Tag: Elk Grove

Apple hiring again in Elk Grove

4-1-2013 9-25-13 PMMark Anderson of the Business Journal reports that Apple Inc has listed an additional 9 positions in its Elk Grove location, bring the total to 18 current positions listed.

The article was interesting to me because I didn’t realize there was an air of mystery surrounding what exactly Apple does at the Elk Grove location.

The Elk Grove location has the electrical capacity to support a major data center. It has its own 69 kilovolts substation from the Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District. That’s enough to power a city the size of Elk Grove.

So what is Apple doing in Elk Grove (besides the real answer, which I’m pretty sure is customer service)?

An issue that gets no props

A press release from the Elk Grove Police Department came across my desktop today:

ELK GROVE, CA – Earlier today, Elk Grove Police Officer Ali Khalil was arrested by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and served with a complaint alleging several felonies associated with mortgage-related financial transactions. None of the allegations were related to Officer Khalil’s official duties as an Elk Grove police officer. Officer Khalil, age 29, has been a member of the Elk Grove Police Department since 2006. Officer Khalil has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, which is standard practice when an officer has been charged with a crime.

We obviously have no details at this point about the nature of the charges or the crime, but the role of mortgage predators brokers in the housing industry has played a huge factor in our economic meltdown. Some brokers were above board but many others were not. These unscrupulous individuals played a significant role in suckering banks and borrowers into bad mortgages. Many of these old brokers are now setting up shop as refinancing experts and mortgage assistance houses (word of advice: do your own research and deal with your lendor directly). They basically splashed everyone with mud and are now offering to take people to the cleaners.

Eyebrowraisingly, it seems police officers are not immune from felonies arising out of the housing industry (though this not to say that he is charged with crimes that he did while on duty – we don’t know). Also, this officer was charged by the FBI but the EG PD still has to do their own internal investigation, during which time the accused is still on paid leave (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

I, for one, would like to see a more aggressive effort by the state government to ban unscrupulous mortgage broker marriage. We need fewer of those people and the more we can do to stop them from procreating, the happier we’ll all be.

UPDATE 6/2: Further details available at the Bee. Thanks to the SacRag faithful for keeping me on my toes. Vigilance!

Dude, where’s my cart?

The obligatory weekend trip for groceries means for me to hit the Costco. As an Elk Groover, the closest location to me is the South Sacramento store. Yep yep y’all, we’re going to South Sac.

Unfortunately, the only thing this store has going for it is that it’s a Costco that’s closest to those of us in the south side of the county but north of the cattle.

The staff are very friendly, but the store itself is wrought with overcrowding, rude customers and people who line up for free samples of orange juice and bacon, and then loiter in the middle of the aisles like they’re partaking of a United Nations relief mission. When you’ve finally navigated through the Dixie Cup buffet, you get stuck in a horrible feeder line system at the check out that also falls smack in a major thoroughfare in the store, so people with arms full of Christmas ornaments are running crosscurrent through the lines to get through.

The indoor food court is just as overcrowded as it is unsanitary. The time it takes to wait in line for the $1.50 hot dog and soda while you study the story told by the tattoo on the back of the neck in front of you, is worth more than the $1.50 you’ll spend. And, because people have had too much of a good thing back in the store, people also loiter around the soda vending machines refilling their cups of soda after every sip and making the rest of us wait for sweet flavourless bubbly. You also do not want your food to touch the picnic tables (complete with umbrellas) in the indoor sitting area, lest you disturb the flies. Besides, good luck pulling your food off the table once it’s been placed there and permanently affixed by old ketchup.

To top it off, last weekend, as I was browsing in an aisle, someone jacked my half full shopping cart and disappeared into the crowds. My bad. I forgot to padlock my cart to the shelf when I turned to browse.

My recommendation: go to another location. It might take longer to drive but you’ll save that time in the store, with a more pleasant experience.

Costco South Sacramento
7981 East Stockton Boulevard
Sacramento, California 95823
Rating: *

If you build it, who will come?

If you live in Elk Grove, you’ve very recently probably received a little mailer from the developers of the “Elk Grove Promenade” – the envisioned shopping mall off Highway 99 between Elk Grove Boulevard and Grant Line Road that has been rumored and innuendoed and planned and then gone back to the drawing board for the last couple of years. The developers are looking for some community support for the project, especially considering resistance from nearby Galt and others within Elk Grove who don’t believe a mall would be the best thing for the community.

Continue reading “If you build it, who will come?”

Elk Grove essence

The City of Elk Grove is requesting feedback from the general public on a variety of new logos and taglines to go with. I’d put up a sample of what they are considering, but apparently I’d have to get permission first and hell if I do that. You can check out all the different logos and taglines here.

Personally, I think that a picture of an elk standing in front of a grove of big box stores would be the best logo, but hey, that’s just me.

(Note to City of Elk Grove: if you don’t want people to steal your pictures, don’t put them on the internet.)

All snark aside…

A pretty rough weekend for Elk Grove, but one that created a few heroes in the two female Elk Grove deputies who faced down the maniac who had just shot randomly at several people and put an end to his spree. Who’s up for a Tuesday morning RIGHT ON!!?


Jon Johnson

Unfortunately this sick twist to an otherwise peaceful Laguna Blvd evening created another tragic story in the murder of John Johnson, the local photojournalist who was shot and killed while out on a date with his wife. Sounds like an all-around good man, with a passion for helping orphans, especially those in the Gulf Coast region, through his work with the charity group Assist One Foundation. He was planning a trip to Africa later in the year to work on a film about AIDS orphans there. RIP

Elk Grove co-op floundering

According to Bob Shallit, the new Natural Foods Co-op in Elk Grove is not faring well.

…[T]he only signage that people can see from the parking lot – the words “food, inspiration and community” – is confusing.

“Some people think we’re a church,” says GM Paul Cultrera.

But the folks in charge are confident that “things will improve as a result of signage changes, increased advertising and visits by co-op staffers (some dressed as giant veggies) to schools, churches and neighborhood associations.” Not sure how that’s gonna go over with those “co-op is a cult” people, but good luck, hippies.

Elk Grove does the gas flip.

Not so long ago, Elk Grove used to have cheaper gas prices than much of Sacramento. But, in the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that this has reversed, and now Elk Grove’s gas is more expensive than much of the rest of the area. This has COMPLETELY changed my weekly refueling strategy.

Just thought I’d share, because, you know, it’s important to ME.

By the way, has anyone noticed the super high gas prices these days? Yeesh…

The Second Coming

This town really has a love-hate relationship with Wal-Mart, but maybe, that’s because there’s stuff to love, but other stuff to hate about the place.

I’ll tell you one thing, you have to give the ‘mart props for giving us reason to hope that the mallsore called Florin Mall gets razed to the ground. A new Wal-Mart supercenter can only be an improvement to the area. Plus, it makes it more convenient for people who do their banking at all the pawn shops over there.