I was in the Natomas/Truxel area the other day and noticed that the new Sonic/T.G.I. Friday’s construction had all but stopped. Fast forward a few days and the Computer Pages once again come to my rescue.

Via KCRA.com

At the intersection of Truxel Road and Gateway Park Boulevard, construction has been halted for a Sonic drive-thru and a T.G.I. Friday’s, which were scheduled to open two years ago.

Sonic blames the slowing economy for not completing the project. It plans to finish its Lincoln location first.

Two years ago! Man, brutal. I think we can do without another chain restaurant (Hear that, Guy?), but I’ve always wondered what the Sonic was all about. Well, apart from those irritating commercials.

AWESOME post on Natomas Buzz with an email from a Ray Trethaway aide, Dan Roth, to the Bee’s Mary Lynne Vellinga about Vellinga’s front-page article from last week about crime and low-income housing in Natomas. Roth blasts Vellinga for failing to accurately present her angle, and takes the Bee to task for its racist comment box, go figure

I don’t know what disturbs me more…this comment [from user "sacsforsaps"], or the fact that 4 out 5 people found this comment helpful.

Note to Bee: If you are going to continue with the comments thing, please add permalinks so we can more easily mock you…

One of my favorite Bee columns, Back-Seat Driver, reports today on CalTrans’ new plan to shut down lanes and onramps on I-5 in downtown.

Beginning in February or March and lasting through October, Caltrans will close one or two freeway lanes in each direction from Richards Boulevard on the north to the I-5 junction with Highway 50 on the south.

That will leave three lanes open in each direction, Dinger said.

Key ramps, such as the commuter-heavy I and A street connections also will be closed at points during the year

Apparently there are drainage problems there and it leaks, and therefore flood danger in the long run. But holy smokes, that does not sound like a fun 2008 for commuters or people flying on airplanes. Bizjak says this is the busiest strectch of I-5 north of Los Angeles. (Yay Sacramento!) I’m sure RT and the city have some ideas to alleviate the problem though… Continue reading “More traffic problems for I-5 corridor in ‘08″ »

This controversy over free publications makes me think of ripping down someone else’s “Vote for me!” student council campaign sign and replacing it with your own:

A Natomas media rivalry has turned ugly, with owners of two local publications each claiming the other has stolen stacks of the competitor’s periodicals from the rack.

In one case, Natomas Journal publisher Will Craig was caught on surveillance tape in August picking up a stack of N Magazines from the South Natomas Community Center, replacing them with his own newspaper and dumping the rival publication in an outside recycling bin…

Craig said he simply was sending a message to the people connected with N Magazine because he believes they have been stripping his racks for 21 months.

I understand, only remotely, that it’s important to the publishers to tell advertisers what their circulation is and where their publication is offered; however, doesn’t getting rid of the rival’s rag artificially increase the number of publications being taken?

At least he’s recycling them.