Why Does Sacramento Get a Bad Rap? (Oakland, Elk Grove: crime, closing)

[Chimérique]

Sacramento is one the most diverse and integrated cities in the nation. It's NOT convervative at all by an stretch of the imagination; another ignorant Bay Area untruth spoken about Sacramento.

[General I80]

Originally Posted by wburg

Why are theme parks such a big deal? I suppose they're nice, but how many adults base their relocation decisions on the number of theme parks in a metro area? Maybe it's just me, I haven't set foot in a theme park in about 30 years (unless you count Cal Expo for the State Fair, which I assume you don't) but I don't understand why a theme park would be better for a city's economy and vitality than, say, walkable and vibrant urban neighborhoods, employment centers or active nightlife--and generally, for those who aren't children, the basis for selecting an "exciting" city is based more on everyday life and economic activity than the number of water slides.

Come to think of it, yes, theme parks aren’t the best measure of how “exciting” a city is. However, San Francisco and Los Angeles always rank higher for nightlife than Sacramento.

Originally Posted by wburg

It's a little hard to reconcile your appreciation for these suburbs with your statements about Sacramento being boring and conservative; suburbs are generally much more boring than their regional city (people generally drive from those places to party in Sacramento unless their idea of a wild Saturday night involves sitting in front of the TV) and they're also much more conservative; Placer and El Dorado County, unlike Sacramento County, are still Republican strongholds, potentially far more out of line with the politics of folks relocating from Los Angeles or the Bay Area (unless they're conservatives trying to escape liberal strongholds), and while Folsom still technically leans Dem, eastern Sacramento County votes more conservatively than the city of Sacramento.

“Boring and conservative” is not a negative in my opinion. I was explaining why Sacramento gets a bad rap, not why it is bad. Many people in SF and LA think Sacramento is bad due to being “boring and conservative”, but it’s not a concern for me.

And yes, Sacramento is no Republican stronghold, but it is more conservative than SF and LA.

[General I80]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Sacramento is one the most diverse and integrated cities in the nation.

Yes, and that is one thing many people don’t realize about Sacramento.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by General I80

Come to think of it, yes, theme parks aren’t the best measure of how “exciting” a city is. However, San Francisco and Los Angeles always rank higher for nightlife than Sacramento.

well yes, they are nightlife hubs for much larger regions, and widely recognized as two of the greatest entertainment cities in the United States. So yes, saying "Sacramento has lower-ranked nightlife than SF and LA" is a true statement, but it's kind of a high bar. Compared to other cities our size I think we do okay, but we don't have the reputation--in part because, rather than being marketed as a city with great nightlife, even though we do a whole lot of drinkin and partyin and festivalin in these parts, we're marketed as a nice quiet suburban place to raise your kids up--the aforementioned "bad rap."

“Boring and conservative” is not a negative in my opinion. I was explaining why Sacramento gets a bad rap, not why it is bad. Many people in SF and LA think Sacramento is bad due to being “boring and conservative”, but it’s not a concern for me.

And yes, Sacramento is no Republican stronghold, but it is more conservative than SF and LA.

Pretty much the entire United States is more conservative than SF, and LA is only a little more conservative than that. As with the assessment of entertainment, saying Sacramento is more conservative than those cities is not the same as saying Sacramento is conservative when compared to other American cities overall--by that metric, we're pretty comfortably in "liberal" territory, if not leftist (but really no major American cities are really in leftist territory, including SF and LA.)



And yes, for people who want quiet conformity, "boring and conservative" is not a negative for many people, which is why America has so many suburbs (in addition to the massive tax subsidies and social engineering programs which made them economically possible.) So for the suburban customer, which folks like the local marketing groups pitching Sacramento as a quiet, conservative alternative to Bay Area noise and liberalism sell us on, it's not a bad reputation at all, even if it's factually untrue about Sacramento itself.


But speaking of things to do in Sacramento that defy our reputation, assuming the OP ever returns to read these posts, Sacramento is most definitely a city of festivals; this week is Aftershock, a four-day festival featuring some of the legends of metal, punk, and rap, and overall a good time. It's probably the biggest since the halcyon days of the Jazz Festival attracting like 80,000 people, but in some ways they're remarkably similar--when the Jazz Festivals started in the 1970s, they were a nostalgic celebration of music that was mainly popular 40-50 years earlier, and Aftershock, while it does include contemporary bands, is mostly a nostalgia festival for music that was popular in the 1980s and 90s, only 30-40 years ago--but as time goes on, if Aftershock continues we'll see more and more white-haired folks gently headbanging in Discovery Park, assuming their arthritis isn't acting up too bad. Which isn't a criticism at all--I hope to be one of those old geezers doddering along to bands I loved in high school and college, and have greatly enjoyed the nostalgia of the 2 Aftershock concerts I attended--but just thought it was amusing. We're a great city for festivals, which is one reason why we have a whole lot of them, big and small, even though people don't really recognize us for that!

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by General I80

And yes, Sacramento is no Republican stronghold, but it is more conservative than SF and LA.

Better said, Sacramento is a Democratic stronghold, and by far more liberal than most of the nation.

Folks can deem that good or bad, but these characterizations of Sacramento put forth by coastal Californians is almost always wrong and uninformative. It's always been that way and despite how much more interesting and bigger Sacramento gets, coastal folks will always get it wrong.

[shelato]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Better said, Sacramento is a Democratic stronghold, and by far more liberal than most of the nation.

Folks can deem that good or bad, but these characterizations of Sacramento put forth by coastal Californians is almost always wrong and uninformative. It's always been that way and despite how much more interesting and bigger Sacramento gets, coastal folks will always get it wrong.

To be fair part of the confusion is that people use the term Sacramento to refer to the city, the county and the region and the region is a lot more conservative than the city.

Moreover the more polarized you are politically, the more prone one is to hyperbole. When I lived in Berkeley, everyone who didn't live there was generally presumed to be fascist. I imagine in rural Oklahoma, the same general sentiment is likely expressed reguarding commies.

[Valley Boy]

Sacramento is more conservative than SF and more than LA County. In that Sac went for Biden 61% and LA County 71%.

But calling Sac conservative is definitely a stretch as far as County wide goes. There are pockets, generally Citrus Heights and Orangevale and Antelope is kind of the demarcation line of where it gets conservative. As well as Elk Grove east of 99 in my neck of the woods. And even then it is by margins in the low 50% for Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ction-map.html

But yeah, folks are definitely a bit more toned down politically out here. At the end of the day Trump only got about 36% of the vote county wide. Not exactly what comes to mind when I think of conservative areas. There are counties in Texas where like 70%+ of the population voted for Trump.

[cedew]

Politics, meh, but they nailed all the positives on American Dad. Francine has it right.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaYbP8ArI3A

[Chimérique]

^^^
Love it! Thats awesome!
Sacramento will always get the jabs from Hollywood. Sometimes deserved, mostly not.
The writer was either a native poking fun at his hometown or someone who knows nothing about Sacramento.

[sacreole]

The film Lady Bird featured a number of iconic places in and around Sacramento. Let’s not forget that we’re the “Farm to Fork” capital of California.