrespectful or inappropriate, please utilizing our flagging system. To notify The Sacramento Press of objectionable content, personal attacks, hate speech, or other violations of these Terms of Use, please click the appropriate flag (e.g., "offensive," "spam," or "duplicate") next to the relevant article or comment. While this does not guarantee that an article or comment will be removed, The Sacramento Press will undertake reasonable efforts to review any such article or comment in a timely manner and to take appropriate action.

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, Intellectual property laws and copyright infringement, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

User accounts, software and content

2008-10-14T05:16:30Z

4. User Accounts. In order to gain access to some features of the Site, you will have to create a user account ("User Account") by completing and submitting the Create an Account form ("Account Form") located at http://sacramentopress.com/usertools/add. In order to complete the Account Form, you must provide certain information, including a unique username and a password. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You may not use the User Account, username, or password of someone else at any time. You agree to notify The Sacramento Press immediately regarding any unauthorized use of your User Account, user name, or password. The Sacramento Press shall not be liable for any loss that you incur as a result of someone else using your password, either with or without your knowledge. You may be held liable for any losses incurred by The Sacramento Press, its affiliates, officers, members, managers, employees, consultants, agents, or representatives due to someone else’s use of your User Account, username, or password.
5. Use of Software. The Sacramento Press may make certain software available to you from the Site. If you download software from the Site, the software, including all files and images contained in or generated by the software, and accompanying data (collectively, "Software") are deemed to be licensed to you by The Sacramento Press for your personal, noncommercial, home use only. The Sacramento Press does not transfer either the title or the intellectual property rights to the Software, and The Sacramento Press retains full and complete title to the Software as well as all intellectual property rights therein. You may not sell, redistribute, or reproduce the Software, nor may you decompile, reverse-engineer, disassemble, or otherwise convert the Software to a human-perceivable form. All trademarks and logos related to the Software are owned by The Sacramento Press or its licensors, and you may not copy or use them in any manner without written permission from The Sacramento Press.
6. User Content.
1. License. You grant The Sacramento Press a license to use the materials you post to the Site or Service. By posting, uploading, downloading, displaying, performing, transmitting, or otherwise distributing information or other content ("User Content") to the Site or Service, you are granting The Sacramento Press, its affiliates, officers, members, managers, employees, consultants, agents, and representatives a license to use User Content in connection with the operation of the business of The Sacramento Press, its affiliates, officers, members, managers, employees, consultants, agents, and representatives, including, without limitation, a right to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate, and reformat User Content. You will not be compensated for any User Content. You agree that The Sacramento Press may publish or otherwise disclose your name in connection with your User Content. By posting User Content on the Site or through the Service, you warrant and represent that you own the rights to the User Content or are otherwise authorized to post, distribute, display, perform, transmit, or otherwise distribute the User Content.
2. Responsible Party. You understand and agree that User Content is the responsibility of the user from which such User Content originated. You agree that any information you provide to The Sacramento Press is and will be accurate, correct and up to date. You are fully responsible for any and all User Content that you post, upload, download, display, transmit, or otherwise distribute to the Site or Service. Under no circumstances shall The Sacramento Press be held liable for any errors or omissions in any User Content.
3. Right to Review Content. The Sacramento Press does not pre-screen User Content, but The Sacramento Press reserves the right to inspect, edit, move, and delete any content that it believes, or has reason to believe, has violated these Terms of Use. The Sacramento Press may use or disclose any User Content, if such disclosure is necessary to enforce these Terms of Use, to respond to claims of intellectual property infringement, to comply with legal processes or to protect the rights of The Sacramento Press or the public.
4. Immunity. You acknowledge that The Sacramento Press is considered a "provider/user of an interactive computer service" as defined in the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. §230, and therefore is immune from liability resulting from any false or inaccurate information contained on the Site.

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, Rules of conduct, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

Who Stocks the Lake?

2008-10-13T17:58:46Z

I wanted to talk to someone in the Parks and Recreation department about who stocks the lake? Do fish help to keep the lake healthy?

