The Bee's cover story today was a sort of shocking (...not really, at least not to us) exposé about the horrible roads and lack of pedestrian safety hereabouts. It reminded us of their similarly sensational article in June 2023, an editorial in July 2023 and an opinion piece in June 2024, among others. Still, let's try to give a little credit where it might be due. The article entitled "Cross a Danger Zone" begins by asking, "What can be done the protect SACRAMENTO pedestrians imperiled?" That implies the story is about unsafe roads in the City of Sacramento, not the ones in our community.  But it then goes on to discuss pedestrian safety at two specific locations in the UNINCORPORATED area: Sunset Avenue in Fair Oaks and Walerga Road in North Highlands. In other words, the article discussed dangerous roadways that are Sacramento COUNTY's responsibility, making it pretty clear the problem is in the County's lap. It spoke to the County's failure to do anything about the problems. Well, good, that's appropriate.

Pointing the finger isn't really enough, though. The article mentions lack of sidewalks , a car-oriented policy set that just aims to solve vehicular traffic problems, and the expense of new easements. But that's about it. No ink was wasted discussing the unincorporated area's dumb land use pattern,  lack of traffic enforcement (CHP, we're talking to you), inadequate transit service, missing or unsafe sidewalks and unprotected bike lanes - issues we have highlighted here in our website. And, forgive our choice of words, but the problem of streets without sidewalks in our community is "target rich". Consider the three decades it took to get a sidewalk along the north side of Cottage, the dysfunctionality of the "sidewalk" at Arden and Fulton, the missing sidewalk on Wyda, the dangerous lack of protection for Auburn Blvd. pedestrians from vehicles that mow down the chain link fence along the Business 80 freeway, blahblahblah on and on to infinity and beyond.

As long as the Board of Supervisors reigns supreme, we don't foresee any changes to our community's transit, pedestrian, and bicycle unfriendliness. The only practical way to get around here is with a car. Our paved roads alone are way behind the 8-ball, with a $1.4 BILLION roadway maintenance backlog. The County can talk about its promotion of "Active Transportation", but the reality is that the road maintenance backlog is a strong indication that safe sidewalks and safe bikeways fall into the category of pipe dreams. Cities can have these kinds of problems, too. But they have tools and motivation to address the problems in ways counties cannot or don't want to use. That's why cities like Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, for example, are able to improve their streets, sidewalks, bike trails, neighborhoods and downtowns. We're not a city. We don't have a Mayor and a City Council to focus on local priorities. We're just part of Sacramento County's vast, invisible, unincorporated UnCity. We can't have nice things - like safe streets.