Hi and happy Monday. As always I write today from Sacramento, and this week I bring you news from your state capital, all built around a thesis: Sacramento is its own kind of awesome.
First, staying with the Black History Month theme that The Newsletter has been championing for the past four weeks, I am pleased to celebrate two venerable Black cultural institutions, and introduce a brand new institution that is likely to draw national attention. Out of order:
1. Last night I caught a performance of the 1975 play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, staged by Celebration Arts, a Black theater company founded in 1986. This revolutionary Obie Prize-winning work consists of a series of monologues (or “spells”) in which the performers dance to accompany their stories, or another character’s stories, which are sometimes joyous and often devastatingly painful. Set on a spare stage with minimal props, these "choreopoems" relied entirely on the seven actors’ voices, bodies and hearts, and the show was thrilling.
Celebration Arts has dubbed this the season of Black Girl Magic. Its next production, Zora and Langston, is written and directed by Sacramento’s own Imani Mitchell, and is drawn from correspondence between the novelist Zora Neale Hurston and poet/playwright Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance. It opens Friday, March 1.
2. Last week, the Sacramento Observer reported that Sacramento State University will be the first public university in the nation to host a Black Honors College on its campus. Sac State President J. Luke Wood, an alum, said the college will be modeled on the Historic Black Colleges and Universities of the South and Northeast, and that the effort represents “something that has never been done before outside of an HBCU, which is to have an honors college that is specifically designed to serve students who are from the Black community, who are interested in Black history, Black life and Black culture, and to use that as a way to protect the environment so that students are leaving having their brilliance, dignity and morality extolled.”
3. The Sacramento Observer itself has been covering the Black community here since 1962. Cofounded by longtime publisher Dr. William H. Lee, it is now guided by his son, Larry Lee, who in 2023 was named named Publisher of the Year by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. That organization has selected The Observer as the nation’s top Black newspaper seven times in its history, including last year.
I Heart Sacramento
The clouds can be spectacular this time of year in the Sacramento Valley. Walking on the levee by the American River late last Thursday afternoon, we were looking up to marvel at their puffy beauty when we noticed the almost full moon. Nice! The Sierra were also looking fine on the eastern horizon, draped in fresh snow.
I had no idea before we moved here from Santa Cruz that Sacramento is such a beautiful city. I did not know that you can see the snow-capped Sierra from here on clear winter days, or that bald eagles occasionally hunt this river right in town. This morning, taking a walk down at the river to clear my head, I heard the comically loud bugling of sandhill cranes overhead, and looked up to see a flock flying in V-formation way up there, so high that, even with their six-foot wingspans, they looked like a plain old flock of geese. Stuff like that happens almost every day.
In the seven years since we moved here, Sacramento has continued to surprise me. Midtown, the neighborhood where we live (right near the banks of the American River) is a showcase of old-school mixed-use development. We are in a modest hundred-year old duplex directly across the street from a stately, five-bedroom home and kitty-corner from an apartment complex that has been home to a string of Sac State students since we’ve been here. Every block for several miles in every direction is lined with its own parade of magnificent old trees—Paris may be the only city in the world with a more impressive urban forest than Sacramento. I’m not making this up.
Sac really is in many ways a case study in good urban planning; there are a lot of parks, and we can walk to great restaurants and bars—on Friday night, I popped into Harlow’s to see Helado Negro, just one of the countless great shows I’ve seen in my neighborhood nightclub.
I realize I’m bragging—you’re welcome. Come visit—you’ll thank me. I know (roughly) where you live, and Sacramento is no more than a few hours beautiful drive from your home. (Another great thing about this city: We’re centrally located in the heart of Northern California—in 90 minutes, I can be at my favorite XC ski destination in the Sierra Nevada, or in San Francisco. If the traffic allows, I can be back in Santa Cruz in a couple hours plus.) Okay I’ll stop.
• Why Do We Leap Day? We Remind You (So You Can Forget for Another 4 Years)
Leap day means several things to Alexander Boxer, a data scientist and the author of “A Scheme of Heaven: The History of Astrology and the Search for Our Destiny in Data.”
(02/26/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• San Francisco Is Ready to Apologize to Black Residents. Reparations Advocates Want More
“An apology is just cotton candy rhetoric,” said the Rev. Amos C. Brown, a member of the San Francisco reparations advisory committee. “What we need is concrete actions.”
(02/26/2024) → The Sacramento Observer
• Sacramento Mayoral Candidate Profile: Assembly Member Kevin McCarty
George Sim Park in Lemon Hill is a special place for state Assembly member Kevin McCarty. The 52-year-old got his start in politics in 2004 representing the South Sacramento neighborhood on the City Council.
(02/26/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• Sacramento Mayoral Candidate Profile: Former Councilmember Steve Hansen
CapRadio interviewed the four major candidates for Sacramento mayor in the March 5 primary election. Former Sacramento City Council member Steve Hansen is our first profile.
