The Sacramento Old City Association is organizing a public forum on Mckinley Village on June 8 at the Midtown Village Cafe. The Sacramento Press will be live streaming and blogging the event. To get emailed when the action kicks off, register here: I sent SOCA Chair (and Sac Press Elite Contributor and all-star commenter) William Burg a few questions about the event and its goals. His response are below. SP: Why did SOCA decide to do a forum on McKinley Village? WB: Our mission statement is based on achieving balanced and harmonious relationships among residential, commercial and employment uses. Change happens whether we like it or not, but engaged citizens can direct change in posi

Update: The Sacramento Old City Association is organizing a public forum on Mckinley Village for June 8 at the Midtown Village Cafe. The Sacramento Press is an official sponsor and will will be live streaming and blogging the event. After Midtown and East Sacramento neighborhood associations have expressed concerns about the McKinley Village project proposed for vacant land near Sutter’s Landing Park, developer Riverview Capital Investments pushed back in a recent interview. They made their case for what they see as a "21 Century Urban Village" that will provide the city with much needed urban infill development while fitting in well with surrounding area. "I feel like we're honoring t

Yelp Sacramento is hosting a celebration highlighting the large variety of small businesses that call East Sacramento their home. Lasting from May 12th through May 19th, ‘Passport to East Sacramento’ offers several discounts and giveaways sponsored by local businesses. The week-long event is free to attend, but guests must RSVP to the nighttime events through Yelp’s event site. Evening events are specially designed for the 21+ crowd and include free food and wine tasting. The following events are still available for RSVP. Wednesday, May 15th, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary will host a parking lot soiree, featuring endless complimentary beers, free wine tastings, music, a

For the last 25 years developers have been trying and failing to build on a 48-acre piece of grassy, empty land in East Sacramento. Each and every time, the plans have fallen through due to fierce opposition or tough economic times. They’re about to try again. The low-lying “Centrage” site is bordered by the railroad and Business 80 and has remained mostly unscathed. The city’s former landfill, Sutter's Landing Park, sits across the freeway to the north, while East Sacramento and McKinley Park are to the south. The first proposal to develop the land came back in the 1980s, called “Centrage.” While the plot has retained the moniker, a development has yet to come to fruition. "Why would

In response to a reader's question about a fatal incident that occurred over the weekend in East Sacramento, we contacted the police for the full story. Below is what we found out: A man committed suicide in East Sacramento Saturday morning, though police tried to stop him. The 39-year-old man was inside a home on the 1100 block of 43rd Street, where he is said to have stabbed himself. Police used several non-lethal methods to stop him from killing himself, and rendered medical aid on the scene,  but the man did not survive.   "It was a very unfortunate, sad situation," said Sacramento Police Department Spokesman Doug Morse The call for a welfare check came in at 9:10 a.m., and resulte

If you – or your kids – want a say in the design of the new McKinley Park playground, Friday is your chance to share your visions. The playground, which was badly damaged by a suspected arson fire last summer, lies at the heart of East Sacramento's nearly 32-acre park. It's nearly 20 years old, made of wood, and with the help of an organized, motivated grassroots volunteer effort, will be replaced starting this June. "McKinley Park is a real gem and it's a draw for the entire city, not just the immediate area," said Phil Plunkebaum, a volunteer with Friends of McKinley Park. "These kinds of tragedies have happened all too often in the city of Sacramento, and that's the reason we're seein

Does East Sacramento have a problem??? Excerpt from an old executive summary: “East Sacramento is undeniably an affluent neighborhood and as such carries with it a greater social responsibility to help others. East Sac Give Back will demonstrate that we take this responsibility very seriously. Sometimes affluent communities are perceived by others (rightly or wrongly) as insular, self-centered, and disconnected from other communities that are struggling. One of East Sac Give Back’s goals is to serve as a bridge to outside communities and creatively network with others in order to help those within and outside of our community 'boundaries.'" Even before the McKinley Park fire and the iden

Saturday the 27th of October saw 20 BBQ pit masters and several hundred people invade East Sacramento to enjoy BBQ ribs, libations, great company, and music. Proceeds from ticket sales, raffle tickets, and a silent auction benefitted the Albie aware Breast Cancer Foundation. The 4th annual Albie Ribbin’ BBQ cook-off was held at the Hilltop Tavern in East Sacramento. Music was provided by the Sacramento party band the Q-Balls, and a plate of ribs, cole slaw, beans, and French toast was cooked up by Pork it Up Gourmet BBQ.     Each team was instructed to cook St. Louis style ribs in the morning and present them to a team of judges for scoring.   After the formal judging some teams t

Costumed canines are set to take over McKinley Park from 9 - 11 a.m. Saturday for the fourth annual Pups in the Park costume contest and parade. The Kyle Rowland Duo will provide musical entertainment as dogs and their best friends wander about the park, visiting vendor booths, spiffing up for photos in the Pup Photo Booth and, of course, parade in their costumes. One of the canine celebrities in attendance will be Bodie, the Sacramento Police Department dog who was shot on duty earlier this year. Prizes will be awarded for best costume, best Lady Gaga impersonator and best dog/owner lookalike duo. Co-workers or friends or families can enter as teams, dressing their dogs to represent wh

The city is looking into the feasibility of a plan brought forth by the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates to make the Carlson Corridor, the intersection located at Carlson and H and J streets, safer for cyclists. We’re looking at how the elements laid out in the plan would improve or enhance all modes of transportation for the corridor,” City Traffic Engineer Hector Barron said. “Right now, it’s all very preliminary in nature because it takes time to get through the process of evaluation.” Once the evaluation process is finished, the focus will be shifted to seeing how much the plan would cost to implement, followed by locating money sources — something Barron said won’t happen for a whi

