November 08, 2005
Fingers crossed
Things aren't looking too good for the cityhood measure for El Dorado Hills Incorporation. As of 10:30 PM, with 23.88% of precincts reporting (5 of 21), the vote was at 39.8% for, 60.1% against. This isn't over, so I hope when I wake up tomorrow, the tables are turned. Cityhood isn't a cure all, and sometimes the wrong element sneaks in to run the show, but one thing is for certain, once you're incorporated, you can throw out the bums in office. One pissed off neighborhood can make a difference, one bad project, one bad ordinance, one bad meeting CAN cost a council member their seat. Not so with the Board of Supervisors of a county with many communities and cities. I hope they get cityhood in El Dorado Hills, otherwise Folsom might try to gobble them up. :)
Posted by cystdog at 11:08 PM
November 01, 2005
A snapshot of traffic: Anatolia style
News - Fatal accident, light-rail malfunction mar Highway 50 commute - sacbee.com
By Tony Bizjak -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:06 pm PST Tuesday, November 1, 2005
[Updated: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday] A fatal freeway accident and a nearby power outage on the light-rail transit line delivered a one-two punch Tuesday morning that brought the Highway 50 corridor commute to a near-standstill for thousands.
Motorists complained of waiting 45 minutes on Sunrise Boulevard just to get onto the freeway, and Carrero estimated that some commuters were stalled for more than one hour.
Posted by cystdog at 09:54 PM
October 02, 2005
What makes a city resilient?
I spotted this podcast interview on Planetizen of an author whose asked the question "What makes a city resilient?" in his book "The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster"
My question is, does he acknowledge "air supply lines"?
Smart City Newsletter - 09/29/2005
Coming Up on the Next Smart CityWhat makes a city resilient? What gives a city the ability to re-group and come back from natural disaster and human tragedies stronger than before?
Those are questions Thomas Campanella has attempted to answer in his book, The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster, and he is our guest this week on Smart City.
Posted by cystdog at 03:04 PM
July 27, 2005
My 200 words to the Bee about "Unrest in the Uncity"
Well, mayor Cooley got his letter printed the next day the editorial "Unrest in the Uncity" appeared, mine will not get printed, leading me to believe that many of these pieces are choreographed with area politicians, npos and developers which the Bee is supportive of.
Here was my neutered 200 word max "memo" to the Bee:
Re "Unrest in The Uncity," editorial, July 22: The "system" was broken long before now. The three cities that have incorporated initiated cityhood efforts prior to 1990. Citrus Heights, the first to succeed, had to go to the Supreme Court in 1992 during it's battle for cityhood, making it possible for all county residents to exercise the right to have a chance in bringing balance to an inequitable governance model. What many do not realize is that this "system" is not as much an anomaly as has been put forth. San Francisco City and County has a swelling, underserved population with islands of disservice. It was this very model, the dream of a "super county/city" or citi-state that Sacramento County leaders attempted to foist upon voters in 1990. They have been in denial ever since it's defeat at the polls. Two major obstacles face unincorporated communities in their quest for equity from Sacramento County; The county CFO and county sheriff. Once this political machine is disassembled, the financial shell game of the county and the influence peddling of the sheriff, citizens of the Uncity might get a fair chance at shaping a future so many other California counties have realized.
UPDATE: 14:30 | 07292005:
Guess I was wrong. Oops.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: opinion@sacbee.com
>Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 2:08 PM
>To:scupper
>Subject: Bee Letter Publication Notice
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Mr. Scupper,
> Your letter to the editor of The Sacramento Bee has been (or
> will be) published on July 30, 2005.
