Author: FauxPaws

Housing markets: Sacramento vs. 25 other cities

The Wall Street Journal has a nifty chart online spotting housing trends in 26 cities, Sacramento included. Although most of the WSJ content is available only to subscribers, it appears this piece is open to all, at least for now.

The chart lists Sacramento as a falling market with a 136 percent change in inventory of available homes. What struck me, though (although it didn’t come as a surprise, really) is how relatively low-priced many other cities are. Example: Three bedroom, two bath “lakeside lodge” in Jacksonville, FL, for $195,600. In Houston, $139,900 will get you four-bedrooms and 2,392 square-feet.

But having spent time in both Jax and Houston, I have to say: If you think summer in Sacramento is miserable, try north Florida or Houston. C’mon, you know it! Let’s have the Sacramento motto:

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.

Bright lights, big city: The neon of Sacramento

In the lower-left corner of the SacRag home page, you’ll often find local pictures from the Sacramento group on the image-sharing site Flickr. One of the most prolific contributors to the group is Tom Spaulding (tspauld), who follows his muse to document an urban element most never really notice: Vintage neon signs.

I tripped across Tom’s work on Flickr several months ago, and came to look forward to each of his postings. Since he lives in Sacramento, much of the neon he finds is around town. But his field trips take him all over Northern California, and show a true appreciation of a faded era.

I dropped Tom an e-mail, and asked if he’d talk about his images of Sacramento’s vintage neon, and how he sees Sacramento in general. He reluctantly agreed:
Continue reading “Bright lights, big city: The neon of Sacramento”

Are Sacramentans mean?

Been reading Bee reporter Cynthia Hubert’s series following a child with cancer. The series is heartbreaking. And yet, in reading the comments from readers I am stunned by how many people are critical of the child’s mother, some suggesting she’s enjoying her “fame,” others criticizing her for buying her dying child a video game while accepting donations to pay medical bills.

These sort of comments stike me as mean-spirited and devoid of empathy. Depressing to think so many nasty people are my neighbors here. Are we meaner than people in other places, or is this just par for the course everywhere these days?

Drivers beware!

My brother was first in line at Fry’s this morning to snap up a refurbed GPS for under $200. He has wanted one for a year, even though he knows every street in the county and is the only one I know who can make it from Kennedy to Jesuit during rush hour in a half-hour. (He has his secrets, and won’t share them.)

He is now on his way to the airport, to pick up a friend of ours coming in from Baton Rouge. (I love saying “Baton Rouge.” So much more fun than “Red Stick,” don’t you think?)

“But … you KNOW how to get to the airport,” I said, pointing out the patently obvious. “You’ve been there a million times. Hell, you used to WORK there. You don’t need a computer to tell you the way.”

“Ahh, but does the GPS know how to get there?” he replies. “THAT’s the question!”

I’m going to assume it does, and not bother with an update. Boys and their toys! Sheesh!

Going, going, gone …

Perfect summer evening for baseball, and so on impulse I rounded up some friends last night and headed for Raley Field to watch the RiverCats play the Salt Lake City Bees. Maybe it’s me, but … where did the fun go?

To be sure, you couldn’t fault the weather, Sacramento’s best: just a hint of summer warmth with an overlay of classic Delta breeze. Raley Field still looks as adorable as ever, with its center field neon and center-right view of the Tower Bridge lit artfully by both nature and SMUD power. The field itself is crisp and clean, with sharp white chalk lines as always striking against the dark valley loam. The food was great (no sense complaining about ballpark prices — they are what they are), the play was good and the ‘Cats beat the Bees, thanks to a lovely grandslam midway through.

So what was the problem?
Continue reading “Going, going, gone …”

The Dispossessed

Eddie Fong closed his restaurant on Monday, and his regulars are bereft. All week long they’ve been wandering around town looking for a place to have breakfast, but there’s no place like Eddie’s, never has been and never will be again.

I was an Eddie’s regular, once removed. In truth, my brother was the Eddie’s guy, and I was allowed a pass into the inner circle because of him. Without that pass, Eddie’s could be a rather intimidating place to eat. Eddie ran a restaurant with good food (heavenly corned beef on Thursdays, best in town) and an attitude that was all his own. If you didn’t like anything about him or his place, he had no hesitation whatsoever about swearing at you until your ears hurt and then throwing you out. (Banishment to the Tower Cafe across Broadway was considered akin to being sent to hell for any Eddie’s regular.)
Continue reading “The Dispossessed”

Would you pay more for a cooler car?

Wouldn’t you think by now there’d be a car that keeps itself relatively cool when parked in the sun? Turns out there used to be:

Fifteen years ago, Mazda introduced a solar-powered ventilation system that would continuously flush hot air out of a vehicle parked in the sun. A solar cell array was mounted on the moon roof, supplying power to a small fan that drew in outside air.

The system worked only when the car was parked in the sun, exactly when it was needed. It was not hooked up to the car’s battery and therefore could not drain it. A Mazda spokesman confirmed that the system was offered as an option and that it was dropped.

Seems like an option that would be extremely popular in Sacramento. Here’s a piece on the history of such systems, how they work and why they’re not available. (Bugmenot will get you in to the Web site without signing up.)

In the meantime … oh, for a parking spot in the shade!

Not sure what to make of this, but …

… according to this piece in the Los Angeles Times (Bugmenot will get you in without registration), the Sacramento Bee has the most diverse sports staff of any big newspaper in the country.

The level of The Bee’s diversity wasn’t noted in the LAT piece, but the national stats showed that “94.7% of sports editors, 89.9% of columnists and 87.4% of reporters are white. The study also showed that 95% of the editors, 93% of the columnists and 90% of the reporters are male.” From the LAT:

The report, the first of its kind, was released Thursday at the Associated Press Sports Editors’ convention in Las Vegas. It was requested last year by the APSE board. [Richard] Lapchick, who compiles similar reports on professional sports leagues and the NCAA, said this was his first such report requested by the organization studied.

“We hope they’ll be looking at this as a tool by which to expand who will be hired in the future, to better represent the workforce and the athletes they are covering,” Lapchick said, noting that women make up 40% of the country’s workforce, that minorities constitute more than 37%, that black athletes dominate the NFL and NBA, and that Latinos have a strong presence in baseball and soccer.