Should Sac try to get the A's to move here? (Fresno: home, schools)

[CeJeH]

Originally Posted by wburg

Perhaps if we focus on rebuilding the private-sector industrial/commercial base we once had, we'll increase city revenue, and have more home-based potential sponsors/naming rights affiliates? Our first pro baseball team was named for the big brewery in town, the Buffalo: a major employer, locally owned, with a vested interest in civic improvement.

This would require us to attract or create some new big business that we haven't had before or to expand something that's already here. All the major economic factors that have brought people here and/or ignited major growth have failed and are no longer relevant. So what could we do to start this?

[wburg]

Look for something we're already doing, and do more of it. Renewable energy is a potential source: SMUD is way out in front regarding adopting renewable energy sources, so there is a market, and the way California is going, the statewide market is only going to grow.

Transportation has always been our strong suit--people generally refer to Sacramento as a place in between X and Y (ocean/mountains/city/country) because we're such a good transit hub, so let's do more of that. Work for more regional rail and transportation projects--expansions to the airport and creative uses for our old airbases also help with this. And while the Peninsula threatens lawsuits to slow down high speed rail's approach, Sacramento can steal their thunder by working to welcome it--if the Bay Area can't get it act together, give us that direct HSR link to Los Angeles and watch them suck tailpipe for a change. We also build railroad equipment here, at the Siemens plant: they just recently got a contract to build new electric locomotives for Amtrak.

Believe it or not, we still have some canning/vegetable processing & distribution businesses in town (Blue Diamond, Campbell's, several fruit/vegetable distributors.) Use our rail connection to promote industrial locations along our existing rail corridors, as generators of freight traffic and also as job centers. A lot of this will have to start small--but we already have a growing number of urban wineries, micro-breweries and other small businesses catering to the specialty foods market. If gas continues to get more expensive, the advantages of canneries in remote places will shrink compared to those with rail access, and we'll see a re-centralization towards the big Valley cities as interfaces between the agricultural regions and transportation networks.

All of these are areas where Sacramento was once a leader: we had the first long-distance hydroelectric power connection in the country (renewable energy), the first transcontinental railroad terminus (transportation network), the only place on the west coast where full-time steam locomotives were built (heavy manufacturing) and once had the two biggest canneries in the country (agricultural processing.) All of these things passed from fashion temporarily, but the things that eclipsed them are all on the downswing right now. So why not get back to our core competencies?

[CeJeH]

I find it interesting that you are anti-public funds for an arena yet you seem to be pro-high speed rail, which will cost infinitely more than a dozen arenas would. Yes, that cost would be split with the whole state but $45 billion is a ****load of money for a state that is damn near broke.

[wburg]

I'm anti-public funds for things that won't deliver a suitable return. High-speed rail costs more than a dozen arenas, but has the potential to generate more growth and development--and it's cheaper than the highway and airport expansions we would have to build if we didn't build high-speed rail (we do not have the option of just keeping the stuff we have: our infrastructure keeps getting older and the state population keeps growing, no matter what we do.) Fully discussing HSR is outside the scope of this thread, but personally I think that being the northern end of the first functioning American HSR line would bring Sacramento one heck of a lot more national acclaim and civic identity than another sports team...although the resulting acclaim and civic identity might end up attracting another sports team as a result!

[Majin]

so wburg, you support sending our tax dollars to san francisco and la with no benefit to sacramento? You do know that with the current plan of building the sf-la line first that sacramento's section will NEVER get built, right?

[sacramento916]

I want to see Sacramento be a leader in clean technology and also in attracting hi speed rail technology.

However, I really dislike the current hi speed rail plan. Sacramento is only marginal to that plan and I honestly doubt we will see a hi speed train in these parts in any of our lifetimes, with the way things are going. There is not even a hi speed rail line directly to San Francisco through the capitol corridor, instead it seems like the route to Sacramento through the central valley was more an after thought than anything.

Sacramento really needs to make itself a center for a hi speed network.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by Majin

so wburg, you support sending our tax dollars to san francisco and la with no benefit to sacramento? You do know that with the current plan of building the sf-la line first that sacramento's section will NEVER get built, right?

Communities on the Peninsula are fighting the HSR route--that's part of why they're building in the San Joaquin Valley first, because it's flatter and simpler and there aren't a bunch of rich Peninsula communities there. If the San Joaquin and Los Angeles end gets built and the Peninsula still can't get its act together, we should drink their milkshake by convincing the state and the feds to build the Sacramento leg first.

There isn't really a way to run HSR directly between Sacramento and San Francisco--through the delta is fine, but once you hit Suisun Bay you have water obstacles and mountains, and lots of little stops, which a conventional local does a better job of serving anyhow. But there are plenty of ways that conventional rail can be improved, and supplement a future HSR system--like new commuter routes north to Chico and Redding, more direct runs between Sacramento and Reno, etcetera. And if a line gets built north to Oregon and Washington, it will go through the Sacramento Valley. All the better reason to start spending our energy (and public money) on transportation infrastructure. Plus, there is federal money to leverage such things, so it isn't all our money.

[CeJeH]

OH REALLY?

City Beat: Mayor: 'Sacramento is a baseball town,' could support A's

[wburg]

Well, he's right, Sacramento is more of a baseball town and always has been. Wekve got the weather for outdoor sports. There's still the question of how to pay for such a thing, but if you can figure that out, hey, good times!

[CeJeH]

step 1: collect underpants

step 2: ???

step 3: profit