Hm. Good luck to them. This space is kind of a joke among my circle as it seems that the tenants change with the seasons. I'm pretty sure in the year I've lived in Davis it has been three things and shut down numerous times. This is still continuing the trend of, "Davis: where Sacramento establishments go to die."

I don't agree. Suburbs are not a natural part of the cycle. They have been built up in the last century ad nauseum. Small towns, sure. But an entire network of "not-cities" forming a "city" is new and I hope the cycle doesn't continue. I really hope the trend leads to the end of the suburb. They're isolated slots of land with ugly,copy cat houses of inefficiency. Midtown can be for all ages, I don't see why not.

As the Onion loves to say, "stereotypes make everything easier". Both of these stereotypes hold true as stereotypes, nothing new presented. I don't have a problem with either of these sentiments about Midtown and Roseville (or any other Suburb for that matter). Of course, these aren't 100% true of all people! But they help us and we need them. Suburb vs. Urban center is repeated all over the country. In DC, it's Dupont Circle vs. Fairfax. In San Francisco, it's the Mission vs. Danville. In Sacramento, it's Midtown vs. Roseville. I think it's just recently that public opinion has put the two on more equal footing, considering in the past there was no fight and the Rosevilles of the country would be held in much higher regards than the Midtowns. Now, we're seeing that flip flop and the way urbanization seems to be going,and Roseville will be the "ghetto" and Midtown the ideal.

Awesome! As someone who just started with the whole backyard chickens thing, I'm totally for this. Chickens are so easy to keep and they're far cheaper than a cat or dog. I'm all down for efficient animals that make eggs for me to eat. If I was still living in midtown, I'd still be able to keep my chickens because they don't take much space up at all.

Excellent! I've talked to her multiple times that she needed to move to Midtown and what a great location. I really hope she got a good deal on it too. I can't wait to go visit her when she moves to midtown!

I'm most excited for the part that they're building a racquetball court! More racquetball courts are needed in this damn city.

Awesome Article! However, I do feel that people would be discouraged to come here if they had to pay for parking. It utterly shocks me how many people from the burbs don't understand parking at all in Midtown. And a lot of them make it an issue. They'd have to do some sort of sweeping, sensible reform for people to truly understand it and to have it not make an impact on the performance of midtown businesses.

I know it'd be expensive to implement initially, but has anyone done a long term cost analysis of changing the fare procedures of RT so that it's MANDATORY to purchase a ticket to ride. I don't think I've been on many systems (and I get a kick out of going and riding public transit) that work on the honor system quite like RT. It'd be a good thing. There'd be less of the critters who get on late at night and maybe RT could actually increase service sometime.

One very important note: no one under 21 will be admitted.

Has anyone really considered doing something in West Sacramento, say right across the river (see: Ziggurat pt. 2) or whatnot? Yeah, not a lot of commercial activity, however there is that new planned community, it's really not that far from downtown (light rail would DEFINITELY need to be expanded to the stadium) and would probably be cheaper in terms of real estate? I'm imagining it being something like the Ballpark District in SW Washington, DC. I'm not really backing this idea yet because I'm not completely knowledgable on the logistics, but has this idea ever been thrown out? (Then again, does Sacramento really want to lose another sports entertainment venue to west sac?) Overall, I'm just hoping we can build a new arena somewhere more logical than Natomas. Suburban sprawl is over and probably won't be back for quite some time. Honestly, I'd totally go to more games if I could walk, bike, or (easily) bus to an arena downtown and I don't even like basketball all that much.

Your comments about LA reminded me of Shea/Citifield in NYC. The only businesses around the stadium are chop shops. It's viable (and strangely, loved.) because of its relative closeness to Manhattan by Subway. The subway stop is near the entrance of the field. If they did decide to build something outside of downtown, they damn well better make it easily transit accessible (I'm looking at you, Light Rail. No buses).

I never seemed to see people there, so this is totally not shocking. They should come back and try for a new concept. How many sushi/asian restaurants can you fit on the grid, honestly?

But arenas must go somewhere. And I think it's been shown that there's a lot more benefit from having a sports complex in an urban place to having one out in.. Natomas. It seems that when there's a new complex built, it totally changes and overhauls the neighborhood around it. There're also those who don't mind living next to a complex. DC's Nationals Stadium actually advertises as the ballpark neighborhood and honestly, it's probably the only place in all of DC I'd move back to.

Too true to that last part! If we could do something along the lines of what Washington, DC did with the Verizon Center (seen here: http://tinyurl.com/ydqlhn7 ), the foot traffic would elicit businesses and such to grow/redevelop anyway! Just get something that would force foot traffic to downtown and the rest will call. Down with the mall.

I feel like I've been hearing about this restaurant for near ever. I'm glad to hear it's finally open. I don't particularly like the location though. I don't think I'd really choose Old Sac as a location when choosing a restaurant. It's our call to DC's Capitol Mall or NYC's Times Square, catering to tourists and providing a welcome to the city. Not a habitual place to be, for me at least. However, the food offerings sound like something that will at least be appealing in Old Sac. Definitely wish them luck and hope I get to try it soon. Also, it's an excellent time for him to open this restaurant, and he knows it. Rent is probably down significantly and he sounds experienced enough to have planned out the restaurant well to cater to his audience. Now is the least risky time to open a restaurant, if you do it right. :D

http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/november/203700.html Why wouldn't anybody open a restaurant in this economy? If I had some money (or access to it) and knowledge to do it, hell yes would I give it a go.

I wonder the same thing. In this case, it's pretty obvious that it's about the topic, not the writing. There's not exactly that much writing to critique.

Oooh. This will be a nice thing to have. Yay local politics.

Kimberly, the nepotism thing is a bit eye opening. $83K for fund raising?! Sign me up! I'm fresh to California and it shocks me when I hear people talk about tuition increases. It is easily half (or less) of most state schools in the northeast/mid-atlantic. To complain about tuition under $5,000 just seems so foreign. When I was going to a state school that is pretty comparable to CSUS, it was $9,000 a year for tuition alone and I believe it has increased since I've gone there. However, I must say: keep the fight going! If you don't show alarm, you'll be right up there with the east coast in terms of tuition.

Excellent points, William! I'd love to see a streetcar stretching into midtown, especially one that stays open later. Sac needs some more late-night businesses as well. A 24 hour café (even a small one) downtown would rock. There's been a lot of K street talk. Someone should start www.savekstreet.com and bombard local politicians with revitalization plans.