Great Read !!

Nice to see an arena story in the Bee with a positive spin. The writer made some great points. We certainly don't vote of every park or building the city pays for. If we did, nothing would ever get done. The same applies to an arena. Anaheim managed to get 75 million together practically overnight with out any public vote, so we should be able to as well!
 
That people don't get that is one of the most fundamentally disheartening parts of our entire democracry experiment. And you guys in California -- you're a mess. Direct democracy never worked even when you were talking about a city of 10,000 with issues everybody knew to some degree. Having it in a state of 40 million, 1000 miles long, with special interest money dominating the entire scene...
 
I live in Sacramento county, less than half mile from city limits of Sacramento. I have NO SAY whatsoever about what happens in the city of Sac. A lot of the dire straights problems affecting the Kings are just laid on top of the broken state of California and its dysfunctional political system. But a few cities and counties here in the former Golden State manage to get some good things done. But not in sad Sac - with its crazy boundaries, endless turf wars, constant backstabbing, insane road blocks in the way of getting anything worthwhile accomplished.
 
PurpleHaze said:
I live in Sacramento county, less than half mile from city limits of Sacramento. I have NO SAY whatsoever about what happens in the city of Sac. A lot of the dire straights problems affecting the Kings are just laid on top of the broken state of California and its dysfunctional political system. But a few cities and counties here in the former Golden State manage to get some good things done. But not in sad Sac - with its crazy boundaries, endless turf wars, constant backstabbing, insane road blocks in the way of getting anything worthwhile accomplished.
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Hopefully Kevin Johnson can help change that. They say change comes from the top.
 
Section 101 said:
Uh no, I live in the county too and dont want to be in the city !

We need a joint power authority that includes all the surrounding counties. That's what they have in Denver.
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I just mean in terms of getting things done, not like overhauling the system or anything. If he gets this arena built, that will be a huge step forward for Sacramento.
 
Section 101 said:
Uh no, I live in the county too and dont want to be in the city !

We need a joint power authority that includes all the surrounding counties. That's what they have in Denver.
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Absolutely!! Recent quotes by both Greg Lukenbill and Bob Cook have said as much. The city of Sac has only 480,000 people living within its boundary. There's 2.2 million in greater metro area of Sacramento - extending out to parts of Placer, El Dorado and West Sac. As Lukenbill pointed out in an interview with Grant Napear, the city has stayed mostly stagnant and not grown out much, while rest of the area has grown tremendously, both back towards the city plus out from it at same time - but with little coordination or joint political clout. A joint power authority would be a SMART way to include additional 1.7 million people in the much needed mix around here.
 
PurpleHaze said:
Absolutely!! Recent quotes by both Greg Lukenbill and Bob Cook have said as much. The city of Sac has only 480,000 people living within its boundary. There's 2.2 million in greater metro area of Sacramento - extending out to parts of Placer, El Dorado and West Sac. As Lukenbill pointed out in an interview with Grant Napear, the city has stayed mostly stagnant and not grown out much, while rest of the area has grown tremendously, both back towards the city plus out from it at same time - but with little coordination or joint political clout. A joint power authority would be a SMART way to include additional 1.7 million people in the much needed mix around here.
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Would take some real leadership to get that done. The type that we've never had before. Too many elected officials worry about what the NIMBY's say and ignore what's best for the community as a whole.
 
RookieOfTheDay said:
Hopefully Kevin Johnson can help change that. They say change comes from the top.
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I hope so. But unfortunately the mayor of Sacramento is just one vote on a nine member city council. With weak mayor system in Sac he or she "at the top" is little more than commander in chief of ribbon cutting. KJ is trying he damn best it seems but odds are long against him (by himself) to accomplish much of anything - again, unfortunately.

BEST OF LUCK KJ!
 
PurpleHaze said:
I hope so. But unfortunately the mayor of Sacramento is just one vote on a nine member city council. With weak mayor system in Sac he or she "at the top" is little more than commander in chief of ribbon cutting. KJ is trying he damn best it seems but odds are long against him (by himself) to accomplish much of anything - again, unfortunately.

BEST OF LUCK KJ!
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The council did vote unanimously for ICON though, so maybe there's a unity there that hasn't been in the past.
 
Bricklayer said:
That people don't get that is one of the most fundamentally disheartening parts of our entire democracry experiment. And you guys in California -- you're a mess. Direct democracy never worked even when you were talking about a city of 10,000 with issues everybody knew to some degree. Having it in a state of 40 million, 1000 miles long, with special interest money dominating the entire scene...
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Yes, our budget is a mess right now because we let the masses vote on important, complex issues based off of marketing slogans and what sounds good. Hopefully they can get the arena issue got sorted out to help do the city some good.
 
RookieOfTheDay said:
The council did vote unanimously for ICON though, so maybe there's a unity there that hasn't been in the past.
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Right. Even former anti-arena councilmembers like Cohn have been feeling the fire lately and at least changing their rhetoric. Whether they will conveniently find a problem with the final proposal and vote against it remains to be seen, though.
 
Fresno King said:
So you're saying we need a "Power Balance?" ;)
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118iseewhatyoudidthere.jpg
 
Bricklayer said:
That people don't get that is one of the most fundamentally disheartening parts of our entire democracry experiment. And you guys in California -- you're a mess. Direct democracy never worked even when you were talking about a city of 10,000 with issues everybody knew to some degree. Having it in a state of 40 million, 1000 miles long, with special interest money dominating the entire scene...
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Actually, we don't live in a democracy, we live in a republic. Or at least were susposed to. In a democracy, majority rules. Sounds good on paper, but whats that old saying. "50 million frenchmen can't be wrong". Uhhhh, well, yes they can. A republic is a representative form of goverment with checks and balances. In a sense, its a democratic form of goverment, but not a true democracy. A democracy might work with 50 people, but it doesn't work very well with 300 million people.
 
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