Six of the seven candidates for council District 4 discussed the role of business and the value of art to the central city at a forum hosted by four business organizations Monday. The candidates – Steve Hansen, Phyllis Newton, Joe Yee, Michael Rehm, Terry Schanz and Neil Davidson – took the stage at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret Theatre on K Street Monday to answer a slew of questions about issues facing Sacramento’s recently reshaped District 4. Wendy Hoyt, local businesswoman and former president of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, moderated the forum. Hoyt noted that the central city is made up of variety of businesses and asked how the candidates would handle potential conflicts betw

Happy Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, as it’s usually known! While today is the official day, celebrations started ahead of time this past weekend. On Saturday, Old Sacramento came alive with the Old Sacramento Mardi Gras event, organized by the Old Sacramento Business Association. Participating locations provided various amenities to ticket holders—including free cover, food & drink specials, and live music (with the occasional strand of beads thrown in). It was great fun to see the streets of Old Sacramento alive and bustling, and attendees getting into the mood with elaborate masks, beads, and Mardi Gras colors. After bopping around from spot to spot for a bit—stopping in at Delta King, Ri

A windstorm that destroyed the Christmas tree in Old Sacramento didn’t get the last laugh, as the company that provided the tree worked over several days to replace it out of pocket. “There is really not a good explanation for what happened to the tree,” said Chris McSwain, district manager for the Old Sacramento Business Association. “The immediate cause is wind damage. I’d say two-thirds to three-fourths of the needles blew off.” Last weekend’s windstorm might have turned a once-full tree to a skeleton, but that’s when the tree provider, Carlton Christmas Trees from the Redding area, stepped up to replace it. “They’ve never seen anything like this happen in 40 or 50 years,” McSwain sa

A local dance troupe hopes to help turn Sacramento's St. Patrick's Day Parade into a céilí – and for all you non-Gaelic speakers out there, that means one big party. While a little beer is known to flow on St. Patrick's Day, the kind of party we're talking about is more of a cultural celebration. The céilí – or céilidh in Scottish Gaelic – developed in Ireland and Scotland as an entertaining get-together where stories were told, poems recited and songs sung. Modern céilís (KAY lees) often include dancing. The céilí is what St. Patrick's Day is all about, said Helen Healy, one of the grand dames of the city's Irish-American community. "It's a Celtic word for a gathering of music, song a

The key to successful and safe hip hop events in Sacramento is to focus on the music, an expert panel said Tuesday. Sacramento needs club owners and promoters to give hip hop artists doing good music a chance – working together rationally to overcome stereotypes or solve problems. What the city doesn't need is people who bring turf wars or personal drama into clubs, said hip hop artists, promoters and a historian gathered at the Crest Theatre. One panelist, rapper B-Smoove, acknowledged that problems can arise if gang enemies who normally don't cross paths suddenly wind up at the same club. He’s established a reputation for hosting problem-free hip hop nights by reminding his audiences t

Nightclub safety will be discussed at upcoming workshops offered by local business organizations. The Downtown Sacramento Partnership, Midtown Business Association and Old Sacramento Business Association are hosting two sessions this month.They are part of a series aimed at educating bar and restaurant owners and staff about their responsibilities, as well as state laws and city regulations. The free workshops are open to businesses, DJs and club promoters in Old Sacramento, downtown and Midtown. Rapper B-Smoove and other experts in Sacramento's hip hop scene recently agreed to lead a panel on managing hip hop nights so that they stay free from the violence that shut down clubs like Ele

Sacramento’s “hospitality zones” became classrooms Thursday night. Nearly two dozen people visiting Sacramento for the California Downtown Association’s 2010 annual conference took a walking “Nighttime Economy Tour” through parts of Old Sacramento, downtown and Midtown. Most in the group help manage downtown business districts. Stopping in bars from Vega’s at Old Sacramento’s historic waterfront to de Vere’s Irish Pub near 15th and L streets, people learned best practices, as well as what to avoid, to successfully set up and manage hospitality districts – concentrations of bars, restaurants, café-lounges and other entertainment businesses. Officials with cities and business improvement

Old Sacramento in the fall would be a little more lifeless without its scarecrows. Every year for at least a decade, the scarecrows have turned up on balconies, wooden sidewalks and a spooky-looking park to enchant visitors. But the scarecrows fell apart as they grew older. Business owners have become reluctant to adopt them for storefronts in recent years. So six Sacramento artists -- most who live in the grid -- were recruited to breathe new life (death?) into more than two dozen scarecrows in time for Halloween. Melissa Martinez, the Old Sacramento Business Association's new leader, is playing up Halloween in the business district this year to draw more visitors and shoppers. "This

A night parade is in the works to be revived in Sacramento, more than 115 years after the spectacle lit up city streets to celebrate what was said to be the world's first long-distance electric power transmission. The parade was first held Sept. 9, 1895, during a Grand Electric Carnival that heralded the arrival of electric power in Sacramento. Sacramento's electric carnival parade was so beautiful that Walt Disney Co. later used it as a model for its Electric Light Parade. The Old Sacramento Business Association is working to revive the night parade during winter holiday festivities in 2011. The plan is to recreate the parade to expand the seasonal celebration and to play up the city's

  Locals who hit Gold Rush Days over Labor Day Weekend will notice some changes in Old Sacramento.   New business activity including historic building reconstruction is underway. While the addition of new ventures hasn't totally offset the loss of others, tourism revenue for 2009 seems to be holding steady with 2007 and 2006, said Melissa Martinez, executive director of the Old Sacramento Business Association, a business improvement district. "We're staying steady in tourism," said Martinez. "That’s a really good sign." In 2007, retail businesses brought in $2.25 million in sales tax revenue, about the same as 2006. Tax receipts dipped by $129,000 in 2008 — primarily due to the I-5 re