Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "urban"

Downtown Construction Photo Update Fall 2011

2011-12-20T04:33:41Z

“Seventh & H" SRO - 7th & H Street, $47.4 million project.
Expected completion date, Spring 2013

626 I Street Rehabilitation Project - $19.4 million.
Expected completion date, Sept. 2012

La Valentina Station - 12th Street between D and E streets, $27 million project.
Expected completion date, summer 2012.

Sutter Medical Center - L & 29th Street, $600 million project.
Expected completion date, late 2012.

Read more at: http://livinginurbansac.blogspot.com/

Dragatomi store offers custom vinyl toys

2011-11-11T06:40:38Z

Sacramento residents can impress their loved ones this holiday season with unique gifts from Dragatomi.

Dragatomi, a toy store located at 2317 J St., showcases limited-edition vinyl toys, and even commissioned custom toys upon request to artists who were featured in the store.

"Our products are anywhere from the cute to the dark," co-owner Joanne Suavillo, 33, said. "I feel that we have something for everybody in here – some are custom, and some are production items."

Suavillo described the toys in the store as "made for the older child."

"We have customers who start collecting at 7 years old and grannies who buy for themselves," Suavillo said.

"Even though it's a small store, it's got a ton of stuff," vinyl toy collector Jawad Jaser, 29, of East Sacramento said.

Jaser said he has more than 20 designer toys in his collection, with some of them still in the box because he is still in the process of purchasing a display case to showcase his collection.

The store's products range from $3 blind-boxed mini figures to $1,200 custom vinyl toys.

Blind boxes have the same concept as baseball card packaging where customers do not know the specific item or items they will get until they have opened it, explained Suavillo. The store gives customers the option to exchange the toy they get from blind-boxed toys, if it was a duplicate, to a display from that same product line.

Suavillo said that most of their toys are not meant to be played with, but more to be collected and displayed like the artwork that they are.

"It is not a mass-produced toy. You're not going to find these in big-box stores. You're not going to find it at Target or at Toys ‘R’ Us," Suavillo said of the store's limited-edition toys, such as "Cathy Cowgirl – all gold color special edition" by Ron English. Only 30 items of this edition were made available worldwide, and the store currently has three in stock.

She said that they carry a lot of custom toys where artists have taken an existing platform, for example, a Munny, a three-dimensional blank canvas made of vinyl resembling a cartoon-like figure, and have painted, airbrushed, applied resin or clay, or a combination of all, on it to express and embellish their own style.

Suavillo explained that the name of their store, Dragatomi, is a made-up word her brother-in-law, Myk Suavillo, came up with. It is also the name of a blue-colored dragon-like cartoon character he created, which became their trademark logo.

As of now, she said, the store only sells the Dragatomi character in plush form. The toy is an exclusive to the store. They also carry other designer toys exclusive to the store such as the "Ozomahtli Ghost Edition" by Jesse Hernandez, a toy designer from the Bay Area.

"We bring a lot of flavor to Sacramento by showing them works of artists that they may have not been able to see because they are not usually local," Suavillo said.

Describing his “Awesome Bear” character, Illustrator Philip Lumbang III, said, "My character, even though he's really simple, he's really thought-out." Lumbang, 25, grew up in Elk Grove and now lives in Los Angeles. He had his illustrations featured in the store Oct. 8.

Customers can ask the store for commissioned art from artists who were featured in the store.

The biggest item they have now in the store for sale is the “Mickey Mao” by Frank Kozik.

The store also sells T-shirts, photography and graffiti books and paintings, aerosol spray cans, resin, watches and zipper-pulls, among other things.

The store’s toys come from various distributors from all over the U.S., Suavillo said. They carry more than 15 of major-brand vinyl toy brands such as Kidrobot and Tokidoki.

"We never knew that Dragatomi is going to be where it's at today," Suavillo said. "It started as an online store, and really, my intention was to have it as a home business, but it grew, and it grew, and very rapidly, which we are very thankful for and for all the supporters who made this happen for us."

Suavillo started Dragatomi as online store in June 2008, and in May 2009 she has her Dragatomi store at their current location. Customers can also view and order their products, check schedule of future events and upcoming specials for the holidays, on their website.

The store is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m., and Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Summer Construction Rundown

2011-08-29T19:59:57Z

Sutter Medical Center
L & 29th Street, $600 million project.
Expected completion date, late 2012.

La Valentina Station
12th Street between D and E streets.
$27 million project. Expected completion date, summer 2012.

Maydestone Apartments
Corner of J & 15th Street.
$7.2 million renovation.
Expected completion date, February 1, 2012.

“Seventh & H" SRO
7th & H Street.
$47.4 million project.
Expected completion date, Spring 2013.

DMV Headquarters Upgrade
2415 1st Avenue
$127 million renovation, 13-year renovation so far.
Expected completion date, who knows???

626 I Street Rehabilitation Project
$19.4 million. Expected completion date, Sept. 2012

Disclosure: http://livinginurbansac.blogspot.com/

Design competition to shape Capitol Mall

2011-05-30T20:12:14Z

The city of Sacramento is looking for a few good designers, urban planners, architects and artists to submit their ideas to revamp Capitol Mall, between Tower Bridge and Ninth Street. The juried competition is expected to draw international attention.

“Since the state turned Capitol Mall over to the city five years ago, there’s a growing impetus to do something with that space and get it activated,” said Chris Barkley of the American Institute of Architects Central Valley Chapter, the competition adviser to the city.

Stakeholders in the area have been meeting over the past five years and decided to put out a call for ideas to make Capitol Mall the significant street it once was, according to a brief* on the project.

According to the brief, Capitol Mall was the gateway to Sacramento from 1911 until the freeways arrived in the 1960s, and it then became crowded with office buildings that lack good access to common areas.

The purpose of the competition is to gather ideas on what can be done with the space, and participants are urged to be creative. Barkley said some lanes of traffic can be eliminated, creating either broader sidewalks for boulevarding or larger medians where public art or a memorial could be installed – or any number of other ideas.

“We’re looking for some really big ideas the community can get behind,” he said. “Funds are really tight right now, but if we have a good idea of what we want moving forward, then we can seek ways to fund it.”

The competition is expected to be approved at a City Council meeting in early July. After that, it will be announced to the international design community so it won’t be limited to locals.

One of the key factors many designers look at before entering a competition like this, according to Barkley, is who makes up the jury panel for judging it.

“We’re going to have a jury of nationally and internationally known design professionals,” he said. “We’re currently putting together a list of names. Submittees generally make their decisions about whether they will submit based on who will be reviewing the work.”

When the competition is opened for submissions, resources such as architectural drawings and restrictions – including the need to keep a visible corridor to the Capitol – will be posted online as references for people who wish to submit.

Barkley said links to the design competition will be posted to the city’s website as well as the AIA Central Valley Chapter website.

People with ideas will have about a month and a half to submit them, after which there will likely be a gala reception in September, Barkley said.

Ron Vrilakas, principal architect at Vrilakas Architects in Midtown, said it’s an interesting project that would be hard for any Sacramento architects or designers to look at without considering the possibilities.

“I do think (Capitol Mall) is ripe for some in terms of its urban design qualities,” he said. “In general terms, I think what is lacking on Capitol Mall is people. We need a reason for people to be there other than if they are just passing in a vehicle.”

Vrilakas said that will be the biggest problem to overcome, but also a key part of any successful project.

“It’s not an easy thing, but it’s probably the single biggest thing it needs. It’s not necessarily just about art objects,” he added.

Referencing the east side of the Capitol, Vrilakas mentioned an earlier attempt at a similar concept in the early 2000s from 15th Street to 17th Street.

“They had a fresh shot at how to make it a meaningful experience as part of the fabric of the city’s core,” he said. “They put art in a grassy area and failed miserably to do anything meaningful. It’s a lot harder than someone would think.”

An example of success, he said, is San Francisco’s Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building.

Before the redesign, he said there was an elevated freeway and the Ferry Building was just a shell. Today, however, it is a destination for tourists and locals alike.

“It was thought out in a very complex manner and brought people in through a lot of different ways,” Vrilakas said. “It was not any one thing – you have a lot of reasons to go down there.”

Local businessman Chris Nestor, who owns House Kitchen & Bar at 555 Capitol Mall as well as Ink Eats & Drinks, 2730 N St., said he would love to see more foot traffic and reasons to visit Capitol Mall.

“There’s such an incredible view. It’s a shame it’s underutilized,” he said. “Once everyone leaves the buildings (for work), there’s nothing down there to draw anyone.”

