Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "preservation"

Local historian Burg appointed to Sacramento Heritage board

2011-10-18T04:03:49Z

Local historian, author and preservation buff William Burg was appointed Tuesday to the Sacramento Heritage, Inc. Board of Directors – an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the rich history of Sacramento.

It comes as no surprise that Burg should be interested in the position: With three published local history books under his belt, a degree in public history from Sacramento State and years on the boards of both the Sacramento County Historical Society and the Sacramento Old City Association – history is what Burg is all about.

“Public history is for historians who do things other than teach,” Burg said Monday. “It’s for historians working in museums, archivists – anyone interested in the field of historic preservation.”

Sacramento Heritage provides grants and loans to historic properties, conducts historic property surveys and has produced walking tour brochures of many of the city’s historic districts.

Burg said that he wanted to join the Sacramento Heritage Board of Directors because the organization works directly with the city to promote what he refers to as “heritage tourism” – tourism based on the history of a city more than on the entertainment or recreation possibilities.

“Heritage tourism is really important,” Burg said. “Cities with a rich heritage tourism program are beneficial to the local economy.”

Burg said heritage tourists typically stay longer and spend more money in a community than the average tourist.

Heritage tourism can be a big draw to a city, Burg said – if people know what a city has to offer.

“People who want to explore (this) city’s history will usually go to Old Sacramento,” Burg said, “but (they) may not go past I-5 and just don’t know that there are interesting older neighborhoods in the city.”

Another reason for joining the Sacramento Heritage Board of Directors, Burg said, is that he wants to be a part of the work that it does promoting adaptive reuse for old city buildings.

Essentially, instead of using “virgin” resources in construction, adaptive reuse makes the most of what is already there, creating more efficient redevelopment of old buildings.

“Fixing up old buildings creates more jobs per dollar than building new buildings,” Burg said.

According to Burg, in new building construction projects, materials account for half of the cost, and labor accounts for the other half.

In adaptive reuse, the division of cost shifts to two-thirds for labor and only one-third for materials – that means more jobs in the community and a more positive economic effect, Burg said.

“We do have a lot of valuable resources in the city that (are) worth showing to people, and people want to see (them),” Burg said. “These are proven ways to increase jobs and boost our economy.”

Peter Keat, owner of Time Tested Books on 21st Street in Sacramento, has known Burg for more than a decade – some of that time as customer, other times as an author discussing his books on Sacramento history – and Time Tested carries copies of Burg’s books.

“He will be an excellent addition to the (Sacramento Heritage) board,” Keat said. “He is very knowledgeable and well-informed about the history of Sacramento.”

Burg published his first Sacramento history book, “Sacramento’s Streetcars,” in July 2006.

He followed “Streetcars” with two more books, “Sacramento’s Southside Park” in September 2007, and “Sacramento: Then and Now” in September 2008.

Keat said Burg has participated in the store’s monthly Living Library presentations, most recently discussing architecture in the city dating up to the 1930s.

The Living Library is a series of discussions and presentations featuring local artists, historians, writers and other commentators on culture in Sacramento.

“(Burg) will work well in the team environment of a board,” Keat said. “He is very easy to work with.”

According to Katia Ligaiviu, deputy city clerk, Sacramento Heritage and its nine-member board of directors were established by a City Council resolution in 1975. It was established as a 501(c)3 nonprofit to implement a yearly program that would provide for the preservation of architecturally and historically significant buildings in Sacramento.

Roberta Deering, senior planner with the Community Development Department, said Monday that, most notably, Sacramento Heritage established an official Historic Properties Plaque program and two new walking tours for the downtown area, “with more coming in other areas of the central city soon.”

The historic plaque program is designed to officially recognize designated historic homes and landmarks within the city of Sacramento.

Burg is replacing previous board member Marc De La Vergne, who maxed out his term and vacated the position in November 2010.

The Sacramento Heritage board meets monthly, and there is no compensation for any position on the board. Burg’s first meeting as a Sacramento Heritage director will be in November.

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MeissaCorker.

Historic Home Tour in Marshall School Neighborhood

2011-09-12T19:57:35Z

Sacramento Old City Association 36th Annual Home Tour
What: A tour of 8 historic buildings in the Marshall School neighborhood, and street fair at 27th and J Street.
When: Sunday, September 18, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
Where: Marshall Park, 27th & J Street, Sacramento
How Much: $20 in advance, $25 day of event

On Sunday, September 18, the Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA) presents its 36th annual tour of historic homes in Sacramento’s central city. Each year, we offer an inside look into the beautiful and historic buildings that line Midtown and Downtown streets, and some of the newest infill development projects in the city. This year’s tour of the Marshall School neighborhood, in the northeastern quarter of the central city between F and J Street, features homes in the Queen Anne, Craftsman and Neoclassic styles. In addition to seven residential buildings, this year's tour includes a rare inside look at the Sacramento Eastern Star Temple, a National Register listed 1925 Romanesque Revival building.

The tour starts at Marshall Park, at the corner of 27th and J Street. A street fair at the park features local contractors, architects, builders and artisans specializing in historic home rehab and remodeling, local businesses, artists and crafters displaying their wares, local nonprofits, advocacy and local history organizations.

Local musicians Tender Cinders, Garage Jazz Architects, The Freebadge Serenaders, and Emile Dalkey will perform at the street fair in the center of Marshall Park, starting at 11:00 AM.

Those attending the tour will get an inside, guided tour through each building, provided by volunteer docents, including members of the Marshall School New Era Park Neighborhood Association, SOCA, and the Sacramento Art Deco Society. Tour participants can also show their tour wristband for a 15% discount in the restaurants of the nearby Sutter District. The tour costs $25 on the day of the event, or $20 in advance via www.brownpapertickets.com. The street fair is free and open to the public.

Started in 1975, the SOCA Home Tour was created to showcase historic homes in neglected central city neighborhoods. Members showed off their home-repair projects and shared techniques, tools and advice. As these neighborhoods became the Sacramento region’s favorite destination for culture and entertainment, the home tour has grown into a celebration of central city life, including art, culture, business, transportation and transit, entertainment, history, downtown living, and the irreplaceable beauty of Sacramento’s historic neighborhoods. The tour is also a fundraiser that helps SOCA carry out its mission to preserve and enhance a high quality of life for Central City residents, businesses, working people and visitors.

Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/187298
For more information about SOCA, visit http://www.sacoldcity.org

Sponsored in part by Midtown Monthly Magazine, The Sutter District restaurants, and Midtown Business Association

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

"Jane's Walk" Urban Planning Walks

2011-05-04T05:27:47Z

Sacramento Jane’s Walk 2011: Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8

Jane’s Walk USA is a series of free neighborhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves. Since its inception in 2007, Jane’s Walk has happened in cities across North America, and is growing internationally. Sacramento’s Jane’s Walk series incorporates elements of urban planning, neighborhood advocacy, urban history, and architectural history, to demonstrate how a neighborhood’s physical form promotes its walkability, sustainability and economic and social vitality. All tours are free of charge; show up at the starting point at the designated time in comfortable walking shoes. No RSVP is necessary.

In 2010, Sacramento's first Jane's Walk series took place on May 1 with four simultaneous tours. This year, five total tours are being held over two days; except for the Oak Park and Southside Park tours, the tours are held at different times, so people can attend more than one.

Sacramento Jane’s Walk Schedule

Saturday, May 7

Alkali Flat
10 AM – Noon
Tour Guide: Luis Sumpter, Sacramento Old City Association Board Member
Starting Point: Shine Coffee, 1400 E Street
SOCA and Alkali Flat Neighborhood Association board member Luis Sumpter will lead a tour of Sacramento’s oldest surviving residential neighborhood, Alkali Flat. This tour will visit local architectural landmarks, neighborhood businesses, adaptive reuse projects, and new mixed-use projects under construction.

Midtown
2 PM – 4 PM
Tour Guide: William Burg, Sacramento Old City Association Board Member
Starting Point: Mondo Bizarro, 1827 I Street
William Burg, historian and author of Sacramento’s Streetcars, will guide this tour of Midtown’s mixed-use business corridors and adjacent residential neighborhoods, from the days of Sutter through the streetcar era to the present day. The tour will focus on walkability, transit, mixed-use neighborhoods, and Midtown’s legacy as a regional epicenter of creativity and art.

Sunday, May 8

Southside Park
10 AM-Noon
Tour Guide: William Burg, Sacramento Old City Association Board Member
Starting Point: Callahan Bandstand, 7th and T Street, Southside Park
William Burg, historian and author of Sacramento’s Southside Park, will lead this tour, focusing on the neighborhood’s rich cultural diversity, transportation, landscape and urban design, neighborhood activism, and adaptation to changing neighborhood roles.

Central Oak Park Walking Tour
10 AM-Noon
Tour Guide: Tom Sumpter, Oak Park Neighborhood Association
Starting Point: Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street
Neighborhood activist Tom Sumpter will lead a tour of Oak Park’s historic business district along Broadway and nearby landmarks, designed by Sacramento State geography professor Robin Datel and using a tour brochure published by the Center for Sacramento History.

Downtown: From the Railroad Tracks to the Civic Center
2 PM – 4 PM
Tour Guide: Melisa Gaudreau, Sacramento Heritage Inc. Board Member
Starting Point: Sacramento City Hall, 915 I Street
Historic architect Melisa Gaudreau will lead a tour of downtown Sacramento, focusing on Sacramento Heritage Inc.’s new tour of the Civic Center area along H, I and J Street between the historic Southern Pacific passenger depot and City Hall.

About Jane’s Walks
Jane’s Walk USA honors the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs who championed the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centered approach to planning. Jane’s Walk USA helps knit people together into a strong and resourceful community, instilling belonging and encouraging civic leadership.

All Jane’s Walk USA tours are given and taken for free. These walks are led by anyone who has an interest in the neighborhoods where they live, work or hang out. They are not always about architecture and heritage, and offer a more personal take on the local culture, the social history and the planning issues faced by the residents. Jane Jacobs believed strongly that local residents understood best how their neighborhood works, and what is needed to strengthen and improve them. Jane’s Walks are meant to be fun, engaged and participatory – everyone’s got a story and they’re usually keen to share it.

Thousands of people have taken part in a Jane’s Walk USA. Past walks have explored a wide range of urban landscapes, from social housing slated for redevelopment to areas with a rich architectural and cultural heritage, to teen hangouts and secret gardens. Walks are led by individuals and small groups. Some are focused around historical themes more than geographical areas, for instance, some strolls have been built around ideas like the history of the bicycle, gay and lesbian history, places of relevance to the homeless, the history of ‘skid row’, and urgent planning matters facing certain neighborhoods.

About the Sacramento Old City Association
The Sacramento Old City Association promotes actions that preserve and enhance a high quality of life for Central City residents, businesses, working people and visitors. The organization works to achieve balanced and harmonious relationships among residential, commercial and employment uses in the Central City. To achieve these goals the Sacramento Old City Association works to:

•Increase public awareness of the irreplaceable historic, architectural and cultural resources of the Central City
•Gather and disseminate information useful in the preservation of structures and neighborhoods of Sacramento.
•Advocate the policies and positions of the organization to the appropriate public agencies and private parties.
•Build and strengthen coalitions with other organizations working to achieve similar goals.
•Promote a quality urban environment through the encouragement of compatibly designed and constructed housing, commercial and office buildings.

