Sacramento

Understand

Sacramento is in the southern Sacramento Valley, the northern half of the vast 450-mile (720 km) long California Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural areas. While the Central Valley is mostly rural, Sacramento and its urban area seemingly arise abruptly from the surrounding farmland, a sight that is particularly notable to those driving from the west on Interstate 80 or from the south on Interstate 5 or Highway 99. Once considered a typical Central Valley backwater with the distinction of hosting the state capitol, Sacramento's growth has skyrocketed since the late 20th century due increased investment from both local and state governments to bring related jobs to the city, which in turn has attracted think tanks and other research-related sectors such as healthcare and food science.

The city has a population of about 520,000 as of 2020 and almost 2.7 million in the metropolitan area. Besides Sacramento County, the metropolitan area also includes the counties of Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Sutter, Yuba, and Nevada.

The pace of life is somewhat slower than in other large Californian cities, and the people are generally warm and friendly. According to Time magazine, Sacramento is the most diverse city in the USA. The city used to be an affordable place, but it suffered from the San Francisco Bay Area's dot com rise and fall, and real estate went from undervalued to overvalued. The market is correcting itself, so property values in most neighborhoods have leveled off while others are dropping to more reasonable valuations.

History

Sacramento was founded in 1839 as New Helvetia (Nueva Helvetia in Spanish) by Swiss pioneer John Sutter, having been granted permission by the Mexican government to develop a rancho settlement to bring European settlement to the Sacramento Valley area. The settlement eventually developed into Sutter's Fort, a key agricultural and trading post for settlers arriving in California after crossing the Sierra Nevada. It remained a farming community until 1848, when gold was discovered in nearby Coloma. This discovery caused Sacramento to experience explosive growth as a boomtown.

With the California Gold Rush bringing in waves of migrants into the city on a seemingly daily basis, the original portion of the city (present-day Old Sacramento) popped up along the shores of the Sacramento and American Rivers. The city became the first incorporated community in the state when a city charter was enacted in 1849, with the town taking on its current name. Devastating floods in 1850, 1852, and 1862 wiped out much of the city. Stronger levees were constructed and the town was raised 15 feet (4.57 meters) to prevent further damage. Remnants of the original ground level of Sacramento can still be accessed via underground tunnels in the old city today.

Floods are the answer to a question asked by many newcomers to the city: Where are the western suburbs? Much of the land to the west is permanently reserved for a flood control system, the Yolo Bypass.

In 1854, the California State Capitol was moved to Sacramento after brief stints in San Jose, Vallejo, and Benicia. After the catastrophic 1862 flood, it was moved to San Francisco, then the largest city and financial hub for not only California, but the entire West Coast. Nevertheless, a state constitutional convention in 1879 permanently designated Sacramento once again as the state capital.

With its status as state capital solidified, Sacramento continued to grow quickly as gold gave way to agriculture and trade as the state's economic engine. Sacramento's strategic location between the port of San Francisco and Sierra Nevada mountains, where pioneers from the east arrived in California, led to the city being host to national communications and infrastructure projects. The city served as the western terminus for the Pony Express and in 1869, the western terminus of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

The city was a major center of food processing throughout much of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with crops and other products being conveniently brought in from nearby farms. With the rise of the technology industry in the nearby Bay Area in the 1990s, Sacramento and its western suburbs in Yolo County became popular (and much cheaper) locations for a handful of professionals to buy homes. The arrival of these "super-commuters" foreshadowed the abrupt growth that the city and its metropolitan area would experience shortly after.

The California state government's consolidation of offices to be as close to the capital and local city government's efforts to bring in federal agencies led to the first wave of growth as civil servants and their families arrived. Government continues to be largest employment sector, but education, healthcare, and research have also become attracted to the city, as are businesses interested in setting up in California but away from the astronomical prices found in the state's other major cities. Tourism has also started to become a major sector, capitalizing on the city's rich history and central location in scenic Northern California.

Climate

Sacramento has a Mediterranean-type climate with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Being further inland than most of the other major California cities, Sacramento is subject to more temperature variation. Winter high temperatures are commonly in the 40s and 50s Fahrenheit (10–20 °C), and at night the temperature drops below freezing every so often. The summer heat can be intense, average summer highs are around 94°F with lows around 61°F, despite this, it's not unusual for temperatures to reach or exceed 102°F and not go below 67°F at night. Generally speaking, the warmer it gets, the drier it gets, so even the most intense Sacramento heat is easily alleviated by a quick dip in the swimming pool.

Sacramento's hot, dry summers are mitigated by a phenomenon locals call "the delta breeze." Heat waves rarely last more than three to five days, because as hot air builds over California's interior valleys, cold ocean air is sucked inland through the Sacramento river delta, acting as natural air conditioning and dropping the temperature sharply. The delta breeze tends to hit the westernmost areas of Sacramento late in the afternoon and travel east–northeast at ten to fifteen miles per hour, so the hour at which your neighborhood cools depends on your proximity to the river delta or how far west or south you reside.

