Hot Italian along with Friends of Fremont Park  teamed up once again for the 2012 Hot Lunch Concert Series. The free concerts are held every Thursday from May 31 – August 30, 2012. The lunch time series is held from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Promoter Jerry Perry has put together a great package for the 2012 Hot Lunch concerts. This year’s opening line up started off with the Leonardo da Vinci Blues Band. The band is made up by 7th and 8th graders from the Leonardo da Vinci School, The da Vinci School players were joined on stage by Ned Hammad who is the school’s artist-in-residence. “I have been doing this with the school going on 10 years now and the organization is called I Can do T

On Thursday, June 2, Sacramento saw the start of another year of the Hot Lunch Concert Series and a new free music event playing at Cesar Chavez Plaza; “Fiesta en la Calle” (Street Party). The Hot Lunch Concert Series is a collaboration between Hot Italian, Sacramento News and Review and Friends of Fremont Park. Musical guests perform on Thursdays from June 2 to September 1 during the lunch hour (11:30 to 1p.m). Promoter Jerry Perry has put together a great lineup. Fremont Park, located on the corner of 16th and P Streets hosts the event. Musical Charis was the first band scheduled to perform this year. The weather cooperated and made for a delightful lunch concert. People from around t

The agenda for September's meeting of the Area 1 Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG) follows. Lt. Mike Bray hopes to have some updates from the police department on the Second Saturday shootings. Food banks have become a survival resource in todays economic climate. Many city park swiming pools have closed or are slated for closing.  Some Area 1 neighborhoods have managed to keep their pools open. We will hear what their stragities were to achieve this.  Measure B is a controversial ballot measure that could have longterm consequences on how the city utilities department operates and the delivery of services to city residents. Each month's NAG agenda is put together by residents of the

Fremont Park has put on a few movie nights in the park. On Friday, the delightful 2009 animated Disney-Pixar movie Up was shown to area residents and guests. The Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA) with the help of the City of Sacramento and Friends of Fremont Park held their Movie in Fremont Park screening. The movie was free to the public and had other activities preceding the showing of Up. Lena Wrightsman, former president of Chalk-it-Up, was at work finishing up a chalk drawing of Carl who is one of the main characters of the movie. Around the Fremont Park fountain Lena had already drawn Kevin, Russell (characters in the movie) and as she finished Carl moved on to draw Dug the

May is Bike Month, and this weekend is the best time to celebrate. Sacramento has earned a stop on the international tour of the Bicycle Film Festival. The festival will be held Friday and Saturday, with the festivities extending into Sunday as part of the Amgen Tour of California. The Friends of Fremont Park, along with pizza and panini bar Hot Italian, will host the event. The film festival starts Friday in Fremont Park with movie shorts. They will begin at 9 p.m., but the event will kick off at 7 at nearby Hot Italian, which also will be the site of the night's after-party. And it will continue "as long as people are there and drinking," Lepore said. "The Bicycle Film Festival is a co

The Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen and the Friends of Fremont Park held the first Sacramento Bicycle Swap in Midtown on Saturday. Dozens of people turned out to sell, buy, trade or just talk shop at Fremont Park. The swap offered a little of everything, from well-worn Bianchis to classic banana seats and cutting-edge bamboo machines. Danilo Masuelli and his crew from Masuelli Bicycles in Stockton were there to show off their sustainably built, locally grown bikes. The bamboo frames take 40 to 60 hours to make by hand and use bamboo grown in Rocklin, said Masuelli, a native of Argentina. While Asia has long had bikes made of bamboo, the Stockton shop is one of no more than four making bambo

Saturday, the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen and the Friends of Fremont Park are holding the inaugural Sacramento Bicycle Swap Meet in Midtown. The swap meet, which is planned to be an annual event, will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fremont Park, located on the block bordered by P, Q, 15th and 16th street. Vendors will set up shop, trading and selling bicycles and accessories. One man's trash will become another man's treasure on Saturday morning, and some might find the diamond in the rough they have been looking for. Vendor spaces start at $10 and are available up to the event, and all proceeds will go to the nonprofit organizations Friends of Fremont Park and the Sacramento Bike Kitch

With May is bike month fast approaching, The Friends of Fremont Park and the Sac Bike Kitchen are teaming up to what looks to be Sacramento's first Bike Bazaar in the Park    Located between 15th and 16th and P&Q,the event looks to be a sure way to load up for the summer with lotsof 2 wheeled fun.  Be it building a commuter,grocery getter or Tweed bike,Townie this is an excellent opportunity in scoring hard to find parts and classics to round out your collection.  Need a classic cruiser for second saturday? Mike from Vintage Bicycle Supply will be on hand with all your cruiser needs. Mike will be  showing  off his Velo Orange assortment of goods now in stock, Whit from Whitworth cycles i

If you spend a day at Fremont Park in Midtown, you’ll just have to “hold it” until you can find an open restroom elsewhere. Restrooms are shuttered at the park, which draws a range of citizens, including the homeless. When the city reopened bathrooms at many parks in August, the restrooms at Fremont Park remained closed because of public safety issues. In an example of how neighbors can change city policy, Fremont Park's bathrooms have been closed for more than a year. The city closed the park’s bathrooms in September 2008 to address neighbors’ complaints about crime. The Sacramento Police Department and the Park Safety Rangers unit reviewed the park’s public safety conditions and, in a F

Fremont Park will become greener, but its upkeep will also be more difficult. That’s the trade-off that volunteers and local anti-pesticide activists are accepting in order to turn the Midtown park, at 16th and Q streets, into the city’s first pesticide-free park. City Councilman Rob Fong, the Pesticide-Free Sacramento group and the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation organized the new 2-year pilot program at Fremont Park to use green techniques, instead of pesticides, to destroy weeds. The organizers promoted the program at a press conference Tuesday. If the pesticide-free program is successful, the city hopes to expand it to other parks, Fong said. The Fremont Park program shows