Sacramento History

Sacramento's historic streetcars moved

2009-11-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

I got word a month or two ago that a group of Sacramento streetcars owned by Dain Domich, president of "Friends of Light Rail & Transit," were being moved to a new location. I eagerly fired off an email asking for permission to photograph the streetcars in transit, but then was unable to attend due to that whole "having to work at a job" thing. Fortunately, I was more recently steered towards the FLRT Web site, which included the above photos of the streetcars in transit and at their new home.

The plans for what to do with the cars are kind of vague, and I have heard various stories. Personally I'm still hoping that a way can be found to restore them, either for regular use or occasional special-occasion use. Of the four pictured here the most practical first choice is the big yellow "Christmas car," a metal-bodied car that is probably the easiest to restore (it is metal rather than wood, has more safety features, etc) to operating condition. The second choice might be the old "Elverta Scoot," a car that started out as a Los Angeles style streetcar but was rebuilt into an enclosed car, intended for multiple-unit runs to Rio Linda and Elverta, mostly used as a school train. That has a reinforced metal frame and composite exterior, although its wooden components have probably faced some deterioration.

Obviously, to run them we need a streetcar system. Streetcars can be run on our current light rail system with no physical modifications at all (RT occasionally runs their one restored streetcar, PG&E 35, on Light Rail tracks) although a regular streetcar would require some signal and schedule adjustments. The other plan, to build a Sacramento/West Sac streetcar line, using the K Street portion of the RT line, is kind of in limbo right now. In my own perfect world, a line running a combination of modern streetcars (low-floor for universal access, with air conditioning etc.) and historic streetcars (using the SF Market Street Railway as a model) would be ideal, providing universal access on the modern cars and tourist appeal (plus practical utility) on the historic cars.

At the City Council meeting on Tuesday, members were appointed for a streetcar commission that will explore routes, funding mechanisms and concepts for a new Sacramento streetcar line. Once meetings start I plan on attending, and passing along a few suggestions--including inspiration from our local past, and other cities' examples.

More information, including some interesting draft documents, can be found here:

Friends of Light Rail Historic Streetcar page

Precision and praise

2009-10-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Now, I already have a reputation among the Sactosphere as a nit-picking know-it-all, even pointing out spelling errors in other bloggers' blog posts. I will now expand this criticism to the editorial page of the Sacramento Bee, but at least it's not just a grammar flame.

Being a historian means paying attention to details, and focusing on accuracy, sometimes well beyond the point of politeness. These are natural tendencies for me, and my profession has only escalated these tendencies, to the point where it's no wonder that I don't get invited to more parties. On to the nitpicking.

This Sunday, the Bee featured a lovely booster-ish editorial about the under-appreciated wonders of Sacramento, entitled "A 'sacred' city" by Elaine Gale. Now, I am always happy to see people singing Sacramento's praises, but this bit kind of got my goat:

Trains: Our metronome, our link

The next perhaps not-so-obvious sacrament is the trains.

They may seem antiquated, irrelevant, or as if they belong in a past century, but the matrix of train tracks that crisscrosses this city seems to be extremely sacramental.

When we first moved here, we lived on B Street in a house literally in front of the train tracks. In the beginning, when a train screeched to a stop or came barreling down the tracks, we were a bit rattled. After a month or two, we barely noticed the sound.

The rattle and clang of the big locomotives, the piercing train whistle and clackety-clack have become a predictable percussion of life.

I am a sixth-generation Nebraskan and grew up in North Platte,home of the world's largest railyard. The fact that the First Transcontinental Railroad line originated in Omaha and ended near Sacramento is a comfort and connects me to the Great Plains of my ancestors.

When a train rumbles by during a live performance at the B Street Theater, the whole structure shakes and experienced theater-goers glance at each other with a knowing smile. The trains provide a stabilizing presence and help us practice patience.

They are a sacrament of efficiency, heritage and tradition. They bring important cargo from here to there, and connect us to the rest of the country and the world.

The point about trains being antiquated I can let slide; even though railroads carry more freight today than ever before, far more than during the "golden age" of railroad travel, rail passenger travel is experiencing its greatest resurgence in a century, and modern high-speed trains bear less resemblance to 19th century steam locomotives than modern cars do to Model Ts. The point that gets me is the idea that the first transcontinental originated in Omaha and "ended near Sacramento."

I encourage Ms. Gale to take another visit to the Railroad Museum to get the story right. Construction of the Transcontinental Railroad started at both ends, and ended in the middle. Union Pacific started in Omaha, while Central Pacific started in Sacramento. Construction started at both ends and ended at Promontory Summit, Utah.

I'm wondering where she thought it ended? Promontory Summit certainly isn't anywhere near Sacramento. The actual point where the railroad started from the Sacramento end is just at the foot of K Street by the river, at the time the busiest point in the city, along the waterfront docks and levee. That was the point where freight and passengers could be transferred to riverboats and barges down the Sacramento River to the Bay Area, at least until a couple of years later when Central Pacific completed railroad routes to the East Bay and the Peninsula (or, more correctly, bought out the railroad companies that had built those lines.)

The "Big Four" behind the Central Pacific, and engineer Theodore Judah, were instrumental in ensuring, not just that the western terminus would go to Sacramento (other cities from Seattle to San Diego were all competing for the railroad) but that the Pacific railroad (as it was then known) would be built at all. The political and financial support to build the railroad came from the east, but the drive to build the railroad came from the west--and Sacramento played the critical role. Central Pacific, under the leadership of Leland Stanford (also governor of California at the time, with close party connections to new president Abraham Lincoln) was the organization that advocated for the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 that resulted in the creation of the Union Pacific. No offense to Omaha, but the Transcontinental Railroad started here--not just the tracks themselves, but the dream, the design and the political will.

Anyhow, I realize that the point will be lost except on a few foamers like myself. But dammit, if you're going to sing Sacramento's praises, make sure you're hitting the right notes.

You are entitled to my opinions

2009-10-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Part of the fun of Sacramento Press is the opportunity to render an opinion in a loud and public fashion. In the 1920s, people with ideas and not much money would stand on a soapbox in Plaza Park. Today, we post on the World Wide Web, ready to meet the virtual rotten tomatoes of the web-surfing public.

10 Steps to Fix K Street

Incomplete steps, but steps, I think, in the right direction. There are other ideas out there, and hopefully we will hear more of them.

Today there will be a meeting between K Street property owners and Mayor Johnson. This meeting is private. Next week, he will hold another meeting on the same subject, this time open to the public.

I am curious as to which meeting will be more interesting, and at which meeting (if either) the mayor will do more listening than talking.

Archives Open House this Saturday October 3

2009-09-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

Via the Sac For Tourists blog:
There will be a California State Archives open house this Saturday from 4-8 PM. Definitely worthwhile if you're into old pieces of paper and unusual relics of California history; I will be there representing the Sacramento County Historical Society and selling some of our own old pieces of paper. The Archives are on the top floor of the California Museum building at the southeast corner of 10th & O Street, admission is free.

Sacramento Old City Cemetery Tour Sat Sep. 26

2009-09-23T23:46:00.001-07:00

The Sacramento County Historical Society presents its Fall Social & Barbecue Under the Stars in the Old City Cemetery

When:
Saturday, September 26, 2009 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Where:
Sacramento Old City Cemetery, 1000 Broadway

Sacramento's city cemetery was established in 1849 with a donation of 10 acres of high ground by John Sutter. Among its first internments were the victims of Sacramento's 1850 cholera epidemic. Some notable residents of the old city cemetery are city founder John Sutter Jr., our first mayor Hardin Bigelow, and Central Pacific founder Mark Hopkins. Thousands of other Sacramentants inhabit the cemtery, from all walks of life. Tour guides will introduce you to some of the cemetery's fascinating inhabitants, and explain some of the history of the cemetery, on two guided tours through the property. Bring a flashlight!

The evening will also feature musical performances by Agent Ribbons, Dead Western and The Freebadge Serenaders.

Admission for non-SCHS members is $10, FREE for SCHS members.
Dinner is an additional $15 for members or non-members; there is limited availability for dinners, please ask at the front gate.
Menu is BBQ brisket and chicken (veggie burgers on request), potato salad, cornbread, beans, coleslaw, soda and cookies, provided by JR's Texas BBQ.

The event will take place inside the Old City Cemetery; please park in the parking lot across the street near 10th & Broadway, as the cemetery's main gates will be closed by the time the event lets out and cars parked inside will not be able to exit! Gates will close at 6:30 PM so please arrive promptly.

This event is open to all ages.

Funds from this event will benefit the Sacramento County Historical Society (a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit) and the Sacramento Old City Cemetery Committee. For more information about the Old City Cemetery Committee, visit their website and for more information about SCHS, visit the SCHS website.

Note: This is not the same tour as the popular Lantern Tours given by the Old City Cemetery Committee in October. That tour is already sold out, so if you want the chance to experience the Old City Cemetery after dark, this is your opportunity!

SOCA Home Tour in Boulevard Park Sep 20

2009-09-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, September 20, the Sacramento Old City Association will hold its 34th annual historic home tour in the Boulevard Park neighborhood. Tour hours are from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM.

