Predictions For Elk Grove, Beyond For 2018

December 31, 2017 |

With 2017 ending and 2018 just beyond a few hours beyond sunset, we asked several readers and contributors to play soothsayer and make some predictions for the New Year.

Each of the contributor has a slightly different style, not only in writing but in format,o we tried to arrange in a semi-common format for ease of reading while maintaining their predicitons. 

Some of the forecasts humorous, while many are quite serious. Regardless, we hope you enjoy reading this prognostications and have a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2018.

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I believe in 2018 we will have a true, undeniable sighting of Aliens. With the recent UFO sighting (played off as "Satellite Signals") there is no doubt they are coming... if they're not already here!

Casual D, Sacramento based Hip Hop artist and producer, @_CasualD

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The Elk Grove Aquatics Center opening will be delayed due to lack of rainfall this year. The pool will not be open in May 2018 as previously announced by the city.

2018-2019 Elk Grove will become the "mecca transportation hub" as city leaders push for the multimodel station to keep their promise of SOI lands to future homebuilders and providing the homebuilders with bay area homebuyers.  Tag line; Affordable houses and easy commute to bay area by rail." Destination City Elk Grove;  giving you a place to call home each night. 

Lynn Wheat, Elk Grove, California

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Al Franken will run for his Minnesota Senate seat.

China will overtake the United States as the global leader.

There will be a huge security breach that will affect Wall Street and most every American

Robots will become more visible in public places such as store, and will be use more for surveillance, bomb detection, etc.

The VLA (Very Large Array, as shown in picture at the top of the page) will make a discovery in outer space.

Bitcoin will collapse.

Suzanne Gougherty, Roscommon, Michigan

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Hoping to cash in on NASCAR driver Kyle Larson’s success, the City of Elk Grove will sponsor his racing team to the tune of $10 million annually. For that price a picture of Mayor Steve Ly will be placed on the hood, city manager Laura Gill’s on the trunk, and the Mayors seal will be place on the doors. As an added bonus, the City will offer incentives to convert the Ghost Mall site to racetrack, and as a plan B, the 99-acre Grant Line site will be available for the track.

The DEMs will retake the Congressional majority in 2018 mid-term elections thanks in large part to the sitting president’s  huge ego, self-service and the crazy-ass tweets that spew from his iPhone daily. (Don’t get me started).

Hoping that the people of Elk Grove finally come to the conclusion that the Ghost Mall is not going to be built and that it should not be built. The proposed casino has no direct connection to the building of the mall. Malls are becoming obsolete with the myriad of options for shopping for anything on line with free shipping. Take into consideration the new Delta Shores complex just outside of city limits along I-5. Can EG really support two large shopping malls? Likely not. If this was a hot site, then HHC would have those pads leased long ago. HHC isn’t stupid, however we look that way when we think construction is just months away.

MLS is NOT coming to Elk Grove. The city bought 100 acres of land just south of city lines with $4.6 million of our tax money to attract MLS here. Pretty sure we’re not on their radar.

Not so much a prediction, but how about wishful thinking: Our Mayor stays home and takes care of Elk Grove business rather than interjecting himself into West Sac tragedies, trips to Israel on taxpayer $$, and now involving himself in Siskiyous County Hmong pot farm issues. He stated in the Bee he wants “to mediate” between the sheriff and pot growers in the Cal/Oregon border county. Pretty sure I wouldn’t want a non-lawyer negotiating on my behalf (JD is just a degree, he hasn’t passed the CA bar). If the Hmongs are his priority, he needs to resign as mayor and set up shop on his own. If he continues his “Hmong first” direction instead of Elk Grove first, it may be a long year on the dais for him.

As long as I’m wishfully thinking: How about the Giants signing two young power hitting corner OFs and a solid LH starter and fireballing reliever.

Yeah, that’s the ticket! (Wishful thinking, I know, but let a guy dream).

 Steve Lee, Elk Grove

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Environment -  Once the statistics are in, 2017 will turn out to be the warmest year ever recorded on earth, surpassing 2016 as the warmest year ever recorded which surpassed 2015 as the warmest year ever recorded which surpassed 2014 as the warmest year ever recorded. But, hey, global warming is a hoax.  Or so says our president!

Politics I - More women will be elected to local, state, and national positions in 2018 than at any time in our nation’s history. Why you may ask?  Well, mostly because of the guy in the White House who thinks global warming is a hoax and other such nonsense!

