In the Community

Local farmers share tips for fall and winter cooking

2011-10-21T03:42:56Z

As the leaves change color and the weather changes, the yield in the local farmers markets gracefully transforms from the delicious grab-and-eat summer fruits to a generous variety of squash, root vegetables and leafy greens that require a little bit of heat before eating.

With the smaller variety of produce in the local markets during fall and winter, it’s easy to fall back on the same recipes when cooking every night.

The Sacramento Press asked local farmers at the markets for some of their favorite cooking ideas for the fall and winter harvest, and they had a medley of suggestions.

Carolyn McCormack of McCormack Farms in Walnut Grove is finishing her end-of-summer pear harvest and said she often makes pear tarts this time of year.

“It’s five minutes of prep time, and it tastes like it came from a French bakery,” she said.

McCormack said she prefers to use Bartlett pears or red pears. After peeling and slicing the pears in half, she lays them cut-side down on a pie crust in a pan.

For the custard, she mixes one quarter of a cup of flour, one cup of sugar, one teaspoon of vanilla, two eggs, and one quarter of a cup of melted butter into a bowl and pours the mixture over the top of the pears. The tart bakes at 325 degrees for one hour.

Most markets will be out of pears by the end of the month, she added, though you could make the tart with apples if you slice them thinner, and consumers may still find Asian pears in the markets through November.

Throughout autumn and the early winter, the markets will be overflowing with an assortment of squash. Squash can be steamed, roasted, boiled and then pureed into a soup, and some even sauteed. Squash with a thicker rind is usually cooked first, such as pumpkins, kabocha squash and banana squash, and those with thinner skin can be peeled during preparation.

“Winter squash is a good comfort food,” said Rob Montgomery of Rob’s Natural Produce in Durham, Calif. He said he primarily likes to bake acorn squash with a little bit of butter and cinnamon, and it tastes a bit like sweet potatoes, though almost any squash tastes good cooked that way. The squash can be baked at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.

Shirley Kiele of Shared Abundance Organic Farm in Auburn said her favorite type of squash is butternut squash and that there are several ways to cook it.

One of the ways, she said, is to roast it.

“You cut it into slices or little cubes and you roast it in the oven. Some people like to put brown sugar or butter or something on it – I like to just roast it by itself with a little bit of olive oil,” she said.

Another way to prepare the butternut squash is to puree it and make butternut soup. Kiele said that to make the soup she steams the squash after cubing and then puts it into a blender with onions, garlic, and a little bit of cayenne. The squash could be boiled as well, but it would take on excess water.

Montgomery said spaghetti squash can be used as a substitute for pasta noodles because when boiled, the squash separates in strands that resemble noodles.

To cook, cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Bake at a minimum of 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes or boil in a pot until tender and then use a fork to rake the stringy flesh out of the rind.

“You can use them any way you would use noodles,” he said. “It’s kind of like noodles with a zucchini flavor, and it’s a sweet squash,” he added, and the “noodles” go fine as just a side dish with butter on it.

Along the lines of gluten-free, low-carb dishes, Stephanie Martinelli, of Martinelli Hood Ranch in Hood, Calif., said she likes to make health-conscious dishes, with no carbohydrates or starch, and she makes a lasagna that replaces lasagna noodles with zucchini.

To make the lasagna, Martinelli said she typically slices the zucchini into half-inch strips, making sure they’re fairly even.

You get about five slices per zucchini, she said, and depending on the size of your pan, you would want to make three or four zucchini layers, she said.

To assemble, alternate layering the pan with traditional tomato sauce – mixed with the meat of choice – and the zucchini slices until the pan is filled. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, and remove the foil 10 minutes before the lasagna is done.

Martinelli said she also likes to make acorn squash stuffed with onions, meat and rice. She halves the squash, drizzles it with salt and pepper and bakes it at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, and then stuffs it with the cooked meat, onions and rice.

A great variety of leafy greens also last throughout the cold season, including mustard greens, collard greens, chard and lettuce.

Andy Rogers, proprietor of Palermo County’s “R” Farm, said he likes to stay traditional with the greens using a Southern-style method of an added ham hock or bacon.

“Just chop them up, put onions, garlic and some kind of a pork product and just boil them down – just collards and throw the kale in at the end,” he said.

Collard greens usually take about 45 minutes to cook on a medium to high temperature.

As for chard – Rogers said he has a great recipe.

Rogers said he boils the chard leaves whole for about 15 minutes, puts them in a colander and presses the water out of them. Then. in an 8-inch-by-8-inch pan, he layers the chard leaves, his favorite Italian dressing, feta cheese and bacon bits “like lasagna” and covers and puts it in the refrigerator for an hour, though, he usually leaves it overnight.

Rogers said he then cuts the chard-lasagna into squares “like brownies” and serves it like a salad.

The winter harvest may seem a bit daunting to some, but bad weather outside strikes up an opportunity to delve into new dishes and many ingredients will be available at the local farmers markets throughout the winter.

For information on which markets will be open for the winter, click here.

For a good scare- haunted house round-up

2011-10-19T07:18:13Z

The Halloween season is upon us and besides it being a time for Jack O’ Lanterns and spiderwebs, it’s a time to get the candy scared out of us. When you’ve exhausted your stack of scary movies, it might be time to wander through a haunted house or two for a scream-filled, skin-crawling kind of fun.

The Sacramento Press put together a list of several haunted houses in the area that are sure to make one’s hair stand straight.

Maines Haunted Mansion

Location: 2501 I St., Sacramento
Hours: Oct. 21-31 (except 24th and 26th)
7 - 11 p.m.
Admission: free - suggested donation

This traditional Midtown classic is now moving into its sixth year with a completely new show every year. This year brings a funeral parlour theme to Midtown as attendees play the role of a crowd that has come to see a funeral. Visitors will take part in a classic interactive melodrama, advertised by the family as Maines’ Funeral Emporium, as the attendees become a part of the plot. The story unfolds as visitors tour through the century-old Victorian house and attend a funeral at the end. Visitors will solve a mystery as they become enveloped in the action.

100 percent of the proceeds will go to Sunburst Projects, a nonprofit organization devoted to children with HIV/Aids and their families.

For the website, click here.

Fright Planet

Location: Cal Expo (formerly Raging Waters) 1600 Exposition Blvd.
Hours: Oct. 19-10, 23, 25-26, Nov. 1-2 open 7 - 10 p.m.
Oct. 21-22, 27, 30-31 open 7 - 11 p.m.
Oct. 28-29 open 7 - midnight
Admission: $19.95 general admission to all five haunts, $26.95 general admission plus one 3-D haunted movie,
For VIP prices, click here)

This theme park features five different haunts run by a total of 150 actors each night, all of whom had to undergo an intensive training session, for over 100 hours, which organizer Krystie Bolton said prepared actors to take on multiple roles such as walking and talking like a zombie.

Dead Man’s Lagoon- a new haunt in the style of “Pirates of the Caribbean”
Death row – not all of the cells are locked in this haunt
Psycho Midway – a “4-dimensional” carnival theme, which includes the classic scents (fourth dimension) reminiscent of your general carnival, with clowns
Blackout – playing off of the classic phobia, this haunt is completely pitch black
Pirates of Scurvy Island – this year’s newest haunt, which Bolton said is more theatrical than the others as actors play out a script and put on a show for visitors

For the website click here.

Haunted Hagan Screampark

Location: 2197 Chase Drive drive, Rancho Cordova at Hagan Community Park
Hours: Oct. 21-22, 28-29 open 7 - 11 p.m.
Oct. 23, 26-27, 30-31 open 7 - 10 p.m.
Admission: For one train ride and one entry into each haunt- $20 adults, $15 children 12 years and under
For train ride only- $8 adults, $5 children 12 years and under

Joel Watson, director of the former Heartstoppers Haunted House, brings his haunt to this premiere theme park. The park features several attractions, including Heartstopper’s Haunted House – an 1867 western town inundated by zombies with three different buildings to explore – and the former ScaryU Haunted House transformed into the all-new Hangtown Sideshow – a take on the classic traveling freak show, complete with the bearded lady, a juggler, a bed of nails and more.

In addition to the haunts, this theme park also features a spooky train ride to and from the haunts and a corn maze filled with scarecrows. An open courtyard holds all sorts of attractions for families with children in a non-scare zone.

For the website click here.

Cemetarium

Location: 5415 Kenneth Ave., Fair Oaks at U Pick Pumpkins
Hours: Oct. 21-22, 28-29 open 7 - 11 p.m.
Oct. 23-27, 30-31 open 7 - 10 p.m.
Family-friendly hours (low-scare) 7 - 7:30 p.m.
Admission: $8, children 12 and under accompanied by an adult

Spawning from what began in 2002 as a fundraiser for his son’s school, Fair Oaks native Frank Babcock and joins with partner Troy Clapham to bring their haunt to the pumpkin patch this year with several unconventional scares sure to catch one off guard, multiple times.

In its first year as a professional haunt, this house has more than 20 actors playing multiple roles and producing scares from multiple rooms on a given night, and organizers still welcome more to participate.

Attendees will have to fight their way through this 600-foot-long house, which features several sections, each with different characters and fears to overcome, including The Parlor, which captures visitors in the cobwebs of antiquity as the furniture takes on a mind of its own, The Crypt, The Torture Room and the Industrial Room, among others, and according to organizers, the scares might not stop once you pass the threshold.

For the website click here.

Corbett’s House of Horror

Location: 1120 Galleria Blvd. across from the Roseville Galleria
Hours: Oct. 20, 23, 25-27 open 7 - 10 p.m.
Oct. 21-22 open 7 - 11 p.m.
Oct. 28-31 open 7 p.m. - midnight
Admission: $10 for one haunt, $20 for all four haunts

Corbett’s House of Horror is a premiere haunt in the former Expo Design Center and is open rain or shine. After 15 years worth of experience with home haunts, Steve Baker decided to partner with friends Jim Corbett and Jim Carey to bring the home haunt to a larger setting.

With more than 40 actors on any given night, Corbett’s House of Horrors offers four haunts:

The Hollywood Experience – an homage to several time-honored horror movies and their monsters such as Elvira and Freddy Krueger
Medical Center – playing off of classic phobias such as mad dentists, crazy doctors and insane asylums
Haunted “Carn-Evil” – A haunted carnival with clowns and tricks around every corner, including drop floors and
House of Horror – a take on the classic Halloween theme of haunted graveyards and the living dead

The idea for all four haunts spawned from four rooms that were featured in Baker’s home haunts.

With any mention of Sacramento Habitat for Humanity this Thursday, as a special event fundraiser, $5 of the ticket purchase will be donated to the charity.

For the website, click here.

Callson Manor

Location: 800 All America City Blvd., Roseville at Placer County Fairgrounds
Hours: Oct. 7-9, 13-16, 20-23, and 26-31 open 7:30 - 10 p.m.
Admission: $10 per haunt, $7 for all four mini attractions, and $23 for all eight attractions (see website for VIP tickets and combo pack)

Back for its fourth year in Sacramento, Bryan Patterson’s pro haunt features four haunted houses, each with a different theme and level of scare. From greatest level to least:

Panic – a combination of several classic phobias, including claustrophobia
Vampire’s Crypt – described as one of the more popular of the year, this haunt includes a vampire bar and dance room
Miner’s Revenge – explore the mine shaft without getting stuck
Callson Manor Funeral Home – using real caskets as props, infested with zombies

A scare-free courtyard, described as the “safe zone,” is available to children and families with multiple photo opportunities with cast members and a Living Dead Stage featuring the Obsidian Butterfly fire dancers on some nights, and punk rock bands on others. The park features four mini attractions as well, including Senses (all senses will be tested if one dares), Maze Craze, Zombie Crawl and the Oddities Exhibit, with voodoo dolls and many other pieces to the collection.

For the website click here.

Forest of Lost Souls

Location: 485 Platt Circle, El Dorado Hills
Hours: Oct. 29 5 - 6:30 p.m for young trick-or-treaters, 6:30 - 8 p.m. for adults and teens
Oct. 30-31 6 - 9 p.m. for adults and teens
Admission: $5 per person without canned food item, or $4 with one canned food donation, and $3 with two canned food items.

What organizer Joe De Celle described as a “pro haunt out of the garage,” this attraction is featured right out of his three-car garage for its second year in El Dorado Hills, but De Celle’s seventh year putting on the home haunt. With 600 square feet to work with, this haunt features a maze intertwining five thematically different rooms with scares coming from any direction and builds a reputation on surpassing visitors’ expectations.

The maze starts with a mild scare, a classic phobia, and those who continue further enter "the Forest of Lost Souls."

De Celle uses security cameras throughout the haunt to keep surveillance on the guests. To view videos of the haunt from past years, click here.

A “scare-free” window is set early in the evening on the first night for younger children and families to go through the haunt without actors jumping out at them.

This is the first year admission is being charged. The haunt has partnered with Food Bank of El Dorado County and is trying to raise up to 300 pounds of non-perishable canned food items to donate by the end of the month.

For the website, click here.

Music, art and dancing in the street at Midtown Modern Art Festival

2011-10-17T06:49:28Z

A myriad of local artists and hundreds of community members gathered in the street Saturday to celebrate art in multiple forms for the first Midtown Modern Arts Festival.

The free, family-friendly street festival was held on 20th Street between J and K streets and featured six hours of music, dance, comedy, visual and performing arts and creative, hands-on activities for kids. The festival was run largely in part to the multitude of volunteers willing to give their time to put the event together, and neither the attendees nor vendors were charged to attend.

“This is one way for use to give back to the community — bringing art organizations, artists and businesses together,” said Heather Philpott, producer of the Midtown Modern Arts Festival and communications coordinator for the Midtown Business Association.

Philpott said the festival started off as a project intended for launch in the summer until organizers decided to partner with Artober, a month-long celebration of Sacramento’s art scene in October to celebrate the National Arts and Humanities month, now to be an annual event.

“A lot of times, people don’t get to experience the performing arts because it’s expensive and it’s not always accessible to everyone,” she said. “We have quite a few of performing arts organizations in Midtown, but not enough venues.”

The event was sponsored by the Midtown Business Association, the MARRS (Midtown Art Retail Restaurant Scene) building, Heller Pacific and KlickNation and Philpott said the festival was to be a venue through which anybody interested could get a taste of art in its many forms, even those who have not had any prior experience.

Performing arts organizations were contacted initially for the event as well as other local art organizations. The festival also included live artistic demonstrations in sculpting, painting and drawing and various interactive art activities for children, including a craft corner and a musical instrument petting zoo, which allowed children the opportunity to try out many different classical instruments and hand drums.

“At the end of the day, we need to have something creative for (the children) to get their hands dirty and find their niche,” Philpott said.

Throughout the day, La Raza Galleria Posada, a nonprofit cultural center which offers Latino/Chicano and Native Arts workshops and other services, made over 100 sugar skulls — skull molds made of compacted sugar which are decorated with icing and food coloring in remembrance of a loved one — traditional tokens of the Mexican Celebration The Day of the Dead/Dia de Los Muertos.

Emily Ellis, mother and former teacher who attended the event, said it’s important to have activities for children in family events, especially to have arts activities at an arts festival.

“It’s important so they are occupied, so they get involved and they understand what it all means,” she said. “It helps make (art) tangible for them.”

Performing artists covered all corners of the medium from stand-up comedy to ballet, to jazz and modern dance in the streets.

The Sacramento Ballet led a “Thriller” flash mob, complete with zombie makeup and tutus, which Philpott said had been planned for a while. The group put out a video on YouTube to teach community members how to do the popular dance, which resulted in over 200 dancers joining in the streets.

The Harley White Jr. Orchestra, a locally-based Big Band reminiscent of the 1920s jazz-style through the 1950s, performed on one of the festival’s two stages, as well as local stand-up comedian Johnny Taylor, the Sacramento State Jazz Quartet, the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sacramento Ballet, among many others.

Created by Harley White Jr. in 1991, the band is influenced by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones and Lee Scratch Perry, among others.

“We came to support the arts,” said Harley White Jr., 46, composer and bassist. “I’d like to see more collaborations between the art and jazz community.”

The Contemporary Dance Conservatory, a youth dance studio recently opened in May, was added to the festival at the last minute, said Jane Numazu, mother to one of the youth dancers. They still drew a crowd each time they took to dancing in the street.

The youth dancers said that they were very excited to be in the festival, some of whom had never performed in a public setting before, and welcomed the publicity for their new studio.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback with our dancing,” Allison Lian, 15, said. “We’ve been mainly improv-ing all day, and we’ve been asked to, next year, do performances, so that was really exciting for us.”

Lian described the modern dance as a “new type of dancing” but said the crowd embraced it positively.

“A lot of people do ballet and we have that strong technical training, but we kind of bring it into the 2000s,” said Bradley Palmer, 16. “We bring it into a fresh way of dancing. We take that ballet technique and use it to create a piece of work that hasn’t been seen for years.”

Lian has been dancing for three years and Palmer has been dancing for two years.