He added that he would like to see more events such as parades, a New Year’s ball drop and Christmas lighting on the street, as well as making use of the central median.

“I’ve suggested some large artwork, unique benches – things like that,” he said. “I also think we need more family events – anything to get people down there to walk that corridor. It’s kind of a waste of median space out there, and more people would definitely be conducive to our business.”

*Editor’s note: Formatting irregularities in the brief linked here are due to file conversion. They are not present in the original document from officials.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Francis House features Victoria Vox in benefit concert at The Guild Theatre

2011-03-21T05:50:01Z

Francis House held a benefit concert from 7 - 10 p.m. Friday night at The Guild Theatre. The concert featured Victoria Vox and The Boulder Acoustic Society.

The concert was held in memory of Greg Bunker, former executive director of Francis House, who passed away unexpectedly days after Christmas last year. About 100 people attended.

The music was an old-fashioned folksy blend of eclectic sound. The Boulder Acoustic Society opened with keyboards, drums, upright bass and banjo. The keyboardist switched to accordion and the drummer to a marching band bass drum.

Victoria Vox, 32, lives in Baltimore, Md. She sings and plays ukulele. She said she finally quit her day job in 2003 to tour and perform full time.

She attended the public memorial service for Bunker in January, held in the Westminster Presbyterian Church, which was full to capacity. Forest Reed invited her to make a stop in Sacramento for the benefit concert.

“It was amazing being at the memorial and seeing how many people were there,” she said. “It was packed,” Vox said. “It was really moving to be there, and I know that Francis House does a lot of great things for people,” she said.

“I can only imagine how many people they’ve helped.” Vox said. “I’m honored more than anything to be invited to perform.”

Francis House is a counseling and resource center for poor and low-income families in the Sacramento area. Forest Reed is the new executive director of Francis House.

“Francis House is a cornerstone agency in the social service fabric in Sacramento,” Reed said. ”We touch 30,000 people every year on a first-come, first-serve basis.”

Reed explained about the important services Francis House offers.

“Without identification, you’re stymied and roadblocked,” Reed said. “We put people in motion to get out and handle those things. We provide support for getting California IDs, driver licences and birth certificate,” Reed said. “We’re a connection, a conduit to the rest of the agencies in Sacramento.”

“So many new people have dropped into poverty and homelessness in Sacramento over the last three years,” Reed said. “We help people move forward and get back on track. We ignite change for people.”

Bunker spent his last 21 years as director of Francis House. Reed had only praise for Bunker.

“He was accepting on a very human level,” he said. “He always sought to find how he could help. He loved everybody and didn’t judge people and accepted people as they were. He had a tremendous amount of kindness,” Reed said. “It’s a great loss for us because he was a mentor, a leader, a great friend and a funny guy at the same time.”

Jazz on J brings live Jazz to Downtown Sacramento

2011-03-16T02:30:35Z

Seeing a lack of regular jazz shows in the central city, Grady O’Bryant sought to fill that void with a weekly series called Jazz on J at Shenanigans bar on J Street.

Jazz on J features a local jazz band every Thursday. The first Jazz on J show was on Feb. 17.

Grady worked with saxophonist Ava Lemert to create Jazz on J, which had its fourth show Thursday. Lemeret performs every week before the featured band.

“Grady and I met up at Shenanigan’s to talk about putting something together,” Lemert said. “He and I are the creators of the series. Grady had the idea that he wanted to put something together. Maybe have something every week.”

Every Thursday, from 6 - 7 p.m., local jazz artist Ava Lemert sings and plays her saxophone. The featured band plays from 7 - 9 p.m., and DJ Rock Bottom spins from 9 p.m. to midnight playing a contemporary jazz mix. Cover charge is $10.

O’Bryant explained his motivation behind starting Jazz on J.

“I worked over the past three years with various jazz bands,” O’Bryant said. “They complained that there’s not enough venues featuring jazz bands.”

O’Bryant also runs Sacramento Wine & Night Life Tours. He said he is planning on combining Jazz on J and the tours.

“I got a little different twist on it,” he said. “We’re bringing wine makers from wine country to Jazz on J, and we’re bringing the jazz bands out to wine country, too.”

The jazz scene has been lacking in Sacramento, Larry Ellis Jr. said. The 36-year veteran jazz pianist has been witness to the scene shrinking and growing for the past three decades. Larry Ellis Jr. and Southwind were featured at Jazz on J on March 3.

“The jazz scene as far as the kind of jazz that I play is really weak in Sacramento,” Ellis said. “Sacramento is notorious for supporting it for a little while and then flaking out.”

Ellis expressed hope and enthusiasm about Jazz on J.

“Jazz on J St. is a rekindling of jazz in Sacramento. It’s an outstanding event – a place for grown folks to go and enjoy themselves,” Ellis said. “They have good-quality music.”

Sabor Jazz was featured on opening night, on Feb. 17. Micheal Otwell plays flute and saxophone in Sabor Jazz.

“Grady is an absolute networking monster,” Otwell said. “He pulled us into the Jazz on J family of all places from Facebook. I never thought I would get a gig through Facebook.”

“The venue’s really good to play at,” Otwell said. “We had a pretty good crowd of about 50 or 60 people. The social media thing was really working for us.”

DJ Rock Bottom (profile on The Sacramento Press here) was asked to perform by O’Bryant to DJ Jazz on J.

“I think it’s great. It’s a good idea. It’s a good thing for the scene,” he said. “Many jazz musicians that don’t have that avenue to expose themselves on a commercial level can get exposure here.

“People don’t have to drive to the bay for it anymore,” he added. “It gives the people that love it the opportunity to see it live every week.”

Bill Meyer plays lead guitar for Innersoul. They were featured during the second week.

“I think it’s a very positive thing, and I’m glad to see the music is coming back to Sacramento,” Meyer said. “I think it’s going to grow.”

For information about future events, go to JazzonJ.com.

The Vibe Foundation hosts Cake Decoration Contest in Midtown

2011-03-14T05:21:35Z

The Vibe Foundation held Cake Craze Saturday night. The Vibe Foundation hosted their Cake Craze fundraising event Saturday night, pitting nine local bakeries against each other in a cake-decorating contest themed “Generation Y” at 1725 K St.

The event was fundraising for the organization’s opening this summer.

Julia Hidalgo,18, another Christian Brothers senior, is the chair of Vibe’s youth board.

“The fundraiser is really just to get our doors open,” Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo expressed her vision of Vibe as molding to the needs of the youth community that leads it.

“It’s all about what kids want,” Hidalgo said. “If kids want free SAT classes, maybe we’ll do that,” Hidalgo said. “We’re hoping to get our doors open no later than July.”

Chelsea Carter,18, is a senior at Christian Brothers High School and is Vibe’s event planner. She said Vibe’s goal was to provide a place for Sacramento youth to go and hang out at night.

“Basically we want a place for teenagers and youth to hang out in a safe place,” Carter said. “We are working to create a teen urban lounge and career and resource center.”

“It was so stressful to do it and plan it to get stuff done,” Carter said. “Now that it’s here, it’s fantastic. The music and the cakes are super cool,” said Carter. “I’m glad everything is working out well.”

Sweet Cakes was awarded the Incomparable Innovation (best in show) prize.

Kat’s Cakes was awarded the Premium Pioneering (most creative) prize.

Crazy Cake Company was awarded the Optimum Outrageousness (most outrageous) prize.

Cake Castle Bakery was awarded the Supreme Stimulation (best depiction of theme) prize.

The event was well attended with a steady stream of people coming and going. The organizers felt the event went well.

Christine Giffin, Vibe’s executive director, echoed Hidalgo’s sentiment that Vibe activities are open to the interpretation of the youth who lead the organization.

“I’m not attached to any one idea with this place,” Giffin said. “The idea is just whatever our current generation of teens in Sacramento want, that’s what Vibe aspires to be.”

Access Sacramento to start Neighborhood News Bureaus

2011-03-12T01:34:13Z

Access Sacramento is putting together a network of news bureaus in the South Sacramento area. The goal is to get youth to report for their communities, producing news stories about South Sacramento. The effort is based around a website that access Sacramento has set up called accesslocal.tv.

Ron Cooper, executive director of Access Sacramento, said that besides being known for negative news, South Sacramento seems to be absent from the news altogether. He wants to help revitalize the area through empowering the youth to become news reporters and serve them by developing their journalism skills.