For More Information about Jane's Walk or the Sacramento Old City Association:

http://www.sacoldcity.org
http://janeswalkusa.wordpress.com/

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

800 K Street Plan at Preservation Commission

2011-03-02T02:13:31Z

This Wednesday, March 2, the City of Sacramento's Preservation Commission will review and comment on plans for the 800 block of K Street. This plan follows the February review and comment for the 700 block of K Street, (a project of D&S Development and CFY Development) by the Preservation Commission, later presented to Design and Planning Commission.

City of Sacramento Preservation Commission

Wednesday, March 2, 5:30 PM, City Council Chambers, New City Hall, 915 I Street, Sacramento

Agenda for the Preservation Commission meeting can be found here:

http://sacramento.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=144

This project, selected last summer as one of two projects for the 700 and 800 block of K Street, is presented by David Taylor Interests, Domus, CIM and Zeiden Properties. After input by the city of Sacramento, the project now includes 200 apartments (the original plan called for 110) varying in size from 450 to 1100 square feet, and 20,000 feet of retail space, on a lot of approximately 1.1 acres. Two new buildings will be constructed, at 800 K Street and 801 L Street, and the historic Bel-Vue Apartments/American Cash Apartments building will be restored and renovated. The 800 K Street building will be six stories tall, not including a basement parking level at Sacramento's original street level. The 801 L Street building will be five stories. Affordability levels will vary within the project, ranging from low and moderate income to market-rate units. Potential tenants for the ground floor retail units were not specified in the staff report.

The complete report for the 800 Block proposal can be found here:

http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=144&meta_id=218914

This item will be received for review and comment, most likely to be followed by presentations to Design Review and Planning Commission in the coming weeks.

This month's Preservation Commission will also feature public hearings on two items: a recommendation for the Broadway Triangle project, a mixed-use project planned for Broadway between 34th and 36th Street that will include several landmark buildings in the Oak Park/Broadway historic district, and a recommendation for district signs, art, and bicycle furniture for the R Street Corridor between 10th and 13th Street.

Details about the Broadway Triangle project can be found here:

http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=144&meta_id=218908

The R Street streetscape plan can be found here:

http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=144&meta_id=218910

The Preservation Commission will also review a staff report regarding whether or not to recommend the California State Printing Plant on North 7th and Richards Boulevard to the City Council as a city landmark. Staff report can be found here:

http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=144&meta_id=218912

Pictures accompanying this article were taken from the City of Sacramento staff report, linked above.

East Sacramento stone sisters endure

2011-01-31T04:58:32Z

When the Zelda Stone Quarry closed its doors in 1931, it left behind two enduring legacies in East Sacramento: East Portal Park and the “stone sisters” houses.

Peppered through East Sacramento are craftsman bungalows built with large cinder blocks and granite. The cinder blocks are composed of stone excavated over the years from the East Portal pit. Most of these houses were built in the aughts of the last century, and the homes are easy to recognize. They tend to be squarish, have small rooms and the exteriors have rough-hewn, chiseled and buffed blocks. Many of these houses also have granite in the construction and exquisite interior detailing.

Longtime residents of East Sacramento see these homes as significant heritage points.

“They are worth preserving,” said Will Green, president of East Sacramento Preservation. “They are unique and reflect the local history of the East Portal quarry. I’ve seen several such homes in the Louisville and Cincinnati areas built of quarried stones, and they are preserved beautifully. This type of heritage must be kept.”

In April 1931 the quarry closed shop. The Great Depression’s grip tightened on Sacramento and unemployment numbers soared. Homeless camps, or Hoover Towns, sprouted up and the city’s economic gears stalled to a slow grind. The quarry became one of the casualties. The city bought the quarry as parkland by eminent domain. The owners first demanded $18,000, but after a brief tussle over price and the beginning of condemnation proceedings, the company settled for $7,500.

Today the former quarry is East Portal Park, a scooped-out, bowl of lawn nestled deep in the neighborhood on 51st and M streets. From any side you enter the park you start a descent. It’s a natural amphitheater. The flat bottom makes a comfy seat to enjoy Pops in the Park. But this modern, treed venue almost didn’t exist.

The Depression put the kibosh on city park development plans, but President Roosevelt and the Work Progress Administration saved the day. WPA workers leveled much of the quarry, planted trees and framed the park with sidewalks. It was ready to go in 1936.

Four stone maidens still stand around the park today. Two butt up to the northwest corner of the park. These two buildings look suspiciously like they might have been housing for the quarry owners or foremen’s families, but their original function is unclear. They were originally single-story, box-like houses, almost identical to each other.

Some of the homes have undergone extensive additions, but you can always spot the stone maidens because of the distinctive first floors. Tasteful changes that blend well with the neighborhood expand many of the homes vertically.

“When expanding or redesigning, the original architectural style of these historic homes needs to be carefully included,” Green said. “Recently one house at the edge of East Portal Park underwent a remodel and it blends seamlessly with the existing design.”

Two others are located west of the park. These are stately two-story ladies. One of these had a spicy career as a sorority house and many of the original interior features were altered.

For 24 years, Doug and Anna Skewes have been the stewards of the second of these houses.

“It’s a very comfortable home,” Doug said. “The insulation of the stone keeps it warm in the winter and cool in the summer.”

They have kept the exterior in pristine, original condition, adding just a coat of paint. The interior was remodeled to correct 1950s-era changes.

“Most of the original cherry wood features and original wood floor were lost in earlier modernizations,” he said. “But in one room we have an original five-panel door with an antique knob and plate.”

The residence reflects an earlier mode of flood control, with the second floor rising high above the ground. The Skeweses live on the top floor. There is a mystery room on the lower floor.

“A threshold leads up to the room and it has no windows,” he said. “The floor has what appears to be embedded carbon. It’s the size of a wine cellar and there’s no light. It might have been some type of heating or furnace area. There's a rumor that prohibition money is hidden in the house.”

The couple has yet to find the stash.

Perhaps the most exquisitely preserved stone home sits on 43rd and F.

“Remarkably, I’m only the third owner,” Marsha Hartberg said. “The home still has an original Murphy bed, and when we worked on the house, we found gaslight piping in the ceiling. We slightly altered the back porch and found the stones to be a mix of what appeared to be cinder block and solid granite.”

Hartberg’s one-story house has the original interior and exterior detailing. The facade has three different stone cuts and shaping. A river-rock fireplace crowns the living room, and built-ins, wainscoting, picture molding and the original wood floor add priceless touches to the historic home. All remain, unpainted and in excellent condition. It’s in a true turn of the century craftsman.

“Even the windows are original,” Hartberg said of the antique wavy glass that glassblowers produced up until about 1910. “I thought about weatherizing, but I didn’t want to loose the waves or the antique hardware.”

Further original details abound in her home. The porch is “roped” by a single linked iron strand with decorative hooks. Crushed rock and embedded stone inlay add unique details.

Midtown, East Sacramento and Oak Park are just some of the neighborhoods that boast original, last-century jewels. Preservation of these homes is a critical part of city management. The stone maidens of East Sacramento survived into the 21st century. May they see many more centuries to come.

If you can find your house address in the old city directories, you’re on your way to discovering its past. Go to the Central Library’s Sacramento Room to start your search. You can also visit “History of a House” for more information.

SOCA home tour exhibits historic Midtown buildings

2010-09-21T00:10:27Z

Q Street’s historic “Bungalow Row” was opened to the public Sunday as part of the Sacramento Old City Association’s 35th annual home tour. Six occupied residences dating from 1894 to 1910 put on their Sunday best to impress the Sacramento homeowners, architecture enthusiasts and history fans who milled about the Q, P and O Street homes, enacting a sort of live-action Home and Garden program.

Winn Park’s emergency relay station, built in 1937, was also on display, and booths and tents on the East side of the park displayed presentations on art, history, home maintenance and preservation efforts. Young men with acoustic guitars sat under trees and played songs to audiences of 10 or 12 in an informal fashion that characterized the meandering, decentralized atmosphere of the rest of the day’s events.

Through the tents slowly rode a man dressed in period clothing sitting precariously atop a penny-farthing. That man was Ed Cox, one of the tour guides at house No. 2 of the tour.

Standing on the front porch of a Q Street bungalow, Cox greeted people walking up the steps.

“The Home Tour is about bringing awareness of historic buildings and the fact that they’re a valuable resource,” Cox said. “Because once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.”

Cox pointed to some volcanic-looking bricks jutting from the side of the house. Clinker brick, he explained, was first created when brick-makers accidentally burned the bricks that were cooked near the walls of the oven. At first they threw clinker brick in the trash, but builders thought they were interesting and now they add character to many old homes such as this one. Details like that are the stuff early 20th century Sacramento homes are made of — that and front porches.

“The fact is, people don’t really have front porches anymore,” Cox said. “Everyone’s in their little air-conditioned boxes.”

At some point in American history, there was a transition from the community-oriented front porch to the private leave-me-alone backyard. It’s the former that historical-preservation types like Cox would like to see a return to in Sacramento.

For some, like the members of the Q Street Gang, that day has already come. A group of neighbors on Q Street started having dinner parties in 2002 and the group has grown since then, creating a kind of neighborhood community that has become increasingly uncommon.

One of the founding members of the Q Street Gang, Jackie Brown, said the group is great because they all help each other out when they need it. Some of the members are in their 70s, so if they need some yardwork done or help with some other task they’re not quite up to, the gang’s got their back.

“It’s kind of like an extended family,” Brown said. “Which is good for me because I don’t have any other family.”

Each home in the tour has a different personality, but of the estimated 500 who visited the homes Sunday, many agreed that two unifying features were their beauty and charm.

“They’re so welcoming,” said one visitor, proud Sacramento homeowner Catherine Hackney. “They welcome you with open arms.”

From the architecture, choice of construction materials and use of space and light, everything about these homes makes them wonderful, Hackney said.

Upon entering home No. 4 of the tour, on P Street, one could smell a warm mustiness unique to old houses that have been as lovingly cared for, knick-knacks set about an old piano, a knitted blanket carefully folded over the back of an easy chair. Creaky wooden steps lead up to bedrooms decorated over decades of careful pruning and selection, lined with bookshelves of worn but neatly organized books.

There is a romance that draws people to these homes. People are attracted for nostalgic reasons. To many in Sacramento, these homes represent something of immeasurable value worth preserving. Despite the importance of preservation efforts, tour guide Christine Henderson said, people should be open-minded about it.

“We may not like tract houses, but we don’t have to put down people who don’t like what we like,” she said. “Maybe in the future, people will look back on those homes the way we look at these ones.”

Photos courtesy of Randy Lum/SOCA.

SOCA Home Tour in Bungalow Row

2010-09-17T07:38:25Z

On Sunday, September 19, the Sacramento Old City Association presents its 35th annual Home Tour, focusing on the homes of Q Street's Bungalow Row and Winn Park. Sacramento Press reporter Brandon Darnell detailed the story behind the Home Tour here:

www.sacramentopress.com/headline/35635/Historic_homes_to_open_for_tour

The home tour's "base of operations" this year, where tickets are sold, is located in Winn Park, at the corner of 28th and P Street. Winn Park is also the location of the tour's street fair, featuring local contractors, artisans, crafters, artists and organizations. At the center of the park, near the fire relay station that is one of the stops on the tour, musical performers will play from 11 AM to 3 PM.

Performers scheduled are Ross Hammond, Chris Harvey and Tim White (of The Alkali Flats), Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, and the Freebadge Serenaders.