As for how the day went, both youths said they were just happy to be there and hope to see the festival back next year.

“I think it’s gone great this year, and if it could get bigger, then that’s all we could ask for,” Palmer said.

Feedback from the festival remained positive, with many attendees saying they wished it took up more than one block.

“I like the bands, but I like that they have the actual people that do the things like the dancers,” Roseville High School teacher Betsy Sanchez said. “I like when they actually have things that you can do - like the interactive stuff, and they have stuff for the kids, too. It’s nice.”

Her only critique — Bigger, because when it ended, I was a little disappointed. I thought there was going to be more,” she said.

Sanchez attended with her husband, who said the couple only came upon the festival by accident when they heard music and saw a crowd but were pleased with the experience.

“We wanted to indulge ourselves in some of the excitement,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for people to expand their horizons.”

Mario Sanchez, who works for Union Pacific Co., added that Midtown needs more events similar to the festival and he hopes to see the festival continue for a second year.

“I like the crowd,” he said, “it’s nice and happy — and there’s good vibes. We’ll definitely be back next year.”

Philpott said organizers estimate there were about 500 or 600 attendees, though it could have been more, she added.

“We were really excited with the turnout,” she said. “It was a perfect amount of people for the space we had allocated.”

Philpott said that next year she would like to have the opera onstage as well as the Contemporary Dance Conservatory, which performed in the middle of the street since they were a late addition.

“We’d really like to get them on the stage next year, but it was almost awesome that they were on the street because it gave the street a different vibe,” she said.

Philpott said she would like to continue the festival running next year, though that is to be determined. For now, her reflections on the inaugural festival remain positive.

“It was just great to see all of the community arts organizations and businesses come together to put something on,” she said. “The volunteers were phenomenal. I couldn’t have done the event without them and without our technical team.”

Philpott said that the festival was successful because there was something for everyone to enjoy.

“It was definitely community-driven and a rewarding experience,” she added.

A look at one of the oldest family-run businesses in Sacramento

2011-10-15T03:09:01Z

The economic downturn has resulted in the closure of many small, privately owned businesses, but one family still carries the torch of a business that has been running for six generations – Burnett & Sons Planing Mill and Lumber Company.

Burnett & Sons got its start in the 1800s and has had a hand in projects such as the State Capitol and the Crocker Museum.

The family business has seen its share of ups and downs, including the Great Depression, but the two brothers and one sister who currently run it share a passion for the company and for the work it provides to the community.

“It’s a family business and that’s what I live for- to keep it going because it’s a legacy,” said Jim Miller, company president.

Jim Miller said that he has been working with the company from the ground up – pushing brooms, driving trucks, labor“whatever it took,” he said, and Simone Rathe, treasurer and corporate secretary, has been working with the company for 17 years after working in advertising in San Francisco, but said that she shares an appreciation for the millwork as well. The two share ownership of the company with their brother, Fitz Miller, the company’s vice-president.

Their father, Burnett Miller, sold the company to them in 2000. Still loosely involved with the business, he continues to be a prominent member of the Sacramento community, formerly known for his involvement as a council member and mayor for a year.

Burnett & Sons, including its mill, is currently located at 214 11th and B streets downtown, where it has been since 1933, in an old-style office building built by Burnett Miller himself.

The company turns rough lumber into siding panels and moulding for multiple construction purposes, cabinetry work and specializes in architectural millwork, often contracted to restore old buildings throughout the city. The company also provides the materials for individual home projects and takes on projects from all over the city.

Philetus Burnett, a carpenter, stair builder and cabinet maker from Massachusetts, founded the company with his son, Henry, in 1869.

Many company records were lost in a couple of fires early in the 20th century, but its most well-known projects include the main stairwell and south facing doors of the Capitol, the Crocker Art Museum, the lobby of the new City Hall, the Stanford Mansion and various restoration projects throughout Old Sacramento.

One of the more interesting sides to the company is that they are often called in for restoration work on buildings they’ve worked on in the past.

“A portion of our business has always been some restoration work along with architectural work that’s been designed specially by the various architectural firms in the area,” Burnett Miller said.

In 1870, the company built the stairwell in the new Capitol building. The Capitol was then modernized at the turn of the century, and the old millwork, mouldings and stairs were replaced with metal and stone. A section of the spiral staircase was moved to the St. Francis Church at 27th and J streets, which was being built at the same time

“For the bicentennial, the state project was to restore the Capitol the way it originally had been, and we had the contract to do the millwork and rebuild the stairs as they originally had been,” Burnett Miller said.

Another large restoration project for the company came in the 1980s, when Burnett Miller started a committee to raise money to restore many buildings along the riverfront in Old Sacramento.

“They just thought it would be a real tourist attraction and it would be a good thing for the city to have Old Sacramento rebuilt; they just had to raise the money,” Rathe said.

The company began in millwork and stairs, and gradually expanded to include cabinetry, custom countertops and windows and frames.

“We do a little bit of everything that keeps us diversified,” Jim Miller said. “We’re not just, as they would say, a box shop where you’re just doing strictly cabinets and nothing else. We sell lumber, siding, moulding, and we reproduce it here.”

Burnett & Sons has modernized, the owners said, with an upgrade to heavier computerized machinery that enables it to be more competitive with others and to work faster, but the integrity of individual and custom production has stayed.

“Rather than mass-produced and sold as an item, we’re more dependent on architectural work – architects design things that are specific for a particular building or a particular project,” Jim Miller said, adding that the company has very little mass production.

Burnett Miller said that the demand for wooden projects has gone down, as many houses are now made of stucco, and that to keep up with the competition, the company has added plastic laminate to its projects as well.

For the most part, owners said they feel that modernization is another part of keeping up with demand and staying in business.

“I think you have to change with the times somewhat, but there’s always been a demand for custom millwork that we do, and we have done quite a bit of restoration work besides the capitol,” Burnett Miller said.

Burnett & Sons customarily maintains an active apprenticeship training program provided by its union, teaching the company’s traditional craft through on-the-job training with a journeyman. Apprentices generally go to school two hours a night for two days a week and the program takes three to four years to complete, but due to the lack of business, the program is currently at a standstill.

“We just don’t have the volume of work to have people going through training all the time,” Jim Miller said. “When we are busy we try to hire apprentices and train them to learn the work so they’d be here for 20 or 30 years.”

Since the state’s economy has plummeted, Jim Miller said that Burnett & Sons has had to cut employees to stay afloat.

“Right now we’re at 25 (employees). We’ve been to 50, but with the economy slowing down,
you have to lay off people, and you hate to do it because you’ve had people work for you 25 and 30 years. It’s like a family – you come on board and you’re here forever – you assume – and you try to keep all your good employees and everything,” he said.

Rathe said she is staying positive, however, adding her grandfather’s reassurance that it was much worse before, and they still survived.

“When the Depression hit, he really had to pull back and cut back just like we are now,” she said. “There were times when my grandfather was driving the forklift himself – he did a lot just on his own to keep the doors open.”

“I think it’s best to just keep a positive attitude and try to ride it out and just do the best you can,” Jim Miller said.

“(A few years) have been a challenge, and we’ve gotten past it,” he added. “What’s in the future – it’s getting over that hump and being positive. Keep the doors open, keep people employed – it’s a family legacy,” he said.

Many farmers' markets turn in for winter while few remain

2011-10-13T04:56:17Z

Throughout the summer, access to fresh and local produce has been offered in several locations around Sacramento, but the change of the season means less availability as many farmers markets close until May or June.

The remaining markets for the year:

Open All Year

Sacramento Central Certified Farmers’ Market
Eighth and W
8 a.m. to noon Sunday

Sacramento Florin CFM
Florin road and 65th St
8 a.m. to noon Thursday

Sacramento Country Club Plaza CFM
Watt and El Camino Avenues
8 a.m. to noon Saturday

Open through October

Sacramento Chavez Plaza CFM
10th and J streets
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday

Del Paso Heights CFM
Norwood Avenue and San Juan Road
7:30 a.m. to noon Saturday

Natomas CFM
New Market Drive- Inderkum High School parking lot
9 a.m. to noon

Oak Park Farmers’ Market
McClatchy Park at 35th St and 5th Ave
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday

Open through November

Sacramento Kaiser CFM
Cottage Way and Morse Avenue
9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Only a few farmers' markets actually stay open through winter. Some farmers said the reason for this is the change in weather and how it affects the crop yield for the season.

“Usually (in the winter) you have less shoppers – lots to do with the weather – (and) we don’t like coming out in the rain and standing around,” said Patrick Hoover, owner of Patrick’s Garden, located in Placer County. “A lot of the farmers don’t have anything in the winter. A lot of farming is seasonal, so the markets are seasonal.”

Joany Titherington, coordinator for the Oak Park Farmers' Market, said that the Oak Park market, currently held in McClatchy Park, will close for the winter because it has no covered structure to shield the customers, farmers and their produce from the rain.

Martin Bates, stall manager for Capay Organic, said that the demand for more farmer's markets has gone down in Sacramento over the years.

"I think Sacramentans are just sensitive to weather. When it's cold, I notice, there's just less traffic – folks will stay in their offices or stay at home whereas, say in San Francisco, where it's always 59 degrees, folks are just acclimated and they come out and shop."

Renae Best, co-coordinator for Certified Farmers' Markets of Sacramento, said that since the yield is smaller in the winter, supply runs out for the winter.

“Farmers don’t have enough supply to go to several markets each week,” she said.

Hoover said that a break from the crops isn’t usually his choice, just resultant of the 3,000-foot elevation and snow in his area.

“You can’t grow all the summer produce in the winter, and you’re limited,” he said. “You get more during the summer – there’s more daylight hours. You need a certain amount of temperatures and a certain amount of daylight.”

Of the 13 local markets in the summer, only three are open all year round.

Though many of the summer’s markets have already closed down for the winter and won’t reopen again until late spring, a few other markets will remain open through the rest of the month.

The Oak Park market will only be open once more – from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday – and the Chavez Plaza market will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Wednesday until the end of the month.

For more information on the Sacramento Certified Farmer’s Markets, click here.

Environmental activists present strategies to build community

2011-10-07T06:58:02Z

Neighborhood streets and intersections in Portland, Ore. have become public gathering places and people have reported that they’ve felt much safer in their communities, a testament to community building through the City Repair project – the topic of Mark Lakeman and Marisha Auerbach’s presentation on Permaculture in an urban context Wednesday night, hosted by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

City Repair is a small grassroots nonprofit organization, founded in 1995 in Portland by a group of neighbors, that facilitates multiple “placemaking projects” geared toward reclaiming one's neighborhood and inspiring alternative ways to think about what it means to have a community gathering space and to put those thoughts into action.

The night's presentation featured a “how-to” examination of the multiple strategies neighborhoods have taken to engage with one another and build a safer and more self-sustaining community in the hopes of inspiring others to make a change in their neighborhoods, even here in Sacramento.

“What do you think we did in the space between our houses before cars existed? What we don’t do anymore – talk,” Lakeman said as he began the presentation.

Lakeman is the founder and promoter of many community building initiatives in Portland, Ore. including City Repair and The ReBuilding Center, and Marissa Auerbach is an active practitioner and teacher of Permaculture – an ecological design system modeled on the relationships built in nature.

The two have been traveling around California for the past two weeks, their 26th and final city being Sacramento, presenting on the topic – Village Alchemy: Permaculture Strategies for Transforming the Urban Environment. The presentation highlighted their collaboration in City Repair in the hopes that others would be inspired to create the same type of change in their neighborhoods as well.

“Portland, like everywhere else, has been beset by an absence of gathering spaces,” Lakeman said. The presentation focused on the sustainability behind the relationships humans can build with each other, and the problems they have building and maintaining such relationships with the modern design of the city block.

The presentation oscillated between Lakeman’s City Repair Project and Auerbach’s experience in several community Permaculture projects, which include garden installations, seed saving and growing food year-round in both urban and rural locations.

Auerbach has been collaborating with City Repair since 2005 and has assisted in the installation of many gardens and community projects in Haiti, Nicaragua and Vietnam.

One way of enhancing community, Auerbach said, is sharing a meal with people.

“I want to encourage more people to interact with their food system,” she said, “Everyone expects food to come from the country and it doesn’t have to be so.”

The vision behind City Repair is simple: in city blocks based on the grid structure, it’s more common for people to become isolated and not know their neighbors, Lakeman explained, their lives have become “zoned.” Lines are drawn between workplaces and living space, much in the same way lines have been drawn between each other in a community. Through its projects, City Repair seeks to return the communal gathering spaces of communication back to the neighborhoods.

“Everyone from the world came from a village network,” Lakeman said. “Our blocks no longer have open spaces, even though our ancestors lived that way.”

He explained the structure of a village as a circle, before what is now recognizable as “the grid” came into place. The circle represented a community gathering space through which networks were created as people went about their daily lives, crossing paths with each other.

The imposition of the grid came into place in 1785 when an ordinance was passed placing the Roman Colonial Grid over any towns to the west of the Ohio River.

Featuring Permaculture and natural building techniques, the City Repair Project seeks to put the circle back on top of the grid. Composed almost completely of volunteers, the organization sets up events each year called “intersection repair,” which helps communities reclaim their neighborhoods for a day, turning the nearest residential intersection into a community gathering space.

For each project, neighbors in a community gather to come up with a design for their intersection that most often includes painting the intersection and building amenities to place on each corner, with each neighborhood telling a different story.

Corner installations from past projects include community gardens, cob benches – naturally built structures comprised of clay, sand, and straw – a communal library made from scratch, a tea house, a puppet theater for neighborhood children and many others.

“With each of these installations, each person leaves with their own idea and inspiration,” Auerbach said.

Stemming from the first “intersection repair”, more than 300 neighborhoods have reclaimed their neighborhoods and the vision has grown nationwide and even internationally with similar intersection repair projects completed.

About 15 persons were in attendance, and many who left the presentation that night said they are looking forward to implementing similar projects in Sacramento.

“I think Sacramento has a lot more potential than it realizes,” said Dominic Allarmano, 34, an educator and facilitator from Sacramento. “There’s a lot of life force here, but the people right now aren’t really connected to each other that much yet. The neighborhoods don’t oftentimes have that character – it’s not in the rhythms and patterns of life here yet.”

Allarmano said that he previously lived in Oregon and knew about the project, and he is excited to get something similar going in Sacramento.

“I’m just really lit up that this is happening in other cities across America, and we need it to happen here in Sacramento,” said Tara Sheen, 46, from Pleasant Grove, also in attendance. “We have great community here; this would be easily done. It just needs to be presented.”

Sheen added that she is involved with the Permaculture movement in Sacramento and that similar projects can be implemented in Sacramento.

“There’s some good people that would be willing to come on our side that have already been trying to make stuff happen here,” she said.

Wrapping up the last night of their speaking tour, both presenters said that they hoped to inspire others to implement community building projects in their cities and that all it takes is a little motivation to get it started.

“I think that there’s a whole host of options of how people can choose to gracefully adapt to the future, but it requires stepping up and looking at what your needs are and how you can meet them using what you have,”Auerbach said.

Lakeman said that he hoped the presentation planted a seed and gave everyone a bit of insight on how they might be able to go about change in their communities.

“I would just say to Sacramento: Start anywhere you want. You will change the world, just start wherever it makes sense to you,” Lakeman said after the presentation. “Our communities are not engaged, so all these things are going wrong, and every one of those situations is an opportunity for somebody to get involved and turn it into right livelihood.”

For more information on the City Repair project and the work that has been done in several cities, including Los Angeles, click here or see them on Facebook.

County provides $150,000 in funding for homeless families

2011-10-06T06:50:26Z

Officials of the Sacramento County announced in a press release Tuesday that it has identified and will provide $150,000 to fund emergency shelter programs for homeless families this winter becoming the lowest amount of funding to date.

The funding will go toward Winter Shelter – a program designated to operate during the cold and wet winter months which provides beds and individual apartments to homeless families that are unable to find housing in the county’s already-overcrowded shelters.

The Department of Human Assistance identified the funding from salary savings, according to Kerri Aiello, spokeswoman for the county, because there was a delay in hiring in the department.

The department provided the same amount of funding to the program last winter, with an additional $100,000 provided by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, though no additional funding has been provided by the agency for this year.

Homeless advocates, including Sacramento Loaves & Fishes and the Sacramento Housing Alliance, addressed the absence of funding for the winter shelter program in a press conference two weeks ago after the county declared its inability to provide any funding for the winter shelter program this year.

To read the previous article, click here.

Funding for the winter shelter program has decreased significantly over the last few years, declining from $700,000 in 2008-9 to $451,000 2009-10 and $250,000 2010-11 with what was a projected $0 for this winter.

Though the county has now identified some funding for the program, Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Housing Alliance, said that he is only 60 percent happy about the funding and that there is still more work to do before the winter months come.

“The Sacramento Housing Alliance and Loaves & Fishes are committed to putting together efforts to put up another $100,000,” he said, adding that the city needs to revamp its efforts to help fund these programs as well.