>
> John Hughes Letters Editor (916) 321-1906
>
>
Posted by cystdog at 07:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 04, 2005
Hate Begets Hate: Lies Beget Lies
MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log - Deir Yassin: The Conflict as Mass Psychosis
The history of Deir Yassin, and of every other event, clear enough in itself, becomes lost or repressed in a fog of deliberate obfuscation by one side, and in a torrent of exaggeration by the other. In this way, each group has developed their own historical fictional mythology. The myths are supported by a set of obstinate defense mechanisms, that are impervious to any facts except those that support the myths. The myths provide a rationale for sustaining the conflict, which generates more Deir Yassins to create more myths. The psychological mechanisms are devastatingly effective. The events of recent years have proven that in a hundred or more years of conflict over Palestine, both sides have forgotten nothing of the myths they created, and learned nothing of the truths they have repressed. Until we are willing to learn the truths and to dispel the myths, we will all be condemned to relive the tragedy of Deir Yassin.
Read the rest of the article @ MideastWeb Middle East Web Log
Posted by cystdog at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 01, 2005
How Haaretz sees Yavin
OUR MAN IN THE TERRITORIES
By Tom Segev
Haaretz, Magazine (Israel)
May 27, 2005 Issue
No one knew until now what veteran television journalist Haim Yavin thought about the news he has been announcing for more than three decades, and he is so nonpartisan that one wondered whether he had an opinion of his own at all. Now, at 72, he is coming out of the closet: "Since 1967 we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people," he says in "Yoman Masa" ("Diary of a Journey"), which he filmed in the West Bank.
For two and a half years,s Yavin wandered the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with a small hand-held camera, which he operated himself, without a technical crew. Here and there he was reviled as the representative of the hostile leftist media, but in general the settlers spoke to him on the assumption that he was their man, and justly so: Until now he was everyone's man. The film he brought back seems intended to salve his conscience: "I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing," he says in the film, and in response to a question asserts: "I did not move left. The country moved right."
He filmed people who waited for hours at checkpoints and says this has no security justification. Settlers who heard from him about a woman who was not allowed to get to a hospital and therefore was forced to give birth at a checkpoint, try to reassure him: If only the Israelis are able to maintain domestic harmony, "Mohammed" will make coffee both for them and for him. Yavin responds: "I am not willing to rule another people, not willing for `Mohammed' to make me coffee." He tells again of the woman who was forced to give birth at a checkpoint and says, "It is not Jewish, what we are doing there."
He believes in withdrawal so that a Palestinian state will be established and peace will come. "That is the only thing I can believe in. Other than that I have nothing to believe in - only in bloodshed," he tells a female settler. His thoughts move to the roots of Zionist existence. When he hears people describe Zionism as an expression of racism and colonialism, he is outraged, of course, he says, but on returning from the West Bank, he asks himself what remains of the "true Zionism," the Zionism of peace and equal rights: the Zionism of the settlements?
This is a good foundation for a discussion of the question of whether there ever was a "true Zionism" that did not dispossess the Arabs of this land. Be that as it may, in the first two films in a series of five, Yavin portrays the settlers as members of a fanatic, insane, racist, despicable, violent and dangerous sect - more infuriating and despairing than they have ever been seen in an Israeli film.
It is no wonder that Channel 1 (the state television station, with which Yavin has been identified for almost 40 years) refused to broadcast the series. Instead, it will be broadcast starting next Tuesday as the swan song of Telad on Channel 2: Having failed to win the tender for a renewed franchise, Telad can allow itself to end its term with something real.
A soldier in uniform told Yavin that the Hebron settlers were inciting him to shoot and kill Palestinian children. Activist Noam Federman and his wife tell him on camera that an ultimatum has to be presented to the Arab residents of Hebron: Either they leave the country immediately, or the Israel Air Force will bomb their homes. Not far from their home, Yavin filmed a bit of graffiti on a wall: "Arabs to the crematoria." A Border Policeman, a muscular, tough-looking guy, says in a heavy Russian accent, "I am only following orders, I do what I am told." Yavin asserts: "We simply do not see the Palestinians as human beings."
A Peace Now activist who wanders around in the territories still believes that the settlers can be evacuated, as France evacuated its citizens from Algeria, but Yavin does not bring even an iota of hope from the West Bank: "This hilula [merrymaking] will never be stopped," he states. He recalls, apparently with sorrow, how Yitzhak Rabin missed the chance to evacuate the Hebron settlers in the wake of the massacre of Muslim worshipers by Baruch Goldstein at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994. About 20,000 Hebron residents were forced to leave their homes then. Yavin feels "sadness and despair" and says that "maybe it really is preferable to visit Hebron with a visa."