The SOCA Home Tour is an annual event, and the main fundraiser for the Sacramento Old City Association. This home tour includes an inside look at eight restored historic homes in Boulevard Park. Tour visitors can walk through each of the homes on the tour to see how the workmanship of historic homes is often as beautiful on the inside as the outside.

The Home Tour also includes a street fair, including artisans and craftspersons specializing in historic home repair and restoration, local artists, crafters, photographers and artisans, and community organizations. Live music will be provided by Julie the Bruce, Andrew Surber and "Drum Polygon." The Sacramento "Capitol A's" Model A Club will display their restored antique cars throughout the tour. CLUCK (Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping) will raffle a chicken coop and other prizes at their booth.

Tickets for the Home Tour cost $20, but you get a $1 discount if you arrive on a bicycle. Tickets for the fair can be bought at the site of the tour: the SOCA tour booth will be located on the corner of 21st and G Street, directly in the street median. Visiting the homes requires a ticket, but the street fair is free, and will run along 21st Street between F and H Street.

This year's tour is located in the Boulevard Park historic district, a neighborhood that is visually distinct due to the landscaped street medians running down 21st and 22nd Street. These medians were part of a real estate development project dating to 1905. Located on the site of the old Union Park racetrack, Boulevard Park was the first planned development of the Wright & Kimbrough real estate firm. The development's boundaries were from B Street to H Street between 20th and 22nd, with a portion of 23rd.

When the neighborhood was built, a streetcar line ran along H Street from downtown to McKinley Park. Many of the most elegant Boulevard Park homes were located facing H Street, with more modest but still beautiful homes closer to C Street. C Street had its own streetcar line, but freight trains also ran on the same tracks until 1953! In addition to the landscaped medians, three blocks in Boulevard Park have small central park areas located in the center of the block, in a space normally occupied by backyards and alleys. Covenants on property deeds required minimum setbacks, prohibited high fences and noxious uses, and made provision for shared tenancy of the alley parks. These features gave the neighborhood a pleasing, park-like look that is still apparent a century after its construction. The current Boulevard Park neighborhood includes an area beyond the original development. Homes in the neighborhood are a mixture of Craftsman and Prairie, Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Spanish Revival and other revival st yles. Elsewhere in the neighborhood are Victorian homes of the Queen Anne, Stick, Shingle and Italianate styles.

Boulevard Park is one of Sacramento's most beautiful and well-known neighborhoods, and this year's SOCA Home Tour provides a unique look at the architecture, culture and creativity that make our city a great place.

SOCA's Web site can be found at: www.sacoldcity.org and includes membership information, details of SOCA activities and events, and updates about planning and preservation issues in Sacramento's central city.

Photograph taken by Randy Lum.

Sacramento History Bike Ride Sunday August 30

2009-08-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

This summer, a group of Sacramento State graduate students and local history enthusiasts began gathering once a month to take a bike ride through Sacramento's historic neighborhoods and share their knowledge about local history, historic architecture and cultural heritage. Two rides have occurred so far. The next will take place on Sunday, August 30, at 9:00 AM, in the Southside Park neighborhood. Riders will meet at the site of the Robert E. Callahan Bandstand in Southside Park, near the corner of 7th and T Street, at 9:00 AM.

Built on a former slough, Southside was inhabited by generations of immigrants and working-class families. The neighborhood's many ethnic communities, including Portuguese, Italian, Mexican and Japanese, came together in Southside Park, the neighborhood's namesake. Whether for fireworks displays on the Fourth of July, for a trip back to Gold Rush days at Roaring Camp, or simply to paddle the lake in a rented boat, Southside Park provided a place of respite and recreation in this bustling city. The neighborhood surrounding the park faced many challenges as Sacramento grew, but its residents faced these challenges with a tradition of political activism, community participation, and a strong sense of civic pride that is still evident today.

The Sacramento Historic Bike Ride is a free-form event: riders will decide where the tour should go. There are several sites I hope to visit in order to tell the story of the Southside neighborhood's diverse history, culture and development, but there is plenty of room for everyone's participation. If you have a story about the neighborhood, a historic site, a significant person, or a good story, please feel free to share it! The tour will run until about 11:00 AM. There is no cost to participate in the tour.

For those that may be interested, I will bring copies of my books, Sacramento's Southside Park and Sacramento's Streetcars, for sale at $20 each, and will happily sign them for you.

800 K hotel/Bel-Vue demolition goes back to City Council

2009-08-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, August 25, the Sacramento City Council will hear a proposal by developers Bob Leach and Parkcrest Development to build a hotel at the corner of 8th and K Street and a parking structure at the corner of 8th and L Street, a project that would require demolition of city landmark the Bel-Vue Apartments and adjacent buildings. The meeting will be held at New City Hall, 915 I Street, at 6:00 PM in the main City Council chambers.

The item was originally to be heard at the August 11 meeting of the City Council (see sacramentopress.com/headline/11884/City_to_decide_on_fate_of_BelVue_Apartments_and_Berry_Hotel_today ) but was taken off the agenda at the last minute. According to the staff report, the "Exclusive Right to Negotiate" between the city of Sacramento and the developers expired on Sunday, August 23, but city staff can still work with the development group while a new RFQ (Request for Qualifications) is being prepared, a process that should take about 90 days according to the staff report. If city staff and developers cannot reach an agreement, the new RFQ will request proposals from other developers and development groups for a different project on the 800 K Street site.

Also according to the staff report, city staff had not fully analyzed the new proposal as of its submittal date of Friday, August 21, and could not provide complete comment. One change from previous proposals is a change to requested exemption from the hotel's "Transient Occupancy Tax": instead of 100% exemption from TOT for 10 years, they are asking for 50% exemption for 14 years. According to the accompanying financial documents, this would add up to approximately the same total subsidy for the project, but over a different span of time.

Another change is that Mohammed "Mo" Mohanna is no longer listed as a member of the development team. The staff report does not specify whether another investor has joined the team in Mohanna's place, or whether one of the existing investors will contribute more funds to make up for Mohanna's financial contribution to the project, or why this change has taken place. Most of the financial commitment comes from the Korean firm Consus, but the city has not yet received a formal commitment with complete terms and conditions from Consus.

The staff report does mention that the original "Exclusive Right to Negotiate" for this project occurred as a condition of a lawsuit settlement between the city of Sacramento and Mohanna, in addition to the city's payment of about $18 million to Mohanna for the land.

The total subsidy for the project is estimated at $31.5 million in land and tax exemption (both transient occupancy tax and tax-increment fund exemption.) This amount does not include the money previously paid to Mohanna for the property as a result of the lawsuit settlement.

The staff report does not address the issue of a potentially competing hotel project planned for the corner of 10th and K Street, nor does it address the issue of the demolition of the Bel-Vue landmark.

The staff report for this item can be found here.

The agenda for this week's City Council meeting can be found here.

sacramento.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php

The Bel-Vue on the chopping block, but hope for the Berry

2009-08-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

My new Midtown Monthly article, on the Bel-Vue

On Tuesday, August 11, the Sacramento city council will decide whether to give away the half-block containing the Bel-Vue to a group of developers, who would raze the remaining quarter-block and the underground sidewalks on 8th & K to build a new hotel at 8th & K and a parking lot where the Bel-Vue stands. Full staff report is visible here:

http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=94&meta_id=182207

In slightly brighter news, at the same meeting the City Council will hear (and hopefully approve) a plan to restore the Berry Hotel, just across the street from the Bel-Vue.
http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=94&meta_id=182203

They will also hear an updated plan regarding development along Sacramento's alleys (focusing on architecturally interesting alleys like the one behind the Bel-Vue.)
http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=94&meta_id=182205

On the consent calendar, the Council will add three buildings to the official list of Sacramento landmarks, including the Coloma School in Elmhurst, 1210 H Street in Mansion Flat, and "The Trap" (aka Pimentel's Ingleside Cafe) along Riverside near the Pocket.
http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=94&meta_id=182179

So there's hope that these items might make the appeal of reusing the Bel-Vue, and not giving our treasures away, more immediately apparent.

2009-08-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, August 5, Sacramento's Preservation Commission will hear an update on the "Underground Sidewalks" survey project. This survey has explored much of Sacramento's surviving underground sidewalk structures, and is preparing a detailed report on their current condition and historic context. An earlier meeting, held in March, outlined what the survey would do(as discussed in this Sacramento Press article) and this meeting will present the initial findings of the survey team and report their progress. The final report on the underground sidewalks should be completed by September of this year.

The meeting will be held at Sacramento's City Hall, 915 I Street, in the City Council chambers on the first floor. The meeting starts at 5:30 PM and the Underground Sidewalks survey will be the first of several staff reports presented at the meeting.

A complete agenda of the Preservation Commission meeting can be found on the Preservation Commission's Web site.

Sacramento's underground sidewalks are a side effect of a massive street-raising project, executed from the 1850s to the 1870s and intended to keep downtown Sacramento above water during the region's frequent floods. Brick walls about 12 feet high were built at the street edge and filled with dirt, but the spaces between the buildings and the street were left open, and were the building owner's responsibility to cover and fill. Over the past 130 years, many of these spaces have been filled in or demolished by subsequent development, construction and sidewalk repair.

