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Another flawless traffic night downtown while 17,500 attended a Kings Game in the new fabulous Arena DOWNTOWN. The trains ran smoothly again. How nice it was to take the light rail train instead of driving out to the suburbs of Natomas and fighting the hurried stressful traffic on I-5.
The Kings game started at 7:30pm. So we caught a 5:00ish train so we could have dinner on K Street. We chose the Empress Tavern (11th and K streets); it was great. We had plenty of time to eat and drink and stroll K Street along with a lot of other Golden One Center attendees. I've never seen all those restaurants as full as they were tonight from 7th to 12th on K Street. About 1/2 of the Empress restaurant was full of Kings fans, drinking at the bar or eating dinner.
People keep telling me, why didn't we build the Arena downtown years ago. People who don't live downtown are loving it, they love the 'city urban walkable vibe". They talk of wanting to live there, and how great it would be to walk everywhere. Isn't this, what you wanted Burg, oh no, thats right you only wanted that for the kind of people you approve of. The kind of people who opposed the Arena and the kind of people who hate Kevin Johnson.
Again, to think the Arena almost didn't happen because of a few powerful sue-happy selfish obstructionists who insist on keeping downtown to themselves.
Last edited by Chimérique; 10-30-2016 at 01:05 AM..
At tonight's Kings game at the Golden One Center, the fans sitting behind us were three 40 something sisters and their elderly Dad. They all drove up from Modesto and the East Bay(Alameda).
Their dad is a big sports fan but he can't afford Warriors tickets so the sisters decided to take him to a Sacramento Kings game instead. They made a weekend of it by staying the night in a Sacramento hotel and attending the game. T
The Dad was pretty negative about Sacramento and the Kings at first but by the 4th quarter he was very impressed with the Arena, and the Sacramento fans. It didn't hurt that the game was very exciting and a nail biter to the end. Sacramento won by 3 points in the last minute of the game.
This NorCal family had a great time and would come back to Sacramento.
And to think, the Anti-Arena naysayers would have prevented this type of regional tourism in Sacramento.
It's nice to see Bay Area money being spent here instead of us spending our money there.
Funny how you promote the use of public transit but not in this case. Oh that's right, because the people using it are not the kind of people you like.
No, I think people riding to games on public transit is just swell, your assumption otherwise is a figment of your imagination. But, you claimed that the Kings were somehow contributing money to RT in return for all these free passes to games--I asked you to substantiate that claim with some sort of evidence that shows how the Kings are paying for these RT trains. Apparently you don't have anything to back it up, which is why you've decided on a barrage of non sequitur remarks, lies and personal attacks as a substitute for facts or evidence. So I can only assume that your claim the Kings are paying for those tickets was a lie.
I looked up Lyft about 3 hours ago and it showed a car/van that holds 6 people. You can also request more than one car simply by having more than one person in your party that uses Lyft or Uber.
And where would we put two wheelchairs? Do they have wheelchair tie-downs?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chimérique
The Kings are paying RT for the extra trains, no subsidy.
The kings are paying nothing. The only deal that was proposed fell through. This is why every event is not free. RT can't afford that much. If you have proof otherwise, please provide a link.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chimérique
Besides it's public transit, my tax dollars pay for it just as much as the next taxpayer, just because you don't want to use, don't ruin it for the rest of us.
So, it should be free for everyone, every day. After all, my tax dollars are paying for it.
We went downtown late afternoon Saturday by light rail just to see how the street life and synergy has changed because of the Arena(G1C) and the Maroon 5 concert. The light rail was packed with revelers, concert goers. The train was clean, they had people cleaning the windows and doors as we boarded and left, amazing! Security was everywhere, first time users of light rail were excited that they didn’t have to drive and park.
We walked all over the G1C area from the 8th & K light rail station, down to K Street past 7th into the G1C walkway area (David Stern Walkway), then we walked completely around the G1C. We took in the new Koons sculpture just behind the security check, the colors are amazing especially at night with all the lights.
