Last Frontier

I should’ve spent every waking hour last week dissecting the latest Kings arena deal. All those hundreds of pages—in a perfect world I’d let the people know the facts, maybe change minds before the city council vote. Or at least get people saying, as one local blogger wrote, “Yeah, this could be a financial mess, but boy, I really want to keep the Kings in town.”

But the more I chatted with friends, the more I realized there is no longer reason. One guy even posted on my Twitter page, “Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown.”

So, I flew to Alaska.

Alaska has its own unique political dysfunction. It's a place where, for instance, people see melting glaciers and a receding snowpack right before their eyes, yet reject the idea of climate change.

Politicians run with this. A tea-party candidate vying for U.S. Senate accused his adversaries of being global-warming sympathizers, demanding that they “come clean with voters” about their support for the man-made climate change “agenda.”

Equally loony observations from the Last Frontier: Every political ad on TV is about building more pipeline, and the people eat friggin' reindeer.

The take-home? Everywhere has its special brand of crazy and denial.

Here in Sacramento, it's definitely City Hall's commitment to revitalizing downtown without investing in housing. Over the past two decades, we've thrown hundreds of millions at redevelopment projects, hotels, Mexican restaurants, mermaid bars, water fountains and cosmopolitan theaters. Now, we're gazillioning-down on a $370 million arena investment. There are no guarantees for more downtown development. Neither is there a promise of significant fiscal return to offset our $22 million annual debt obligation.

Can't you see those glaciers melting?