Right now Sacramento is full of "Kodak moments." This afternoon I stalked Downtown and Midtown for those moments. There was something around every corner. The Grid in Technicolor:

On Oct. 11, the City Council approved an ordinance that officially named the alleys of the central city. On Tuesday and Wednesday, The Sacramento Press highlighted many of these alleys, including their new names and what residents and business owners think of them. More alleyways are included below. Leistal Alley Cohn said Leistal Alley is an alley that the city has put resources into renovating. With a lighted walkway and an upscale pavement job, co-owner of Old Soul Coffee Jason Griest said he hopes that all of the other alleys will soon be similarly renovated. “We see a lot more foot traffic in the alley now that they’ve renovated it,” the 36-year-old Midtown resident said. Griest

After initially being proposed five years ago, City Councilman Steve Cohn’s idea to name Sacramento alleys has finally been put into action. On Oct.11, the City Council approved a list of new names for the alleys. Cohn said that the alleys need names to help residents identify them more easily. “Instead of saying ‘the alley between L and Capitol,’ you could just say the name of the alley,” he said. The process for naming the alleys took so long, Cohn said, because it is very complicated.   What do you think of the alley names?   “It took a while because we had to do a lot of outreach,” he said. "It's part of the rules and regulations for naming streets." Cohn said that approva

Sean Kohmescher has come up with a winning business model when it comes to his two Temple coffee shops, but don't call him a businessman. "My identity is not a businessman," he said. "My identity is someone who is passionate about coffee and tea." Someone wanting to follow in his footsteps might think twice about replicating the road to his success. Kohmescher spent eight months building the first location. "I built everything. If it's not a chair and it's not a couch, I built it," he said. Although Kohmescher has a degree in interior graphic design, he has no formal background in architecture. He couldn't afford an architect at that time, so he drew the plans up himself -- sketch afte

From a Sacramento Police Department press release: The Sacramento Police Department is asking for the community’s help in identifying a sexual predator that attacked a 26-year-old female. On July 31, 2009, at 7:24 p.m., the male suspect was standing near the 3rd and T Street watching the victim unload items from her car. The suspect waited for the victim to enter her residence and then approached her door two times. The suspect used a ruse to try and get the victim to open her door. When the victim opened the door, the suspect forced his way into the residence. The suspect attacked the victim and reached under her shirt. The victim began to scream causing the suspect to leave. A composi

It's that time of year again - time for "Best Restaurants," brought to you by Sacramento Magazine. After reading the readers' picks for each category, it made me wonder whether the results would be different for readers of The Sacramento Press. Our focus has been primarily on events and coverage of things in the Grid, whereas Sacramento Magazine covers a larger demographic including the suburbs. There were four categories that stood out to me in Sacramento Magazine's Best Restaurants: Best Burrito, Best Pizza, Best Burger and Best Coffeehouse. I live in the Grid and therefore have my own biases about restaurants that live in Downtown and Midtown. I prefer restaurants in this area to tho

OK, here's a big question, one that stops everyone at some point, even veterans: What should I write about? What's "interesting"? And there are other questions: Is this story too small? Too big? Not local enough? TOO local? We're feeling our way on this one, but we've been very specific that this is about The Grid, the central city, midtown/downtown. (BTW, I'm not that keen on the midtown/downtown distinction, because they're such vague areas. A map I once saw in the Bee had the line demarcating the two meandering all over the Grid, making hash of the distinction. So let's just call it "downtown" or the Grid, eh? And don't get me started on the whole "Handle District" or "SoCap" thing ..

As the Managing Editor of SacramentoPress.com, and a life-long journalist of more than 30 years, I thought I should start a storyline about what I'm trying to do here. My purpose is to get feedback, and to give you, the potential or current contributor, and above all, to give MYSELF, some idea of what's going on with SacramentoPress.com. Despite my experience as a writer for The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento (and other) magazines, my own blog and with stints at radio, this is as new for me as it is for everyone else. Because this is NEW. The internet is not yet a generation old, blogging far newer. And journalism - well, what is that? Our Thursday, Dec. 18 workshop will answer that, in part,