Intro, agreement and amendments

2008-10-11T09:38:19Z

TERMS OF USE FOR THE SACRAMENTO PRESS

1. Binding Effect. This is a binding agreement. By using the internet site located at http://www.sacramentopress.com (the "Site") or any services provided in connection with the Site (the "Service"), you agree to abide by these terms of use ("Terms of Use").
2. Changes to this Agreement. The Sacramento Press reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove any portion of these Terms of Use, in whole or in part, at any time. Changes to these Terms of Use will be effective when posted. Your continued use of the Site and/or the Service after any changes to these Terms of Use are posted will be considered acceptance of those changes. It is your responsibility to review these Terms of Use periodically, and if at any time you find these Terms of Use unacceptable, you must immediately leave the Site and cease all use of the Service and the Site.
3. Privacy Policy. The Sacramento Press has a privacy policy that explains to users how their information is collected and used ("Privacy Policy"). A copy of the current version of the Privacy Policy can be reviewed by clicking visiting http://www.sacramentopress.com/site/privacy. The Privacy Policy is expressly incorporated into this Agreement by this reference. Your use of the Site and/or the Service signifies your acknowledgement of and your agreement with the Privacy Policy.

NOTE: You can find the next section of the terms of use, User accounts, software and content, by clicking on the link, or by clicking the green storyline tab on the upper right hand side of the page.

Intro, what we collect

2008-10-11T09:38:17Z

This document explains the information we may collect through the Sacramento Press web site at Sacramentopress.com (the "Web Site") and how that information is used and shared. When you use the Web Site, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, please contact us at privacy@sacramentopress.com.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you use the Web Site and that includes accessing the Web Site to read it and/or contribute or edit content on the Web Site we may ask you to provide us with the following types of information:

Personal information you knowingly choose to disclose

If you a registered user me may ask you to provide us with certain personal identifiable information ("PII"), such as your name, email address, gender and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us (including for example your social security number and credit card number(s)). We will store this information in a commercially reasonably secure environment.

Web Site use information collected by us as you interact with the Web Site

When you use the Web Site we may collect your browser type and IP address. This information may be gathered for all users of the Web Site, whether just visiting the Web Site or actually contributing or editing content on the Web Site. In addition, we store certain information from your browser using "cookies." A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use session ID cookies to confirm that users are logged in. These cookies terminate once the user closes the browser. By default, we use a persistent cookie that stores your login ID (but not your password) to make it easier for you to login when you come back to use the Web Site. You can remove or block this cookie using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature. When you use the Web Site, we may track the kinds of things you did as you interact with the Web Site (for example, what articles you read and/or edited). We collect this information so that we can provide you a better experience visiting the Web Site including for example, to offer personalized features.

(Privacy Policy continues in next article, "How we use our information")

Contact info

2008-10-11T09:38:15Z

We're a local company, and as such we are located right in the middle of downtown. We're right next to the Amtrak Station, the Sacramento Valley Station of light rail and several Regional Transit bus lines.

Sacramento Press
431 I Street, Suite 107
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-443-5403

Here are several primary contacts at our business:

Chief Operating Office - Ben Ilfeld / ben@sacramentopress.com

Business Development - Sonny Mayugba / sonny@sacramentopress.com

Editor in Chief - David Watts Barton / david@sacramentopress.com
Managing Editor - Colleen Belcher / colleen@sacramentopress.com

Staff Reporter - Kathleen Haley / kathleen@sacramentopress.com
Staff Reporter - Suzanne Hurt / suzanne@sacramentopress.com
Staff Reporter - Brandon Darnell / brandon.darnell@sacramentopress.com

For questions about how the site works or technical problems with the site please send us an email at our support email. For all other comments and concerns please email us at the feedback email address.

Feedback - feedback@sacramentopress.com
Support - support@sacramentopress.com

What we're all about

2008-10-11T09:38:13Z

The Sacramento Press will be the most comprehensive, local news source and information center for the Sacramento Metropolitan Area.

We are a strictly online newspaper. Our writers are primarily volunteer Community Contributors.

We combined the best tools on the web and built an outstanding platform from scratch. This platform enables people to tell stories about their neighborhoods and have thoughtful conversations about these stories. Then our editors place the best content on the front page and section pages to highlight great work.

The casual experience is like a traditional newspaper. We take pride in putting the content front and center. We also take pride in making our tools for rating content, leaving comments, and flagging inappropriate content easy to find and easy to use. For those who are web savvy, we offer all the tools for a power user to aggregate (rss), categorize (tags), and dig deeper with our "storyline" button.

We are a for profit business, but we consider ourselves a public trust. The original concept of the corporation was a balance between allowing people to join together for a common goal with some profit potential and demanding that the corporation provide a public service to the nation. In our case, we will provide valuable services to the neighborhoods of Sacramento while showing that this kind of community journalism can be profitable.