Newest articles and comments on The Sacramento Press written by Craig Powell

Craig Powell on "Locally owned: Old Soul Co., Jason Griest & Tim Jordan"

2013-04-26T23:04:06Z

This is a great story, Nancy. Very nice profile of a couple of very dedicated and effective businessmen. Plus, I love their baked goods. We serve about 60 or 70 of them to the volunteers of the Land Park Volunteer Corps each month and it keeps them happy!

Craig Powell on "Help Wanted: curious storytellers to produce local news"

2013-02-08T16:26:47Z

This is a terrific program, Ron. And Isaac is the right guy to lead the effort.

Craig Powell on "Packed house at Midtown crime meeting"

2013-01-14T18:59:21Z

Thanks for your great work, David. You too, Ash. I'll try to make the CivicMeet meeting on the 24th.

Craig Powell on "Area youth design a new McKinley Park playground"

2013-01-14T18:47:04Z

It was a brilliant idea to include kids in the redesign of the playground. Some may be inspired by the experience, becoming future architects, designers, artists and builders. It should also help them evolve into engaged, empowered citizens of their communities.

Craig Powell on "Active 20-30 Holiday Party for Children Fighting Cancer"

2012-12-04T22:37:34Z

Outstanding organization. Best of luck with the party.

Craig Powell on "Feds fund Blue Line expansion connecting downtown with North and South Sacramento "

2012-12-04T22:32:09Z

A northern line to the airport has always raised red flags for me. How many air travelers will actually be willing to lug suitcases on to light rail and tolerate, what, 10 or 12 (or more?) stops before they get to their downtown or airport destination? The only folks likely to take light rail to the airport are some airport employees, not air travelers. William Burg's idea of instituting high frequency, express bus service between the Sacramento Valley Station and the airport makes much more sense - at a tiny fraction of the cost of building a light rail extension to the airport. Public infrastructure improvement dollars are scarce. I suggest we use them more wisely on higher priority improvements.

Craig Powell on "Live chat at 2 p.m.: Breaking down the District 4 vote "

2012-11-20T01:22:27Z

This is the most egregious case of the city blowing off neighborhoods that I've witnessed in decades. The city has done zero outreach to the surrounding communities to discuss even the general concept of this project. For Rob Fong to secretly push this hare-brained proposal for two years while keeping his constituents - including the understandably freaked out current residents of the two projects - entirely in the dark is both a scandal and a disgrace. These two public housing projects just off of Broadway are among the best run, best functioning public housing projects in the country. SHRA's proposal is an effort to fix what is obviously not broken. These are stable communities which offer humane, clean, well-maintained and respectful low-density housing for Sacramento's poor. Of course, lunatic planners at SHRA want to destroy it. Ask yourself why any sane person would want to tear these stable homes down in order to put up a risky, high-density, low-income public housing project based on the very shaky assumption that you can successfully mix low-income housing with market-rate housing (other than as a modest 15% component of market rate housing)? High-density and low-income public housing mix like gasoline and an open flame. Are we destined to repeat the catastrophic high-density public housing failures common to so many east coast cities? I encourage you to call or e-mail your council member and urge them to put a stop to this idiocy.

Craig Powell on "ANALYSIS: Freeport bike lane faces challenges, including opposition from residents"

2012-10-30T17:54:34Z

Freeport Blvd. will become largely impassible during peak drive times if these changes are adopted as proposed. Try driving on Freeport at 3:15 p.m. some school day afternoon. It's close to gridlock already. Now imagine what it would be like if the city eliminated an entire lane of traffic, shrinking it from four lanes to three. No question the intersection at Freeport, 21st and the railroad tracks is poorly designed and a serious danger to pedestrians. South-bound cars zoom around "Taylor's Curve" at racetrack speed, putting pedestrians in the crosshairs of speeding cars. Three years ago a bright young UCDMC med student was jogging across the crosswalk at the intersection and was mowed down by a fast-moving car, causing her permanent brain damage. They have to redesign the intersection to slow down south-bound traffic, but turning Freeport into a parking lot at rush hour is not the way to do it. I also wouldn't try to minimize the future impact of Curtis Park Village on future Freeport traffic. Perhaps eliminating parking to create modest-width bike lanes is the way to improve bike safety without gridlocking traffic through a lane reduction. Personal note: I've ridden bikes along this stretch of Freeport for almost 50 years (yes, we had bikes back then). The safest practice during that entire time has been for bicyclists to ride slowly on the wide sidewalks that adjoin the street (particularly the western sidewalk), practicing courtesy and consideration towards the pedestrians that they pass, much as the bicyclists on the American River Parkway used to do before so many of them became fixated on setting personal best times on their way to and from work. In all my years of riding bikes on the sidewalks along Freeport (McClatchy, Class of '73, Go Lions) I never once observed a bike-pedestrian accident. Even if there have been bike-pedestrian collisions of which I've been unaware, they are almost always far less injurious than collisions involving cars. Now, I know that bicyclists aren't supposed to ride on the sidewalk and I know the attitude of many bicyclists today is that they have an equal right to occupy traffic lanes as cars. But let's not let the attitudes of some of today's bicyclists push the city into making a change that will badly congest a major corridor through Land Park and Curtis Park.

Craig Powell on "Opinion: Sacramento's marijuana problem"

2012-10-21T23:01:03Z

U.S. Constitution, Article VI: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof....shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges of every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." Cultivation of marijuana is a federal crime. Some people apparently only care about following the U.S. Constitution when they agree with it and ignore or object to its binding authority when they disagree with it. There is a long line of such objectors: Bull Conner, George Wallace, the KKK and the Confederate States of America who objected, variously, to federal civil rights laws, federal voting rights laws and the Emancipation Proclamation and who were unwilling to accept that federal law is the "Law of the Land," notwithingstanding "Laws of any State to the Contrary." For those of you who are displeased with the fact that federal law with regard to marijuana must be obeyed notwithstanding state law on marijuana dispensaries, I have some basic civics advice for you: elect congressional representatives and presidents who will change the federal statutes to which you object. In the mean time, obey the Law of the Land and stop treating the U.S. Consitution like so much tissue paper.

Craig Powell on "Hansen: Economic recovery starts with saving jobs"

2012-10-04T07:01:21Z

Campbell Soup is located in what is referred to as the "finger up," an unincoporated portion of the county that the city did not annex when it annexed everything else around it, The finger up was not annexed due to resistance from some fire districts in the area at the time (or so we've been advised). We understand that the firefighters working for those districts did not want to get subsumed into the city fire department and, so, opposed annexation of the finger. Interestingly enough, while Campbell Soup is not in the city, we understand that it receives city water, sewer and strom drainage services from the city's Department of Utilities. We don't know yet what impact the city council's recent decision to adopt double-digit, multi-year hikes in city water and sewer rates may have had on Campbell Soup's decision to shutter its plant. Campbell Soup also was facing the prospect (as everyone is) of a tripling of its regional sanitation rates over the next 7 years due to the state's mandate that we build a new tertiary sewage plant in the area. As one of the largest consumers of water and disposers of sewage in the region, Campbell's no doubt faced major utility cost hikes had it remained open. Eye on Sacramento is trying to determine the maginitude of the utility cost hikes the company was facing and the impact those hikes have had (and were expected to have in the future) on the company's declining margins and its decision to close the plant. If rapidly escalating city water and sewer rates are playing a role in driving major employers out of town and destroying blue collar jobs, we all need to know about it.

Craig Powell on "Off track: Who’s going to pay for the cleanup of the railyards? [Opinion] "

2012-10-04T06:31:16Z

Has anyone been to Switzerland or Germany and visited the gorgeous, modern indoor public pools that are commonplace in towns large and small? They make the pools at the Clunie and the YMCA look like something out of the 18th century.

Craig Powell on "Citizen Oversight Committee for Measure U "

2012-10-02T16:08:41Z

James is right: once the $28 million is dumped into the general fund, there is no way for an oversight committeeto to trace how proceeds of Measure U will be spent. The general fund is one big commingled stew comprised of a dozens of different revenue sources which are in a constant state of flux, from rapidly rising utility taxes, slowly growing existing sales taxes, flat or falling property taxes, etc. Meanwhile, general fund revenues are spent in a thousand different ways, from rising pension and health care costs currently on autopilot, to step pay raises, to discretionary raises, to capital improvements and paper clips, making it impossible to trace how a fresh infusion of $28 million would be spent. The committee would have no authority, no powers, no independent staffing, no resources and no accountability except to those council members who appointed them. It's nothing more than a bogus and deeply cynical Potemkin village to flash before unsuspecting voters to misled them into believing that in independent body of citizens will be looking after their interests. If the city council is willing to dishonestly pass this off as as true independent oversight, how can anyone trust them not to blow higher taxes on fat union contracts approved in closed door session with zero opportunity for public input and zero disclosure or analysis of their long-term costs to city taxpayers? Vote NO on Measure U: restore city services via smart spending reforms, not a damaging tax hike.

