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The journalism thing. Again.

Our regular readers know we have regularly reported on our community's invisibility. That problem is usually abetted by the local Media's failure to understand us. We get to write about it again now, but this time for a totally odd reason. You see, CBS13 did a story on June 26th in which Arden Arcade was identified as "a city east of Sacramento, across the American River". A city! No, it's not April Fool's or The Onion. They think we are a city! Where did they get that information? Well, from our UnMayor's Office down at our UnCity Hall, obviously. Yup. #ROTFLMAO

The CBS story in which Arden Arcade was called a city followed a story they aired on April 13th in which they relayed information from the City of Sacramento Police about people who were shot in a car in "the Arden-Arcade area". We don't know what the City of Sacramento Police were doing speaking about a crime that happened in the jurisdiction of the Sacramento County Sheriff. Sometime between that April 13th event and June 26th, Arden Arcade became a city? An alert Nextdoor user saw that and contacrted our newsroom. UPDATE - Someone at CBS13 must have gotten wind of their error. It was been edited out as we were writing this post. Oh, wait, does that mean they have access to our keystrokes? OMG!!

Um...Last Friday we were going to post a story about The Bee's ridiculous characterizations of local communities. But that was the day the news about the U.S. Supreme Court decision broke. There was no way our story could have survived all the noise (or should have). So we sat on it. Until today, when CBS13's sillyness got our attention. Too bad it was done as part of a crime story - you know, like the snide "Arcade sounds like a shooting gallery" comment flung around by the anti-cityhood people in 2010. The CBS13 gaffe reminded us to speak of The Bee's nonsense as well.

May contain: map, diagram, and plot
Dear Media: This is us. Sincerely, Arden Arcade

So, here's a summary of what the Bee said in it's real estate story last Friday:

  • Arden Arcade - An unincorporated suburb west of Watt. It has a lot of good stuff east of Watt. It has good San Juan schools. People who live in Arcade complain about bad municipal services.
  • Carmichael - Where it's at for families. It has the best San Juan schools, including the high school in Arden Arcade that's not in Arden Arcade because it is east of Watt. It also has the American River Parkway, which Arden Arcade doesn't except where it does.
  • Fair Oaks - Chickens!! And the best part of the American River Parkway because it has an old bridge
  • Orangevale - 1st time home-buyers love it's cheap housing that costs $100K more than houses in Arden Arcade. Also, 3/4 of the residents are white people.
  • North Highlands - even cheaper housing than Arden Arcade! But crime. And Watt Avenue is shabby.
  • Rosemont - Young professionals buy cost-effective homes there. It gets municipal services from Sac County, but too bad it is in the Sac City School District.

We're not kidding, folks They wrote those things. You can check our work by looking up The Bee's story in their archives at "Your homebuyer GPS: What neighborhood is right for you", Sacramento Bee, June 24, 2022. When you combine The Bee's bizarre explanations with CBS13's utterly inaccurate characterization, you can easily understand that journalism today isn't quite the same as it used to be. {...sigh...}

 

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