So apparently there was a surprise agenda item for a closed door city council meeting this evening. Evidently Queen Fargo decided a review of city Manager Ray Kerridge’s performance was in order. A “performance appraisal” they call it.  Eeeyoo don’t you HATE performance appraisals–especially when they don’t come with raises?

The Bee ran something about it today and in the article councilman and KJ supporter Robbie Waters grumbled, “I’m not aware of any problems with the city manager….I think he’s done…

I spend a lot of time writing about stuff I care about. I thought I’d change it up and share a list of things and people in the news I wish I didn’t have to hear about..

The Corti Brothers move
I hope they put a Long’s Drugs in that lot–Natomas style, baby. Welcome to “NEW Sacramento” y’all!

Urban forests
People and public safety first, THEN trees!

Sac Tree Foundation
When are we going to see a Sac Teen Foundation, Ray?

Southern Californian commercial developer Joe Zeiden
With today’s…

Heads are spinning, nodding, shaking, and probably rolling tonight after local officials released a commissioned report stating blacks (and Hispanics to a lesser degree), are two times more likely to be pulled over than Whites and Asians in SOME AREAS in the city of Sacramento.

I read through the report last night (not recommended). Looks like Lamberth Consulting–who executed the study and penned the report–definitely earned their money. The reports offers a lot of conclusions, but the only ones I am…

Note: Please see the end of this article for Joe Sac’s first contest! Yes, there are prizes! Seriously!

From the City of Sacramento web site of Ray Tretheway:

“Welcome to my web page! It is an honor to serve as your Sacramento City Council representative for Alkali Flat, Downtown, Richards Boulevard, South Natomas, North Gate, and North Natomas. Ed note: Ironic that North Natomas is LAST? “..and North Natomas.” How utterly revealing.

“While serving on the Sacramento City Council I am concentrating…

Low income housing in North Natomas is finally the talk of the town — at least for a few minutes. Guess it pays to be a squeaky wheel after all.

Mary Lynne Velinga (I got it!) recently wrote a superb article that explored this hot potato in the Bee. In it were some dubious “official” quotes, followed by some outrageous reader comments. More dubious quotes recently showed up on independent blogs long after the article was published. I’d like to make a…

The good news is that Sacramento has a new public safety watchdog in Lt Marcos Breton. The bad news is that he’s barking up the wrong political tree and doing the same thing all the other business-as-usual dinosaurs in this town do: Gang up on and condemn those who oppose their ideas.

In what must be one of the most disjointed, bass-ackwards opinion columns in the history of the Bee, the oft-maligned Breton has leveraged his Sunday column space to urge Bee…

People are finding out the hard way Barack Obama does not find anything funny about celebrities who think their money, fame, and fan clubs give them permission to degrade women and perpetuate sexist and racial stereotypes.

To the delight of some–and disappointment of others–Obama has left nothing to interpretation with his admonishment of those who cross the line of common decency and respect towards our ladies. Want proof? Check out his searing criticism of

It’s 10pm, do you know where your kids are? Apparently a lot of parents do not, because Sacramento has a crime problem. No, scratch that. Sacramento has a juvenile delinquency problem, and hence a crime problem.

Elk Grove has the same problem. But unlike the City of Sacramento, where the out-of-touch mayor spends more time traveling the globe in search of the solution to global warming than in Sacramento searching for solutions to public safety ills, Elk Grove is actually doing something about their…

I wrote about this in May, but it bears repeating given the recent burst of criminal activity in Natomas (and the crime that is certain to follow given the significant amount of low income housing in N Natomas–and more on the way in light of “very low income” construction in progress at Del Paso Rd and Blackrock Way, next to the city’s Charter School and Benvenuti Center for the Performing Arts).

In an interview with the Sacramento Bee last fall, Heather Fargo…

Where is the love? Sorry, I can’t paint a brighter picture of Natomas. I appreciate the stepped-up efforts of the police department, but we’re still a long way from where we need to be..

Thinking about buying a home in Natomas? DON’T. Natomas is the city’s dumping ground for low income housing, and it is plagued by criminal activity from the big box strip malls to the interiors of the Natomas and Regency Park neighborhoods. And it’s only going to get…