Author Archives: Phil Pluckebaum

About Phil Pluckebaum

Phil is just a local community organizer and neighborhood advocate with a dream. A dream that one day all people will have representative government that is responsive to their actual needs and not just the whims of their elected representatives. Phil has tilted at local windmills for nearly a decade and while he’s made lots of great friends, in actuality, he’s accomplished very little. So he’s cranky. So cranky in fact he’s teamed up with some other cranks…uh, he means to say “notable personalities”…to produce Sacramento Current. When he’s not coaching his son’s soccer team or rock climbing, Phil is currently serving as the President of the River Park Neighborhood Association. He’s also wasted his time…he means “served as”…Vice Chair of the SCUSD Bond Oversight Committee, At Large Member of the Sacramento Redistricting Citizens Advisory Committee, Chair of the Sacramento Comprehensive High School Coalition, Vice President of the Caleb Greenwood Site Council, and Founding Member of Save Sacramento’s Parks.

Who’s your favorite Avenger?

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I finally got around to seeing the Avengers yesterday with my son Jacob. Like many of you, we have periodic and passionate debates as to which superhero is best. I’m partial to Iron Man. That may be because I still have issues #30-300 in my garage from when I was Jacob’s age, but my view of Tony Stark has soured somewhat with age. In preparation for the Avengers, I finally let Jake watch the TV edited versions of Iron Man I & II (I don’t mind the action but he’s not ready for the adult themed sexual innuendo yet), but I still had to preface the movie for him. “Jake” I said “I’m going to let you watch this, and you’re going to think Tony Stark is awesome, but remember he’s not and we can discuss it after the movie.” Iron Man’s appeal is obvious. His super power is brilliance coupled with obscene wealth (something which we could delude ourselves into believing are possible for ourselves). To my relief my little genius didn’t need much leading to see the same flaws in Tony that have been highlighted over the past 49 years (isolation, alcoholism, etc.). We both agreed the Hulk is cool and funny. Although Jake preferred the Ed Norton version, I was pleasantly surprised by Mark Ruffalo’s interpretation. When pressed, Jake and I both would put Spiderman in our top three. He’s smart, funny, altruistic, and didn’t seek power, but gained it by accident (unlike Iron Man). But both of us were supprised by the power of Nick Furry, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) an international peace keeping agency as played by Samuel Jackson (perennial bad ass mutha…).

What power is Nick Fury’s power your ask? I’m glad you did. Fury, despite (or perhaps because of depending on how cynical you are) being a Machiavellian people user has the power to inspire individuals to act collectivly for a common purpose. Okay, so that’s not nearly a cool as flying or x-ray vision, but if the Avengers proved nothing (and it probably didn’t) it was that we are stronger when we work together no matter how weak or strong we are individually. That means it’s to the benefit of the strongest (wealthiest, smartest, etc.) among us to collaborate with the rest, and this is a lesson the 1% could use now more than ever.

So yes, my adult self is a fan of the bureaucrat in the movie. And yes I still think Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark is far more entertaining. But when you ask me who’s the best super hero? Who would I call on in a time of crisis? I’d call on the ordinary guy with an extraordinary capacity to lead.

Why Portland Kicks Sacramento’s Ass and What We Can Do About It

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Standard Podcast [ 23:09 ] Play Now | Download

I was hoping to have this up yesterday, but c’est la vie. For now here’s an interview I did June 7th with Noah Wilkinson. Noah is a former Sacramentan who moved to Portland in 2008. He shares his perspective on the pros and cons of these twin cities and gives us some ideas as to how we can make Sacramento better.

Portlandia

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I’ve been hearing for years how Portland is so great. They have superior transit, multiple river crossings, and they embrace food trucks. Hell, for better or worse, we even recruited Ray Kerridge from Portland. They even have their own show on IFC for Christ’s sake! Well I’m sick of it. I’m going to see for myself. How great can it really be? And how should we decide? What are the most meaningful metrics for city desirability? Let me know what you think. I’m going to see for myself.

How the arena has killed our pools

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A couple months back when I first heard about the Save Our Pools program that City Parks Director Jim Combs developed, I was impressed. There are almost 500,000 people in our City so it would only take a $1 per person ($5 for family of five) and we’d get to keep six regional pools open this summer. This is exactly the kind of innovative public-private partnership that we’re always wishing for and this one looked like it could work. So why hasn’t it?

There are a lot of reasons why a person might not donate, but what has me really worried is that the folks who otherwise would’ve donated are choosing not to because of the arena. Because our Council is engaged in what appears to be a huge publicly funded subsidy to professional sports and entertainment corporations civic minded citizens who volunteer regularly and give to worth causes liberally are holding back. And can you blame them? Last week Sacramento Current produced a segment called Fix This First where we asked the question “What’s more important than an arena?”. It turns out, not pools.

Confessions of a non-sports guy

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I have a confession to make; I’m not a sports guy. There I said it! Don’t get me wrong I enjoy sports. I’m just not fanatical about them. Like many of us, I played soccer and baseball as a kid, but I think I was more interested in the dugout and halftime snacks than the scores. I even made the varsity football team in high school, but I was more of a practicer than a player. What sports gave me was a love for and understanding of games and teams. So once a year I watch the obligatory Super Bowl and can comment without sounding like a complete idiot (even though I rarely know who’s playing and couldn’t tell you a players name for my life).

You know what I really like? Jobs. I really really like jobs. And the arts too. And not just the popular ones (you know who I’m talking about). I really like seeing and hearing what creative people do (not being particularly creative myself either. See my upcoming post “Confession of a non-creative guy”. Even my titles are uncreative.) I like jobs so much that I’d support just about any project that could bring more jobs to our fair City, but I have serious concerns about the current plan to build a Sports Entertainment Complex (SEC? or is it Entertainment Sports Complex? ESC? either way, it needs a better acronym). In his Washington Post column, Norman Chad argues that no arena pays for itself (and at least he’s funny about it) and hot off the Freakonomics webpage, Dave Berri (not to be confused with the much funnier Dave Barry) makes the case that this arena/SEC/ESC deal is not about jobs.

If the experts and economists are right, and this deal is a loser, why is the City Council going along with it? What do we have to lose? Among other things (like possibly the Kings and millions of the City’s dollars), I would say this is, in part, about pride, both personal and civic. Obviously lots of people have put a lot of time, political capital and actual capital into this effort and they’d all like to have something to show for it. But the City and the region have a sense of investment here too. They’ve supported the Kings all those years they didn’t win. They’ve put up with all this back and forth reporting on arena deals and tax measures and land swaps. They’ve been told they’re not world class and even if you don’t want to be world class (which would mean increasing in size several times over), that still kinda hurts. So like hell they’re going to let the Kings leave no matter what the cost!

This deal is a fork in the road for Sacramento. Do we want to continue to live beyond our means and try to be something we’re not, or do we want to be the best City we can be with the population, natural resources and tax base we’ve got? We’ve already made cuts to the police, fire, library, and parks departments. Hell, we’re trying to keep our pools open by shopping at SaveMart (please shop at SaveMart!), and our City’s budget is not likely to get better anytime soon. Channeling my inner Mike Barnbaum and paraphrasing the immortal words of Meatloaf, “I’d do anything for jobs, but I won’t do that. No, I won’t do that!”