At the street fair, local developers ZETA Homes will have information about their new residential project planned for 25th and R Street. Dave "I Do Windows and Doors" Clark will demonstrate how restoring wood windows can be cheaper and far greener than replacing wood with vinyl windows. Practical Cycle will share information on their upcoming local history bike rides. Midtown Business Association will share their upcoming events, and downtowngrid.com will offer coupons and gifts from local businesses. Several authors of Arcadia Publishing's books on local history will be present to sign and sell books. Archivists from the Center for Sacramento History and representatives of the Sacramento Old City Cemetery will share information on their organizations. Two stained glass artists, Mickey Abbey and Richard Graf, will feature their arts at either end of the park. CLUCK, the Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping, will share information on their efforts. Local artists like Kitten Kustom Wares, New Old Jewelry and Carolyn Hess Handmade Quilts will display their crafts, while fine arts by Joy Gee of Matrix Arts, Mareia de Socorro, Nicholas Roberts and Greg LaTraille will be on display.

If you are planning on attending the "Sac Cycle Chic" bicycle ride, the ride will end at the Street Fair. For more information on Sac Cycle Chic:

www.saccyclechic.com/

The street fair will take place in the eastern half of Winn Park, but there will still be plenty of room for picnics and gatherings.

35th Annual SOCA Home Tour
Location: Bungalow Row and Winn Park, 28th and P Street, Midtown Sacramento
Description: Join us for the 35th Annual SOCA Home Tour. This year we are celebrating the 100th birthday of Bungalow Row. A street fair featuring artisans and craftspersons specializing in historic properties will be held in Winn Park at 27th & P Streets. Home Tour tickets will be available at the street fair. The street fair is free.
Start Time: 09:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Date: September 19, 2010

Tickets are $20 in advance and $ 25 the day of the event

Advance tickets can be purchased after August 22nd at the following locations:

The Avid Reader, 16th & Broadway

Collected Works, 4525 Freeport Blvd. next to Capitol Nursery

57th Street Antique Mall, 57th & H Street

Joann’s Elegant Gifts, 1019 L Street

Green Sacramento, 919 20th Street

For more information on SOCA:

www.sacoldcity.org

The Next American Dream

2010-08-28T00:17:19Z

Applause filled The Crest Theatre Thursday night when a scene from the documentary “The Next American Dream” displayed an enormous tractor claw demolishing a freeway overpass. The scene symbolized an end to urban sprawl, its destructive effects on nature and its seeming lack of forethought in urban planning.

No one specific group, organization or political party took responsibility for the showing of the film. Instead, it was communicated to the audience that the film was being brought to the Crest by a group of people who call Sacramento home.

Dustin Littrell, a local architect and designer, ambiguously revealed that the idea for showing the film in Sacramento began among “a group of caring folks.”

Littrell had seen the documentary aired on KVIE about six months ago and said he was astonished at how applicable the film’s content was to some of the current issues facing Sacramento.

“It was as if we were watching a documentary about Sacramento,” Littrell said.

However, Kansas City, Mo. was the main focus of the film. It followed the process the city took to revitalize and reinvigorate its own downtown.

After World War II, the suburbs seemed to epitomize what so many Americans believed to be the American Dream, but now, the film argues, we are ready for a new American dream; The Next American Dream.

Many in attendance didn’t know much about the film before arriving at the Crest. Terrence Johnson, executive director at The Stockton Boulevard Partnership, said, “I actually don’t know anything about it. It’s kind of a blind faith thing because Dustin (Littrell) recommended it. I kind of follow him around to see what he’s doing because he does a lot of interesting things.”

Similar stories were heard throughout the foyer during the event’s preshow social hour. There was a common bond among those in attendance, in that each one of them seemed involved in projects or careers that shape the future of Sacramento.

Gretchen Steinberg came to the event hopeful that it would provide answers for her group, Sacramento Modern.

“We are a new nonprofit working to promote, preserve and protect mid-century and modern architecture, art and design in Sacramento,” Steinberg said. “I want (the film) to give recommendations and provide some knowledgeable input regarding preservation.”

Littrell said he hoped the film would work to bring Sacramentans together, to work together and have pride in their city. Johnson unknowingly echoed Littrell’s sentiments, having said, “I’m hoping that if this (is) an awareness-building event that it’s very successful for people that may traditionally not be paying attention. I’m hoping that I see faces here that we don’t normally see at the table for economic development, revitalization and other issues that go on in City Hall or downtown.”

The film explained that a suburban exodus occurred after soldiers returned from World War II. A popular trend involved getting away from congested city centers.

Freeways were constructed, connecting people to their jobs in the city and to their homes in the country, and the automobile became a household item for many. As development moved outward, away from urban cores, cities and their downtown’s were neglected.

“The Next American Dream” argues that new trends are on the rise as people are wanting to live in closer proximity to their work, entertainment, social lives and services. The film claims that “people are bored with the suburbs.”

Lynne Freeman has been a resident in downtown for more than 15 years, and she said, “Your city is only as good as your downtown.”

Having witnessed the ups and downs of downtown Sacramento over the last decade and a half, Freeman remains optimistic about Sacramento’s future. “We’re definitely on our way up, it’s just which way up do we go?”

Freeman’s question remained unanswered by the film. Kansas City’s approach to revitalization, though inspiring, would not work here in Sacramento. So then, what will work to restore life to Sacramento’s urban core? Answers will inevitably vary.

Littrell said he believes an arena built downtown would act as a catalyst project for more development.

“It can bring revenue, bodies, and just people,” he said. “Businesses on game days will come alive.”

The film would seem to support Littrell’s argument, as Kansas City’s success can be largely attributed to the construction of the $276 million dollar Sprint Center.

Other than the arena, affordable housing has also brought life back to Kansas City’s downtown, but is this feasible here?

Vivian Gerlach said she enjoyed the film, but hoped the filmmakers would have addressed more issues relevant to Sacramento.

“They really honed in on the entertainment aspect, but living here is really important too,” she said.

“It’s not just about eating and drinking,” Gerlach said. “They didn’t talk about schools. What about schools? I mean, this is the stuff we struggle with in Midtown, and downtown is having good schools and housing at different price points, not just high-end lofts or low-income apartments.”

After digesting the film, Kris Cowan offered his own opinion on the subject: “I think that so much of the sprawl went to Roseville and to affordable housing.”

Cowan said he believes that the film’s showing was a good conversation starter for people in Sacramento.

“Talking about potential breeds more ideas,” Cowan said.

Travelers often bypass Sacramento as they head up the hill or down to the bay.

“There needs to be something about Sacramento that makes people want to stop for the evening and check it out,” Matt Bullock said. Bullock is the personification of what the film said this new generation wants. He works and lives right in downtown. “I’m trying to live the life!” he said.

Conversation was stimulated by the film as people left the theater.

Tyler Zurcher left the showing feeling positive that Sacramento is on the right track for revitalization.

“We’re heading in the right direction, but we need to get the right people involved,” Zurcher said.

The right people may have been close at hand. Alongside Zurcher was Amy Dempster, who added, “I think there are a whole lot of people in Sacramento that want to see something happen, but they don’t know that they can do something about it. We’re out here tonight hoping that something changes, because people like us are willing to get involved.”

There will be a second free screening of the film at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18 in front of the MAARS building.

Photos courtesty of Jerome Love.

Exhibit Reveals Sacramento's Arboreal Love Affair

2010-08-13T04:34:19Z

Sacramento has been called “The City of Trees,” a city with more trees per capita than Paris, a place known for its romantic, tree-lined walkways and thoroughfares.

Each tree in Sacramento has a story to tell. This is the theme of “Living With Trees,” a new art exhibit that opened in City Hall Aug. 4 featuring 17 historical photographs selected from the Center for Sacramento History’s archives, each telling a small piece of the decades-old romance Sacramento has had with its trees.

There are images of automobiles smashed by broad tree trunks flung down in the windstorm of 1950, costumed children playacting in a shaded grove and an ordinary Sacramento man sweeping a front yard enveloped by countless leaves.

But, it’s about more than just the trees, said Coloma artist Cheri Ibes. “It’s about our relationship with nature.”

Ibes’ installation is in the center of the exhibit – a tangled arrangement of pruned brambles from a manzanita shrub enclosed in a glass case.

“The spectrum of the human relationship with nature runs between fear of an unbridled, uncontrollable force of nature – things like hurricanes and earthquakes – to wanting to control and own nature ourselves in the form of something like a potted bonsai plant in your backyard,” Ibes said.

Her installation, she said, embodies that spectrum of human interaction with nature, as do all the photographs in the exhibit.

Since 1849, the people of Sacramento have cherished the benefits of having lots of trees around. But with the city’s budget cuts reducing the workforce of Urban Forestry services from the equivalent of 57 full-time employees to about 36, there is concern about what the future holds for Sacramento’s urban canopy.

Despite having fewer employees, a recent upgrade to a Google Earth-style tree mapping system that tracks data for about 100,000 public trees in Sacramento has made preservation efforts easier for the city, Sacramento Urban Forestry Manager Joe Benassini said.

“There’s a real protective tendency people have toward trees, ” said Lisa Prince, curator of this exhibit and curator for the Center for Sacramento History, which is presenting the exhibit in conjunction with The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

Trees give us shade from the scorching summer sun, clean air to breathe, and promote mental and emotional well-being, Prince said.

Prince said she wants people to walk away from the exhibit having found some way to connect with the history of Sacramento and develop an appreciation for the urban forest.

Some have. The exhibit includes a cork board where visitors can tack up an index card with their tree stories. The cards are full of stories: about weddings, sad memories of trees now gone, happy childhood memories of climbing trees and building tree houses.

The exhibit can be viewed at 915 I Street in the Robert T. Matsui Gallery on the first floor of the new City Hall building until Jan. 15. The viewing hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of the Center for Sacramento History. Photos 3 and 4 by Colin Wood.

Photo 4 is of Joe Benassini, Sacramento Urban Forestry Manager.

The K Street Plan: Local, Green, Historic and Affordable

2010-07-02T06:09:33Z

Disclaimer: This article is my opinion, given as a central city resident and board member of the Sacramento Old City Association. I am not an employee of any of the firms involved, nor the city of Sacramento. I am enthusiastic about this project because it represents the best combination of historic preservation, new development, downtown infill, fiscal responsibility, and promotion of local business, culture, and heritage.

In December 2009, the city of Sacramento asked local developers for plans to revitalize the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street. The project area occupies about one city block, around 2.5 acres, on two half-block lots. Four teams submitted proposals, and a five-member committee met three times to review the responses and select a recommendation to the city council. Their recommendation was based on experience, quality of vision and concept, relationship to local goals, proposed tenants, financial feasibility and delivery schedule. Based on these criteria, the committee chose elements of two proposals: the Promenade on K, proposed by D&S and CFY Development, for the 700 block, and a proposal by David Taylor, CIM, Zeiden Properties and Domus Development for the 800 block.

The Recommended Plan

The proposal for the 700 block includes 136 apartments along the alley side of K Street in a new mid-rise structure, with underground parking at Sacramento’s original street level. The apartments range from 450 to 1200 square feet, studios to 2-bedrooms. 37,840 feet of retail will occupy the ground floor of the existing structures on K Street. The front 90 feet of each building will be retained, and the two landmark buildings on the block retained entirely. The second floor of the historic buildings will also become apartments, and the building basements will be retained for storage or retail use. Because the 700 block has abundant street space, outdoor patios and kiosks will surround the walkway on K Street, creating an expansive outdoor room adjacent to the newly-remodeled St. Rose of Lima Park.

The 800 block will include new buildings on the corner of 8th & K and 8th & L, and the historic Bel-Vue Apartments will be restored and returned to residential use, a total of 110 market rate and mixed-income units, including three-bedroom units intended for families. Parking will be accessed via the alley and L Street, and will not be visible from the street. All buildings will have ground-floor retail, totaling 32,530 square feet. This project team is also considering acquiring the historic Kress and Montgomery Ward buildings, for conversion to mixed-use residential, but because these buildings were outside the project scope (the city does not own them) they were not included in the proposal.

