Well the sample ballots arrived in the mail Friday, and with them the final language on Measures Q and R (p 13). I don’t know if I just never bothered to know which was which but I was surprised that the first one, Q, is the non-binding “quality of life” measure and R is the actual tax hike. The effect of this, for anyone out there who may have been in suspended animation for the last few months, is that you read along your ballot and get to Measure Q: “shall 50% of a new voter-approved sales tax be used for a sports and entertainment facility?” Just any old voter-approved sales tax, they’re not picky. And then when you reach your patience threshhold reading that one, you skip to the next and just get hit with “shall the board levy a 1/4 percent sales tax for general purposes?” I had always assumed that they’d hit you with the money first and then with the arena. It seems like if you’re asking for a billion dollars you should strive for as few chances as possible to confuse the frakk out of everybody.
Continue reading “Sample Ballot confusion” »

Sacramento media are all of a dither about the Maloof family’s $700,000 investment in a low-budget horror movie called “Feast,” but fans of Bravo’s series “Project Greenlight,” which created the movie–including Mrs Cool and myself and DB of The Barnesyard, have known this for like 2 years, ever since episode 3 of that series where the Maloofs were called on to provide financing for the project.

So if you were not aware of this, and you are filing this away as evidence that the Maloofs are giving up on the arena and moving on to greener pastures, think again. If, however, you live in Sacramento and have a pulse, one thing you don’t lack right now is evidence that the Maloofs are giving up on the arena and moving on to greener pastures.

Remember: women and children out of the ship first…

The owners of the Sacramento Kings have sent out a letter blasting city and county leaders for taking the side of a developer who they say wants to renegotiate terms of a deal for a new arena.

The letter was sent to season ticket holders, other customers, team members and at least some city leaders.

Is anybody out there in Sac Rag land on that mailing list? We’d love to get a copy of that letter…

UPDATE: Thanks, “somebody else” for hooking us up so quickly (26 minutes). This thing is turning into a full blown fiasco. The timing of this is great, even if the city/county could react it wouldn’t be until the weekend. Wonder how they’ll distance themselves from this?

One thing, though: “For us, failure at the Railyards would mean everything.” I thought it just meant that they “may have to consider other options”?

Various sources are reporting that the talks between the Maloofs and the JPA are stalling over parking spaces. In a stunning turn of events, the pro-arena campaign is now saying that it will press on with or without the Kings:

“We still consider [the Maloofs] part of our team, but it is our arena, and we will decide where it goes, and the public has said loud and clear that the best place for the arena is in the railyard,” said Assistant City Manager John Dangberg

Again I ask how and when we made our voice “loud and clear” on the arena issue. This is starting to completely unravel into a major scandal. What are these idiots doing? More later…

I don’t blame the Arena supportes for distancing themselves from Joe Maloof’s apparently off-the-cuff prepared statement last week about the possibility of the railyard site not materializing. But in doing so they bury a key point of the agreement they made with the Maloofs: namely that the railyard site might not materialize and that “we may have to consider alternative locations in Sacramento.” They know it’s true because they signed the document, things Dignan’s not supposed to touch. Oops, sorry.

Campaign chairperson Sandy Smoley told News10 in a written statement. “The community has decided that the best place for its new arena is at the old Sacramento railyards, and we have no doubt that this is where it will be.

The community decided that? When was that, was I out of the country when we decided that?
Continue reading “Arena boosters distance themselves from Maloofs, voters” »

UPDATED 9/6/06 at 8:00 pm

To quote Conan O’Brien, you just can’t make this stuff up; you wouldn’t want to, it would waste everyone’s time.

Kings Owner Joe Maloof’s statement: “We share the vision that everyone here has. The future would be fantastic to have a new arena downtown to revitalize the railyards. But it isn’t going to be easy. The site has been vacant for decades because it’s such a difficult site to develop. There are a lot of moving parts: The railroad, the developer, the cleanup, and all the work the city and county have got to get done. We believe it can happen, we believe an arena can help make it happen, but we want to make sure the people are aware that we will do our best. If for some reason it can’t happen at this site, we may have to consider alternative locations in Sacramento.”

Continue reading “Joe Maloof drops railyard arena bomb” »

So the CA Assembly voted down a big flood protection bill. I guess that’s even more reason to build a bigger arena…where else are we going to congregate when the levees break!

That’s right, I just Raised a Spectre. If I can’t simply argue that a backroom deal involving a tax increase that disproportionately hurts poor people and offers only a non-binding promise of a downtown sports arena is a bad idea I’m not afraid of going the fear route. I did notice something interesting in the Bee’s report about the failed flood bill:

[Bill sponsor Assemblywoman Lois] Wolk ultimately concluded it was better to do nothing and tackle the issue next year, than to do the wrong thing and pretend the issue was solved.

Interesting approach! When you’ve got a package of hastily slapped together legislation that you’re worried won’t get the job done, it’s nice to know you can just wait til next year, even if the bill involves improving a public facility or work that many say is inadequate to future needs. Who knew!?

I’m sitting in a room on the 21st floor of the Omni in San Diego, looking down into PetCo Park, where the Padres are playing the Giants. I can tell every time Bonds makes an appearance — the boos rock the ballpark and practically vibrate the foundation of the hotel (which has a four-floor skywalk into the park).

Why am I not at the game? Three tickets, four people (late entry to our party), so I opted to stay “home” and get some work done. (The Omni has to be one of the most efficient business hotel chains around, totally dedicated to helping you get everything you want done, from hooking to fast, flawlessw WiFi in every room to getting your 14-year-old niece some tourist options to get her out of your hair for a while. Oh, and great handmade chips!)

Sounds like the seventh-inning stretch down there now …
Continue reading “Downtown stadiums” »

As you’ve probably heard, the twofold arena tax measures will officially be on the ballot this fall. All it took was some last-minute hammering out of the details of the arena deal to make sure the points were in writing. So in other words, before they could agree to go forward with the ballot initiatives that cannot explicitly raise tax money for the arena, they had to make sure that the deal to build said arena using tax money was in writing.

I urge all potential Yes voters to remember this–they are purposely circumventing the law to win approval for a deal that was negotiated and signed in private, to fund an arena with a tax that has a greater impact on the poor and allow a private company to keep all the profits from said arena. I can’t remember a more shady political scheme than this. It’s not about our support for the team, it’s about turning down a terribly lopsided deal. You can do it, Sacramento!

Thanks FauxPaws for helping me beat the drum! Got busy making widgets yesterday and neglected to point out that Daniel Weintraub now says what I said last week, that the Maloofs’ rent should not be considered as a contribution to the building costs. Further, he went on to demonstrate that under a conservative estimate (assuming the low end for things like parking fees and naming rights) the Maloofs’ spending and income for using the arena are a wash, meaning that their only contribution to the entire project is the $20 capital repair fund. Assuming the higher end they come out ahead. We taxpayers, on the other hand, are out $1.2 billion.

Here’s a question: If the arena would be publicly owned, wouldn’t it make sense for it to be open several times a year for free events? I don’t think I’ve heard that proposed in this deal.