“South Sacramento is big area with lots of people and lots of ethnic diversity,” Cooper said. “Stories with positives don’t usually trickle out.”

There are currently five neighborhood news bureau locations. Asian Resources, La Familia, Florin Creek, Pannell Center and Valley Hi-North Laguna Library were selected as the initial locations to host the news bureaus. They were provided with computers, flip cameras and funding for training.

“Young people accept challenges and changes much more readily. That’s always been the case,” said Cooper said. “I like the idea of organizing young people and challenging them to tell the stories of their communities.”

A part of the project is bringing in the technological resources for youth to use. The project is providing computers and cameras to help them report stories. He said that providing the resources and letting youth “play” and experiment will be an important way of developing how the neighborhood news bureaus turn out.

“I’m not launching a five-year plan here. We have some tenets, but it has to be responsive to what we learn along the way,” Cooper said. “Over the next six months, we will gradually widen the sphere and add more neighborhood news bureaus.”

The Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission provided the initial technological equipment.

“We went to the Sacramento Metro Cable Commission, and they gave the equipment necessary for the initial sites,” Cooper said.

Part of the project is being funded through the California Endowment, which selected South Sacramento as one of 14 neighborhoods across California in need of assistance, said Christine Tien, California Endowment’s Sacramento’s program manager.

“For us, it’s a youth empowerment tool – a good way to generate stories from the youth perspective, especially in the South Sac area,” Tien said. “Currently, the only type of stories coming out of South Sac are crime-related.”

“Part of the grant is for training youth to be community reporters, reporting from their perspective on community issues.” Tien said.

Fong Tran is a youth coordinator at Asian Resources. He works on helping to produce and guide the stories of the young reporters.

“The purpose of the neighborhood news bureaus is to provide an opportunity for grassroots and community organizations to work with youth, and to put out news that comes from the community and the community perspective.” Tran said.

“It’s a chance for, what were marginalized communities, to speak in their own words about events and topics,” Tran said. “It’s a way for youth to get what they want to say out to the mainstream world.”

Access Sacramento is a nonprofit community media organization that provides resources to Sacramento community members to produce independent media. The organization has been producing radio and cable programmes for the last 25 years. The neighborhood news bureaus are the most recent way of engaging the Sacramento community.

To learn more about the neighborhood news bureaus, visit AccessLocal.tv.

Ladybug Ladybug store offers gifts and gifts cards

2011-02-25T06:25:21Z

Ladybug Ladybug opened its second location at 2512 J St. last November, where they sell greeting cards and gifts.

“It’s kind of your one-stop gift shop,” said Sheila Istvanick, 40, Ladybug Ladybug’s owner.

Istvanick opened her first gift card store in San Francisco’s Noe Valley at 24th and Sanchez in 2002. Since opening the store, Istvanick has had three daughters. She recently moved to Sacramento to be closer to her extended family.

Istvanick worked at Papyrus before partnering with a friend to open the first Ladybug Ladybug.

She said she really values small business and locally sourced products. From cards to gifts, Istvanick tries to find and promote local items.

“I hope to carry more local products,” Istvanick said. “We have a focus on trying to promote local products and keep the local business vibe alive.”

Ladybug Ladybug carries Trumpette socks, Slainte Bags and Susanne George gift cards.

“The people in Midtown have been so wonderful,” Istvanick said. “People come in to talk and say that they support small businesses.”

“People love to know that there’s a real person, a real human being that they’re supporting locally.”

The store specializes in cards, candles, small gifts and functional gifts like water bottles and purses.

“One of our best products is our recyclable bags and water bottles as gift items,” said Istvanick said. “Candles are probably our No. 1 gift.”

Melissa Cates, Istvanick’s cousin, left her job as St. John’s Homeless Shelter’s art program director to help run the Sacramento location.

“She took a big risk opening this store,” Cates said. “We’re hoping with Second Saturdays starting again the foot traffic will get better.”

“We try and do original stuff and change it up for holidays,” Cates said.

Cates said that Istvanick wants to focus on the Sacramento store and eventually make it the base store.

Sharon and Harry Tanovitz own Art Ellis, an art supply store down the street from Ladybug Ladybug that has been open since 1952.

“It’s a lovely little shop,” Sharon Tanovitz said. “They have a nice range of cards and fun gifts and things.”

University Art is on the opposite corner from Ladybug Ladybug at 26th and J. David Saalsaa has been the division manager there for 13 years.

“We’re happy that they’re here and hope to see more retail stores open up,” Saalsaa said.

“It’s a real joy to get a card in the mail,” Istvanick said. “It’s a thrill. It’s not an everyday occurrence.”

Ladybug Ladybug is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday though Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Sacramento's 2nd Annual Beer Week Feb 25 - March 6

2011-02-22T06:29:41Z

This Friday the second annual Sacramento Beer Week is bringing local brewers and beer enthusiasts together for over 300 events in Sacramento from Feb. 25 through March 6.

Dan Scott, 38, founded Sacramento’s Beer Week in 2010. Scott is currently a grad student working on a Masters in public policy and administration from Sacramento State.

“We’ve got an incredible beer culture in Sacramento,” said Scott.

He said he loves beer and has traveled to more than 500 breweries tasting and sampling brews from around the world.

“I’m a beer connoisseur, not a beer brewer,” said Scott. “I’d rather drink a lot of different beers from different people than a lot of my own.”

“There’s opportunities for people to learn how to home brew (during Beer Week),” said Scott. “and classes on beer appreciation.”

There will be a scavenger hunt that will run all week. The clues will be posted on the website on Feb 24. The prizes will be gift certificates to pubs and restaurants and various beer items that have been donated.

“There are 30 locations around Sac to take a photo of something described in a clue,” Scott said.

The Sacramento Brewers Showcase kicks off the week-long beer fest on Feb. 24 at the Crocker Art Museum. The event will host 12 local brewers including special brews created for Sacramento’s Beer Week by Sierra Nevada from Petaluma, Lagunitas in Chico and Sudwerk in Davis. Admission is $20. Tickets are available at Rubicon Brewing, River City Brewing and Pangaea Two Brews.

Lagunitas has created a new beer in their fusion series called Fusion Sacramento Beer Week
said Don Chartier, the Mr. Nice Guy of Lagunitas’ marketing department.

“It’s something we started with Chicago's craft beer conference,” said Chartier “It’s where we created the fusion series. We wanted to continue that in Sacramento,”

“In Sacramento they wanted something darker, so we crafted a rye beer,” said Chartier “We did up about 78 kegs for the week.””

To close out Sac’s Beer Week The Capitol Beerfest will take place at Cal Expo on March 5. Fifty-nine breweries are expected to attend.

For the connoisseur there is a V.I.P. tasting of rare and special brews from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. The public session is from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. V.I.P. tickets include admission to the public session and cost $60. Public session costs $30.

“We have beers from around California, across the country and the world,” said Scott.

According to Scott, there will be a free shuttle from Midtown to Cal Expo to promote safety and responsible drinking.

“We want people to celebrate with us safely and responsibly.” said Scott

Glynn Phillips, owner of Rubicon Brewery said he is looking forward to their cask beer day on Thursday, March 3.

Cask ale is fermented a little bit differently and the naturally occurring carbon dioxide has a much softer taste than the manufactured carbon dioxide, Phillips said. No additional carbon dioxide is added to the beer. It is also served with gravity instead of pushed with carbon dioxide, Phillips added.

“(There will be) traditional ales brewed in a very old fashion way,” Phillips said. “No one else does a cask tasting like we do.”

Brian Cofresi, Brewmaster at River City Brewing for 11 ½ years, said that there will be a bagpiper, Bill Tubbs, playing at 4 p.m. on Tuesday to celebrate tapping the River City’s seasonal Irish Red Rye ale.

“We want to make sure that craft beer is supported and promoted,” said Cofresi. “We try to promote the local breweries but it’s mostly about beer.”

Shady Lady Saloon, another participating bar, will be tapping the hard to find Hoptimum by Sierra Nevada and the special brew they crafted called Hopsicord, according to co-owner Jason Boggs.

On Sunday, March 6 they will have a Mardi Gras celebration with a New Orleans style brass band and beer from Abita Brewing from New Orleans.

“I think that Sacramento is having a a beer renaissance,” said Boggs “The town is going beer crazy.”

Brooke Tachibana, who is a manager at the Streets of London, said she is also looking forward to Beer Week.

“It’s a good thing. Last year was really busy, it brought a lot of people into the bar,” said Tachibana “This year every night we will be featuring a different beer.”

