This is the current list of Public Works transportation projects in the City of Sacramento. I know about a few of these projects, but many of them I don’t know anything about. It would be worth exploring all of them to see what the implications are for walkability and bikeability, but where would I find the time? Some projects have their own document or page on the city website, but most of them don’t, at least that I’ve been able to find, so I presume these would require getting in touch with the city to get the documents.
bicycling in the east bay
This weekend I was in the east bay. I normally switch over from Amtrak to BART at Richmond, and from BART back to Amtrak at Richmond at the end of my trip, but this weekend I had a much less tight schedule, so decided to pedal my way around. From the station, I headed south to the waterfront, looking for the San Francisco Bay Trail. Many of the streets in Richmond are seriously deteriorated, just as is true in all of the east bay, but some have been renewed. I picked up the trail, which winds for quite some ways along the edge of the bay, sometimes far from the freeway and city and quite pleasant. At Golden Gate Fields, the racing stadium, the trail seemed to disappear, or at least I couldn’t find it. Today I found some good maps online that would have gotten me around this gap, but not having them, I reverted to surface streets. Since this was also the point at which I noticed that the slow tire leak had turned into a fast leak, I pulled out my phone and located a bike shop to get it fixed.
Blue Heron Bikes on Gilman in Berkeley is a Brompton dealer, and turned out to be the perfect place to go. I got the tube replaced, and then decided to get my other tire replaced, as it was two plus years old and had been punctured so many times I could see daylight through it. The work was done with professionalism. Better yet, I had great conversations with shop manager Jeremy and owner Rob, about Bromptons and all kinds of other biking. A couple was also in, waiting patiently for Jeremy to finish with my bike, one a Brompton owner and the other soon-to-be Brompton owner, and it was fun talking to them as well.Read More »
News summary March 3
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)
BikeLink
Last night I used my BikeLink membership to store my bike at the Berkeley BikeStation, which is just two blocks from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. I was wandering around downtown in the late afternoon and early evening before going to a concert, and it was more convenient to be without my bike while walking, and then not having to negotiate to bring it inside at the concert. The BikeStation is a self-service setup, so you can put your bike in and get it out again at any time of day. The adjacent staffed BikeStation has weekday hours, but it doesn’t have to be open to use the storage.
BikeLink is a membership system. Storage costs about 3-5 cents per hour, often less at low-use times, so it is a very reasonable deal. To get started, you have to purchase the card for $20, though, and there is a $5 identification charge on first use. At any rate, $20 buys a lot of bike storage time.
I first wanted to use BikeLink one Sunday in San Francisco when I needed air for my tires and couldn’t find an open bike shop in the part of town I was in. I remembered that there was some sort of bike place at Embarcadero BART station, and so went there, but found it required that I have a card ahead of time. So I signed up and was mailed a card. I used it several weeks later to store my bike there at Embarcadero while attending the Climate Forward SF rally.
BikeLink also has storage lockers at a number of BART stations, other transit locations, and bike-heavy places throughout the bay area. I’ve not used these lockers yet.
BikeLink uses the same sort of electronic card as the ClipperCard transit system card which is now in use throughout nearly all of the bay area. Apparently there are discussions about merging the systems, or at least letting BikeLink credit be stored on the ClipperCard, but at the moment, they are separate.
I asked SACOG about whether the new ConnectCard (similar to the ClipperCard), which is being planned for the Sacramento region, would be able to use BikeLink as well. The answer was that the systems are theoretically compatible, but no plans for interoperability are in the works. I’ve heard that just getting all the transportation entities in the Sacramento region to agree on a common card has been a challenge enough.
parking violence
On Monday evening, I observed an altercation over a parking spot in front of my apartment on O Street in Sacramento. There are several restaurants on 16th Street that are popular and generate a desire for parking, and there is already a lot of local resident parking, so spots are hard to find at times. I had noticed that cars were backed up on the street as people were waiting for others to leave, but was not paying close attention until I heard yelling. A driver of a car stopped in the middle of the street was yelling at two people who had parked and were walking towards 16th Street, claiming that they had “stolen” his parking spot and demanding that they move. He escalated into threats against their car (breaking out all the windows) and against their persons (“I’m going to take you down”). The angry driver pursued the other two, and ended up shoving and slapping the male of the couple. He also made threats against the female. He continued the confrontation even when the others were trying to end it, and he taunted the male with “I slapped you in front of your girlfriend and you were too much of a wussy to do anything about it.”
My point is not to document the assault and battery, and given that it did not show up on the SacPD daily activity log, I presume the police, when they eventually responded, did not think it important. My point, rather, is to talk about the sickness of someone threatening to harm another over a parking spot. Over a parking spot! The perpetrator was completely prepared to do harm to the other two just because he felt unjustly deprived of his parking spot. Whether he was unjustly deprived or not, I can’t say, because I didn’t observe the taking of the parking spot.
What kind of world view leads one to think that it is justified to harm others over a parking spot? Only an angry sociopath would view things that way.
As I have said before, driving causes brain damage. But let me be more specific now. Driving not only encourages and brings out sociopathic behavior, it IS sociopathic behavior. Driving is sociopathic behavior. There, I’ve said it.
News summary February 24
School Closure:
- Troubled area loses its heart in closing (SacBee 2013-02-24)
- After vote to close 7 Sacramento schools, parents ask: ‘Now what?’ (SacBee 2013-02-23)
- Sac city school board votes to shut seven schools (Sacramento Press 2013-02-21)
- Sacramento City district trustees vote to close seven schools (SacBee 2013-02-22)
- Editorial: No more delay on right-sizing schools (SacBee 2013-02-21)
- Sacramento City board appears split over tonight’s vote on closing 10 schools (SacBee 2012-02-21)
- The Public Eye: Sac City Unified school closure criteria under scrutiny (SacBee 2013-02-17)
Viewpoints: Cordova Hills will cost the entire region (SacBee 2013-02-24)
Teenagers injured in hit-and-run collision in Rio Linda (SacBee 2013-02-23)
Law enforcement to crack down on Sacramento’s distracted drivers (SacBee 2013-02-23)
Back-seat Driver: Should Sacramento stay suburban or go urban? (SacBee 2013-02-22)
Sacramento seeks new name for downtown train station (SacBee 2013-02-21)
City of promise (Sacramento News & Review 2013-02-21)
Sacramento, West Sac get serious about two new river bridges (SacBee 2013-02-18); Editorial: Broadway bridge will be an asset, not a liability (SacBee 2013-02-23)
Go Outside: 5 places to take a walk in Sacramento, California (People+Places+Things 2013-02-18)
Editorial: Chamber’s backing of Cordova Hills threatens credibility of Next Economy (SacBee 2013-02-17)
Nice Rack (Downtown Sacramento Partnership)
Broadway Vision Study Report Released (Urban Land Institute blog 2013-01-28)
Better Bicycling and Walking in District 4
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.
schools closed
The Sacramento City USD Board voted to close seven schools, including Washington Elementary. This is a sad day for students and their communities. There is a good chance that the decision will be overturned in the courts, as the district proudly refused to consider the effects of the closure on low income and high minority communities, but nevertheless, this will take up yet more community energy and time, energy and time that could have been devoted to improving schools. What kind of feeling does this leave the communities with, when the district and the board work against the interests of the community?
School closure, nationally
The End of the Neighborhood School, from The Atlantic Cities, provides some national data and perspective on school closures. He article references two studies from The Pew Charitable Trusts that talk about the challenges of sale or reuse, and the small savings from closures.
News summary February 17
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)
Getting Around Sacramento 