Craig Powell on "Citizen Oversight Committee for Measure U "

2012-10-02T01:28:37Z

This is misleading window dressing. Expecting "oversight" committee members appointed by the city council to exercise serious "oversight" of how the city council spends spend our money is a complete and utter joke and no oversight at all. Vote NO on Measure U: Restore city services via smart spending reforms, not a damaging tax hike.

Craig Powell on "Video: Sacramento City Council lambasts Sports Commission after audit reveals mismanagement "

2012-09-20T00:07:08Z

This was a major failure of city oversight as much as it was a failure of the nonprofit. Why didn't the city confirm that the city loan proceeds were held in a segregated account? Where are the quarterly reports to the city from the nonprofit? Did the city ignore the nonprofit's required audit reports, as Viola suggests? Who was in charge of administering this loan on behalf of the city? What did the council know (via reports) and when did they know it? Were there red flags in the nonprofit's financials before the loan was made? And what was Friery doing on the board of the nonprofit if not assuring that it had sound accounting and fiscal controls in place to protect the taxpayers' interests? Is this city being just as negligent in its oversight of grants and loans it makes to other nonprofit organizations? Is anybody down there really watching the store? Here's one clue to consider: The city auditor, Jose Oseguera, recommended in February that the council fund a whistleblower hotline that he projected would save in the neighborhood of $6 million per year by reducing waste, fraud and abuse (and perhaps as much as $30 million annually). The council refused to fund the hotline in Feb. The council refused to fund it as part of the budget in June. It STILL hasn't funded it, even though a survery of city employees found 56% of employees have personal knowledge of city waste, fraud and abuse by other city employees, but did not report it. Why didn't they report it? Half of them said that they feared retaliation. Hundreds of city employees with city credit cards? $10,000 spent at Starbucks? $75,000 on pizza? Five star hotels? Expensive meals at pricey downtown restaurants? Unmonitored credit card use? Folks, we need to all wake up. Our current city government cannot be trusted to responsibly manage the public's money. For council members to posture and wring their hands after the fact at city council meetings just doesn't cut it. We seen it all before with scandal after scandal. Before we trust them with more tax money, they have to get their fiscal house in order. City government needs a complete financial and management overhaul. It's long past time to take out the trash at city hall.

Craig Powell on "Finished La Valentina Project "

2012-08-07T22:29:24Z

The La Valentina apartments, a 81-unit project, had a $27 million project cost - representing a cost of $333,333 for each apartment unit built and a scandalous waste of taxpayer money. This project is Exhibit A for why redevelopment agencies were eliminated. Redevelopment agencies are simply incapable of controlling costs. Nice one-bedroom apartments in Midtown can be purchased for $60,000. This type of spending boondoggle has been repeated at SHRA projects all over town. The $27 million project cost, incidentally, does not include the future interest cost of servicing the SHRA debt incurred to build this project, which could push the total project cost to closer to $50 million or $650,000 per unit, paid for with downtown property taxes that would otherwise have flowed to local schools and city services such as police, fire and parks. RDA's: R.I.P.

Craig Powell on "Sacramento race for elected charter commission gets slow start"

2012-07-17T22:16:54Z

There will be no return available of your $2100 ballot statement fee if the measure is shot down by the voters. Keep this additional fact in mind: the $2,100 fee is merely an estimated fee. The actual final fee will depend on how many people actually pay for a ballot statement. If the actual number who pay for a statements falls below staff's estimate, the final fee candidates will be required to pay will be higher than $2,100. I understand that staff estimates that 50 people will pay the fee, which sounds like a very high estimate. So the chances of being back billed for a higher fee look to be pretty good. Another interesting factoid: the ballot statement fee the city is expected to charge city council candidates in the two Nov. run-off elections is $365 for District 4 and $300 for District 2. So the fee a candidate for a charter review commission will pay is roughly six times greater than the fee a council candidate will pay - and could be even higher. The reason: charter review candidates run city-wide while council candidates run in only 1/8 of the city.

Craig Powell on "Fox & Goose adds Churchill-themed banquet room"

2012-07-10T01:56:05Z

I can't wait to book the Churchill Room for a meeting!

Craig Powell on "A skeptic's perspective: Isaac Gonzalez on Sacramento's arena saga"

2012-07-10T01:51:59Z

Isaac Gonzalez is the most diligent independent journalist working in Sacramento today. He is indefatigable and keeps digging until he uncovers the facts. By all means, challenge his analyses, question his conclusions and reject his opinions, but let's respect the hard work he does in bringing facts to our attention that we might otherwise never hear about. And for God's sake, folks, let's stop demonizing those who have the courage to stand up in the public square and express their views on important civic issues. Take a lesson from Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park where for centuries speakers have been expressing, free from intimidation and personal attacks, often highly unpopular and contentious views. Particularly In a one-newspaper town like ours, we should thank our lucky stars that there are gutsy citizen journalists like Isaac digging up and disseminating facts that sometimes discomfort the powerful. In short, Gonzalez does rock.

Craig Powell on "Mayor Kevin Johnson gets help to 'play nice' with council "

2012-06-27T22:41:44Z

The Sacramento way of life does, indeed, make Sacramento a special to live. But there is danger in being complascent about our treasured lifestyle. The danger is that Sacramento is economically very sick and opportunities for our young are disappearing. The poor quality of K-12 schools and the declining state of higher education (particularly our community colleges), high local unemployment, high business failure rates, underwater mortgages, rapidly rising living costs, a devastated construction industry, a falling property tax base, steadily declining public services, our unfocused and conflicted city government and our unfriendly business climate are all chronic and serious threats to our way of life. A lack of economic opportunity is driving too many of our promising young people to other cities and states for better educational opportunities and stronger career prospects. We are not attracting private investment as we should. Our commercial corridors - including J Street - are in real decline. Our more brittle neighborhoods are being hammered by the foreclosure crisis, falling values and negative equity. Our crime and gang problems are already among the worst in the state and all indicators (declining police staffing, prisoner and parolee releases) point to worsening crime problems. Our city faces the same problems as Stockton but simply not as pronounced. We cannot continue to lose our most promising young people to outbound migration or lose our disadvantaged youth people to despair and have any realistic hope of holding on to our treasured lifestyle for long. We cannot immunize ourselves from our economic realities no matter how cozy our individual economic circumstances may seem to be. Instead, we must forge a community consensus and commitment to make real economic recovery our first, second and third priority. We can no longer afford to be distracted by other issues. And we have to honest with ourselves and acknowledge that all efforts to date to restore our local economy have failed, whether local, state or federal measures. We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again and keep expecting a different result. We have to come together to create the conditions that will foster real private sector growth and recovery or we will see our city continues its decline. It's that simple. That should be the lead agenda item at every city council meeting, the subject of lead editorials in the Bee, the focus of investigative reports on TV news programs and Topic #1 at community meetings and on local blogs. All other issues should take a back seat to the imperative of local economic recovery.

Craig Powell on "Sacramento Commercial Real Estate Broker Takes Note of SB 1186 Related to Frivolous ADA Lawsuits"

2012-06-27T21:36:53Z

The ADA extortion racket in California actually reduces ADA compliance. The sleazy lawyers who issue extorniate demand letters just pocket the extortion money they extract from small businesses and couldn't care less whether the ADA violations are ever fixed. Adopting a 60-day right-to-cure rule before litigation can be commenced will: (1) end the ADA extortion racket that us preying on small businesses; and (2) incentive business owners to actually fix the ADA violations rather than paying sleazy lawyers unearned quickie settlements. Steinberg should be ashamed of himself for protecting the small number of cynical, sleazeball lawyers who ply this job-killing trade.

Craig Powell on "Council members say no to sales tax increase without pension cuts "

2012-06-09T16:38:49Z

The city council approved the spending of $90K in December 2010 to hire an engineer to design a city-wide property tax assessment district to fund park maintenance. They were warned that such a tax proposal could not pass legal muster under Prop. 218 and would be impractical to implement due to technical legal limitations. After blowing about $60K on the engineer, the enigneer came to the same conclusions. The $30K left over from the $90K original authorization was retasked by the city manager to commission an opinion survey to measure voter appetitie for various types of tax hikes. The poll was flawed in a number of respects: (1) bad sampling (i.e. asking voters to self-identify themselves as likely voters instead of relying on actual voting history) ; (2) extensive use of push poll questions; (3) use of weak counterarguments; and (3) some highly anomolous results (i.e. the survey found higher support for a $29 parcel tax than a $19 parcel tax). Everyone was shocked at the survey's findings: big support for tax hikes of every kind and every amount. But since the poll was so seriously flawed, the council would be making a major mistake in relying upon it as a predictor of likely voter action in November. The arguments against a city sales tax hike are compelling and easy to convey (the compounding effect of a proposed hike in the state sales tax, double digit, multi-year utility rate hikes, damage to business competitiveness, harm to struggling residents, failure to control runaway city labor costs, lack of trust in city government, etc.) A national survey issued last week reported that Sacramento places dead last among 40 cities surveyed in friendliness to small business. The council should focus on improving our business climate and putting the city's finances in order. An improved business climate and a stronger local economy will generate higher local tax revenues without rate hikes. Cannibalizing our economy, our businesses and our residents now thru a sales tax hike is terrible public policy. The council might want to also read today's Bee and note the rapidly fading support for Brown's income and sales tax hikes.