There are too many events to list all of them. Here are links to what is going on everyday during Beer Week!

Friday Feb 25
Saturday Feb 26
Sunday Feb 27
Monday Feb 28
Tuesday March 1
Wednesday March 2
Thursday March 3
Friday March 4
Saturday March 5
Sunday March 6

7th & H SRO Project Groundbreaking Soon

2011-02-22T04:22:30Z

This $47 million projects planned for the northwest corner of 7th & H Street has now received all needed entitlements and necessary financing to move forward with construction anticipated for March 2011. The project will be funded with $25 million in 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits, $8,200,000 loan funded by Home Investment Partnership Program, a $6,859,695 capitol grant and $3,750,000 operating grant funded by Downtown Low Moderate Tax Increment Funds, and a land grant for the acquisition, construction and permanent financing of the 7th & H Project.

Developer and owner Mercy Housing California is a non-profit corporation dedicated to providing quality affordable housing with supportive programs to low-income persons in California. Together, Mercy Housing California and Rural California Housing Corporation have been responsible for the construction of more than 2,900 affordable single-family self-help homeownership units and 124 multifamily rental properties with a total of more than 7000 units. Their portfolio includes 18 properties in Sacramento County alone.

This 7th & H Street project will include 122 studios (325sf) and 28 one bed room (500sf) units as well as sixteen parking spaces, retail and health clinic on the ground floor. This eight story 102 foot tall building’s designed to replace other single room occupancy (SRO) units in downtown that are going to be replaced with other developments in the future.

http://livinginurbansac.blogspot.com/

Sick of the Radio? dot com

2011-02-18T03:49:25Z

Sick of the Radio (SOTR) is a Sacramento-based website that covers indie art and music from Sacramento and around the world. The website has artist interviews, photography, art, music videos and even free MP3s.

Started last February by 28-year-old Andy Johnson and his wife, Melissa, SOTR aims to share a love of the arts and offer daily inspiration for artists, musicians and art lovers.

“We strive to expose all types of art to the masses,” Johnson said. “I am an artist and musician, and love the idea of an online collective of various artists.”

Johnson has had the idea for the site for a few years. The birth of his son motivated him to make it a reality.

“I’ve had the idea for the website for a while, then my wife got pregnant,” Johnson said “So I thought, ‘I got to launch this.’ ”

He built the website himself using the Wordpress content management system and customizing it to his needs. He said he doesn’t feel he is very tech-savvy and is looking for tech help to maintain and update the site.

“One time, none of the contributors could log in, the web tech guy wanted to charge $200 to fix it,” Johnson said “Once I figured it out, I fixed it in two seconds.”

Johnson attended Sacramento State for a couple of years. He hopped between majors, then decided to go with his inclination toward art before leaving without a degree.

“Going into college, I was already an artist and musician,” he said.

“My parents sent me to college, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I just started taking a bunch of art classes and then just kind of dropped out,” Johnson said. “My problem was I just didn’t know what to do.”

Johnson said he wants to expand on the idea behind SOTR by organizing art shows and concerts in Sacramento.

There are about 20 writers that contribute articles to the site. Contributors come from all over the world, including Canada, China and England.

Contributors volunteer their time. Johnson said he wants to be able to pay them in the future, probably through placing relevant ads on the site.

“When it comes to art and music, when you find people that are passionate, it’s easier to find people to do it for free,” Johnson said “The writers are trying to find experience for a paying job, eventually.”

Sarah MacDonald heard about SOTR through a friend. She started writing for the arts section last September from Waterloo, Canada. She has written articles for the art, photography, fashion and music sections. You can read samples of her articles here and here.

“I feel very passionately about reporting on arts and cultural stories under the radar of the mainstream culture,” MacDonald said. “Not everyone wants to know about Top-40 music, but would rather be informed about other musicians worldwide with different sounds.”

Richard Greenan started writing for SOTR a year ago. Originally from Brighton, England, he found the site while studying in Cardiff, Wales. He contributes about three articles a week on new and retro music. You can read samples of his articles here and here.

He said he’s seen SOTR really grow over the last year, and it has been mentioned by other indie music websites such as Pitchfork and Gorilla vs. Bear.

“I believe it has real potential to offer alternative coverage of the indie music scene,” Greenan said.

Johnson has produced three albums by himself under the name Tony Bonanza. His song “Singapore Sling” on Baby B. EP was featured on Fader magazine’s website.

“You could say I’m a multi-instrumentalist,” Johnson said. “My main goal right now is just to be able to survive doing something I love.”

SOTR gets about 1,000 unique visitors a day and double that in page views.

“It’s good to know that people are sifting through the site,” Johnson said.

SOTR on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook.

Big plans for River District

2011-02-16T06:21:01Z

Major changes are in store for the city’s River District, as the Sacramento City Council approved a set of future development plans Tuesday night.

The planning documents set a path for development of the area over the next 25 years, according to a report from city staff. The city’s plans for the River District, a 773-acre swath between the Sacramento Railyards and the American River, focus on ramping up residential, commercial, office and hotel development and moving away from industrial development.

Council members approved the plans in a 8-0 vote. Mayor Kevin Johnson did not attend the City Council meeting because he was out of town, said Johnson spokesman Joaquin McPeek.

The city wants to remodel the River District area into a “transit-oriented mixed use urban environment,” according to the Feb. 15 city staff report. The refashioned district would feature 8,144 homes, 3.9 million square feet of office space, 854,000 square feet of retail and wholesale, 1.4 million square feet of light industrial and thousands of hotel units, according to the report.

The plans would be a major change from the district’s current developments, which are mostly industrial.

City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby praised city staff’s development plans for the River District, noting that planned projects for the area would involve redevelopment funding. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed disbanding redevelopment agencies and using redevelopment money on other local services. The city hopes to use $25 million in redevelopment funds on the River District in the future.

“One thing I do want to point out is that this is a really great example of why cities need to have control of ... redevelopment dollars,” Ashby said. “These are exactly the types of gems and pearls we’re trying to bring into our cities.”

Infrastructure upgrades, public resources and administrative costs for the River District remodel over the next 25 years will cost an estimated $323 million, according to the report. Fees paid by developers would cover $180 million of the amount.

If Brown throws out redevelopment agencies, work on the plans will slow, said Rachel Hazlewood, a senior project manager for the city’s Economic Development Department.

In addition to development, the city is also designating nine sites in the area as historical landmarks and setting up a North 16th Street Historic District. Sites that will be identified as historical landmarks include the PG&E Sacramento River Power Station at 400 Jibboom St. and Fire Station No. 14 at 1341 N. C St.

Read the city staff report here.

View River District Landmarks in a larger map

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor Johnson speaks at Oak Park Neighborhood Association Meeting

2011-02-05T01:27:51Z

The Sacramento Food Bank was filled with about 50 people Thursday night as Mayor Kevin Johnson spoke at the Oak Park Neighborhood Association meeting.

Johnson spoke about the green economy, downtown development, the state of Sacramento’s schools, volunteering in the city and homelessness.

He emphasized the need for a strong and vibrant downtown and a growing green economy.

“You kill two birds with one stone,” he said. “No. 1, you improve the environment, and No. 2, you can create jobs.”

Johnson said he is a proponent for building the sports arena downtown.

“Our community deserves a world-class facility, and I’d like to see that downtown because it creates jobs, and all the other businesses benefit from 20,000 people coming to that place 50 or 100 times a year,” he said.

The city has hired a business recruiter to find businesses to fill up the empty spaces on K Street, he said. He added that the pedestrian malls around the country haven’t worked, so cars are coming back to K street in 2011.

He also brought up the problems with Sacramento’s schools, especially the reading levels.

“In terms of third graders in the city of Sacramento, only 39 percent are reading at grade level citywide,” Johnson said. “That should be alarming. That means 61 percent are not.”

He proposed a citywide initiative to get 70 percent of third graders reading at grade level. The proposal would involve a tutoring and mentoring program utilizing seniors and recent college graduates.

Johnson said the initiative could begin in March.

People are moving away from the city for their children's education to places like Roseville, El Dorado, Folsom or Elk Grove that have better schools, he said.

One community member voiced concerned about Sacramento High School.

“Is there a threat to Sac High?” she asked. “How do we fight this idea that because student population has dropped we close the school?”

Johnson explained that the school district had prevented Sacramento High from recruiting students from the Oak Park area.

