Still no new year's plans? For once, you don’t have to plan anything much. Just drive downtown to 10th and K to see the new year in at Sacramento’s newest nightlife center: 10th Street between J and K.

This New Year’s Eve will mark the official debut of Sacramento’s newest, and in some ways, finest, nightlife block. While the moaning and arguing continues about the K Street Mall between 7th and 9th, a single block of 10th Street between K and J is poised to impress.

With this month’s opening of the Citizen Hotel and its gorgeous, elegant restaurant The Grange - following the November opening of The Cosmopolitan, with its restaurant, bar, upstairs club Social and theatre the Cosmopolitan Cabaret - that one block of downtown is not only promising, it’s downright inspiring.

And with a New Year’s Eve ball drop planned for tomorrow night, Sacramento is going to get to see what is too often ignored: Sacramento’s growing, first-class core. You’ll have to pass a few sketchy looking characters to do it, but have you been to Union Square lately? Get over it! Nightlife and urban decay go hand in hand. Be real!

With the funky chic of Parlare Euro Lounge, which opened earlier this year, and wonderful Temple Coffee and Tea, as well as the more down to earth Japanese restaurant Megami, that single block of 10th Street can entertain for an evening, even a day. Even, with the Citizen, an overnight.

All that’s really missing is people. And Wednesday night’s ball drop should bring them in droves. I took a look at the intersection today (Tuesday) and there was no sign of preparations for a ball drop or anything else. But it’s on, nevertheless. And for suburbanites anxious about braving the “urban core,” there’s a nice big parking garage just a block away at 10th and L Streets. Enter on L Street, and enjoy.

The opening of the Citizen Hotel and The Grange restaurant are particularly promising, the crossing of a Rubicon of sorts. I had drinks there last night, and while one didn’t measure up, most (at $10 a pop, I cadged sips) were delicious. And the setting is absolutely stunning, with high ceilings, beautiful wood and fabric features and above it all, a private banquet room that is spectacular.

The Citizen and The Grange are extraordinary. The most unique hotel in downtown Sacramento, the Citizen has none of the big box fixtures that make the Hyatt and even the Sheraton rather cookie-cutter. The Citizen, with its elegant entryway and cozy, labyrinthine lounges and consistently clever government (malfeasance) theme, makes full use of the old 1926 building, down to the old room directories that still stand in the lobby. It's marble and carved plaster, wood and heavy curtains, comfortable chairs and carpets of red and black and gold. Stunning.

This is a Manhattan-worthy hotel, and visitors are instantly transported to a different era, and a different sense of space. The lobby is lined with old law books, some turned on their sides to create a greater sense of space, and the upstairs bar Scandal features a terrific series of six cartoons by Sacramento Bee cartoonist Rex Babin. A classy joint from top to bottom. Go see it yourself. This New Year’s Eve may be a great time to start.