Craig Powell on "Land Park and Midtown – How will one candidate represent both?"

2012-06-01T23:24:47Z

William, I would estimate that the population of Land Park is about 80% owners and 20% renters. Land Park homeowners, however, probably constitute over 90% of those who regularly vote. I would say your breakdown of owners and renters in Midtown is about right (15% and 85%, respectively). I'd estimate, however, that homeonwers make up close to 40% of the regular voters in Midtown, higher in low turn out primaries like this one. There are tons of registered voters in Midtown, but a large number of them are phantom voters - renters who have since relocated but whose names haven't been purged from the voter roll. Consequently, Midtown precincts typically report some of the lowest turnout percentages in the city. The high turnover of residents in much of Midtown makes campaigning door-to-door there much more of a challenge for candidates, particularly with so many of the newer apartment and condo projects having locked gates and entries. That's why we see candidates spending the bulk of their time knocking on doors in Land Park, particularly in old Land Park from Cal Middle School to William Land Park, where voter turnout is among the highest in the city. If this race ends up in a run-off - which almost a certainty - the renters of Midtown will have a larger voice in selecting the council member in the high turn out general election than they'll have in selecting the top two vote-getters in the primary.

Craig Powell on "POLL: Should Sacramento outsource city park maintenance?"

2012-05-22T15:11:30Z

Let's try to park the pat ideological answers at the door and open our minds to pragmatic solutions to a worsening problem. Outsourcing is neighter a panacea nor a scourge. It is a tool. Academic studies have shown that outsourcing typically works very well to reduce government costs when the services are rendered by those with relatively low to modest job skills. That's because pay and benefits levels of city workers with low/moderate skills tend to be significantly higher than comparable workers in the private sector. For services that require higher skills or complex collaboration between private contractor and government, outsourcing is usually not a major cost-savings solution. That's because salaries and benefits of city workers with higher skills are not substantially out-of-line with comparable workers in the private sector, providing less opportunity to realize cost savings from outsourcing. The NPR show on the experience of Colorado Springs showed that outsourcing in that city was very much a mized bag. I suspect that the City of Sacramento's labor costs are higher than Colorado Springs' costs and that Sacramento, with higher unemployment than Colorado, probably has somewhat lower market labor rates for those low/moderate skill workers, resulting in a larger differential in public vs. private sector labor costs in Sacramento than in Colorado Springs. It's worth taking a closer look at the facts. It's time to have the consersation.

Craig Powell on "POLL: Should Sacramento outsource city park maintenance?"

2012-05-18T04:45:43Z

Rhys02, the city should pursue both opportunities to save money : outsourcing park maintenance AND outsourcing the ambulance service. I agree with you that the city's current practice of sending a fire truck along with an ambulance on every medical call is immensely wasteful, putting two vehicles and six firefighters on the scene of every medical call. The savings from ending that practice would be very substantial. The city has to seize upon every single available opportunity to save taxpayer money so that it can begin to restore tattered public services and avoid burdening its citizens with more taxes that they cannot afford to pay.

Craig Powell on "POLL: Should Sacramento outsource city park maintenance?"

2012-05-18T04:22:54Z

Actually, Melissa, the work of the Land Park Volunteer Corps's in William Land Park has been steadily expanding, not dwindling, and its roster of volunteers and donors has grown to more than 450 people. The challenge, however, is that the city has cut the park maintenance crew in Land Park rapidly and deeply, from 19 full-time workers in 2005 to just three full-time workers today to handle the care of 215 acres of fully developed, mature parkland. While the Corps is keeping the bushes trimmed, cleaning the ponds and keeping planters maintained, almost all of the parks drinking fountains are now broken, irrigation breaks are not repaired, watering is spotty, restrooms are poorly maintained , garbage cans are too often overflowing and the grass is mowed infrequently. Jonathon Rewers' statement on prior experience with park maintenance outsourcing involves, I believe, a single park in N. Natomas, a case in which city managers failed to put in place a competent system of contract oversight. and management.. Successful outsourcing of park maintenance requires a city commitment to conscientious contract administration. Private contractors can be easily placed on a 311 call list to respond to park maintenance emergencies in the parks that are assigned to them. If they fail to respond on a timely basis, they can be quickly replaced for poor performance, an option that is not available when grossly understaffed city maintenance crews fail to respond to maintenance needs as is the case today. As far as cost, William, City Budget Director Leyne Milstein has consistently estimated that the city would save 50% of its current park maintenance budget (around $9 million) if it outsourced park maintenance to private firms.

Craig Powell on "Sacramento Building Trades Leader Calls on City Council Candidate Netto to Suspend Campaign Until he Pays his Unpaid Taxes"

2012-05-16T21:28:59Z

"$5,000 per-person" for Netto's fundraiser, Matt? I just checked the link you included in your story. It lists the ticket price of the fundraiser as $250 per ticket?

Craig Powell on "Budget cuts whittle park maintenance to one-man crews"

2012-05-16T21:19:36Z

Outsourcing park maintenace has to be on the table. To its credit, the city council approved outsourcing city golf course maintenance last fall for a projected annual $500,000 savings. Outsourcing basic park maintenance will save many times that amount. In William Land Park we have seen the park maintenance crew reduced from 19 full-time park workers in 2005 to just three workers today, all of whom are over 60 and nearing retirement. Despite monthly park clean-ups by 50 to 90 volunteers of the Land Park Volunteer Corps, we can barely hold back the tide of mounting neglect. Outsourcing has to be considered and very soon. Raising taxes to fund park care before trying outsourcing maintenance is simply nuts. Why should city taxpayors pay higher taxes for services that could be provided less expensively by private contractors who will do the work while creating twice the number of current jobs, particularly for unemployed young people. Does McCarty seriously believe that 2/3rds of recession-slammed Sacramento voters will vote for such a tax hike?

Craig Powell on "Neighbors, YMCA work on bold plan to reopen Southside Park Pool, but will it work?"

2012-05-16T21:00:33Z

We wish you the best in this creative, smart partnership between the neighborhood, the YMCA and the city to reopen Southside Park Pool. Great job, Catherine! As a CMA 2011 grad, there is no doubt that the City Management Academy provides invaluable contacts for community activists. But the existence of the CMA is now threatened with budget cuts to the Neighborhood Services Div. of the Parks and Rec. Dept., as announced at last night's council meeting. With the volunteer help of Bill Burgua and a number of other past CMA alums, the program has been a huge success. It looks like it may need rescuing for 2013 however!

Craig Powell on "Why We Can't Turn Affordable Housing Into Expendable Housing"

2012-05-06T16:41:06Z

Affordable housing mandates, 15% set-asides for low/very low income housing and the like are perhaps the most inefficient, ineffective and economically damaging welfare system devised by man. These politically driven set-asides and mandates support and subsidize a sizeable cottage industry of "nonprofit" developers while rewarding a very small number of privileged de facto lottery winners who are lucky enough to land a spot in new properties yet pay below market rents. The relationship between "nonprofit" housing developers and their "clients" has become parasitical. Here is the economic reality of "affordable housing" mandates: 1. They render many proposed market rate developments unaffordable to build since the rent subsidies for the low income units are borne by the developer, making projects that would other "pencil" no longer financially viable. 2. They reduce the overall housing stock (see 1 above). 3. They increase the price of market rate housing by suppressing the supply of new housing, increasing rents and new home costs for the vast majority of people who are not fortunate enough to land a subsidized unit. 4. They hamper economic growth and job creation by reducing investment returns on new housing, suppressing new housing construction. 5. They aggravate economic unfairness by imposing different rents on people living side-by-side in identical rental units. 6. In practice, they lead to the construction of apartment communities of 100% low-income housing as developers of market-rate subdivisions meet their affordable housing mandates by building 100% low-income apartment complexes, which results in increases in crime, juvenile delinquency and a host of other social maladies (see parts of North Natomas). 7. The presence of such 100% low-income apartment complexes renders entire communities less attractive to home buyers and new businesses, suppressing economic growth and job creation. The efficient way to help the poor secure housing is not to continue to subsidize this vast, costly, job-suppressing bureaucracy of "nonprofit" low-income housing developers and $100K+/year housing "specialists" at SHRA, but to eliminate the mandates and foster real economic growth, housing construction and job creation. For the extremely poor, take the cut now taken by the affordable housing bureaucrats and give the poor more cash and the freedom to rent wherever they want. We spend over $1 trillion per year in transfer payments to the poor in this country and much of it is wasted in the cost of operating countless welfare bureaucracies. Adopt a negative income tax and give the poor the dignity to spend the cash as adults, not children.

