Area 1 Neighborhood Advisory Group members cautiously welcomed the new leader of the Midtown Business Association Monday evening at their monthly meeting and took the opportunity to express their frustrations with the organization. About 40 residents, business leaders and presenters attended the meeting – a high turnout, according to Bill Burgua, attendee. Elizabeth Studebaker, the new executive director of the Midtown Business Association, said her first focus is on trash removal, and that aggressive changes will be made. She also addressed concerns about the growing number of bars and restaurants in Midtown. “There’s a very strong perception that the neighborhood has been taken over

The Midtown Business Association kicked off the new year with a new executive director: Elizabeth Studebaker, who took over the position that has been vacant since Rob Kerth left in October. Studebaker, 33, officially took the helm of the MBA on Monday, with an operating budget of about $650,000 per year. Most recently, she spent almost five years as executive director for a similar organization in San Diego, the North Park Main Street Business Improvement District. The Sacramento Press caught up with Studebaker to ask her some questions about what she has in mind for Midtown. The Sacramento Press: What are your immediate goals for Midtown? Elizabeth Studebaker: My immediate major goals

Midtown’s Ride Your Own Way bicycle share program wrapped up its six-month trial period this week with an average of 20 bicycle rentals per week and plans to significantly expand it under a private company in 2012. “I think the bike share is a really great program to have in Midtown,” said Midtown Business Association Streetscape Program Manager Niki Fay. “It obviously gives people a way to get around businesses quicker and easier, and the environmental benefits are great.” The bicycle share program launched in June and provided two locations with six bicycles each that were rented to riders via automated systems. Similar programs are successful in cities such as Washington, D.C., Montre

The Midtown Business Association is inviting businesses to light up Midtown by transforming their store windows into a winter wonderland this season with an opportunity to win a $1,000 advertising grant from the MBA. This is the second year the MBA has hosted “Light Up Midtown” in the hope of opening the doors of local businesses to more customers this holiday season. “We wanted to find a way to dress up the district and be festive and let people feel very involved in it,” said Heather Philpott, MBA communications and events coordinator. “Businesses can take ownership of the project and get an opportunity to be a part of making the district look great,” Philpott said Wednesday, “and bes

Sacramento’s Ride Your Own Way bike share program suffered a setback when three bicycles were stolen earlier this month, but organizers said they are going forward with an updated system, and new bicycles will soon be ordered. “Someone stole a credit card and used that to check out the bikes,” said Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth. “We’ve made some changes to how people have to validate the credit card, so we’ll be able to tell if it’s the right person.” The program, which launched June 11, allows bicycles to be rented from one of two kiosks in Midtown – one at the Priority Parking lot at 16th and I streets and one at the Priority Parking lot at 27th and J street

Paesanos Italian restaurant in Midtown is gearing up to celebrate 15 years in business with two weeks of specials starting Saturday and a hint to possible expansion to a third location. Director of Operations Dana Scarpulla said a new location is in the works – probably getting under way within a year – but she couldn’t comment further on the location. She added that business has continued to grow in the past five years. “We opened on April 18, 1996, and it’s been great,” Scarpulla said. “There wasn’t much on this corner back then, and we’ve seen Midtown really transition since.” The spot at 1806 Capitol Ave. had seen a string of restaurants come and go before Paesanos moved in. In the

Two years after opening its high-tech Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento, Drexel University is celebrating the graduation of its first class of students. Thirty-five students will be honored this weekend at a celebration event that will precede a formal graduation in June. They have earned an MBA, MS-library & information science, or MS-information systems. “We are truly proud to have educated and mentored such an extraordinary group of working professionals,” said Carl “Tobey” Oxholm III, senior vice president of Drexel and dean of its Center for Graduate Studies. “These individuals showed how entrepreneurial they are when they enrolled with us. Now the region will see just how f

Midtown store owners are in a festive mood, decorating their windows to take part in the “Light up Midtown” contest. The contest is being held by the Midtown Business Association, and the first prize is $1,000 to be used toward advertising. “This is first year of contest,” said MBA spokeswoman Amber Schmaeling. “Basically it was just kind of a way for the MBA to rally up the Midtown businesses and do something fun for the holidays that could be a fun way for us to all participate in a friendly competition and decorate the district.” Schmaeling said more than 50 stores participated in the event. “I think it gave the shop owners a little bit of help to pull together as a team and create

The Sept. 12 shooting has some Sacramentans wondering if the Second Saturday Art Walk is going to go the way of K Street’s Thursday Night Market. According to Michael Picker, The Thursday Night Market was inspired by an event in San Louis Obispo and was intended to be a small-scale street fair people could stop by on their way home from work, but it grew to attract crowds far larger than anticipated as people went home first, picked up their families and then returned to the market. Picker, who was chief of staff for Mayor Joe Serna Jr. when Thursday Night Market was introduced, both the Thursday Night Market and Second Saturday Art Walk became victims of their own success. “Everybody p