This survey, funded by a local nonprofit and a matching state grant, is intended to document all of the surviving "Underground Sidewalk" spaces in downtown Sacramento and research the methods used to build these structures. The survey will have many potential uses, possibly including the creation of a historic district, or facilitating an "Underground Sidewalks Tour" program similar to that found in Seattle and other cities. The public will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments to the Preservation Commission and the consultants conducting the survey.

The City Preservation Commission was created by the City Council. Its powers and duties include: to develop and recommend to the City Council preservation policies appropriate for inclusion in the General Plan and other regulatory plans and programs of the City and to provide oversight relative to the maintenance and integrity of the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources; to review, nominate, and make recommendations to the City Council on properties eligible for listing in the Sacramento Register as Landmarks, Historic Districts and Contributing Resources as set forth in the Historic Preservation Chapter, Title 17, Chapter 17.134, of the City Code; to review and approve preservation development projects of major significance and appeals of Preservation Director decisions per the Historic Preservation Chapter, Title 17, Chapter 17.134, of the City Code.

Meeting location: New City Hall
915 I Street- 1st Floor, Council Chambers
August 5, 2009 - 5:30 P.M.

More on the Bel-Vue/8th & K project

2009-07-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

City plans to demolish the Bel-Vue and adjacent buildings were mentioned in my previous blog post, also posted as a Sacramento Press article on July 3 but at the time the developer and financing organization behind the project were not identified. Since then, both have appeared, along with an additional partner. The financier, Consus Asset Management, is a new player in Sacramento. The developer, Bob Leach, just completed another Sacramento project, the Le Rivage Hotel. The other player in this project is a well-known name in K Street real estate, Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna. All three are asking the city for $18.6 million in free real estate and several years of tax forgiveness once the project is complete, and they want this done immediately, before public input and analysis by city staff and commissions can be completed.

Since my earlier article saw print, these parties were mentioned by articles in the Sacramento Bee, in Bob Shallit’s columns:
http://www.sacbee.com/shallit/story/2005107.html

In this column, Shallit mentions South Korea based Consus Asset Management (consusgroup.com ) as the primary financier, willing to put up $91 million for construction. Lead developer Bob Leach, builder of Le Rivage Hotel, made contact with Consus through local hotel builder Parkcrest Development. Also on the project team is Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna, who recently owned the land until the city paid him $18.6 million for it, after a lengthy series of negotiations, complex legal maneuvering, and the demolition of the buildings on the corner of 8th & K Street. The article mentioned that the developers were hoping for some tax breaks on this project.

Shallit followed this up with a second column:
http://www.sacbee.com/shallit/story/2017611.html

Here, the developers have urged the city to move quickly or risk losing financing. They have asked the city to give them the land, currently city-owned, for free, and to forgive taxes on the hotel for the first few years of its operation. Transferring the land quickly would also mean that there would be no time for an Environmental Impact Report to be completed, and before issues like the demolition of the Bel-Vue have had an opportunity to be fully reviewed by city staff, Preservation Commission or Planning Commission.

This issue will go before the Sacramento City Council on August 4. The city of Sacramento has held an Exclusive Right to Negotiate (ERN) with Bob Leach and Parkcrest, extended for 45 days on June 9, but that ERN expires on Friday, July 24.

The unspoken irony in the developers’ demand is that the city of Sacramento just paid nearly $20 million to wrest the property out of Mohanna’s hands, and are now being asked to give the property back to him. They are also asking for a free hand to demolish a Sacramento landmark, and forgiveness of future taxes, which means that it will be many years before the city of Sacramento sees any economic benefit or return on their investment of $20 million, their donation of a half-block of prime downtown real estate (by the city’s own valuation, worth the $18.6 million paid to Mohanna) and their sacrifice of irreplaceable historic buildings. This free giveaway would also add up to far more than the taxpayer-funded donation provided to developer David Taylor to rehabilitate three existing buildings on the 1000 block of K Street, a move that sparked widespread public criticism.

Why is there a need for such urgency? One possible answer is that there is another hotel project planned for K Street, only two blocks away. Unlike the project at 8th and K, this alternate project would require no historic buildings to be demolished. This project does not require the full Environmental Impact Report, instead using a far simpler process called a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND.) The MND identifies the developer behind the project as "10th & K Developers, LLC" and mentions that it will include 180 rooms in a 12-story building with ground floor retail. Could this simpler, less complex project be the competition that worries the developers behind 8th and K, and enough of a problem to make them demand a massive public subsidy from the city of Sacramento for a project that will not have to pay taxes for many years, and action fast enough to short-circuit public debate and review by city staff?

Meanwhile, the deadline for public comment on the Notice of Preparation is approaching. According to Jennifer Hageman of the city of Sacramento’s Economic Development Department, part of the process will include a public scoping meeting to present this issue to the public, but as of this writing no date has been identified for such a meeting.

To give public comment about this issue, contact Jennifer Hageman of the City of Sacramento’s Community Development Department at jhageman@cityofsacramento.org or (916)808-5538. Written comments should be sent to Jennifer Hageman, City of Sacramento Community Development Department, 300 Richards Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95811. Comments are due before 4:00 PM on July 27, 2009.

City To Demolish Landmark Building

2009-07-03T14:29:00.001-07:00

The city of Sacramento has announced its plans to demolish the Bel-Vue Apartments, a registered city landmark, in order to clear land on 8th Street for a potential future parking structure.

Located adjacent to the now-vacant corner of 8th and K Street, the Bel-Vue was built in 1910 as the American Cash Apartments. Built in the Craftsman style with Asian overtones, the three-story brick building contains apartments above a commercial ground floor. When the Bel-Vue was built, it was one of many downtown apartment buildings. If it was built today, the Bel-Vue would be described as a mixed-use, transit-oriented infill project. The building is currently owned by the city of Sacramento’s housing and redevelopment agency, the result of a complex land exchange between Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna, Z Gallerie owner Joe Zeiden, and the city of Sacramento. This land exchange was part of the currently stalled plans to rehabilitate the 700 block of K Street.

The city’s plan is to prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) containing two possible alternatives for buildings to be built on the site, and then demolish the existing buildings. One alternative is a pair of residential towers 300 feet high, running from K Street to L Street along 8th, originally proposed by former owner Mohanna and developers John Saca (of the failed 301 Capitol Mall project) and John Lambeth. The other alternative is a 300 foot hotel tower at the corner of 8th and K, currently vacant, and a six-story parking structure on the site of the Bel-Vue and the other buildings at the corner of 8th and L. There is no developer or investor specified in the EIR notice of preparation; the city of Sacramento plans to create the EIR and demolish the Bel-Vue and nearby buildings on speculation, in case a developer appears who is interested in constructing the buildings the city has proposed for the site.

When the city of Sacramento acquired the Bel-Vue building and its neighbors, it was an occupied apartment building with several retail tenants on the ground floor. There were also commercial tenants in the adjacent buildings, and apartments above most of those buildings. The city of Sacramento evicted the residents, and today only one retail establishment, a Chinese restaurant, occupies the Bel-Vue, aside from a parking garage in one of the buildings facing L Street.

All of the buildings on the site have a role in local history. 815 L Street, constructed in 1915, was most recently the site of a nightclub of the same name. In 1957, the site was one of the original Sam’s Hof Brau locations. The side of the building, invisible from the street, still bears a painted mural advertising Sam’s. La Rosa, an Italian restaurant opened in 1927, occupied the site before the Hof Brau. On the corner of 8th and L is the Feldhusen Building, a two-story building with ground floor retail and residences upstairs. It was built in 1895 and remodeled in 1954. It was home to many businesses including grocery stores, dressmakers, and the Diamond Club Tavern card room.
Buildings like the Bel-Vue were once commonplace in Sacramento, but over the years they have become very rare.

Today, some developers seek out historic buildings for residential projects, converting them into modern apartments or condominiums. Local companies like D&S Development (http://www.dandsdev.com) have completed projects like the Old Sacramento iLofts and 1409 R, and are now restoring the historic Maydestone Apartments at 16th & J Street. Architect Mike Malinowski, contractor Bruce Booher and CFY Development helped convert the Globe Mills grain mill complex into unique residential lofts. At the Railyards, developer Thomas Enterprises will make the historic Southern Pacific shops buildings the focal point of a new downtown neighborhood. Other adaptive reuse projects like the Citizen Hotel, MARRS, the Cosmopolitan and the Firestone Building show how vacant historic buildings can be made into exciting, unique urban destinations. Projects like these are often more popular than newly-built projects because they offer one-of-a-kind places to live, work and play in an urban setting. They appeal to those who want to be close to the action of the central city and their downtown workplaces, or just like the unique character of historic buildings. Instead of demolishing the Bel-Vue, the building could easily be repaired and returned to its role as a place to live, with businesses on the street to serve downtown’s residents. Restoration of historic buildings is also a greener option than new construction, as it needs far fewer building materials and requires far less landfill space (where the demolished building’s components would end up.) If sales of recent projects like the 1409 R lofts (opened in April and already two-thirds sold) are any indication, these projects are popular even in slow economic markets, while urban infill projects in new buildings are far less successful. Historic buildings can also qualify for tax credits and other incentives that can make rehabilitation cheaper than demolition and new construction. In the right hands, the Bel-Vue could be a gorgeous, attainable new home for Sacramento’s residents for another hundred years.