Erlenbusch said that three years ago, funding for the program was three times as much, and that it will be a community effort to find additional funding before Winter Shelter is set to open, which is usually a week before Thanksgiving.

The Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center coordinated winter emergency shelters along with Volunteers of America and most likely will do so this year, according to Aiello.

“I think it’s wonderful, and I’m excited the county has been able to help identify these funds,” said Carolyn Brodt, executive director for the Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center.

Brodt said that last year two winter shelter options were available – family shelter, which provided 25 beds, available to five families at a time with a 30-day stay, and the motel voucher program.

Funded by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency last year, the motel voucher program currently has no funding and might not be available unless more funding is identified.

Christie Holderegger of Volunteers of America said that with last year’s funding, the program provided up to 28 beds for families and individual apartments.

“We will be expecting more people than last year in need of housing,” she said, adding that it will be difficult to tell if there will be enough beds this year until they start filling them.

According to Brodt, about 150 homeless children were turned away last month due to a lack of room in their shelter downtown, and there is still an unmet need for funding. She said the organization is currently applying for grants, though any funding won’t be available until the turn of the new year.

“That’s what’s really critical for Sacramento – to find more affordable housing for families,” Holderegger said.

Homeless advocates will be continuing their efforts to raise money from private donors and grants in the hopes that the same amount of funding from last year, about $250,000, will be met.

“We don’t need the $100,000 tomorrow, but it’d be nice to have it by the end of the year, before we get too deep into the season,” Erlenbusch said.

Editorial Note: A correction has been made to this story after it was published.

Fox and Goose outdoor expansion adapting to changes and moving ahead

2011-09-30T06:11:09Z

Longtime customers of the Fox and Goose Public House may soon enjoy brunch outside for the first time in its 36 years of business, courtesy of Allyson Dalton, owner of the pub, who said she practically grew up in the building.

A project to expand the loading dock in front of the W.P. Fuller building, which houses the pub and several other businesses, will soon yield an additional 46 seats on an outdoor patio, complete with new railing, lighting and tables for two or four.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but I didn’t own the building,” she said.

Dalton, who recently acquired ownership of the Fuller building in June, purchased the business from her parents in 1995 and carries on the traditional pub that her parents began when they opened it in 1975.

“It’s one of the best places to go in Sacramento, but the only thing we lack is outdoor dining,” said Dalton said, adding that the outdoor dining established at R Street between 14th and 15th streets brought a vibrancy to the area which she would like to bring to the pub.

“(Sacramento) is so conducive to enjoying a beer on the patio,” she said.

For the past six years, Dalton has been working with the Capitol Area Development Authority and the city of Sacramento to ensure that her project would be done in conjunction with the R Street Improvement Project.

The R Street Improvement Project began last Fall and is geared toward enhancing R Street between 10th and 13th streets. The project includes the addition of paved curbs and sidewalks, designated on-street parking, and street lighting.

As for the outdoor patio to compliment the new streetscape - the entire railing and frontside of the dock will be redone, Dalton said, with the addition of lighting along the entire front of the building, creating an “industrial feel.”

Initially, Dalton had planned to extend the dock about 4 feet toward the street, which would have been implemented once the city had taken out the concrete in front of the pub.

The extension has been met with several hurdles, however, and some changes have been made to the initial plan.

The project, which Dalton estimates to cost over $100,000, will no longer include a 4 foot extension of the dock towards the street, but will still extend from the West edge of the Fuller building eastward toward the the center of the building dock, ending just before the middle stairwell and ADA ramp.

All tables on the patio will be railside, to allow room for a walkway, seating a total of 40 to 46 persons on the deck. The total length of the patio will be 129 feet with 8 feet of width.

The elevated dining area and new streetscape will create a great atmosphere for the previously industrial district, Dalton said.

Planning for the dock expansion began back in February when a price was decided on for the Fuller Building, Dalton said, but the project had to wait a few more months before anything could be set into place. The building was previously owned by Fred David of David Candy Co. who passed away in 2009.

Dalton explained that she had much emotional attachment not only to the restaurant but to the building itself, adding that David was really more like a grandfather to her.

“It’s not just a commercial endeavor,” she said, “I have an opportunity to develop this area the best I can - it’s good for Sacramento, for the area and for the building.”

Dalton said the largest hurdle came from SMUD who was concerned with the expansion of the docks overtaking the manhole covers, allowing access to the high voltage line in front of the loading dock area. Dalton has settled to keep the dock at its current 8 feet width, but said she may revisit it later for future expansion.

“The project has been morphing all along but the final project is even more better than what I had expected,” Dalton said, adding that the city has been very responsive and helpful most of the way.

“We have done everything possible in order to ensure the success of all businesses within the corridor,” said Zuhair Amawi, project coordinator for the R street Improvement Project, which for Dalton included providing feedback to her plans and incorporating her design into the city’s streetscape plan to avoid any clashes.

The other businesses in the Fuller Building will remain in their places, and many business owners are excited about the upcoming improvements to both the R Street Corridor and the front of the building.

“I’m extremely excited about the expansion and what it’s going to bring to the whole block,” said Robert Andersen, owner of the Solomon Dubnick Gallery, one of the multiple businesses inside of the building.

Andersen said the gallery has only been at its current location, inside the Fuller Building, since August, but the recent improvements to the building and the corridor should bring more attention to all businesses within the area. The gallery was previously located at 1017 25th st, in Midtown, before it was sold to Andersen by former owner, Michael Solomon.

“I think it will give us more visibility,” said Linda Uruquhart, owner of Rumpelstiltskin, a yarn store inside the building.

Uruquhart said the store has been in the same spot for 38 years, and agrees that the addition of an outdoor patio at the pub will bring more attention to the smaller businesses inside and to their end of the corridor.

“We’ve always been an alley with potholes,” she said. “I think it will make this corner more visible and connect everything up (within the corridor) now.”

Dalton said the change to the front of the building will be a support to the businesses within the building as well as to the restaurant, hoping that it will bring more people to the building and the other shops. The greatest thing she hopes for is that the expansion maintains the character of the Fox and Goose.

“The Fuller building has so much character and atmosphere built into it already, and I feel really honored and privileged to be the steward of the building,” she said.

Dalton finalized a deal with R.C. Pacific Construction, Inc. Thursday, and said she hopes to see construction begin in the next couple of weeks. Completion of the dock expansion area is projected for another four weeks after that.

Future plans of expansion are on her agenda also, most of which she labels as “back of the house expansion” which include additional manager’s offices, a larger break room for employees, new refrigeration and storage, new bathrooms for the restaurant, and an expansion of the kitchen.

Also on Dalton’s expansion list is a private dining room which will seat about 50 persons, and an event hall with a stage - both of which will be added into the vacant space in the building where David’s Candy Co. used to be.

To celebrate the completion of both the outdoor seating area and the new streetscape, Dalton said she will be hosting the R Street Corridor unveiling party at the restaurant and soon-to-be event hall in late November or early December.

Laughs brought to Midtown with Sacramento Comedy Festival

2011-09-27T03:53:07Z

The Sacramento Comedy Spot will bring a new type of art festival to Sacramento this weekend, guaranteed to send attendees home with side splinters and sore cheekbones.

The first Sacramento Comedy Festival, to be held at the Sacramento Comedy Spot in Midtown, will bring to the stage 170 comedians in 17 different shows from Thursday through Sunday.

Brian Crall, owner of the Sacramento Comedy Spot and main coordinator for the festival, said that he and others at the club set a goal last year to host a comedy festival this year, and though they wanted to keep it relatively small, they wanted to bring a show that featured more than solely standup comedy.

“Since the festival is all about including different types of comedy,” Crall said, “we try to offer every night a different sampling of each of those things.”

The Sacramento Comedy Festival will feature four different comedy mediums - standup, improv, sketch and film - performed by comedians from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento.

Each day of the festival features a performance of a different type of comedy and each day hosts a different show each hour ranging from two shows in a day to several shows.

Shows are priced individually, with tickets ranging from $8 to $10, and $12 for Saturday night’s San Francisco Standup Showcase.

The San Francisco Standup Showcase will feature five comedians, all who perform regularly in San Francisco, and who Crall said are “some of the best comedians in San Francisco.”

Crall said there will be deals posted daily on the website, day passes and package deals which will group a few different shows together.

“I tried to make it inexpensive; I wanted people to be able to see a couple of different shows that would be a lower price than if you paid for each one,” Crall said.

The Sacramento Comedy Spot started out as a local sketch comedy group, Free Hooch Comedy Troupe, in 2005. The club has grown, since then, to host weekly stand-up, improv and sketch comedy shows, and offers classes to the public on improv, sketch, and stand-up comedy.

“The Comedy Spot has always been pushing the envelope and was the first comedy club to offer sketch comedy, improv, and standup,” Crall said.

The club, which seats up to 80 persons each show, will have a concessions area stocked with water, soda, popcorn and candy. The club doesn’t have a bar currently, but Crall is looking to apply for a beer license soon.

“When you come to the show, it’s about the comedian and the comedy,” Crall said. “I’ve always wanted to have a spot that supported the comedian rather than making money off of them.”

Crall said he wanted to host the festival since the club moved into the MARRS (Midtown Art Retail Restaurant Scene) building in 2009, but waited a year to begin organizing for it.

Festival organizers started looking for performers in March, and started asking those who had performed at the spot before or those who had submitted a video on YouTube.

Performers for the festival include The Syndicate and Anti-Cooperation League, two of Sacramento Comedy Spot’s very own sketch comedy teams, Women Be Shopping - a women’s improv group from L.A., comedian Johnny Taylor and sketch comedy duo Uphill Both Ways.

To see the entire lineup for each day, visit the website here.

Uphill Both Ways is an absurdist-style sketch comedy duo from San Francisco, comprised of Dave McKew, 38, and Colin Benoit, 35, described by Crall as a “unique brand of sketch comedy.”

“We start with a strange premise and take the audience on a journey they wouldn’t expect,” McKew said. “You often see things that are very similar - we wanted to be as different as we can so people don’t only say, ‘there goes another parody.’ ”

One of the duo’s more popular sketches and a great example of the absurdist humor they use involves a conversation between peanut butter and jelly in a sandwich. McKew described a sketch they will use at the festival involving “a woman who contracted syphillis immaculately” and the protagonists as the bacteria.

The duo has performed in festivals all over North America since 2002, created out of a passion McKew said he and Benoit shared at Cornell University in New York together, a sketch comedy group called the Cornell University SKITS-O-PHRENICS, though the duo Uphill Both Ways wasn’t formed until they ran into each other years later in San Francisco.

Uphill Both Ways has performed in Sacramento before, in 2006 and 2007, and McKew said they are excited to come back.

“The audience there is intelligent, engaged and very responsive and as a performer, that’s really what you want,” McKew said.

Uphill Both Ways will be performing Friday at 8 p.m..

Johnny Taylor, a standup comedian from Sacramento, said that this will be his first comedy festival but it certainly won’t be his last.

Taylor, 34, said he has been performing standup comedy for just about a year, and had been writing satire for blogs before that.

Describing himself as the “class clown,” Taylor said he found it really rewarding when he performed for his friends.

“Oftentimes you choose an art form that you’re passionate about and that you love and you want the audience to feel that too,” Taylor said.

Describing his humor as “observational,” and alternative, Taylor said he often plays off of the audience for his material.

Taylor will be performing at the Standup Showcase on the first night of the festival and said he is honored to be performing with some of the best comics around.

Crall said that none of the comedians are paid for their performances this year, but are coming of their own passion for the art form.

“They’re all comedians and they all want to come and do some quality work,” he said. “They’re all here just to be together.”

McKew described the festival as a chance to work with other comedians and see other shows, adding that his favorite thing is to see sketch comedy whenever possible.

“It’s your chance to see how other people are doing it; a chance to talk shop. It’s the excitement of discovery,” he said.

Sacramento has hosted its share of different festivals, with subjects ranging from food to art, music, dance and culture. Both Crall and Taylor said that in the twenty years they’ve lived in Sacramento, neither of them remember there being a comedy festival in the city, and agreed that it’s about time.

“It’s something Sacramento hasn’t had before and it’s something Sacramento needs,” Taylor said, adding that the comedic talent in Sacramento is on the rise.

Crall described his hope for the festival to have multiple positive impacts on the city and that he hopes it will being more attention to the city as a major metropolitan area.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for Sacramento,” he said. “I think we can attract more people to the city and it’ll be great for the economy,” adding that the festival would be a great staple for the city to have every year.”

Crall has already begun planning for a festival next year if the festival is successful this year. He said that next year would have more of a focus on film, and that he would try to get performers from all over the U.S.

“We’re really proud of this event, though it’s just the first year. Stay tuned - we’ve got some great shows coming up,” he said.

For more information on the Sacramento Comedy Festival, click here.

Lack of funding for emergency homeless shelters this winter

2011-09-23T06:21:06Z

Taking into consideration the results of the 2011 Homeless Count conducted in January, Sacramento County would need to provide about 1,000 beds in emergency homeless shelters to ensure that everyone has a roof over their heads this winter.

Thursday morning, members of the local media, Loaves and Fishes community, Sacramento Housing Alliance and the homeless community gathered for a brief press conference at Friendship Park – the heart of the program and community center for the homeless community, providing multiple services for its guests – and discussed the lack of public allocated funding for emergency homeless shelters this winter.

In what is expected to be a cold and wet winter season, many in the homeless community will be turned away from overcrowded shelters due to a lack of space, and funding to provide any more.

Every year until now, the county has provided funding for Winter Shelter, an operation that provides shelter and motel vouchers for homeless families and individuals with disabilities.

In the last few years, funding for this program has been cut significantly, going from $700,000 2008-9 to $451,000 2009-10 and $250,000 2010-11 to $0 in allocated funding for this year, an act which Sacramento Housing Alliance executive director Bob Erlenbusch said he finds “unconscionable.”

The lack of funding is due to a great series of budget cuts, according to Bruce Wagstaff, agency administrator for Sacramento County Countywide Services Agency.

“It’s a similar situation we were in last year,” he said, “funding for lots of programs have been cut.”

According to Wagstaff, no funding was budgeted for the program last year, however, about the same time last year, the Department of Human Assistance staff were able to identify $150,000 for the program, and an additional $100,000 was provided by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

Erin Blount, Communications and Media Officer for First 5 Sacramento, wrote in an email:

The $150,000 funded winter shelter for families, and managed Emergency Shelter Grants that housed another 50 people. More than $3 million for emergency and family shelters serving 367 people. The funding from SHRA provided families and disabled individuals with motel vouchers, and Winter Sanctuary operated through March after Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna raised $45,000 for the program.

“When you have a budget crisis, you do have to make decisions but you don’t close down the emergency room,”said Joan Burke Wednesday, director of advocacy for Loaves and Fishes, “For me, the shelters are the emergency room - a real lifeline for people who are homeless.”

In response to the lack of funding for winter shelter programs last year, Sacramento Steps Forward, a new nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the homeless community, coordinated Winter Sanctuary, a winter shelter program for homeless singles.

The program, which provides shelter for 100 individuals on a nightly basis through a network of community churches, will be administered again this year.

“In other words, there is only a plan for 100 single homeless adults,” Erlenbusch wrote in a letter to Mayor Kevin Johnson, Sacramento City Council members and the Sacramento Board of Supervisors last week.

Winter Sanctuary provides sleeping bags, a roof and a hit meal for 100 individuals a night to sleep in a participating church, and only one church is open for shelter each night. Those who are admitted into Winter Sanctuary go through a screening process for behavioral issues, since the staff is limited, and children are not admitted.

The largest concern that many expressed at the press conference is that if no funding is allocated in 41 days – a week before Thanksgiving when Winter Shelter would normally open – is that women and families with children, or those with disabilities or mental disorders, will not be able to find shelter during the cold of the season, turned away from overcrowded shelters or those that only serve individuals. Staff members at Loaves and Fishes say the number of homeless families is on the rise.

Angela Hassel, director of Mustard Seed School for Homeless Children, a free private school at Loaves and Fishes for children of ages 3 to 15, described the anxiety around the winter months for homeless families at the confrence.

"As the winter months come, we see a little bit of light go out in their eyes," she said. "The kids really just need a roof over their heads whether it be a church or a shelter; they do not need to be sleeping on the streets."

Two women spoke at the press conference of their experiences being homeless with children, and the anxiety that many women in similar situations, may not find shelter this winter.

“Frankly, especially in certain situations, children are the main ones that need the stability,” said Demecia Ferrell. “It’s easier for singles to fend for themselves because they only have to worry about themselves, but families- we have children that we have to worry about and make sure they’re safe because the street’s just not a place for kids at all.”

Ferrell, 31, just recently became homeless in May when she lost her job. Staying in a shelter for four months with her children and fiancé, she said she found refuge through Volunteers of America. Ferrell recently moved into the new E. Claire Raley Transitional Living Complex on Watt Ave..

“We were lucky (and) very fortunate to be able to stay together,” she said. “Being able to have our kids in a shelter was just a great relief for us and there’s a lot less stress that we have to endure and a lot less stress that the kids have to endure. Families should be top priority, at all times.”

