I'm happy that the Kings are staying and even more happy that this long, long ordeal is finally over and we will be able to get on with other things. But we should put this all in proper perspective. I would often overhear people say that without the Kings Sacramento would have nothing, that there would be nothing to do here. Of course, that said far more about them than it did our city. Nonetheless for a city of our size we do have a dearth of public amenities. Which is ionic and sad since so much of our economy is dependent on public funding. So while we are celebrating this big civic victory let's not fool ourselves into thinking that we can stop at a new arena. For those who live for the Kings and imagine the arena will be some sort downtown savior this might be their be all and end all. However, for the rest of us the city still has a lot of work to do.

Question I have is why it costs $250,000 to install a single traffic signal? I'd like to see the break-down on that.

@ Tony. I don't buy your explanation since Malcolm says "I find the Spock-Uhuru romance kind of annoying and unbelievable ...especially since Quinto recently came out as gay..." If Malcom actually meant what you said he would have said so or he wouldn't even have mentioned his sexuality. It's this type of unconscious bias that keeps actors (and others) in the closet. But just in case we didn't catch his subtle homophobia he goes on to say that Quinto's coming out was received by a collective cultural shrug. We don't need some local film reviewer giving us his opinions about how far the American people have come on the gay issue. Especially when violence against gays is up 50% in this country. I don't think Qunito was expecting a parade or a medal of honor for just being honest about himself. Or do you really think homosexuals come "out of the closet" for the benefit of heterosexuals? BTW not caring if someone is gay (or black, vaguely ethnic or just different than you) isn't the same thing as understanding and accepting them. And I haven't a clue what lucrative endorsements this guy talking about. Having said that I thought the Spock/Uhura romance was odd because it didn't helped the storyline at all. The relationship wasn't even pivotal to Spock embracing his human side. So it just seemed to be a silly distraction. But over all I liked that the characters' personalities are more dimensional in this film than in the past (and I'm not talking about the 3-d effect.) If anyone slightly annoyed me it was Karl Urban's portrayal of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. It seemed to be forced- coming off as a more of caricature.

I mostly agree with you regarding neighborhood opposition. Though increased traffic is nothing to sneeze at. As a conservative I can see why you would perceive the the neighbor opposition as dishonest and/or equal to that of developer. Don't cry for poor old Phil. It's likely this project will move forward. And I'm not going to be upset if it does. But the neighbors concerns should be addressed- openly discussed, questions answered and if need be the developer needs to change the plans to accommodate the community's wishes.

I agree with Burch that it is better to build in the city where people are close to their work rather than to continue to expand the suburbs. And I have no real problem with detached single family homes with garages. Nor am I likely to be bothered by the increased traffic. My big problem is with the dishonest and purposeful misuse of terms in order to market their product, make it more acceptable to the neighbors and thwart the opposition. This is not new for Phil Angelides. He is best known for the development called Laguna West which is located in the middle of a floodplain in what is now Elk Grove. He received of a lot of accolades (undeserved IMO) because Laguna West was supposedly one of the first developments designed along the principles of New Urbanism. It was originally touted as a transit-oriented project even though it was built out in the middle of nowhere and had no public transit. Even the so-called 'urban principles' were abandoned after the first phase. And citing the Reuters columnist Felix Salmon to make a point is puzzling. He's a statistician and therefore suffers from the delusion that he understands correlation. While the overall population density in America may have been in decline (especially before the crash), today many of the established urban areas, especially the ones with healthy economies are seeing a significant increase in urban density. I know defining terms can be tricky. To one person this project may look like an urban infill development and to another it seems pretty suburban. Clearly Laguna West was not urban nor transit orientated even though people said it was. And just it's location makes this project more "urban." However, by most of traditional definitions it would be a stretch to call this urban infill and to do so in order to garner support insults our intelligence. I could almost care less if this project gets built. Those who live closer to it might because the traffic will impact their neighborhood. Honestly, I can't imagine a denser infill on that site. So unless the site is left open or turned into a park or something like that I support it. Please just stop using that phony urban-ism jargon.