CharliCSUS comment-20090 2010-01-02T18:31:07Z 2010-01-02T18:31:07Z Sue, I bought a Cowboy Jazz album at The Beat when I was in high school. Just sayin'. What about business owners banding together to form some kind of rogue city planning committee? The Bookworm is a really wonderful small chain (if I remember correctly), so what if they joined forces with Aric's (if they're still around) and made sure they leased spaces next to each other? And same with little lunch places. Take over the stripmalls! Make them tiny little "downtown" areas! CharliCSUS 2010-01-02T18:31:07Z Susan Webb comment-18018 2009-11-20T07:19:07Z 2009-11-20T07:19:07Z My experience is that one would be given an intersection—or a mall—and not assume everyone knows which stores are where, because in the Bay Area, I think people are generally more transient and so also tend to be a little less personal. There are a lot of transplants here, too, but I think there, it's the norm and it's assumed you don't know, versus here where it's sometimes assumed you MUST know THAT! Susan Webb 2009-11-20T07:19:07Z William Burg comment-17919 2009-11-18T04:34:50Z 2009-11-18T04:34:50Z The featureless nature of the postmodern suburban landscape promotes the use of whatever landmarks are available for navigation: large big-box stores are the most identifiable things on the landscape, so it is natural to use them for waypoints. You probably did it in the Bay Area too, if you lived in a suburb, but didn't really notice it because you already knew where the Costco was. William Burg 2009-11-18T04:34:50Z Mike W comment-17903 2009-11-17T19:44:04Z 2009-11-17T19:44:04Z Welcome! Mike W 2009-11-17T19:44:04Z William Burg comment-17179 2009-11-03T20:19:54Z 2009-11-03T20:19:54Z And you can get some pretty good pho around here, too! William Burg 2009-11-03T20:19:54Z Susan Webb comment-16997 2009-11-02T07:17:59Z 2009-11-02T07:17:59Z Thanks for the history and info. Who knew? Guess I'll have to get out of my little iTunes world and check out some music stores! Susan Webb 2009-11-02T07:17:59Z Susan Webb comment-16996 2009-11-02T07:10:15Z 2009-11-02T07:10:15Z Bay Area is great. I've learned that Sac has so much more than it gives itself credit for, and a lot that the Bay Area doesn't have. Why compare a pho to a pot roast when you can love both? Susan Webb 2009-11-02T07:10:15Z The Parrhesiac comment-16794 2009-10-30T06:29:27Z 2009-10-30T06:29:27Z Ever lived in the Bay Area Marion...? I have lived in both Sacramento and on the Peninsula for at least 15 years each... there is no comparison at all... gee I wonder why the housing prices are so high there? Hmm, maybe it's because everyone wants to live there? The Parrhesiac 2009-10-30T06:29:27Z Marion Millin comment-16782 2009-10-30T03:15:46Z 2009-10-30T03:15:46Z In all The Beat and Records' various locations and incarnations over the decades, Records' indoor cigarette smoke and curmudgeons cancel out the cat AND the yards and yards of vinyl. The Beat is TOP. No doubt. Half priced primo condition used CDs are overpriced? Meh. Marion Millin 2009-10-30T03:15:46Z William Burg comment-16777 2009-10-30T02:42:13Z 2009-10-30T02:42:13Z The Beat...meh. Kind of overpriced. Records on Broadway (formerly Records on K Street) has a better selection...and a cat. Carmichael doesn't really have an "old town," but there is a strip of 1950s era strip malls that were deliberately built in a sort of "Old West Revival" style that was popular in mid-century. William Burg 2009-10-30T02:42:13Z Patrick J. comment-16773 2009-10-30T02:19:39Z 2009-10-30T02:19:39Z I like your article. Patrick J. 2009-10-30T02:19:39Z Marion Millin comment-16766 2009-10-30T00:54:42Z 2009-10-30T00:54:42Z Hey New Girl, welcome. You've already discovered the best things about the place: the rivers, the climate and the people who love them. Setting a beacon for independent businesses and great bookstores is a wise move. You mentioned Beers, which has a cat named Raffles. Don't miss The Book Collector on 24th b/w J and K Sts. and Time Tested Books (cats no longer with us) on 21st b/w K and L Sts. For music, The Beat is the place -- on 17th and J Sts. For that small town ambience, you can head to Old Town Fair Oaks. I'm told Carmichael has something similar........? Being from the Bay Area and tucked into the homey spots behind the strip malls, you may not have noticed the biggest freak-out for those coming from the Central City -- no