Wagstaff said that there is a number of different providers and agencies concerned with providing housing for the homeless, and that the county is currently working to identify any funding for shelters within the DHA budget.

“We’ve been active participants in this every year and we’re well aware of the situation,” he said.

Burton and the women at Loaves and Fishes say that though it’s the County’s responsibility to get shelters prepared for the winter say they will also need help from the community.

“The churches stepped up a lot last year, and all the nonprofits and a lot of community support has been there and we need to get all of those resources again. We need to do it again this year because there is no plan. Fall starts tomorrow and we’ve got 40 days before we usually have a plan in place,” said Sister Libby Fernandez, executive director at Loaves and Fishes.

Ben Burton, new director of Sacramento Steps Forward, said he agrees that funding shouldn’t only come from the government but from the community as well.

“The government is suffering on is its own setbacks. (They) need to do their own part, but so does the community,” he said. “Homelessness is really a community issue and they are all members of our community.”

Burton said the nonprofit organization is currently accepting donations, and will allocate the money raised on a greatest need basis.

Sacramento Steps Forward received a grant from the Sacramento Region Community Foundation recently for the Winter Shelter program and is now reaching out to all members of the community for any help. Donations can be made throughout the winter, he said, though any donations given now will be directed toward the programs that need the most help.

“We want to really ring the bell before it gets cold,” he said.

In a recent survey taken by Loaves and Fishes’ Maryhouse, a daytime hospitality shelter for homeless women and children, 59 percent of the 109 women and 10 children who came in that morning said they slept outside or in a vehicle that night.

This winter, with all other shelters full and the absence of Winter Shelter, only about ten percent of the homeless population will be cared for by the Winter Sanctuary program each night. According to the 2011 Homeless Street Count, with over 2,300 of our citizens homeless, about 995 were unsheltered.

“We just need to tap into everything to at least provide what we know is out there. Any given night, there’s 1,000 homeless men, women and children so we need to think that way and go for it that way. It’s not a matter of funding, it’s a matter of options and providing those options,” Fernandez said.

In a prepared statement from Executive Director La Shelle Dozier at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, "The County is responsible for the winter shelter program and it is working with a number of partners including SHRA who are all looking for any possible funding that could supplement the program. What would really be helpful is for more people to come forward and provide the assistance that is needed to help ensure that residents in need of shelter will be taken care of this winter."

Blount wrote in an email addressing the current fiscal year:

An active partner in homeless programs, the county will continue to seek funding within its budget and to work with its public and private partners and the community to enhance last year’s efforts.

One message was repeated several times throughout the press conference – there is currently no plan for administering Winter Shelter this year, only plans for a second year of Winter Sanctuary, recently funded by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, and the first day of Fall is already on us.

“We’ve got 41 days and counting,” Erlenbusch said.

Sacramento River Parkway signs campaign for more public awareness

2011-09-20T07:38:21Z

Council members and community members alike gathered on the Sacramento River Parkway Friday morning, at the Le Rivage Hotel trail entrance, to celebrate the first in a series of new signs to officially “brand” the parkway.

The completion of the project was heralded by many as the beginning of a campaign to bring more public awareness to the Sacramento River Parkway Plan. First adopted by the city in 1975 and revised in 1997, the plan seeks to extend the trail along the Sacramento River levee in the Pocket area, where it is currently closed to the public.

“It’s a way for people to enjoy our lovely riverfront,” said Councilman Rob Fong.

City Council members Angelique Ashby, Rob Fong and Darrell Fong attended, along with members of Friends of the Sacramento River Greenway and Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates.

“It’s important to raise public awareness of the parkway and that there is a city plan for it,” said Dan Gorfain of Friends of the Sacramento River Greenway.

The Sacramento River Parkway is a 13-mile stretch of trail measured from Discovery Park to the south end of the Pocket, though the last six miles that run through the Pocket area are currently closed to the public.

The Parkway currently is open to the public from Discovery Park, where a connection can be made to the American River Trail, travels south along the Sacramento River, and is cut off once the levee reaches the Pocket area.

The trail then leads out to a network of trails throughout the southern end of the Pocket where the trail can be accessed again at Garcia Bend Park and taken to the end of the Freeport Water Intake Facility.

If access is acquired to all parts of the levee, including those behind riverfront properties in the Pocket, the 13-mile stretch of trail would serve as a commuting corridor for those traveling from one end of the city to the other.

“It’s something we have worked toward for a long time,” said Anne Rudin, former mayor of Sacramento and founder of the Friends of Sacramento River Greenway.

Friends of the Sacramento River Greenway is a volunteer, community-based organization that has been working with city officials to ensure continuous public access to the river and its levee’s since 1991.

“The plan was made decades ago to turn the American River trail at Old Sacramento and follow the Sacramento river to the south,” Rudin described. The organization has been working in collaboration with city officials since bike trails were adopted by the city.

“I think it’s necessary and overdue, “ said Tricia Hedahl, executive director for the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates. “The trail system serves as a highway for bicycles, and that’s the goal - let’s connect our bikeways.”

Though many who would commute along the parkway from the neighborhoods in the south to downtown would most likely do so by bike, the trail is meant for multi-recreational use.

“People found it useful as a commuting corridor. We think it’s important to keep working on it - it belongs to the public and we want them to be able to use it,” she added.

The completion of the Parkway has been long delayed since the beginning of the project due to a lack of funding sources, and a resistance from Parkway trail neighbors.

“One of the reasons why not a lot happens with the implementation of this plan is that the city doesn’t have regular funding for the project,” said J.P. Tindell, park planning and development manager for the Department of Parks and Recreation.

As stated within the 1997 update of the Sacramento River Parkway Plan, residential property owners along the levee are concerned about privacy and security as the parkway is developed further in the Pocket area. Increased trespassing and loss of privacy to trail neighbors is a major concern, and many property owners claim private ownership of the levee.

“You have to have willing sellers if you want to apply for a grant,” Tindell said, “The city has not acquired rights to build a trail or easement through their property.”

Gorfain, who has been working with the city on this project since 1999, said he believes the solution to the property conflict may involve some type of compensation to the property owners. He says that the city may wind up building some type of vegetative screening or fence along the backyards of property owners along the levee for privacy protection.

It seems the plan may be deferred a bit longer in that case, according to Noah Painter, district director for Councilman Darrell Fong.

“The parks department is trying to identify any grant funding as well as having numerous community meetings, but as for right now, the project is at a standstill,” Painter said.

The amount of funding needed to complete the parkway is unknown, though Tindell said it could go into the millions of dollars. The only closed section of trail currently runs behind about 100 houses in the Pocket neighborhood.

Council members Ashby, Darrell Fong and Rob Fong could not be reached for comment regarding the next steps for the project.

“The main thing is to have an open dialogue with property owners,” Gorfain said.

Tindell said that aside from the funding for the signs, no more funding is available right now for the continuation of the project.

Some are still happy with the progress that has been made, however. The Tower Bridge Promenade has been extended to Miller Park, connecting the path to downtown with a spur over Highway 5 at R Street. Le Rivage Hotel, located at 4350 Riverside Blvd, will soon allot a section of their parking lot for a “park-and-ride” feature to the parkway. Several acres of wildlife habitat have been purchased and will be preserved along a bend in the river in the Pocket area.

“This is an example of all parts of the Sacramento government doing something great for the community,” Hedahl said. “We’re creating a community where people can go around with any mode of transportation they choose.”

The $10,500 signage project will place 30 trailhead signs at every public entry to the Parkway and mile markers every half mile for the sections that are currently open to the public.

Though the trails do not currently connect in a continuous stretch along the entire parkway, there is a network of on-road trails that weave throughout the Pocket area for those who wish to commute from the neighborhoods in the South to the central city.

For a map of open trails along the Sacramento River Parkway: Central City Map, Land Park Area Map, Pocket Area Map

Teaching with dirt: City Farm project starts at city college

2011-09-14T02:07:28Z

Sacramento City College students, faculty and staff gathered on campus Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the kickoff of the City Farm pilot project, an experiential curriculum-based community garden that will serve as an alternative teaching mechanism for multiple disciplines throughout the next school year.

The project was developed over the spring semester by a group of students and administrators led by the school’s faculty garden coordinator and graphic communications professor, Robyn Waxman.

“We had been thinking about how to get all these other disciplines to learn from the dirt,” Waxman said, adding that future students will be able to use it for hands-on learning. “It signifies a really big change in how we teach, deal with the budget crisis and how we build community on our campus,” she said.

The garden, located between Lillard Hall and the staff parking lot on the southeast side of campus, is composed of four 12-foot-by-4-foot raised beds, each complete with a drip irrigation system, and was completed over the summer with a $1000 grant from the college foundation. All other materials are donated from advocates such as Soil Born Farms and other small organic farms in Davis.

The kickoff event was met with much support from the college’s students and staff. A group of about 30 audience members, including children and teachers from the school’s child development center, looked on as guest speakers said a few welcoming words over four large, empty raised garden beds.

“We left this space empty so everyone can imagine what could be grown here,” Waxman said.

The garden doesn’t necessarily result in something people have to eat in the end, Waxman explained, “It has a tangible medium to make abstract concepts learned in a four-walled classroom more meaningful - a way of having a classroom that doesn’t need to be in a building.”

Each bed will be implemented into a class curriculum and passed along at the end of each semester. For the fall semester, one bed will be used for a plant biology class, which will grow California native plants, and another for the Child Development Center.

A third bed will be given to the City Farm Club, a student/faculty alliance that will act as the driving force behind the community garden, caring for its own garden bed and helping the children take care of their bed as well.

“We will be the overseers of all the beds; the force behind the scenes,”said Ryan Thalken, president of the City Farm Club.

The club is currently taking new members and is discussing a weekly meeting time for the group. Thalken said he hopes to begin planting for the winter season soon. For more information on the City Farm Club or how to get involved, click here.

Kathryn Jeffery, president of the college, described her enthusiasm for the project as reluctant at first, but added that she sees promise in the small scale project.

“It’s an opportunity to take a concept or an idea, put action behind it and see it grow over time,” Jeffery said.

Jeffery, who explained her father worked as a farmer, said the pilot project will give students at the college and children at the Child Development Center a chance to become more personally involved and more engaged in their learning environment.

Loretta Bruce, lead teacher at the Child Development Center, said she has already discussed with the children vegetables they would like to grow, which include tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce and cauliflower. The center still needs children’s hand tools and watering cans, she said.

“I think the earlier the kids realize they can grow this food, it’ll help them grow into a healthier lifestyle,” Bruce added.

The opening ceremony was not completed without Jeffery’s well-wishes: “Go forth and dig!” - That was followed by a ceremonial turning of the soil by the children of the center themselves.

“In honor of all those who till the soil, we do this today,” Jeffery concluded.

At the end of each semester, the beds will be passed onto the next semester’s classes to build upon and grow successively.

“It’s hard to imagine that a garden will be used as a place for anything other than growing food, but it can,” Waxman said, adding that it’s going to take a little time for people to see the abstract use of the garden, though other Los Rios colleges are already interested.

Administrators will look back on the project near the end of the school year to make further decisions on whether or not the project will continue or expand.

For more information on how to get involved with the City Farm pilot project, or the multiple disciplines it will serve, click here.

Website provides accessible commute alternatives for employees

2011-09-08T03:31:50Z

As the central hub of economic and cultural activity for the six-county metropolitan area, it’s no surprise that Sacramento doesn’t meet the region’s air quality goals with the overwhelming amount of traffic on its streets and freeways every day.

In an effort to improve traffic conditions, mobility and air quality in the metropolis, 13 nonprofit local transportation management entities provide commuters with affordable solutions through the Sacramento Region Commuter Club.

The Commuter Club is an online database through which registered employers and commuters living or working within the six-county region can find information for alternative transportation to and from the workplace.

Each transportation management entity is partially funded through grants from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), an association of local governments in the six-county region which spans the counties of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba including 22 cities. SACOG itself is funded by the Federal Congestion Mitigation Air Quality improvement program. For a map of the SACOG area, click here.

“Parking is expensive. We want to reduce the number of cars coming into the downtown area,” said Marilyn Bryant, executive director for the Sacramento Transportation Management Association (TMA).

The club is currently host to 14,134 registered members and 1,111 registered employers which are divided amongst the thirteen nonprofit transportation management entities.

Members are provided with a number of benefits, including access to a commuter database through which they receive webpages of information on commute alternatives, potential carpool partners, bicycle commute help, and public transit schedules. Members may also participate in weekly drawings when they log their commutes in their commuter diaries, but the largest incentive for some is having access to the Emergency Ride Home Program.

“One of the things that prevents people from using alternative or public transit is – what if there’s an emergency?” said Sarah Janus, program coordinator for the North Natomas TMA.

The Emergency Ride Home Program provides commuters with the opportunity to download a voucher from the membership website that pays for a rental car or taxi if they didn’t ride alone to work that day and have an emergency or unscheduled overtime without access to a car or way home from work.

The member logs onto their commuter club account and (if their employer is a member of the transportation management entity) can download a voucher at their work. Once the voucher is used, the car rental or taxi company bills the TMA directly.

Each member is entitled to up to six vouchers per year, which “is normally more than enough than what most folks need,” said A.J. Tendick, public information coordinator for SACOG.

The program is available in large part to members whose employers are registered with the commuter club and pay an annual membership fee to cover the cost of transportation vouchers. The cost of the vouchers is dependent on the number of miles traveled, for example, the cost of a voucher from Sacramento to Davis is around $45.

The member will take a taxi through Yellow Cab Co. of Sacramento for trips up to 20 miles, which includes a 10 percent gratuity. Commuters travelling 20 miles or more may use the voucher for Enterprise RentaCar and is responsible for returning the car within 24 hours.

The only TMA that doesn’t require members to pay a fee for access to the program is the North Natomas TMA.

At a time when the economy makes it difficult for members to pay those fees, it’s important that we find a way to make these programs accessible, Janus said.

The loss of revenue from the exclusion of membership fees is generated through property taxes, she added.

The Commuter Club began through the 50 Corridor TMA in 2001, though the TMA has been functioning since 1993. Currently host to more than 130 members of developers, residents and government, the 50 Corridor TMA seeks to create a community of residents and employers along the Highway 50 corridor, providing traffic updates and construction details.

“Our TMA staff was spending a lot of time driving along Highway 50 trying to keep in touch with our employers and commuters,” said Rebecca Garrison, executive director for the TMA. “It made sense that if a website could tie us all together along the corridor for a month, it could provide a platform for our ever-increasing demand to work with commuters on a day-to-day basis.”

Once the 50 Corridor TMA set up the commuter club, SACOG and the other TMA’s across the region became involved three years later in 2006.

“We all kind of partnered together through SACOG which brought (the commuter club) to us regionally,” Janus said.

The Sacramento TMA has about 60 state departments in membership alone. No commitment is required on part of the employers, except for the annual fee, which is different for each TMA in the partnership, and the benefits are free for anyone interested in being a member.

"It’s a TMA-by-TMA decision," Tendick said.

The fee may depend on the square footage of the property itself, the residential base and employer base, or the number of employees each registered employer is covering through their fees. for example, the Air Quality Management District has about 100 employees in total, and pays a membership fee of about $1000 each year.

“We have one of the highest percentages of members – over 70 percent of our employees use alternative modes of transportation,” said Rachel Dubose, air quality planner and analyst for the Air Quality Management District. Dubose is also the commute coordinator for the AQMD. Each business registered with a TMA has an in-house commute coordinator to help employees find alternative ways to get to work, conduct surveys, attend TMA meetings and distribute new information to employees.

The AQMD also offers its employees an extra incentive of a $5 subsidy each day they get to work without using a car.

“For some people, it’s just a nice ‘thank you’ kind of thing,” she added. “A lot of employees take advantage of the program, and they save a lot of money in the long run.”

Anyone can register to be a member of the commuter club, and which TMA they associate with depends on their residence and place of work.

“I don’t know if it’s more important now or earlier on,” Garrison said. “It has always been an efficient way to deliver services and information to a large geographical area.”

“Traffic congestion and air quality has improved in downtown because less people have been driving to work,” Bryant said.

Both Garrison and Bryant said they will be revamping their websites soon. A new prize component will be added for the 50 Corridor TMA.

To become a member of the commuter club, one must provide information including home address, worksite and employer, main commute corridor and mode of transportation as well as total mileage in a day’s commute. The database then works to find matches for possible commute alternatives including vanpool/carpool and other cycling or public transit options.

“It’s amazing what people can do with all of the information at their fingertips,” Janus said.

We’re in the air district, and we’re tasked with keeping up the air quality – the best way is to reduce the vehicle miles traveled, Dubose added.

For more information on the Commuter Club and which transportation management association serves your area, click here.

City chicken ordinance passed by City Council

2011-08-31T07:23:36Z

The City Council passed the backyard hen-keeping ordinance after nearly two years of discussion in an 8-0 vote Tuesday night.

