Sacramento

Sacramento (called Sac by the locals) is the capital city of California, it is located in the central valley of California. In 2005 the city had a population of 445,287 and the Metropolitan region has a population of 2,042,283.[1] making it the fourth largest city in California. The major employer in the city is state government.

Sacramento was named the state capital in 1854 and in 1874 the State Capitol Building was completed. Sacramento held a strategic location in California, and was the western end to the Pony Express, and the Transcontinental Railroad, begun in the 1860 was started from Sacramento.

Sacramento grew from village to city between the Civil War and World War I. Faced with public health problems and other municipal challenges, Sacramento voters approved a "strong-mayor" charter in 1893. Marshall R. Beard served as mayor for most of the period after 1893, drawing support from working-class voters and the city's main employer, the Southern Pacific Railroad. Beard was accused of heading a political machine but unlike other notorious bosses of the era was not a corrupt politician. Neither the demands of reformers nor Beard's traditional political style alone solved Sacramento's problems as the city grew in population and experienced the problems that came with growth. Beard may have been more typical of civic leaders of his day than were the better-known corrupt big-city leaders.

## Further reading[edit]

* Mahan, William E. "The Political Response to Urban Growth: Sacramento and Mayor Marshall R. Beard, 1863-1914." California History 1990-91 69(4): 354-371. 0162-2897

## See also[edit]

* Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger
* California and Northern California
* San Francisco Bay Area
* San Francisco: San Francisco values and the Homosexual agenda
* Berkeley and Oakland
* University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University and University of California, Davis‎
* Silicon Valley: San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz
* Los Angeles, Hollywood and Hollywood values
* San Diego
* Gun control—The San Francisco Bay Area as a whole (especially Sacramento), along with Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York City and Chicago, is known to be one of the 5 top American urban regions with the most left-wing Anti-Second Amendment laws, yet high crime rates. See "Vote with your feet" strategic relocation to free states with low population density

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Sacramento city, California Fact Sheet - American FactFinder