A rock band steps onto a portable stage set up in the old Sacramento News and Review parking lot at 20th and J streets. They tune up and begin to play. This promotion marked beginning of the end of the traditional Second Saturday. Second Saturday was no longer going to be an art walk and about visiting art galleries. Second Saturday was going to be about bringing large numbers of young people to Midtown to stay after the event and continue partying and drinking in the Midtown bars and nightclubs. City officials and the Midtown Business Association (MBA) immediately tried to distance the Midtown Second Saturday Art Walk event and themselves from the unfortunate and preventable death of Vi

On Saturday, August 7, Midtown Sacramento played host to the Foursquare Pub Crawl. Organized by Sacramento's Midtown Business Association in order to promote the new Midtown brand, the event featured teams from a number of Midtown establishments. Team leaders were chosen because they were Foursquare Mayors of the participating locations. Foursquare is a dynamic new social networking application that allows users to know what business are close by, what establishments are trending based on the presence of other Foursquare users, see tips published by other users, and even see maps to help guide them to where they want to go. For businesses, Foursquare allows them to know who is visiting

  The River City Gators announced the signing of a contract with the Midtown Girls cheer and promotional service group.  Midtown Girls Founder and Director Erlynn Rose Holyfield was named Director of the Gator Girls dance squad. Due to confidentiality provisions, terms of the deal were not immediately available.  However, River City Gators Co-Owner Jason Kang said, "We welcome Erlynn and her squad to the River City Gators family.  We're excited about the new team and the upcoming season.  There are a lot of great improvements in the works.  We think the community will love the new dance team and all of the things we'll be announcing over the next few months." Kang continued, "This is an

At its June meeting, the Midtown Business Association board discussed parking policy in Midtown Sacramento, and how MBA should address the issue. At the May meeting, City Manager Gus Vina discussed a proposed tax on private parking lots to raise city revenue. Aaron Zeff, owner of Priority Parking, expressed concerns that this would force him to raise prices, and hopes to find other alternatives. MBA discussed hiring a consultant to address parking issues, but instead decided to work with other central city stakeholders, including the Downtown Partnership, neighborhood residents, state offices, hospitals, and the city of Sacramento, to work on a consolidated parking strategy. As a neighbor

On Friday, May 14th, local bands Vesuvius, A Single Second, and Purgatory will play at the Distillery, located at 2107 L Street in Sacramento.  The cover charge is $10, and the show is scheduled to begin at 9pm.  However, management from the Distillery says the first band is likely to begin playing closer to 10pm as the dinner crowd tends to remain seated for some time. A Single Second's Shawn Peter says, "Dave Girard, Aaron Holt, Jason 'Mogley' Tilsey and I are raising funds to help make a difference." Purgatory's Coleman Garcia says, "We're doing the show because we love writing and performing music.  We generate a clean rock sound that's also very melodic and can still kick your face

Midtown residents have been dealing for years with the impacts of a City led campaign to "Bring People Downtown" that ignored the fact that people are already here. Media and Midtown Business Association boosters have contributed by consistently disparaging the existing mixed-use neighborhoods as a desolate, disgusting and scary wasteland; a "dead zone" with invisible/irrelevant residents. Yet, Midtown's now-attractive and lucrative historic neighborhoods ONLY exist, due to the diligent, hard work and determination of residents, preservationists and neighborhoods associations, over the past few decades. Residents met with the MBA and other stakeholders in 2009 as part of MBA's Regional

The Bloc Concert Series has been canceled. Paragary marketing director Callista Wengler confirmed today that the series will not continue. It was scheduled to run the last Saturday of each month through September. The Paragary Restaurant Group organized the and ran the first two concerts to earn money for the Marshall Park Fountain Fund Committee. "We'd love to keep doing it, but it's just really expensive, and the costs were just way more than was expected," Wengler said. "The synergy between the outdoor space and the restaurants makes a great entertainment venue for people." Problems such as a lack of communication and organization began before the concert's debut on May 30, the same

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces: Vice Mayor Steve Cohn, the City of Sacramento & the Midtown Business Association invites you for a discussion on Midtown Night Life Issues. TONIGHT, Wednesday, December 10th 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Ethel MacLeod Hart Senior Center, Redwood Room East Learn about: ● What constitutes a violation & how to report ● Parking ● Entertainment & Special Event Permits ● Best Practices from other Cities Have your questions answered by: ● City staff ● Police and security ● Business owners ● MBA Please attend this important meeting!