In recent years, the city of Sacramento has seen many proposed projects fail to materialize. The failure of projects like John Saca’s 301 Capitol Mall towers at 3rd and Capitol resulted in ugly, gaping pits in our city’s urban fabric. Projects like the 700/800 block, bogged down by unexpected resistance and a poor economy, sit languishing, waiting for a better plan to appear. Projects that encourage the demolition of landmarks encourage speculators to allow their historic downtown properties to sit vacant, deteriorating for years or even decades, with the hope of an eventual skyscraper-shaped payoff that may never arrive. More forward-thinking developers could turn the same buildings into Sacramento's urban showpieces.

No developer or investor has been named by the city to actually build this project or pay for it, and even if a developer and/or investor does arrive, if they want to make significant changes to the plan they would need to complete a new environmental document, making this effort worthless. The sacrifice of one of Sacramento’s irreplaceable historic buildings would be for nothing. And even if the city’s long shot is successful, and a developer does build the project, we will lose a historic landmark and a quarter-block of potentially useful buildings for a six-story parking garage in a neighborhood with many underutilized parking garages.

To give public comment about this issue, contact Jennifer Hageman of the City of Sacramento’s Community Development Department at jhageman@cityofsacramento.org or (916)808-5538. Written comments should be sent to Jennifer Hageman, City of Sacramento Community Development Department, 300 Richards Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95811. Comments are due before 4:00 PM on July 27, 2009.

Sacramento History Bike Ride Sunday June 28

2009-06-24T09:10:00.001-07:00

For those who are interested in local history and bike riding, a group of CSUS Public History grad students are planning a “Sacramento History Bike Ride” this Sunday. The plan is to meet on the west side of the Capitol, pick out some interesting destinations, and bike around to historically interesting spots. We will share the stories of our favorite buildings and significant sites, the events that shaped the city, and little-known tales from Sacramento’s past. This is a participant-driven event, so if you have a favorite place downtown you can take a turn at being tour interpreter, or just go along for the ride. Route details will be decided the morning of the ride.

Sacramento History Bike Ride, Sunday June 28 starting at 10 AM until approximately 1:00 PM.
Meet us on the sidewalk on the west side of the Capitol (10th & Capitol) with your bicycle. Sunday is supposed to be hot, so bring sunscreen, a hat, and maybe some water.

Two events this weekend

2009-06-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

City of Man, City of God:
The Catholic Church and the Shaping of Sacramento

On Friday, June 12, 2009, SAMCC will unveil a new photographic exhibit, City of Man, City of God: The Catholic Church and the Shaping of Sacramento. The exhibit depicts the role that people of faith played in shaping Sacramento’s urban agenda, from the 1850s to today. The evening will include an address by Dr. Steven M. Avella on his recently released book, Sacramento and the Catholic Church: Shaping a Capital City. The event is free and open to the public. It begins at 7:00 p.m. at SAMCC, 551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd, Sacramento.

The Catholic Church, present in Sacramento from the city’s beginnings, has had an important influence on Sacramento’s culture and development. Yet the character of Catholic life has also been shaped by the city’s diverse social, cultural, and political makeup. The exhibit and lecture will examine the interplay between the city and one community of faith in the creation of Sacramento’s urban agenda. Topics discussed include the geography of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the early struggle of assimilation by various ethnic groups, and the conflict between religious and secular forces over caring for the hungry and homeless. The evening is not a history of the Diocese of Sacramento, rather a look at Sacramento as a case study of the role a religious denomination played in the development of an American western city.

Dr. Steven M. Avella grew up in Sacramento and has written prodigiously about his hometown. Avella is the author of two recent books on Sacramento, The Good Life: Sacramento’s Consumer Culture and Sacramento: Indomitable City. He is on the faculty of Marquette University, where he teaches courses on religion and American life. He is currently engaged in writing a biography of Charles K. McClatchy, a former editor of the Sacramento Bee. Dr. Avella will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase that evening.

For more information please call (916) 264-7072.
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Preservation Roundtable - Saturday June 13th
Category: Events & Workshops, Other News, The Roundtable.
9:00am to Noon at the Young Ladies Institute – 27th & N Sts.
Continental Breakfast * $5 donation

6/13/09 AGENDA:

9:00 Welcome & Introductions
9:10 Preservation Issues & Updates:
- CA State RR Museum Foundation - Kathy Daigle
- Capitol Dist. State Museum & Historic Parks-Pati Brown
- DOC (Devel. Oversight Committee) update
- City Preservation Office - Roberta Deering
– Hwy 50 HOV lane –Kathleen Green & Karen Jacques
– Minimum Maintenance for Historic Structures – Tim Brandt Preservation Commission Chair
- Capitol City Preservation Trust Awards –Kay Knepprath & Fred Turner
- Sacramento City School District’s Bldgs. on the block-i.e.-Jefferson School at 18th & N Sts.

10:30 Speakers – Budget Impacts on Historic Preservation –David Kwong and Roberta Deering-Questions & Answer session

11:50 Announcements
12:00 ADJOURN

Sponsored by:
Page & Turnbull, Architects & S O C A
and the Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA)

Next Preservation Roundtable meeting is Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 at the School House in Old Sacramento

Riverboats in the stream of consciousness

2009-06-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

I saw this story about a sunken riverboat in the Bee today--I am pretty sure that it is the same boat as one I photographed back in November while taking a cruise on the Hawaiian Chieftain. Apparently it has sunk, down to the top deck. The weird irony is that Sacramento will have a new river cruise operator, Hornblower Tours, starting next week. I wonder if they might be interested in a genuine Sacramento riverboat for their tour operations...

I have been reading a lot of old issues of Golden Notes lately, and there seem to be an awful lot of riverboat stories--no surprise for this old river town. Some are tragic, like the Washoe disaster (a boiler explosion) while some are funny, like the story of a steamboat that got stuck on a head of cabbage, and some are just weird--like the saga of the Delta King, stolen once and sunk twice. That last tidbit gives me some hope that this sad little riverboat might get back a bit of its glory someday, assuming the fates agree, and someone has the time and/or money to do it, and a bit of vision.

Speaking of riverboats and the Delta King, there will be a Riverboat Gambling event on board the Delta King this Friday night...it's not cheap but should be fun. I did a story on it for the May issue of Midtown Monthly, and plugged an edited version of the same story on Sacramento Press: http://sacramentopress.com/headline/8616/Riverboat_Gambling_on_the_Delta_King. Should be a good time.

Fake Plastic Trees

2009-05-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

An interesting idea crossposted to Planetizen...fake plastic trees that generate solar power (via solar film in the leaves) and thermal power (via thermoelectrics) and even wind power (nano-piezoelectric generators in the petioles.) Made of recycled tires and recycled wood bits. Not quite ready for prime time, obviously, but an interesting idea...especially for use in places where trees are important.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/clay-dillow/culture-buffet/pumping-green-power-fake-plastic-trees

SCSH Presentation: M Street and the West End

2009-04-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

The Sacramento County Historical Society Presents:
M Street and Sacramento's West End
When: Tomorrow, April 28, 7:00 PM
Where: Sacramento Valley Medical Society Building
5380 Elvas Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95819

Cost: Free

What/Why: At this month's Sacramento County Historical Society meeting, SCHS President William Burg will present a historical perspective of the evolution of M Street/Capitol Avenue between the 1850s and the 1950s. Drawing on photographs mostly from the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center (SAMCC,) the presentation will cover the area's early residential neighborhood, featuring the homes of prominent Sacramentans like Leland Stanford and E.B. Crocker, the industries along the waterfront, and the multicultural neighborhoods that formed in the 19th and early 20th century. Finally, the presentation will review the effects of the redevelopment era on the neighborhood, and its transformation from a neighborhood into Capitol Mall.

Ample parking is available behind the building and along Elvas Avenue.

http://www.sachistoricalsociety.org

This is a presentation I originally gave to a group of architects, developers and electeds last February, on the history of M Street and how it became Capitol Mall. I had to shorten it, and even tone it down a bit, because the story of M Street and Capitol Mall is not very pretty. This presentation will be an expanded version, with more of the story of who lived in the West End and why it became the target for redevelopment.

Golden Notes Online

2009-04-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

For over 50 years, the Sacramento County Historical Society has published articles and books on local history. Originally, these were small digest-sized publications, published under the title "Golden Notes." Many are long out of print, but contain articles and information about local history that is difficult or impossible to locate anywhere else.

In order to help promote local history and share information with researchers and the general public, the Sacramento County Historical Society has made over 40 years worth of SCHS "Golden Notes" books available online, in PDF format. They represent a valuable resource for those seeking information on local history on an amazing array of subjects.

The "Golden Notes" issues can be found here:
http://www.sachistoricalsociety.org/goldennotesPDF.cfm

Los Angeles citywide survey

2009-04-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

Many people don't associate Los Angeles with historic preservation, but in many ways Los Angeles is really taking big steps to create effective preservation programs. They have an active preservation department, a preservation plan including mechanisms called Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (basically an enhanced historic district, each of which has its own citizen-organized neighborhood committee) and they are performing an extensive city-wide survey to document architectural resources in the city built as recently as 1980. Part of the purpose of the survey is to inform planning decisions: if historic resoures are already surveyed, the development process can be simplified because they don't have to take that step. All too often, the preferred method of "simplification" is to just knock it down...

