On Thursday, February 15 at 7pm the Arden Arcade Incorporation Committee will be holding a petition drive celebration and informational meeting at Arcade Church (3927 Marconi Avenue). For those of you who haven’t been accosted by the for hire signature gatherers in the area recently, some folks in the Arden Arcade area are trying to incorporate. In order to do so they must “obtain” a certain amount of signatures from the public.
Now I’m all for taking it to the streets and letting the people decide, but these signature gatherers are just plain jack-holes. So much so that I am all for voting against incorporation in protest.
Has anyone else encountered these scoundrels? Runner-eats? Sac-girl? What say you?
The Sac Rag 
As a new resident in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County (formerly a longtime resident within the Sacramento city limits) that would become the City of Arden Arcade should this measure pass, I have to agree with you, RonTopofIt. I’ve been accosted by signature gatherers not only in front of the grocery store, but also in front of unlikely places like JoAnn Fabric and BevMo! (Can’t I just get my Stitch Witchery and Boeger in peace?)
Looking at where the city limits would be drawn, this new jurisdiction would SERIOUSLY lack anything remotely resembling a town center — unless we can have City Hall at Daniel’s Fogon Waffle Kings European Food Chinese Buffet on Fulton Avenue.
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The signature gatherer that I encountered wouldn’t accept the fact that I disagree with incorporation. Apparently our civic duty is to sign whatever peice of paper someone puts in front of you because that’s democracy. If you don’t sign it then the terrorists have won.
I did sign the petition to end women’s suffrage though, because I think that women have it hard enough without all of that suffrage going around.
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Is it me, or am I the only one that doesn’t want to have to give my address as Arden Arcade, CA? That sounds stupid, first of all, and second has no historical precedent. Neighborhoods have names within AA (I’m not thrilled about the abbreviation either), but Arden-Arcade is a very recent construct, no different than “midtown” or “east sac”. Plus, I like telling people I live in Sacramento. I’m not thrilled by the phone jockey taking my address to say, “Arden-Arcade, where’s that?”
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Oh, one more thing, any California city whose name is not Spanish or Native American sounds totally made up…except for Fremont, he was a badass, and Berkeley too, he was cool, and Richmond is ok, and Oakland always had a nice ring to it. Fine, the East Bay has an exemption. Everywhere else sounds fake.
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Citrus Heights is the Native American word for “white people who think they are ‘gangsta’ live here”
Roseville is the Native American word for “white people who shop at abercrombie live here”
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Elk Grove is the Native American word for “no elk and no groves live here”.
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I do not want Arden-Arcade to be a city. Do. Not. No town center. No city services. Stupid, stupid name.
Rather have the area annexed to Sacramento. But only if we can keep Sac Metro F.D., because at least those firefighters seem able to keep things in their pants and their focus on the job. Love Sac Metro FD, even if they ARE overpaid.
Whose cockamamie idea is this cityhood nonsense, anyway? And yes, the signature-gatherers were jerks. Vote. No.
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I take it that the name comes from Arden and Arcade streets right? Do they intersect? That is goofy, It’d be like me pulling to live in Pine-Stocktonville.
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The signature gatherers get paid for each signature that they get: that’s why they’re so aggressive. I once asked a signature gatherer to explain a proposed bill to me: he told me to go away; that I was wasting his time. The signature gatherers that you encounter probably aren’t local: they travel from state to state… wherever they’re “needed.” Once when I complained about a signature gatherer; the store manager decided to call the sheriff to deal with the signature gatherer. Two squad cars showed up!
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They’re both streets, yes, but “Arden” and “Arcade” are both long-established areas. Both, for example, used to have their own fire departments before all county fire departments were merged.
“Arcade” comes from “Arcade Boulevard,” which started as the long entrance (“the arcade”) to the home of James Ben Ali Haggin, who owned the Rancho Del Paso land grant, in what is now most of Del Paso Heights, etc. Among other things, Haggin was a racehorse breeder. His horse Ben Ali won the 1886 Kentucky Derby.
Arcade isn’t the only local place name that comes from the Rancho Del Paso land grant. There’s also Haggin Oaks golf course, the Del Paso Country Club … even {Land} Grant High school — they all come from that history.