Most rain falls from around fall to mid-spring and occasionally early summer. Generally speaking, however, you can count on dry and sunny days from the middle of April until at least the middle of October. Winter is known not only for its rain but also for its dense fog, which can hamper driving conditions and reduce visibility to 100 feet (30 m) at times. Snow is rare, but once every 5 to 10 years a light dusting occurs, and some light accumulation away from the city. In the foothills not far east of the city, snow is much more common, and the Tahoe-area ski resorts are within easy reach of the Sacramento metropolitan area. Sacramento's location in the heart of California's agricultural interior gives it a blossom-laden spring as a profusion of fruit trees bloom and flowers fill the grassland. It also experiences a "foliage fall": autumn color without the severe weather that accompanies brilliant color in other parts of the nation.

Severe weather is rare in Sacramento, with the primary concern being heat in summer and local flooding in winter. Occasional summer thunderstorms and even tornadoes can occur, but they are extremely rare. Sacramento is not in a known earthquake zone.

Smoking

Smoking is prohibited by state law at all restaurants and bars, most workplaces (workplaces with five or fewer employees are exempt from the ban as long as all workers consent), and all public buildings. It's also banned within 20 feet (6 m) of any entrance, window, or exit to a public place.

Tourist information

The Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau offer maps, brochures and other information.

Get in

By plane

Go Sacramento International Airport (SMF)

It is the main airport for Sacramento, located 10.5 mi (16.8 km or 15 minutes) northwest of downtown along Interstate 5 at the Airport Boulevard exit (Exit #528). Non-stop air service is available from Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, and all regions of the United States including intrastate flights from all major airports in Southern California.

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Nonstop flights are available with:

*Terminal A: Air Canada Express, American/American Eagle, Delta/Delta Connection, JetBlue & United/United Express. * Terminal B: Aeromexico, Alaska/Horizon Air, Boutique, Contour, Frontier, JetBlue, Hawaiian, Southwest, Spirit, Sun Country, & Volaris.

Taxis from the airport to downtown are estimated at $34 one-way. Bus service to downtown (from Yolobus) runs hourly from 5:30AM to 10:20PM weekdays and 8:20AM to 10:20PM weekends. The fare is $2.25 and the buses do not make change. 42A runs clockwise and 42B runs counterclockwise. Be sure to get on the correct bus: 42A goes to Sacramento, 42B comes from Sacramento and goes to Davis via Woodland. SacRT offers express service to the airport with Route 142 providing service every 30 minutes to and from Downtown Sacramento.

For international flights, you may be better off flying into or connecting from San Francisco International Airport (SFO). From there, take the BART subway to Oakland and then Greyhound, Amtrak or Flixbus to Sacramento.

By train

• Route stopping in Sacramento:

• Coast Starlight operates daily between Seattle and Los Angeles. Stops include Tacoma, Lacey, Centralia, Kelso, Vancouver, WA, Portland, Salem, Albany, Eugene, Klamath Falls, Dunsmuir, Redding, Chico, Sacramento, Davis, Martinez, San Francisco (Emeryville), Oakland, San Jose, Salinas, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Simi Valley, Van Nuys, and Burbank.
• California Zephyr runs daily from San Francisco (via Emeryville) through Sacramento to Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha, and Chicago.
• Capitol Corridor is a regional train that runs multiple times a day from the Bay Area to Sacramento making major stops in Martinez, Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, Fremont, and San Jose.
• Gold Runner is a regional train that runs from Sacramento south into the San Joaquin Valley making major stops in Stockton, Fresno, and Bakersfield.

By car

Sacramento sits at the intersection of Interstate 5 (a north-south route) and Interstate 80 (an east-west route). It is also at the western terminus of U.S. Route 50.

• From the San Francisco Bay Area, take Interstate 80 east. (2 hours from San Francisco and 30 minutes by plane from SFO)
• From Reno and North Lake Tahoe, take Interstate 80 west. (2 hours from Reno)
• From South Lake Tahoe, take U.S. Route 50 west. (2 hours)
• From Redding and the Pacific Northwest, take Interstate 5 south. (2 hours 30 minutes from Redding & 4 hours 30 minutes from the Oregon/California border)
• From the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, take Interstate 5 or State Route 99 north. (about 6 hours from downtown Los Angeles and 1 hour 15 minutes by plane)

By bus

Mundo Americano Travel at 5385 S Franklin Blvd Suite E serves as a ticket agent for several Hispanic intercity bus companies bound for Mexico via San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles and San Ysidro. The buses are in the Autozone Parking lot next to Jimboy's Tacos and AutoZone at Franklin Blvd & Fruitridge Rd with the following: *

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The following are located in different locations around town:

The following operate as public transportation with commuter and/or local routes into Sacramento from surrounding cities in adjacent counties:

Many nearby cities provide service to Downtown Sacramento, but it's largely limited to weekday rush hours.