“What the school district did for the last five years was they would not allow Sac High to recruit kids from the normal middle schools that would go to Sac High,” he said. “They would not even send information to the middle school families to say that this is an option that you have.”

“That just doesn’t make sense,” said Johnson.

He expressed confidence that the community would fight to keep the school open.

An Oak Park Neighborhood Association board member wondered how people in Oak Park could work with the city volunteering effort.

Johnson suggested she contact Keith Hart, chief service officer, who is coordinating the city’s volunteer effort.

He said he set a goal of 500,000 volunteering hours in 2009, and the city got 1.7 million. In 2010, his goal was 3 million, and the city got 3.1 million hours. This year, his goal remains 3 million, with the addition of raising the number of Sacramentans who volunteer from 24 to 35 percent.

The mayor’s top four issues for volunteers to get involved with are education, homelessness, environmental issues and emergency preparedness.

“What are we doing about the homeless?” one attendee asked.

Johnson responded that the city set a goal of building 3,000 permanent housing units over three years and built 1,500 of them last year.

“In the first year we’re 500 ahead of schedule,” he said.

He mentioned an effort by the faith community called Winter Sanctuary, where churches bring in up to 100 homeless, the effort has saved the city a couple hundred thousand dollars, he said.

Sacramento had the opportunity to get $1.6 million from the federal Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program but had to raise $400,000 to receive the funds.

The city raised matching funds with the help of area churches who asked their congregations to contribute at least one day’s worth of their rent.

After the mayor finished, the OPNA held an election for seven board positions. Only seven people were on the ballot. One community member, Cory Cliff, attempted to put himself on the ballot but was ineligible because he hadn’t attended three OPNA meetings in the last 12 months.

The new board members are: Bill Knowlton, Terre Johnson, Micheal Luna, Charles Mason, Rev. Ashiya Edeye, Julian Slee and Joany Titherington.

The next Oak Park Neighborhood Association meeting will be held on March 3 at the Sacramento Food Bank, 3333 Third Avenue.

Historic district, properties considered

2010-12-03T02:08:13Z

The Sacramento Preservation Commission took an important step toward protecting the River District's history Wednesday by recommending creation of a new historic district and designation of other properties as landmarks.

The commission's six present members voted unanimously to recommend the Sacramento City Council create the North 16th Street Historic District and add nine properties found elsewhere in the River District to the Sacramento Register of Historic & Cultural Resources.

At the same time, the commission postponed a decision on whether to start the historic landmark nomination process for the state printing plant at Seventh Street and Richards Boulevard. The building was designed by prominent architect William Wurster. City staff members have recommended its demolition to improve traffic circulation and support economic development at that critical intersection. State officials have no plans to sell it or tear it down.

Historic preservation in the area has come up as part of the city's process to update its plan for the neighborhood under the River District Specific Plan. City planners see the River District as a prime area for infill close to downtown that can help Sacramento achieve smart growth goals, said Rachel Hazlewood, a senior project manager with the city's Economic Development Department.

"Historic assets are a strength," Hazlewood said. "That's why we brought forth the North 16th Street District."

The River District, previously known as the Richards Boulevard area, is bounded by the American and Sacramento rivers, 16th Street and the historic railyards. The buildings and the district are being nominated as part of an update to a historic properties survey of Richards Boulevard and the railyards taken 10 years ago.

Creation of the North 16th Street Historic District is being recommended to preserve the street's historic character and more than 20 buildings, mostly brick structures dating back to the 1920s. The street still maintains traces of the district's early role in transportation, warehousing and distribution for Sacramento. The boundaries are east of Ahern Street, south of Richards Boulevard, north of C Street and west of 18th Street.

The nine properties being nominated outside the new historic district include the Jibboom Street Bridge in Discovery Park, PG&E Power Station B at 400 Jibboom St., the Sacramento River Water Treatment Plant, Fire Station 14 and Pipeworks Complex, which contains a climbing gym.

The district and other properties are a "great selection" of historic industrial buildings, said Commissioner Andrew Hope.

"I'm completely in support of district nomination," he said.

The Quonset Huts erected in 1946 and the Acme Cabinet building containing Loaves & Fishes were dropped from the list Wednesday night. They could be reconsidered at a later time.

City staff have recommended the state printing plant at 344 N. Seventh St. be demolished so Bannon and Sixth streets can be extended through the property. Staff members believe the building won't help stimulate development at that important intersection, Hazlewood said.

"This is going to be the heart and soul of the river district," she said.

Officials with the California Department of General Services' Office of State Publishing, which operates the plant, notified the city they oppose the plant's demolition.

DGS plans to move the printing plant because it's outlived the location, where it's been housed for 50 years. But the state intends to turn the building into a million square feet of office space to meet the state's needs in years to come, DGS spokesman Eric Lamoureux said Thursday.

"Our long-term plan is to redevelop the space," he said.

The building was designed by Wurster, an influential American architect who co-founded the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Born in Stockton, Wurster transformed an old industrial area of San Francisco into Ghirardelli Square, one of the country's first adaptive reuse projects in 1964, local historian William Burg told the commission at its meeting.

The building has the potential to be listed on state and national historic registers and could be adapted to reuse, said Burg, a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association and a state historian with the California Office of Historic Preservation.

The commission voted five to one to postpone a decision on the building while sending city staff to get more information about it from the State Historic Preservation Officer.

"As a commission, our mission is to promote preservation of these buildings," said Commissioner Tim Brandt.

The council is expected to consider the commission's recommendations in February.

History of Oak Park told through new walking tour brochure

2010-10-13T16:55:14Z

On Thursday, October 21st, the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) and California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) will unveil a new self-guided walking tour of Central Oak Park. The brochure highlights the community’s architectural and historical significance. The evening will include an address by the brochure’s author, Dr. Robin Datel, a professor in CSUS’ Geography Department. The lecture will be held at the historic Guild Theater in Oak Park (2828 35th Street at Broadway); doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation begins at 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The 32-page walking tour brochure includes historic photographs of nearly forty selected locations with interpretation of their change over time. The tour highlights the development of an early suburb with its own Main Street (“smart growth” long before the label existed); racial transitions; the civil rights movement; cycles of investment and disinvestment; nurturing of the arts; redevelopment; and neighborhood activism. These themes are embodied in such buildings and places as the 40 Acres Building, the Guild Theater, the Citizens’ and US Banks, the old Post Office/Observer Building, Joyland/McClatchy Park, the Women’s Civic Improvement Club, and more.

Dr. Datel’s lecture, “Local Places Tell Big Stories: A Walking Tour of Sacramento’s Central Oak Park,” will address how she acquired the walking tour content, the key themes of the tour, and details of the individual tour sites. The lecture will be supplemented by photographs documenting the tour sites and Oak Park history. Finally, the address will report on current projects to produce other walking tours in Sacramento, as well as to develop a driving tour of Sacramento places with significance to (mostly 20th-century) African-American history.

The brochures will be available at locations throughout the Central Oak Park area after October 21st and at the CSH website, www.centerforsacramentohistory.org. For copies of the brochure or to serve as a public distribution site, call (916) 808-7072.

Dr. Datel is an Associate Professor and Geography Department Chair at CSUS. With the help of her urban geography students and Oak Park residents, she developed the walking tour. Dr. Datel’s published research has largely been on historic preservation in American and European cities and the social geography of Sacramento, particularly aspects of ethnicity and immigration. She teaches an Urban Geography lecture/discussion course and an Urban Geography field course.

This project was made possible by financial support from CSH, CSUS, and the Sacramento County Historical Society.

CSH’s mission is to foster, stimulate, and promote the study and appreciation of Sacramento’s regional history. Since 1953, it has served the community by acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and providing access to the documentary and material culture of the region. CSH is administered by the City of Sacramento and is jointly funded by the City and County of Sacramento.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM TEDX SACRAMENTO April 16 2010 at Hinde Auditorium, 6000 J Street Sacramento, CA 95819.

2010-04-22T06:06:17Z

April 16 marked the arrival of TEDx in Sacramento, bringing a “TED-like experience” to our area.

What is TED? TED stands for “Technology, Education, Design.” It is a small nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Started in 1984, its purpose has spread to include an annual U.S. conference in Long Beach as well as a TEDGlobal conference in the United Kingdom, a TEDTalks online video site, an annual TED Prize, a nationwide local program called TEDx and more.

Per TEDx Sacramento, “The TEDx Conference provided a license and general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.”

