Sacramento: A Portrait of California's Mid-Size City

I recently spent a day and a half in California’s Capitol, Sacramento, on a road trip throughout Northern California. I was impressed by how urban Sacramento has become, especially since the last time I visited about 15 years ago. There is continuous walkable urbanity from Midtown to Downtown and the Waterfront. There have also been many urban renewal projects over the past two decades.

Sacramento feels a bit like a Midwestern or Southern river city, like St Louis or Memphis, transplanted in California. The Old Town district along the Sacramento River is especially charming, and I was surprised to hear seals that far inland.

Sacramento’s appeal is its balance, as it has enough urban amenities without the hustle and bustle of LA and the Bay Area. Sacramento is California’s only decent midsize city besides San Diego, which is very expensive. The added appeal is Sacramento’s proximity to the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe.

Sacramento still has a strong middle class, in contrast with the very expensive and unequal Bay Area and SoCal, or impoverished Central Valley cities like Stockton, Fresno, and Bakersfield. Sacramento has been attracting a lot of remote workers from the Bay Area, and achieving a more trendy and cosmopolitan reputation. However, there is also growing homelessness in Downtown Sacramento, though not as bad as Downtown LA or San Francisco.

Sacramento Metro Demographics

source: www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer

Time Magazine declared Sacramento America’s most diverse city in 2002 . Today the City of Sacramento is 30.29% non-Hispanic White, 12.58% Black, 19.47% Asian, 28.81% Hispanic, and 6.13% mixed race, though the metro is 48% White. Basically, no demographic group feels dominant. Sacramento has also been attracting a lot of Afghan, Ukrainian, and Russian immigrants and refugees, alongside immigrant communities from Mexico, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Laos.

Sacramento is diverse in the true sense that every group is represented from middle class White families to gays and hipsters, and many different immigrant groups. LA and and the Bay Area pushed out their White middle class, but they seem to be thriving in the Sacramento metro. Sacramento’s suburbs of Folsom, Roseville, Rocklin, and Eldorado Hills have a reputation as NorCal’s White flight zone. While I picked up a bit of a hick lib vibe, you also notice a decent amount of Trump signs and bumpers sticks, which you don’t in the Bay Area or LA.

source: fivethirtyeight.com

Sacramento is not just diverse but is one of the most integrated major US cities which seems contradictory to the trend of enclavism in California, especially in LA and the Bay Area. Certainly, my views on enclavism are heavily shaped by growing up in LA. While I favor enclavism over integration, it will be interesting to see which model wins out in California’s future.