(02/25/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• What You Need to Know About Sacramento Measure C
Sacramento voters in the March 2024 primary election will decide whether to pass increases to the city’s business operations tax.
(02/25/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• Citrus Heights Eyes Changing Standard Days for Council Meetings
During the Citrus Heights City Council’s meeting earlier this month, a proposal was brought forward to get public input on potentially changing the city’s traditional Thursday nights for council meetings.
(02/20/2024) → Citrus Heights Sentinel
• How Far Can Cities Go to Clear Homeless Camps? SCOTUS Will Decide
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that could reshape how cities manage homelessness. The legal issue is whether they can fine or arrest people for sleeping outside if there’s no shelter available.
(02/20/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• Cal State Faculty Vote to Ratify New Contract
Members of the California Faculty Association approve a two-year agreement that the union and administration hammered out after a strike last month that lasted one day.
(02/19/2024) → CalMatters
• California’s Chief Plan for Seniors Overlooks the Realities Rural Families Face
California’s latest Master Plan for Aging underscores the need for policies to address the challenges aging populations face. But it fails to portray the realities for older adults in rural areas, who are at greater risk of poverty.
(02/19/2024) → CalMatters
• How Many Bills in the 2024 California Legislature?
With the dust settled after the Feb. 19 bill introduction deadline, the California Legislature’s count for new bills this year is 2,124.
(02/19/2024) → CalMatters
• 2024 California Presidential Primary Election: A Look at the Black Candidates
Although African Americans comprise 6.5% of California’s population, Black candidates are contesting for 11.5% of California’s congressional seats, 23.8% of state Assembly seats and 30% of state Senate seats.
(02/19/2024) → The Sacramento Observer
• Nevada County Rejects Controversial Gold Mining Project
After years of controversy, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors unanimously struck down a Grass Valley gold mining project. “It’s clear that this community wants to move forward to a cleaner economic future,” said Supervisor Heidi Hall.
(02/19/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• Wildfires Are Killing California’s Ancient Giants. Can Seedlings Save the Species?
Ecologists estimate that up to 14,000 sequoias have been killed in recent wildfires. The National Park Service for the first time has begun replanting some severely burned areas.
(02/26/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• Will CA Voters Like ‘Newsom Recall, the Sequel’ Any Better?
Conservative activists who worked on the failed recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 have launched another attempt, arguing that conditions in California only worsened in the two-and-a-half years since then as Newsom’s attention shifted to national politics.
(02/26/2024) → CalMatters
• Meet Some of the Biggest Donors Shaping California's U.S. Senate Race
Here are the biggest donors in the 2024 California Senate race, both for and against the top candidates: Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, Steve Garvey and Barbara Lee.
(02/26/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• What California College Students Think About Online Classes
EdSource asked students at California colleges and universities why they are choosing between online or in-person options.
(02/26/2024) → EdSource
• What California Voters Want to Know About the 2024 Election
Voting in California can be complicated. Here are answers to some common questions, plus what the leading U.S. Senate candidates say they would do if they’re elected.
(02/26/2024) → CalMatters
• Scientists Warn That a Crucial Ocean Current Could Collapse, Altering Global Weather
New research warns of a possible collapse in Atlantic Ocean currents due to climate change. That could fundamentally alter global weather patterns.
(02/25/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• Awaiting the Count—Gray Whales Population Has Been Declining
There was a time not so long ago when trained observers were overwhelmed by the number of whales migrating through Monterey Bay.
(02/24/2024) → Monterey Herald
• Central Coast Ranch That Is Home to Endangered Species to Be Preserved
The Wildlife Conservation Board voted to award $10.3 million to the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County to preserve the 27,000-acre Camatta Ranch in Santa Margarita.
(02/23/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• Promises for New City in Solano County Are Worth Hundreds of Millions—if They Stick
California Forever CEO Jan Sramek says promises of new homes, jobs, investments are binding, but legal experts and elected officials are skeptical.
(02/21/2024) → CalMatters
• Classroom Fight Ramps Up in CA Election
On one side: Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ advocacy group. On the other side: Protect Kids California, a parents rights organization.
(02/21/2024) → CalMatters
• Bay Area Car Owners Have Yet Another Crime to Worry About
License plates are getting stolen from vehicles, Livermore officials say.
(02/20/2024) → SF Gate
• After Heavy Storms, Death Valley Is Now Open to Kayakers
A temporary lake in Death Valley National Park doubled after recent rains and is now deep enough to launch a kayak. Prior to August, ghostly Lake Manly hadn’t appeared in 19 years.
(02/20/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• The Inland Empire’s Once-Unstoppable Warehousing Industry Falls Into a Slump
Logistics has been an economic lifeline for the Inland Empire for decades. Now that the industry is hitting a downturn, the region is feeling the pain.
(02/20/2024) → Los Angeles Times
Downtown Sacramento, seen from Sutter's Landing Park in Midtown.
