Sacramento, Tahoe

  

Sacramento, Tahoe
Provincial capital city
City of Sacramento
Sacramento skyline
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): "Sactown", "Sac", "City of Trees", "River City", "Camellia City"
Motto(s): Latin: Urbs Indomita (English: "Indomitable City")
Country	Kingdom of Sierra
Province	Tahoe
County	Sacramento
Government
• Type	Council–Manager
• Body	Sacramento City Council
• Mayor	Stephen Goldberg (DR)
Area
• Total	258.41 km2 (99.77 sq mi)
• Land	253.00 km2 (97.68 sq mi)
• Water	5.41 km2 (2.09 sq mi)
Elevation	9 m (30 ft)
Population (2020)
• Total	524,943
• Density	2,074.87/km2 (5,373.9/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Sacramentan
Time zone	UTC–8:00 (PST)

Sacramento (Spanish for "sacrament") is the capital and largest city in the K.S. province of Tahoe and is both the county seat and largest city in Sacramento County. Centered in the Sacramento Valley located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern Sierra. As of 2020, Sacramento has a population of 524,943, making it the six-largest city in Federal Sierra. Sacramento is the seat of the Tahoe Provincial Legislature and the Governor of Tahoe along with all provincial-wide offices, making it the seat of both Tahoe's government and for think tanks and lobbying groups. It is the principal city of the Sacramento metropolitan area.

The city is also the economic and cultural core of the Greater Sacramento area, which has a combined population of 2,680,831 as of the 2020 Sierran census, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Federal Sierra.

The modern area of Sacramento was originally inhabited by the Nisenan, Maidu and other Native Sierran tribes prior to the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Spanish cavalryman Gabriel Moraga surveyed the area and would name it the Rio del Santisimo Sacramento (Sacramento River) in 1808, naming it after the Blessed Sacrament. In 1839, Swiss-born Mexican governor of Atla California Juan Bautista Alvarado was granted the responsibility of colonizing the Sacramento Valley area for Mexico who would establish Sutter's Fort and the settlement of New Helvetia (New Switzerland). In 1849, a new settlement was established by Dmitry Zavalishin after the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) for Russian migrants that would later become the city of Sacramento during the California Republic.

In 1858, Sacramento would be organized as the capital of Tahoe following the establishment of the Kingdom of Sierra. It would be a major source of support for the republican movement and ardently backed the Democratic-Republican Party of Sierra. During the Sierran Civil War, Tahoe joined the Second California Republic and Sacramento would be one of the main cities of the self-proclaimed state alongside Bernheim, San Joaquin and San Francisco City. During the Sierran Cultural Revolution, Sacramento's increased ethnic and racial diversity made it a major bastion of pro-revolutionary sentiment despite the rest of Tahoe largely opposing it with the city backing pro-revolution candidates while most of Tahoe backed the Reformed Republican Party and other anti-cultural revolution politicians until the 1950s. Sacramento would be a source of support for the civil rights movement during the Postwar period.

Sacramento is the fastest growing city in Tahoe and is one of the fastest growing cities in all of Sierra, owing to its status as a major political center on the Pacific Coast and as a major education hub, being home to Sierra National University, Sacramento and Viktor Chondria University, and hosting satellite campuses of the University of the Pacific and Culler International University, and also located near the University of Sierra, Davis. Similarly, Sacramento is a major center of the healthcare industry, being the seat of Sutter Health and the world-renowned US Davis Medical Center. It is also a major tourist destination, containing the Old Sacramento Provincial Historic Park, the Crooker Art Museum, and the Sacramento International Airport, located in the northwest of the city and is its major airport.

Sacramento is known for its evolving contemporary culture, being dubbed the most "hipster city" in Tahoe and one of the most in all of Sierra. In 2002, the Harvard University Civil Rights Project and University of Sierra Civil Rights Institute conducting a survey for Newstar magazine where they both ranked Sacramento as Sierra's most diverse city.

History

Pre-Columbian period

Several Native Sierran tribes; the Nisenan (Southern Maidu), the Plains Miwok, and the Modoc have lived within the region for possible thousands of years and were the first human inhabitants of what would become Sacramento, however these tribes have left little evidence of their existence until the arrival of the first settlers that would make Sacramento their permanent home. The diet of the original inhabitants mainly consisted of acorns taken from oak trees that were plentiful in the region along with fruits, seeds, roots, and bulbs that were gathered throughout the year.