Craig Powell on "SACRAMENTO HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY WINS STATEWIDE EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR BOULEVARD COURT APARTMENTS"

2012-03-24T17:47:19Z

And this, folks, is the reason why redevelopment has come to an end in California. The now de facto defunct California Redevelopment Association, in one of its last acts before disappearing, has granted an "Award of Excellence" to an SHRA project that spent $24 million to renovate 74 studio and one bedroom apartments - an eye-popping cost of $324,324 per unit. You can BUY very nice one bedroom apartments in Midtown today for $60,000. SHRA spent 5.5 times as much on renovating a single unit than what it would cost to buy 5 1/2 1 BR Midtown apartments. And SHRA received an award of excellence for the project. R.I.P. redevelopment.

Craig Powell on "Warren campaign signs may be possible election rules violation"

2012-02-19T17:58:55Z

Cogmeyer, thanks for breaking the story. Maybe the best solution would be to give equal sign rights to the other candidates by renaming the offramps at El Camino Ave. and Watt Ave. after Warren and Kerth for the duration of the campaign. I mean fair is fair.

Craig Powell on "Does AEG want to help Sacramento in order to protect the Lakers?"

2011-12-19T02:26:41Z

Nice piece of reporting, Isaac.

Craig Powell on "Naughty or Nice: If you were Santa, how would City Council fare?"

2011-12-17T21:08:13Z

In the spirit of the season, I have resolved to say only kind things about city government until after Christmas. So: Kudos to the city council, the city manager and the police department for the city's adroit handling of the Occupy Sacramento protesters without major incident. Maybe the protesters, as a gesture of reciprocal goodwill, will reimburse city taxpayers for police overtime costs run up in dealing with them, but I am not holding my breath. Kudos to Mayor Johnson for the patience and courtesy he extended to combative and even insulting Occupy protesters who came before the council. Kudos to the council for moving cell phone tower and billboard rental fees out of their slush funds -excuse me, their discretionary spending accounts - and redirecting those funds to the general fund, where they helped keep some community centers open for awhile longer. Kudos to those council members who used their discretionary accounts for actual improvements to their districts vs. using them to curry favor with local groups. Kudos to the city council for helping to close the city's deficit by outsourcing golf course maintenance. It's a start. Kudos to city managers, including John Shirey, for agreeing to pay their employee's share of their PERS pensions, signaling to city unions that hypocrisy is no longer official city policy. Kudos to the good-natured and welcoming city police officers who staff city council meetings, for treating members of the public with the dignity and respect they deserve. A Merry Christmas to all.

Craig Powell on "Dispensary permit process gets a 'time out' from City Council"

2011-11-10T01:24:48Z

As a father of three sons, I completely empathize with the father who testified against opening any new dispensaries. As presently operated, most are essentially drug dealers masquerading as legitimate pharmacies. I was amused at the 100 or so pot demonstrators protesting in front of the federal building today. Almost all were 18 to 30 years old, in ruddy good health and all waiving signs that read "Cannabis is Medicine." It was absurd. Until and unless the dispensaries are reorganized as legitimate, well regulated pharmacies, the city should, at a very minimum, enact a freeze. And if Congress is unwilling to grant exemptions for licensed and well regulated pot dispensaries, then federal law must be respected and enforced. We don't get to pick and choose which federal criminal laws to obey. The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution has no "opt out" provision for pot, just as it had no "opt out" provision for southern states that trampled on the federal civil rights of African-Americans during the 60's. Our city should lead by example and teach kids to respect the law of the land, not break it because we happen not to like it. We are breeding nothing but contempt for the rule of law by failing to obey clearly applicable federal law. I

Craig Powell on "Central city alleys receive names, part two"

2011-11-03T16:58:35Z

Everyone of William Burg's suggested names entails a chapter in Sacramento's history. Using them would be a vast improvement over the antisceptic names that have been chosen. Naming alleys after figures in Sacramento's history would be a major step in keeping our history alive. We could have historial markers placed at each alley entrance providing a short synopsis of each figure's role in city history. Walking around Sacramento would then become a history lesson in itself.

Craig Powell on "Pot parties in Sacramento: A fund-raiser, a farewell, a fright "

2011-10-27T00:04:28Z

"It's like a wine tasting, but with cannabis?" Is it really any wonder that the feds are cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries in California? This club should at least maintain the pretense that they're peddling medicine.

Craig Powell on "Sacramento Public Library : Self-publishing made possible through Espresso Book Machine"

2011-10-25T15:18:08Z

This is an outstanding service. I suspect it will become very popular among a wide variety of writers and self-publishers.

Craig Powell on "Local historian Burg appointed to Sacramento Heritage board"

2011-10-19T01:48:13Z

The right guy for the job! Thanks for your service, Bill. You too, Mark.

Craig Powell on "Archives Crawl offers fascinating look into local history"

2011-10-03T15:48:20Z

Great story, Isaac. I'm sorry I missed the tour but will definitely try to make it next year.

Craig Powell on "Rainbow Chamber of Commerce celebrates 10 years of success"

2011-09-13T16:56:05Z

Congratulations on the Rainbow Chamber's 10 years of success.

Craig Powell on "Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market breaks ground in Oak Park"

2011-09-02T20:16:07Z

That's just awesome, Ben. Congratulations on a real milestone!

Craig Powell on "Maydestone building nears completion"

2011-08-31T20:47:21Z

Suburban developer? Ric, you have me confused with someone else. I don't even know a suburban developer.

Craig Powell on "Maydestone building nears completion"

2011-08-28T19:58:07Z

I think a public conversation about redevelopment in Sacramento would be a very healthy thing. People are only now beginning to really understand how it works, how it's funded, who makes the deals, who benefits and its various impacts, both positive and negative. Bill, what do you say? Shall we take up Midtown Squinter's suggestion and maybe do a panel discussion at Time Tested Books?

Craig Powell on "Solving budget problems by 'getting our house in order'"

2011-08-27T15:21:10Z

Cogmeyer is right. For five years, the city burned through its cash reserves like a drunken sailor on shore leave, draining a $100 million reserve fund down to $14 million today. Hard decisions were dodged and multi-year union contracts with unsustainable pay and benefit hikes were approved. The current city budget, approved in June, is the first in five years that demonstrates a hint of fiscal discipline. The pillaging of cash reserves was halted and reserves were even augmented by $4 million. But the hard decisions are still being dodged or merely "studied:" (1) outsourcing garbage collection to rein in sky high costs (as recommended by the city's own consultant two years ago); (2) reforms in fire department operations (as recommended by its consultant two years ago); and (3) critically needed reforms to rein in exploding retiree health care costs and escalating pensions costs (as recommended by its consultant two years ago). Well, you get the picture. One good sign: the city and the firefighters union recently entered into a new contract that requires firefighters to start contributing to their own pensions 6% of their salaries, starting in 2013. It should have been the full 9.6% employee pension share recommended by CalPERS, but it's a start. The savings will be offset, however, by a 5% salary increase (technically a deferral of a 5% raise already called for under their current contract) that will begin in 2012. The net savings to the city will be modest, but the precedent is important. Next steps in controlling labor costs (which are now 80% of the city budget and rising): requiring city managers and police to contribute to their own pensions and requiring other city employees to pay their full employee's share of their pensions, as well as getting off the rocket ride of rising retiree health care costs, an unfunded city liability that amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. The big question: Will the council have the policitcal courage to do the right thing in the face of city union opposition? Or will we see another round of deep cuts in public services?

Craig Powell on "Maydestone building nears completion"

2011-08-24T19:32:07Z

This $7 million SHRA-financed project renovated 32 studios and 1-bedroom apartments, which equates to an average renovation cost of $218,750 per apartment. You can purchase larger one-bedroom apartments in good condition in Midtown today for less than $50,000 per apartment. In other words, SHRA could have purchased 4.5 (more spacious) Midtown apartments outright for the cost of renovating just one apartment at the Maydestone. Does anybody seen anything wrong with this picture? It is bloated projects like these that have turned people off to redevelopment spending. This project is a travesty. SHRA went into debt itself to finance the project. When SHRA pays off the debt in the future, it will do so by diverting property tax revenues from the city's chronically distressed general fund, depriving us all of core government services like police and fire protection, park services, etc. Total SHRA debt now stands at over $1 billion (yes, a billion). The city, thru SHRA, has mortgaged away core public services for the next 20 years for the sake of "feel good," but brain dead projects like this one today. Two weeks ago, the city council, with little fanfare, approved the payment of $18 million of redevelopment funds to the state to keep this perfect money-burning machine going for yet another year. Redevelopment combines unaccountable government waste with the worst aspects of crony capitalism. Politically connected downtown developers are reaping large front-end profits from projects like the Maydestone that will never, ever pay for themselves. And we all pay the bill in the form of reduced core services and higher local taxes to backfill for the lost property tax revenue. Next year at this time, the city council will again be faced with the choice of making a huge payment to the state to keep local redevelopment alive or closing SHRA down, paying off its strastopheric debt and returning property taxes, at long last, to the beleaguered general fund. Eye on Sacramento estimates that once SHRA's debt is retired, the city will have an additional $15 million (or more) per year available to deliver the services our community truly needs. Mark your calendars and let's start the count-down clock.

Craig Powell on "Too many taxis in the city?"