Keep It Local

The proposal for the 700 block includes Letters of Intent from retailers interested in participation. Rather than seeking chain or out-of-town tenants, the D&S proposal sought local businesses. These include popular local eateries, like Old Soul Coffee, who plans a French bistro and wine bar, or Kru, who plans a ramen/yakitori restaurant and sake bar. Three of these potential tenants (Crepeville, Shady Lady and and Burgers & Brew) each plan live music venues in addition to a restaurant and bar. The Shady Lady letter points out Sacramento’s lack of mid-sized music venues, and suggests that this project could fill the glaring need for venues larger than small Midtown bars but smaller than the Memorial Auditorium or Crest Theatre. But it’s not all about music and drinks; the owner of “Top This” Frozen Yogurt wants to create a late-night dessert diner, adding cakes, pies and sundaes to their product mix. Rima Boutique and Muse Salon want to open boutiques selling clothing, accessories and artwork. Specifics on the 800 block’s retail mix were not available, but their team includes Z Gallerie’s Joe Zeiden, who has extensive experience bringing retail to downtowns throughout the state. Because all of these businesses can also operate during daytime business hours, they are useful to the tens of thousands of downtown commuters for lunch, daytime shopping, or after-work dining and entertainment.

Local business is complemented by the local residences included in the project. Affordable housing means employees of a yogurt shop or boutique can live in a nearby unit instead of commuting to work from the suburbs, and downtown office workers can walk from office to home, utilizing local retail options in their own neighborhood. Housing directly above K Street on the second floor, and along the alley, means greater safety through “eyes on the street,” complemented by evening activity in restaurant patios and street vendor kiosks. Many of K Street’s problems take place on vacant, disused properties where there are no residents or tenants. Bringing more housing and late-night business back to K Street means more safety by design. In many ways, this plan is a larger, more ambitious version of D&S’s recent success at 14th and R Street, where a dark, unused warehouse was turned into 12 residential units and a row of eateries and mixed retail, using a historic building, local businesses, and green design.

Keeping it Green on K Street

“Green” is a word that gets used a lot, so much that the meaning is sometimes obscured. This proposal for K Street is green in several important ways. It proposes using green and sustainable methods, plus solar and wind power generation on rooftops. Both blocks include green roofs as inner courtyards for tenant use. Adding downtown housing and the units’ proximity to transit means less driving and consumption of gasoline. Restoration of the existing buildings, instead of demolition, saves those buildings’ embodied energy, uses less energy than new construction, and reduces the load on our landfills.

This project is located at the nexus of both existing Light Rail lines and the Green Line to Richards Boulevard now under construction, with local bus access on both side streets. Recent changes allowing bikes on K Street, and proposed additional bike parking on the street and in the buildings, encourages biking to and from the project. Enhancing the streetscape, adding dense residential and greater security by design promotes walking and transit use. Project residents who work nearby, instead of in distant suburbs, won’t have to drive to work, and won’t have to go far for entertainment or dining.

“The greenest building is one that’s already built” is an old adage of the preservation community. Construction of a new building requires tremendous energy, an amount equal to decades’ worth of the building’s annual energy consumption. Old buildings, especially those built prior to 1940, were built when energy was more expensive, and were designed for more efficient use of energy. They are generally built of durable materials like brick, stone, and old-growth timber. They required less energy to create than high-energy materials like concrete and steel. Their energy cost has long since been paid. Demolition of old buildings is also energy-intensive, and sends most of those irreplaceable building materials to landfills, where they are joined by new buildings’ construction wastes (which makes up about half the contents of our landfills!) Saving old buildings is about more than aesthetics; it is the greener, cleaner and less wasteful choice.

Restoring K Street’s Legacy

K Street has been the heart of Sacramento since the Gold Rush, and it has played many roles over time. Younger people know it as the home of Light Rail and the Downtown Plaza mall, those in middle age remember the old pedestrian mall with its “tank traps” and fountains, and the older generation recalls the era of cruising K Street in hot rods in the 1950s and 60s. But all of these eras took place while K Street was in decline, and represent desperate efforts to bring suburban visitors back downtown. The era of K Street’s greatest vitality was during the early 20th century through the 1940s.

American downtowns boomed during this time, and Sacramento was no exception. K Street was a shopping street, home to every department store in town, with small specialty shops ranging from herbalists to bookstores. It was also a place for entertainment, including theater, vaudeville, movies, dining, live music, and dancing, although even then it was not Sacramento’s only entertainment district. It was also a place that thousands of Sacramentans called home, living in apartments above retail storefronts. These included modest rooms with a bath down the hall for working people, efficiency apartments for middle-class professionals, and elegant “palace hotels” for wealthy businessmen and legislators who wanted close access to the capital and the city’s financial district. Public transit reached through the city and the region, bringing visitors to K Street, but many called it home.

Teenagers and adults walked downtown on summer evenings, enjoying the respite from the heat, knowing that even at midnight, something was happening on K Street. Because people were always there, it was a safe place to visit. In the mid-20th century, this changed as suburbs grew, shopping centers and malls appeared, and redevelopment emptied the central city. Highways intended to bring people back downtown only made the central city easier to leave, and expensive redevelopment plans brought a few visitors during the day but the city still emptied at night. Sacramento’s legacy as an urban place was ignored, suppressed, and almost forgotten.

This project brings K Street back using a proven method: provide an experience and a place that cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the region. Residential options and transit means that the automobile takes a back seat—you can have a car and live here, but you don’t need one. Unique entertainment and local retail means that shopping and dining and music is different than what you find in any suburban shopping center. Preservation of historic buildings means that K Street’s true history as a vibrant, urban place is apparent to visitor and resident alike, not simulating the past in Disney style, but using the lessons of the past to shape Sacramento’s urban future.

Putting the “Fun” in Funding Sources

In these cost-conscious times, many criticize the use of public subsidy for downtown reinvestment. However, when compared to the costs of subsidized suburban sprawl, subsidizing downtown infill levels the playing field. The “free-market” solution would mean allowing downtown Sacramento to decay entirely, until property values became lower than undeveloped rural land—a nightmare scenario. However, those calling for frugality have a valid point. City resources are limited, and any project on K Street must make the best use of public funds.

For this project, the city provides the land and existing buildings on the site. The recommended project utilizes the buildings, instead of demolishing them, making use of these valuable resources. For the 800 block, the project team has asked to use $16 million in funds that were set aside for a future redevelopment project by David Taylor’s company, and about $6 million in local, state and federal funds for the south half of the 800 block, including rehabilitation of the Bel-Vue. On the 700 block, the project team asks for two $8 million loans, one forgivable upon completion of the project, and one that would be repaid with interest.

One consideration when cities fund public projects is local benefit. Construction projects create jobs, but not all construction projects create the same number of jobs. New construction projects spend about half on materials and half on labor. Rehab of existing buildings spends closer to two-thirds on labor and one-third on materials, because fewer materials are needed and rehab is more labor-intensive. This means more local jobs per public dollar spent. Those dollars directly benefit the local economy, because workers spend the money they earn in their community. Materials for preservation rehab also tend to come from local sources, rather than materials from outside the community, so more of the construction costs also benefit the local economy.

Really Good, But Not Perfect

While the project has many strengths, there are some weaknesses. Downtown Sacramento lacks a grocery store. Existing corner markets and drugstores have limited options, and farmer’s markets do not operate in winter, creating “food deserts” for downtown residents. The closest market is Safeway, accessible by light rail, but downtown needs a more complete neighborhood market offering fresh meat and produce. The development team should consider a market as part of this project.

While transit is close by, service ends after 9 PM, making transit useless for late-night visitors. While transit budgets are outside the scope of the project, better public transportation would complement a transit-oriented project like this.

Finally, while developer David Taylor is well-known for his ability to complete a project, his projects are often criticized as being architecturally conservative and plain. The 800 block plan includes only volume sketches, not detailed renderings, so we do not know how it will look. Similarly, the 700 block’s new residential units must measure up architecturally to the historic buildings they will complement. The eclectic existing architecture of K Street, from Gold Rush brick to Art Deco terra cotta to 21st century high-rise steel and glass, means an unlimited palette for a talented architect.

On July 13, Sacramento’s City Council is scheduled to select a project for K Street. The recommended project is an excellent choice for Sacramento. It embodies and builds upon our city’s history and culture, promotes local business, and brings more housing across all income levels to K Street at a reasonable cost.

For more details about each of the four proposals for K Street, check the city of Sacramento's website:

www.cityofsacramento.org/econdev/development-projects/700KStDevelopmentProjectConcepts.cfm

Midtown Mixed Messages

2010-05-02T21:15:31Z

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 Hospitality Institute process. A final report and meeting occurred in October. Follow up task force meetings were delayed by MBA, until a clamor from the neighborhoods and complaints to Councilmember Cohn's office brought them back on track.

We had a meeting on April 27 to regroup, with a reduced number of committed stakeholders. The very next day, the MBA unveiled new branding. Rob Kerth's (Business Journal) quoted claim of "reaching out to the community" rings hollow.

The logo, slogan and Kerth's comments reinforce the MBA agenda: that business and marketing plans include "visitors" and exclude residents. This contradicts the RHI process and conflicts with several topics and specific goals in the RHI consultant's report.

We don't need MBA continuing to promote Midtown as a transient party zone at the expense of residents. We don't need more and more visual clutter and aural overload assaulting the senses in historic neighborhoods.

Considering the value placed on "Cultural Creatives" and the state of the collapsed job market, the amateurish design of the new logo is another jab. Aesthetically-attuned (one reason we live in Midtown) residents would perhaps rather not be associated with it.

"Go Your Own Way" is exactly what the MBA has done, disregarding Midtown's sustainability and quality of life.

(This piece was written prior to an opportunity to ask Rob Kerth what he means by "reached out" and "community")

http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/blog/inner_city/2010/04/midtown_states_its_identity_with_new_logo.html?surround=lfn

Public Art Walkabout | Conservation of Public Art

2010-04-08T23:57:00Z

Today's Conservation of Public Art Walkabout showed art in public places that have deteriorated via nature and the elements, as well as actions by humans, over time.

Sharon Kilgore, a volunteer with the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, described how the ceramic tiles on a wall art by Peter Vandenberge displayed at the Downtown Plaza-Westfield Shoppping Mall-shows signs of degradation; cracks, grount missing and colors changing. The untitled art wall of glazed tiles was installed in 1977.

The Clock Tower created by R.M. Fischer from New York was installed in 1993. This towering art piece is a mixed media high-voltage tower adorned with floating planets, a clock forever frozen in time and other elements that seem futuristic, at least for the time of its creation. (examiner.com) At one time the clock actually worked.

Metamorphosis, by Centro de Artistas Chicanos, is located along 4th St between K and L Streets in the Downtown Plaza. This bold wall mural is a collaborative effort by Juanishi Orosco, Stan Pidilla, Esteban Villa and The Centro de Artistas Chicano. The installation was done in 1977. This mural is on the side of the parking garage at Westfield Mall. Using the parking levels as timeline dividers, the creators have layered the mural into four sections. The lower section is the core of life, the next layer is the energy of the earth, the next technology, innovation and impact on the earth and the last layer is the heavens and universe. The butterfly symbolizes change and renewal of life.(examiner.com)

In the I-5 underpass that connects Old Sacramento and the Downtown Plaza is Laserium by the Centro de Artistas Chicanos, Sharon Kilgore explains its history and how it is slowly degrading.

