Sacramento will soon become home to a new kind of skate shop, born out of the love between a derby girl and a skater boy. Sandy "Motley" Cruz and Gordon "Gordo" Eckler, both 31, said they expect to open Cruz Skate Shop, a hybrid rollerskating and skateboarding shop, at 16th and U streets on Sept. 15. Cruz got into roller derby in 2005. She opened the first location in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood in March 2008. Cruz Skate Shop was originally a skate shop for roller girls, focusing on the exploding sport of flat track roller derby. She hadn't skated since she was 10, but was so intrigued with the sport that she helped start a new league in San Francisco called the Bay Area

Repairs are under way at a historic Midtown building whose front end caved in after being rammed by a truck last May. The 81-year-old brick building at 16th and U streets had long been vacant when an Icee truck and an SUV collided and ran up onto the sidewalk May 19. The front end of the 2,889-square-foot building had been covered by a modern glass-and-stucco storefront facade for years. Standing on busy 16th Street, the building held a prominent role in the Richmond Grove neighborhood for decades. The structure was built in 1929 as an early Safeway grocery store. That was followed by a hardware store, cigar shop, Chinese grocery and massage parlor. The building had been vacant before an

A wrecking ball won't finish off a historic Midtown building damaged in a recent accident. Instead, the accident is helping to bring new life to the long-vacant, 80-year-old building at 16th and U streets. The building's current owners, identified as Stratton Investments of Reno, want to rebuild the front section that caved in when a large Icee truck rammed into the unreinforced masonry structure last month. Then they'll proceed with stalled efforts to sell the building, said Dave Herrera, a commercial real estate broker with Colliers International - Sacramento. "It's a beautiful brick building," he said. "They're going to try to bring it back." The owners are working closely on the ne