Yavin believes that the settlers are "wrong" and are also "endangering us," but in contrast to some of his friends on the left, he does not hate the settlers; he even "esteems and likes them," he says. Occasionally he also tries to "balance" Palestinian bereavement with Israeli bereavement, as though finding it difficult to discard the usage of the national "we" that became second nature to him. But not one of the settlers he filmed justifies his high regard.
Daniella Weiss, one of the original settlers in the West Bank, articulates for the camera her credo as a mother: We have to raise tough children. She gives less consideration to life than to the idea. A woman named Orit Struk reacts to Yavin's arguments with bloodcurdling laughter and tells him about how a sniper tried to kill her son.
In any properly run country, the welfare authorities would take away their children.
Yavin, though, also tries to jettison the superficial thesis that pins all the blame on the settlers themselves. In his film, too, they are the "masters of the land"; they issue orders to the army and the army obeys. But Yavin's series shows that the whole society is to blame for the injustices of the occupation and also for the war crimes it has entailed. "We cluck our tongues and move on to the gossip columns," he says.
A few of the settlers praise the help they received from two leaders of the Labor Party, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Ehud Barak. One of the original settlers, Elyakim Haetzni, relates that he has been fighting for a long time to have one of the squares in Hebron named after Yigal Alon, the father of the settlements, but Alon's widow objects.
Yavin shows that the left-wing organizations, such as Peace Now, are effectively moribund and that only a few humanitarian groups remain, such as Ta'ayush, Physicians for Human Rights, B'Tselem and MachsonWatch, the women of the checkpoints. The good Israelis in the film are individuals: an immunologist (Prof. Zvi Bentwich), a lawyer (Shlomo Laker), a journalist (Haaretz's Gideon Levy), a Jerusalem plumber (Ezra Yitzhak Nawi) and a soldier in uniform. who says that he could not remain silent "in the face of such horrors."
Yavin says that his professional integrity will allow him to go on anchoring Channel 1's nightly "Mabat News Magazine." However, the broadcast of the series on a commercial channel raises the question of why we even need what continues to be called "public broadcasting." It's not worth the compulsory fee. One way or the other, it will be interesting to watch the reactions. It's possible that attention will not focus on the horrific message of the films, but only on the fact that Haim Yavin, of all people, made them. If he is right about the moral insensitivity that prevails in the country, most viewers may react like the family in the Strauss commercial: Mom, Dad and the kids are visiting the Safari in Ramat Gan. They see an antelope, say "We saw it," and hurry on. They see a lion, say "We saw it" - and hurry home to lick an ice cream bar.
Posted by cystdog at 08:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 27, 2005
Leadership:Some cities get it, and some just get staff (Rancho)
News - Another city seeks own policing - sacbee.com
Another city seeks own policing
Citrus Heights votes 4-1 to create a department
By David Richie -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, May 27, 2005
After considering potential recruiting problems, the expense of 911 systems and dire budget projections, Citrus Heights has decided forming its own police force is worth the risk.With a 4-1 council vote late Wednesday, the city became the second in Sacramento County to opt out of its contract for policing services with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. Elk Grove already is in the market for police officers, after deciding to sever its contract last month.
Posted by cystdog at 05:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 20, 2005
Sorry Mr. Davey: Arden Arcade area would be viable as a city
Study: Arden Arcade area would be viable as a city - 2005-05-19 - Sacramento Business Journal
Sacramento Business Journal - 10:07 AM PDT Thursday
Study: Arden Arcade area would be viable as a city
A feasibility study concludes that Sacramento County's Arden Arcade area has an adequate tax base to support itself as a city.A Cityhood Study Team was formed 14 months ago to determine whether the 16-square-mile area would be viable as a city.