Enameled copper squares of Fred Ball's The Way Home play with the light along Third Street. The squares are buckling and pulling away from the west wall of Macy's Parking Garage in the Downtown Plaza.

In the Downtown Plazal at Fourth Street, Gerald Wallburg's freestanding Indo Arch was one of the earliest installations, and a controversial addition to the area.

At its base are signs of human graffiti etched into it as well as putty left behind when signs are taken down.

The Walkabout Tours are educational and great exercise.

Upcoming Walkabout Tours:

Thursday, May 13
Public Art & Architecture

Thursday, June 10
The Crocker Family Legacy

Public Art Walkabout tours are presented in collaboration with the Sacramento Metropolitan Art Commission. Reservations are required. To register, call (916) 808-5499 or email: education@crockerartmuseum.org.

The Crocker Art Museum was established in 1885 and continues as the leading art institution for the California Capital Region and Central Valley. The Museum offers a diverse spectrum of special exhibitions, events and programs to augment its collections of California, European and Asian artworks. The Crocker is located at 216 O Street in Downtown Sacramento.

Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday; 1st & 3rd Thursdays until 9 p.m. Free admission on Sundays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. is made possible through the support of Bank of America.

For more information on exhibits and events call (916) 808-7000 or visit crockerartmuseum.org.

SacPress Photos | Kati Garner

4 Proposals for K Street

2010-03-21T19:25:18Z

On Monday, March 22, the city of Sacramento will host presentations by the four development groups interested in building a project on the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street. This meeting will be held at Old City Hall, 915 I Street, in the 2nd floor hearing room, at 5:30 PM.

The four groups who responded to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) include:

* Bridge Housing, Saca Development and Bagatelos Development

They propose 360 units of housing, a renovated Bel-Vue, 48,000 square feet of office not on Agency property, and 33,000 square feet of retail.

* David Taylor, CIM Development, Domus, and Zeiden Properties

They propose 110 housing units, including a renovated Bel-Vue, 60,000 square feet of retail and 57,000 square feet of office.

* CFY Development and D&S Development

Their project for the 700 blocks includes retaining the facades on the 700 block, building new units to the alley including 136 residential units and 37,000 feet of retail space.

* Rubicon Partners, St. Anton Partners, and Preferred Capitol Advisors (Sacramento Alliance Team)

This proposal requires the entirety of the 700 and 800 blocks, including properties not under Agency control, to create 400 residential units, a 2000 seat entertainment venue, 175,000 square feet of retail including a grocery and farmer's market, 150 high-end luxury condos, and a 375 room four-star hotel.

This presentation will allow the public to learn more about the development groups and the proposals. More information about the proposals can be found here:

www.cityofsacramento.org/econdev/news/documents/700800LK_RFQ_Update.pdf

This meeting will be followed by interviews between the developers and a city-appointed selection committee (at this time, the makeup of the selection committee is unknown to this writer, but the city created the committee on March 15) on March 25. The City Council is expected to decide on a development proposal in April or May of this year.

To learn more, come to the meeting and meet the developers and city staff, who will present the four project proposals.

Monday March 22, 5:30 PM-7:00 PM

Old City Hall (915 I Street)

2nd Floor Hearing Room

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA)

Restoration of Historic Mayes Jewelers' Street Clock

2010-03-08T19:44:46Z

This Tuesday the City Council will recommend the preservation and restoration of the Fred Mayes Jewelers' Street Clock at the corner of 10th and J Street. With the efforts of both Greig Best (an interested citizen), the City's Historic Places Grant Program, Council Member Tretheway's office, and the Redevelopment Agency, designated funds will be used to restore this City designated Landmark. Its ownership will also be formally transferred to the City through the Department of Transportation since the street clock is located within the public right-of-way.

The clock will be restored to the style as modified while at its' original K Street location by Tom Monk (the neon ring addition) before the clock was moved to its current location in front of the former Fred Mayes Jewelers store on J Street and then designated as a City historic Landmark. Mr.Best of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors have committed to assist in the project and to install the new timepiece (the"movement"). The Department of Transportation will contract for the clock removal and repair work, and will extend an electrical line so that the clock face and neon lights can be illuminated at night.

It’s estimated that the removal, repair and reinstallation of the Clock could be completed in the amount of $24,000. The restoration of the clock would be funded with $12,000 from the Historic Places Grant Program, $6,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds (per recommendation from Council Member Tretheway, District 1), and $6,000 from Merged Downtown Redevelopment Project tax increment funds (from funds allocated for J,K, and L Street Enhancements). The Clock was originally manufactured in Seattle, likely in the early 1900s and was once owned by a former Mayor of Sacramento, Tom Monk, and was located in front of 1009 K Street near the current site of the Crest Theater.

City Council Approves Historic Plaque Program

2010-02-10T08:20:44Z

On Tuesday February 9 the Sacramento City Council authorized the use of the Sacramento city seal for use on plaques to be fabricated through the Historic Properties Plaque Program, a project of Sacramento Heritage, Inc.

Sacramento Heritage Inc. is a nonprofit organization incorporated by the city of Sacramento to promote and preserve Sacramento's architectural heritage. The Historic Properties Plaque Program allows owners of properties that are either listed Sacramento landmarks, or contributing buildings to Sacramento historic districts, to purchase bronze plaques for display on their properties. The cost of the plaques will be paid by the property owner, should they choose to participate. Plaques will be available in two sizes--a smaller size for residences and a larger size for commercial buildings. Many other cities use plaque programs to highlight their historic buildings and districts, promoting heritge tourism and interest in local history. Plaques in other cities vary in construction, from simple metal and enamel signs to cast bronze. Sacramento's program will use cast bronze. Other plaque programs are state-sponsored, like the California Historic Landmarks program, or privately funded, like the plaque programs of the Native Sons of the Golden West or E Clampus Vitus.

Now that the program has been approved, the Sacramento Heritage Inc. website will soon add information on how to order a plaque. Lists of the city's official landmarks and historic districts can be found via the City of Sacramento's Preservation Department webpage:

www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/planning/preservation/

Lists of landmarks and contributors are found in he Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, downloadable as a PDF document on the Preservation Department page above. Buildings that are not currently landmarks (criteria for nominating buildings as landmarks are on the Preservation Department website) cannot receive plaques unless the building is nominated and approved by the city of Sacramento. In order to be eligible, the historic value of the building must be documented and presented to the city--not every building can make the grade, and simply being an old building is not enough to make a building historic! Current owners of listed landmarks and contributing buildings should be able to order plaques once ordering information is finalized and modifications to the website are made.

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, the item was pulled from the consent calendar by Councilmember Steve Cohn for discussion by the City Council. He supported the project, but took a moment both to acknowledge the program and to point out that the current City of Sacramento city seal seems outdated, and that the city might consider redesigning the seal. After a brief discussion about the seal, the measure was passed unanimously by the City Council. Details of the project and decision can be found via the City Council website:

sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&clip_id=2196&meta_id=191152

More information about Sacramento Heritage Inc., including the Historic Plaque Program and other programs, can be found on their website:

sacramentoheritage.org/

A 10-Step Plan To Fix K Street, Or: The Legend of the Skyscraper Fairy

2009-10-12T03:55:54Z

As a Sacramento resident keenly interested in the history of K Street from the gold rush to the present, I have read many opinions regarding the best ways to fix the ongoing problems of K Street. Some have been proposed recently, ideas that I view with a mixture of amusement and horror. Most involve returning to the mistakes of the past while clearly avoiding its successes. In order to take the best from the past while avoiding some of its mistakes, I have selected some favorites. I can take credit for none of them, as they are all ideas that have been suggested at other times and places, but they seem like the best of the lot to me. This ten-point plan varies in scope from the very simple and inexpensive to the rather complex and expensive, some are short-term solutions while others are longer-term solutions for better times, but all of them are practical. I can provide more detail about most of these points if requested.

1. Accept that the Skyscraper Fairy does not exist.

Many landlords along K Street have no apparent interest in maintaining or improving their properties. Some are convinced that as long as they own the land, the magical Skyscraper Fairy will give them uncountable millions for the land where their decaying buildings sit, and will replace them with shiny new skyscrapers. Thus, they have little interest in maintaining or tenanting their buildings. The result is under-utilized or vacant buildings whose facades continue to crumble. Despite the Downtown Partnership’s efforts to power-wash streets and alleys, buildings allowed to fall into disrepair, inhabited only by bats and squatters, make our historic buildings into eyesores. Ideally, the city’s code enforcement division would issue stiff fines to property owners who allow their buildings to fall into disrepair, in order to prevent demolition by neglect. Unfortunately, the city of Sacramento is also one of the guilty parties, and one of the strongest believers in the Skyscraper Fairy. City-owned properties currently sit vacant, awaiting their own savior in the form of a deep-pocketed developer who will brush aside the old building and provide badly-needed money to build something else. Given K Street’s current state, this is unlikely—the only propositions so far are dependent on generous subsidies from the city of Sacramento. Until both the city and K Street property owners can be dispelled of their belief in the magical skyscraper fairy, their properties will continue to rot.

2. It’s time to leave the shopping mall in the past.

K Street was a bustling place until the 1950s, when most of Sacramento’s population moved out of the central city, the residential neighborhoods adjacent to downtown Sacramento were demolished, and the city streetcar system was replaced by highways and automobiles. Suburban malls were closer to the new suburban neighborhoods and had plentiful parking, while K Street was far away and none of the stores had parking lots. The K Street pedestrian mall of the 1960s and 1970s was a desperate move to woo suburban shoppers by simulating a suburban mall, including demolition of nearby buildings to provide parking. But the suburban malls were still more convenient, and their parking lots bigger and more obvious, so K Street’s rebirth as a mall of the 1970s failed. A 1990s re-vamp that enclosed the section from 4th to 7th Street has become another failure, due to its failure to move beyond the idea of a suburban mall downtown.

A new generation of city planners has noted that shopping centers of the 2000s look a lot like old downtowns, with stores that copy historic styles and a mixture of pedestrian paths and driveways. These planners have decided that this is the future of K Street, and call for a return of cars to K Street so they can pretend K Street is a new suburban "power center," the 2010s equivalent of a shopping mall. But those suburban “power centers” are still closer to suburban shoppers, and their parking lots are still bigger. If K Street is simply opened to cars and its facades remodeled to emulate new suburban shopping centers in North Natomas, how can the result be any different from the last two attempts to disguise downtown Sacramento as a suburban mall?

3. Cars, no. Bikes, yes.

The simplest change to energize K Street will cost very little: permit bicycle riding on K Street. Bike riding is already on the rise, and the freedom to bike on K Street would turn it into the main cycling corridor of the central city, free from the vehicular mayhem of J and L Street. Provide a few bike racks so bike riders can stop and shop as well as ride through, and the numbers strolling past store windows will dramatically increase.

4. Shrink light rail to streetcar size.

Until the 1940s, K Street had transit in all sizes. On K Street itself, streetcars ran from the heart of downtown to Midtown, Southside and nearby suburbs like Land Park, Oak Park and East Sacramento. These cars were small, typically 30-40 feet long, about the size of a modern bus, and operated at speeds up to 25-30 miles per hour. Like a bus, they worked reasonably well with traffic, but because they had fixed rails they had a smoother ride and a predictable path, making them more comfortable for riders. Trains ran every ten minutes during the day, and “owl” runs carried late-night travelers all night.