2011-08-23T07:05:16Z

The city council's two-year moratorium on new taxi permits is deplorable public policy. Neither city staff, nor the council, is competent to determine the "right" number of taxi cabs in Sacramento. That is for the functioning market to decide. If there are "too many cabs," fares will fall and cabbies will fail and leave the business. The "general consensus" that there are too many cabs is a fiction concocted by current cab owners who are shamelessly using the power of government to stifle their competition and increase their fares. Council members are either utterly clueless about the basic workings of the market or they have been influenced by campaign contributions, as noted by cogmeyer above. The victims of this mindless policy are the elderly and the disabled who rely on cabs more than any other group. Most are on very limited incomes and will suffer as cab fares inevitablly rise in response to the council's limit on supply. This qualifies as one of the most asinine decisions of the council this year. We suggest that the California Attorney General review the matter and determine whether the moratorium constitues a violation of federal or state antitrust laws.

Craig Powell on "City Council vs. the Brown Act"

2011-08-20T01:41:49Z

Yesterday, Eye on Sacramento filed a public records request with the City for all communications, written or electronic, including e-mails, between council members on the issue of council redistricting since April 1st. We'll see if they used the city's e-mail communication system to develop a pre-meeting consensus on the Cohn 2.0 map, a Brown Act violation (unless someone is working overtime tonight erasing e-mails). If legal action is commenced challenging the council's approval of the Cohn 2.0 map as either: (a) a Brown Act violation; (2) a violation of the U.S. Constitution's "one man, one vote" rule, due to its very high 9.92% population deviation between districts; or (3) a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act for atomizing the Hispanic vote in the north part of the city, the plaintiffs in the suit will have the chance to examine the council members involved under oath at depositions on exactly what they discussed prior to their August 9th approval of the map. There is the distinct possibility that their testimony under oath may vary from their recent statements to the media on the subject.

Craig Powell on "DWB: The View from Downtown"

2011-08-19T01:31:19Z

Eye on Sacramento filed a public records request today with the city requesting all electronic and written communications between council members on the subject of council redistricting. The city has ten days to respond to the request.

Craig Powell on "Midtown residents and business owners find common ground with new agreement"

2011-08-13T06:20:24Z

I just drove down K Street near Rick's Dessert Diner and heard a large, drunken crew of customers at the bar next door screaming out the lyrics of music being played inside. I bet neighbors living two to three blocks away were disturbed by it. I am all for a fun and vibrant nightlife in Midtown, but come on. This is the heart of a densely residential neighborhood. Bar owners need to show some respect for the residents or the residents will be left witn no choice but to litigate to abate the nuisance. Neighborhood agreements will may help, but it ultimately comes down to owner responsibility.

Craig Powell on "Redistricting: Where we are, how we got here"

2011-08-13T05:54:27Z

Ben, you have raise a very good point. The Brown Act has been construed to forbid serial or round robin meetings between council members to secure consensus before a council meeting. Even e-mail exchanges among council members that achieve the same end violate the Act. So it would be very, very hard for them to credibly explain how six council members, with little to no prior notice of the latest Cohn map, reached sudden and spontaneous consensus on a subject of such tremendous complexity. I will ask Eye on Sacramento's public records request coordinator, Rick Stevenson, to submit a records request for the e-mails of all council members on the subject of redistricting.

Craig Powell on "City Council approves salary contract for new city manager"

2011-08-11T02:44:54Z

FYI: it would cost city taxpayers $129,000 to fire our new city manager under the severance provision of the three-year employment agreement the council approved last night.

Craig Powell on "City manager search draws to a close – will it be Shirey?"

2011-08-03T04:21:40Z

Eye on Sacramento issued a detailed report today entitled " An Examination of Publicly Available Information on John Shirey." It includes citations to 35 news articles and studies involving Mr. Shirey that call into serious question his track record as city manager of Cincinnati from 1993 thru 2001. A link to the Shirey report is available on Eye on Sacramento's web site at the twitter feed: www.eyeonsacramento.org. EOS also called upon the city council to suspect action on Mr. Shirey until the city has a chance to fully and independently investigate the facts behind these troubling articles and studies.

Craig Powell on "The Art and Craft of Interviewing with Jeffrey Callison Aug. 9"

2011-07-26T16:10:46Z

What time is the workshop on August 9th?

Craig Powell on "City council calls for 'neighborhood-friendly' bridges"

2011-07-24T19:54:51Z

Curmudgeon, I love your comments, I really do. But you are proposing six more bridges for a total of nine accross the Sacramento River between Sutterville and the confluence with the American River, but not one across the Sacramento between Sutterville and the Freeport bridge which is where Yolo County is planning its future growth. With regard to Sutterville, come on down someday, let me buy you a cup of coffee at La Bou and let's take a look at the existing congestion on Sutterville during the morning and, particularly, the afternoon commute. Or let's look at the weekend congestion with many thousands of visitors enjoying William Land Park, but bringing traffic to a crawl. Sutterville is already at capacity and cannot handle loads of West Sac commuters. Most will eventually turn north and head towards jobs in downtown, clogging up already congested Riverside Blvd., Land Park Dr. and Freeport Blvd. Why would we want to ruin one of Sacramento's oldest and nicest neighborhoods and further congest our city's premier regional park for the sake of accomodating West Sac. commuters who'll use Land Park area streets as expressways? Sacrificing one or more Sacramento neighborhoods to fix West Sac.'s failure to intelligently plan their own transportation needs makes no sense. Moving West Sac. traffic across bridges into the dowtown railyards or District 9/Richards Blvd. areas, where we want to faciliate Sacramento's future economic growth, is the smarter policy, particularly since we are not likely to receive federal funding for more than one new bridge for several decades, if ever. It's a pipe dream to think that the debt-laden federal government would ever give us a blank check for multiple bridges at $40 to $270 million a piece. Yes, I am a Land Parker and, yes, my family would be directly impacted. But don't hold it against us that we are trying to protect our neighborhood from real harm. Sacramento's greatest feature is the attractiveness and stability of its neighborhoods, giving us a Midwestern friendliness with a California vibe. We have enough strikes against us (i.e., a deplorable local economy, a dysfunctional city government) without sacrificing perhaps our greatest attribute. A Land Porker

Craig Powell on "Review: Page One opens Friday at the Crest"

2011-07-23T00:37:48Z

David, I think your characterization of the NY TImes as "clearly our nation's best newspaper" is just not supported by the facts anymore. At one time it was our nation's premier paper. But the TImes newsroom has been embroiled in more reporting scandals than you or I could count over the past two decades. Take a look at the book "Gray Lady Down" by William McGowan for a pretty astounding cataloguing of its recent reportorial failures and ethical lapses. Juan Williams called McGowan's book a "thoughtful, vividly supported expose from a journalist who loves newspapers and the Times. As American journalism is roiled by technology and financial pressures McGowan succeeds in reminding us that arrogance and a limited world view are also to blame for the troubles of even our most celebrated newspapers.” The Times has allowed its political biases to deeply invade it news coverage. Contrast the Times with the Wall Street Journal which has the exact opposite political bent but rarely lets its politics color its solid and independent news reporting. In fact, some of hardest hitting coverage of the Rupert Murdoch/News Corp. voicemail hacking scandal has been in the news pages of the WSJ - even though the WSJ is OWNED by Murdoch. That's journalistic courage and independence, somethin we rarely see at the NYT anymore.

Craig Powell on "Will Monday's Neighborhood Advisory Group Meeting Be Its' Last?"

2011-07-15T01:17:53Z

Thanks for bringing attention to this issue, Bill.

Craig Powell on "Start of fiscal year means end of jobs for some"

2011-07-01T17:39:08Z

Clarificaiton: not a single employee of the fire department is losing their job as part of the recently approved city budget cutbacks, whereas over 100 employees of the police department, including all community service officers and 42 sworn officers, are losing their jobs. It doesn't strike me as a fair and balanced allocation of fiscal pain, particularly since Sacramento has the second highest crime rate in Calif for both violent and property crimes. There is no similar growing threat from local fires. In fact, the number of fire calls in Sacramento have dropped steadily and dramatically in each of the last five years. What do others think?

Craig Powell on "AB678 moves ahead, federal funds for fire dept more likely"

2011-06-24T17:32:05Z

According to a recent report by city staff, over two-thirds of all emergency calls to the Fire Department are for medical emergencies; just 4% are fire calls. Under city existing policy, a fire rig, with four firefighters on board, is dispatched on every medical emergency call along with a two-person ambulance unit.

Craig Powell on "Civil War Re-enacted at Gibson Ranch"

2011-05-23T14:06:02Z

Wow! You really brought it to life for us, Kati. Thank you. We tried to bring the Civil War reenactors to William Land Park last year, but the city's Department of Parks & Recreation wouldn't let them run horses or hold campfires in the Park. It's a shame because city kids could learn much about our history from observing them and talking with the amateur historians who are part of the reenactors. Plus, it looks like it was a lot of fun for everybody.

Craig Powell on "City Council aims to lessen police budget cuts"

2011-05-19T17:42:33Z

They read the comments.

Craig Powell on "Funding Sacramento Parks"

2011-05-16T18:26:12Z

Thanks, David, for offering some interesting ideas for how to best care for our parks.

