Sacramento Bee Writer Andy Furillo

I Love Los Angeles, But I Want to Be in Sacramento

Andy Furillo is a senior writer at The Sacramento Bee and a 43-year veteran of the newspaper business; most recently, he covered criminal courts before moving over to sports. Before moderating a discussion of how redefining felonies will change California, he talked about what’s underrated about Sacramento and what he loves about Los Angeles—his hometown—in the Zócalo green room.

Q:

If you could be any animal, which would you want to be?


A:

Maybe a racehorse. I went to the races the other day at Golden Gate Fields, and they’re just magnificent. They’re in great shape. So if I were a racehorse, I would be in great shape. Not that I’m in bad shape now. And there’s a magnificence about them.


Q:

What’s the last great book you read?


A:

Right now I’m reading Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. That is fantastic. It is really gripping me so far. It’s just spectacular. That book is so overdue, and so great.


Q:

What did you eat for lunch today?


A:

I had a chicken schnitzel and a crawfish gumbo at the hotel.


Q:

Who taught you to ride a bike, and where did you learn?


A:

Probably my older sisters and my mother, and this would have been in Downey, where I grew up. I can still kind of remember the falling down and scraping my knees but sticking with it and getting it done.


Q:

What’s your favorite thing about Los Angeles?


A:

Right now, the Angel City Brewery is way up there. I hit that one a couple times. I’m a big brewery fan. I love the sports teams, I love the Coliseum, I love Dodger Stadium. Every time I come to L.A., it’s just better and better. I was a newspaper reporter here back in the ’80s, and it was kind of dangerous. I recently went to unincorporated East L.A. to work on a story, and it overwhelmed me how much it’s changed for the better. The big housing project there is painted in pastel colors instead of military industrial green. It just seemed a peaceful place; it never seemed like that before to me. You had to watch out for kids running you over on skateboards rather than getting caught in a crossfire.


Q:

What’s the strangest thing in your medicine cabinet?


A:

I don’t really have much of a medicine cabinet. I take a Zocor knockoff to lower cholesterol, but I don’t know how strange that is. I’d say there’s nothing weird in there.


Q:

If you didn’t cover crime and punishment, what would your beat be?


A:

Sports.


Q:

Write the first sentence of your obituary.


A:

Andy Furillo was a pretty good guy, and he tried to have fun and have others have fun, too.


Q:

What’s the most underrated thing about Sacramento?


A:

I don’t think the rest of the world knows, but the mentality of the people who live there is such that they’re very content and happy to be where they are and doing what they’re doing. They love San Francisco but they don’t want to be in San Francisco. I love Los Angeles but I don’t want to be in Los Angeles. Sacramento haa a reputation for being between the Bay Area and Sierra Nevada, but it is itself, and what it is has become really great in just the last few years, and it’s getting better every week.


Q:

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?


A:

Yesterday I went to the Mardi Gras parade in Midtown Sacramento, and I had a zillion laughs in the course of the parade. Everybody was just having a hell of a time, and it was a very joyful experience.


*Photo by Aaron Salcido.