On the corner of 8th and K Street, interurban trains ran in both directions. Passengers from Woodland, Chico, Stockton and even Oakland could hop on the train and get off on K Street. These trains were bigger, 60-80 feet long, and operated in trains as long as 6-8 cars. They were taller and wider than streetcars, and could reach 60-70 miles per hour going flat-out through the countryside. They ran on 8th Street because K Street was far too busy to handle the big trains.

Today, modern Light Rail trains are more like the interurbans than streetcars. With 80 foot long bodies and operating in four-car trains, they are not well-suited to playing the role of a streetcar. By through-routing Blue Line trains north via the upcoming 7th Street extension and connecting to North 12th Street via Richards Boulevard, light rail trains could bring passengers from Folsom, Rancho Cordova, South Sacramento and North Highlands to K Street without crowding pedestrians off the street.

Meanwhile, the streetcars can return to K Street. Some of Sacramento’s historic streetcars exist in unrestored condition in private collections, but modern streetcars offer amenities like air conditioning and ADA-accessible low-floor entryways. They can run on the existing K Street tracks while leaving more room for pedestrians and bikes. Using existing light rail lines and sharing their tracks, these streetcars can link nearby neighborhoods and connect with light rail. Extending streetcar lines into existing neighborhoods and new development areas costs less than one-third the price of light rail extensions and drives population density, economic investment and reduces the need for cars and parking. Run them until after 2:00 AM to give downtown visitors an option to leave their cars at home—especially if they plan on drinking.

5. Legalize street life.

This is another cheap and easy solution. Part of Second Saturday’s success is its prolific use of street music, performers, and vendors, but its monthly status creates a feast-or-famine condition. A permit program to allow music, performance and vending at any time means that visitors to K Street won’t need to check their calendars before going downtown. Street music and vending also gives local entertainers and small businesspeople a stepping stone to a retail storefront or a musical career. Musicians and vendors will promote activity, give walkers a reason to stick around, and attract visitors to enjoy the street life. This also does not rule out special street festivals and special events above and beyond the day-to-day activity, and maintaining K Street as a pedestrian walk maintains this valuable civic amenity for more public festivals. Both everyday street life and special events will draw visitors from within Sacramento, the surrounding region, and tourists from out of town.

6. Tours bring tourists.

Despite the demolition of the past few decades, K Street still retains a remarkable number of historic buildings, proud evidence of our architectural heritage in stone, terra cotta and concrete. Many cities use local tourism programs to bring visitors into the heart of the city, but to most visitors, Sacramento’s history ends at the edge of Old Sacramento. Efforts to alter this perception have been minimal. The Downtown Sacramento Partnership has a guided tour program, but it is minimally staffed, minimally funded, and minimally advertised. Downtown visitors looking for local history information are likely to come up empty-handed. Sacramento needs a full-strength tourism program worthy of a city with such a rich and diverse history. K Street, the walking street at the heart of the city, can be the center of such a tour program, with more tours branching out into nearby downtown streets and our architecturally rich residential neighborhoods. History tours appeal both to visiting tourists and to locals interested in learning more about their city's past.

On K Street, the potential star attraction of local tourism is right under your feet. Sacramento’s underground sidewalks, the result of a street-raising measure intended to keep the city above flood waters, run the length of K Street from the river to about 12th Street. Many are demolished, but enough material remains to allow a tour to weave in and out of underground sidewalk spaces, sunken alleys, basements, and even below-surface businesses. Combined with the dramatic story of the raised streets, and some entertaining and colorful stories from Sacramento’s history, the potential of an underground sidewalks tour is unlimited. In Seattle, local booster Bill Speidel turned a walk through clammy underground sidewalks in a notoriously bad part of town into a million-dollar tourist attraction that is known worldwide, drawing as many as 300,000 visitors a year and employing as many as 50 full-time staff. There is no reason that Sacramento can’t do the same.

7. Bring on the nightlife.

If a suburban mall isn’t the answer, what will bring suburban residents downtown? The answer is simple: Give them something the suburbs don’t have. Sacramento is best known for its quiet suburbs, the result of a decades-long whitewashing operation to conceal our party-animal past. The rowdy days of the Gold Rush, the proliferation of local breweries and wineries, our almost total refusal to acknowledge Prohibition, the legendary jazz and blues clubs of Sacramento’s West End, and even last year’s New Year’s Eve party (2,000 expected, 12,000 attended) burst through the “town where nothing happens” façade. It’s time to face the truth, and bring more nightlife down the length of K Street. This doesn’t just mean bars, it also means late-night restaurants, theaters, live music venues, dance clubs, movies, spas and salons, comedy clubs, coffee shops, and other imaginative options for entertainment. Cooperative parking agreements with state parking lots can provide tens of thousands of parking spaces, and better public transit can carry revelers home in safety.

8. Shop local, even if you’re from out of town.

The shopping-mall consultants are half right about K Street—it does need more than nightlife to survive. Daytime and early evening traffic means retail stores and services in between the state-employee lunch rush and the arrival of the dinner, drinks and dancing crowd. However, national chain stores are hesitant to expand, even if bribed into doing so. And again, suburban visitors won’t drive downtown to a store in their local mall. The answer is, again, to give them something the mall doesn’t have: unique, local stores. Local businesses keep money in the local economy, stimulate local employment and provide a unique character that chain stores simply can’t match. Encouraging local businesspeople to rent storefronts on K Street should be a city priority. Matched with neighborhood-serving retail like food markets, cleaners, drugstores and small department stores, locally-based retail on K Street should appeal to suburban shoppers, out-of-town visitors, and central city residents. As stores fill and crowds start to appear, instead of having to beg national chains to locate on K Street, they will appear on their own, smelling money to be made.

One idea we might lift from San Francisco: the much-adored Metreon, high-tech consumer wonderland, is falling on hard economic times, with many vacancies. Earlier this year, a full-time farmer’s market moved into the Metreon, and has already proved a popular destination. A permanent farmer’s market on K Street, instead of the current sporadic weekly markets, would provide fresh foods to a neighborhood where none are sold. Downtown workers, visitors and residents would all benefit from a convenient source for the Sacramento Valley’s agricultural bounty.

9. Living on K Street shouldn’t mean sleeping directly on it.

The destruction of the downtown neighborhoods near K Street was followed by the destruction of thousands of inexpensive rental rooms, commonly known as SRO hotels, where thousands of workers lived. As inexpensive housing disappeared, the poorest people did not. Out of necessity, they made their home on the streets. Many are still there, and as existing SRO stock is phased out of service and homeless services disappear, their numbers grow. They will not vanish and they will not simply move away, because they have nowhere to go and no alternative. The only way to reverse this trend is to replace the housing that was lost. This replacement housing need not be here on K Street, but it needs to be somewhere. Our only alternative is to accept the presence of people sleeping on the streets as an unalterable condition, and tell them that their suffering is necessary and unavoidable—or to simply remain in denial of the problem, which amounts to the same thing. As a people, as a city and as a nation, I think we are capable of better than that.

But it isn’t just the poorest that need housing in the central city. Housing for all income levels should be included in new development projects, but putting it into existing buildings would be even easier. Many formerly residential buildings were converted to office use in the 1960s and 1970s, so why not convert the abundance of vacant upper-story office space back into residential units? This housing should cross the economic spectrum: SRO units for the disabled and seniors, low-income units for service employees, workforce housing for office employees, and high-end, high-up housing for the high rollers. A truly urban life results when you can see all the way across the economic spectrum just walking down the street. That can’t happen unless the street has places for all of them to live, dine, work and shop. Again, not all of these places have to be directly on K Street, but they should be close enough to walk there in a few minutes. Restoration of residential buildings will preserve their architectural value, bring life back to the neighborhood, fill a great social need, and jobs restoring and maintaining the buildings will create more employment than comparable levels of new construction.

10. Have faith, be good, and the Skyscraper Fairy will come.

Part of the current mentality of property owners on K Street is based on outdated models of how downtown development should happen. For decades, cities were assumed to be teeming pits of an imaginary disease called “blight” that could only be cured with wrecking balls and a liberal application of public-funded redevelopment dollars, designed to push out “undesirable” tenants and solicit only the coveted suburban émigré to return to the central business district, and then only to spend money and leave, never to live. Today’s cities don’t work like that anymore. People want to live in cities because they want the amenities of urban life unavailable in the suburbs. If K Street can offer those amenities, not a sanitized Disneyland version and certainly not a copy of a suburban mall, they will grow interested in K Street. If they are interested, they will come to visit. If there are places to live, and things to see and do, they will want to move downtown. Once enough people have moved downtown that there is no longer room in existing buildings, and people feel safe and secure in neighborhoods that are well-maintained, high-rise developers who understand how cities work will look at K Street and see dollar signs. Instead of developers seeking handouts to build on K Street, they will come with money in hand where they think they can make even more.

And when they do, the Skyscraper Fairy will visit the property owners and civic leaders who took care of their buildings, who encouraged vitality and street life instead of a tax write-off, who promoted transit and walkability, and drew people back downtown to share in K Street’s uniqueness, character and history. She will shower them with money and riches and blessings, and cranes will rise on K Street, filling the gaps between the last century’s architectural gems with bright, tall new buildings. Yes, Sacramento, there is a Skyscraper Fairy, but she has very high standards.

William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association. This story is a guest editorial opinion, and does not represent the opinion of Sacramento Press or its editors.

SOCA Home Tour in Boulevard Park

2009-09-17T04:46:33Z

On Sunday, September 20, the Sacramento Old City Association will hold its 34th annual historic home tour in the Boulevard Park neighborhood. Tour hours are from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM.

The SOCA Home Tour is an annual event, and the main fundraiser for the Sacramento Old City Association. This home tour includes an inside look at eight restored historic homes in Boulevard Park. Tour visitors can walk through each of the homes on the tour to see how the workmanship of historic homes is often as beautiful on the inside as the outside.

The Home Tour also includes a street fair, including artisans and craftspersons specializing in historic home repair and restoration, local artists, crafters, photographers and artisans, and community organizations. Live music will be provided by Julie the Bruce, Andrew Surber and "Drum Polygon." The Sacramento "Capitol A's" Model A Club will display their restored antique cars throughout the tour. CLUCK (Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping) will raffle a chicken coop and other prizes at their booth.

Tickets for the Home Tour cost $20, but you get a $1 discount if you arrive on a bicycle. Tickets for the fair can be bought at the site of the tour: the SOCA tour booth will be located on the corner of 21st and G Street, directly in the street median. Visiting the homes requires a ticket, but the street fair is free, and will run along 21st Street between F and H Street.

This year's tour is located in the Boulevard Park historic district, a neighborhood that is visually distinct due to the landscaped street medians running down 21st and 22nd Street. These medians were part of a real estate development project dating to 1905. Located on the site of the old Union Park racetrack, Boulevard Park was the first planned development of the Wright & Kimbrough real estate firm. The development's boundaries were from B Street to H Street between 20th and 22nd, with a portion of 23rd.

When the neighborhood was built, a streetcar line ran along H Street from downtown to McKinley Park. Many of the most elegant Boulevard Park homes were located facing H Street, with more modest but still beautiful homes closer to C Street. C Street had its own streetcar line, but freight trains also ran on the same tracks until 1953! In addition to the landscaped medians, three blocks in Boulevard Park have small central park areas located in the center of the block, in a space normally occupied by backyards and alleys. Covenants on property deeds required minimum setbacks, prohibited high fences and noxious uses, and made provision for shared tenancy of the alley parks. These features gave the neighborhood a pleasing, park-like look that is still apparent a century after its construction. The current Boulevard Park neighborhood includes an area beyond the original development. Homes in the neighborhood are a mixture of Craftsman and Prairie, Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Spanish Revival and other revival st yles. Elsewhere in the neighborhood are Victorian homes of the Queen Anne, Stick, Shingle and Italianate styles.

