[ozone]

wburg, unfortunately maybe I am exposed to many “debbie downers” and I need to hang out with more positive people! I agree that we have traditionally suffered from being both too close and too far from a city like San Francisco. And I agree with you on Portland, which is Oregon's only real city. Not so much on Austin since Texas has a number of big cities -Houston is the fourth largest in the USA, Dallas (9th), and San Antonio (7th). Even still, I will concede that none would compare to either L.A. or San Francisco. However, I think you hit on our problem when you said, "...because they have established themselves as creative hubs, they keep that population instead of having them move quite so easily“. It is precisely because San Francisco and LA are such well-known commodities (not to mention incredibly expensive) that I think Sacramento now has the ability to become the ‘trendy’ alternative city in California. That is what is most frustrating to me. I see the incredible potential that Sacramento has and lament its lack of imagination and will.

As far as the idea of creating a new university at Railyards. 202_Cyclist I would not get too fixated on the headlines about the current financial state of affairs of the UC system. The UC system will survive and continue to grow. Moreover, I do not think UC Merced has much to do with Sacramento. UC Merced is for the San Joaquin Valley. Besides I was thinking that like UCSF’s new bio-technology campus at Mission Bay, a UC Sacramento could have a narrow academic focus, perhaps green technology, to provide its justification for existence.

I was thinking that it would be easier for the city to donate its property at the Railyards than it would be for private landowners to do so. Once the new intermodal station is completed, the historic train depot could be converted into UC Sacramento’s ‘nucleus’ and additional buildings be incorporated into and built around it. Additional property could be secured nearby for a R&D campus. Maybe in River District or that 240 acres you talked about. I could see the entire Railyards Project Area being built as a model for green urban infill with the help of the university. As you mentioned, one of benefit of building a university campus in the Railyards would the demand for housing for facility and students. Yes wburg I would like to hang-out and talk about it sometime. I think we agree far more than we disagree.

Because of the large numbers of renters (transient tenants), absentee landlords and non-resident business owners in the Central City there is less incentive for the shareholders to work for the amenities and make changes we need. So I am starting a meet-up group in the spring with the hope of bringing creative urban-oriented residents together in order to help identify what changes need to be made and come up with resident-generated solutions to the problems. I’ll be in Asia for most of February so I hope to start that up in March.