The ordinance, set to take effect November 1, will allow people within city limits to keep up to three hens in their backyard as long as the enclosure is 20 feet away from the nearest neighboring residence, and a license fee of $10 per household and permit fee of $15 per chicken is paid annually.

To read the ordinance, click here.

After 18 members of the community spoke in support of the council adopting the ordinance, and two in opposition, all members of the council voted in favor of adopting the ordinance except one, councilman Darrell Fong, who was not present at the meeting due to a family vacation.

Councilwomen Angelique Ashby, Sandy Sheedy and Bonnie Pannell said that they still have concerns about passing the ordinance, but that they will pass it, holding their caution, and check back in six months.

“I am willing to give it a chance; I’m willing to make sure that we have a report back so that we know it’s working or that it isn’t working, and we can make a final decision at that time,” Sheedy said.

Ashby said her concern was around the question of enforcement, which Reina Schwartz, director for the Department of Animal Care Services, said will be based on complaints by neighbors.

“We either need to do some education, or we need to make sure that the ordinance can be enforced, because we have a quality-of-life issue here on both sides. I want to give people that opportunity,” Ashby said, “but I don’t want that decision to have a negative impact on the quality of life for people who don’t want to have chickens in their backyard.”

Kenneth Caldwell, a resident of Land Park, was one of the few who spoke up in opposition to the ordinance, stating findings from research he conducted on the possible problems that could come from raising chickens in the city. One reason he gave was that chickens could be carriers for a number of diseases, including Avian Influenza and Coccidia.

“Coccidia is a parasite that chickens can contract and can be tracked through their feces,” he said, “The ordinance only indicates that it has to be contained where it can’t smell, and gotten rid of in some appropriate manner,” which he said will end up in our garbage cans, our streets, and then our water.”

Charles Luce, a chemist with a background in antibiotic research who has spoken up in the past in opposition to the ordinance, said, “Hong Kong has a ban- the reason is that they are afraid for the disease to be mutated and translated easily.” If it is, he added, it would be the worst epidemic ever.

“(This disease) has been circulating in Asia since 2003,” said Dr. Glenna Trochet, the county’s Public Health Officer. “It is very deadly, but the likelihood that chickens who are covered is low, and they would need to be exposed to the feces of wild birds.”

Experts she has consulted with multiple times on the topic also added that if the virus were to become transmissible between human beings, it would be brought to the United States by the people.

Many who spoke were for the passing of the ordinance, and multiple representatives of CLUCK (Campaign for the Legalization of Chicken Keeping) spoke at the meeting on the environmental benefits of raising chickens, as well as the sustainability practices it promotes through the education behind where one’s food comes from.

“Yolks from fresh eggs are more nutritious and less expensive in these difficult economic times,” said Joe Calavita, a member of CLUCK. “Chickens can live on one bag of feed and landowners have gardens- you can use that for organic manure. Chickens also eat bugs which eliminates the need for pesticides.”

Councilman Steve Cohn, who has been working with advocacy groups like CLUCK for the last two years, commended everyone who spoke on either side of the issue, and thanked the supporters of the ordinance for their patience.

“I’m glad that we’re finally here,” he said, commenting on the long haul everyone on the council went through to get the ordinance passed, “it’s certainly consistent with the city’s sustainability plan.”

21st Annual Chalk-It-Up! at Fremont Park

2011-08-30T06:45:25Z

This Labor Day weekend, people may be encouraged to walk on the grass for once as the walkways through and around Fremont Park will be transformed into a giant canvas of local art as Sacramento welcomes its 21st Annual Chalk-It-Up! art festival.

Nearly 200 artists, sponsored by local businesses, will spend three days on their hands and knees creating temporary chalk masterpieces that will remain for exhibition throughout the month of September.

Chalk-It-Up is a nonprofit organization that raises money every year through the festival to sponsor ongoing grants programs and scholarships for youth art programs throughout the Sacramento region.

“It benefits art programs in schools that, in our economic times, have been underfunded and discontinued,” said David Saalsaa, manager of University Art, the business that has sponsored the event for 15 years, providing both 12- and 24-color chalk pastel sets to all participating artists.

Up to 200 boxes of pastel sets will be donated this year.

“This is one of Sacramento’s favorite festivals. There will be art and music – everything you want in a three-day weekend,” said Alan Dismuke, board president and artist coordinator for the festival.

To accompany the free art walk, Jerry Perry Presents put together a lineup of about 30 live bands and local musicians over the three-day weekend, from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. every day, including Kepi Ghoulie and Adrian Bourgeois on Saturday, Musical Charis and Zuhg on Sunday and Walking Spanish and Deer Park Ave on Monday. For the complete performer lineup, click here.

An array of gourmet food trucks, vendors and restaurants will be present, including Blackbird Kitchen & Bar, Wicked ’Wich, Tuli Bistro, Mama Kim Cooks, and many more, as well as a number of craft vendors, including Sugar Skull Art – Mexican sugar folk art which plays an important part in Dia De Los Muertos through which art involving non-edible skulls is made from a mold of a pure sugar mixture, Fab Faces Face Painting and J27 Gallery which will feature an assorted mix of arts from local painters, jewelry artists, sculptors, metal smiths and more.

The Kids’ Creative Zone will host an abundance of activities led by the Sacramento Public Library and the Crocker Art Museum. Kids can participate in hands-on activities such as visual arts, music, dance, crafts, digital photography and digital media arts.

All kids’ activities will be led by local musicians, artists and dance groups such as the Zuhg Life Store which supports and sells music from local artists, Capitol Roots Studio and Productions and many others. Zuhg will also be performing live onstage during the festival, and all performances during the festival will be free to the public.

For adults, wine will be added to the beer garden, served alongside Stella Artois, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Shock Top Belgian White. Bistro Michel will also be selling its very own Sangria.

“There’s really something for everyone,” Dismuke said.

This year’s festival will also provide the first water events station that will dispense tap water near the stage, and will be selling reusable environmental friendly water bottles provided by CADA (Capitol Area Development Authority), which promotes mixed income sustainable development near light rail systems in Sacramento and NDS (New Direction Services) Solutions, a printing manufacturer.

There will be a People’s Choice Award announced late in the afternoon on Monday. Three top artists will be chosen from a community vote. First-, second- and third-place winners will be awarded gift cards to University Art.

Last year’s first-place winner, Derreck Johnson, will be returning this year and will be creating a portrait-style piece sponsored by University Art.

Each artist has up to three days to finish their piece, and at any point during the festival when they are finished, they are to turn in their registration form to the registration tent, and a volunteer photographer will take a photo of the piece in its freshest form.

Johnson described the difficulty he had last year behind creating a double square 2’ x 4’ chalk pastel piece of artwork, describing the smoothness of the surface of the ground to be a factor for how well the chalk may stick to the concrete.

“On the second day, people had already tracked dirt over it,” Johnson said of last year’s piece, which he had done strictly with dry chalk pastels. He also added that last year, he ran out of the chalk pastels provided, being that he did a piece on two squares of the sidewalk and had to buy some more materials. This time, he said, he will come prepared with more.

Though he said the new image is still in the works, he and Karissa McHurd, who had worked on the piece with him at last year’s Chalk-It-Up, will try something new this time around.

He said his strategy this year will change a bit, describing certain techniques such as combining chalk pastel and water to form a more semi-permanent piece or spraying the cement first before laying the chalk down which lessens the difficulty of keeping the colors from being wiped away or blended together.

“There’s a lot of good people there. Hopefully our strategy will be a bit better. Between the two of us, I think we can do something really cool,” he said.

Chalk-It-Up! Sacramento is free and open to the public, and is still accepting artists for registration. Each sidewalk square is $150, $250 for a double square, and comes with a 24-piece chalk pastel set, though community participants may purchase a square inside the park for $10, which will include a 12-piece chalk pastel set.

“It’s a well-attended event that really brings the community together,” said Saalsaa, who added that he will be attending the event with his family.

There are about 170 artists currently on the tab for this year, and others may be able to sign up the first day of the festival. All artists are encouraged to recycle any unused chalk, Dismuke said, and any unused chalk will be stored and kept until next year’s festival to be reused.

The pieces are left on the sidewalks throughout the month of September, and by October, what is left of the chalk art pieces after exposure to the elements is washed away, leaving the canvas clean for a new group of artists to paint next year.

For more information on the annual festival, click here.

Free paint provides a green service to the community

2011-08-29T06:02:35Z

“Part of being green is dealing with the mess we’ve already made,” said Brittney Dastmalchi, project coordinator and founder of The Paint Co-Op Project, a small business that gives out a variety of green recycled materials every day that are acquired from foreclosure sites around California.

“This is the first time in our economy that something like this has needed to exist – people don’t realize how many foreclosures are sitting on the market,” she said.

The Paint Co-Op was born out of a Sacramento-based company called Nationwide Secure in an effort to recycle reusable full or partially used materials that could be hazardous to the environment if improperly disposed of.

Nationwide Secure is contracted by numerous respective banks to extract the hazardous materials left behind by tenants at foreclosure sites. First a “trash out” crew enters the home and hauls away what’s left in a foreclosed house, leaving behind any hazardous materials.

“Once the “trash-out” is done, we are called in to pick up the hazardous materials,” Dastmalchi said.

A crew from Nationwide Secure is then contracted by the bank to extract any remaining hazardous materials where they are brought back to The Paint Co-Op, sorted through by a team of certified HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response) employees, where they are then dealt with by other waste disposal companies, or given away free to the community from the co-op’s warehouse.

“We are very mindful of what goes in the trash. We do our best to be a zero-landfill company,” Dastmalchi said.

These materials include any household cleaners such as bleach, ammonia, hand soaps, gardening products such as fertilizer, insecticides, and weed killer, automotive products like waxes, coolants and a wide variety of paints, latexes, enamels and other products. Everything given away has to have its original label and safety warning.

“A lot of people do look at it and just see chemical paints and toxic chemicals – we give away things that would otherwise go to a landfill and be improperly disposed of. The safest place for them to be is used,” Dastmalchi said.

“We deal with household hazardous waste because many people don’t realize that you can’t just throw this stuff away.”

She first began the project out of a one-car garage when she would accompany her father, who worked for Nationwide, to “trash-outs”, giving away the partially used or full materials off of Craigslist. When she saw there was a higher demand for the services, she and her significant other set up the small business that led to a warehouse first in West Sacramento and then on North 16th Street, where they have been for about a year now.

Nationwide Secure covers about 350 houses a week, Dastmalchi said, and services all of California. It is certified by CUPA (Certified Unified Program Agencies), a regulatory arm of the Environmental Management Department.

Additionally, each employee at the co-op has gone through a 50-hour HAZWOPER course, designed to train any individual with safety regulations pertaining to the handling and care of hazardous materials and the proper emergency precautions in case any materials are stored improperly.

“It teaches you what can go together and what can’t,” said Joe Delgado, a hazmat delivery service driver and clean-up operative for the co-op. Delgado said he averages about 50-70 jobs over two weeks.

Delgado said it’s his responsibility to know what chemicals can sit together in a box. Even chemicals in different containers must be kept a distance away from each other.

“For example, you can’t have bleach and ammonia in the same box, because it can make a deadly combination,” he said, “And if I don’t know what it is, it’s going to go in a five-gallon bucket by itself.”

Delgado has been working for the co-op since it was based out of West Sacramento.

“I thought it was a pretty cool thing, he said, “Most people can’t find a place to get rid of hazardous materials.”

“You can get rid of these materials without dumping them in the river or an alleyway,” Dastmalchi said, adding that in her neighborhood in Oak Park, it’s done that way too often.

With up to 350 houses done a week, the co-op gets new materials in every day, and the entire stock rotates once a week, Dastmalchi said. “The No. 1 surplus item is paint. There is no limit on how much one can take or how often they can stop by.”

“If you can fit 10 pallets of paint in your car, you can have it,” she said. “The more we can give away, the more we can get to give away.”

Customers for the co-op include first-time homeowners, local artists and many involved in school and art programs. The co-op has also seen customers that have driven from San Francisco, San Jose and Redding to reap the benefits of the service.

“When I first started, I wanted to hit the lower-income demographic. It eases their costs and helps an already downturned economy,” Dastmalchi said.

Joey Jimenez, a local artist, said he has been to the co-op several times and has recommended it to many others as well.

“You can go down there and find a lot of different kinds of paint, enamels, and spray paints,” he said, “though I wish they got more spray paint in more often.”

Dastmalchi said she wants there to be a greater awareness for the proper disposal of hazardous materials since currently there is a general lack of resources available to the public.

“With the paint, they don’t tell you how to get rid of it, they tell you how not to,” Dastmalchi added.

In addition to the free giveaway service it provides, the co-op also accepts broken appliances and recycles e-waste for free.

“We do our best to spread the wealth around, being that we have the luxury to do so,” Dastmalchi said. “We’re creating some good out of a bad situation; that’s really what this place is – damage control.”

She said the co-op would like to reach nonprofit status and get backing from state agencies, though it seems that could be a long way off.

The Paint Co-Op Project is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To visit its Facebook page for more information, click here.

Urban farming could nest with city chicken ordinance

2011-08-26T05:47:15Z

The City Council has brought back to the table an ordinance that would allow Sacramento residents to keep chickens in backyards in the city.

The ordinance has been set aside since February’s Law and Legislation Committee meeting for drafting and was passed for publication at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

This means that the drafted document for the ordinance is available to the public for viewing from either the city’s website or in person from City Hall.

The ordinance would only allow for hens to be kept in residents’ backyards so long as they are confined in a pen, coop, cage or other type of enclosure at all times and the enclosures are maintained at a distance of 20 feet from a neighboring house.

Neither roosters nor the slaughtering of the hens are to be a part of the equation.

If passed by the council at next Tuesday’s meeting, the ordinance will allow residents in the city to raise up to three hens in their backyard under a permit that must be renewed annually.

“This is something a lot of progressive cities are doing, and it fits in with our overall goals of sustainability and healthier food access,” said Councilman Steve Cohn.

Cohn said he has been pushing for the ordinance to be adopted since last year along with an advocacy group called CLUCK, the Campaign for the Legalization of Urban Chicken Keeping.

“It just makes sense,” said Susan Ballew, a representative of CLUCK. “People want to have more control over their food source. Having fresh eggs from your chickens is an extension of that,” she added.

“They’re not just for eggs,” said Joe Calavita, another member of CLUCK, “They’re pets, too. It’s very nice to have that contact with the animal.”

Previous concerns have included the amount of money and manpower the Department of Animal Care Services has that will be needed to enforce the regulations. The ordinance states that the enforcement will be based on complaints only, and an annual license fee of $10 per chicken and a $15 permit fee per household will be charged to help cover the estimated cost of staff.

Another concern was the possibility of a surge of urban chicken farming bringing the avian influenza to the city, a virus most commonly found in birds.

Tim Carpenter, a professor at UC Davis in the Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance, said that there is a possibility, but the probability of this virus in the United States is incredibly low.

“The only time we’ve seen humans being infected by avian flu was in Asia, but they’ve got a different strain we haven’t seen over here,” he said, adding that he sees no reason for concern in the near future.

“Some people think it’s not something you should have in the city,” Calavita said.

“It’s like any other animal you take into your household – there’s a lot of responsibility,” Ballew said.

“Any handling with animals is potentially harmful,” Carpenter said, “but if people wash their hands regularly, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Other concerns have been voiced over possible noise disruptions from the chickens, though many that are for the ordinance to be passed say that the noise level couldn’t compare to noise disruptions from other animals in the neighborhoods.

Taking into account these noise disruptions, many still say the noise level from a three-hen limit can hardly compare to the noise level from the seven-cat-or-dog limit that is allowed now.

It’s a bit short-sighted, given that chickens cluck quietly when you have a neighbor with dogs that bark incessantly, and having them enclosed at all times is very conservative, Calavita added.

Ballew said that CLUCK views the three-chicken limit as a compromise, adding that a big burden will be lifted from those who already have chickens.

“We don’t want something where it’s sent back for more changes,” Calavita said, “whether it’s three or five chickens, I’m happy.”

“Maybe regulations will have to be reviewed over time,” Cohn said. “We are willing to listen to people on all sides to come up with the best parameters.”

Cohn said he thinks the ordinance will pass, with some debate over the precise regulations.

“If more people can have that experience with the connection of where their food comes from, we’re better off as people,” Calavita said.

The public is encouraged to review the proposed ordinance and is welcome to comment at the City Council meeting on Tuesday.

To view the ordinance, click here.

Collaboration between businesses turns used cooking oil into biofuel

2011-08-20T01:08:41Z

The first time Steve Bash put fuel made from vegetable oil in a truck, he was surprised to see that the truck started right up, the motor ran quietly and the smell of french fries permeated the air. The revelation that a diesel engine can run on vegetable oil-based fuel was a revelation which led Bash in a whole new direction.

From that point Bash spent the next ten years establishing and building the Sacramento Biofuels Network (SBN)-- an organization that provides local access to commercial quality biodiesel.

