School closure

• Fail (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-28)
• Laugh it up (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-28)
• Editorial: A tough, but wise, call to close schools (SacBee 2013-02-26)

Amtrak ridership, up 55 percent nationwide, triples in Sacramento (SacBee 2013-03-03)

Back-seat Driver: RT hopes to expand bus bike racks (SacBee 2013-03-01)

Flood and basketball (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-28); read the long but fascinating 2005 article that is linked from this one!

Los Rios buys Rancho Cordova site for satellite campus (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-03-01; subscriber only article); unlike the mythological Cordova Hills university campus, this one is directly on the SacRT Folsom light rail line

It’s decision time for massive Capital Southeast Connector project (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-03-01; subscriber only article); Editorial: Road work ahead — we hope (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-03-01; subscriber only article); I for one hope this project does not succeed, as it is clearly a sprawl inducer, and was one of the reasons that the sprawl Cordova Hills project was even considered viable

More California bicycle bills 2013 (Cyclelicious 2013-02-27); Four bills that affect California cyclists (Cyclelicious 2013-02-25)

Letter: MacGlashan’s logic undermines infill development (SacBee 2013-02-28)

CHP to recommend charging motorist, bicyclist in Rio Linda collision (SacBee 2013-02-27); though one can’t judge a case from a newspaper article, I’m highly suspicious of CHP’s motivation

Group seeks to Turn Downtown Around – ‘Get up and help, don’t hate’ (Sacramento Press 2013-02-26)

Sacramento councilman wants to combat bike thefts (SacBee 2013-02-25)

A new Facebook page named Better Bicycling and Walking in District 4 covers efforts to improve the livability of Sacramento’s Supervisor District 4, which is represented by Steve Hansen.

Back-seat Driver: 2 Sacramento streets to go on a diet (SacBee 2013-02-15)

Sacramento city school-closure vote set for next week (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-14); What they don’t tell you (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-14)

Construction finally begins on R Street mixed-use project catering to artists (SacBee 2013-02-14; increased livability through redevelopment and reuse is a transportation issue); Historical R Street warehouse to become artist lofts (Sacramento Press 2013-02-14)

New Davis complex brings more affordable housing for city (SacBee 2013-02-14; again, livability)

Sacramento City district may swap 2 elementary schools on closure list (SacBee 2013-02-14)

‘Our families walk their students to school’ (Sacramento Press 2013-02-13)

In Washington School meeting tonight, I referenced many previous articles about Sacramento City Unified School District’s school closure plans.

Back with a twist – ‘McKinley Village’ development being retooled (Sacramento Press 2013-02-08)

Dan Walters: Fresno joins the ranks of troubled California cities (SacBee 2013-02-11: Walters uses the term “high fixed costs”; what this translates too is primarily the deferred expenses of sprawl; see the quote from Fresno planning at the top of one of my Cordova Hills posts; Stockton and San Bernardino have the same cause, and perhaps others of the bankrupt and financially distressed cities)

Another View: Cordova Hills a good match for region’s goals (SacBee 2013-02-10)

Council’s fee cuts aim to fuel development (SacBee 2013-02-09); while there may be more to the story that I don’t know, I suspect this is another case of developer profits winning out over livability and sustainability, deferring city expenses onto future taxpayers

Sacramento crime rise ends era of annual declines (SacBee 2013-02-06; this in not specifically a transportation related article, but when I looked at the map associated with the article, I was struck by how the crime increase areas largely track transportation corridors (80, 50, 99). These are also, in part, light rail corridors. What does it mean? I don’t know, but it is intriguing.)

Two North Sacramento roadside memorials mark back-to-back deaths (SacBee 2013-02-06); Sacramento coroner IDs woman killed by SUV while attending vigil (SacBee 2013-02-05); UPDATE: Woman attending vigil dies after struck by vehicle (SacBee 2013-02-04)

Brothers struck by hit-and-run identified by Sacramento coroner (SacBee 2013-02-04)

Cordova Hills (an ongoing source of news items):

• Editorial: Head-scratcher (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-07)
• Letter: Supervisors listened to developers’ money on Cordova Hills (SacBee 2013-02-06)
• Wetlands could bog down development (SacBee 2013-02-04)
• Letter: Was law enforcement service considered in Cordova Hills vote? (SacBee 2013-02-04)
• Letter: Cordova Hills will mean more urban sprawl (SacBee 2013-03-04)
• Letter: Sacramento supervisors make a bad business decision (SacBee 2013-02-04)
• Editorial: Approval of Cordova Hills is a body blow for smart planning (SacBee 2013-02-03)

Several Sacramento-area localities seek 4-year colleges (SacBee 2013-02-03)

Jack Ohman: Future Cordova Hills developer projects (SacBee 2013-02-02)

Hit-and-run driver kills two on Meadowview street (SacBee 2013-02-01)

Roseville building a ‘town square’ as downtown destination (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-01-31)

Cordova Hills, SB 375, and the Inertia of Sprawl (Climate Plan blog 2013-02-01)

Sacramento-region counties will see strong population growth (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-01-31); California growth boom out of steam (SacBee 2013-01-31); it is interesting that both of these articles are based on the same data, but put a different spin on what it says; regardless, will growth be sprawl or density?