Craig Powell on "The Sacramento Press is hiring "

2011-05-12T04:57:10Z

You will be very hard to replace, Kathleen. All of your readers will miss you a great deal. Best of luck to you...and thanks for doing a superb job!

Craig Powell on "Opinion: Open letter to Midtown Business Association, Mayor Johnson, City Council Members and the General Public"

2011-05-11T19:49:41Z

Crime, vandalism, public intoxication, etc., in Midtown are serious problems. We have to come to grips with ALL of the public safety issues in Midtown. Police presence is simply inadquate. The disfunction of our criminal justice system, with overcrowded local jails releasing criminals prematurely, is not helping matters. We need a few years of very, very vigilent law enforcement in Midtown: from arrest, to prosecution, to incarceration and probation/parole. Everyone has a role to play: neighborhood associations, neighborhood watch groups, the MBA, business owners, residents, ABC, social services agencies, the faith community and, most critically, the city police, the D.A. and the Sheriff's Dept. which oversees the country jail. And we need to have a serious conversation about how we pay for the increased law enforcement resources that the area needs: city and country budget reforms, taxation, etc. We CAN establish a safe and orderly community without killing the Midtown vibe and without unduly burdening Midtown venues. I think Karen, Bill, Vito and Dale are to be commended for putting forth some thoughtful proposals. We need a full assessment of the problems and a community consensus on how to solve them. To achieve that, we need some real leadership.

Craig Powell on "Mixer at News and Review"

2011-05-05T21:35:46Z

Does anyone know what time the event begins?

Craig Powell on "Gus Vina named city manager of Encinitas"

2011-05-04T14:36:48Z

Good for him. He has certainly earned his success after giving many years of very good service to the people of Sacramento.

Craig Powell on "Proposed budget would cut 100 cops, 50 fire staff"

2011-04-29T17:36:24Z

Just to correct the record: police and fire employees, as well as city managers, currently pay nothing towards their pensions. The city picks up both the employer's and employee's share of such employess' pension contributions to PERS. Other city employees do make some contribution to their pensions.

Craig Powell on "Parking Tickets or Partaking in Thievery "

2011-04-26T23:40:27Z

Good conversation. Once the recession ends locally (please!), I think we'll likely see the private sector respond by building more privately owned/operated parking facilities, encouraged by rising meter rates, increases in parking ticket fines and more people living and working in downtown - so long as the city doesn't toss roadblocks in their way. Some "enlightened" city planners are actually advocating for a reduction of downtown/midtown parking to force people out of their cars and onto R.T., bicycles, skateboards and what-not. Such policies would likely crater any chance of a downtown renaissance. Chronic parking shortages won't force people out of their cars so much as scare off customers for local businesses.

Craig Powell on "The Sacramento Zoo: Cramped Quarters"

2011-04-21T23:57:31Z

The City Council has been clear in its policy concerning the Sacramento zoo for more than 20 years. If the zoo wishes to expand its acreage, it needs to find a new location that would permit it grow. William Land Park is Sacramento's most heavily used and treasured public park, with over 1.4 million visitors each year. Public parks require wide open vistas. Putting most of it behind high fences and requiring $13 to get in is inconsistent with the very nature of a public park. Land Park is Sacramento's backyard with a multiplicity of wonderful uses from ball fields, to picnic areas, to an amphitheaters to playgrounds and more That is an important part of its very popular appeal. It shouldn't be dominated by any one use that blocks out wide open space.

Craig Powell on "Gang culture hinders homicide investigation"

2011-04-07T20:22:09Z

According to our deputy police chief, Sacramento currently has the 2nd worst violent crime rate in the state among major cities, as well as the 2nd worst rate for property crimes, measured on a per capita basis. Crime is actually worse in Sacramento than in L.A.

Craig Powell on "Green waste on-the-street pickup rates could rise"

2011-04-07T20:08:04Z

This issue deserves a very close look. Ben and Cogmeyer are on the mark. It appears that the process that city staff and the council is using to try to kill off the claw is manipulative and designed to undermine the expressed will of city voters as expressed by Measure A. There is also a significant legal question whether city residents who have not jumped through the hoops necessary to "opt out" of container service have contractually agreed, by their mere inaction, to a switch to containerized service, as the city presumes. Textbook contract law is clear: silence in response to an offer cannot be presumed to be an acceptance of an offer. If an "opt in" process had been used instead, as was apparently done in Midtown at Steve Cohn's behest, the number of current claw vs. container customers would be dramatically different. Cogmeyer raises a very good point: it is entirely possible that the Utilities Department's financial staff are cooking the books on these two programs (container and claw) in order to falsely portray the claw as grossly underfunded when the container program is more likely the underfunded of the two. The Utilities Department's financial staff has a horrid track record (losing track of thousands of water meters, failing to adopt adequate controls and grossly mistating labor costs). The problem is so bad that then Councilmember Lauren Hammond last year publicly stated in a council meeting that she simply did not trust the numbers coming out of the Utilities Department. Stay tuned.

Craig Powell on "City treasurer explains Kings' contracts"

2011-04-06T22:06:27Z

Another thorough job, Kathleen.

Craig Powell on "Community gardens to be discussed"

2011-04-05T05:44:31Z

Rhys02, I totally agree. It is Orwellian for the City Council to make community gardens more accessible by banning them unless property owners go through the hassle of obtaining city permits and paying mandatory fees. What kind of minds think this way? Is there any aspect of human behavior that our City Council does not wish to either encourage or discourage through the imposition of regulation and higher taxes and fees? Where is the common sense or any sense of restraint? Where is the respect for freedom? Our city is in the midst of an acute management crisis, a crushing $40 million deficit, and open warfare and gridlock on the City Council. City staff has no clue who is running the city; nor does anyone else. The council has so far bungled its search for a new city manager. Our local economy is in worse shape than every other city in the country save Las Vegas. And now they want to "encourage" community gardens by imposing new regulatory burdens on them. I believe it's time for this council to demonstrate some seriousness of purpose and leadership by declaring a municipal emergency and taking the following steps: A. Place a moratorium on the consideration all matters that do not relate to the current crises; B. Triple the number of council meetings each week for the duration of the emergency; C. Limit council business to the consideration of only four matters: (1) securing a new city manager; (2) closing the deficit (which will require the reopening all labor contracts since 82% of the city's budget is now labor costs); (3) Adopting a comprehensive economic recovery plan in consultation with the business community; and (4) Hiring conflict managers to help the council work through their immobilizing interpersonal conflicts and petty agendas that are making Sacramento a laughing stock in the region and around the state.

Craig Powell on "Ground broken on downtown SRO "

2011-03-30T06:38:31Z

That's a fair comment and observation, Marisa. Assuming the entire 1st floor of the 8-story bulding is set aside for supportive services and restaurant space (say 1/8 of the total square footage of the building), that would mean that the unit cost of each SRO unit on the other 7 floors would amount to $276,000, which is still insane. This is some of the most critical land in the city for future economic development and to build a white elephant like this on it is breathtakingly unwise.

Craig Powell on "Ground broken on downtown SRO "

2011-03-29T20:17:59Z

Taxpayers are paying $316,000 per unit for high-rise, homeless and low-income, single room occupancy housing in the heart of the central city while quality condos in Sacramento are on the market for $30,000. What's wrong with this picture? Taxpayers and the homeless would be better off if the city simply used the money to buy up 1,500 condominiums and just handed them out for free to every homeless person in the Sacramento area (estimates put the current homeless in Sacramento at 1,500). Taxpayers would save $2,400,000 and all homeless people would become instant homeowners, solving the homeless problem. Certainly the central business district would be better off. SRO's have been driving away quality merchants from K Street for years. This and the Hotel Berry rehab ought to assure that future redevelopment agency investment on K Street is just as wasted as the $500,000,000 the agency has already thrown away on K Street projects over the past 40 years (yes, that's $500 million). It's amazing to me that the first substantial structure being built in the railyards redevelopment project area is an SRO. What a smart way to attract private investment to the railyards. It's worked so well for K Street. This may be the most wasteful and myopic redevelopment project this year by SHRA, edging out the overpriced Maydestone apartments rehab (over $300,000 per unit to rehab one-bedroom apartments). Let's help Jerry put an end to this type of craziness by ending redevelopment funding and putting property taxes to use in local schools and core city services like police, fire and parks where they belong. In the meantime, we should be scrutinizing every dollar SHRA (mis)spends. The SHRA braintrust now has 32 employees on its staff with salaries of over $100,000 per year. What value we are getting for our tax money.

Craig Powell on "Editorial: Today I support a strong mayor"

2011-03-27T00:17:06Z

Dale, San Diego adopted a strong mayor system in such a two-step process. In 2005, they passed a strong mayor proposal, but provided for it to sunset after five years unless voters, in a subsequent election, decided to either extend or permanently adopt the system. This past November, San Diegans voted overwhelmingly to make their strong mayor system permanent.

