I moved to Midtown Sacramento in January 2007 from Washington DC. My neighborhood is a wonderful place to live – there is a vibrancy and energy unlike any other place in the Sacramento area. Theaters, restaurants, churches, bars, stores, clubs, and galleries provide a great deal of cultural capital and are one of the main reasons I love where I live. However, there is something that I find comically annoying: complaints about parking. Are there times when finding parking in Midtown can be difficult? Yes. Is this one of the major problems facing our city? No. A recently announced pilot program will create changes to street parking during Second Saturday in Midtown. The three-month trial wi

A city plan to extend parking restrictions during Second Saturday has split opinion between Midtown residents who see the plan as a solution to some of their parking problems – and those who believe it will only create more. The proposal is to create a pilot program that extends the hours of “residential only” permit parking areas from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Second Saturdays, which have been a boon for Midtown businesses but an annoyance for some residents who have to share limited parking spaces with visitors. The pilot program wuold cover 16th Street to 29th Street, and the south side of G Street to the south side of I Street. If the response seems positive, the city would initiate a th

Southside Park swimmers should know in the next week whether a bold new plan to reopen the Southside Park Pool succeeds – if it does, it will make for a cool summer for thousands of central city swimmers. The plan hinges on a new partnership between the city of Sacramento and the Sacramento YMCA where the YMCA will operate the pool and provide staff and maintenance all year. “If we can accomplish this, the Southside (Park) Pool will be open for business seven days a week,” City Councilman Rob Fong said. “It would be an amazing asset for the community again.” The new plan includes swim lessons, an aquatics program and open swim times at the pool for families and kids who are out of schoo

A recent attempt to plan traffic-calming measures in Alkali Flat created a firestorm among neighbors, leaving them anything but calm. When neighborhoods experience traffic issues, they often turn to the city for relief through the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program – a program designed to get the neighbors involved in finding solutions to problems of speeding, traffic volume and other road- and vehicle-related issues. The traffic-calming program for Alkali Flat began last March, according to the city website. That process included studies of traffic patterns in the area, a variety of public notices and a public meeting on a proposed plan for measures to ease traffic. The final plan wa

The city’s Neighborhood Services Division is on the chopping block again this year after it lost its status as a department in last year’s budget cuts. In June, the City Council is expected to make major cuts to close out the city’s $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. The Neighborhood Services Division, which links neighborhoods to city issues and events and works with residents on local concerns, could lose two full-time employee positions to budget cuts. While two positions may seem like a low number, the division has only seven employees, according to Vincene Jones, Neighborhood Services manager. In last year’s budget process, the Neighborhood Services Department be

Alkali & Mansion Flats Historic Neighborhood Association. Meetings are generally held on the Second Thursday of each month, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club, 1117 G Street. For more details contact Luis Sumpter at luis@luissumpter.com Ben Ali Neighborhood Association - Board Meetings are held the First Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Higher Learning Academy campus (formerly Ben Ali Children’s Center). For more information, contact Sondra Betancourt at 837-3339. Boulevard Park Neighborhood Association (BPNA) - For BPNA updates, see www.boulevardparkna.org. For more information, contact Asha Jennings at ashajennings@gmail.com or call 803-7409. Capitol R Street A

New Sacramento City Councilman Jay Schenirer said he wants to improve Sacramento’s neighborhoods. He’s approaching neighborhood groups because he believes local activism is essential for change. Schenirer, who represents 19 neighborhoods including Oak Park, Curtis Park and Brentwood, hosted a driving tour for The Sacramento Press on a rainy Friday. Neighborhood involvement was a topic that came up frequently as he talked about the troubles, successes and quirks of District 5. “People have been here a long time,” he said, as he drove around the Hollywood Park neighborhood. “They take a lot of pride. They have a good neighborhood association.” As Schenirer drove through South Oak Park, i

This article was forwarded to me by Panama Bartholomy, a neighborhood activist. If you have a chance, come to City Hall tonight (915 I Street, New City Hall council chambers, 5:30 PM) and tell the Planning Commission that you don't want the city to shut its citizens out of the planning and design process. ----- On Thursday the Sacramento Planning Commission will have a public hearing on a proposal (http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/meetings/commissions/planning/2008/documents/DOC_letter.PDF) by the Development Oversight Commission (DOC), a City-appointed group comprised almost entirely of real estate developers, architects, and business consultants, to eliminate the City's Design Revie

On Friday January 23, 2009 Deputy Chief Lloyd Ogan of the Sacramento Fire Department greeted neighborhood leaders from Downtown and Midtown on the front porch of the building at 1319 H Street. The property had been damaged in a December 30, 2009 fire. The group had been invited by the Fire Department and District 3 Councilmember Steve Cohn to tour the building, ask questions and see what could be learned from the fire. The idea for the tour came from Battalion Chief Niko King. Chief King had experienced a similar tour while attending an advanced firefighting school in the East. What did we experience? We saw how much damage a building sustains in an extremely short time. The fire started