Midtown Business Association Executive Director Elizabeth Studebaker said she is hopeful that the organization will be able to renew its status as a property and business improvement district in July. That status comes at an annual cost to local property and business owners – totalling $633,000 for the district – that is similar to an added property tax. In return, the MBA provides numerous services, such as graffiti removal, trash cleanup, private security patrols and marketing. If the assessment renewal is not passed, those services will not be funded, and the MBA will revert to being a much smaller organization able to do minimal marketing and advocate for the district at City Council

Questions and concerns — as well as support — have been raised over a city of Sacramento planning and building department program suspended after it was illegally used to fast-track the Nestlé water-bottling plant. The little-known Facilities Permit Program came to light in late October when Nestlé's renovation of a South Sacramento warehouse was temporarily halted and a city investigation revealed work had started without legally required building permits. Many people, including those criticizing some aspects of the current building approval process, said city staff have worked hard in the last few years to become more developer-friendly by improving the building approval process and re

Midtown's MARRS Building has a full house again with three new tenants coming on board this month. Two spaces have been vacant for several months after business owners left without a word and without paying all their bills — which really hurts after the effort the company made to help them be successful, said building owner Michael Heller of Heller Pacific. "We help these tenants. We help them get their permits, we help with their construction, we market them," he said. "So when they don't honor their obligations, it's hurtful to us." New tenants in the block-long building, whose renovation was completed in 2007, include a shop that sells jeans, a sandwich shop and a comedy club. All th

The recent closing of his DV8 Boutique in Midtown was rough. But Michael Afshar doesn't have time to dwell on that. He's too busy DJ'ing his way through Europe right now. Considered by some to be a pioneer of San Francisco's underground house scene, Afshar — who entertains under the name DJ Skittles — is in St. Petersburg, Russia, after gigs in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Soon, he'll be spinning tech and electro house music in Moscow and Ukraine. "I have been playing in different countries every week now," he e-mailed in between gigs. "I had played in many venues in the world in the past. This is me going back to one of the things I love the most: music and flying in airplanes." The former