The Initial Feasibility Study, prepared by Economic and Planning Systems of Berkeley, found that Arden Arcade generates roughly $32.9 million dollars in revenue from sales taxes, property taxes, utility users taxes, hotel taxes, franchise fees and business license taxes. Sacramento County returns about $19.6 million of the tax revenue to the community in the form of municipal services, such as sheriff's services, road maintenance and land-use planning, according to the study. This leaves $13.3 million to be spent elsewhere by the Board of Supervisors.
Arden Arcade is bound by the American River on the south; Capital City Freeway, Auburn Boulevard and Winding Way on the north; Mission Avenue on the east, and the city of Sacramento on the west.
More details about the study and the next steps in the incorporation process will be discussed at a news conference scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m. near the entrance to Country Club Centre at El Camino Avenue and Yorktown.
Posted by cystdog at 06:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 14, 2005
DID YOU GET THIS MEMO MR DAVEY?
Posted by cystdog at 08:11 AM | TrackBack
May 12, 2005
Davey-math:Can't keep a (bleep) man down
News - Fair Oaks weighs bid to be a city - sacbee.com
Oh, here we go again. County CFO Geoff Davey crying about how newly incorporated cities cherry picked their geographic boundaries and are ripping off the county taxpayers.......
"Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova kind of cherry-picked from the county," said Geoff Davey, the county's chief financial operations officer.
And then this....bullshit....
The county had planned to reap benefits from future developments in both areas, including a project to build more than 30,000 homes in the Sunrise Douglas area of Rancho Cordova. Now county residents will miss out on the tax revenue because of a "political fence," Davey said.
What is REVENUE NEUTRALITY???????
Lets take a look at the actual LAFCO resolution (bottom of page, item q), Mr.Davey....
Posted by cystdog at 06:52 AM
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
A Remedy for the Meth Epidemic The fight against methamphetamines received a major boost recently when four of the United States' largest food and drug retailers decided to put certain cold medicines behind the pharmacy counter.
We applaud the recent moves by Target, Wal-Mart, Albertson's, Longs Drugs and Rite Aid to make medicines containing pseudoephedrine less accessible. But they will not by themselves shut down the thousands of meth labs that have sprung up across the country. That's why it is critical that all retailers be required to limit access to cold medicines containing this ingredient.
Why is this so important? Because pseudoephedrine -- the active ingredient in most cold medicines -- is being used to brew up batches of meth in basements, cars and motel rooms across the country. The fact that it's relatively easy to make meth is one of the reasons the drug has migrated from California and the West to the rest of the nation. Meth is cheap, accessible and potent. It can be purchased for as little as $20 a dose. Its effects on users range from the bizarre to the homicidal. And cooking meth is often as simple as a trip to the local store.
Those seeking to make it have up to this point been free to purchase all the pseudoephedrine they need, easily and without scrutiny. One of our staff members recently went to a local grocery store to purchase a large quantity of cold medicine for use in a news conference. He bought 27 boxes of cold medicine, and no one batted an eye.
This scene is being repeated in communities throughout the United States. Meth cooks will buy out a store's supply of cold medicine. They will go from store to store to store and buy as much of it as they can afford. Then they go home, extract the pseudoephedrine, mix it with battery acid and other poisons, and cook up a batch of meth for sale or for their personal use.
So what can we do to solve this problem?
The answer is clear: Follow the Oklahoma model. Oklahoma last year passed legislation requiring that cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine be moved behind the pharmacy counter. The result: an 80 percent drop in the number of meth labs seized. This law works. We should copy it.
Twelve states have done just that. Tennessee and Iowa, for example, have passed new laws in the past few months mandating that cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine be put behind the counter. Another 30 states are considering similar legislation.
But new state laws and the voluntary actions of retailers are not enough. That's why we're working together to make the Oklahoma law national. Our legislation would:
These are not overly burdensome provisions. Anyone who legitimately wants cold medicine will be able to buy more than enough to meet his or her needs. But it will put up barriers to stop meth cooks. It will deter them from making large quantities of meth. And it will increase their risk of being caught by the authorities.
Will this completely stop meth? The answer is, unfortunately, no. Those who seek to use meth will undoubtedly find ways to continue to acquire the drug. But it will shut down many of the labs operating across the nation, potentially increasing the street price for meth and allowing law enforcement to focus on other aspects of the problem.
