Glenn Hall Pool, by Midtown Grid user Julia

The bathroom closure announcement is probably the most unfortunate and glaring change in the city’s gutted rec budget, but I’m really disappointed that almost all the pools will now only be open 3-5 PM. There will be no city pools open after 5pm, and several pools — including my beloved Glenn Hall pool — will be closed to recreational swimming entirely. The changes take effect Monday. Oh well, at least the kids can play in the sprinklers, right? Oh wait.

Continue reading “City pools are practically closed” »

I wanted to bring up a few points about the City’s new martial law declaration with respect to water use. First, you can be cited and fined for “leaky or faulty water lines, hoses, fixtures or other water using or distributing devices,” so make sure to maintain all your sprinklers. Second, the City itself is exempt from all the restrictions. And keep in mind these restrictions are in place now, when we’ve had unseasonable precipitation and mild temperatures; the City will enact even more stringent restrictions if we get to an actual water shortage situation.

Read the City’s ordinance (PDF)

(Hat tip to Chris Shannon of North Sac Beat)

The News & Review’s Cosmo Garvin reports that former City Councilman Josh Pane is “mounting a campaign stop the mermaid bar on K Street” and several other businesses being funded by a recent city council subsidy.

The $6 million subsidy came from a special fund set aside to support redevelopment projects by local developer David Taylor.

That just doesn’t sound right, does it? But I know that government cheese has always been around, and that there are probably businesses up and running today on the grid who wouldn’t be here if not for government cheese. Likewise I’m sure that my knee-jerk reaction against this particular subsidy would set me up as a hypocrite if the council were to subsidize a midtown Barnes & Noble, or a 65th St. Target. (Send your angry anti-corporate e-mails to: cooldmz-at-sacrag.com)

Also: the over-30 dance club would be called “Frisky Rhythm”? Gag me with a spoon…

I know I made light of the mermaids thing but the larger issue is the proposed $8.6 million city subsidy for the building of the complex. As you might expect, there is a petition out there in opposition to the subsidy. Neighboring businesses argue the subsidy would “bankrupt” their businesses. The Midtown Business Association has collected some documents about the proposal (they call the proposed new bar with swimming girls a “mermaid bar,” which is confusing — if it was truly a bar for mermaids, that wouldn’t necessarily cut into the bottom line for neighboring businesses catering to “normals.”)

Based on the developer’s proposal it sounds like the mermaid bar/mermaid-themed bar is going to be punningly titled “DIVE BAR” and the “adult pizza” (??) joint is to be called “PIZZA ROCK.”

This is a major scandal. It’s old news by now, but back in 2007 when the city council agreed to transfer $55 million to Thomas Enterprises to help the company buy the rest of the railyard land, it apparently overpaid by several orders of magnitude because it didn’t take the time to get an appraisal done. Most of the money came from the transportation fund and thus couldn’t be used to get us out of the $50 million hole we’re in — though how it was able to be transferred to a real estate developer in that case is beyond me.

This whole mess stunk before, but this is an outrage. The Sac Rag does not do political endorsements, but let’s just say I personally hope the city council’s unemployment rate soon becomes 100%.

Russia caught a break this weekend in its quest to start World War Three (Four?) when it was eclipsed by the most important news story to hit Sacramento in decades: Breakfast at Tiffany’s — Racist?

• Was ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ a racist movie?
• Sacramento official cancels ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ over anti-Asian scenes
• Rooney says racism charge at ‘61 film role ‘breaks my heart’

The Bee’s Stephen Magagnini sure made the most of having to work the weekend.

Continue reading ““Breakfast At Tiffany’s” invades, thousands flee” »

OK this is the most ridiculous thing I have seen in a while. Well maybe in like, 6 days.

Mayor Heather Fargo called Wednesday for police to reopen their investigation into a Sacramento High School teacher’s report last year that a 17-year-old student had told him she was inappropriately touched by the charter school’s founder, Kevin Johnson. … The mayor said she spoke to Police Chief Rick Braziel after reading an article in Tuesday’s Bee.

Via The BUZZ. I love the Johnson dude comparing Fargo to Vladimir Putin. But seriously, comrade Fargo, what will you think of next. I might vote for Jim Anchower.

And again I ask you: Am I the only one who thinks it is absurd/fishy… fishurd?… how many Bee stories in this scandal rely heavily on things that were reported in other Bee stories? At some point shouldn’t they ixnay on that?

Crime is up? Wha?Are you sure.
Because like, I thought it wasn’t.

Via Joe Sacramento (hey Joe, whaddya know!), don’t miss Daniel Weintraub’s piece from earlier this week about Mayor Heather Fargo’s dangerously out-of-it reactions to being confronted with the city’s crime rates, which I have blogged about here often. So often I’m not going to bother to provide links.

“My sense is that we are tracking at about the same pace as other cities,” says Fargo when asked her explanation for Sacramento’s soaring crime rate. The numbers are staggering — Sacramento has close to the worst crime rate in the state, and the rate has risen 50%… fifty percent!! … during Fargo’s term.

Continue reading “Fargo out of it on city’s out of control crime rate” »

Newish Natomas-based “The Buzz” found the Bee’s report today that a representative of Kevin Johnson has “pulled papers” for entering the upcoming election for mayor. KJ still has a few weeks to officially enter the race, or should I say to actually create a race, as otherwise Fargo would run unopposed, I believe.

The News & Review’s Cosmo Garvin is reporting that Kevin Johnson is rumored to be considering a run for mayor and could announce his candidacy as early as tomorrow (I think; SNR says “Friday, January 24″). Garvin of course brings up the Bee’s report last fall about citations at KJ’s Oak Park properties. I wonder how Mayor Fargo will deal with that.

P.S. Thanks to FFT for posting it