How an exodus of 'Bay Area refugees' is shaking up Sacramento

As thousands of tech workers move into Sacramento, the city long considered California's overlooked middle child is enjoying the attention - for now

Photographs by Salgu Wissmath

Joan Didion, the patron saint of California, once managed to summarily dismiss and define her hometown with just one flippant eye-roll of a quote: "Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento."

California residents have long derided the state's capital for the crime of being perfectly average. "The midwest of California", they call it. A cow town. Sacramento's appeal, it's often said, is that it's close to places that are actually appealing, like San Francisco and Tahoe.