Politics II - Democrats will win BIGLY in political races throughout our country in 2018.  Why you may ask? Well, mostly because of the guy in the White House who thinks global warming is a hoax and other such nonsense!

Travel - Americans travelling abroad in 2018 will be inundated with questions from locals about what’s happening in our country. Why you may ask? Well, mostly because most of the world can’t believe that the guy in the White House thinks global warming is a hoax and other such nonsense!

Beer - Local Elk Grove microbreweries will begin serving “real beer” like Bud Light in 2018.  Why you may ask?  Well, mostly because the guy in the White House thinks global warming is a hoax and other such nonsense! OK, I’m just hoaxing about this one; although I do hope it comes true!

Dan Schmitt, Elk Grove, U.S. Coast Guard Veteran, retired public school teacher and world traveler

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Trump’s taxes will be released by a government insider.

Trump will fire Mueller.

Ivanka and Jared Kushner will get divorced.

Oprah Winfrey will run for Congress in 2018 and President in 2020. 

Elon Musk will create a device to draw Co2 our of the atmosphere.

Queen Elizabeth will step down.

Lisa Kamil, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

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Predictions may not be the correct term for what I hope happens in 2018. 2017 saw political polarization that is ripping this country apart, none more evident than what occurred in Charlottesville and the knee jerk reactions from elected officials at the both the highest and lowest levels including the Elk Grove City Council.

So, this is what I hope happens in 2018 here in Elk Grove:

I hope the Elk Grove voters rise up much like the voters did in Alabama. I hope grassroots efforts take hold and put our local officials on notice that we will no longer tolerate their high jacking of democracy and their chosen path to an autocratic government evidenced by their continued appointments.

I hope that developer-driven campaigns will be denounced by the voters who will out and out reject any elected official who is beholding to developer money forsaking what is best for the people of Elk Grove.

I hope that all elected officials, at every level of government, who broke any law or have been accused of sexual harassment, are forced to resign.

I hope Robert Mueller gets to the bottom of what occurred with Russian and no matter who, people will be held accountable.

And now I will end with a prediction: That strong-minded will women rise up,get elected to all levels of government and change not only Elk Grove, but the World!

Connie Conley, Elk Grove

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While 2017 was the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese calendar, I predict that 2018 will be the "Year of the Hand in Your Pocket" in the city of Elk Grove calendar.

I predict that the City Council will vote to place a sales tax increase on the ballot. To entice voters to reach deeper into their pockets, the electeds will offer a little bit of something for everybody: road repairs, new trails, an ACE train, and drum roll...a full-time salary with benefits for each Council member so they can provide their 'best service' to us. My crystal ball shows the Mayor (whichever one gets elected), Darren Suen (or his successor), Stephanie Nguyen, and Steve Detrick all voting yes--and Hume voting no because of the salary provision which he will disagree with. 

D.J. "not drinking the kool-aid" Blutarsky, EGN contributor, Parts Unknown, California

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Some form of life will be discovered on one of Saturn’s moons.

TerylAustin will finanly get a NFL head coaching job.

Renee Silverman, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

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In spite of the best efforts of Elk Grove’s economic development department and Visit Elk Grove, the first annual Ayn Rand Festival – a Woodstock-type event for the self-centered – will be held in Galt, California. Because of the name link to Atlas Shrugged’s main character John Galt, the City of Galt held a distinct advantage. The keynote will be given by Speaker Paul Ryan with an introduction by Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly.

After shunning the event in 2017, competitive eating heavy weights Joey Chestnut, Sonja “The Black Widow” Thomas, and Matt “Megatoad” Stonie will compete in the 2018 Great Pumpkin Festival Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest. However, the top honors will go to May Bowers who in an upset victory downs 19 pounds of pie. 

Dan Gougherty, Elk Grove

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First, the bad news...

I predict there will be a detonation of a nuclear bomb with two characteristics which will surprise you; it will happen in the lower 48 states, and it will be one of our own bombs. Security at TSA checkpoints in our air terminals borders on the absurd. There's no reason to believe our control over the 1,500 nukes the US has aimed at other targets undergo more competent supervision in missile silos, air fields, and naval ports. Our State Department is an isolationist laughingstock among world leaders, and the USA is losing its grip on global power.

