[wburg]

Originally Posted by BrianSac

Are you talking about the existing Railroad Museum in Old Sac? So, this year, there will be new track(s) that will go from the Old Sac museum to the two enormous tin shacks?

There is one "tin shack"--the wood-framed, corrugated steel Boiler Shop. The Erecting Shop is the brick building just east of the Boiler Shop, connected by a transfer table. And yes, the plan is that the new track alignment will be complete by September, which greatly simplifies getting stuff back and forth between the Railroad Museum and the Shops.

BTW, Those tin shacks look like Gigantic car repair body shops like the ones on Power Inn Road. Won't those gigantic body shops be out of scale and a bad fit for a multi-use residential neighborhood?

The shops are there right now. They would be a bad fit if you wanted to build buildings exactly like those in a neighborhood of small-lot single-family homes and small multi-unit homes, but for an expansion of downtown, they fit just perfectly. Little small-lot homes, like the kind found in Alkali Flat and surrounding neighborhoods, are just great where they are but they wouldn't fit well near the Shops. That's where we should be putting big and tall buildings.

When will the RTM be completely renovated? What type and how much public funds will be used to renovate it? How much revenue does the current Railroad museum contribute to the city? How much revenue will the RTM contribute to the city? How much public funds are used to maintain the current museum, and the future museum?

Don't know, I don't work there. Currently the Railroad Museum draws several hundred thousand visitors a year, including visitors from out of state and out of the country. The museum makes a profit.

Shouldn't we stop, think, re-assess weather we want the RTM? Will renovation of the RTM process be an open and transparent transaction. Shouldn't we reserve the right to stop it or at least have another meeting to see if this is what we really want?

Planning started in 1980, it was refocused on the Shops buildings about 10 years ago and there has been plenty of public process. They aren't asking the city for hundreds of millions of dollars in city support.

What exactly are they repairing, restoring, and maintaining and how often? What type of public funds and how much is being used to repair, restore and maintain whatever it is?

Railroad equipment, right-of-way, artifacts and vehicles, constantly. Most of the work is done by volunteers, most of the funds are generated by a private nonprofit.

Where will the pedestrian passageways go? To the current Depot and Old Sac, correct? The planned Arena would sit on top off these tunnels.

Go out there and look at them, they are under construction right now. The underground passageways would potentially be usable (assuming that the arena can design around it) but if the arena is in the most recent site there would not be a direct line-of-sight route from the train station to the tracks, as was shown in the earlier renderings and recommended by ULI.

Is this a brand new building? SRO - what demographic will live there and how much disposable income will they be able to contribute to the businesses in the area? Are public funds being used to pay for it? Will public funds be used to subsidize tenants rent.

Folks making under $18,000 a year. Generally these are folks without cars, so as long as there are businesses nearby that supply their needs, 100% of their disposable income goes to businesses in the immediate neighborhood. It's also the income demographic of folks who work at places like downtown's many sandwich shops and small retail stores, so this housing would give them very convenient access from home to work.

What kind of housing and what demographic will likely be able to afford this housing? Will there be public meetings and workshops to decide what exactly is built?........they already started construction, correct?

Folks working for minimum wage, and folks who might otherwise be sleeping on the street because there is no other housing they can afford. There were already public meetings to decide what would be built--sorry if you missed them.

One thing to note is that this 150 units takes care of the "low-income housing" requirements for the first 1000 units of housing in the Railyards--which means the next 850 can be market rate.

Who would pay for this? Would public funds be used? How often would events be held (once, twice a year). How much revenue would they generate for the city? Where would people park? Wouldn't it generate gridlock on downtown streets?

Whoever wanted to promote them, I suppose. Downtown Partnership would be a likely choice--they turned Concerts in the Park into a profitable event (even though the concerts themselves are free) using beer sales and sponsorships. The location of the Shops buildings north of downtown would actually distribute traffic north through North 7th to Richards, rather than all being focused on J Street/I Street.

I agree.

Despite your vision which seems ok to me, NOTHING is planned, and NOBODY wants to invest other than AEG, -59 Million, plus profits; MALOOFS-75 million, plus profits; NBA & AEG- are proven entertainment money makers.

I'd go talk to Inland about that, since they're the ones who own the land--and part of the reason why no other ideas have really made the papers is because it's been "all arena, all the time" for the past year.

Oh yeah--how many of AEG or the Maloofs' borrowed money is going towards specific things that will happen in the Shops buildings this year or next? Answer: None, it's for the arena, which is a separate project.

But speaking of the Maloofs' money: They're borrowing the $75 million and refinancing their existing loan, probably rolling both into one with the city playing the same role as the party who gets stuck paying if the Maloofs can't. But the security against the existing loan is Arco Arena, which will be demolished by the time the new arena opens. So what is their collateral for the loan?