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Anything somewhat unique to Sacramento...something the city and its people pride themselves on or talk about in some ways...even if a bit on a stereotype level?
The trees probably get the most press. You hear the lines "more trees per capita" and "more trees than any city except Paris" but those are pretty much urban legends--Sacramento is currently engaging in its first-ever tree count, so nobody really knows how many trees we have per capita, even if they weren't constantly dying off and being planted. But if you go up into a tall building in downtown Sacramento and look out over the city, outside of downtown proper you don't see rooftops: you see a sea of trees, with occasional buildings sticking out of it.
Sacramento's inferiority complex is the stuff of legend. In a state containing several extremely well-known cities associated with art, culture, ridiculous wealth and perfect climate, being best-known for extremely hot summers, tomatoes and state government doesn't sound that impressive. We're actually a pretty nice city in our own right, but comparing Sacramento to Los Angeles, San Diego or San Francisco is kind of like comparing a brand-new Hyundai to a Porsche, a Mercedes and a Ferrari. The Hyundai is more affordable and practical, but nobody fantasizes about how cool they'll look driving down the street in a Hyundai.
We used to be an industrial town, doing things like building steam locomotives and canning tomatoes in huge quantity (one of Sacramento's old nicknames was "The Big Tomato") but currently we're more of a government town. We were a government town then too, but until about World War II state government was pretty small because California's population was comparatively small (in 1940 California had about 6 million--today, more like 40 million.) Because of that explosive population growth, we're bigger than most government towns. People tend to blame us for the screwed-up fiscal mess the state budget is invariably in, but we don't elect the Governor by ourselves and only have a couple of Senate and Assembly members: the whole state is responsible for that particular fiasco. Schwartzenegger tends to say that he invented Sacramento but he doesn't even live here, and when he does mention us he basically blames us for the problems that elected legislators from around the state cause. So that doesn't really help our inferiority complex much. Plus, because so many people here work for the state, when the state has budget problems, Sacramento has budget problems.
Another Sacramento stereotype is that we're a boring, button-down kind of place. This reputation is largely manufactured, and seems to originate in the 1950s when the city made a concerted effort to demolish everything interesting or exciting in town. But despite the reputation, whenever Sacramento does get an opportunity to cut loose, we tend to do so in ridiculous fashion. Last New Year's Eve, some merchants on K Street decided to have a New Year's Eve party on a few weeks' notice. They expected about 2000 people to show up. 12,000 people came--and that's not counting the 5000 or so that went to the Old Sacramento New Year's Eve event, or the thousands who had parties throughout the city. Second Saturday and our seemingly innumerable street festivals bear this out.
Some people seem to think that suburban malls and tract homes are unique to Sacramento, but sprawly suburbs are common throughout the United States, especially the western US. Because Sacramento has such flat terrain, it's really hard to see the whole city and get a sense of how big it is, so people tend to assume it is physically small, even though it covers about 100 square miles.
The trees probably get the most press. You hear the lines "more trees per capita" and "more trees than any city except Paris" but those are pretty much urban legends--Sacramento is currently engaging in its first-ever tree count, so nobody really knows how many trees we have per capita, even if they weren't constantly dying off and being planted. But if you go up into a tall building in downtown Sacramento and look out over the city, outside of downtown proper you don't see rooftops: you see a sea of trees, with occasional buildings sticking out of it.
Sacramento's inferiority complex is the stuff of legend. In a state containing several extremely well-known cities associated with art, culture, ridiculous wealth and perfect climate, being best-known for extremely hot summers, tomatoes and state government doesn't sound that impressive. We're actually a pretty nice city in our own right, but comparing Sacramento to Los Angeles, San Diego or San Francisco is kind of like comparing a brand-new Hyundai to a Porsche, a Mercedes and a Ferrari. The Hyundai is more affordable and practical, but nobody fantasizes about how cool they'll look driving down the street in a Hyundai.
We used to be an industrial town, doing things like building steam locomotives and canning tomatoes in huge quantity (one of Sacramento's old nicknames was "The Big Tomato") but currently we're more of a government town. We were a government town then too, but until about World War II state government was pretty small because California's population was comparatively small (in 1940 California had about 6 million--today, more like 40 million.) Because of that explosive population growth, we're bigger than most government towns. People tend to blame us for the screwed-up fiscal mess the state budget is invariably in, but we don't elect the Governor by ourselves and only have a couple of Senate and Assembly members: the whole state is responsible for that particular fiasco. Schwartzenegger tends to say that he invented Sacramento but he doesn't even live here, and when he does mention us he basically blames us for the problems that elected legislators from around the state cause. So that doesn't really help our inferiority complex much. Plus, because so many people here work for the state, when the state has budget problems, Sacramento has budget problems.
Another Sacramento stereotype is that we're a boring, button-down kind of place. This reputation is largely manufactured, and seems to originate in the 1950s when the city made a concerted effort to demolish everything interesting or exciting in town. But despite the reputation, whenever Sacramento does get an opportunity to cut loose, we tend to do so in ridiculous fashion. Last New Year's Eve, some merchants on K Street decided to have a New Year's Eve party on a few weeks' notice. They expected about 2000 people to show up. 12,000 people came--and that's not counting the 5000 or so that went to the Old Sacramento New Year's Eve event, or the thousands who had parties throughout the city. Second Saturday and our seemingly innumerable street festivals bear this out.
Some people seem to think that suburban malls and tract homes are unique to Sacramento, but sprawly suburbs are common throughout the United States, especially the western US. Because Sacramento has such flat terrain, it's really hard to see the whole city and get a sense of how big it is, so people tend to assume it is physically small, even though it covers about 100 square miles.