We decided to bar hop, first we stopped at Malt n Mash, and then El Rey on K Street between 7th and 8th, they are right next to each other. Then we walked to Whirled Wine bar on L Street which is next to Foundation Bar/Restaurant. All 4 of these places were packed at around 4pm. We stopped in the at The Pier Bar/nightclub & restaurant on J Street near 6th. It was full as well. We walked J Street from 4th to 10th and had a drink at The Grange bar at the Citizen Hotel, very nice.
Our plan was to have dinner somewhere near G1C preferably on K Street, and although we knew about the restaurants near 10th and K it seemed too far of a walk, the synergy is lost just by those “short” 3 blocks where there is an empty lot, and darkened store fronts --- this is what I mean about synergy still lacking in a few spots especially on K Street. It’s not until you get to 10th and K Streets where the Crest theater is located along with K Bar, and the club above it, two different Japanese restaurants, Pizza Rock, the Dive Bar, the District club, a Mediterrean restaurant, Mother (Vegetarian Restaurant) and the Empress Tavern (bar/restaurant) which is in the basement of the Crest Theater. I should mention there are a few more restaurants, a gelato, asian dessert place and a Chinese restaurant along the way. Oh, the Ambrose Cafe was open as well, they normally are closed on a saturday night, great food. The "empty" blocks should fill in fast as one block will have 134 units of high rise housing, while saving the historic cool storefronts on K Street. Also, the Kings just bought the empty lot, hopefully something really cool including housing will be built :-))
We chose Mother Restaurant, I love that place, excellent! After dinner we went down into the basement of the Crest Theater which houses the Empress Tavern, very cool ambiance, arched brick faux celling, nice bar. After that we walked K Street toward G1C again, by now it was even more crowded. Even the homeless looked happy, people were filling their cups with money :-) There were street musicians playing their instruments. I helped some bar hoppers locate the Rusthalaler Brewery and Tap room as they couldn’t find it and had no idea it was in the basement of the building (7th and KStreets) so they invited us to join them for a beer. It was very fesitive all around the GIC from 5th to 12th on K Street. We were going to walk all the way to 12th to check out Ella’s bar, and the Garage(eatery and bar), and Cafeteria(high end restaurant & bar) on 15th and to the Sports Bar on 16th, we didn’t make it that far!
The G1 Center’s doors opened as early as 5:30 as I understand it. The concert began at 7:30 with Phases(local band, I think), then Tove Lo, and Maroon 5 starting at 9:00 pm. We didn’t have tickets and didn’t plan to go. I checked Stub Hub in the morning and tickets were going for $300 to $475 on the floor. But as we left the Rusthaller Bar, around the corner is the G1C box office, on a whim, I asked if they were sold out. They said yes. At the same time I got a text msg from the Kings app telling me they just released 20-40 more floor seats, I told the box office they confirmed and within seconds we had floor seats right next to the stage at the very last minute!!! (7:15 to be exact). These were some of the best seats of the concert, $110 a piece, not bad for the best seats.
All three bands were excellent. Phases (1/2 hour), Tove Lo was really really good(1 hour of music) Maroon 5/Adam Levine killed it, non-stop singing for 2hours. They played what seemed like their entire body of work without a break. The Crowd loved it. We loved it. In addition to their own songs, they did a David Bowie montage, while Adam Levine and the lead guitarist did a battle round of the guitarist belting out a tune and Adam mimicked it with his voice. Adam Levine closed the show by covering Prince’s songs. Let’s Go Crazy and Purple Rain, in honor and respect of him. It was an excellent show, no one disappointed me, Adam was top notch.
RT was running very late trains after 11pm. We took the Gold Line towards Sunrise/Folsom. It went smoothly, 4 car trains were packed. It was a great experience!
Don’t listen to the Naysayers, people rode bikes, took uber, and light rail. Traffic was minimal. Garage prices ranged from $8-$25 all night. There are a ton of garages that help lessen the traffic as people are going to different places in the grid to park not just one giant parking lot as in the suburban stadiums. Traffic cops and garage attendants smoothly got cars and people moving, traffic not bad for 20,000 concert goers. 15% of these participants used light rail, thats' a great start and it will only grow in ridership. I will always take light rail to G1C for now on.