Boulevard Park is one of Sacramento's most beautiful and well-known neighborhoods, and this year's SOCA Home Tour provides a unique look at the architecture, culture and creativity that make our city a great place.

SOCA's Web site can be found at: www.sacoldcity.org and includes membership information, details of SOCA activities and events, and updates about planning and preservation issues in Sacramento's central city.

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

Photographs taken by Randy Lum.

800 K/L-Belvue Demolition Plan Returns To City Council

2009-08-24T18:59:58Z

On Tuesday, August 25, the Sacramento City Council will hear a proposal by developers Bob Leach and Parkcrest Development to build a hotel at the corner of 8th and K Street and a parking structure at the corner of 8th and L Street, a project that would require demolition of city landmark the Bel-Vue Apartments and adjacent buildings. The meeting will be held at New City Hall, 915 I Street, at 6:00 PM in the main City Council chambers.

The item was originally to be heard at the August 11 meeting of the City Council (see sacramentopress.com/headline/11884/City_to_decide_on_fate_of_BelVue_Apartments_and_Berry_Hotel_today ) but was taken off the agenda at the last minute. According to the staff report, the "Exclusive Right to Negotiate" between the city of Sacramento and the developers expired on Sunday, August 23, but city staff can still work with the development group while a new RFQ (Request for Qualifications) is being prepared, a process that should take about 90 days according to the staff report. If city staff and developers cannot reach an agreement, the new RFQ will request proposals from other developers and development groups for a different project on the 800 K Street site.

Also according to the staff report, city staff had not fully analyzed the new proposal as of its submittal date of Friday, August 21, and could not provide complete comment. One change from previous proposals is a change to requested exemption from the hotel's "Transient Occupancy Tax": instead of 100% exemption from TOT for 10 years, they are asking for 50% exemption for 14 years. According to the accompanying financial documents, this would add up to approximately the same total subsidy for the project, but over a different span of time.

Another change is that Mohammed "Mo" Mohanna is no longer listed as a member of the development team. The staff report does not specify whether another investor has joined the team in Mohanna's place, or whether one of the existing investors will contribute more funds to make up for Mohanna's financial contribution to the project, or why this change has taken place. Most of the financial commitment comes from the Korean firm Consus, but the city has not yet received a formal commitment with complete terms and conditions from Consus.

The staff report does mention that the original "Exclusive Right to Negotiate" for this project occurred as a condition of a lawsuit settlement between the city of Sacramento and Mohanna, in addition to the city's payment of about $18 million to Mohanna for the land.

The total subsidy for the project is estimated at $31.5 million in land and tax exemption (both transient occupancy tax and tax-increment fund exemption.) This amount does not include the money previously paid to Mohanna for the property as a result of the lawsuit settlement.

The staff report does not address the issue of a potentially competing hotel project planned for the corner of 10th and K Street, nor does it address the issue of the demolition of the Bel-Vue landmark.

The staff report for this item can be found here:

sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php

The agenda for this week's City Council meeting can be found here:

sacramento.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php

Underground Sidewalks Update at Preservation Commission Meeting

2009-08-03T18:05:16Z

This Wednesday, August 5, Sacramento's Preservation Commission will hear an update on the "Underground Sidewalks" survey project. This survey has explored much of Sacramento's surviving underground sidewalk structures, and is preparing a detailed report on their current condition and historic context. An earlier meeting, held in March, outlined what the survey would do(sacramentopress.com/headline/5128/City_Will_Survey_Underground_Sidewalks) and this meeting will present the initial findings of the survey team and report their progress. The final report on the underground sidewalks should be completed by September of this year.

The meeting will be held at Sacramento's City Hall, 915 I Street, in the City Council chambers on the first floor. The meeting starts at 5:30 PM and the Underground Sidewalks survey will be the first of several staff reports presented at the meeting.

A complete agenda of the Preservation Commission meeting can be found here:

www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/meetings/commissions/preservation/2008/PC_Agenda_8-05-09.cfm

Sacramento's underground sidewalks are a side effect of a massive street-raising project, executed from the 1850s to the 1870s and intended to keep downtown Sacramento above water during the region's frequent floods. Brick walls about 12 feet high were built at the street edge and filled with dirt, but the spaces between the buildings and the street were left open, and were the building owner's responsibility to cover and fill. Over the past 130 years, many of these spaces have been filled in or demolished by subsequent development, construction and sidewalk repair.

This survey, funded by a local nonprofit and a matching state grant, is intended to document all of the surviving "Underground Sidewalk" spaces in downtown Sacramento and research the methods used to build these structures. The survey will have many potential uses, possibly including the creation of a historic district, or facilitating an "Underground Sidewalks Tour" program similar to that found in Seattle and other cities. The public will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments to the Preservation Commission and the consultants conducting the survey.

The City Preservation Commission was created by the City Council. Its powers and duties include: to develop and recommend to the City Council preservation policies appropriate for inclusion in the General Plan and other regulatory plans and programs of the City and to provide oversight relative to the maintenance and integrity of the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources; to review, nominate, and make recommendations to the City Council on properties eligible for listing in the Sacramento Register as Landmarks, Historic Districts and Contributing Resources as set forth in the Historic Preservation Chapter, Title 17, Chapter 17.134, of the City Code; to review and approve preservation development projects of major significance and appeals of Preservation Director decisions per the Historic Preservation Chapter, Title 17, Chapter 17.134, of the City Code.

Meeting location: New City Hall
915 I Street- 1st Floor, Council Chambers
August 5, 2009 - 5:30 P.M.

Land Giveaway at 8th & K

2009-07-16T18:06:30Z

City plans to demolish the Bel-Vue and adjacent buildings were mentioned in my Sacramento Press article on July 3 ( http://sacramentopress.com/headline/10159/City_To_Demolish_Landmark_BelVue_Building ) but at the time the developer and financing organization behind the project were not identified. Since then, both have appeared, along with an additional partner. The financier, Consus Asset Management, is a new player in Sacramento. The developer, Bob Leach, just completed another Sacramento project, the Le Rivage Hotel. The other player in this project is a well-known name in K Street real estate, Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna. All three are asking the city for $18.6 million in free real estate and several years of tax forgiveness once the project is complete, and they want this done immediately, before public input and analysis by city staff and commissions can be completed.

Since my earlier article saw print, these parties were mentioned by articles in the Sacramento Bee, in Bob Shallit’s columns:
http://www.sacbee.com/shallit/story/2005107.html

In this column, Shallit mentions South Korea based Consus Asset Management (http://consusgroup.com/ ) as the primary financier, willing to put up $91 million for construction. Lead developer Bob Leach, builder of Le Rivage Hotel, made contact with Consus through local hotel builder Parkcrest Development. Also on the project team is Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna, who recently owned the land until the city paid him $18.6 million for it, after a lengthy series of negotiations, complex legal maneuvering, and the demolition of the buildings on the corner of 8th & K Street. The article mentioned that the developers were hoping for some tax breaks on this project.

Shallit followed this up with a second column:
http://www.sacbee.com/shallit/story/2017611.html

Here, the developers have urged the city to move quickly or risk losing financing. They have asked the city to give them the land, currently city-owned, for free, and to forgive taxes on the hotel for the first few years of its operation. Transferring the land quickly would also mean that there would be no time for an Environmental Impact Report to be completed, and before issues like the demolition of the Bel-Vue have had an opportunity to be fully reviewed by city staff, Preservation Commission or Planning Commission.

This issue will go before the Sacramento City Council on August 4. The city of Sacramento has held an Exclusive Right to Negotiate (ERN) with Bob Leach and Parkcrest, extended for 45 days on June 9, but that ERN expires on Friday, July 24.

The unspoken irony in the developers’ demand is that the city of Sacramento just paid nearly $20 million to wrest the property out of Mohanna’s hands, and are now being asked to give the property back to him. They are also asking for a free hand to demolish a Sacramento landmark, and forgiveness of future taxes, which means that it will be many years before the city of Sacramento sees any economic benefit or return on their investment of $20 million, their donation of a half-block of prime downtown real estate (by the city’s own valuation, worth the $18.6 million paid to Mohanna) and their sacrifice of irreplaceable historic buildings. This free giveaway would also add up to far more than the taxpayer-funded donation provided to developer David Taylor to rehabilitate three existing buildings on the 1000 block of K Street, a move that sparked widespread public criticism.

Why is there a need for such urgency? One possible answer is that there is another hotel project planned for K Street, only two blocks away. Unlike the project at 8th and K, this alternate project would require no historic buildings to be demolished. This project does not require the full Environmental Impact Report, instead using a far simpler process called a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND.) The MND identifies the developer behind the project as "10th & K Developers, LLC" and mentions that it will include 180 rooms in a 12-story building with ground floor retail. Could this simpler, less complex project be the competition that worries the developers behind 8th and K, and enough of a problem to make them demand a massive public subsidy from the city of Sacramento for a project that will not have to pay taxes for many years, and action fast enough to short-circuit public debate and review by city staff?

Meanwhile, the deadline for public comment on the Notice of Preparation is approaching. According to Jennifer Hageman of the city of Sacramento’s Economic Development Department, part of the process will include a public scoping meeting to present this issue to the public, but as of this writing no date has been identified for such a meeting.

To give public comment about this issue, contact Jennifer Hageman of the City of Sacramento’s Community Development Department at jhageman@cityofsacramento.org or (916)808-5538. Written comments should be sent to Jennifer Hageman, City of Sacramento Community Development Department, 300 Richards Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95811. Comments are due before 4:00 PM on July 27, 2009.
K ST MND 7-1-09 800klEIR eir3

City To Demolish Landmark "Bel-Vue" Building

2009-07-03T21:28:18Z

The city of Sacramento has announced its plans to demolish the Bel-Vue Apartments, a registered city landmark, in order to clear land on 8th Street for a potential future parking structure.

Located adjacent to the now-vacant corner of 8th and K Street, the Bel-Vue was built in 1910 as the American Cash Apartments. Built in the Craftsman style with Asian overtones, the three-story brick building contains apartments above a commercial ground floor. When the Bel-Vue was built, it was one of many downtown apartment buildings. If it was built today, the Bel-Vue would be described as a mixed-use, transit-oriented infill project. The building is currently owned by the city of Sacramento’s housing and redevelopment agency, the result of a complex land exchange between Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna, Z Gallerie owner Joe Zeiden, and the city of Sacramento. This land exchange was part of the currently stalled plans to rehabilitate the 700 block of K Street.

The city’s plan is to prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) containing two possible alternatives for buildings to be built on the site, and then demolish the existing buildings. One alternative is a pair of residential towers 300 feet high, running from K Street to L Street along 8th, originally proposed by former owner Mohanna and developers John Saca (of the failed 301 Capitol Mall project) and John Lambeth. The other alternative is a 300 foot hotel tower at the corner of 8th and K, currently vacant, and a six-story parking structure on the site of the Bel-Vue and the other buildings at the corner of 8th and L. There is no developer or investor specified in the EIR notice of preparation; the city of Sacramento plans to create the EIR and demolish the Bel-Vue and nearby buildings on speculation, in case a developer appears who is interested in constructing the buildings the city has proposed for the site.