Wildfire season in California is now year 'round. The Oroville spillway failed last winter. This week President Tweet blamed heat-hoarding environmentalists for the year-end cold snap in the northern US. I predict a new year of increased floods, fires, crop destruction, deaths, and forced migrations in the US and California which ultimately have terrible effects upon Elk Grove itself.

I predict Elk Grove will see an increase in major crime, mainly because Elk Grove has already seen a major increase in major crime. I count at least three murders in the last half of 2017. Larceny, a euphemism for theft, dominates the city's crime data. Those that have are being robbed by those who have not. Workers at small businesses will see a pathetic, four-bit hike in wages, to $10.50 per hour. With greater frequency, small businesses are being robbed at gunpoint, while shoppers are being mugged in parking lots.

Pedestrians aren't much better off. Including bicyclists and motorcyclists, I predict more deaths in Elk Grove due to collisions with distracted drivers of SUVs.

The only people more socially unimaginative and politically incompetent than the councilmen of Elk Grove are, sadly, the people of Elk Grove. We deserve what we have at city hall. Voters have not expressed a healthy curiosity in their own government, in which clueless councilmen take from the taxpayers and give to the builders. The councilmen also take from the builders to enrich their own campaigns. It's a circle-of-jerks yanking gold rings from an iterative, merry-go-round influence-peddling system which we blindly enable and follow. I predict that the incumbents will see a safe re-election in November, with the lowest voter turnout in the city's history.

The media is in trouble. The Obama internet neutrality orders were repealed in late 2017 by the Trump administration. Tens of millions of Americans opposed this reversal in communications policy; over half million people sent comments. Despite this, corporate media conglomeration continues. I predict this trend to continue, with yet another major corporate communications merger in 2018.

This year the Sacramento Bee sold its landmark building, and now rents it from the owner. After ten years, a ten dollar investment in McClatchy Publishing lost 999 cents, and yielded a penny in value. The newspaper has fired most of its writers; the legendary Capitol commentator Dan Walters quit his political post last spring. I predict that the Sacramento Bee will gasp its last breath in 2018.

Health care is an issue that affects all of us in very intimate ways. Looking at just my own family, I see people who need health care services which are indispensable to their well-being. I predict that hospitals, hospital systems, health care insurance companies, and health care providers will suffer more bankruptcies in 2018, as they already have this year. I also predict a reduction in available health care resources for those who most need them. The repeal of the individual mandate of Obamacare will force these businesses into insolvency, as the base of healthy, income-earning young people abandon their fiscal contributions to the health care insurance base.

Intense poverty already afflicts one in seven Americans. Over thirty per cent of us are near poverty, and half of all California's children are poor or marginally poor, not to mention their parents. The high cost of living in California has finally come to haunt Elk Grove. I predict a further thinning of the middle class, especially in the light of tax reforms imposed by the upper middle class Congress.

Now, for some good news...

The good news is that people are fed up enough to march in the streets to protest poverty, war, wasteful government spending, their own wasteful spending, polluted air, water, and land, threats from global warming, lack of access to health care resources, high costs of housing, communications, utilities, and, among other things, a president with cotton-candy for hair. One can only wonder if it matches what's below the belt; my bet is that it does. Therefore, I predict...(not that it matters!)

There are two, major protests brewing next month right here in Northern California. First is a mirror action of the Women's March that took place last year in Washington, D.C, and across the nation. The second is a rehearing of the single payer health care bill, Senate Bill 562, here at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

Women are behind both these actions. The single payer health care solution is boldly supported by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Union. The Women's March brought out moms, their babies, and a lot of their men, too. Strong women frighten weak men. It's a reassuring thing, the safety felt in a crowd of women.

I predict there will be an effective, countervailing force brought and led by women against many of our adversities in 2018. This isn't as much a prediction as it is a statement of fact; the past is replete with examples of women who brought about vast, comprehensive, and great social changes. Rosa Parks didn't just sit in the front of the bus; she was the secretary of the NAACP chapter in Montgomery, Alabama. Angela Y. Davis wasn't just the pretty face for the 1960s black militants against the justice system; she was its brains.

So when our sisters, mothers, daughters, wives and lovers come to us men asking to join them in courageous action, let's not hesitate. There's much work yet to be done in 2018 to make our world safe, just, happy, and whole.

Michael Monasky, Elk Grove