Has anyone else seen these ads for SAFE?
“No bank is safe”? That’s marketing gold right there–win over customers through fear. I so badly want to paste Osama’s mug over the stock blonde woman’s face, though that’s more Cockeyed territory.
Kudos to the Bee for burying in the middle of Metro this story about a protest outside its doors regarding its coverage of local theater. Among organizer’s Jackie Schultz’s beefs was that the paper lacked a forum for readers to respond to its coverage of local arts. As you probably know, reader, the Bee has had comments on articles now for several weeks. Luckily Schultz had a few understudy arguments ready to go.
All right, it’s officially time to stop building new houses in the Sacramento region, now that I’ve discovered that there is a subdivision in Rocklin called Wisteria. That’s actually all I want to say about that. There is another subdivision called Fiddyment Farm which sounds like a neighborhood out of Dr. Seuss and is one letter away from being pronounced “Fiddy Cent Farm,” which is hilarious.
Speaking of our city’s habit of combining old and new web technologies, the Sacramento Public Library today unveiled its Digital Download Catalog. You can now download e-books and audiobooks if you have a library card. Note, however, that the audiobook files are not compatible with Macs or with the popular iPod device–PC or Mac (take that, guy from “Ed”).
If you’re a homeowner in city limits (on or before 1/1/06), make sure to check the Assessment District Refunds page at the city’s Website to see if you’ve got a refund coming your way. The county assessor’s site has a parcel viewer tool to look up your parcel number (if’n you ain’t got that memorizized. Something about dealing with the local gub’mint makes me want to talk like a hillbilly.) so you can look up your refund on a PDF document. (Ahh, technology–a super high tech asp.net web app to look up your number, but for the refunds info you need to Control-F on a PDF file.)
I didn’t get one, but there’s some pretty sweet government cheese to be had.
Sometime Ragger Stickie sent me a tip that your friendly neighborhood Starbucks is offering “free iced coffee or iced cafe con leche” today from 1-3 pm. I can’t find independent confirmation but this seems to have gone on in other locales very recently so it’s probably legit.
UPDATE: Thanks to CSI Sac we now have independent confirmation that tomorrow is the free iced coffee day.
My heart goes out to the people in the Meadowview neighborhood, who are currently suffering through the most murderous year in the city’s recent history–one killing a month this year, and staggeringly three in the last week. Overall, 42 murders in the city YTD represent a 35 percent increase over 2005.
Firstly, after my last string of posts about crime in the city and the Commissioner’s public response, I want to make sure I put it on record that the men and women on the street fighting crime have my respect and support. I wouldn’t want to give the impression that I think the uniformed cops and detectives are not trying hard to win the war. My beef is with the attitude expressed in the leadership’s public statements–that people in crime-challeneged neighborhoods should not worry because most of the violent crime is being committed by hardened criminals.
Well, they are at it again regarding the situation in Meadowview…
Continue reading “Nightmare in Meadowview”
My wife reports that the Sacramento Zoo has posted a sign banning the use of roller shoes. Those of us who are grumpy old people in 30 year olds’ bodies applaud the Zoo for taking such a pointless stance. Next stop: boys’ hair must be cut above the collar?
Best of Sacramento 2006 people’s choice voting is up at newsreview.com. I don’t think there is a “best illegal tax deal” category but I suppose you could not vote for Biba in the “best place to blow an extra quarter on your $100 meal.” Sorry, I just can’t turn it off. HULK ANGRY!
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!
The Sac Rag 