There is no question that this nation needs a far-reaching strategy on meth. We need to reduce demand for this drug by educating Americans about its dangers. We need to find ways to break meth addiction. And we need more funding for enforcement and prosecution, especially in high-activity areas. But what has become clear is that a comprehensive effort to move cold medicine behind the counter must be an integral part of any effort to bring this epidemic under control.
Dianne Feinstein is a Democratic senator from California. Jim Talent is a Republican senator from Missouri.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
Posted by cystdog at 12:15 PM
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
About the same time as I was pondering this, the City of Rancho Cordova City Council received a memo from the city's Police Dept. concerning the CITIZENS’ OPTION FOR PUBLIC SAFETY (COPS) I'd also thought that if the cities of Rancho Cordova, Folsom and the County of Sacramento pooled their resources, they could jointly purchase a couple of these trailers, and share them, reducing the cost to each government. The trailers could rotate through each jurisdiction ( Folsom, the uninc'd communities east of Watt-Gold River and Rancho Cordova) and be deployed on streets with speeding problems, especially on streets near job centers, where commuters using alternate modes to travel to work (bicycles) and pedestrians are present, either crossing streets after arriving by transit, or walking to nearby dining/shopping sites. Is this something the Rancho Cordova city council would look into supporting and endorsing with the City of Folsom and the County?
Posted by cystdog at 04:25 PM
| Comments (0)
| TrackBack
Folsom - Rancho Cordova - City weighs future of Sunrise - sacbee.com
April 30, 2005
A must read - Fighting the madness
By Dianne Feinstein and Jim Talent
washingtonpost.com
Saturday, April 30, 2005; A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/29/AR2005042901368.html
more......
March 02, 2005
A shared speed monitoring trailer(s) for Folsom, Sac County and Rancho Cordova?
After contributing my .02 to the "Why not ride a bike to work?" discussion on www.50corridor.com, I began to think about how I might address the driving behavior in south Rancho. I do enjoy riding, and the distance is reasonable, just not the "San Andreas" tactics of some of the younger, more "stimulated" members of the driving public.
2004/2005 ALLOCATION and recommended expenditures for the city's $100,000 share. I checked out how Elk Grove, Citrus Heights and Folsom spent their funds, and it seemed reasonable to consider a speed trailer. The council has already approved the shopping list submitted by the RCPD, but one item I'd thought should be considered for the future was a speed monitoring trailer with radar.January 27, 2005
Pearls of Wisdom and Air Supply Lines
South part of busy road is a haven for industry.
By Molly Dugan -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, January 20, 2005
(note: It's a "Haven" for industry? "Haven"?)
All you need to read in this article is the excerpt of Pearls of Wisdom from City Council Member Linda Budge:
"For 25 years, we have been aggressively putting industrial (businesses) into that area. ... We can't just tell them they should get up and move," said Councilwoman Linda Budge.Many cities are not retaining enough of their industrial businesses and, instead, are focusing too much on residential and commercial uses, Budge said.
That approach wouldn't be healthy for Rancho Cordova's economy, Budge said - industrial businesses make up a large chunk of the city's job base.
"We have to have our industrial base. It's an important part of having a well-rounded economy," Budge said. "It's really critical that we continue to emphasize creation of additional jobs for people with manual skills."
And this newsflash that even caught me offguard.....This successful industrial area, part of the backbone of the RC economy that made it fiscally possible to incorporate, ready....has to be "revitalized", according to a city employee quoted on the story.
The last comment worth honorable mention is this quote from Mayor Ken Cooley:
"I don't think we have a clear enough plan at this moment," Cooley said. "It's a front door to the community. We want it to be a welcoming front door. If we're not doing that, we're stepping on the air hose of our future."
More on this later.......
Posted by cystdog at 07:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Commuters' Bill of Rights?
Spotted this LA Times article on Planetizen and thought the idea of a "Commuter's bill of rights" was interesting.
Hertzberg, Hahn Trade Jabs on Traffic
In a political skirmish that included radio and e-mail crossfire, the mayoral candidates hold each other to blame for L.A.'s road congestion.
