Tag Cloud
Friday, February 10, 2012
Street Interview
by Suzanne Hurt, published on August 19, 2009 at 8:11 PM
Storyline: Street Interviews
The Sacramento Press provides an outlet for everyone in the community. We hit the street recently to get people's opinions about downtown's K Street Mall.
This week's question: What would it take to get you to shop, dine or drink regularly on K Street Mall?
Matt Gilliam, 34
Aspiring Filmmaker
Downtown Resident
"K Street, I don't go to that often at nighttime because there are unsavory-type people, scary people. There are more shops and things to do down there than there have been in the past, but it's still sketchy. I think they could put a police station there permanently, even a little kiosk-deal, so they're always there. I also think police on the light rail trains has something to do with it, because the light rail carries baddies to K Street."
Diane Sousa, 32
Analyst
Mather Resident
"At some point, K Street was exciting. But it's empty now. I guess a variety of dining options. Affordable is always attractive. I'm thinking more upscale, but affordable — something trendy and fun."
Robbie LaCasse, 25
State Worker/Bass Player for the [The] New Humans
Midtown Resident
"We have a rehearsal space down there. When I go down to the area, I just go to rehearse. I feel like if there was more going on down there or more things to do, I would spend more time down there. K Street is lacking attractions. At night, it's a little questionable. It needs more nighttime-foot traffic. There's no one down there at night.
Valinda Roberts, Declined to Give Age
Fiscal Manager
South Sacramento Resident
"When I worked down there, I did shop and eat there regularly. Now I'm working in Midtown. K Street — they do have two or three blocks there that are a little seedy, in which you do feel a little uncomfortable. One thing I noticed when I stayed to go to a movie at IMAX: A lot of the restaurants on that end were closed. It was a Thursday. It was pretty much dead. I could only find a Blimpie's or a Subway; that's all that was open."
Jeff Farley, 28
Art Foundry Artist/Welder
McKinley Park Resident
"I like to eat more organic foods, so: organic restaurants. Better-quality restaurants. I guess if they had more things to see, more artistic venues."
Debbie Tellez, 40
Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance Employee
Elk Grove Resident
"I haven't been over there in a long time. I used to go all the time. I think there are too many kids — young kids running around. They need to open up more shops, maybe not have so many young children hanging around. There are no shops, so you know it's like their little hangout. Maybe have more variety of fast food. When I went recently, it just looked like a little ghost town."
John Harris, 55
State Controller's Office Budget Analyst
Antelope Resident
"I'm interested in smooth jazz. If they had that type of venue, with meals — something like that would be pretty nice. They probably need a few more eating spots. As far as clothing, they don't have enough for middle-aged people. They have more clothing stores for young people. They need something to pull in the middle-aged crowd."
We welcome your suggestions for future "Street Interview" questions. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at suzanne@sacramentopress.com or 804-2856.
Conversation Express your views,
debate, and be heard with those in your area closest
to the issue.
Leave a Comment
Midtown is so much more active because people live there; they act as cultural anchors that foster true community development. K street is in the heart of Sac's business district, and as such it's about as seedy and as culturally inactive as Market and Embarcadero is at night.
There are exceptions to the "K Street is dead after dark" rule...for the past six weeks I have been by the corner of 10th & K on Saturday nights, and there were plenty of people walking about between Parlare, Temple, Scandal/Grange, Social/Cosmo, and the Crest. Driving around the neighborhood, there are bright spots late at night, especially on weekends, where various nightclubs and other late-night attractions are open. So it is obvious that people will come to K Street at night--and if there is enough to do to create a critical mass, and light up the spaces in between the current bright spots, K Street's reputation for being dead at night will start to fall by the wayside.
But yes, in the long run, downtown residents are what will make the difference. Nightlife uses aren't a perfect solution but they will drive attention to the area and change some opinions. With more people present at night, some of those businesses that currently close after lunch hours (because the 90,000 people who work downtown have gone home) will start seeing reasons to stay open walking past their doors--instead of reasons to close.
I agree with savemidtown that many of those old hotels should be converted to market-rate condo lofts and rental apartments. The problem is that none of the property owners live in the central city or have any real vision for it. It's only an investment for them. If they can make a lot of more money on these properties by converting them to something else then they'll make an effort otherwise they won't. Because very few have a vision most property owners adopt a monkey-see, monkey-do mentality. "Hotels are the way to make money? Great we'll convert our building into a hotel...if it pencils out." Many successful cities benefited from one or two true 'visionaries with means' but sadly, Sacramento has a shortage of visionaries, none-the-less, they do exist.
Another problem is the city's rules regarding moving people out of these sub-standard residental hotels. Do you know that in order to move forward in redeveloping their properties (which means of course evicting the people who live there) the owners must find the residents a new place to live. The problem is that most of the residents are not exactly 'ideal' tentants so its actually very hard to find them a new place to live. This places the properties owners in the role of social worker -not their role. In frustration many just say its not worth it because of the time, effort and the small profit margins here compared to say San Francisco. This absurd policy and the insolence that the homeless advocates here have towards any business or improvement has is very discouraging effect on K Street.
We need stated goals-policy that say the city wants the residental hotels on and around K Street converted into market-rate housing and that housing & redevlopment money will only go for this purpose (not for hotels, or pizza parlors, bars,etc.. these things will come when the people with jobs and money to spend move in).
We need to NOT make relocation of existing tentants the responsibility of the owner/developer but instead like anywhere else give the tentants a reasonable time to move and then those who are advocating on thier behalf would be responsible (afterall it's their passion and they are the ones who took on that responsiblity).
To repeat: Instead of converting existing SRO residential units (which are, as you mention, extremely difficult to replace or relocate) let's encourage repair and residential conversion of vacant buildings like the Plaza Building, the Bel-Vue, the Biltmore, the Kress Building, the Feldhusen, and so on. The SROs should be maintained as SROs--and it is the responsibility of the owners to keep them maintained to city standards. Responsible and professional owners do this already.
There are still several occupied non-SRO residential units off K Street: the 800 J lofts, the El Cortez on 11th, even the apartments above Temple Coffee...a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands that lived within a short walk of K Street until redevelopment, I-5 and urban renewal robbed them of their homes.