Get around

Sacramento is fairly easy to navigate due to the numbered and lettered streets, especially in the central district which is laid out in a grid. Numbered streets run north and south while lettered streets run east and west. South of the city center (bounded by Broadway, Front Street, and Alhambra Boulevard), the streets are named "Avenue" when the lettered streets run out.

By foot

Historic Old Sacramento, the Riverfront, and the California State Railroad Museum are all within an easy 5-minute walk of the train station. The Capitol building is a pleasant 15-minute walk from Old Sacramento. Sacramento has been called the tree city, due to the density of street trees present. This makes for a pleasant walk anyone in Central Sacramento. However, the moment that you try to get out of the central core, the distances go up, and you're just trudging through suburbs that have much less shade.

By bicycle

The wide, flat, tree-lined streets make cycling a relaxing way to get around Downtown and Midtown Sacramento. Most streets in the grid have bike lanes, and bike routes through the city are clearly marked. Traveling by bike also means avoiding expensive and hard-to-find parking. Additionally, the region is connected with the American River Bike Trail, one of the gems of outdoor recreation for the city. For more information about bike infrastructure and advocacy in Sacramento, check out the SABA website.

While many bike rental options exist in the city, the region officially supports private bike share rentals by Lime bike. Usage is as easy as downloading the app and locating the nearest bike.

By car

For nearly all other getting around, you will want a car.

Public transportation

Sacramento Regional Transit is the major provider of transit service in Sacramento with connections to other inter-urban buses and the surrounding area. Services include:

• Light rail - there are three lines (Gold, Blue, Green) which share tracks through downtown. Buy a ticket before boarding. Remember to press the button to open the train door, they do not open automatically. The lines radiate out of downtown to Folsom, Elk Grove and Watt/I-80.
• Buses - Buses serve the City of Sacramento, but generally get weaker the further you are from downtown.

Many other regional agencies provide rapid or express service to downtown, but check the schedule as they are mostly limited to rush hour.

By taxi

Sacramento has about 500 taxis and a taxi meter fare system regulated by the City of Sacramento. The standard taxi fare in Sacramento is $4.00 flag drop, $3.00 each additional mile, and $28.00 per hour of waiting time. Sacramento has 5 major taxi companies: Sacramento Taxi Yellow Cab, Kmm Cab, orange cab, Sitoa, Yellow Cab Sacramento. Taxis are waiting at the train station, hotels and major attractions. It's decently easy to hail a cab downtown, but for all other locations, you'll want to call in advance.

Learn

Stay safe

Downtown has a lot of one-way streets which can be confusing and are not always well marked so look at the direction in which cars are parked.

Sacramento is generally a safe place to visit. As with any other urban area, no matter where you are, stay safe. Be aware of your surroundings, lock your car doors, don't carry a large amount of cash, and don't wear flashy clothing or jewelry.

As with other large metropolitan areas, there are neighborhoods that deserve more caution than others at night. Be cautious while in the following areas:

• South Sacramento Area—especially at night. It has been cleaned up but there are still rough patches especially around Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, Fruitridge Road, Franklin Boulevard, Mack Road, and Meadowview Road.
• North Highlands — Watt Avenue between Roseville Road and I-80 can be unsafe at night. The motels at Longview Drive and I-80 are among the worst in the north Sacramento area and are best avoided.
• Del Paso Heights used to be of the worst crime infested areas in the Sacramento Region, but has attracted numerous galleries, boutiques and restaurants. Stay safe, but there's no reason to avoid it.

Go next

Part of the beauty of Sacramento is its central location. It's sometimes possible to go skiing in the morning and surfing in the afternoon. All within a couple hours by car:

• Several eastern suburbs of Sacramento are part of Gold Country, a concentration of numerous small towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills that were the site of the California Gold Rush, with Coloma being the site of the original gold discovery.
• Truckee and Donner Pass, about 100 miles east of Sacramento on I-80. Be prepared in wintertime, as the elevation is over 7,000 ft. This also includes Reno/Tahoe (below), which are further east via I-80.
• Lake Tahoe, a gorgeous lake on the Nevada border, popular for outdoor activities year-round (skiing and snowboarding in winter, swimming and hiking in summer).
• Reno, a little bit o' gambling just over the border in Nevada. Accessible by Amtrak, Greyhound, or Flixbus.
• San Francisco, the cultural and financial center of Northern California, is approximately 85 miles to the west. An approximately 2-hour drive on Interstate 80 without traffic. It is also accessible by Amtrak, Greyhound, or Flixbus. Those with the money to spare or an aversion to driving can also take one of the handful of daily flights to the city (30-minute flight time, although the actual trip will probably be just as long as driving time given check-in and security checks).
• Napa Valley and the California Wine Country, gorgeous landscape and the most famous wine-tasting in the States.