Transportation "planning" downtown

My commute used to be lovely. After dropping off my little ones and scamming food from my mother, I rode down the quiet Midtown streets with decent bike lanes. When I got to the downtown area, I rode through a parking lot and then through the Amtrak station and into Old Town. It's a wonderful ride, at least it was until they recently decided to make some changes. 

In preparation for this new "arena" that seems to be so important to Sacramento's well-being, they've started gutting, building, and paving through my ride to Old Town. Also as part of this big retrofit, Amtrak is doing a remodel. 

Along with this mess, Amtrak decided to close off the only opening within blocks to Old Town, one that we've been using for years. I can understand that they don't want bikes riding on the station platform, knocking over pedestrians. However, this route is all road except for the last 100 feet or so when it becomes a road that leads to the parking lot. 

They've put up signs (thankfully small signs that are easily missed) banning bikes and non-Amtrak personnel. Truthfully, I continue to ride through, yielding to everyone and the Amtrak shuttles (because they moved the tracks so far from the station that many people can't walk the distance). 

The downtown streets don't offer much alternative. 

Even with the new bike lanes, there are no other options than this horrible sharrow situation. I street loses its bike lane right in front of the jail and is replaced by a "sharrow"--a painted symbol showing where a biker is supposed to ride in the traffic lane. Check the placement for this sharrow below. Unless you can ride through parked cars, the sharrows aren't going to do any good. To make matters worse, the freeway onramps in the next block force the rider to merge four lanes of heavy traffic to get to the only street that takes you to Old Town. 

So unless one feels like riding the long way around on the American River Parkway, take to the sidewalk, or ride out of your way, these are your only options. They're also talking about closing off the ARP entrance to Old Town. There's nothing mentioned about repaving the deteriorating trail or continuing the section to the J st. bridge so you don't have to get off the trail and ride the cobblestones of Old Town. 

It seems to me like there is a lot of construction going on without much thought to bicyclists trying to get through downtown. If there is a brighter picture to be had at the end of this, I'd love to know about it. At the moment, it looks like it'll be a year of extra hassle followed by an increase of traffic. I'm not looking forward to this mess of an arena and the headaches it's going to cause--people driving in to shows and games from the nearby towns, clogging up downtown. Do we really need more people in cars after having a few beers while watching the Kings? There is so much money being spent and all the profits are poised to go into a couple rich guys' pockets. Why can't we focus on "thinking small" and dealing with Sacramento's issues before glossing over everything and spending money we don't have? 

Stockton built an arena downtown, too. It made them go bankrupt.

I'm going to add to my original post--AJ is right about needing proper infill and getting some goon infrastructure going in that wasteland area by the train station. I am not aware of the details behind the construction only that my transportation options have become severely limited without driving. The I street option above is too scary for most people, K street is impractical with the light rail tracks and platforms and the mall in the way, and R street is out of the way for people coming from the Midtown area. Whether the arena is the main focus or not, safe routes for biking should have been established before closing one of the major Old Town entrances. That was obviously not  on the planners' minds when they started developing this area.

Second, I still don't feel that the arena is going to add anything but more congestion, drivers, and debt. I hope I am wrong.