The Sacramento Bee recently published an article about the City of Rancho Cordova's "Barrel District", home to several new breweries, a meadery and a distillery. The article is very complementary as to how the city empowered local small businesses to establish a foothold for independent craft beverage makers. The businesses have become successful in no small part due to the foresight and assistance of the city's leadership. It wasn't that long ago that Rancho Cordova was widely scorned and disrespected as some kind of second-rate community. But that was before it became a city. You see, Rancho Cordova was once just another unimportant part of Sacramento's vast unincorporated UnCity. It suffered land use abuse and neglect from the County. Developers always got their way. There was "no there, there". Sound familiar? Of course, because that's our situation here in Arden Arcade. Rancho Cordova managed to persevere through the city formation process and, after years of struggle, became a city in 2003 . Ever since then, the city has been fixing the damage done by the County's inattention, by seeking out local opinions and creating innovative solutions such as the Barrel District.  Of course, if we had a Mayor and a City Council to focus on local priorities, similar success stories can happen here in Arden Arcade. But we have neither a Mayor nor a City Council., do we? Though we now have a supportive member of the Board of Supervisors overseeing our municipal affairs, his is but one vote of the three needed to do anything. So Arden Arcade won't be able to transform itself unless it incorporates. Becoming a city would bring  the kind of local control that has enabled Rancho Cordova (and Citrus Heights and Elk Grove) to help local businesses succeed and improve the auality of life for local residents - as it has done with the Barrel District.