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Come join your fellow neighbors, entrepreneurs, activist and (you fill in the blank) to see Democracy in action. The 100 Minds group, an Oak Park based Think Tank, is hosting "City Council Meet-up Party: Democracy 101" at tomorrow's Council meeting.

Participants are encouraged to wear your Bikeramento shirt, LJ Urban shirt, Sacramento Park(ing) Day shirt or whatever cause you're passionate and a laptop for live twittering, blogging or transcribing of the evenings discussion.

You'll have the opportunity to see how democracy works on a local level and the steps necessary to take action. We'd like to show the City Council that we mean business with a large turnout of local leaders. This is Crowdsourcing in action!

When: Tuesday, March 10th @ 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Where: New City Hall, 915 I St., Sacramento, CA
What to bring: Your favorite shirt and your laptop!
Agenda: click for agenda

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Conversation Express your views, debate, and be heard with those in your area closest to the issue.

Jack Nordby

March 9, 2009 | 2:29 PM

This is a great idea and hopefully the City Council will take notice and be perceptive
to the many voices of people who are ready for a change in the city.

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William Burg

March 9, 2009 | 4:45 PM

Sounds like fun. There are some interesting items on the agenda, although one of the ones I'd like to cheer for is in the consent calendar: some of the money being pulled from the Berry project is being reallocated to start on the SRO replacement units project planned for the corner of 7th and H Street.

Another project on the agenda is the proposed subsidy of $5.4 million for a mermaid-themed bar on K Street. I am most interested to see what people think of that project. While I really like the idea of more entertainment on K Street, and absolutely like the idea of adaptive reuse in those buildings, I suppose I find the proposals in question a bit...well, cheesy. I also question the use of millions in redevelopment funds for entertainment venues when there are far more pressing needs in the immediate neighborhood, like repair and maintenance of several city-owned properties where people could actually live downtown. On the other hand, I have seen some really badly-conceived restaurant spaces start off, go out of business rapidly, and then someone else picks up the lease for the now-remodeled building, slaps on a little paint and creates a success story.

There's also an interesting item regarding the sale of three vacant lots to the Boys & Girls Club, intended to create a play area in Alkali Flat.

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Scott Holbrook

March 10, 2009 | 3:32 PM

I feel to trivialize and minimize the redevelopment proposal for numerous entertainment facilities on K St. to $5.4 million for a mermaid-themed bar is very far from fair. The K street renovation project is one of the few serious proposals to create jobs in the construction business now, and the potential to generate much more tax & job revenue in the future. Be it a corporation looking to re-locate, an NCAA organization trying to determine where to host a tuournament, or a family in Auburn trying to decide where to spend their limited entertainment dollars, the K Street project represents a lot of opportunity for the City and region in general. I hope people listen to the bean counters when it is explained the cost benefit of a project such as this. I applaud the staff and council for taking a proactive approach on this. I also hope that people realize that bids for construction are becomming increasingly competitive, and cost estimates from even 6 months ago are comming in much lower. Now is the best time possible to move forward if you can. Also realize as cheesy as Old Town Sac is, we drove down there from out of town, spent more than we should have (not at Fanny Ann's though - best deal around), & had a wonderful time at a fun destination. But OTS is limitied in it's offerings & is more of a "tourist trap" than K-St would be. Communities throughout the area are working to improve reasons for people to visit & spend under a variety of titles, from Streetscape to Downtown Redevelopmnet. Sacramento has a leg up on most other communities & to lose the momemtum and opportunity of this project I feel would be unfortunate. It is so much more than a mermaid-themed bar, it is an investment that if done right will bring in great returns on so many levels. As always.... Keep Smlin'!!

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tdramer

March 10, 2009 | 4:54 PM

It's probably not a good idea to run the meeting up against a City Council meeting. (Tuesdays @ 6pm) It is also competing with the Sacramento County Democratic Central Committee's Meeting as well.

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William Burg

March 10, 2009 | 10:04 PM

I guess I have a different idea of cheesy--I like Old Sac a lot. I also support the idea of more entertainment destinations on K Street. I suppose I would have preferred entertainment destinations that sounded a bit less silly-sounding than these ones, but don't mind at all the adaptive reuse aspects of the project.

It just passed--I'm watching the city council meeting on cable. One good point, made by Richard Rich of Thomas Enterprises, was that development on K Street is tougher than in Midtown, because there are more obstacles to completing a project there--and because many people's opinion of downtown is based entirely on K Street, the better K Street looks the better image we have in the region.

The jobs the project will create in construction over the next few months are nice, but the long-term success of the project will be based on the viability of the businesses that go into those spaces. If they go belly-up within a year or two, like the Three Monkeys restaurant on 7th and K (which also received a city subsidy) and the site goes dark again, was it worth the money? Maybe I'm wrong and Sacramento will go for mermaid bars in a big way.

I suppose that's part of the risk.

I just hope that this project is followed up by more adaptive reuse of currently closed buildings on K, like the Bel-Vue, for housing. That would also create construction jobs, and help change the vibe on K Street in more significant ways. Evening occupancy on K Street, from either residents or folks coming down for entertainment, are probably the only way that the multitude of K Street restaurants that are only open until 5:00 on weekdays (serving the state worker trade) will stay open later.

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The Parrhesiac

March 11, 2009 | 1:07 PM

Just what do you expect to accomplish? The council has proven that even if you get hundreds of community members voicing their opinions on a subject they will ignore all of you in favor of well connected white developers and campaign contributors.

I like the idea of community activism, but it simply will not work in Sacramento due to the institutionalized system of "pay to play" in local politics.

I also find it quite amusing that all three African American council members will sell out their brothers and sisters in favor of rubbing elbows with wealthy white developers.

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Ben Ilfeld