Brandon Weber, TEDx Sacramento curator, said the local team wanted to create a special event to “lay the foundation for a strong TEDx presence in Sacramento…to contribute to the dialogue of ideas and encourage creativity, innovation and action in our beloved city.”

The event was held at the Hinde Auditorium at California State University, Sacramento, to a packed house of several hundred registrants, and the program was recorded for subsequent online viewing.

Weber started the program by saying TEDsters are in a class of their own, that TED conferences are a mix of things and that we would be watching live video from other TEDx conferences in addition to live multimedia presentations.

The first presentation was a video called “Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?” The focus of the video was that sometimes we have to go to the other side of the world to realize assumptions that we didn’t realize we had. Whatever brilliant ideas you have – the opposite may also be true. An example was shown of how addresses are determined in the United States versus in Japan. U.S. blocks don’t have names, streets have names. In Japan, blocks have names and the streets are the unnamed places between the blocks. Street numbers are based on when the homes were built.

Next was a live presentation titled “David Mogavero: An American Frontier.” Mogavero is senior principal at Mogavero Notestine Associates, with special expertise in the areas of ecological building, environmental planning, infill development, urban design and energy-efficient design.

Mogavero said the suburbs are a unique American institution, generating vast amounts of appreciation and scorn. Suburbs are the most inefficient form of human habitation ever done on earth, and an important place for focusing on environmental change in America, he said.
He started his practice by doing passively heated homes for people moving back to the land, mostly hippies. He realized that if he was going to be an ecoarchitect he had to work in the fabric of the community. He has done infill work in Sacramento and throughout Northern California.

The quantity of issues relative to urban sprawl are immense. People are moving back to urban America in large quantities, mostly in central cities. This has both limitations and opportunities for capturing infill growth.

In Sacramento, we build on average about 10,000 homes per year. Sacramento can only handle 19,000 new units – about two years of growth. The opportunity is tens of thousand of acres of underutilized areas such as parking lots, vacant housing and shopping center spaces, which can be eliminated for hundreds of thousands of houses and apartments.

When you have to design in these kinds of situations, you take the perspective of “do no harm.” You’re trying to instill more density but have an industrial complex that causes you to be creative. As an example, there is a commercial district in Yuba City – an opportunity to put people in a place with a services available now.

For Mogavero this is like jazz, which emerged from a convergence of cultures. Architectural development design is fascinating and fun for him for reasons like this: With a 10- or 15-acre site in the suburbs, you can integrate food into the project through agriculture. A community can be involved in the growing of food. There is also an opportunity for technology, which is more challenging in the city. Holistic integrated systems flowing back and forth continuously are possible in such areas. This is one of the most exciting venues in American building culture.

Next shown was a video titled “David Gallo: Underwater Astonishments.” Diving into the deep sea is a dark black world. We’ve only explored about 3 percent of the oceans. We don’t know much about this planet at all.

We are learning lots from the shallow water, which is full of predators that can change color & texture to match surroundings, but the deeper water still leaves much to be explored.

The Gallo Video proved a good precursor to Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond, who received the Best Area Jazz Musician award for 2008 and 2009 from “Sacramento News and Review.” Hammond gave a spirited performance that integrated sound system issues that would affect the evening’s musical interludes.

The music was followed by another video, this one titled “Kirk Citron: And Now, the Real News.” The top story of this year was the economy. What kind of stories might make a difference for the future?

Some include the invasion of the nanobees, China’s rising, food shortage, the age of discovery, an ant mega-colony taking over the world or self-directed robots making discoveries. With or without us, life will go on.

For Citron, the top story was that water was found on the moon. In the long run, some stories will be more important than others.

Next was a live presentation titled “Ron Vrilakas: The Great Green City.” Vrilakas is an architect who likes buildings. He is working on what he loves, which is trying to build a great green city. He comes from West Sacramento, a place that has failed to solve how housing and commercial roads should come together. He spent eight or nine years avoiding going to Sacramento. He learned some things along the way about what makes cities exciting and green. We have been out of sync building cities over the past number of years, he said.

Once there was a way – we knew how to build the Great Green City. We used to build communities commonly, but technology got us away from earlier ambition and we turned in another direction. Things were cut off from each other by highways. Simple basic community-oriented buildings were changed. Places to gather and take pride in your city became places like retail with parking lots.

In 50 or 60 years, we’ve lost the ability to build things like McClatchy High School. We couldn’t do now what was done then on six sheets. He showed a picture of a bicyclist who will hopefully survive the Freeport Bakery parking lot.

An urban memory – he tries to find ways to reintroduce these things into our environment. Streets need to be for people. Emptyness in a block is a bad thing. Menacing facades are an embarrassment.

Preserving the past is something Vrialas said he believes strongly in. We need to cherish historic landmarks, adapt for activity, create the unexpected (alleys in Sacramento can become a network of interest within our grid) and resist demolition. Underutilized places need to be identified. Single-use is not good – everything must be a mixed-use environment. Empty spaces need to be change to active places.

History forward – Vrialas said he believes we find the identity of our city in the past. Getting to know oneself is how you make something. San Francisco has its identity, as do Seattle, Berkeley, Boston, Portland and Paris – all of the best of an urban life put together. In Sacramento we have a real history to build upon.

He looks to buildings for stories. We’ve been building cities for thousands of years, but we’ve only been building in a suburban manner for past 60 years, and we’ve been getting it wrong. We don’t have to look for a technological fix. We can have the fix in the way we organize ourselves – an urban design ethic that is important for human civilization.

Next came a video titled “Dean Ornish: Your Genes Are Not Your Fate.” The video offered encouragement for a healthy lifestyle. When you eat better, exercise and love more, the benefits can be measured. Topics covered things to do to grow your blood cells and things to make it worse. You age less quickly when you change your lifestyle. Arteries become notably less clogged, you can stop breast cancer, change prostate growth and even change sexual potency.

You can change genes, turn on the good genes and turn off the disease-promoting genes. We all have genetic profiles, but our genes are not our fate. We can also change how our genes are expressed.

It was now time for another musical performance, this one from Autumn Sky, who said, “My name is Autumn Sky. Really.” She and her guitar ,which she has named Samuel Taylor, performed and sang whimsically.

Next, it was back to the green theme, with a video titled “Catherine Mohr: Building Green.” Mohr explores energy usage depending upon what she uses to wipe up a spill. Sometimes the things you least expect have the greatest effect.

Mohr wanted to know how to achieve a green lifestyle. The average house has 300 megawatts of embodied energy. Some ideas she explored were deconstruction of the house, putting in a rainwater catchment, alternative roofing and framing, if putting aluminum windows will double the energy use and others.

Following that, it was time for another live presentation, “Chris Schuring Recycles Carbon.” Schuring's company, Ternion Bio Industries Inc., grows algae in a controlled environment to reduce carbon.

Schuring asked, “Why do you do what you do? Why do we want to build better cities, to go green?” He said he believes it’s because we inherently want to do better in our lives, be smart and leave a better legacy. There is a sense of camaraderie, of community. It’s me and you in the solutions we come up with. He did it because he thought reducing greenhouse gases and carbon footprints would be great.
Lots of people don’t want to do these things. People won’t care about what you do until you care about why. If we come together as humans, we can bring communities together to effect change.

Schuring has a personal goal to help 100 entrepreneurs start businesses to effect change in the next 18 months.

Next came a very cute video titled “Rives: Mixed Emoticons.” Rives – star of the Bravo special, "Ironic Iconic America," told a typographical fairy tale that was short and bittersweet.

After this short bit of comic relief came another live presentation titled “Robyn Waxman: F.A.R.M.” Waxman is an award-winning designer, activist, farmer, educator and founding member of graphic communication program at Sacramento City College.

Waxman looked at design’s role in the last 10 years. Moving more into letting other people design for themselves as the role of the designer seems to be the direction the industry is headed. She produced a 56-page tabloid on how to make your own farm. Millenial farmers have built Farm Davis on eighth and K streets. They have donated more than 100 pounds of food, or half of their production. The other half they ate. The farm runs on a gift economy without a budget. The space is on a privately owned front yard.

A similar Sacramento farm is coming May 2010 at 13th and C streets in Alkali Flats.

Up next was another video, titled, “Julian Treasure: 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.” Treasure said he wants to transform our relationship with sound, which has become largely unconscious. There are four ways sound affects us:

Physiological – an affect on breathing, heart rate and brainwaves.

Psychological – musical has the greatest effect. Music and bird sounds are reassuring.