The SBN was formed-out of a group of individuals who wanted to make access to ASTM quality fuel that’s third party tested and reassured, more local, Bash said.

More recently, Bash created the Cooking Oil Recycling Campaign (CORC), where restaurants work together with biofuel companies and the SBN to recycle the mass amounts of cooking oil restaurants dispose of.

Bash said the idea of the recycling campaign came after he saw that local restaurants have been shipping used cooking oil to other cities.

“I realized that if all of this cooking oil from our town gets shipped to other cities and other countries, there’s not going to be any feedstock for our local biofuels,” he said.

Biofuel is a renewable fuel substance that combines any type of vegetable oil with alcohol and a catalyst, like lye, which separates the molecules in the oil, producing a thinner substance.

Any vehicle that has a diesel engine can run on biofuel, Bash said, without anything additional needed in the engine.

The recycling campaign works with local restaurants who agree to recycle their used cooking oil for the production of biofuels instead of cattlefeed, Bash said.

There are currently about 15 restaurants participating in the campaign, including Mulvaney’s B&L and Crocker Cafe-- its sister restaurant, The Kitchen, Kupros Bistro, the Mini Burger Truck and The Eatery--a newly opened restaurant in West Sacramento.

Justin Cherman, catering chef for Mulvaney’s Culinary Specialists, said the restaurant joined the campaign because “we’re a green company,” he said, “everything we do we try to be as sustainable as possible, and so by recycling our oil, which we hadn’t been doing previously, we felt that we could not only contribute to reducing fossil fuels but also have a more appropriate way to dispose of our oil.”

Mulvaney’s has been participating in the recycling campaign for about three months and were one of the first to join.

Both the Mini Burger Truck and Kupros Bistro just started the campaign last month, but feedback from each said that the amount of commitment on the restaurant’s part is very minimal.

“It’s very simple on our part,” said Davin Vculek, owner of the Mini Burger Truck.

“From an operational standpoint, there’s no difference,” said Matthew Robinson, head chef at Kupros Bistro. “They’re doing everything local, which is what I’m trying to do here at the restaurant,” he added.

Both restaurants have two 50-gallon oil drums which are equipped with filters on the top.

The only thing asked of the restaurants is that they “contribute just the used cooking oil- no water, food contaminants, outside wastes, cleaning solutions and no trap grease. And it’s important that they not overuse it, and as long as it’s not burnt,” Bash said.

How It Works

The most local biofuel production companies are in the Bay Area, Mendocino County, and Western Nevada; there are none currently in the Sacramento area. These companies collaborate with Bash to pick up drums of used cooking oil from the restaurants about once a month, and use the oil to make renewable biodiesel. The SBN then buys the biodiesel back from the companies in bulk, and a number of supply site hosts around Sacramento distribute the local B-100 biodiesel to network members.

“Typically what we see at the gas stations now is B-5: 5 percent biodiesel, 95 percent petro-diesel,” Bash explained, “ People in our network want to support the movement a little stronger than 5 percent.”

The biofuel provided to the SBN is not made completely of the oil provided to the production companies because there are not currently enough restaurants on board to provide the used oil to them, Bash said, though he also said he is hopeful to see that change in the future.

“That would probably be the next evolution,” he said,” Our actual goal is to get enough restaurants (on board) so we can at least provide SBN with the feedstock needed to make that biodiesel.”

Individuals in the network can become hosts of supply sites, or can just join a supply site -- where the finished biofuel product is delivered to-- from which they will “purchase” the commercial grade biofuel. Each supply site has members who pay a fee, and collectively pay for the delivery.

The system of biofuel dispensing is what Bash calls “post-retail distribution” in which the fuel is distributed among the supply site members after it is purchased from the production companies, and only members of the SBN can purchase it from the supply sites. Bash said that he is paid for the biofuel to be delivered to the supply sites, not for the biofuel itself.

The production companies bill me directly, he added, “We don’t mark up the fuel and we don’t make a profit.”

Obadiah Bartholomy, host of one of the supply sites, joined the SBN because he was having difficulty finding biodiesel in Sacramento. Members of the SBN can host a supply site at their house, or at their business.

After meeting Bash, Bartholomy purchased a 300-gallon tank, pump, meter, filter, and hose and started collecting members about eight years ago. He has had up to 10 buyers and as few as four at times.

“I felt it was as important to contribute what I could.” he said, “It limits the environmental impact, it’s biodegradable and it has a very low ignition point.”

The biofuel is sold at the cost it is purchased at-- about $4.32 per gallon. Bash said the price fluctuates with the petroleum supply and though it is not much cheaper than the price of petro-gasoline, it’s cleaner.

Bash compared the use of the biodiesel instead of petroleum as organic produce to conventional produce. You don’t save much, but it’s better for you and the environment, he added.

Bash said people can become SBN members by contacting him and he will locate the nearest supply site. An agreement is signed by both parties - ensuring that the supply site does not receive profit and the buyer is aware of the risks of of biodiesel.

“We know it’s not toxic like petroleum, but we treat it like it’s flammable like petroleum,” Bash said.

Each membership fee is independent to the supply site the buyer joins. Bartholomy’s host site, for example, has a one-time membership fee of $25.

Though the Cooking Oil Recycling Campaign is geared primarily toward restaurants, residents may donate their used cooking oil as well.

Since the CORC is still building its foundation, Bash said, individuals may contact him to set up a drop-off time and place. For quantities of 15 gallons or more, a pick-up may be arranged.

“We are providing the collection services absolutely free as long as they comply with the recycling standards,” said Bash.

Bash said he hopes to start working with farmers in the future to integrate non-food based vegetable oil into what they are currently doing.

“We are trying to get grapeseeds from the grape growers --we’ll make the oil ourselves and we’ll provide the oil to the biofuel producers,” he said.

For more information on the Sacramento Biofuels Network and how to become a member or a supply site host, visit the website.

For more information on the Cooking Oil Recycling Campaign, click here.

Man on the Street: Recession or Depression?

2011-08-17T02:47:47Z

We’ve all felt the pangs of Sacramento’s economic downturn, from some people losing jobs to others finding it more difficult every day to get one, and the more unfortunate circumstance of many even losing their businesses or homes. But how much longer is it expected to last, and is this the worst of it?

The Sacramento Press asked people in Capitol Park their thoughts on whether Sacramento is in a recession or a depression.

Capitol area resident, 55-year-old Diana Williams, program technician for the Department of Health, said she sees both:

“The reason for it is that I’ve been on the service (for the State) a little while, and I’ve experienced difficulties in politics where it’s influenced, as a state worker, our income, our self-worth. Not only just a state worker just being as a neighbor, listening to other people, the negativity that’s going on in California, people not handling the books right and what have you,” Williams said.

“I think we’re in a recession because you can see it around you. Starting with income – we don’t have the money to take care of business anymore – people are losing homes ... It started with businesses – when they started closing. When we (saw) that, then it started affecting our homes. It’s a recession, and we’re depressed because we can’t enjoy what we worked for.”

Lindsay Landis, a 30-year-old dental hygienist who lives in El Dorado Hills, attributed the problem to the city’s job market.

“So I’m not an economist, but I’d say Sacramento is definitely recessed and close to depressed,” she said. “

I think jobs are tough. The job market’s tough. I think people are definitely feeling stretched, and it’s a tough economy.”

Stockton resident Mike Ellis, a 28-year-old state worker in the Secretary of State’s office, had a similar view:

“I would say recession. (Employment) rates are low. I wouldn’t say depression, I mean, people are still getting jobs, but it’s just not as frequent as people would like – how they used to be.”

“With all the restaurants here closing daily, I think we’re definitely in a recession,” said 58-year-old Robert Gonzalez of Loomis.

“You see a lot of businesses that are just going under, and you see the people staying inside bringing their lunches to work, and these restaurants are just going by the wayside,” he said.

Gonzalez, a contractor for the Employment Development Department, said that local businesses are one of the many who are affected by the economic downturn the most.

“And that’s just a small microcosm of what’s happening around here, but I think it’s a good indicator, so, that’s my answer to that,” he added.

Bianca Aguilar, a 22-year-old student from Midtown, said she would call it a recession “because I feel like some businesses are thriving while others have gone down or even have gone out of business because of the economic state we’re in.”

Natomas resident Monique Tovar, 24, an accountant for Dome Printing, also went with recession:

“I feel as though we’re likely more to recover from this as long as we’re able to get people to stop buying things they can’t afford and if the state can come up with a budget, so I believe we’re in a recession.”

Laolee Xiong, 29-year-old pocket area resident and training coordinator for the California Department of Finance, said, “It depends on how you define it. I think that it’s in a depression. It’s not really going backwards, I think it’s just kind of stagnated from what it used to be. But it’s not really going backwards in my personal opinion.”

What do you think, is Sacramento in a recession or a depression? Tell us in the comment section below.

First Annual Hempfest Sacramento

2011-08-16T03:40:03Z

Medical marijuana awareness will reach its peak in Sacramento and Sutter counties this weekend as the Freedom Entertainment Group presents the inaugural Hempfest Sacramento.

The purpose of the event is to “promote awareness and to educate the uneducated on the purposes and benefits of cannabis,” said Kristina Wheeler, event organizer for the festival.

The three-day festival will take place at the Rio Ramaza Marina, RV & Event Park in south Sutter County. The 14-acre marina is complete with an outside dance floor, misting fans and plenty of shade and is known for hosting zydeco music, pirate festivals and Louisiana-style food-and-music-themed events.

The location also offers a two-night-stay campsite for those who wish to camp along the river. The campsite has 75 tent spaces at $30 per night, and each campsite can only accommodate one vehicle.

Wheeler said that she and the other organizers chose the location because of the atmosphere of the marina and the added perk of being right next to the Sacramento River.

Susan Ramon, event coordinator for the marina, said that she didn’t give Hempfest organizers an answer at first.

“I had to kind of check into it,” the 63-year old said. “This is from a person who had no knowledge at all on the subject. I couldn’t make an informed decision.”

After researching information about medical marijuana and the success of past festivals held in other counties, she agreed to hold the festival on the marina’s grounds.

“We wanted to do something fun and educational,” Wheeler said, speaking for the Freedom Entertainment Group. The group organizes large events for clients, but conceived this one on its own, Wheeler said.

Tickets are $20 a day, or $40 for the full weekend. They will be $25 a day or $50 for the weekend if bought at the gate.Attendees can buy the tickets early online or from specified locations on the website.

The festival will host to about 50 vendors, including medical marijuana dispensaries, food and beverages, massage booths, clothing and hemp products, as well as about 13 performers throughout the weekend, including Warren G., Flesh-N-Bone from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Ditch, Normal Bean Band, Selekta Lou, several DJs and others.

Beer and wine will be sold at the festival in a designated area.

Highlights of the weekend will include a 215 Medication Zone – a separate smoking section only open to those who have a cannabis card, a VIP after party open to cannabis card holders, informational booths on the legal protocol behind the medicinal uses of marijuana and growing it at home, as well as cooking demonstrations for alternative methods of self-medicating.

“Some cancer patients can’t smoke or take pills,” Ramon said, “but what a wonderful thing when someone can suck on a lollipop and get a little relief.”

Each day will begin at 11 a.m. and end at 8 p.m. unless attendees have a special wristband. A cannabis card is required to enter the VIP after party. VIP tickets will be on sale at the festival for $50.

For those who don’t have a cannabis card, there will be clinics and doctors available to issue on-site cannabis cards.

Wheeler said that there will be no sales of cannabis or edibles at the event, but those with verified cannabis cards will be allowed to bring their own medicinals as long as they stay in the designated 215 area.

1 Love Wellness Center – one of the many dispensaries attending the event – will be handing out pamphlets concerning the medicinal benefits of cannabis, the kinds of ailments cannabis targets, and informational materials on how to apply for a cannabis card.

“Socially, it’s becoming more accepted, but there are people who are still skeptical, and we hope to be able to inform them. This event will be more educational than anything,” said Ryan Chua, marketing manager for the 1 Love Wellness Center.

“I think some people will be enlightened, and some will be outraged,” Ramon said. What’s most important for the festival, she added, is the containment, legality and accountability.

“We are taking every measure to ensure safety,” Wheeler said, adding that there will be security at the event, though only as a precaution.

Wheeler said they are expecting about 10,000 attendees for the weekend.

Though many are expected, traffic is the only potential problem Ramon said she anticipates. Shuttles will be running up and down Garden Highway, she said, from the nearest hotel to the festival, to eliminate much of the traffic in the area.

The biggest hope for the festival, Wheeler said, “I hope it brings the community together and that people against it get that knowledge before they judge it."

For more information on the inaugural Hempfest Sacramento, visit the website.

"Beautiful Youth" to premiere at Sacramento Film & Music Festival

2011-08-15T19:19:04Z

The Sacramento Film & Music Festival will be hosting the premiere of Jennifer Lystrup’s film “Beautiful Youth,” a documentary that highlights the issue of youth homelessness in Sacramento, to the public. The documentary sheds light on 10 homeless youths and tells their stories in their own voices.

The 47-minute film will be shown at the Crest Theatre at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

“I’m so happy to even have this opportunity,” Lystrup said, “It’d be really nice if people from the local city government show up because this is an issue that needs to be addressed.”

In a previous Sacramento Press article on the documentary, Lystrup said she had hoped to get a public screening for the film in the future, though no date had been arranged.

Tony Sheppard, one of the directors for the festival, said that they decided to keep a programming slot open for the festival in case something came along at the last minute, and he was “pondering that time slot when I saw that article.”

Sheppard also said that they have the opportunity to show the film twice if the public reception calls for it.

“If it seems there’s some buzz around it, we’ll show it a second time that night,” Sheppard said. The second screening would be at 8 p.m.

“I hope a lot of people show up to it and listen to the voices of the young people,” she said.

Lystrup will be available after the screening to talk about her experience in the making of the film. Sonny Iverson from Wind Youth Services, who helped with the outreach in the film, will be attending the screening also, along with Raven Hoopes and Michelle Lopez from Harm Reduction Services.

For more information on the festival and the other films being shown, visit the website.

Midtown residents and business owners find common ground with new agreement

2011-08-10T05:21:10Z

A better stream of communication between late-night businesses and residents in Midtown is the goal of the Midtown Business Association’s new Midtown Good Neighbor Agreement, which was completed in May.

The document was conceived out of a six-month-long project geared toward improving the grid nightlife by one of five volunteer groups consisting of local business owners and community members.

These volunteer groups were formed to lower the negative impacts of the grid nightlife on residents after the Responsible Hospitality Institute drafted an assessment of possible solutions to make midtown more hospitable for everyone.

The consulting firm was hired by the MBA in 2009 to assist locals in making their communities a more safe and vibrant place to socialize, taking into consideration the overconcentration of liquor licenses in Midtown as defined by state law.

The groups met individually last year to discuss safety and nightlife and created a six-month action plan.

In the past, there has been a “lack of communication between certain late-night businesses and residents,” said Aja Uranga Foster, assistant director of the Midtown Business Association.

Because of this, there have been many disputes between residents and business owners, including cars blocking driveways and complaints that venues leave doors open while a band is playing. Most conflicts arise because of the proximity of bars and nightclubs to residential neighborhoods.

“We had to ask, ‘How do we open up that channel and get them talking?’ ” Foster said.

The Way it Works

A business contacts the Midtown Business Association to find out the respective neighborhood association for that area.

The two parties come together for an initial meeting with a facilitator from the MBA and discuss their terms of the agreement.

The business and neighborhood association or resident(s) then work together to find a way the business can operate without bothering the residents.

After several weeks of collaboration and redrafting of the document between the two parties, they then sign a written agreement which is kept on file by the MBA.

“It’s up to the businesses and residences to use this as a tool to improve their communities,” Foster said.

She said that the MBA advises redrafting the agreement every six months to a year, or if a business decides to get a new permit for alcohol or entertainment.

The MBA doesn’t limit the number of people in the process.

Foster said that anyone can initiate the agreement, though it’s “preferred that there are a few representatives involved, because it brings more to the conversation.”

City Councilman Steve Cohn administered a few community forums in 2010 following the Sept. 11 Second Saturday Art Walk homicide. The Midtown Neighborhood Association had a few remaining questions regarding the document and concerns were voiced about how the agreement would be enforced.

The idea is that neighborhood representatives and business owners can resolve an issue together, Foster said. “If it’s not an emergency thing, that communication should be available … they should hold each other accountable.”

With the draft of the document completed in May, two businesses in Midtown have already begun settling agreements with neighboring residents and associations.

Recently opened BarWest Burgers & Wings is working in conjunction with the Marshall School / New Era Park Neighborhood Association. They are still in the early stages of the process.

“We want to support the paradigm that brings residents and businesses to the table to communicate,” said Julie Murphy, co-chair of the association, “If businesses and residents have good communication, problems can be solved.”

“Midtown is a highly residential area,” said Trevor Shults, co-owner of BarWest Burgers & Wings. “Our neighbors will be our patrons,” he said. We want to make living here as enjoyable as we can, he added.

