MAY WRITING CHALLENGE
Sacramento, California: My Golden Hometown
A look at the history and other highlights in a city I spent most of my life in
Gold basically created my hometown
Sacramento, California. The capital and sixth largest city in the most populated state in the United States. California is nicknamed the Golden State. That is mainly because of the Gold Rush that started in the 1840s that led to a large population boom in the state but also in the city close to where that discovery first started. Sacramento.
The city was founded in 1839 by John Sutter. He found gold in the hills near Sacramento. Well at least, he and his men had discovered gold here along the American River. The city itself is at the confluence of that river and the Sacramento River. It was once named the second-most flood-prone city in the United States because of the levee system on the rivers and Folsom Lake.
Thank goodness for the levees and the dams protecting a large metro area
The Folsom Dam to the northeast of the city on the American River and Folsom Lake protects all of that water from toppling over and spilling into the city of over 500,000 people and the county and metro area of around 2.5 million people below. It is the 26th most populated metro in the US, just ahead of the Pittsburgh area.
By the way, in that study, the most flood-prone city had already experienced major flooding in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, New Orleans is tops on this list so that tells you how close to disaster my hometown is.
Sunshine and hot summers
Aside from the fact that the city is prone to flooding, especially during the rainy and stormy winter months, the area gets sunshine about 78 percent of the time. That number of sunshine ranks 10th among all metro areas in the United States.
The summers can be pretty brutal too with temperatures frequently hovering over 100 degrees, sometimes floating into the 110-degree range. I remember once as a kid when the mercury topped 100 degrees for nearly three weeks straight in July.
If you have air conditioning, that’s fine, but if you’re someone living in poverty in the city, you’ll be sweltering in that heat. I remember one summer all we had in our apartment was a fan to keep us cool. That was not a pleasant summer at all.
Diversity and growing up around different groups of people
The city, aside from its weather, also has a diverse population. It is also one of the more integrated cities in the country with a lot of its population living together as opposed to in segregated and dedicated neighborhoods as in major cities like Miami, New York City, and Chicago.
In fact, there was a list one year that had Sacramento as the most integrated city in the United States. I saw this firsthand growing up as I went to school near the edge of the city limits and a lot of the kids I went to school with spoke either more than one language at home or just a foreign language. At my high school, there were over 70 languages spoken other than English in the household.
Demographic stats and the food is also diverse
According to the recent demographics from the last census, the population is 43.5% White (32.0% of which is White alone with no other mix), 28.3% Hispanic, 19.3% Asian, 13.5% African-American, 9.6% Two or more races, 1.74% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 0.73% Native American. That should paint a picture to you of how diverse the city is.
This diversity can be seen in the food scene as there are many different types of restaurants in the city. Anywhere from Ethiopian, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, and many others.
For a city as diverse as Sacramento though, I always remember being slightly disappointed as to how small the Chinatown was in the city, with only a small few blocks stretched out on Broadway, dedicated to that culture. I always remember San Francisco’s section of the town being so much bigger and more impactful than the one in my hometown.
Sacramento is a tourist haven and one of the most visited cities in California because of its history and is the center of government
Sacramento is home to the State Capitol of California, the Governor’s Mansion, Sutter’s Fort, Discovery Park, Crocker Art Museum, Tower Bridge, Golden 1 Center (home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings), and Old Sacramento, among many other historical sites. Sacramento, since it is the capital of California, is in the top 5 visited cities in California, coming in at about 25 million visitors per year. The area generates about $2.1 billion dollars a year in revenue.
If you like sunshine, the outdoors, history, and entertainment, a visit to my hometown of Sacramento is definitely in your future. Come see for yourself the many “golden” reasons to come to the city that’s the center of government in the third-largest country’s most populated state.