The article from the LA Times:

The city's Office of Historic Resources page describing the survey project

Another LA organization I am growing very impressed with is the Los Angeles Conservancy. They are a very slick, very professional nonprofit organization whose website includes lots of great tools. They actively encourage citizens to become directly involved in research and nomination of properties, promote tours and cultural events, and have lots of neat educational and informational tools for the public.

Los Angeles Conservancy website

Los Angeles is kind of a different ballgame than Sacramento, but it is pretty impressive to see what they have done, and what could be done here in Sacramento. Considering that the city's preservation department consists of two people, and our own local preservation organizations are comparatively small, we have a way to go, although we can use Los Angeles' experience as a model for ways to promote local history, educate community and city staff and representatives.

Los Angeles is also doing other interesting things: they are spending six times the sales-tax amount per capita what we are (1 cent of each sales tax dollar, vs. 1/6 cent) on improved public transit, including rebuilding their interurban and streetcar network.

Hollow Sidewalks Survey Workshop

2009-03-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Time: 5:30-7:30
Location: Historic City Hall, 2nd Floor Hearing Room, 915 I Street

On Tuesday, March 31, the city of Sacramento invites downtown property owners and community members to a Public Workshop to find out about the Raised Streets-Hollow Sidewalks Historic Survey. Join the Public Workshop, learn about the survey and ask questions.
-----------------------
This survey, funded by a local nonprofit and a matching state grant, is intended to document all of the surviving "Underground Sidewalk" spaces in downtown Sacramento.

In the 1860s and 1870s, Sacramento's Board of Trustees undertook a project to raise downtown Sacramento's streets above flood levels by building brick walls at the edges of every street and filling those walls with dirt. This resulted in streets as much as 12 feet higher than their original level. Building owners either used teams of screw jacks to elevate their building to the new street level or simply made their original second floor into the new ground floor. Because the building owners were responsible for the space between their building and the street, most built brick vaults over the sidewalk area, leaving the old sidewalk as a covered but accessible underground space. Most of the street raising was done between approximately I and L Street, from Front Street along the river to 12th Street to the east.

Over the intervening 130 years of development, new construction and road projects have destroyed or damaged much of the original underground sidewalk areas, to the point where only a handful remain. This survey will document surviving remnants and research the methods used to build these structures. The survey will have many potential uses, possibly including the creation of a historic district, or facilitating an "Underground Sidewalks Tour" program similar to that found in Seattle and other cities. For those interested in learning more about the survey, the methods used, or those who hope to take a peek inside the history of Sacramento, this public workshop should be very instructive.

Bacon Wrapped Tofu: in which I simulate a foodie blog

2009-03-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend I made bacon wrapped tofu for the second time, a dish I invented for an EMRL party/noise show around eight years ago. I initially wanted to create a dish that would offend both meat eaters and vegetarians, although it turned out pretty tasty. The first time I made it I just wrapped the tofu cubes and baked it at 350 degrees for around 45 minutes, draining fat as necessary. This time I used a slightly higher-quality bacon, and drizzled a bit of dry mustard on it before baking. I forgot to take an after-baking photo because I was in a hurry to serve them. The bacon flavor was absorbed nicely into the tofu.

Preserve Me A Seat drew a pretty good crowd, due to other projects rattling around I didn't have much of a talk about Sacramento theater history so instead I talked about historic preservation in general. Thanks to anyone reading this who made it out.

The Lowdown on Downtowns

2009-03-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this article about Redding's downtown today and was quite impressed with some of its points:

http://donigreenberg.com/2009/03/19/downtowns-by-paul-shigley/

Paul Shigley is someone whose writing I already follow via the California Planning & Development Report website, at least his "Daily Shig" blog, and his work with planning guru Bill Fulton (whose Guide to California Planning is indispensable for planning professionals/planning geeks--Shigley co-wrote the latest edition.) Although the article focuses on Redding and Pasadena, there are lessons Sacramento could learn from the example of Pasadena, just as Redding should--and Redding could learn from us. The "Qualities of a Great Downtown" includes lots of examples Sacramento could use--such as, while downtowns should have bread and circuses, they shouldn't be all bread and circuses.

Preserve Me A Seat

2009-03-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Preserve Me A Seat
Category: Film
When: Friday, March 20, 2009, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM, 9:30 PM - 11:00 PM
Where: Movies on a Big Screen/Shiny Object Cinema
600 4th St
West Sacramento, CA 95605
(916) 743-1088
Official Website: http://www.shiny-object.com/screenings

Cost: $5.00

What/Why: A special screening in conjunction with The Sacramento Old City Association! I will give a brief talk on local theater history and some contemporary theater preservation issues at the 7 PM screening only. We will show it again at 9:30 for those who can't make it at 7, but there will be no speakers at the later screening.

We don't remember a lot about our distant past, but we do remember our favorite movie theatre. "Preserve Me a Seat" is a documentary about these theatres and the ongoing fight to protect and preserve them for future generations. Featuring preservation efforts in Boston (The Gaiety Theatre), Detroit (The former Michigan Theatre), Chicago (The DuPage Theatre), Omaha (The Indian Hills Cinerama Theatre), and Salt Lake City (The Villa Theatre), "Preserve Me a Seat" will appeal to anyone who has cherished memories of seeing their favorite movies in a grand theatre, and who appreciates the unique architecture of movie theatres. Even more than that, however, the documentary explores a number of urban development issues particularly relevant to Sacramento in a number of ways (not just theaters): adaptive reuse, a lack of response by city governments to their constituency, the destruction of historic spaces for the sake of what are essentially urban lofts (high-end residential units, at least), and much more.

A look inside 14th & R Street from the Preservation Roundtable

2009-03-17T09:59:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday's "Preservation Roundtable," a quarterly gathering of those interested in historic preservation, infill, development, local history and urban forestry, met at the "Shady Lady" saloon, the corner unit at 14th and R. The building is a former bakery, located on Sacramento's R Street industrial corridor.

The top photo is from inside the "Shady Lady," a restaurant/bar with a definite old school feel: lots of dark wood, what I would describe as "bordello wallpaper," high-backed booths, and a wonderful metal & wood ceiling treatment. They plan to hang a lot of photos of bars from Sacramento's past: I pointed them at a couple of collections where I found a lot of great images of Sacramento taprooms at SAMCC.

The other two businesses that will go in the ground floor are Magpie Catering, who provided amazingly tasty baked goods for the Roundtable, and "Burgers & Brew," the same folks who own the business of the same name in Davis, as well as Crepeville.

Upstairs are twelve residential lofts, ranging between about 500 and 1100 feet. These are actual loft lofts, not apartment buildings or close-set single family homes billed as "lofts." All have polished concrete floors. Due to their proximity to Empire Events Center and light rail tracks, they all have very good soundproofing and dual-pane windows.

The Roundtable meeting was very lively, including a long and sometimes grumpy discussion of the proposed deregulation of the Planning Commission and Design Commission (that would combine them into one board, with more projects going to staff level.) Roundtables are interesting events for the information they provide, but often then opportunity to get inside of neat historic buildings, especially ones on the brink of a new life, is more fun than the meeting.

Public meetings: River District and Hollow Sidewalks

2009-03-16T11:06:00.001-07:00

Got word about these meetings at last Saturday's "Preservation Roundtable" meeting. The first one apparently requires an RSVP, but the second is a public meeting to be held in the old City Hall building. That one looks interesting...they are surveying the surviving "underground sidewalk" spaces, to see how much is left. I know that some folks are trying to start a tour of those spaces, comparable to the Seattle tour, and at least a few folks are interested in taking that tour.
--------------------------
River District Specific Plan
Historic Properties Survey Meeting

Date: Monday, March 23, 2009
Time: 4:30-6:00 PM
Location: 300 Richards Blvd., 2nd Floor, Room 221

Learn more about the Historic Properties Survey being conducted as part of the River District Specific Plan project. The survey is a review of the history and development of the River District’s built environment. Find out about the preliminary findings, provide your insights into River District history, and learn about the city’s historic preservation program.

Please RSVP by Friday, March 20 to Jason Hone at (916)808-5749 or jhone@cityofsacramento.org
--------------------------
Raised Streets/Hollow Sidewalks
Historic Survey Public Workshop

Date: Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Time: 5:30-7:30 PM
Location: Historic City Hall 2nd Floor Hearing Room, 915 I Street

The City of Sacramento invites downtown property owners and community members to a Public Workshop to find out about the Raised Streets/Hollow Sidewalks Historic Survey. Join the Public Workshop, learn about the survey and ask questions.

Please contact Kathleen Forrest at (916)808-5986 or kforrest@cityofsacramento.org with any questions.

Berry Hotel to close

2009-02-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to yet another Sacramento Press article, this time on the Berry Hotel. My experience with this building comes from both the historian and social work perspective; for three years I worked with the residents of Sacramento's SRO hotels. This makes the issues surrounding the Berry more personal. Historic preservation is not just about buildings. It is about people. Without people, a building really is just a pile of stuff. The context of human interaction with that pile of stuff is what makes a building historic, or valuable, or just a place to live.

