A once-sleepy state capital is now the state?s fastest-growing big city Few people would characterize basketball commentator and former player Charles Barkley as a restrained public speaker. So when he told a local Sacramento news reporter in 2008 that the state?s capital was still a ?cow town,? it seemed sure to be brushed off as another example of blunt talk.
But that comment stung many Sacramentans (some of whom, in interviews for this story last week, brought it up unsolicited). California?s capital has always been looked down upon by the coastal urban elite, viewed as a country cousin with little to offer except office space for the state government.
But a decade after Sir Charles?s pronouncement, the city is experiencing a real estate boom and urban renaissance that?s hard to miss. In fact, if Barkley came back to town for an NBA game?now held at the cutting-edge new Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings and arguably the country?s most high-tech venue?he?d be at the center of a renewed downtown gleaming after more than a billion dollars of reinvestment over the last decade.
BlackPine Communities
Homes in The Creamery, an upscale development walking distance from downtown Sacramento.

At the center of the thriving business district, which now has its own trendy moniker (DoCo, or Downtown Commons), the arena opens onto a plaza boasting an $8 million stainless steel statue of a piglet by Jeff Koons. Sacramento Kings owner and loca...