Shults said that they “will be asking people to respect the neighborhood as they leave.” The document asks that they show courtesy to the neighborhood after hours which many in the neighborhood felt hasn’t been given to them much before.

The neighborhood has had trouble in the past with businesses on the block, he said.

Red Lotus Kitchen & Bar replaced G.V. Hurley’s in Sept. 2009, for example; the latter experienced controversy with the neighboring residents after Hurley’s stopped providing security guards to patrol the nearby streets throughout the nights on the weekends, and overcrowded parking seemed to be an issue as well.

Murphy said that “(Shults and co-owner Todd Zancaner have) been really great about meeting with the neighborhood,” adding that they’ve attended multiple meetings with the association and are “trying to create a relationship between the residents of the neighborhood.”

The other business to initiate an agreement with neighboring residents is Mondo Bizarro Cafe which replaced Butch and Nellie’s Coffee Co. on 18th and I street early this year.

The cafe is collaborating with one of the neighborhood’s landowners (who owns multiple lots near the business), housing about 18 residents, to regulate the noise level from the cafe’s weekly open mic nights and live shows.

All music played is acoustic, said Drew Newbold, co-owner of the cafe. The greatest concession the cafe has agreed to in its alliance with the neighborhood, Newbold said, is that there be no music outside.

Newbold said he was contacted by Foster three months ago with requests from the landowner to settle into the agreement.

The first meeting was tense, he said, “There were complaints against the previous ownership because they had music outside.”

“By the time the meeting was over, we were friends,” he added, “We’ve now established that relationship between landowners and business owners,” but needed the agreement as the mediary to do it.

Mondo Bizarro will only be holding a beer and liquor license until ten at night, Newbold explained, because it’s hard enough to keep it quiet and peaceful with beer and wine, he said. It would be more difficult to keep it peaceful if we had liquor too, he added.

Newbold said the two parties have only met once to discuss the document, but all terms were agreed upon at the first meeting and the cafe has held up on its end, he said, and that they “haven’t got any complaints yet.”

The agreement “opens the lines of communication really well,” he said, “and allowed us to become more direct with each other.”

The Midtown Business Association is currently drafting a sticker for each business to place in its window once the agreement is signed and finalized, and is waiting for a final say from the board meeting next week on the final additions.

Interested business owners and residential neighborhood representatives can get more information or set up a meeting time by contacting Aja@mbasac.com.

Local teacher makes documentary on youth homelessness

2011-08-06T03:01:58Z

Jennifer Lystrup, a teacher of social justice at Christian Brothers High School, tackled the ongoing issue of homelessness among youths in her first documentary, “Beautiful Youth.”

“Beautiful Youth” chronicles the individual stories of several homeless transition-age youths – youths between the ages of 18 and 24 – in Sacramento told in their own words.

“A lot of them were optimistic or at least willing to try to talk about what’s going on. They want to be heard as much as anyone else,” said Sonny Iverson, lead outreach worker for Wind Youth Services. Wind is one of the few programs in Sacramento that deals with ties between homelessness in youths and sexual trafficking of minors.

The 47-minute film provides the youths’ perspectives on their situations, substance abuse in the homeless community, the circumstances that put them there, goals they have set for themselves and their reflections on how society responds to the issue of homelessness.

Many programs available to the homeless population are geared toward chronic homelessness – those who have been homeless for more than a year and have a documented disability – adults ages 30 and higher, or youths with mental illness.

Accompanying the youths’ stories are reflections that expose the lack of resources available to transition-age youths from Raven Hoopes, program manager and case manager for Harm Reduction Services; Michelle Lopez, lead outreach coordinator for HRS; and Iverson. All were previously homeless at a time and are now working with support organizations for teens and young adults.

The problem with so many homeless youths, Lystrup said, is “if they don’t get some sort of help (during the transition age), they will become a homeless adult.”

“When the average person hears about youth homelessness, they’re thinking children and kids on the street and it tugs on a person’s heart. But when you’re talking about an 18-year-old, all of a sudden, people’s minds are really different, and it doesn’t matter,” Iverson said.

Filming for the documentary began in May 2010 and was completed last November.

Lystrup “started out wanting to do a film on labor trafficking,” she said, so she went to WIND Youth Services to get some ideas for her film. She got the idea to do a film on transition-age homeless youths after meeting Iverson.

“Sonny started talking about homeless kids and what happens to them as they get on the street,” she said.

As the lead outreach coordinator for WIND services, Iverson knew many homeless youths in Sacramento who lived by the river, in tents under bridges or have been raised out of a car since they were early teenagers after their families lost their residences.

Iverson became Lystrup’s guide to the homeless sector of the city, and found a handful of youths who were willing to tell their stories on camera. He wanted to help “because of the nature of my job and my involvement with the homeless community,” he said. He also had a personal motivation to be involved in the documentary.

“I personally saw it as an opportunity to expose the lack of transition age services,” Iverson said.

Iverson was homeless for a period of about 10 years, when he was of the transition age, in many different cities. He said that compared to other cities, “Sacramento was one of the places where (for a homeless person) it’s not wise to be visible; it’s less acceptable to be seen.”

Both Lystrup and Iverson agreed that many of the youths interviewed were not homeless by choice.

“It’s easy to look past the face and assume everyone who’s homeless has made that choice. Most of the ones I spoke to – it wasn’t their choice,” Lystrup said. Some of the stories told by some of the youths were very compelling, she added.

Some of the youths tell stories of sexual or substance abuse, harassment and rape at home, which drove them out of their houses in the first place.

One teen said he has been homeless since he was 11 years old due to abuse from his mother’s boyfriend. Others became homeless early on with their parents when they were still too young to understand the difference between being homeless and camping out.

Another young man interviewed in the documentary mentions leaving an abusive household and living out of a car with his mother and brother while going to school.

“What happens to the young person who is living in a tent with their family, and they have to get up every morning and they have to move their tent?” Lystrup asked.

A young man named Paul from the documentary describes the reluctance for many to leave their campsites for long: “If you go to work every day of the week and you come back and your tent is gone and your blankets are gone you have nothing,” he said.

“If they’re being moved out, they’re trying to go to school, and they don’t have computers and they don’t have all that most kids would have? You can see why many of them don’t necessarily finish school, and when they do, it takes them a lot longer,” Lystrup said.

The first-time filmmaker said that the reason many youths can’t pull themselves out of their situation is a lack of resources available to them and their age group.

Describing the Salvation Army shelters as full of homeless adults, Iverson said, “There is no attraction for young people that are homeless to get out of their situation.” It’s important to have something for that specific age group, he added.

A young man in the film says he would rather hang out at the river with his friends and have his freedom rather than be confined to a small bed in a crowded shelter.

Lystrup said she’s sent her documentary to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office and advocacy groups, and has given it to the youths who participated in the documentary and to people at both Harm Reduction Services and WIND Youth services. But she has not received any feedback from the city.

Sacramento City Councilmember Angelique Ashby and Mayor Johnson’s office could not be reached for a statement.

“I wasn’t interested in making a lot of money, I just wanted to get the issue out,” Lystrup said, adding that the most important thing for her was “to let people hear their stories.”

The film was titled “Beautiful Youth” “because youth should be a time of wonder and awe and beauty, and I still think after meeting these young people that they’re beautiful. Their wonder and awe was a little bit more difficult, but they’re still beautiful,” Lystrup said.

“They really are people just like everyone else,” Iverson said. But Sacramento puts more energy into sweeping it under the rug than finding a solution, he added.

“I really understand that people have compassion fatigue: There are so many issues out there. I get that,” Lystrup said. "Some people are really devoted to a certain issue, but you can’t really go anywhere in Sacramento and not see the disenfranchised.”

“I want them to see it because it’s really relevant. It’s not a problem, it’s an issue that’s not going away,” she added.

Currently working on two new documentaries – an avant garde film and a labor trafficking film – Lystrup said she is hoping to get a free public screening of her documentary at the Guild Theater in Oak Park in September or October and is still trying to get the City Council’s attention on the issue.

Co-op community members respond to candidate forum

2011-08-03T22:55:55Z

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op held a community forum Tuesday night to hear from the five candidates running for the Board of Directors. After the meeting, The Sacramento Press asked attendees for their thoughts on the candidates and the future of the co-op.

To read the full recap of the meeting, click here.

The responses of the four candidates interviewed are below.

Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with John Boisa from Dora Bromme on Vimeo.

John Boisa, director of Jewish Community Relations Council

Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with Curtis Payton from Dora Bromme on Vimeo.

Curtis Payton, geologist for US Army Corps of Engineers

Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with David Mandel from Dora Bromme on Vimeo.

David Mandel, legal services attorney, currently unemployed

Co-op Candidate Forum Interview with member Charlotte Donovan from Dora Bromme on Vimeo.

Charlotte Donovan, retired, member for 30 years

All videos taken by Dora Bromme.

Sacramento Public Library asks participation in community survey

2011-08-02T01:51:25Z

In light of the most recent cuts to its operating budget, the Sacramento Public Library system is conducting an online community feedback survey to receive input on what programs and services the community values most.

The goal is to make the “best possible decision we can with the least amount of impact,” said Denise Davis, deputy library director of the Sacramento Public Library.

The Sacramento Public Library system held three community forums in mid-July to address the 10 percent cut in its general fund, which came out to about $800,000.

Sixty-five people in total attended the three meetings, most attending the McKinley Library forum. In order to receive the input from those who weren’t able to attend, an eight-question survey is now available on the library’s website.

Shortly before the community forums began, library staff also learned about an additional $600,000 in cuts to be made from the county level, bringing the total reduction in the library operating fund to $1.4 million, which could mean a loss in branches, programs and staff.

With the addition of three new libraries to the system from August 2009 to August 2010, the system is “currently operating using the ‘reserve’ fund,” meaning you are spending more then you receive each year, said Rivkah Sass, director of the Sacramento Public Library.

Both directors agreed that the community forums gave much input to work with, and they will consider all input for their proposal to the Sacramento Library Authority in September.

“We want to try to make the best decisions we can, and we hope the community is aware of the challenges we have,” Sass said.

The survey asks the community which branches may be used the most, which days of the week and hours of the day are the most important to members and which programs and services have the highest value to the community. The survey also asks about the possibility of voluntary fees for some services to remain.

The community feedback survey will remain open through Aug. 15. Any changes will take effect late in September or early October. The survey can be taken here.

Intro to Video Storytelling Workshop- Journalism in a Multimedia World

2011-07-28T22:51:27Z

Journalists are “no longer restricted to one medium of storytelling,” Andrew Nixon said as he began the Intro to Video Storytelling Workshop at The Sacramento Press Wednesday night. You don’t have to use video in every story either, he added.

Nixon is a multimedia producer for Capital Public Radio based in Sacramento. His past experiences include professional photojournalism, motion graphics, web platforms and currently video journalism.

Several of his own videos, some of which incorporate his background in still-frame photography, were used as examples for the techniques he delivered to an audience of about 35 budding journalists, artists and editors.

Mentioning from the beginning that this presentation is given from his own subjective viewpoint, Nixon shared his tips and techniques for the use of multimedia that he employs to create a compelling story.

“Content becomes very important,” he said. “One photo captures the mood – with video, you have that in every frame.”

The two-hour presentation included a play-by-play outline of the pre-production, shooting and post-production process of telling a story, as well as technical considerations for types of cameras, lenses and microphones to use.

To prepare for an interview with a subject and choose the right questions to ask, “Do your homework,” Nixon said. It's best to know as much as you can about your subject before you go to speak with them. It also helps, he added, if you have a direction in mind beforehand so the subject doesn’t dictate the story. “You want an idea of what’s going on, and you want them to be able to clarify,” he said.

Nixon also addressed the importance of the initial sound check of the interview. “Ask them what they ate for breakfast,” he said, because they’ll answer in their normal voice, giving a good guideline for the sound level in the interview so microphones can be set correctly.

One good way of getting better quotes during interviews is to use pregnant pauses – allowing there to be an uncomfortable silence so that the interviewee feels the need to fill that silence by elaborating more, Nixon said.

“It’s a beautiful technique to get a candid response, and it works for everyone,” he added.

While capturing the content of your film, Nixon said to go with your journalistic instinct – identify what to shoot and film accordingly.

Nixon said he would shoot 15 to 20 minutes of footage for a three-minute film. You want to shoot to edit, he said, for flexibility. He described his method of planning ahead for the amount of editing you will do for each clip, and have content at either end to cut if needed.

“Having too much is better than having too little,” he said, “You can always cut it down.”

Another technique Nixon uses while editing to create the story he calls a “cold opening.” He described the “cold opening” as beginning the film with something from the middle or the end. The example given was from a video he shot about a Second Saturday Art Walk, which began with a shot from the nightlife and then proceeded with actions shot earlier in the day.

It gives a sense of where you’re going, he said, and gives the viewers something to think about.

The examples Nixon showed in the workshop exhibited many of his different styles of filmmaking. Some were only narrated by the subject and were shot in still-frame, as a type of slide show. Others included ambient sound in addition to the action on the screen “to give a sense of place,” Nixon explained.

The Second Saturday video didn’t include any audio such as dialogue or ambient sound except for background music to set the tone for the content on the screen, he explained.

Nixon explained the variety of techniques he used based on the way audio and visuals assist each other. Both work as narratives, he said – “your eyes are seeing one thing, your ears are hearing another . . . you have to think about how they’re going to work together." A few of these fell under a category he called "visual variety" in which one should think in sequences, remember the objective of the story being covered and remember that the story isn't always best told with the best shot- sometimes you have to get multiple shots to get the message across.

Othello Curry, a community contributor for The Sacramento Press, poet and legal consultant, said he came to the workshop to “broaden my base of knowledge” and to learn video techniques for his poetry and art.

“When I go to do some videos, I want that quality,” Curry said, alluding to his interest in Nixon’s style of filmmaking. “He gave me a lot of ideas.”

Josh Staab, editor of the Fair Oaks Patch and a friend of Nixon said he came to support his friend and see “if I could steal a few tricks.” Staab said he was particularly interested in Nixon’s method of “organizing in the post-production stage.”

As for the notion of multimedia becoming a new type of journalism, Staab said it’s good to “write a story and present the whole package,” that multimedia is “necessary to distinguish yourself from so many other media outlets” and that multimedia journalism is “definitely where this industry is heading.”

Staab and Nixon both worked together at The State Hornet together. Nixon has now moved from photography to photo/video journalism.

“It’s a skill set,” Nixon explained, and “it’s worth trying out. If it fails, it fails.”

As for his comments on multimedia storytelling, he described how it is accessible to everyone, that “content delivery is free,” and stated “the web is where it’s going to go.”

Nixon does freelance work in addition to his work at Capital Public Radio and posts his videos on his own blog. To learn more about his work, click here.

Sacramento Press Club hosts luncheon with NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

2011-07-27T04:48:02Z

The Sacramento Press Club hosted its second luncheon of the month Tuesday with special guest Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, National Public Radio’s foreign correspondent – currently based in Cairo, Egypt – who shared her experiences with the challenges and the violence many journalists face overseas.

The Sacramento Press Club is a nonprofit organization that lends itself to informing its members and the public through monthly luncheons that feature reporters and newsmakers from around the country and provides scholarships to journalism students in California.

The renowned journalist, who currently covers the Arab world from North Africa to the Middle East, shared some of her experiences in reporting from her current assignment and her three years as NPR’s voice from Kabul, Afghanistan.

“It’s so difficult for journalists to cover regions so vastly different from our own,” said Nelson, who spent almost a decade as a foreign correspondent.

The job can be very difficult for some who don’t speak the language, Nelson said, though many places do speak French and English. Nelson speaks Farsi, Dari and German.

Drawing from her own experience, Syria,Yemen and Libya, are the hardest to cover due to the amount of resistance, violence, and discrimination reporters can face. Some areas are too violent to go to, and journalists must find that out by talking to people on the street and by “making the decision ourselves,” she said.

Throughout her speech, Nelson repeatedly brought up the violence that is projected toward journalists. She said that in some places she “could not be there as a reporter,” describing the reluctance of many people to talk to her.

In a story she covered about a group of women who were protesting, Nelson said that some were concerned that her presence could influence government officials. She mentioned rumors that were spread around the country, that “we journalists are spies working for the CIA and they should stop us,” adding that journalists were “not people they want to talk to anymore.”

To move freely throughout many of the Middle Eastern countries, she said she had to keep herself from being noticed. Sometimes this meant that she had to dress in a black veil and wear black clothes like the women in the country, disguising her appearance as a reporter.

Discrimination toward women is a widely known issue in the Middle East and throughout Central Asia. The tension toward female reporters was “very high because of the religion and culture,” Nelson said, also stating that the threat is not just to women – “assault and danger is to men as much as women” she said.

Reporters often find themselves in situations that could bring danger upon themselves. Nelson described the need to have outlets – safe havens where one could go to decompress, and the tendency for journalists to travel in groups. She said she had to always try to be in control of situations, and “never sit my back to the glass,”– another way of saying she carries caution with her at all times.