Craig Powell on "City manager search stalled"

2011-03-23T16:36:22Z

My Quest, I appreciate your point. But if a politician allows herself to be controlled by narrow interests (in this case, city unions), how can we not hold her accountable for it? Her duty is to represent the broad interests of her constituents, not the interests of those who bankroll her campaigns. Her failure to exercise the independence necessary to represent the interests of her constituents is a dereliction of her duty, pure and simple. Have our standards for council members sunk so low that we excuse their chronic derelictions of duty? Sacramento deserves better.

Craig Powell on "McKinley Park Work Day - March 12th"

2011-03-03T23:35:59Z

Good luck! Hope you have great weather.

Craig Powell on "Glenn Hall Park Volunteer Work Day – April 2nd"

2011-03-03T23:34:10Z

Good luck, Glenn Hall Park volunteers!

Land Park Volunteer Corps Holds Park Work Day This Saturday

2011-03-03T23:32:19Z

The Land Park Volunteer Corps is kicking off its 2011 season with its first Park Work Day of the year this Saturday, March 5th in William Land Park. Volunteers can report for duty at the Corps' "Base Camp" located in the large picnic grounds directly behind William Land Park.

Volunteers can check-in at 9:00 a.m. and enjoy a complimentary light breakfast offered by Espresso Metro. They will also hear a brief gardening talk on the topic of "Preparing Your Garden for Spring" offered by Capitol Nursery. At 9:30 a.m, volunteers will be dispatched to one of eight different projects areas in the park. A Corps Refreshment Cart will make frequent visits to each project site to keep each volunteer well hydrated. At Noon, Corps members will return to Base Camp for a free lunch underwritted by Land Park Gas.

The Land Park Volunteer Corps was launched in May of last year and has singed up 325 volunteers and donors from around the city to care for William Land Park. Last year it completed 42 projects and logged over 1600 volunteer hours. Since its formation last year, two other park volunteer corps have been formed in the city, at McKinley and Tahoe Parks.

This spring the Land Park Volunteer Corps is holding a fundraising drive to raise funds to complete a gardening tool inventory. Until now, the Corps has relied primarily on gardening tools made available to it by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation. With new park support groups forming around town, the tools offered by the city are now in heavy demand. To free up these tools for use by other groups and to assure the availability of tools for its own Park Work Days, the Land Park Volunteer Corps is seeking to raise funds to complete its own gardening tool inventory. It is also asking its volunteers to bring a spare gardening tool on Saturday to donate to the Corps.

Folks wishing to support the Corps and William Land Park can mail their checks to: Land Park Volunteer Corps, 4678 Cabana Way, Sacramento, CA 95822. You may contact the Corps by calling its Lead Coordinator, Craig Powell, at 718-3030 or e-mailing Craig at ckpinsacto@aol.com. Hope to see you in the park!

Craig Powell on "Capitol Vigil For Wisconsin Workers and Human Rights"

2011-02-23T17:25:51Z

This is the most Orwellian press release I have ever read. It has so many falsehoods and rich ironies in it that one hardly knows where to begin. Life is too short to even try.

Craig Powell on "Cal Expo considers development"

2011-02-18T00:21:11Z

To most long-time Sacramentans, Cal Expo has been a disappointment since it first opened. It's design is fatally flawed. I appears to have been designed for the primary purpose of cooking Sacramentans under a hot August sun. The concrete structures are East German chic, barren of any charm, appeal or real functionality. The exhibition halls are like freeway onramps leading to cold industrial warehouses. The food is criminally bad. Fairs should fun and whimsical, not industrial and impersonal. There is not a trace of taste anywhere in the place - other than in the ag exhibits, which save the day for a great many fairgoers. Here's an idea: let's make an offer to the Danes to buy and transplant Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens. Maybe we can get them to build us a combination sports arena/Heineken brewery as part of the deal.

Craig Powell on "Downtown is focus for urban design experts"

2011-02-17T23:30:44Z

When you dig him up, Brandon, let me know. It's amazing what happened in Paris in that brief, magical era of Haussmann- architecutrally, culturally, socially and philosophically. Talk about enduring architectural values.

Craig Powell on "Mayor Johnson speaks at Oak Park Neighborhood Association Meeting"

2011-02-08T16:38:50Z

I leave bitterness for others. My wife pulled about a third of the vote in a 3-way race, which is a very respectable showing for a first-time candidate. And there is no doubt that the six mailers that the teachers union saturated the district with in the closing days of the campaign had a significant inpact in the race. In a straight-up race, without the suffocating impact of the teachers union's unlimited campaign spending, she'd have won and I think you know that. It was sad to see the teachers union fight so hard to keep a highly acclaimed public school teacher off of the Sac City school board. .

Craig Powell on "Crest Theatre's preservation behind purchase"

2011-02-08T15:37:02Z

RPH or Bill: I remember the Fox and Encore theaters on K St., but not the Alameda on L. Did the Alameda convert from burlesque to movie theater before it met the redevelopment wrecking ball? Do you know when was it knocked down? There was also another movie house on K St., across from the Encore (which was itself next to the current Esquire). Anybody recall its name? Has anyone written up the history of Saramento's movie theaters, burlesque houses and music venues? If not, it would be an a very interesting project.

Craig Powell on "Mayor Johnson speaks at Oak Park Neighborhood Association Meeting"

2011-02-08T06:20:08Z

Just give the kids and their parents full access to the damn information and stop hurting children in your long-standing teachers union vendetta against Sac Charter High.

Craig Powell on "Mayors, governor to negotiate redevelopment"

2011-01-27T20:47:36Z

According to a just released Public Policy Institute poll, 63% of likely voters in CA support the governor's plan to terminate redevelopment funding, while just 26% oppose termination. I think this represents the cumulative impact of decades of news stories on spending abuses by redevelopment agencies.

Craig Powell on "City protests Brown's redevelopment plan"

2011-01-23T20:00:16Z

According to basic math, if the termination of $170 million of redev. funding would cost us 19,000 local jobs, then each $8,947 of redev. funding creates one job. If that is true, then the SHRA ought to start giving the Obama Administration lessons on effective stimulus spending.

Craig Powell on "Council Asked to Place Crime Task Force Ahead of Arena Task Force"

2011-01-07T17:28:22Z

Two reasons for pursuing the task force idea, Dale: First, an ongoing task force, if it gains the support of a number of community groups, might bring some sustained advocacy and community action which one-time meetings cannot generate. Second, we cannot give up on this issue or give in to discouragement. We have to do what we can to build community pressure on the city and the schools to deal with this problem. If elected officials see inceasing numbers of voters behind such a movement, we will start to see real action ... or we'll see new elected officials. Voters are in no mood to reelect incumbents who are failing to adequately represent their interests.

Craig Powell on "Council Asked to Place Crime Task Force Ahead of Arena Task Force"

2011-01-06T14:42:31Z

Henry, I think this is a very smart idea that would help keep our elected officials, city managers and the public focused on a problem that is more acutely felt by Sacramentans than any other. The attention span of our public officials is notoriously brief while the worsening problem of youth and gang violence demands that the community give it our utmost and sustained attention. There is fatalistic attitude among many who consider the problem beyond our city's ability to solve. That has to be fought. Initiatives for new arena, green policies and charter changes, while important to many, are simply not as critical to most Sacramentans as securing the public's safety, keeping our neighborhoods safe and saving our youth from oblivion. If ever there was a time for the community and its leaders to come together to advocate for bold solutions, this is it.

Craig Powell on "A thank you to our community contributors"

2010-12-28T02:54:20Z

You guys have created something wonderful for Sacramento. Thank you.

Craig Powell on "Park maintenance debate on hold"

2010-12-16T22:43:14Z

You are right, StevieGee. City staff is perfectly capable of evaluating the feasibility of this idea without paying an outside engineer $83,000. This idea has a number of legal, political and practical difficulties to it that should be thoroughly vetted before we blow $83,000 on it. The city should be inviting stakeholders and community members in to discuss the idea before an engineer starts drawing maps and plans. The city is putting the cart before the horse on this one, which is not be the first time. Let's keep them to their promise to be inclusive.

Craig Powell on "Parks maintenance plan sparks debate"

2010-12-11T17:02:17Z

In light of the protracted recession and the regional water board's action this week mandating that we build new sewage treatment facilities that will hammer us with $2 billion in higher utility bills (on top of the 19% rate hike imposed over the past year), the city would be very ill-advised to try to increase the tax burden on Sacramentans any time soon. The city needs to call together stakeholders and community representatives to help it conduct a full review of how the city currently spends its park maintenance dollars and to help it indentify ways for it to save money and improve service levels. For example, it should end its current practice of layoffs and furloughs, which have drastically reduced service levels, and reduce unit labor costs instead, which will maintain or increase service levels. It should also promptly implement its own consultant's recommendation to put basic park care out to competitive bid, which would reduce costs by 50%, according the estimate of the city's own budget director. In an era of real limits, the city has to start spending smarter. That means standing up to union pressure and doing the right thing.