The story:
http://sacramentopress.com/headline/3831/City_to_close_historic_Berry_Hotel

Reschedulings

2009-02-24T11:31:00.000-08:00

My interview on Insight was apparently scheduled for Monday morning, not Tuesday morning as previously mentioned, a detail that both myself and the show's guest host were unaware of until Monday morning. The show went pretty well, and the podcast can be heard here.

Also, the City Council will not be removing the item regarding consolidation of the Planning and Design Commission from the consent calendar; apparently the item is a general update of tasks for the Law & Legislation Committee, and not something that will be acted upon today. But it will come up again; last night's NAG meeting included discussion of the item, and consisted largely of development director Bill Thomas explaining why combining the two boards was a good idea and everyone else in the room telling him it was a bad idea. More can be found in the article on last night's NAG meeting at Sacramento Press.

update: Apparently it is being removed from the consent calendar and being brought up in the March 17 general meeting.

DOC Moves Closer to Eliminating Design Commission

2009-02-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

I posted another article at Sacramento Press about this. At the last Planning Commission meeting, Brian Holloway of the Development Oversight Commission said that any action was months down the road and they had not formulated specific recommendations. Two weeks later the City Council is voting to create an ordinance to eliminate the Design Commission based on recommendations the DOC claims they haven't made yet.

http://sacramentopress.com/headline/3781/City_Closer_to_Eliminating_Design_Commission

Also, this coming Tuesday Feb. 24, I will be interviewed on Insight on KXJZ, in order to talk about the Archy Lee story--the one I wrote the article about for Midtown Monthly this month: http://midtownmonthly.net/feb09/lee.html

That's the same day as the City Council meeting referenced in the article above. Should be an interesting day.

Archy Lee in Sacramento

2009-02-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

The February issue of Midtown Monthly features an article I wrote on a bit of little-known local African American history: the Archy Lee slave trial. It's posted on the MM website here:

http://midtownmonthly.net/feb09/lee.html

I looked high and low for a picture of Hackett House, or the building where the State Supreme Court met in 1858, but had no success. Tim, editor extraordinaire, used a commonly-used engraving used in runaway slave advertisements as the illustration for the piece. The engraving method used to print this sort of image is commonly known as a stereotype.

City of Sacramento to Eliminate Design Commission

2009-02-12T09:58:00.001-08:00

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 Review Commission and change the development approval process in the City so that City staff will make most planning and design decisions administratively, leaving no opportunity for public input.

The reasons you and members of your association should come to the hearing at City Hall on Thursday February 12th at 5:30pm to testify against this proposal:

1. This attempt to reduce citizen and citizen-commission input and oversight of development in our community has undergone no public vetting from community groups that will be affected by such a fundamental shift in our City's development.

The proposal was developed and sent directly to the Mayor with no input from the Planning or Design Review Commissions. More importantly, the proposed ordinance was not brought to any neighborhood association or other community-based organization that normally comments on development in their communities.

This is not the kind of transparency and open government practices that should be an essential part of such a fundamental change in our community's development approval process.

2. The proposal will greatly reduce opportunities for Community input

The proposal will eliminate the City's Design Review Commission and fold its responsibilities into the Planning Commission and shift “…the majority of decisions to the staff level..”. The movement of “…the majority of decisions to staff level…” will likely reduce community involvement from the development review process. Communities have a right to be able to comment on projects that will be built in their neighborhood.

Even after moving most decisions to the staff level, by eliminating the Design Review Commission the public loses one of the two opportunities they have left to comment on development projects proposed in their neighborhood. The recommendation would squeeze all public input on a project into one meeting where every issue with design or planning will have to be settled. This will almost certainly create the types of extremely long meetings that discourage public involvement and will force complex decisions that have long-term impacts on communities into unreasonably short decision-making time frames.

Reducing opportunities for citizens to be involved in projects in their neighborhoods decreases transparency, will cause more projects to be appealed to the City Council and will increase the likelihood of lawsuits to block projects. This will decrease the effectiveness of the development review process.

Please come to the Planning Commission hearing and comment on this item and let the City know that you think the public should have a role in development decisions in our City. Please distribute this email to other residents who would come to testify in support of preserving the role of the citizen in our city's development.

The recommendation can be found here: (http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/meetings/commissions/planning/2008/documents/DOC_letter.PDF) and the meeting is at the New City Hall, 915 I Street, 1st Floor- Council Chambers, February 12, 2009 at 5:30 P.M.

Something I'd like to save

2009-02-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

I was out by North B Street yesterday and snapped some photos of one of my favorite things, the little 25-ton General Electric locomotive in the "Simsmetal" junkyard lot. It appears that they have taken up the tracks around it (it may still be sitting on a last bit of track, or just in the dirt) and it's just sitting there. I went up the old spur to the mainline and got some shots of the other side, and noticed a big dent in the cab, maybe why they stopped using it.

I'm very fond of small locomotives, and this one is pretty much my favorite--so much so that I built a model of it, and occasionally run it on my layout:

I kind of want to figure out a way to save it. The California State Railroad Museum has been carrying out an active program of de-accessioning (fancy word for "getting rid of stuff") equipment not vital to their mission, partially to reduce their curatorial overhead and partially because they have to pull everything they own out of the Shops area to make way for environmental cleanup and the Railyards project stuff. Most small museums don't have much cash for accession outside of private donations, hard to get these days.

If they're willing to sell it for scrap value, the locomotive would probably cost about $7500, plus the cost of transporting it to wherever it would go, probably at least $5000.

Hm. I wonder if it would fit in my backyard. It would make one hell of a conversation piece, anyhow.

Preservation Commission meeting tomorrow

2009-02-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

Sacramento's Preservation Commission meets tomorrow.

Agenda items for this month include the status of a couple of Historic Resources Surveys that are going on right now, including an inventory of Sacramento's hollow sidewalks and raised streets.

M Street and Capitol Mall

2009-02-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

While snooping about online for traces of Sacramento history, I found an edited version of a presentation I gave last year on the history of M Street, also known as Capitol Mall. The local Urban Land Institute group apparently used it as part of a discussion about a national design competition for Capitol Mall.

Here's a link to the presentation:
8.CapitolMallNov.06.08.pdf
I suppose they edited it for time, but they removed some of my favorite images from the presentation, including the urban characteristics of the M Street waterfront neighborhood before the redevelopment era. I have posted a nice dramatic one from about 1960, facing the river, showing some bits of the old neighborhood being rapidly overshadowed by the expanding Capitol Mall project.

I've still got the original presentation and notes. At some point I'll have to give a talk on Sacramento's lost neighborhood and show the whole story with all the slides.

Then and Now Presentation for SCHS

2009-01-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

I will be present for a signing/presentation for Then and Now: Sacramento on Tuesday, January 27 at 7:00 PM. The event will be held at the Sacramento Sierra Valley Medical Society Building, 5380 Elvas Ave., Sacramento. This event is being hosted by the Sacramento County Historical Society.

Any good book tells a story, and any good history book needs a thesis. In Then and Now I wanted to show how the city grew over time, and the effects of this growth on buildings, neighborhoods and communities. In addition, I wanted the book to serve as a brief introduction to Sacramento history.

How would you select 80 historic photos from a collection of four million? How would you pick the most historically significant sites from a city of nearly 100 square miles? How would you photograph the site of a historic building where no trace of the original building remained? What is the best way to find out what is happening in a historic photo? How can you explain a photo meaningfully in 80 words or less? How can you recreate an aerial photograph without having to rent a plane?

In order to create Then and Now: Sacramento, questions like these needed answers. At its simplest, the book is a collection of historic photographs compared with what stood on the site in 2008, but it was not my intent to simply present the photos without context. At this month’s presentation, I will discuss methods, share primary and secondary source material, and present some of the history behind Then and Now: Sacramento that wouldn’t fit in the book.

If you purchased any of my books but they aren't signed, I would be happy to sign them; I will also have books available for sale.

Who Fills Your Potholes?

2009-01-07T10:19:00.001-08:00

I have been posting a lot at Sacramento Press lately, so I figured I would link from here to the articles I write there. I will still post blog posts here, but Sacramento Press provides an interesting forum and I think they probably get more hits than I do:

http://sacramentopress.com/headline/1942/Who_Fills_Your_Potholes

A bit of local Chinese restaurant history

2008-12-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

Spotted over at Heckasac was this link to a new KXJZ series by Elaine Corn detailing the many restaurants along Broadway. In addition to providing the culinary rundown, the stories of these restaurants, and the diverse communities that produce them, are some interesting local history that deserves more attention:

http://www.capradio.org/articles/articledetail.aspx?articleid=5940

Holiday time is book signing time

2008-12-11T10:43:00.001-08:00

I have a book signing for Then and Now: Sacramento coming up this Saturday, December 13.

The signing is at Ivy House, 5601 H Street, in East Sacramento. It starts at 1:00 PM, Saturday December 13, and if it ends up like previous signing events, I will give a brief presentation on local history that will hopefully turn into an open discussion and sharing of local history stories by the audience. Personally, I think that my new book would make a great (and relatively inexpensive) holiday gift for anyone in town, but I do admit to a certain amount of bias on that subject. I hope some of you reading this can make it.