Cordova Hills & Suburban Living (Sacramento Press 2013-01-30); I’m not sure what to even say about this article full of suburban nostalgia and privilege, but it is worth a read

Sacramento County supervisors approve Cordova Hills development (SacBee 2013-01-29)

• Letter: Cordova Hills will cause more atrocious sprawl
• Letter: Cordova Hills approval sets up another housing bubble
• Letter: Phil Serna the only supervisor with good judgment on project
• Letter: County supervisors put federal funding at risk with project
• Letter: Supervisors ignore smart growth by endorsing Cordova Hills
• Letter: Supervisors raise concerns, but approve Cordova Hills anyway
• Letter: Former supervisor Smoley has ties to Cordova Hills developer

Pedestrian dies after hit by vehicle on Fair Oaks Boulevard (SacBee 2013-01-28)

Alert police officer arrests suspect in week-old crime [hit-and-run] (SacBee 2013-01-28)

Regional Transit is planning light rail to Sacramento airport (SacBee 2013-01-28)

Man Hit and Killed by Light Rail Train (Fox 40, 2013-01-27)

Report: Cordova Hills may put Sacramento County transportation funds at risk (SacBee 2012-01-24)

Letter: Have kids walk to school (SacBee 2013-01-23)

Dan Walters: Will drivers pay more for California highways? (SacBee 2013-01-22)

50 Bikes for 50 Kids gets smiles rolling in Natomas (SacBee 2013-01-22)

Try buses before light rail to airport (SacBee 2013-01-20); there was another letter in the paper on 2013-01-24 that is not online on this time; the beginning of this thread is in the previous week’s news summary

Pedestrian stuck by vehicle in downtown (KCRA 2013-01-17)

UPDATE: $1M savings by closing Midtown school (Sacramento Press 2013-01-16). Yet again the Sacramento Press has more thoughtful, personal, and intelligent comments than the Sacramento Bee, and though I normally caution people to avoid online comments like the plague, I’d recommend you read the ones following this article. Though some negators and trolls are present, remarkably few!

DUI woman hits pedestrian in Midtown’s entertainment district (Sacramento Press 2013-01-21)

Stuart Leavenworth: Will county be duped by college bait? (SacBee 2013-01-20)

Citrus Heights boy hit by suspected impaired driver dies 3 months later (SacBee 2013-01-17)

Sacramento’s Township Nine starts with 180 apartments, light rail station (SacBee 2012-01-17); Township Nine project in downtown Sacramento finally launches (SacBee 2013-01-16)

Editorial: Region needs more options for transit to airport (SacBee 2013-01-14); Letter: Where are free hotel shuttles to airport?; Letter: Where are free hotel shuttles to the airport?; Letter: Include bus pass with every airplane ticket; Letter: Lack of transit options to the airport is due to parking revenue

High-speed train is a Field of Dreams (SacBee 2012-01-12; this was on the Opinion page, but doesn’t seem to have made it to the website; I’d ignore it but there is a delicious irony in use of “field of dreams” – did McCarthy and Denham not watch the movie, or did they take some strange message from it that no one else did?)

Man accused in fatal DUI in Carmichael pleads not guilty (SacBee 2013-01-11)

Viewpoints: Proposed college in Cordova Hills shows valid vision for the future (SacBee 2013-01-11)

Letter: Elk Grove needs light rail (SacBee 2013-01-09)

City considers approving I-5 interchange (Sacramento Business Journal 2013-01-08)

Sacramento light rail expands with a lift from FTA (Fast Lane blog 2013-01-07)

$135 million federal grant keeps Sacramento region’s rail expansion rolling (SacBee 2013-01-08)

Letter: Cordova Hills development is much needed (SacBee 2013-01-04); letter: Cordova Hills is not needed (SacBee 2013-01-09); Letter: Cordova Hills is needed (SacBee 2013-01-09)

Feds to announce Sacramento light rail expansion funding grant (SacBee 2012-01-04)

Bicycles: hey, wait, is that legal? (SacBee 2013-01-04)

CHP seeks vehicle involved in fatal Christmas Eve hit and run (SacBee 2012-01-02)

Where did the downtown population go? (Sacramento Press 2013-01-02)

Update: Boy, 3, dies after hit by car in Citrus Heights (SacBee 2012-12-31); Youngster killed in Citrus Heights traffic accident identified by coroner (SacBee 2013-01-01)

Five new driving rules take effect for 2013 in California (SacBee 2013-01-01)

Silicon Valley’s light rail among the least efficient (SacBee 2012-12-31)