Craig Powell on "Development Oversight Commission to disband"

2010-12-11T16:38:33Z

I would think that the city could use an economic development commission that could advise the council and the city manager on policy changes and initiatives that could boost economic growth in Sacramento. It could also review policy proposals originating from others and provide feedback to the council on their likely impact on growth, an economic impact review if you will. The key is for the group to be independent of the city council and city staff so it provides honest, impartial analysis, unlike the Utility Rate Advisory Commission, whose members, hand-picked by council members and largely led around by the nose by staff, largely tee up rate hike proposals for subsequent adoption by the city council. I admit I have no idea how much these commissions cost the city to operate. Perhaps the Metro Chamber, BIA and other business groups could chip in to help cover its operating costs in exchange for some input on who gets appointed. Part of the problem is that virtually no one on the council currently has significant private sector or business experience. The same is true of most city staff. How can we reasonably expect such folks to have an informed perspective on how to grow a local economy or what it takes to grow a successful business? They have, at best, only a theoretical understanding of the real world impact of taxes, fees, regulations and mandates on business and economic development. They could use some major league help from private sector advisors.

Craig Powell on "Treasurer: City must borrow cash"

2010-12-08T15:18:09Z

Kudos to our city treasurer for bringing public attention to the city's worsening cash position and its increasing cash flow problems. Right now, the city's $40 million in outside borrowing to cover cash shortfalls during the general fund's "dry period" in the first half of each fiscal year is somewhat discretionary, in that the city' has around $100 million in various reserve accounts it could, in a pinch, borrow from to cover each year's dry period. That's why the city is getting pretty good rates on its short term tax anticipation notes. But the real proplem that Russ Fehr is drawing attention to is that the City Council is steadily eroding the city's cash reserves through constant "one-time" (oxymoronic, I know) dips into the city's reserves to gloss over the city's chronic deficit spending year after year. If the Council does not start exercising fiscal discipline, it will not be long before the city's cash reserves will be inadequate to support low cost, short term outside borrowing. At that point, borrowing costs will rise considerably and the city will be entirely at the mercy of lenders and financial markets that are increasingly spooked by the specter of municipal insolvencies. Sacramento's chronic structural deficit, abetted by steadily rising pension costs, will worry them even more. The bottom line is that the city is steadily losing its financial independence and will soon be dancing to the tune of Wall Street bankers if things don't change. We can only hope that the three new council members who heard Fehr's sobering report last night take his warnings to heart.

Craig Powell on "Editorial: Crime and the City "

2010-11-30T15:56:59Z

Why doesn't SacPress take the lead in creating a dozen or so public safety listserves, one for each neighborhood in downtown/midtown? More and more neighborhood associations are sponsoring/administering such listserves and they serve as an enlarged, rapid version of traditional neighborhood watch groups. SPD will follow them so that local police commanders are immediately notified of breaking crime info reported by participants. SacPress staff can monitor the listserves and selectively report on significant crime info. If SacPress teams up with local neighborhood associations to create such listserves, it should garner strong PR for their launch.

Craig Powell on "Fong: Clean out development department"

2010-11-19T17:43:43Z

The Development Department, which failed to collect $2 million in permit fees and illegally approved a handful of permits in the Natomas flood zone, has now been the subject of three examinations, one internal and two external. Now Fong wants the city to initiate a 4th examination. Compare this to Fong's actions with respect to the much more substantial scandals of our dysfunctional Utilities Department. When the grand jury reported in Jan. that city managers had illegally diverted between $21 and $35 million of ratepayer money in violation of Prop. 218 and then tried to cover-up their diversions, did Fong call for or vote for the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate their illegal conduct? No. When the grand jury reported that the illegal diversions were still ongoing, did Fong demand that they stop? No. Did he call for dismissal or even disciplinary action against any of the city managers responsible for the diversions? No. Did Fong vote in favor of either one the two proposals to engage an outside productivity auditor to examine the city's operations, including the Utilities Department? No. When the former director of the Utilities Department was canned for refusing to keep his mouth shut about the illegal diversions, did Fong call for action to protect the whistle blower? No. When the former director handed Fong and other council members copies of an outside study that disclosed the extent of the illegal diversions, did Fong demand action by the city manager? No. Where is the moral outrage, Mr. Fong, over a rip off that has cost city residents tens of millions of dollars in higher utility bills and has reduced investment in our city's infrastructure? Where is the oversight? Where is the accountability? We are waiting, Mr. Fong.

Craig Powell on "Support Municipal Union Greed? Then Vote "No" on B"

2010-11-02T18:03:02Z

First of all, the city now changes utility rates every two years. If B passes and the city wants to propose a major rate hike, it can simply add the proposal on to the primary ballot at neglible additional cost. The argument that a special election will be required is simply false. Secondly, the defenders of the status quo simply refuse to admit the quite evident truth that the DOU is terribly mismanaged, unable to control costs, resists all efficiency audits, resists the appointment of an investigator to find out the true extent of illegal fund diversions, is a regular generator of scandals, and is poorly supervised by the city manager and the city council who refuse to fire or even discipline those DOU managers responsible for illegally diverting tens of millions of ratepayer dollars and then covering it up. These are not our allegations - these are Grand Jury findings. These are established facts. In the past 2 years, every member of the city council has publicly characterized the DOU as dysfunctional. One council member publicly called the current DOU director a liar. No one has fought harder for audits, investigations and exposure of DOU misconduct that we have. But at every single step a city council majority and DOU management have opposed these efforts. The desperate scare tactics of the opponents of Measure B - city unions - aren't working. It is ludicrous and disingenuous for critics of Measure B to claim that the rollback of a rate hike that is only 120 days old will cripple city utilities - when the city has resisted every effort and every proposal to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, including the five proposals I listed in an earlier post. The voters will not be fooled by self-serving city unions who just want to keep the gravy train rolling along - at the expense of hard-pressed ratepayers and an improved business climate that will bring new jobs. It is long past time that we reform city utilities. Vote "Yes" on Measure B.

Craig Powell on "Support Municipal Union Greed? Then Vote "No" on B"

2010-11-02T13:55:01Z

Again, Measure B does not place any limits whatsoever on city utilty rates after the first year. It merely shifts authority to approve major hikes from the conflicted city council to the voters. Consequently, it will have no impact whatsoever on the ability of the city to qualify for state or federal grants.

Craig Powell on "Support Municipal Union Greed? Then Vote "No" on B"

2010-11-01T23:10:18Z

Some facts: (1) The photos of workers sitting on their tails were of actual Dept. of Utilities employees, not contractors. (2) Except for the rollback of the latest 9.2% rate hike and a one-year freeze in rates, Measure B does not place any limits on future rate hikes. It simply shifts the authority to approve major rate hikes from the rate hike-incontinent city council to the voters, the folks who actually pay the bills. You have to ask yourself: whom do you trust more to make major rate hike decisions in the future: a city council shot full of conflicts of interests or Sacramento voters, who have the proper balance of interests in that they receive the benefit of the services while also paying for them? This is not anti-tax San Diego. Sacramento voters have a good track record of approving justified taxes and rejecting poorly conceived tax proposals (i.e. the arena tax). (3) Given human nature and the nature of bureaucracies, the dysfunctional Dept. of Utilities is not about to reform itself without some externally imposed budget discipline. We all know the city council is too beholden to city unions and too dysfunctional itself to implement meaningful reforms at DOU. When the last DOU director tried to do the right thing and inform the council of the $21 million plus in illegal diversions of ratepayer funds, he was summarily fired. As reported by the grand jury, senior city manager covered up the diversions. When the grand jury blew the whistle in Jan., the council took no action to either fire or discipline the managers involved in the diversions and cover-up, and refused to appoint a special investigator. (4) The Taxpayers League has identified five ways the DOU can reduce costs with no reduction in service levels (renegotiate Local 39's and the plumbers union's contracts to reclaim wage hikes and salary spikes that no other city employees received, stop the ongoing illegal diversions of ratepayer funds in violation of Prop 218, slow the pace of water meter installations in light of the quadrupling of meter installations this year, selectively contract out DOU functions that have been allowed to become far most costly than private sector alternatives, fund the short term bad debt problem through a one-time borrowing from the city's overfunded self-insurance fund, implement honest budgeting of actual capital improvement costs which are now running 50% below budget, with the excess funds hidden in phony reserve accounts). (5) Why do you suppose city unions are funding a $250,000 campaign to try to frighten voters into opposing Measure B? It's certainly not out of concern for our infrastructure. Measure B slams the brakes on a gravy train that has been serving a small number of highly privileged city utility workers very well, while punishing Sacramento's seniors and low and moderate income residents and pummeling our businesses. (6) By lowering the cost of doing business, Measure B will do more to attract new jobs and stop the further loss of existing jobs than any other action our city can take this year. Vote "Yes" on Measure B and let's help jump start Sacramento's recovery.

Craig Powell on "Polling places in Sacramento's central city and environs"

2010-11-01T12:36:41Z

A nice thing about voting early is that it does take you off the mailing lists for all of those nasty, last minute campaign mailers. It also gets you off of the robocall lists and gives you a respite from door-to-door canvassers. The only down side is, if anything important comes to light in the last few weeks, you can't take your vote back. Personally, I just like the ritual of voting on Election Day with family and neighbors.