America’s Invisible Homes

2008-11-13T10:44:00.000-08:00

I haven't been posting much because of school, but I recently wrote a book review for school, and was very impressed with the book because it tackles an important subject and has a Sacramento connection. Living Downtown addresses the history of residential hotels, destroys many myths about them, and presents a strong case that not only do we have to save the few such residences that are left, we will need a lot more.

One of the main criticisms of "new urbanism" and "smart growth" plans is that they are generally very expensive. At first glance, the core ideas of new urbanism (building dense, transit/pedestrian oriented neighborhoods) don't seem to rule out low-income residents, until one actually compares the types of housing people used in pre-automobile American cities to the kinds of housing in most "new urbanist" developments.

Even when such housing is referred to as dense infill, the housing units themselves are generally far larger than the spaces urban working people occupied during the era of residential hotel use. New urbanist units tend to be small compared to contemporary suburban McMansions, but even the 600-800 sf "loft" apartments (the small end in most developments) is pretty huge compared to an SRO residence. If an objective of new urbanism (especially in the Andres Duany "traditional neighborhood development" sense) is to recreate historic housing forms, how can working people be housed without the traditional housing mode used by working people in cities?

While most of the book focuses on San Francisco, there is a Sacramento connection: a reference to a 2000-unit replacement housing project planned to house the thousands of migrant workers and single men living in Sacramento's old West End, currently the site of Old Sacramento, Interstate 5, and other bulldozed properties. It was unusual in that it was one of the only projects even proposed that suggested building replacement housing for SRO residents, instead of simply pretending that they would vanish. However well intentioned, though, the replacement housing project was never built.

So here's the review:

Groth, Paul. Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. ISBN 0-520-06876-9. xxii+401

In Living Downtown, Paul Groth argues that the residential hotel, associated by many with squalor and decay, was once the housing choice of millions of Americans of all social classes. American reformers allowed these buildings to be destroyed without replacement, at a profound social cost. Groth also argues that living downtown promoted a distinctly public, urbane lifestyle that ran contrary to reformers’ preferences for suburban family living. The book is national in scope, but most of the research is focused on the city of San Francisco, a city that he considers a prominent example of residential hotel life, and the problems of the anti-hotel era.

Groth opens the book with a quote from Goethe: “There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance.” Central to his approach is the idea that the reality of residential hotels was very different from the perception of these buildings, and their residents, in the minds of urban reformers. Because these buildings defied an evolving American suburban ideal, reformers actively ignored the realities of residential hotel life. They did not include hotels in surveys or studies, and did not plan for their replacement when planning public housing projects in conjunction with slum clearance. They did not address the housing requirements or social needs of the people who lived in these buildings. The result of the difference between the reality of hotel housing and reformers’ narrow vision has proven catastrophic, resulting in a nationwide housing crisis and widespread homelessness.

Groth separates residential hotel life into four classes, including the elegant and expensive palace hotels, comfortable mid-priced hotels for the middle class, inexpensive working-class rooming houses, and the cheap flophouses of the urban poor. All shared many attributes. They were centrally located, allowing convenient access to urban workplaces. They were inexpensive compared to other housing of the same class, providing social opportunities for the nouveau riche, and an alternative to sleeping in an alley for the poorest. Their relative lack of home amenities meant that hotel residents’ homes extended into the streets of the city: their kitchens were nearby restaurants, their washroom was a nearby laundry, their parlor was the hotel lobby, a nearby bar or billiard hall, or even the streetcorner. Hotels’ typical pattern of using their ground floor for commercial spaces was economically beneficial to the hotel owner and convenient for the residents. This use of public space helped a uniquely urbane mode of life flourish in American cities. Because hotel residences were closely spaced within the central city, people of many social classes lived in close proximity. However, this mode of planning was anathema to city planners and reformers who sought to separate home life from the workplace and the marketplace.

Reformers of the Progressive Era were the initial advocates of hotel regulation, as part of their overall efforts to mitigate the problems of urban life. Groth states that many of the initial attempts to regulate residential hotels improved hotel life, like regulations mandating ventilation, minimum square footage, ratios of toilets to rooms, and other health and safety rules. However, for many Progressives, the density, proximity and adjacency of hotel life were problems as serious as sanitation. City planners used new tools like zoning to prohibit new residential hotels and boarding houses in the central city, but also prohibited their construction in new suburbs. The model for Progressive residential districts was based around family life, with lawns, open space and detached dwellings. Land uses dictated by zoning were reinforced by federal agencies, including the Federal Housing Administration, who encouraged new suburban construction and excluded central city residential construction, specifically hotels.

Groth keeps his focus on deliberate ignorance in his discussion of the redevelopment era in American cities. Backed by earlier Progressive ideas about slum clearance and zoning, business interests in central cities wanted valuable downtown lots for expansion of the business district and new freeways to carry suburban residents to downtown businesses. Hotels were not counted as residential units, and thus did not require replacement before demolition, and their residents were not eligible for relocation assistance or public housing. Federal policies for public housing counted only families, not individuals, and thus completely ignored the massive population of hotel dwellers displaced by urban renewal. This population crowded into the remaining existing SRO housing stock, or became homeless due to the lack of other options.

Groth paints a grim picture of present-day residential hotel life. Problems with the handful of remaining stock of buildings include long-deferred maintenance, crime, an influx of mentally ill and disabled after the closure of state mental hospitals, and hotel owners unwilling or unable to maintain their building. Groth lays the blame for the poor state of surviving hotels on the failure of public policy to recognize the value of these buildings, and the willful ignorance of reformers, planners and social workers that allowed their destruction. He concludes with a call to action, describing the beginnings of the pro-SRO movement, and the current state of public policy. Living Downtown sheds light on a little-explored aspect of urban history, and the author’s approach suggests that study of the history of residential hotels can inform contemporary public policy.

The Sacramento Press

2008-10-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd take a moment to plug the beta version of a new community website some friends of mine do: The Sacramento Press. It's just starting up, in beta form, but they have some big plans.

Sacramento Then and Now: INSIGHT Interview

2008-09-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to the interview I did on KXJZ yesterday:

Insight on KXJZ

It went nicely, this is the third time I have been interviewed by Jeffrey Callison so I know a bit of the routine. The only question that threw me was when he asked me what my favorite picture was: I just turned to a random page and talked about that.

My favorite picture was actually the photo of Sacramento Executive Airport. When I went out to the airport terminal I realized that the photo I was trying to reproduce was not shot from the ground, but in fact from the roof of a nearby hangar. The view from the ground was pretty much just a shot of their loading dock, so I went over to the offices of SacJet and, much to my surprise, managed to talk my way onto the roof of their hangar. They were very friendly and even drove me out to the hangar in one of their little golf carts. I got a nice, slightly death-defying view of the hanger and got the shot. So, at least in terms of my favorite modern photo, that was the answer I should have given yesterday.

What's my favorite historic photo from the book? I'll give that some thought and hopefully I'll be able to narrow one down by the time the book signing rolls around.

Then and Now: Sacramento

2008-09-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

On Monday, September 29, my new book, Sacramento: Then and Now, will go on sale.

This new book is a bit different from the other Sacramento books in the Arcadia series, part of Arcadia's Then and Now imprint. This book juxtaposes historic photographs with modern photos taken from the same location (or at least as close as I could get to the same location.) The book covers the entire city of Sacramento, including a final chapter on "The Uncity," places outside the Sacramento city limits but whose presence is important to our city's history, like Mather and McClellan Air Force Bases, the towns of Freeport and Florin, and even Town & Country Village.

The historic photographs in the book were provided by SAMCC, the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center, and SAMCC staff provided invaluable help in putting the book together. 50% of the royalties from this book will go to SAMCC to help them continue their mission of preserving artifacts, images and documents of Sacramento's history.

I will be interviewed on Insight, hosted by Jeffrey Callison, this coming Monday the 29th at 2:00 PM. KXPR can be heard at 90.9 FM in Sacramento, or via the Internet using the link above.

The grand book release event is scheduled for Thursday, October 16, at Time Tested Books, 1114 21st Street, Sacramento, at 7:00 PM. I will be there to sign books and give a short talk. Some of the SAMCC staff will also be present to talk about their mission. Hopefully you'll come and join me.

Did I mention the street fair?

2008-09-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the SOCA Home Tour in the last post, but I figure I should spotlight the street fair because I'm the guy who runs it.

The home tour portion is nice, but it's my job to create a big ol' street party atmosphere and also provide a place where Home Tour visitors can spend some time before and after the tour. Sometimes we block off a street, last year we set up in a park, but this year we have permission to set up on the front lawn of the Fremont Adult School, a historic building in its own right, on N Street between 24th and 25th. Having two convenience stores across the street gets me off the hook from having to find a food vendor, although I still got one because I have wanted to have Josh Ploeg selling his vegan goodies at the SOCA fair for a couple years now, and he was finally available to do so.