When the city of Sacramento acquired the Bel-Vue building and its neighbors, it was an occupied apartment building with several retail tenants on the ground floor. There were also commercial tenants in the adjacent buildings, and apartments above most of those buildings. The city of Sacramento evicted the residents, and today only one retail establishment, a Chinese restaurant, occupies the Bel-Vue, aside from a parking garage in one of the buildings facing L Street.

All of the buildings on the site have a role in local history. 815 L Street, constructed in 1915, was most recently the site of a nightclub of the same name. In 1957, the site was one of the original Sam’s Hof Brau locations. The side of the building, invisible from the street, still bears a painted mural advertising Sam’s. La Rosa, an Italian restaurant opened in 1927, occupied the site before the Hof Brau. On the corner of 8th and L is the Feldhusen Building, a two-story building with ground floor retail and residences upstairs. It was built in 1895 and remodeled in 1954. It was home to many businesses including grocery stores, dressmakers, and the Diamond Club Tavern card room.
Buildings like the Bel-Vue were once commonplace in Sacramento, but over the years they have become very rare.

Today, some developers seek out historic buildings for residential projects, converting them into modern apartments or condominiums. Local companies like D&S Development (http://www.dandsdev.com) have completed projects like the Old Sacramento iLofts and 1409 R, and are now restoring the historic Maydestone Apartments at 16th & J Street. Architect Mike Malinowski, contractor Bruce Booher and CFY Development helped convert the Globe Mills grain mill complex into unique residential lofts. At the Railyards, developer Thomas Enterprises will make the historic Southern Pacific shops buildings the focal point of a new downtown neighborhood. Other adaptive reuse projects like the Citizen Hotel, MARRS, the Cosmopolitan and the Firestone Building show how vacant historic buildings can be made into exciting, unique urban destinations. Projects like these are often more popular than newly-built projects because they offer one-of-a-kind places to live, work and play in an urban setting. They appeal to those who want to be close to the action of the central city and their downtown workplaces, or just like the unique character of historic buildings. Instead of demolishing the Bel-Vue, the building could easily be repaired and returned to its role as a place to live, with businesses on the street to serve downtown’s residents. Restoration of historic buildings is also a greener option than new construction, as it needs far fewer building materials and requires far less landfill space (where the demolished building’s components would end up.) If sales of recent projects like the 1409 R lofts (opened in April and already two-thirds sold) are any indication, these projects are popular even in slow economic markets, while urban infill projects in new buildings are far less successful. Historic buildings can also qualify for tax credits and other incentives that can make rehabilitation cheaper than demolition and new construction. In the right hands, the Bel-Vue could be a gorgeous, attainable new home for Sacramento’s residents for another hundred years.

In recent years, the city of Sacramento has seen many proposed projects fail to materialize. The failure of projects like John Saca’s 301 Capitol Mall towers at 3rd and Capitol resulted in ugly, gaping pits in our city’s urban fabric. Projects like the 700/800 block, bogged down by unexpected resistance and a poor economy, sit languishing, waiting for a better plan to appear. Projects that encourage the demolition of landmarks encourage speculators to allow their historic downtown properties to sit vacant, deteriorating for years or even decades, with the hope of an eventual skyscraper-shaped payoff that may never arrive. More forward-thinking developers could turn the same buildings into Sacramento's urban showpieces.

No developer or investor has been named by the city to actually build this project or pay for it, and even if a developer and/or investor does arrive, if they want to make significant changes to the plan they would need to complete a new environmental document, making this effort worthless. The sacrifice of one of Sacramento’s irreplaceable historic buildings would be for nothing. And even if the city’s long shot is successful, and a developer does build the project, we will lose a historic landmark and a quarter-block of potentially useful buildings for a six-story parking garage in a neighborhood with many underutilized parking garages.

Theatre Preservation Documentary with the Sacramento Old City Association

2009-03-16T23:40:29Z

Disclaimer: the contributor of this and his wife run Movies on a Big Screen, Sacramento’s weekly screening series of documentaries, general independent film, classics and cult titles. The following is blatant self-promotion of a MOBS event and the Sacramento Old City Association.

On Friday, March 20, 2009, at 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM, Movies on a Big Screen is pairing up with the Sacramento Old City Association to present the documentary, “Preserve Me A Seat.”

Local author and historian (and commenter here at Sacramento Press) William Burg will be in attendance to speak following the 7PM screening of the film, and he might be bringing along some others, too. MOBS will show it again at 9:30 for those who can't make it to the earlier screening, but there will be no speakers at the later showing.

About the film:
We don't remember a lot about our distant past, but we do remember our favorite movie theatre. "Preserve Me a Seat" is a documentary about these theatres and the ongoing fight to protect and preserve them for future generations. Featuring preservation efforts in Boston (The Gaiety Theatre), Detroit (The former Michigan Theatre), Chicago (The DuPage Theatre), Omaha (The Indian Hills Cinerama Theatre), and Salt Lake City (The Villa Theatre), "Preserve Me a Seat" will appeal to anyone who has cherished memories of seeing their favorite movies in a grand theatre, and who appreciates the unique architecture of movie theatres. More than that, however, the documentary explores a number of urban development issues particularly relevant to Sacramento in a number of ways (not just theaters): adaptive reuse, a lack of response by city governments to their constituency, the destruction of historic spaces for the sake of what are essentially urban lofts (high-end residential units, at least), and much more.

March 20, 2009
7 and 9:30 PM
Admission: $5.00
Location: 600 4th St, West Sacramento. That's the corner of 4th & F in WEST Sacramento, just over the river from downtown Sacto. Parking lot is off of F Street between 4th & 5th Streets.

Sacramento Preservation Roundtable at Shady Lady Saloon, 14th & R Street

2009-03-13T20:08:13Z

The Spring Sacramento Preservation Roundtable will be held this Saturday, March 14, 9:00 AM

Held at The Shady Lady Saloon - 1409 R Street
A tour of the building following.
Discussion on "Minimum Maintenance of Historic Properties" & Neighborhood involvement.

Presentation by the Development Oversight Commission about the DOC's deregulation proposal and the elimination of the Design Review Commission

CADA (Capitol Area Development Authority) will present the latest projects & plans for the 18th & N / O Street Area

Juice, rolls, coffee, $5 Donation, students w/valid ID attend free

Sponsored by CADA, D&S Development &SOCA

http://www.sacoldcity.org

Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009
Time: 9:00am-12:00pm
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Forwarded by Panama Bartholomy of the City of Sacramento Planning Commission:

The City, and potentially members of the Development Oversight Commission (DOC), are expected to present to the Preservation Roundtable on Saturday March 14 (http://sacoldcity.org/WebCalendar/view_entry.php?id=17&date=20090314) the DOC's proposal to eliminate the Design Review Commission, move the majority of planning decisions to the staff level and overhaul the membership of the planning commission so that it contains only two non-development community members.

Please come out to the event to see if the City or DOC has prepared the requested analysis that identifies what problems the DOC’s recommendations are attempting to fix, what the costs and assumed benefits of the changes will be and how the City will preserve neighborhood input in development oversight.

This presentation is not posted on the City website and there are no other identified presentations to be found on any City website before the rumored late-April City Council workshop on this issue. This may be one of your last chances to provide input into this incredibly important proposal to overhaul the City’s development oversight public input process. Please come out an let your voice be heard to call for an elegant development review process that is efficient for our developers and City staff, inclusive of our neighborhood concerns and will enable us to continue to strive to be the most livable City in America.

The meeting will be held in the New Shady Lady Saloon at the corner of 14th and R Streets, 9:00 AM, Saturday, March 14.

The meeting will include a presentation from Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA) on the latest projects & plans for the 18th & N / O Street Area and a tour of the new Shady Lady Saloon.

Please note that there is a $5 donation requested by the Preservation Roundtable to cover the costs of food and beverages.

City of Sacramento offers grants for improvements to historical properties

2008-12-20T09:28:06Z

The City of Sacramento Development Services Department announces:

Under a City ordinance passed last fall, Sacramento property owners looking to improve a historic structure may be eligible for financial assistance. The Historic Places Grant Program will award up to $62,500 in quarterly grant funding, with a total of $250,000 to be awarded over the course of the coming year.

The grant program, a collaborative program of the City’s Development Services Department and Sacramento Heritage Inc., aims to help preserve, rehabilitate, restore or reconstruct historic properties throughout Sacramento. To be eligible for funding, the property must be a City designated landmark or “contributing resource” in a historic district, or determined eligible as a landmark or contributing resource and nomination application submitted. In addition, the proposed work must comply with the City’s adopted Rehabilitation standards, and it must involve or work that affects the exterior of the structure or property, such as façade, roofing, porch, stairs or window repairs, or building stabilization. Work on significant, publicly-accessible interiors may also be considered.

Approved projects may receive matching funding for up to 50 percent of the project costs under $25,000, but no less than $1,000. Funds require a 1 to 1 match and will be provided on a reimbursement basis. Consideration may be given to waive the matching requirements if an applicant can demonstrate their household annual income does not exceed 80 percent of median in Sacramento County for the preceding year. In addition, emergency grant awards may be provided for eligible buildings that are determined immediately dangerous.

To apply for the grant, property owners can visit www.cityofsacramento.org to download an application, or contact the Development Services Department at 311 or 916-264-5011.

Applications for this last round of nominations are due to the City of Sacramento’s Preservation Office by Friday, January 16, 2008. The Preservation Office is located at 300 Richards Boulevard.

The grant program is a collaborative effort of the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Heritage, Incorporated, which is a non-profit organization whose Board of Directors are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council. The board includes representatives from the City’s Preservation Commission, Planning Commission, Housing Code Advisory and Appeals Board, and The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Commission, as well as at large members with expertise in preservation, history, construction, housing and finance. All applications are reviewed and grants awarded by Sacramento Heritage Board using ranking criteria established by the City Council.

The Docks' DEIR: part II

2008-11-11T23:01:15Z

In my previous story, The Docks' DEIR: part I (which you can find by clicking the "storyline" tab), I summarized the possible harmful impacts that the Docks Plan could have on the environment. The last article was all about aesthetics, light and glare, air quality, and biological resources. In this article, I am going to discuss three more areas of environmental interest: cultural and historic resources, hazards and hazardous substances, and hydrology and water quality.

"Cultural and Historic Resources" is the fourth topic of chapter five. It basically deals with any artifacts, sites, objects, etc., that are either at least 50 years old or have sacred or religious meaning. The main issue is that construction and demolition of the site could result in the loss of undiscovered artifacts that have prehistoric or historic value. In order to mitigate this, construction workers will work with an archeologist, testing the site before construction begins and learning how to identify cultural artifacts. If any artifacts are unearthed, construction in the area will stop immediately in order for excavation to take place.

The next section, "Hazards and Hazardous Substances," details the possible effects of contaminated soil and groundwater on both construction workers and future homeowners. The site currently holds plots of contaminated soil left over from the Pioneer Reservoir and a PG&E natural gas tank. In order to lessen the severity of the impact, measures will be taken to follow a health and safety contingency plan, as well as state and federal laws, in the process of removing the contaminated areas.

The sixth section elaborates on the possible impacts on "Hydrology and Water Quality." In implementing the Docks Area Plan, new sources of polluted water and run-off could contaminate existing water quality standards. In order to circumvent this issue, construction will include two new storm drain pipelines - one for drainage and one for sewage collection - that will connect to the existing line. To curb run-off water from storms, bioswales and rain gardens will be included into construction plans. In-line detention systems will also be installed, to store run-off water for other uses, like irrigation.

There is still more of the DEIR to come. My next story will detail the final three analyses of possible environmental impacts, and what the city proposes to do to lessen the severity.

To read the DEIR, click here.