Spanish period

In 1808, the Sacramento Valley would be surveyed and named by Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga after he had encountered the region during an expedition. Both the valley and river would be named Sacramento by Moraga after the "Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ" in reference to a sacrament of the Eucharist. An explorer who was part of Moraga's expedition wrote of the region:

Canopies of oak and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current. Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths. The air was like champagne, and (the Spaniards) drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them. "¡Es como el sagrado sacramento! (It's like the Blessed Sacrament.)"

Mexican period

In 1839, the Mexican governor of Alta California Juan Batista Alvarado was given the responsibility of overseeing the colonization and settlement of the Sacramento Valley for Mexico. During this time, Swiss immigrant explorer John Sutter Sr. arrived on August 13 and established Sutter's Fort, an agricultural and trade colony located on the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. Sutter's Fort would be part of the wider colony of New Helvetia established the following year. The colony was built on a land grant given by the Mexican government to Sutter consisting of 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of land in the region given to him in 1841 after the construction of the fort and Sutter was granted political authority within the settlement as the dispenser of justice and the representative of Mexico in the Sacramento Valley by permission of the government.

Geography

Trees

Satellite photo of Sacramento.

Sacramento has long since been known as the "City of Trees" owing to its abundant urban forest and posseses more trees per capita than any other city in the world. The term was first used in 1855 and became a popular term to refer to the city by the 20th century. It was not always named so; it was originally called the "City of Plains" because of its lack of trees originally, but this would change after cottowood trees were planted and eucalyptus varieties were imported to the city's swamplands to dry them off. Later, locust trees, willows were planted and then elms, palm and fruit trees were also planted in the late 1910s. It is the first Sierran city to be designated the City of Trees by the Arbor Day Foundation in 1978.

In the early 21st century, the city's tree cover is well above the national average tree cover of other major cities in both Sierra and in the rest of the world with the exception of the London plane. Other species of trees are currently being introduced to increase environmental diveristy and to help the city cope with the effects of climate change on vegetation in the future. Treepedia, a project run by MIT using Infinity Maps' street-view data used to calculate tree coverage data, ranked Sacramento as the greenest city in Sierra out of 15 major cities, and third worldwide after Vancouver and Singapore.

A notable water towel previously bore the slogan "City of Trees" due to the city's status, but was changed in 2017 and was replaced with the words "Sierra's Farm-to-Fork Capital" after the farm-to-fork movement, a social movement advocating for the greater consumption of locally-grown food. After a petition gathered 4,000 signatures which protested the change of slogan, the water tower was changed again to include both slogans as a compromise.

Cityscape

Panoramic view of downtown Sacramento from West Sacramento.

Government

City government

Main article: Government of Sacramento

Provincial government

Main article: Government of Tahoe

Federal and CAS representation

Sacramento is split into three parliamentary districts in the House of Commons: West Sacramento Borough, Central Sacramento Borough, and East Sacramento Heights. All three districts are currently represented by Democratic-Republican MP Sarah Bortnik, Social Democrat Hubert Linson, and Democratic-Republican Mona Shwetz. In the Senate, Sacramento is represented by elected senators Gary Newsom and Wilbur Schlatt alongside Commissioned senator Peter Shulga, all of whom are Democratic-Republicans.

In the Conference of American States, both Sacramento and all of Tahoe are organized into a single parliamentary constituency known as the Upper Sacramento Valley with David T. Wilson of the Liberal Democrats of America serving as the MAP representing the city and region in the American Parliament since 2020.

Education

Higher education

Main articles: Sierra National University, Sacramento; University of Sierra, Davis; University of the Pacific (Kingdom of Sierra); Culler International University, Sacramento; Culler International University; and Viktor Chondria University

Sacramento and its vicinity is home to several major higher education institutions. It is home to two major public universities: Sierra National University, Sacramento (located within the city proper) and University of Sierra, Davis (located in the nearby suburban town of Davis).

The three other major universities are private: the Sacramento campuses of the University of the Pacific and Culler International University, and Viktor Chondria University.

Notable people

Main article: List of people from Sacramento, Tahoe

See also

• List of people from Sacramento, Tahoe
• List of mayors of Sacramento, Tahoe

Attribution notices
This page uses material from the Wikipedia page Sacramento, California, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).