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Thanks for the history! They should choose just one. I’m pulling for Arcade cuz that sounds festive.
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How ’bout Ardeno? Or Acrcadia? Or Riverbank Shores Landing?
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Why is the road that runs parallel to the river in the nice neighborhood side called “American River” and on the bad neighborhood side called “La Riviera.” It’s racist says I!
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I like the old fashioned idea of where you live (the specific property you own) being named by you and being the way you are located. Like… Two X Ranch, or Whispering Pinecones…
What would your homestead be called?
Mine?
Redered Winds – In honor of the smell from local rendering plant that graces our home in the wee hours of the morn.
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Ours would be the “Time Machine Ranch” based on the many eras represented in the original and added-on architectural elements of our home, and based on the property’s former life as part of a horse ranch.
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I just ordered a cute address stamp. It says Sacramento. I vote no.
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If I get to name my property “monkey scat ranch” can I also brand my chattel?
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Mailing addreses aren’t affected when a city incorporates, as that is a Federal matter, aka United States Postal Service.
In Rancho, we didn’t hire signature gatherers. It was an all volunteer force, no one received a dime to collect signatures. I collected signatures, and I was not paid. The signatue gathering started in the spring of ’99 and ended in 10/99. We focused on people who had voted 3 out of the last 3 election to avoid folks who would most likely be disinterested, and we avoided rentals.
I think that the matter should at least be permitted to proceed to LAFCO to be studied, unless that has be come uncool now, or pehaps an annoyance.
The petition only moves the proposed incorporation to the Local Agency Formation Commission, then a Comprehensive Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Report will be commissioned by LAFCO, paid for by the cityhood proponents to the tune of a couple of hundred thousand dollars, out of which some alternative boundaries and revenue neutrality payments to Sacramento County will be put on the table. In addition, they will have to pay an incorporation application fee around 10-15K and a signature verification fee in the thousands as well. It’s a very expensive process in Sacramento County, as each of the 58 lafcos in CA can draft local rules regarding process fees. Some counties pay nearly the entire cost, others like Sacramento, use fees as a means test to discourage frivolous applications.
There will be several opportunities to comment over the nearly two year process, should the proposed incorporation get to move onto LAFCO. The City of Sacramento will have ample opportunity to shoot this down and to advocate annexation.
Many long time residents in Arden Arcade want to at least look at the question in detail, and answer with some certainty that cityhood isn’t the best alternative.
There is even the possibility to incorporate into the study’s scope what the impact of annexation into Sacramento might be. This is upto LAFCO commissioners, so if this concerns you, the question of annexation, tell them.
Although I don’t agree with using paid signature gatherers, as they have a high rate of signature rejection by the registrar of voters, for many of the reason you guys have mentioned, their sliminess quotient shouldn’t shoot down the opportunity to study the question.
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Good point, but still not as convincing as the fact that “Arden-Arcade” as a city name sounds lame.
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This is simultaneuously one of the funniest and most educational string of comments I’ve seen in a while. Well done, kids.
Arden-Arcade better have a kick-ass place for me to play Donkey Kong.
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I agree, Arden-Arcade sounds lame, more like some medical condition named for the scientist who isolated the virus, but like all things cortese-knox-hertzberg, a solution is available that they have discussed.
If the city were to be found “financially viable”, is found to “not have a significant effect on the environment” or LAFCO can “Eliminate or substantially lessened all significant effects on the environment where feasible” and “Determine that any remaining significant effects on the environment found to be unavoidable”, a revenue neutrality agreement struck between the county and cityhood proponents, then the proposed incorporation can be placed on the ballot, along with an election for selection of a name of the new city.
In 2002, when San Fernando Valley’s secession from the City of Los Angeles (Measure F) was on the ballot, Measure G was placed on the ballot to allow voters to select a name for the city. I think that it would play out the same way with Arden Arcade.
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like the one that used to be at the top of the escalator above Kay’s, between the sock store and Bombay Company? that was an Arden Arcade.
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Amrit: Did you order these with you & your loved ones with goatees and Santa hats? http://www.familylabels.com
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