Cognitive – you have to choose what to listen to. We have limited bandwith to decide which sound to listen to. People are one third as productive in open rooms as private rooms.

Behaviorally – move away from unpleasant sounds and toward pleasant sounds.

Most retail sound is unpleasant, with retailers losing 30 percent of their business because the sound is so dreadful. Treasure's company has developed a SoundFlow to design soundscapes. Music is powerful. Every brand is making sounds right now. Several well-known brand jingles were used as examples. There are four golden rules for commercial sound:

Make it congruent

Make it appropriate

Make it valuable

Test it, and test it again

We can achieve sound living through good use of sound

Another video followed, titled, “Alan Siegl: Simplifying Legal Jargon.” It takes a blizzard of paperwork to get benefits or a business loan. Siegl has been simplifying things for 35 years. He didn’t see why we couldn’t have a simple one-page consumer credit agreement, so he created one.

He seeks to define terms in plain English. Plain English is about changing the content. An agreement for IBM was received very favorably by businesses. IRS letters are pretty unintelligible, and he proposed changes to the IRS.

We must make clarity, transparency and empathy national priorities. We should not do business with those using unintelligible provisions.

It was then time for another musical interlude, this time from Sacramento musician Julie Ann Bee, titled “Sea of Bees.” Bee’s first full-length album is about to be released by Davis-based Crossbill Records. She performed two songs.

The next live presentation was titled “Scott and Julie Brusaw: Solar Roadways”, and was presented by Scott, an electrical engineer with more than 20 years of experience who hails from northern Idaho. They have spent years working on the concept of a solar-powered roadway system.

The Brusaws spent a lot of time together 30 years ago. His favorite toy then was a slotcar. He thought, “What if we made real roads electric?”

They discussed how there is no easy solution to global warning and other issues, including that 65,000 children die each day because they can’t get clean drinking water.

Couldn’t you make electric roads out of solar panels? Could they make solar panels you can drive on?

They said they believe so. There are some problems, but they aren’t insurmountable. We can’t let snow build on it, so he put heating element on the surface. He put LEDs on there to light it up, a microprocessor so all panels can talk to each other even with cars traveling overhead. The system can even warn drivers of animals on the road.

Storm water spills right into a nearby body of water. What if we could route that to a filtration system and send it for reuse? We can put power cables on the shoulder instead of in the air. We can grind up recyclables to use.

Brusaw started a website, and Treehugger.com picked it up. He received an e-mail from Booz Allen Hamilton – one of the biggest consulting firms in the nation. They now have four sample panels in their lab.

Brusaw has received a research grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and has built a 12-foot-by-12-foot prototype. He said panels could be used in playgrounds and parking lots. See more at solarroadways.com.

Up next was another live presentation, “David Garibaldi: Paints with Passion and Purpose.” Garabaldi throws paint around and sweats profusely. He started about six and a half years ago. It was graffiti, and it was illegal. During his junior year of high school, he was introduced to animation. By senior year he wasn’t able to graduate on time. He was creating art out of the environments he was in.
Garabaldi called his show “Rhythm and Hue.” He created pop icon paintings on blank black canvas. Santana popped up behind him at halftime at a Golden State Warriors game.

In March 2005, he asked if his art could do more than entertain. Can it benefit and inspire others? He has been able to help raise $500,000 for charities and organizations through spending $200 and painting on stage. He changed why he was doing it.

Each of us has passion and purpose. We can be creative, charitable, profitable and grow algae. He said we all need to keep going to put bigger purpose behind our passion.

Finally, a video titled “Derek Sivers: How to start a movement,” was shown. The video made its point showing a group of young adults in action. A leader needs the guts to stand out and show everyone else how to follow. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. Then comes a second follower. New followers emulate the other followers, not the leader. As more people join in, it’s less risky to join in. Eventually, all who don’t join in would be subject to ridicule.

Nurture your first few followers, he advised. Leadership is over-glorified. It was really the first follower who transformed the first nut into a leader. Have the courage to follow, and show others how to follow. TED is the perfect place to do that.

All in all, this was an extremely varied, educational and entertaining multimedia extravaganza. It was also announced that there are plans for another event in November, so stay tuned.

More information about TED can be found at ted.com, and more about TEDx Sacramento can be found at tedxsacramento.com.

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.

Master Barber & Beauty Shop celebrates 35 years in new location

2010-03-04T08:57:25Z

Master Barber Shop was established in 1958 and was acquired by Earlie D. and Mary Brown in December of 1974. During that time, the shop was located on Stockton Blvd. and 7th Ave. Since those early days, Master Barber & Beauty Shop, has had several locations. Each location being better than the last. In 1989, sons Rodney and Marichal, joined the family business.

The late owner and master barber, Earlie D. Brown, established business in the hair industry in the mid 1940's with Brown's Barber Shop (two locations, San Francisco and Marin City). What started out as nothing more than a dream and a dime and a nail in his pocket has turned into a family business. He died in February 1998. Mary Brown and sons, Rodney and Marichal, now handles daily operations.

In 2007, The Brown Family, added community activities at the salon. Art on Stockton Blvd. became one of Sacramento's largest celebration of African American Art, Poetry, Literature and History. The shop has featured such fine artists as Milton Bowens, Malik Seneferu and Shonna McDaniels, poets; Terry Moore, NSAA, Steven 'HurriKane' Clark and Heather Christian and authors; Grace Carter (Rivercity Griot), Joslyn Gains Vanderpool and Anita Royston (Our Black Fathers).

Celebrating 35 years in business, The Brown Family has decided to re-locate to a more comfortable and fitting site, continue striving for excellence in the Hair and Beauty industry and to accompany such events as Art on Stockton Blvd., Jazz @ the Shop, Master Renaissance Poetry, Comedy, Plays and more.

Starting Tuesday, March 9, 2010, Master Barber & Beauty Shop doors will open at 4340 Stockton Blvd., Suite 2 (the former Brown's Paradise building), on the corner of Stockton Blvd. and Parker. The phone number will remain the same, 916.457.8708. Until then, you can find us at 3504 Stockton Blvd. (between 10th and 11th Ave, next to the Colonial Theater). We will keep you updated on upcoming events.

There will not be an event on this date, but everyone is welcomed to stop by and say, Hi, view the new facility and/or have your hair styled or cut.

The Brown Family would like to thank all who have patronized and supported Master Barber & Beauty Shop throughout the years.

Disclosure Note: Marichal Brown is part-owner of Master Barber Beauty Shop.

A 3-day designer grand slam, Pecha Kutcha

2009-10-29T07:44:10Z

A 3-day designer grand slam is coming up, Pecha Kucha Night, brought to you by Ottolini & Associates, Architects. Come see and hear, dozens of the regions best designers, artists, architects and photographers talking about their work. Co-sponsored by Capital Creative Collective and Urban Hive. Music by Alex Trujillo.

Thursday, Nov. 5th, The Level Up Lounge - Outdoor Plaza, 8:20-10pm
Friday, Nov. 6th, The Urban Hive - 8:20-10pm
Saturday, Nov. 7th, MARRS Building - 8:20-10pm

What is Pecha Kucha Night?
"Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show.

Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a† demand that seems to be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world."

Pecha Kucha Night, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham Architecture), was conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

UnitesState Boutique Celebrates Fourth Year In Business

2009-10-01T18:51:35Z

Sacramento has never been known to be a place that is “ahead of the times” in any spectrum of life. As a matter of fact, most travelers come into the city expecting to see people ringing cowbells, and tumble weeds blowing past them on desolate streets. You see, no one acknowledges the rising growth of the urban market, or the fact that Sacramento is now the home of mall conglomerates that sell the "urban" look to suburban teens. They don’t talk about the city's recent sprawl of niche specific boutiques that are only found in major cities around the world. Except if you were around four years ago nurturing the very culture to which the stores are trying to solicit.

Meet Paul and Brandy Brizuela, owners of UnitedState Boutique. Paul and Brandy established the moderate sized boutique back in 2005, with one simple goal in mind: to fill a void in the Sacramento urban culture. Although it sounds easy, getting to that point was not as glamorous. The couple built one of the last DJ/Boutiques in Sacramento that fully support local independent music and DJ culture. And they did it amongst a marriage, three children, two jobs, and monthly bills. There were no gimmicks or tricks to get customers to continue to shop at their store, nor do they have secret "selling drugs to make rent" stories lurking in the past. Paul says they have spent the last four years earning their keep, and doing it the only way they know how: hard work.

