There’s a lot of online chatter about this morning’s Sacramento Bee article about Natomas.
THE BUZZ is curious what our readers think about the piece. Click “comments” below and let us know!
That rhymed, by the way.
Heard In The Neighborhood: Natomas In The News
July 22, 2008 by 8 Comments
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The article did not provide me with any information I did not know. However, reading the comments made me a bit sick to my stomach. Funny – I feel much more comfortable and proud of my neighborhood since moving her nearly five years ago than I did when I lived in a more “exclusive” area of Sacramento where I lived for the four years before that.
What the commentors dont see or know about is all of the goodwill that we have in our neck of the woods. I am sure the people saying the bad things about our neighborhood dont live in a neighborhood where they can go their neighborhood school, their local store or to the pool and feel like they know nearly everyone there. The sense of community we have is something I am so grateful for. I am sure the the negative nelly comments come from people who come home from work, close their garage door and they are simply in for the night. I know for one, I do not want to trade places with them for a minute.
“Fargo and other city officials now say they made some mistakes in designing Natomas. In retrospect, Fargo said, the city should have required developers to spread out the affordable housing, rather than building apartment complexes, many of them grouped near one another.”
Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
All one has to do is take a cursory glance at this area to know that the city requires VERY LITTLE of developers, except to jam in as many buildings as possible as fast as possible with a minimum amount of forethought.
You can offer all sorts of reasons why crime is on the rise, but you can’t deny that high-density housing is a dominant factor in the equation. Lower Income + Population Density = Higher Crime.
I guess this is one reason to be thankful that the economy’s in the tank — at least it’s slowed all the building.
North Natomas can still be something special, but right now it’s a lot of wasted potential.
Ultimately, I’m glad for the coverage (front page!) even though I sometimes fear that opportunistic criminals are also glad for the heads-up about slim police services out here. Paranoia aside, we’re on the map (i.e. The Bee) more consistently – and that helps for airing our grievances in hopes of finding support and solutions. And representatives quoted from our local associations, boards, etc. routinely come across as reasonable and articulate (not shrill). And this all keeps the local gov’t in check.
Perception can be everything: It’s up to us and our neighbors to define this area’s spirit lest any negative headlines define it for us. We are an awesome part of town with several smart, motivated, and civic-minded folks investing time and energy. That must be the rule for our community, not the exception. Only then will we and our fellow Sacramentans view poor overdevelopment and summer crime reports as secondary to this area’s primary feature: its wonderful and growing sense of community.
The first comment above is right, N. Natomas does have a good spirit, Natomas Park has a nice pool and club and many fine families in the community that are connected, the simple fact is we have had incompetent city leadership for years, Fargo and Tretheway have done big disservice to us all, to now claim that their housing policies were flawed is a real shame,what else have they screwed up?, hopefully she will be swept out of office. The excuse from city official’s is that N. Natomas grew too fast, and now there is little money to add the necessary features that will improve the community,(ie:1-2 cops for 75K people),hopefully in the years to come our community will look back and see these few short years as not indicative of how great we have become. The Bee should next do a series on schools and are they up to par in Natomas, what are the graduation rates?
All I thought while reading the article was one big “Duh! Does the Bee get it’s news from blogs?” It’s the same stuff we’ve been talking about here and other places for years…
Most of the comments are from the “I knew this would happen” point of view and it makes me sick. Unless you live in the area, you don’t know what a great place it really is. I feel like the Bee and the news only report on the bad. Perhaps all the attention will help. I emailed the councilman on Friday and he actually sent back an email that was not automated with his thoughts on how to address crime in the area. I was shocked (in a good way that I actually heard from him). Anyway, I just wish people would understand that this is a great place to live!
Hear! Hear!
At first my utopian ideals were all for the low cost housing, however, over the years it seems like the criminals and freeloaders seem to multiply in numbers vs.those who are truly in need.
Is it worth it to let 3 criminals into your community in order to help out one deserving family?
I guess it depends upon your tolerance level…