5 Things That Surprised Me About Sacramento
It's a California city that's working. Why aren't more people paying attention?
Odds and Ends:
Sometimes I feel like I’m writing into a void (anyone out there?) and so it is gratifying when I hear back from readers — even if to offer a counterpoint to my ideas. The Philadelphia School District wrote its own op-ed in response to my “abundance for schools” piece. While the District’s piece did not really address my suggestion of partnering with developers to build housing and co-locate community needs on the same site as new schools, I’m happy my piece started a conversation!
I really enjoyed this podcast with Ryan Avent and Timothy B. Lee that revisits a 16-year old bet on autonomous vehicles. I’ve been listening to AI Summer for a while and it’s a good one if you want to hear people talk thoughtfully and casually about AI. I’m also glad to see Ryan’s back publishing his writing again.
I was in Sacramento last week. I’d never been before, but I really liked it! As you might expect, I went into a deep dive on the city. Here are five quick takeaways from my trip:
Sacramento, and its surrounding region, are growing
While most of California has seen declining or stagnant population, Sacramento is growing. According to Placer.ai’s analysis in a piece called Sacramento’s Quiet Rise:
The Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom metro area is emerging as one of California’s most resilient growth stories. Between 2021 and 2023, the region added residents at a steady, if modest, pace…. And by 2024, the CBSA pulled ahead of the national metro average for year-over-year (YoY) population growth, outpacing major California peers including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.
Sacramento is growing in part because it has something for everyone. Its growth has not been marked by just one demographic group. Instead, it’s pretty evenly split across affluent families and lower-to-middle income singles.
LinkedIn called Sacramento one of its 25 cities on the rise in 2025, noting:
From semiconductor plants to new medical centers, billions are flowing into California’s capital — and with tourism on the rise, the city is seizing the moment, moving ahead with major infrastructure upgrades like a $1.3 billion airport expansion to support its next chapter of growth.
While the entire US is facing a population slowdown, the city of Sacramento’s population still rose overall by 2 percent post-Covid. Sacramento as a region is predicting Denver-like growth and expecting to add nearly 600,000 people by 2050. This seems somewhat unlikely given current extremely low rates of immigration, but still Sacramento is gaining transplants from other parts of California more prone to wildfires and higher housing prices.
Some good public transportation in the state of sprawl
I was impressed to see so much light rail in Sacramento, running frequently. Turns out that Sacramento Regional Transit District has a lot to be proud of. According to the SacRT blog:
What makes the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) stand out is our true “rags-to-riches” story of how we rose up from financial instability, poor service and image, rising costs, and lack of trust from the community and our riders, to make a historic turnaround in just a few years. Between 2018-2025, we lowered fares; expanded service; completed a comprehensive route optimization; regained the trust of city jurisdictions and reannexed them back into SacRT; implemented the Light Rail Modernization Project; was awarded funding to start the Hydrogen Bus and Fueling Facility; started construction on the Watt/I-80 Improvement Project; implemented the nation’s first free rides for student program of its magnitude; achieved double-digit ridership growth; and increased operating reserves by nearly 500% – all for the first time in our 50-plus-year history.
This ain’t no humble brag! SacRT’s CEO Henry Li has been winning awards from the American Public Transportation Association and the local business journal for his leadership.
I was also interested to see that SacRT launched a Bus Stop and Bike Lane Enforcement Program using AI – apparently the only revenue-generating program of its kind in the U.S.
Riverfront placemaking is a work in progress
Coming from Philly where we have been investing for decades in beautifying our riverfronts, I was a little less impressed by what I saw of Sacramento’s riverfront. I took a jog through its historic Old Sacramento section, then up along a trail on the river. Like many cities, a highway is located along the riverfront and there’s not a ton of space on the actual water. From my time on the river, there was not a ton to see.
But researching, I found that the city has had a master plan for the riverfront for over 20 years, and is now chipping away at progress.