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| Rob's Soapbox | ||
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Congratulations!
You have finally landed on the one page on this entire site (and on the entire internet for that matter) that is purely without bullshit... my soapbox page. There are a lot of times during our show that, whether it's because of time constraints and other obligations, I don't always get to address some issues that I feel don't get the attention they deserve. There are even more times when I just don't feel like waiting until the show the next day to get some things off my chest. Thus, I have started the "Rob's Soapbox" page. If you have clicked on this page looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else. If you are in search of the last forum for reason and common sense left in the world, then sit back, relax, and enjoy. I make only one promise with this soapbox page... if you read long enough and often enough, you will eventually be offended. So here's my latest soapbox. Listen up, 'cause you just might learn something... |
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November 26th, 2007 SACRAMENTO: A GREAT PLACE TO LEAVE My wife and I hosted a dinner party recently at which there were about a dozen of us, all of whom currently reside in California’s capitol city of Sacramento. Three of the attendees, including my wife, were raised and/or spent most of their lives in Sacramento. Three of us, including me, were raised and/or spent a couple of decades living in the Bay Area prior to winding up in Sacramento and everyone else had lived throughout America, literally everywhere from the Eastern seaboard to the deep south and everywhere in between. All of us could agree on one thing; Sacramento is unique in a variety of negative ways. I have written before about all that Sacramento fails to offer, and have, for the most part received overwhelming agreement and support. There are of course, a few people who are so attached to the region in which they live that they actually get offended by my opinion (which is odd since truly confident and happy people aren’t offended by others’ opinions of their choices…but I digress). Those people generally say stupid things like “well if it’s so bad, leave,” which I have addressed before in previous columns. The basic answer (shortened here for space purposes) is that we will leave as soon as it’s right to do so personally and professionally. Those of you who are actually upset and offended by my disdain for the Sacramento area can find solace in the fact that I guarantee you that there is no way on God’s green Earth that I will be here forever. Perhaps we can agree on one thing; both you and I feel that I can’t get out of town soon enough. Kumbuya. The thing that is most stunning about how bad Sacramento is, is that there seems to be no shortage of agreement on the subject. Sacramento has, apparently, become a clearing house for people who “have” to live here, not many who actually want to live here. Sacramento boomed in the 1990s as a more affordable alternative to the Bay Area and a way for people to still live in California. In other words, many people moved here because it was the only way they could afford to still live in one of the best states in America. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t realize that Sacramento is a desolate wasteland in the middle of a beautiful mirage. People who moved here under the affordability premise hoped and believed that Sacramento would morph into an extension of the Bay Area, or that at the very least living in Sacramento would provide some sort of quiet, suburban existence in the shadow of the Bay Area, believing that they would still be able to easily drive and visit their favorite parts of California. In true moments of desperation they even said silly things like “well it’s closer to the mountains.” It is funny how our minds screw with us when we’re trying to talk ourselves into things, isn’t it? Others, like most of the people at the dinner party, came to Sacramento for an opportunity to advance their careers, knowing full well that they had no intention of spending the rest of their waking years in the area. In some cases, people like me had an additional advantage, because I already know how lame, boring and crappy Sacramento was. One thing that struck me as the conversation worked itself around the table was that while everyone had their own legitimate, unique complaints about the area (and there was no shortage of them) ranging from the lack of fine dining to the lack of activities and culture, there was one overwhelming aspect we could all agree on that is absolutely true about Sacramento; the people are rotten. Mean, rude, unpleasant, lazy, and apathetic were the five favorite adjectives agreed upon to describe the majority of people in the area. Since all of us had such wide ranging experiences and viewpoints, gleaned from travels circumnavigating America, it was profoundly profound to discover that we unanimously agreed that in every area, ranging from customer service to neighbors to bosses to drivers, it seems as though the preponderance of people in this area are unhappy, vindictive, nasty individuals who rise every morning with the goal of making everyone else’s lives as miserable as theirs. Thus began the “chicken and egg” argument as to whether or not nasty people are drawn to the area versus the area making people become nasty. I lean towards the latter, since I have seen a variety of changes in not just my behavior, but that of other people I have known before arriving in the area, and in every case it seems as though we become part of “the collective,” and begin to emulate the behavior we see acted out around us. Regardless of which side you choose in the chicken/egg debate as it relates to the Sacramento area, one thing seems to be clear; the area sucks, most people would like to leave it and the longer a person is stuck here, the more surly they become. As we tried to lighten the mood, we began to discuss possible slogans for the entire area. At some point, I offered the title of this column as a new welcoming sign; Sacramento: A great place to leave. Others submitted that many of us came to the area with the completely overt goal of leaving it at some point but because of the environment the time spent here has seemed to last forever. Thus came my second favorite submission for an area slogan; Sacramento: Where temporary feels like forever. The following morning, my father, who had been present at the dinner party and was the only non-resident of the region (he still lives in the Bay Area where I grew up), asked me about the conversation. Specifically, he wanted to know if it was “really that bad,” and expressed a little shock at the venom that came from all sides of the table as basically everyone piled on the area so that we could all tell stories about how awful it is. Having grown up where my dad has lived for almost 40 years now, I used the Bay Area as an example. In any area, there are, of course, complaints. In the Bay Area it has been for almost always, the traffic. In Southern California there are consistent complaints about the traffic, the crime and the smog. In Seattle, people complain about the 300 days per year without sun. Las Vegas resident generally complain about the oppressive heat and the constant, non stop barrage of tourists infiltrating their space. The difference, however, between these cities and their residents’ individual complaints as compared to the Sacramento area, is stark for a couple of dramatic reasons. For starters, the Sacramento area has all of the above complaints and more. The traffic in the area is not only embarrassingly bad, there is absolutely no plan in place to address the problem coherently anytime in the future. Old Town Sacramento and downtown, for that matter, have become havens for crime, gangs and a putrid blight on the entire state. Our rivers are brown. We have a variety of weather complaints from all corners (too much rain when it rains, too much heat in the summer, etc). The only complaint mentioned in earlier city examples that Sacramento doesn’t have is that of tourism, and that’s because no one in their right mind wants to be here. The second and more glaring deficiency about Sacramento is the lack of counter balance. In almost all other cities in America, there are things about the region that offset the complaints. In the Bay Area, people bitch about the traffic but they know that once they drive 40 minutes in any direction, they will have arrived in a fantastic place with myriad things to do. Whether it’s a day in San Francisco, a professional ball game, a major concert (on a weekend night),The Pacific Ocean, a festival done correctly, a museum worth visiting or premiere shopping, everything you want and more is all within 40 minutes of wherever you live in the Bay Area. In Sacramento, the understanding is that if you want anything to do, you have to drive 90 minutes just to find it, either in the mountains or in, you guessed it, the Bay Area. In all of the cities exampled above, there is no shortage of positive choices when it comes to places to live, things to do, and offsetting positives that belay the negative aspects of the area. In Sacramento, it’s all negative all the time. No wonder the people are so nasty and vile. Maybe that’s the slogan we should settle on; Sacramento: filled with nasty, vile people. If you stay long enough, you’ll become one too!
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