trees!! Please continue to update on your outings and discoveries. Marion Millin 2009-10-30T00:54:42Z Marion Millin comment-16765 2009-10-30T00:48:06Z 2009-10-30T00:48:06Z Please let us know when you write the book. What a delight to read your insights about this. Not only was Midtown the gravitational axis for reasons you mention, it was also the place where architecture existed. The centerlessness you describe is also expressed in the mind numbing straight lines and generic sameness of most of suburban Sacramento. Marion Millin 2009-10-30T00:48:06Z Marion Millin comment-16764 2009-10-30T00:30:34Z 2009-10-30T00:30:34Z That's great, Jim. Please tell all of your friends and family who are thinking of moving here that. Marion Millin 2009-10-30T00:30:34Z William Burg comment-16738 2009-10-30T00:03:10Z 2009-10-30T00:03:10Z I grew up in Citrus Heights and have a strong urge to write its history...but there isn't much that got saved to tell. There's the Rusch home, and the community center building on San Juan, and a couple of older houses on back streets that still don't have sidewalks that point to an earlier time. The 12 Mile House on Auburn Boulevard is still a historic building dating back to the 19th century under several layers of remodeling. Auburn Boulevard itself is part of historic Highway 40 and the road itself was named because it was the old road to get to Auburn, even before the railroads--there were "strip malls" there to serve travelers even before there were cars. When I was growing up, the closest thing to a downtown Citrus Heights was Birdcage Walk. There was a cruise, and midnight movies, and there was even a terrific local coffee place called the Star Cafe that was open until midnight or later. There were a couple of bookstores nearby (Tower Books WAS a local bookstore--they were a chain, but they started here, so in my mind they count) and a comic shop and gifty shops and a couple restaurants. It was where you went if you were a funny-looking rebel kid in Citrus Heights and didn't even have the means yet to hang out in Midtown. Unfortunately it was where some kids went to beat up the funny-looking kids someitmes, so its value as a refuge was questionable at best. Many eventually moved to Midtown, which was considered something like a mythical far-away land. San Francisco was a place reserved only for myth and legend, where amazing footwear could be had--Midtown was still distant, but relatively attainable and reachable on the bus. Of course, Midtown wasn't even Midtown as we know it then--where the Starbuck's sits on 19th & J was a card room notorious for prostitution, drug dealers worked the streets in Boulevard Park, Dorothea Puente was still poisioning her tenants in Alkali Flat. People only moved to Midtown if they wanted to get away from the suburbs, were looking for absurdly cheap rent, and often they considered the drug dealer down the street a neighborhood-serving business amenity. But back to Citrus Heights...heck, Citrus Heights has better antique stores than downtown--ever been to the Olive Factory antique store on Auburn Boulevard? I think there is still a Trent's Bookworm in Citrus Heights--that's a local used bookstore, the owner Mr. Trent used to teach Driver's Ed at Mesa Verde High School. Unfortunately, the broadly horizontal and centerless nature of auto-centric suburbs mean that those places are almost never close enough together to walk from one to the other--the closest equivalent is the occasional strip mall or shopping center. I wonder how people will think of 20th century suburbs in 100 years. Will they consider them wasteful, benighted places, or an idyllic wonderland representing the apex of American civilization? Will those of us who grew up in such places and couldn't wait to leave develop sentimental feelings for big lawns and ranch-style homes when we reach our dotage, the memories of boredom, monoculture and long commutes faded by time? William Burg 2009-10-30T00:03:10Z The Parrhesiac comment-16728 2009-10-29T21:59:19Z 2009-10-29T21:59:19Z The only thing attractive about Sacramento over the Bay Area is the housing prices... other than that, Sacramento is comparativly a crime filled no job having insanely hot hell hole filled with lazy government workers who are never happy...well, at least until they retire on their huge pensions....then they move out of Sacramento as fast as they can. The Parrhesiac 2009-10-29T21:59:19Z