Does a Goodwill bring good will?

North Natomas is all a buzz about the possibility of a Goodwill taking over the Borders location in Park Place. You can read the tension on Natomas Buzz and Joe Sacramento. People are either against the Goodwill or against people that are against the Goodwill. I've seen very few arguments that are encompassing a positive argument for why a Goodwill is really what North Natomas needs. Calling names, calling us "haters" because we didn't sign up to live next to a thrift store is not productive.

My thoughts from my comments on Joe Sacramento with some additions:

The Goodwill in North Natomas fills a need that is temporary. Sure, the economy is in decline. But when the economy turns around, our neighborhood will not make the same increase if we have fallen apart. I didn't sign up 10 years ago to live next to a thrift store. Supposedly, I was getting a mixed use, neighborhood commercial center that was fully walkable and family friendly. That didn't happen. But I'm not willing to settle and say "It's not walkable, so let's just throw in whatever fits the building." I bought my house on a promise that the City would fulfill a beautiful community plan. If I were opposed to diversity, I wouldn't have bought here- we'd be in Granite Bay. This isn't about diversity. It's about reality of economics. When you swamp an area with low-income housing to meet an arbitrary percentage, you defeat the purpose of mixed residential.

I would like to see a traffic impact study done. Goodwill will no doubt increase the traffic in our neighborhood. I can't imagine that the donations pouring in will amount to the same traffic as one Borders delivery truck. North Bend was not designed to be a retail route. If people start driving in and out that way, the entire neighborhood (including the elementary school) will be impacted. The increased traffic on Natomas Blvd will also be difficult, considering before and after the high school days are already a nightmare.

Goodwill is not the best we can do. It's better than the Dollar Store idea. But I'm very concerned how a change will impact the other tenants in the center. Adding one Goodwill and losing 5 locally owned businesses as a result, is a major problem. I don't think we could stand to lose Jacks, Dinner My Way, Strings, Mathnasium, Big Spoon etc. in that center because people are either afraid (rightfully or not) to shop there, or because the new clientele attracted doesn't have the cash. Sorry- few will convince me that folks will go to Goodwill after work, do a little shopping and then drop $40 at Strings for dinner very often. Highly unlikely the same clients buy fancy shoes from the Shoes N Feet, get frozen dinners or for a week at Dinner My Way. One retailer can change the entire dynamic of a center.

People all over Natomas need to grow up, stop slinging mud and stand up for what we all committed to either 10 years ago or 30. If you're in South Natomas, you have just as much right to be mad at the City. But it's time to DO SOMETHING. Don't just complain that everyone in North Natomas is whining. We all bought into an idea of a community near downtown, close to the airport, with great schools, nice parks and high quality community activities. I don't think you can find one person here who said "Hey I think I'll rent a crappy apartment in a bad school district where the city lies to me, the parks are covered with graffiti and I'm afraid to go shopping." Not one person chose to live here saying that.

New excitement for Natomas and North Sacramento areas

Why do Roseville and Elk Grove always get to have the fun? They get the best kid stuff, the new restaurants and all the buzz for families. Well it's about time we had something fun of our own!

Funtastic Play Center has opened in Natomas! On Gateway Park Blvd right near KidsPark, you'll find a new indoor play center with soft foam for climbing, slides and more. It's designed for kids under 8 but the pictures look more like kids under 6 will enjoy it the most.

What's in it for you? A chance to hang out while the kids play and you can catch up with your friends while they run around. The Elk Grove location has wi-fi and espresso but I can't tell if Natomas does. I'll let you know after we visit.

To the young girl who left her baby with a stranger at a Natomas bus stop (and a thought on sex ed)

I know there's probably no way you're reading this but on the off chance you are, thank you. Thank you for realizing that you may not be ready to be a mom. Thank you for choosing a young woman at a local bus stop who looked like she might care. You may have even seen her before and thought she was nice. Thank you for not leaving your baby in a dumpster or in your closet. You are a good mom because you did what was best for your baby. That's all a mom can do.