The Big Tomato - that's quite the nickname. I love tomatoes, does the city have any type of Tomato Festival, does it still celebrate that?
I find that the inferiority complex is something hat makes living in a city frustrating. Currently, I live in a city that has a huge complex with the other major city in the province. It is always about competing with the other city, even though competition is useless.
Sacramento will never be San Francisco or L.A., but that is why I like it. In fact, I am starting to prepare for a move to Sacramento, but I don't know if I could move to another bigger city in California. I like the other cities, but they are not for me on a daily basis.
Once thing that I find unique (and a big reason why we want to move these) about Sacramento, now that I've thought about it, is that it is a couple of hours from a lot of different exciting places. I can be in San Francisco for a nice dinner, go to wine country for a spur of the moment weekend trip, a couple of hours to the coast and the mountains. It is ideally located for me.
I also found that the airport is easy to use when flying in from Canada. It was a pleasure flying in and out of it, rather than SFO, as it was quick and painless. Now my preferred airline doesn't fly direct to SMF, so it is a little more aggravating flying in.
Stan Darsh: I think there used to be one, but due to the aforementioned inferiority complex, the city of Sacramento tends to steer clear of any suggestion that we were ever involved with agriculture. We have festivals for just about everything else, though. Pacific Rim Festival, Festival de la Familia, Gay Pride Weekend, Sikh Unity Festival, Second Saturday Art Walk, Gold Rush Days, Jazz Festival, Free Museum Day, Concerts in the Park, Midfest, Pops in the Park, Cinco de Mayo, several film festivals (international, student, gau & lesbian, local, horror, French, "Trash Film") Chinese New Year, Mexican Independence Day, the County Fair, the State Fair, the Amgen bike race, and so on. We even recently started an annual rubber duck race on the Sacramento River: people dump a bunch of plastic ducks into the river from the I Street Bridge and the first one to reach the Tower Bridge wins.
Woodland, 20 miles north up I-5, still does a tomato festival.
Quote:
Sacramento will never be San Francisco or L.A., but that is why I like it. In fact, I am starting to prepare for a move to Sacramento, but I don't know if I could move to another bigger city in California. I like the other cities, but they are not for me on a daily basis.
I feel exactly the same way. I like it here because it's California but it's not those parts of California. I like visiting Los Angeles and San Francisco a great deal, but don't think I would want to live there.
San Francisco is kind of a drive just to have dinner, although I have driven to Berkeley for dinner before. Fortunately there is a lot of good food here in Sacramento, partially because we really are an agricultural region and it is ridiculously easy to get good produce.
I like visiting Los Angeles and San Francisco a great deal, but don't think I would want to live there.
Jeez man why do you have to kill such a good thread and good post with this garbage? I was enjoying reading the replies in this thread until I hit this little nugget then I had to close the tab.
For a while the area was one of the nations hot beds for product testing because the demographics of the region so thoroughly match the rest of the country.
The thing local civic boosters are loath to admit, but I think is probably its strongest suit is that area is remarkably family friendly. For a given amount of money, you can buy a bigger better home with better schools than in the rest of the state. Government employment is remarkably family friendly. Government benefits are generous, there are lots of paid holidays and rarely do civil servants work more than 40 hours in a week.
If you want to live in an area, where you can afford to buy a home in safe area with good schools and be able to save money for retirement or sending your kids to college, Sacramento is one of the better places to do it in California.
I suppose I neglected to mention the really obvious local-history stuff in my earlier post: Sacramento was the epicenter of the California gold rush of 1849, due to its discovery by an employee of John Sutter, a Swiss adventurer/con artist/binge drinker/chronic failure who built a fort here and held a Mexican land grant (California was part of Mexico until 1848.) We became the state capital a few years later (after having it bounce around the south bay a few times.) Sacramento was also the western terminus for America's first transcontinental railroad route, and the base of operations for the Central Pacific Railroad, who built the western half of the line, completed in 1869. Some Canadian railroad fans like to point out that their transcontinental railroad actually went from coast to coast, while ours went from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, but we already had railroads from the east coast to Omaha, and there were well-established steamboat lines from Sacramento to San Francisco.
Sacramento has museums and historic sites dedicated to these events: along the riverfront is Old Sacramento, a district containing historic buildings (and reconstructions of historic buildings) from the Gold Rush era, the Delta King, a paddle-wheel riverboat that serves as a hotel/restaurant, and the California State Railroad Museum, considered one of the finest of its kind in the country. On the other side of the central city is Sutter's Fort, mostly reconstructed about 110 years ago, also a state park. Many locals consider Old Sacramento to be a cheesy tourist trap, but it has its charms.
I suppose Sacramento's "family-friendly" nature doesn't occur to me because I live in a neighborhood that is considered by many to be the opposite of family-friendly (some here seem to think it's just short of child abuse to raise kids in my neighborhood) but I like it fine.
Jeez man why do you have to kill such a good thread and good post with this garbage? I was enjoying reading the replies in this thread until I hit this little nugget then I had to close the tab.
Negative rep.
LOL! Somebody obviously hates San Francisco. That's funny.
If you go to other western states and visit their biggest cities (like Phoenix, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Denver, etc), you'd probably see that they are pretty similar to Sacramento. We noticed this after moving to Denver 4 years ago from the Bay Area - where the common perception of Sacramento, and any area outside of the immediate Bay Area, is that it's inferior.
The problem with Sacramento is that it shares the state with two major metro areas (SF Bay Area and LA - and some would argue, San Diego), which are among the most popular metro cities/areas in the world. Sacramento is like the red-headed step child when mentioned in the same conversation as those giants. Yet, if you compare it to other big cities in the western US outside of those two metro areas, you'd see that it's just as attractive as any of them.
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