By the way, all the high end hotels downtown were sold out Saturday, The Citizen, Hyatt, Sheraton, Marriott, Sterling, Holiday Inn.
The Capitol Corridor (Amtrak) is now promoting the G1C as a destination for folks coming from Davis and the Bay Area. The Amtrak station is 1 1/2 blocks from G1C. And sure enough, the couple sitting next to us at the concert told us they took the Amtrak from Davis to G1C for the concert and they were staying at the Holiday Inn downtown for the night taking the train back on Sunday.
Chim, that is awesome! Sounds like a hell of a night! I've been down several times for events (haven't actually entered G1C yet though) and the vibe is great. I am hoping to see a Kings game within the next week or two. My plan B was to go see Tourek, or whatever it is called, because the tickets are pretty low and I really just want to see the venue and eat some good food inside. I will be down tonight to check out a couple of the local restaurants as well.
And where would we put two wheelchairs? Do they have wheelchair tie-downs?
The kings are paying nothing. The only deal that was proposed fell through. This is why every event is not free. RT can't afford that much. If you have proof otherwise, please provide a link.
So, it should be free for everyone, every day. After all, my tax dollars are paying for it.
What "Tax" dollars of yours are paying for it?? Not income tax. Property tax? Please explain.
No, I think people riding to games on public transit is just swell, your assumption otherwise is a figment of your imagination. But, you claimed that the Kings were somehow contributing money to RT in return for all these free passes to games--I asked you to substantiate that claim with some sort of evidence that shows how the Kings are paying for these RT trains. Apparently you don't have anything to back it up, which is why you've decided on a barrage of non sequitur remarks, lies and personal attacks as a substitute for facts or evidence. So I can only assume that your claim the Kings are paying for those tickets was a lie.
Honestly, who cares if they are or aren't paying for them. What does it matter? Downtown looks 10X better than it ever did, even with the re-constructed light rail stations around 9th and capital, or wherever that is. Does civic pride not matter to some of you at all?? Even if there was zero expected economic return, how about improving an area for the sake of improving it?
What "Tax" dollars of yours are paying for it?? Not income tax. Property tax? Please explain.
RT is primarily funded by state and local sales tax revenue (53%) and federal taxes (21%). (Yes, federal income tax contributes to the federal contribution.) Only 19% of operating costs are funded through fares. The rest comes from contracted services (4%) and other sources (3%). If someone is getting a free ride that is not being reimbursed, fare revenue and contracted services are not a factor in the cost of that ride. Therefore, 96% of that ride is being paid for by taxes. For those who are getting a discount, taxes are also paying for the rest of that fare.
These are not services that would be in existence if the arena event were not happening. RT is adding security, trains, operating time, fare checkers, ambassadors solely for these events - all being funded by RT which is funded by taxes.
Honestly, who cares if they are or aren't paying for them. What does it matter?
It matters because of all the promises made when this "deal" was being rammed down our throats:
"If you don't attend an event at the arena, you won't be paying for it."
"No tax money will be used to fund the arena."
"The city's General Fund will not be involved or be put at risk."
All lies. Taxes are being used. Everyone who works, goes to the theater, shops, or eats downtown is paying. The General Fund is the guarantor of the bond servicing.
We knew we were being lied to and now no one will even admit to the deceptions.
It matters because of all the promises made when this "deal" was being rammed down our throats:
"If you don't attend an event at the arena, you won't be paying for it."
"No tax money will be used to fund the arena."
"The city's General Fund will not be involved or be put at risk."
All lies. Taxes are being used. Everyone who works, goes to the theater, shops, or eats downtown is paying. The General Fund is the guarantor of the bond servicing.
We knew we were being lied to and now no one will even admit to the deceptions.
The hypocrisy you ignore is that the people that hate the arena the most are the ones who vote in tax increases for everything else and/or they vote for politicians that forever increase taxes. It's ok if it subsidies the things they want and like but not ok for the these they don't like.
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