Editorials

These are the opinions of the Advocates for Arden Arcade

MIssion Avenue, a suburban street with trees lining both sides, parked cars, and a clear blue sky above. It divides Arden Arcvade and Carmichael

May 19, 2025

Time to smash old boundaries

Over the years those of us at the Advocates for Arden Arcade have heard from other parts of the county's vast, urbanized, unincorporated UnCity that they have municipal service and governance issues like ours. We do not want to exclude them from our quest to improve the local area. We have always felt a kinship with our neighboring unincorporated nowherelands. Their struggles are our struggles. To…

A roadside view with palm trees, a Nissan dealership, a fenced lot, and street signs under a blue sky.

December 30, 2024

Some thoughts as we move to a new year

If you follow the news on TV, radio, or Big Social Media, you will be hearing a lot in 2025 about tensions internationally and nationally. On local TV and radio, on local social media sites like Nextdoor, or if you are among the handful of Sacramento Bee subscribers left, your news feed will no doubt also cover goings-on in the City of Sacramento, with an occasional story or two about something in…

January 5, 2023

Kiss it goodbye

This week contractors started prep work on the construction of the middle school boondoggle at Creekside. That's the $60M (or $120M+ when you figure in the interest) waste of tax money the 5-member, lame duck San Juan Unified School District Board approved late last year to build a questionably-needed, large middle school on a too-small, marginal site where the old Creekside Elementary School has…

A large group of people in a meeting raising their hands, likely participating in a vote or discussion.

May 4, 2022

That recent Bee article about Arden Arcade

On April 27, 2022, The Bee published a feature story about Arden Arcade on its front page. The story, "The City That's Not" ostensibly set out to answer a reader's question: "Why Hasn't the City of Sacramento ever annexed Arden Arcade?" But even after giving historical evidence that the City of Sacramento HAS bitten off chunks of Arden Arcade, the article doesn't really answer the reader's…

A silver car is parked on the side of a road with a car carrier unloading vehicles nearby, and a person walking on the sidewalk.

October 19, 2021

Unincorporated means unequal

About a year ago Joe Mathews wrote an essay for Zocaló Public Square (similarly reprinted in the S.F. Chroniclce, Modesto Bee and elsewhere) about the underprivileged status of California's unincorporated communities. His article emphasized unincorporated communities in the San Joaquin Valley where low-wage farm workers struggle to provide for their families, where criminals practice their…

The image is a map of Cal Expo, showing parking lots and entrances related to the California State Fair.

September 5, 2021

Cunning state budget language would move Parkway's homeless campers to Cal Expo

There's a famous quote (generally attributed to either Mark Twain or Gideon J. Tucker) about no man's life, liberty or property being safe when the Legislature is in session. Last-minute, hasty legislation in the final week of the legislative session is proving that to be true. Amendments to SB 175 (at Section 3332.2), concerning the state budget, were cleverly placed over the Labor Day weekend…

The image shows a car accident scene with a police car and two individuals by damaged vehicles on a residential street.

August 18, 2021

Thank you, Sac County......but why does it have to be this way?

The other day on Nextdoor there was a post about a cars being stripped on Wyda Way on the Dollar Tree side of the street between Howe and Ethan. The post said there were cars on jacks and chopped and mentioned a truck double parked on the street while guys took parts out of the cars. Comments on the post included pleas to report the matter to the County. Among the other comments:

A police officer is escorting an individual near a police vehicle in a grassy area, likely involved in an arrest or questioning.

May 3, 2021

Securing Special District Funding for Covid-19

Regular readers of our publications are no doubt aware that our community's municipal government - Sacramento County - is sometimes, well...let's just say, less than stellar. Fortunately there are several special districts that provide the area with certain municipal services beyond what the County offers and they do it pretty well. We're talking about the variety of independent special districts…

A man speaking at a podium labeled "Navdeep S. Gill, County Executive," with others seated in the background.

March 27, 2021

Editorial - Nav Gill wasn't an exception

We honestly don't like to dis Sacramento County. But since we have a goal to speak up on behalf of improving our community, there are times we don't have a choice. So when we saw The Bee's latest article about Nav Gill, the now-departed County CEO, we thought we should say something about it.