"I hear stories all the time about how some of these places got started or keep running, and it amazes me." Paul says. "It was never like that for us. I guess we did it the hard way."

And with the recent fall of vinyl record sales, their path became that much harder. Just two years ago, Paul and Brandy were looking down the barrel of a load gun when it came to numbers and meeting their sales quotas. But instead of doing what others did in the shaky economic times, they decided to do what other boutiques couldn’t: reinvent the wheel by creating a fully functioning lifestyle store in the heart of Midtown Sacramento.

"We reinvented UnitedState as a lifestyle store, and we now carry a broader spectrum of product that you can't get at any other store," Paul says. "Most stores only carry pieces of the culture, but we have designed our store to encompass it all.

Now, four years later, you can see that all the hard work that Paul and Brandy put into the store is paying off. They are celebrating their fourth year in business, and they are enjoying every moment of the growth. UnitedState has managed to accomplish what other boutiques would consider ideal in today's market. Not only are sales steadily increasing, UnitedState has managed to create an expansive brand that holds a dominant position in Fashion, Music, Arts, and Events.

So help them celebrate the fourth year in business this weekend by stopping by the shop and saying congrats!

Status Report: 800 K/L Hotel Proposal

2009-08-26T23:14:45Z

Last night the Sacramento City Council discussed the future of the proposed 23 story hotel and parking garage at 8th & K/L St. by developer Bob Leach/USA Hospitality. The last time Mr. Leach was to appear before the Council two weeks ago he asked for a delay because his proposal was going to be slammed over the financing for the proposal. This time they came back to the council offering 40% of cash flow instead of 10% over 10 years and asking for 50% of the Transient Occupancy Tax rebate over 14 years instead of 100% over 10 years. USA Hospitality’s now asking for $31.5 million subsidy from the city in an effort to make this project feasible. After a few council members made their opinions known about keeping the façade of the Bel-Vue by incorporating it into the hotel project, the council agreed to a 90 day extension to see if USA Hospitality can pull things together and make this project work.

It looks as though the 90 day extension may have ended Tony Giannoni hopes to also build a 165-room hotel at 10th & K Street. A spokesman on behalf of Mr. Giannoni told the council that if they gave a 90 day extension to the 8th & K St. hotel proposal, they would see that as a sign to drop their project because the market could not support both projects. If after 90 days the USA Hospitality’s bid get rejected by the council and the other proposal at 10th & K has already withdrawn their proposal… we could be left with no new hotels on K Street.

This project still has to go through the Design Review Commission and Planning Commission as a part of the entitlement process. If this current design with the separate parking garage manages to be approved by both the Planning Commission and Design Review Commission, it will demonstrate in my opinion that neither the Commissions or the City Council really understand their roll in helping both designers and developers comprehend the rich context of this unique place in our city.

The River District Overview

2009-07-15T03:20:30Z

With 773 Gross Acres 675 Land Acres, the River District has a lot of room to develop it own identity becoming a mixed-use urban environment featuring residential, office and commercial services. Currently both Township 9 and the California Lottery Headquarters are breaking ground in an effort to revitalize the area. These major projects and others will serve as catalysts bring development, jobs, public transit and cultural amenities to District and paving the way from a primarily light-industrial commercial district to a distinctive, mixed-use neighborhood that will connect Sacramento to its rivers.

Process & Timeline
April – August 2009
Community Outreach
Chapter Writing for Specific Plan
Policy Development
Special Planning District Update
Historic Resources Survey
September 2009 - Infrastructure Finance Plan – Public Review
October 2009 - Public Draft EIR
January - 2010 Final EIR
Jan-Feb 2010 Public Hearings

Vision & Guiding Principles
- Maximize Connectivity –North/South and East/West.
- Create a Sense of Place.
- Encourage Sustainable Development.
- Build Infrastructure that Provides a Balanced Approach to Regional Traffic Issues.
- Stimulate Economic Growth.
- Provide a Variety of Urban Living Options.
- Support regional strategies that seek to improve social conditions
- Encourage Mixed-Use Development.
- Provide Enhanced Community Facilities and Amenities.
- Engage the Rivers and Foster Open Space Opportunities.
- Create a Walkable District.

Goals for the River District Specific Plan
- Specific Plan will include the following:
- Land Use Plan and Zoning with Heights
- Circulation Plan
- Infrastructure / Public Facilities
- Financing Plan
- Nexus Study (Downtown/Railyards/River District Costs)
- Program Level Environmental Impact Report Design Guidelines (Central City Urban Design Guidelines)

National Ag Day: Local and Organic In Sacramento

2009-03-20T04:03:27Z

In Washington, D.C., Friday marks National Agriculture Day. While this event is primarily sponsored by and profiles industry heavyweights like the Farm Bureau, Dow AgroSciences and Archer Daniels Midland, Sacramento residents are celebrating in their own way.

“Sacramentans are rebuilding our food system,” said Paul Schramski, State Director of Pesticide Watch. “Facing an increasingly unhealthy food system, and lack of access to more healthy foods, Sacramento residents are embracing a new urban agriculture.”

On any recent weekend, Sacramentans could be found participating in sustainable, urban agriculture. Neighbors in East Sacramento, spearheaded by the Sacramento Urban Fruit Sustainability Fruit Project, harvested fruit from backyards for donation to local foodbanks, while others tended plots with the Sacramento Area Community Gardens. Meanwhile, Soil Born Farms and Oak Park’s Crop Swap are gearing up for new seasons of selling food at farm stands, farmer’s markets, and neighborhood “swaps”.

This scene contrasts dramatically with neighboring industrial agriculture. Just across the Sacramento River, in Yolo County, large-scale farms have begun to spray aerial pesticides for wheat and alfalfa. For the past several days, residents of the Pocket neighborhood have been reporting adverse health effects. “Aerial spraying of the agricultural fields is excessive and I will continue to fight this imminent health risk,” said a resident from the neighborhood who wished to remain anonymous.

Multiple government and scientific research sources including the University of Minnesota and U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, estimate that about 40 percent of an aerial pesticide application leaves the “target area” and that less than 1 percent actually reaches its target. In addition, airborne pesticide drift is responsible for acute poisonings – more than half of agricultural pesticide poisonings reported in California between 1997 and 2000 – and for chronic illnesses including asthma, cancer, neurological disorders, birth defects, miscarriages, and other reproductive effects, according to articles recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Several pieces of statewide legislation, notably The Clean Air for Children, Seniors and Working Families Act (Swanson), as well as two bills recently introduced by Senator Mark Leno and Assemblymember Bill Monning, would challenge industrial agriculture, by creating health-based information and stronger health protections in cases of pesticide exposure.

Meanwhile, Sacramentans are getting some guidance from the Whitehouse in their efforts to create sustainable, urban agriculture. In a New York Times story earlier today, Michelle Obama announced plans to plant an organic vegetable garden on the Whitehouse lawn. Local elected officials have offered similar advice. “As the economic downturn continues, more Sacramentans will look for ways to cut costs. Please consider a vegetable garden. In World War II they were called Victory Gardens. Today the victory should be for pesticide-free growing,” said Sacramento Vice-Mayor Lauren Hammond in an e-mailed statement.

George Davidson is an intern at Pesticide-Free Sacramento, a coalition of civic, health and environmental organizations working to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the use of pesticides in the Sacramento region.

Photo Courtesy of David Baldridge

La Valentina Station

2009-02-14T04:31:35Z

This project consists of developing several vacant lots into a four story structure, 63 apartments, 7 live/work apartments, 6 commercial spaces, and 63 parking spaces. The building is adjacent to the light rail station located along the north edge of the site. Contemporary in design the project uses a large amount of fiber cement board oriented as a horizontal rain screen along the façade of the North building and vertically as the main finish material. Cement plaster is proposed as a secondary material on the building. Fiberglass windows and doors have been proposed for durability and efficiency in lieu of vinyl. Water jet cut Corten steel railings are proposed at the south building as a decorative element. The project has been designed to incorporate sustainable design techniques including passive solar design, photovoltaic systems, a green roof area, and vegetated swales along the rear property line.

The project will require Planning Commission approval of entitlements for Environmental, Special Permit to allow reduction in required parking, Special Permit to allow building to exceed maximum height allowed by the zone, Special Permit to allow gated development, variance to reduce interior side setback, variance to allow compact stalls to exceed a maximum of 40%, variance to allow a roof structure to exceed the maximum allowable height. The Planning Commission is scheduled to hear this project on March 12, 2009 for final action.