Nelson said she has “suffered sexual harassment- much more in Afghanistan and Pakistan than in Egypt,” but the severity can be take no more than harassment of male reporters.

One of the greatest challenges for journalists on covering the social unrest in another country, Nelson said, is to avoid stereotypes and “make sure we’re covering it in a balanced way.”

About 75 members of the Sacramento Press Club and the community attended the luncheon.

Dr. Becky LaVally, instructor of rhetorical criticism at Sacramento State and former political reporter, responded to Nelson’s balanced review of the violence towards men and women in the Middle East, saying “she was very professional in her description of the dangers facing men and women. The level of danger is so high that sexual harassment becomes a gradation of danger.”

Ann Bancroft, a former reporter and communications director for the California Department of Education, said she found the speech “just fascinating” in respect to Nelson’s “heroism–what she does to give us all the story.”

Bancroft also mentioned her interest in several other issues brought up in Nelson’s speech, which included the progress of women’s elevation being set back in Middle Eastern countries.

Only in the U.S. for a short time, Nelson will soon be returning to her post in Cairo, reporting the news for NPR.

The next seminar for the press club, free and open to the public, is August 16. Find more information on their website at http://sacpressclub.org/attend-seminars

For more information about Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, visit http://www.npr.org/people/7407153/soraya-sarhaddi-nelson

Garden boxes in South Sacramento grow community, healthy food

2011-07-26T04:26:35Z

The nonprofit organization Ubuntu Green is literally planting seeds of change within the Sacramento community, nearing completion of the first year of its Home and Community Gardens Project.

The project seeks to provide low-income families in the Building Healthy Communities target area with healthier access to food and to create a greater sense of community in the selected neighborhoods.

For more information on BHC, click here.

Building Healthy Communities is a coalition comprised of many different community-driven organizations that are all funded by California’s largest foundation--The California Endowment. The BHC seeks to implement a ten-year plan to renew the health in children and families in fourteen communities throughout California, and South Sacramento is one of them.

The Building Healthy Communities target area encompasses much of South Sacramento, including sections of Oak Park, Tahoe Park, Lemon Hill and Colonial and Fruitridge Manor.

For a map of the BHC targeted area, click here.

With 26 completed to date, the project is set to install four more gardens by the end of September, two of which will add to the four existing gardens at Sacramento High School in late August, and is seeking to establish 30 more by September 2012.

The project began in 2009 as a campaign for the development of community gardens in Sacramento and evolved into a system of private home and community gardens with the partnership of multiple community organizations including Alchemist CDC and Rafael Aguilera of Sacramento Yard Farmer.

Feb. 26 marked the beginning of the project upon which six gardens were built at four sites in the initial effort to “create a community of folks who grow their own food,” said Charles Mason, the founder of Ubuntu Green.

The way the system works

After receiving contact from families living in the BHC-targeted area, Ubuntu Green chooses recipients of the gardens, prioritized on a greatest-need basis. This need is assessed from the area of the household, whether or not it is in the target BHC area, and from their website, "families that are already receiving or have received services from green and sustainable organizations in the area."

If approved for the project, Mason or Sacramento Yard Farmer Rafael Aguilera begin with a site assessment in which they decide the best placement for the garden box in the recipients’ yard, taking into consideration how much sun an area receives daily as well as the space allotted for the garden.

The recipient of the box then decides on the plants to begin the bed with based on the season and a date for the build.

A raised bed, typically 3 feet by 8 feet, is built by the yard farmer and a crew of volunteers. The bed is made of redwood to avoid contamination in the soil. Drip irrigation and a timer are installed and local farms and nurseries provide the organic soil and compost, plant starts and seeds.

The recipients are given a tutorial on gardening and quarterly packets complete with healthy food recipes and a list of places where families can access healthy foods including local stores and farmers markets. The packets are distributed in English, Hmong, Spanish and Vietnamese but are available in other languages on request.

After the build, residents care for their own gardens and can contact Ubuntu Green at any time with questions or concerns. When the next planting season comes around, residents again choose what they want to grow based on the season.

According to Mercado whose family owns two beds, the first bed has no cost for families in the BHC-targeted area, and some homes have purchased a second.

Community Feedback

Many homes and businesses have received the garden boxes to date, including the Boys and Girls Club, Sacramento High School and Old Soul Co.

Alberto Mercado, project coordinator for Building Healthy Communities and resident of Oak Park, was one of the first to receive a garden box in his front yard. The project suggests the placement of the garden in one’s front yard since it will have more visibility to the community than if it were installed elsewhere.

“Each person can affect at least five people,” Mason said.

Mercado and Mason agree. Both have front yard gardens that have influenced neighbors to join the program.

“I never really gardened, and it was from seeing what he grew that inspired me,” said Steve Gonzalez, an Oak Park resident and Mason’s neighbor. Gonzalez received a garden box about six months ago but installed it in his back yard due to the amount of shade in his front yard.

One aim of the program is to install the garden boxes in clusters in small neighborhoods, a method of creating community and meeting the people who live in your area, Mason said.

Duggan Irish, chef operator at Old Soul Co., called it “urban renewal … projects centered around building a type of community,” he said, “It’s the physicality of the labor – know what you’re cooking with because you grew it.” Duggan said he will use ingredients from the garden in the Old Soul kitchen if it produces enough.

The type of community that is slowly growing throughout Oak Park and South Sacramento “brings you back to your roots,” Gonzalez said.

The program has yielded significant changes throughout the many households it has become a part of.

“As adults, we take for granted where the food comes from and who grew it,” Mercado said, we’re “always looking for places to find healthy food but we have to go far. . . you grow it in your own home you’re reducing your Carbon Footprint.”

The program ultimately seeks to build at least 300 home and community gardens by 2013, half of which will be given to low-income households.

“To understand the sustainability behind the food you grow,” Irish said.

To summarize, with more home and community gardens, there will be less of a need to travel far for food in Sacramento.

“People think they are defenseless against this thing called climate change. People don’t think they can impact the environment. Yes you can,” said Mason.

Anyone who is interested in participating in the Home Garden Project or in volunteering may contact Ubuntu Green by visiting its website.

Projects underway for Building Healthy Communities

2011-07-22T07:11:16Z

Residential communities in Oak Park and South Sacramento are in good hands under the umbrella of the Sacramento Building Healthy Communities coalition for funding programs and collectives geared towards making Sacramento safer and healthier.

Several projects funded by the BHC are underway to create healthier food access for low-income families, better transportation, and safer neighborhoods by engaging youth in community service and leadership training.

Projects already initiated include an EBT dollar-for-dollar match incentive at the local Oak Park farmer’s market, assistance in building a home or community garden, and teaching youth the basics of news writing and reporting on issues in their community.

The coalition met Wednesday night for its quarterly Hub meeting—formed to create a network between all members of the community in an act to discuss and implement solutions. The meeting addressed several of the social, economic and health inequities facing teens and communities in South Sacramento and Oak Park. Some of these issues included childhood obesity, high-risk youth and gang-related violence, healthier food access and more available health care coverage for low-income families.

Sacramento Building Healthy Communities is an initiative funded by the California Endowment that strives to promote healthier choices in specified low-income neighborhoods. This is achieved through collaboration with stakeholders—those who hold the highest interest in the success of the community— including schools, businesses, community-oriented organizations, residents, law enforcement agencies and others.

Seventy-two members of the community attended the meeting, including City Councilman Jay Schenirer, to learn of some of the new developments in the community that are being implemented by several grantees of the coalition. Of the presentations, youth leadership development and engagement was a main theme for the night.

“We are working on creating a youth steering committee,” said Alberto Mercado, project coordinator for Building Healthy Communities and staff member of Asian Resources. “They’re the ones who are going to be here in 10 years,” he said.

The youth would be “kind of advisers to us,” said Francisco Gutierrez, community relations intern for BHC, stressing the matter that the youth know what’s happening in their communities, and the BHC merely assisting them in their solutions.

The coalition is already funding several organizations and programs which serve to engage more youth in the targeted area in leadership programs such as La Familia and People Reaching Out.

Grantees of the BHC include People Reaching Out, Legal Services of Northern California, Sacramento City Unified School District, Community Service Planning Council, and Panacea Services, Inc.

Bobby Powell with the Boys and Girls Club and Nina Harris from Will. C. Wood Middle School were two youth leaders present at the meeting and already set to join more leadership groups. Powell writes for a blog for the California Endowment called “Bobby’s Blog” through which he shares his experiences in his youth leadership with the rest of the community.

Harris presented with People Reaching Out, a nonprofit organization that addresses youth substance abuse and violence, and talked about an activity the organization has where the youth involved take pictures around their community, documenting what they believe needs to be changed.

“It helps students see what’s wrong with the community,” Harris said.

The Regional Transit Authority was present, accepting suggestions from community members on how to improve the transit system.

Other presentations of the night included groups that received local discretionary grants from the BHC which allow quarterly grants “available to groups that can’t find funding anywhere else,” Gutierrez said.

Hub discretionary grants are small-amount grants up to $2000 that are available to any nonprofit organization, local collective, or public school that uses volunteer efforts and community service to improve the health of its community. This funding is also available for art and cultural projects which seek to engage youth in positive service in their communities.

The new grant deadline for discretionary grants is set for Sept.17. Prospective applicants can find more information on the website (link at the bottom).

Recipients of the discretionary grants included the Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce, The Gardens, Tahoe Colonial Collaborative, Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, Alchemist Community Development, Oak Park Neighborhood Association, Language Academy of Sacramento, Prevention Works and Mien Club.

“Those programs are always left behind,” Mercado said, further commenting that some groups are small and don’t have as much outreach as larger organizations to be recognized by larger grant programs.

Alchemist, a subcontractor of Soil Born Farms, provides interactive and engaging activities for youth to convene on food access projects around the community. Alchemist was only one of the many groups present at the meeting that provide engaging services for youth to act as leaders in their own communities.

“If we can give them the tools and the space, they will become the leaders of tomorrow,” Mercado said.

Building Healthy Communities meetings are open to the public and there are numerous volunteer opportunities to get involved with the programs in the coalition. For more information visit:

http://www.mycalconnect.org/sacramento/Default.aspx

Pocket area residents given new rest area with bike path

2011-07-21T05:38:18Z

South Sacramento residents can now enjoy the Sacramento River by bike again as the Freeport Regional Water Authority reopened a section of the Pocket Area Bike Trail Friday. Four years of construction on the Freeport Water Intake Facility kept it closed to the public.

The Pocket Area trail stretches along two miles of the Sacramento River from Garcia Bend Park on Pocket Road around the Freeport Bend—a bend which makes the river run parallel to Freeport Boulevard—and ends at the Freeport Water Intake Facility.

Councilman Darrell Fong of District 7 attended the reopening ceremony Friday morning along with 20 members of the Pocket community and unveiled the newly installed public amenities to the trail, including a plaza with benches, fountains and art installations at the back of the Freeport Water Intake Facility. The plaza overlooks an astonishing view of the river at the Freeport Bend.

In 2007, Construction of the Freeport Water Intake Facility, located at 7760 Freeport Blvd., closed off the last 400 feet of the trail refusing access for bikers and pedestrians to Freeport Boulevard or parts of the Sacramento River.

“The purpose of the water intake facility is to provide surface water from the Sacramento River to customers in Sacramento County and the East Bay,” said Cecilia Curry, public outreach director for the Freeport Regional Water Authority.

The facility will pump up to 185 million gallons of water each day–85 million gallons will go to Sacramento Residents and 100 million gallons will go to the East Bay Municipal Utilities District, which will use it as a drought water supply in three out of every ten years.

Project administrators hired Paul Kos, a regional artist from San Francisco, to design the “river wall”—a relief sculpture on the side of the Intake Structure at the new facility—which incorporates poetry and prose regarding water and the river itself into the wall facing the trail.

The poetry is accompanied by the word “river” spelled in waves which appear to flow frontwards and backwards—inspired by the Sacramento river which, in fact, flows in two directions depending on the tide. The artwork is completed by a charming circular pattern embedded into the path with colored cement and crushed glass, illustrating a ripple effect.

The paved path stops at the new plaza which was built behind the facility for bikers and pedestrians to enjoy, though some still choose to continue along a dirt path parallel to a set of train tracks leading south from the facility.
The dirt path leads to several outlets along the Sacramento river and Freeport Boulevard, however, residents are advised not to continue past the paved portion.

“We are not encouraging anybody to go beyond the paved structure,” said Ed Cox, bike and pedestrian coordinator for the Department of Transportation.

The last 50 yards which lead to Freeport Boulevard remain unpaved due to a hold on the Freeport Shores Bikeway project. The project was initiated in the year 2000 but is now pending negotiations with the State Parks that own the property.

The project would pick up where the pavement stops, wrap around the intake facility to the service road, and lead to the driveway by the large water tank where it would lead out to the boulevard. The completed project would lead from that access point 0.2 miles down the road to the soccer field at 7895 Freeport Boulevard.

The finished project would “provide access from the Pocket to the Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex,” said Cox. “Kids will be able to ride from their homes to this field,” he said.

There are no signs currently along the existing trail, but a volunteer, community-based organization called Friends of Sacramento River Greenway is working with city council members of riverfront districts to install “Sacramento River Parkway” signs to ensure that access of the riverfront trails is made known to all members of the public.

Until a thruway is set up establishing a regional connection along the Sacramento River, the Pocket area trail is for use by both pedestrians and bicyclists and is expected to be in use mainly by residents of the small community though the trail and plaza are now open for public recreational use.

The Pocket community is “very happy to have access back to that facility,” said Noah Painter, district director for Councilman Fong. Painter added that Fong runs the length of the bike trail every day.

City's Animal Care Division to benefit from man's goodwill

2011-07-15T06:20:26Z

Much needed medical supplies, toys and care will be given to shelter animals in Sacramento thanks to a $146,321 bequest from animal lover, Steven English.

The Sacramento City Council accepted the bequest Tuesday to the Department of General Services Animal Care Division from English, a former customer of the shelter for the last 20 years.

Six months ago, the Department of General Services learned that it would be receiving a generous bequest for years of services that may have gone by without mention but were never forgotten.

“It came as a great surprise,” said Reina Schwartz, the director of General Services.

The 62-year old donor passed away last November leaving $146,321 to the Animal Care Services division as a reflection of his love for animals and his appreciation of the services he received from the shelter throughout his lifetime.

According to his sister, Judy Williams, English was diagnosed with manic depression, a mental illness more commonly known as bipolar disorder and was to the point of permanent disability for a great portion of his life.

He found comfort in taking care of animals.

English lived with his partner, Norma Heller, for more than 20 years in Land Park, and as Williams described, the two of them took care of many cats.

“They would feed feral cats. They cared about animals in that way,” Williams said. She added that her brother would mention multiple dealings he had with the shelter over the years when he and Heller lived together.

Over the course of those years, English was transferred in and out of mental health facilities due to severe lapses in his illness. When Heller passed away a couple of years ago, she left a great inheritance to English.

According to Williams, English put a sum of about $200,000 of the inheritance into an interest-bearing account and left it alone.

It wasn’t touched until his mother had to extract money to pay for in-home care services for him. It was then discovered that the beneficiary of the account was English’s brother, though when told of this, English immediately changed it.

“It surprised me when he made the change to the animal services,” Williams said, she thought that English would have made their mother the beneficiary. “But when I heard which one, I knew why,” she said, “I thought it was beautiful.”

Shortly after Heller’s passing, Williams told English that Animal Care Services had gone by Heller’s house to pick up the cats during his stay in the hospital. He didn’t address it further, she said, “He just smiled.”

He “really wanted the shelter to have it,” she said. “I want to make sure that the money’s going where my brother wanted it.”

The city of Sacramento Animal Care Services takes in 12,000 to 14,000 animals per year on a budget of about $3 million.

The bequest will be split three ways. The animal care spay/neuter project will receive $60,000, which will allow for “more spaying and neutering at a lower cost for folks who can’t afford it,” said Gina Knepp, currently the manager for Animal Care Services.

Another $60,000 will go to the animal care donation project, which will provide “above and beyond services for animals in the shelter” and create a “less-stressful environment,” Schwartz said.

The project will also go toward medical supplies, toys and other materials that Knepp referred to as “comfort care for animals.”

The remaining $26,000 will go to the Department of General Services’ operating budget. The Sacramento City Council approved the bequest to Animal Care Services. The next steps for the department are to complete and send to the insurance agency the necessary paperwork for the transfer of the funds from English’s account to the department.

“We are really appreciative of the generous donation of our customers. It really allows us to invest the time and services into the animals we care so much about, and we are able to pass it along to our customers,” said Cynthia Cutler, registered veterinary technician for Animal Care Services.

“The money the animal shelter is getting was meant to be – because of the way things happened,” Williams said. She responded to the shelter’s plan for the budget, saying, “I think that’s beautiful, and I think they know where it’s needed the most.” Her brother’s ultimate goal was “that the animals be cared for, and that they be able to do it,” she said.