By Jeffrey L. Rabin
LA Times Staff Writer
Jan 13, 2005
Excerpt:
Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn sparred Wednesday over who should be blamed for the city's traffic problems, which consistently rank as the worst in the nation.
Hertzberg, who is running for mayor, used a morning drive-time radio talk show to announce a 10-point transportation plan dubbed the "Commuters' Bill of Rights." He also said that Hahn was "asleep at the switch" for missing numerous Metropolitan Transportation Authority board meetings.
Hahn's campaign spokeswoman, Julie Wong, quickly fired back in an e-mail to Hertzberg's campaign headquarters. "We are sending you a Los Angeles Commuters' Bill for $850,000,000 of taxpayer money that has been and is being diverted from our transportation needs to pay for the budget mess you left in Sacramento," it read.
Hertzberg, who represented the San Fernando Valley for six years, left office at the end of 2002 because of term limits.
The Hertzberg campaign sent the bill for $850 million in lost transportation funds back to Hahn. "It's pathetic hypocrisy," Szabo said.
Hahn campaign consultant Kam Kuwata replied: "It's the typical Sacramento flimflam."
On KABC-AM (790), Hertz- berg told listeners he wanted to end road construction during rush hours. "What brain-dead idiot does anything like this?" he asked. He also said he wanted to cut the number of trucks on the road during commute times.
Posted by cystdog at 06:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
~sacbee: Arden Arcade man cooks up cityhood plan
News - Arden Arcade man cooks up cityhood plan - sacbee.com
Bill Davis says the county has neglected his community, and incorporation may be the answer.
By Cameron Jahn -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 8, 2005
Reading the newspaper at his favorite waffle shop last year, Bill Davis decided he had waited long enough for change to come to Arden Arcade.While the county descended into a second year of budget cuts and
supervisors discussed cutting 84 positions from the Sheriff's
Department, the newest cities in the region - Citrus Heights, Elk Grove
and Rancho Cordova - were adding police officers and socking money away
in reserves.All around Arden Arcade, Davis sees signs of dwindling county funds: sparse sheriff's patrols, potholed streets, acres of graying commercial centers and a community with no identity.
Davis wants what the new cities tout, and while finishing his coffee that morning in November 2003, he began laying plans to transform his unincorporated neighborhood into a city. He folded his paper, walked out of the restaurant and began punching numbers into his cell phone.
"We have to do something - are you in?" he asked a few of his closest friends in the community.
Davis rounded up interest from a handful of fellow activists to form the Arden Arcade Cityhood Study Team. A few weeks later, the movement to create Sacramento County's eighth city was born.
"As a community we're teetering, we're getting older, and we can ignore it, or we can take control and do something about it," Davis said recently.
The cityhood group - including a reverend, a stay-at-home mom, a police dispatcher and a few retirees - has little experience in municipal politics, but they have hired a consultant to examine whether the tax-rich community of 86,000 could stand on its own at the city of Sacramento's eastern edge.
Cityhood for Arden Arcade is a long way off - and has been made harder by a new state law that gives emerging cities fewer tax dollars - but county officials have begun to worry. The new city would take control of the county's most important sales tax engines: the Fulton Avenue auto dealers, two shopping malls, upscale boutiques on Fair Oaks Boulevard and strip centers dotting Howe Avenue, Auburn Boulevard, Watt Avenue and Arden Way.
Sales tax receipts in the area topped $11 million in 2000. Citrus Heights brought in $12 million last year from sales taxes.
"What the financial and service impacts will be, we're still trying to figure that out," said Paul Hahn, the county's economic development director. The county will have to assess what services it could provide to the unincorporated area if Arden Arcade cityhood siphons tax dollars, he said, adding that the county may have to recruit new retailers to generate sales taxes.
County officials are unlikely to sit by as another cityhood effort further erodes their political clout. Muriel Johnson, who represented Arden Arcade for 12 years on the Board of Supervisors before retiring earlier this month, said the county plans to fix Arden Arcade's small problems - what she calls the "low-hanging fruit" - such as planting trees to spruce up streets and supporting new neighborhood associations.