Now... why exactly did this girl leave her baby at the bus stop? We don't really know but I'll venture a guess... she didn't know any better. The paper and the news are falling all over themselves trying to condemn this young girl because we have a "safe haven" law. Seriously, if you know a kid between 12 and 18 ask them what you do if you have a baby you don't want to keep? I'd venture to guess not one of them will say 'Oh it's easy, you just take it to a fire station and nobody will ask any questions.' And even if they do know, they don't actually believe that nobody will ask them anything. Heck I don't even believe it after reading the brochure.

They don't know because it's not part of the class. I taught 8th grade sex ed for 2 years at a local middle school. We don't discuss the save haven law because you certainly wouldn't want to encourage teens to abandon their babies. It's kind of the same backwards theory about only teaching abstinence- if you tell them about sex, they might want to try it- so don't tell. Sure we have old drawings of body parts and how it works. Once, we even taught them how to put a condom on... until some parents had a fit and it had to be removed from the curriculum. We covered STDs but not pregnancy and certainly not what to do afterward.

So if the young girl is about 16... she was probably 14 or 15 when she got pregnant. She is probably a freshman in high school. So I'm venturing a guess that the sex ed curriculum she had was the same as I taught. She never knew about any safe haven law. If you've ever actually had a baby of your own, you know that those 24 hours after delivery are full of panic and apprehension, even in the most planned pregnancy situations.

She found her own safe haven.

Bear with me while I make a huge leap here. Recently I've been watching The Truth About Food on Discovery Health. Last night I watched an episode with what I call "The Raisin Test." If you restrict a certain food but leave it visible, children crave it to the point of actually pushing and shoving to get at it when it's allowed. Even if it's only raisins.

Sex to 16 year olds is raisins. If you forbid it, make it mysterious and magical, they will crave it and push and shove to get it. Are we doing our kids any favors by forbidding raisins? Are we doing them any favors by refusing to teach them actual scientific information about their bodies and allowing them opportunities to talk about the pressures they feel in life?

To the young girl in Natomas... I wouldn't turn myself in either.

Natomas School Board, are you nuts?

Dear Natomas Unified School Board:

Have you lost your minds? Did all that "no child left behind" stuff confuse you so badly that paying $24 million for land you don't need seemed like a good plan? Perhaps there is campaign cash falling into pockets that we won't know about for weeks or months to come. Perhaps there is a recall heading your way. We're tired of failing schools, failing students, security concerns and a board that can't count it's own cash. See you at the polls.
Sincerely,
Concerned Natomas resident


For those of you just catching up, the Natomas Unified School Board just purchased farmland for $24.7 million based on a hypothetical appraisal of land value. The lawyer on the deal double ended the purchase, representing the district and the seller (who happens to be Tsakopoulos). Somehow none of this information ended up in front of the school board before it made the decision to purchase the land at the outrageous price of 3 times the going rate for land in the immediate area. The appraiser instead, used numbers based on the land being annexed into the city, which is not on the long or short-range plan. Basically, he made the whole thing up. Nice work.- how do I get that job?

Dr. Ferrar, you are the superintendent of the district and supposed to be the one asking questions. How did you not realize that the lawyer and law firm on both sides were the same? Did it somehow sneak by you on the paperwork? Did you not have district employees do their own due diligence before signing off on the deal? What is going on over at that huge district office that a land deal somehow didn't get checked and double-checked?

This is not the first time the district has suffered a major oops. The district continues to state that enrollment is "falling" in the area. In numerous rumors throughout teachers and those "in the know" in the district, this is simply a spin to leave out the fact that the enrollment projections were miscalculated in the first place. A portion of the active-adult community of Heritage Park is in the Natomas Unified boundaries. No children are allowed to reside in these houses and therefore, there are no students. However, rumors persist that the district didn't count this in the enrollment projections and is now short about 2500 students. Many believe this is the reason for the delay in Heron Elementary opening, as well as the lack of need for this new land.

What a mess. Thank you to the Bee for picking up the story and realizing that the Natomas Unified board has some serious questions to answer. They'd better move fast, elections are coming soon.