Every morning, Sacramento resident Brian Lambert bikes through the trio of intersections in front of Sacramento State, and it’s one of the most stressful parts of his commute from Tahoe Park to North Highlands. “The area is pretty complicated and not something you want to cross,” Lambert said. “Right there at H Street and Carlson, if you have to turn and there’s another lane coming from the other direction, it’s pretty scary.” The route, called the Carlson Corridor, connects Sacramento State, the American River Parkway Bike Trail, River Park and East Sacramento, and saw two cyclists deaths in the last two years alone. Those accidents and continued complaints from bicyclists drew the atte

Free Food. Free Drinks. Free music. It’s a Yelper party. Yelp is partnering with Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary and taking over the Handle district in Midtown Sacramento Aug. 25 from 3 - 6 p.m. for the ultimate block party known as “Yelp’s Too Hot to Handle Yelper Party” with music, food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and free massages. The party is completely free, invite-only and solely for Yelp.com Sacramento users. If you’re unfamiliar with Yelp, it’s a free online community website that puts the power of business reviews in the hands of consumers. According to Yelp’s Sacramento community manager, Alex Lane, part of Yelp’s mission is to act as a middleman connecting people to the

-- Press Release from the City of Sacramento Office of Media & Communications -- Councilmember Steve Cohn has already received an outpouring of support in response to a suspected arson fire at the McKinley Village playground. The fire destroyed about one-third of the play area early Saturday morning. The donations range from a total of $10,000 coming from State Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Councilmember Cohn’s Pops in the Park fund, to a 7-year-old girl who delivered lemon-aide stand money to the Councilmember in her piggy bank. “I have been touched by the outpouring of community support. My initial reaction to the fire was one of anger, giving way to sadness, giving way to a st

When Jim Ferry couldn’t get help from Sacramento Mercy Hospital he armed himself with paintbrushes and fought back. Smokers from the hospital were plaguing him, sitting on his wall, smoking under his windows and dropping butts. Ferry went to hospital meetings, asked for help and complained through all the appropriate channels. All for naught. Patient and employee smokers in the neighborhood were not on the top of Mercy’s list of concerns. The smokers needed a close by place when a craving hit and Jim’s house was a good place to go. It’s right next to the front of the hospital on 40th and J Streets and has a convenient short-wall fence. Perfect sitting height. Last year the hospital adopt

One woman’s views of the issues plaguing downtown created a stir on The Sacramento Press yesterday, so we decided to look a little deeper. Emily Gerber was featured in a Sacramento Business Journal blog post Monday discussing how the lack of parking and grocery stores diminishes the appeal of living, working and visiting the downtown core. The main issues she brought up in the blog post, and the followup yesterday related to transit, food and music. Parking and transit How to manage parking and transit issues is a key debate among people who live and work downtown. As local historian William Burg sees it, parking is a matter of supply and demand, and challenges are unavoidable. “More

The old gas station on the corner of Alhambra Boulevard and T Street is scheduled to open next week as Tako Korean BBQ, selling tacos and burritos with a Korean flair. “It’s really big in L.A., and we wanted to bring the concept up here,” co-owner Alex Won said Monday. “We’ll have beef, pork and chicken with a Korean sauce and slaw on tortillas.” The concept is similar to GoGi’s Korean Barbecue, which opened inside Cafeteria 15L last year. Details are still being finalized, but the tacos and burritos will likely be sold in combo plates with rice, and salads will be available. Won said diners should expect to pay between $6 and $8 for lunch. Also planned for the space is a selection of

For the third year in a row, budget cuts reduced programs and swim hours at local pools, but donations from generous neighbors – and a local rock ’n roll band – pulled together to give water-lovers in East Sacramento additional splash time at Glenn Hall Pool this summer. “It’s going to mean a lot to many people to have the pool to splash around in this summer,” Steve Harriman, River Park Neighborhood Association board member said Wednesday. “For some kids in the city, going to a pool is all they have.” The fundraising campaign will allow the pool to open for recreational swimming from 1 to 5 p.m. on on Fridays and Sundays, June 29 through Aug. 19. Open recreation swim times are also off

This week brings more solid waste discussion at the City Council with a new twist: Will the city augment service from the claw with “dump coupons?” The City Council discussed proposed changes to the city solid waste and recycling program in March, including changing curbside recycling to every-other-week collection, implementing year-round containerized yard waste collection and retiring loose-in-the-street pickup by the claw for all but three months of the year. Now, after months of community outreach on the proposed changes, a new idea is being floated based on public comments from those discussions: dump coupons. The idea stems from the proposed return of the Neighborhood Cleanup Pro

Dear Readers, When asked to explain what East Sac Give Back is I often say it a non-profit corporation in formation.  This may be a bit overly technical but what this means is that at this point East Sac Give Back is formally recognized by the Secretary of State of California as a Corporation.  The corporation filled its Article of Incorporation as a Non-Profit with the purpose of providing the neighborhood of East Sacramento a singular philanthopic entity which will reinvest resources back into East Sacramento proper, AND outside of the neighborhood boundaries.   As far as mission or goal, East Sac Give Back aims to use grassroots approaches to transcend traditional community "boundarie

Residents of many tree-lined streets in Sacramento are worried that a proposal to reduce the frequency of green waste pickup by “The Claw” will leave their neighborhoods overgrown and unkempt when leaves start falling in autumn. The issue is the main subject of the East Sacramento Preservation Association meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday at Clunie Community Center, 601 Alhambra Blvd., and some residents have made their opinions clear. “This is a joke!” wrote Sacramento resident Julie Neller on the organization’s Facebook page. “The claims of what good it will do (saving money and better for the environment) don’t justify the end result of what is really going to happen.” Steve Harriman, integra