"This board is not going to carve up the empire," Johnson said, predicting that Arden Arcade residents would see no reason to incorporate when the county's efforts bear fruit in three to five years. "Can we do things better? Sure, but I wish they'd give us a chance to try."
Minor fixes to Arden Arcade, however, will not appease Davis, a soft-spoken former bureaucrat who fielded his share of angry calls from residents like himself while he worked as a waste water-treatment official in Long Beach.
Now, he's a silver-haired retiree convinced the county is not set up to serve suburbs such as Arden Arcade.
Atop Davis' list of grievances is representation. Each of the five supervisors serves 250,000 people, but Davis wants to create a five-member city council in Arden Arcade, with each member representing 17,000 residents.
"Maybe we can do it better," he said. "The City of Arden Arcade has a nice ring to it."
It would be at least 2006 before voters see an incorporation question before them at the ballot box, where cityhood drives ultimately sink or swim. Davis hopes to ramp up a publicity campaign next year, and he has been making the rounds to neighborhood associations and park boards with his favorite story about the waffle shop and reading the newspaper.
County officials have spent the past four years refining a plan to be more responsive to the suburbs, giving communities more control over land use and limited decision-making power.
The plan includes promises to be more responsive and to beef up code enforcement. Creating a city in Arden Arcade was never discussed as an option.
"This is not intended to win over anybody on the incorporation question," said Paul Lake, interim neighborhood services director.
"It's intended to provide the best service for people; that's what this is all about."
Sacramento County has 550,000 residents living in urbanized areas outside of city boundaries. That leaves the county to pay for expensive services such as planning, animal control and law enforcement - services often provided by cities that amounted to $21 million from county finances last year.
If incorporation takes off, Arden Arcade would rely heavily on sales tax dollars to pay for services. Millions that the new city would have received from vehicle license fees was cut by two-thirds by a new state law that keeps most of the money with the state.
County officials have not calculated how much they spend to serve Arden Arcade, but part of the area's tax base supports poorer areas such as Rio Linda and Foothill Farms, both aging bedroom communities with few commercial areas.
Foothill Farms activist Lisbeth Gray said cityhood in Arden Arcade would rob her neighborhood of a shot at revitalization.
"Essentially, what they will do is strangle the county's ability to do much of anything for us, so we will never become self-sustaining," she said. "So what's happening is this corner of the county will dwindle into a severely blighted, sadder and sadder community."
Davis shrugs off those concerns as the county's problem.
"I can understand what the county's problem is, but it reinforces my view that the elected (officials) haven't done anything to change the way they do business in last few years," Davis said.
"I would think this would be an opportunity for the elected officials to get rid of some big headaches like us and say, 'If you want it, let them have it.' "
County supervisors have dismissed Davis' effort to create a new city as an small effort by a fringe group with no backing.
The Arden Arcade Cityhood Study Team, however, has an advantage over suburban residents frustrated with the county - advice and financial support from officials in Citrus Heights, Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova.
Political events also may be on Davis' side. Supervisors Johnson and Roger Niello, two of the most outspoken critics of cityhood, are no longer on the board. Incoming Supervisor Susan Peters has taken no position on cityhood for Arden Arcade, which falls in her district. Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan helped shepherd Citrus Heights to cityhood and got her start in politics on the first City Council there.
"I'd rather look at how we can make it happen, rather than standing in their way," she said during the campaign.
As a city, Arden Arcade would model itself after Citrus Heights, which is also largely built out with an older population and a large retail base.
Since becoming a city, Citrus Heights has stashed $30 million in reserves, doubled the number of police officers on the street, revitalized the city center, and will repave every street in the city in a few years, City Manager Henry Tingle said.
"The will of the people always wins out," he said. "If Arden Arcade is dead set to move ahead to incorporation, there's nothing the county can do to stop it."
About the writer:
* The Bee's Cameron Jahn can be reached at (916) 321-1038 or cjahn@sacbee.com.
Posted by cystdog at 05:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