We have some very diverse choices for vendors this year--here is a still-incomplete list:

Sacramento County Historical Society
SAMCC (Sacramento Archives & Museum Collection Center)
Towe Auto Museum
Mickey Abbey (stained glass)
Loftworks (one of their Sutter Brownstones units is part of the home tour!)
Green Sacramento
LJ Urban
49 Mile
Joshua Ploeg (baked goods)
Vintage Properties
The Pampered Pet
Dave Clark (I Do Windows & Doors)
B Line Construction
Tim White (home repair)
Sister Sheba Naturally
Isabella Corsetry
Thomas Enterprises
California Watchable Wildlife
Atelier

It's about an even mix of crafter/vendors, developers/designers/builders, and history groups. I'm pretty happy about how diverse the offerings are.

Oh yeah, and there's music too! Here's the entertainment line-up:

Dead Western
The Hell-Outs
Mickie Rat (of The Secretions)
Andrew Surber (aka Chopstick)
Aaron Brown

...and possibly a couple of others.

The street fair starts at around 10:00 AM, music starts at noon. It's free, so if you are anywhere near midtown, drop on by.

2008 SOCA Home Tour

2008-09-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

The 2008 annual SOCA Home Tour is Sunday, September 21st in the Winn Park Historic District and Capitol Mansion area in Midtown Sacramento. Each year SOCA showcases some of the finest architecture the old city has to offer, both historic and contemporary - a tribute to our heritage and a celebration of our future. Some of the homes featured on this years tour can be seen in the 2008 home tour gallery, accessible by clicking the gallery link at the SOCA homepage. One of the Sutter Brownstones by Loftworks will be open as well. Tour homes are open from 10 AM until 4 PM,and the historic Saint Francis of Assisi Church will be open for viewing by tour guests from 2 PM until 5 PM. Tour guests will receive a printed brochure with a tour map and illustrated histories of all the sites on the tour.

A street fair featuring home restoration specialists, energy efficiency experts, stained glass and woodwork artisans, craft persons and musicians will be held a the Fremont School at the corner of 24th and N Streets from 10 AM until 4 PM. The street fair is free.

Tickets are $20 on the day of the tour, and can be purchased at the street fair beginning at 10 AM. Advanced tickets are $18 and are available at Joannes Elegant Gifts -1019 L Street, Collected Works -4524 Freeport Blvd., The Avid Reader -1600 Broadway, and the 57th Street Antique Mall -875 57th Street.

Alley Development: Smart Growth or a Blast from the Past?

2008-08-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

This week, I attended a presentation put on by Jeremy Drucker of 49 Mile, the architect/developer behind Sacramento's 9 on F project. He came to talk about a potential future series of projects based on expanded use of Sacramento's alley lots.

When downtown Sacramento was originally split into parcels, several standard lot sizes emerged. A downtown Sacramento block is 320 feet by 340 feet, split into two halves by an alley 20 feet wide. Each subsequent 320x160 block is split into eight 40x80 foot lots (about 1/13 of an acre) along the numbered streets and four 40x160 foot lots (about 1/7 of an acre) along the lettered streets.

Drucker's idea is to build alley-facing units in the back third of the 40x160 lots. Now, for anyone familiar with midtown alleys, this is nothing new. Many property owners built "granny flats" on the alley facing of their lots. Sometimes these units were built in place of a garage in back of the unit, or built above a garage, while others were built in place of a garage or parking spaces. Building these flats had many benefits: it provided a source of extra income for the property owner, or allowed residents with large families to have a little more elbow room. Generally, an alley apartment is inexpensive, which helps maintain the central city's affordability. As zoning laws changed and the central city emptied out in the mid-20th century, the practice of building alley apartments generally faded out.

One point I tend to repeat again and again is that most "new urbanist" ideas are simply the way that we used to build cities a century ago, and alley units, as we see, are no exception. However, Drucker wants to add a few twists to the concept that make the idea a positive one in many areas, including urban infill, energy conservation, affordable ownership, and historic preservation.

Currently, there is an interest in urban infill in the central city, placing new projects on vacant lots. However, the number of these lots is limited. Exploring the use of alley lots could potentially mean hundreds of new units, integrated into existing neighborhoods. Drucker's current 9onF project provides a model for what these units might look like. The concept drawing I saw featured a three-story design, with a garage for four vehicles facing the alley on the ground floor. An ADA-accessible ground floor unit takes up the front half of the ground floor unit. Two more units occupy the second and third floor, both of which have patio areas atop the garage, facing out towards the alley. Each unit would have one parking space, and the fourth parking space would belong to the house that occupied the front portion of the lot.

Unlike the historic role of alley units as rental housing, these would be for-sale units. Because of their small space footprint and alley frontage, they would potentially be affordable to buyers that would otherwise not be able to afford central city housing. The other economic advantage of alley units is that the owner of the original 40x160 lot would make a nice chunk of change selling the back 60 feet of their lot: potentially, about $100,000!

This brings me to the portion of this idea dearest to my own interests. One of the problems with all of the attention on midtown development is that owners of central city homes face great pressure as land values rise. Some developers engage in lot consolidation, buying several adjacent lots with the intent of demolishing the buildings. When demolition permits are too hard to secure via normal channels because the buildings are historic, occupied and/or intact, many buildings fall victim to "demolition by neglect": buildings are allowed to remain vacant, decay and fall into disrepair until either the city can be persuaded to allow demolition or an "accidental" fire simply eliminates the house.

Alley development reduces this economic pressure by making lot consolidation and demolition less appealing. It allows a great increase in overall density in the central city: potentially, five total units could be placed on a 40x160 lot (about 36 DUA.) So a lot with a single-family home could add 4 units in the back, a duplex could add 3 units, and so on--a lot with an existing fourplex could even add a fifth single-unit "granny flat" in the back. But all this density could be achieved without demolishing a single existing structure. And because of the economic benefit for the owner of the property, projects like restoration of existing properties becomes much more economically feasible: an extra $100K goes a long way to restoring a faded Queen Anne or Craftsman bungalow to its original grandeur, money that would otherwise have to come from other sources. It makes historic homes a lot easier to preserve, and reduces reasons to knock them down.

It's a "triple win" from a development perspective: it increases density and walkability (and thus urbanity), it makes home ownership in the central city affordable to more people, and it promotes preservation of existing historic neighborhoods.

National Register Properties at SOCA Website

2008-08-15T11:17:00.001-07:00

An online listing and narrative of Sacramento's National Register historic properties is available via the Sacramento Old City Association's website:

http://www.sacoldcity.org/?page_id=83

An interactive map, photos and brief narratives for each gives a comprehensive look at structures in Sacramento that are currently listed with the National Register.

Urban gardening, past, present and future

2008-06-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been poking through my old issues of Mother Earth News and some of my cheap-living library, gleaning ideas for a class on frugal living for work, as well as inspiration for the ever-present desire to save money at home with fix-it tips and homegrown edibles.

About 10-12 years ago I had a brief interest in backwoods homestead type living, and picked up quite a few old early-1970s issues of Mother Earth News and similar materials from that era. I read quite a bit of it, but ended up deciding against that sort of lifestyle--partially because a friend (Xeney) shared quite a few horror stories about growing up with hippie back-to-the-land parents, and partially because my wife and I, despite our grumpy and independent nature, are pretty much city people.

Over the years, I channeled my interest in self-sufficient lifestyles by doing things like baking bread from scratch (including grinding whole grains) and other low-cost/high-reward eating strategies. I also got interested in backyard gardening. My first couple of attempts were fairly dismal, due to lack of sunshine, but my last house had enough sunshine and a tiny backyard (around 250 square feet,) enough to grow quite a lot of vegetables.

Since i moved to a new place two years ago, I had a fresh palette to work with. Tearing out all the grass from my monstrous 20x40 foot backyard proved to be too much for my social calendar, so instead I planted a few tomatoes and squashes on top of a pile of dirt in the backyard that used to be the front yard before I xeroscaped it. It's fun having a garden to take care of, and hopefully I'll get some nice tomatoes and such as the summer wears on.

So yesterday, this story on urban farming appears in the Bee. Now, urban gardening is nothing new--anyone who followed the story of the Mandella Garden near Fremont Park (and the resulting, albeit smaller, community garden that is there now) knows that. But urban gardening is a traditional city activity, especially during rough economic times.

City neighborhoods occupied by working-class folks often become the site of urban gardens. Immigrants from farming backgrounds carried their knowledge and lifeways with them, and industrious families used their backyards as tiny farms to supplement their paychecks by lowering the food bill or even offering goods to trade or sell. If you wander through the alleys of Southside Park, quite a few homes still have backyards entirely turned over to gardens. During World War II, the United States government encouraged Americans to turn their yards into "victory gardens" to supplement large-scale crops, save gasoline, and help stretch ration cards.

Sometimes, backyards garden were for drinking as much as eating: my old friend Jack Davis told me stories about growing up in the neighborhood around the Newton Booth school in the 1930s. At the time, the neighborhood was mostly occupied by Italians and Slavs, many of whom grew grapes in their backyard to make homemade wine. In the fall, the whole neighborhood would stink of rotting grape skins!

Backyard (and front-yard) gardening fell out of favor in the 1950s, and city ordinances were enacted to discourage city farmers from growing crops on the front lawn. Fortunately, that ordinance was ejected last year, much to the delight of contemporary urban farmers.

Which brings me back to the present day. Part of why city residents were so eager to run to the suburbs (and why 1970s "Mother Earth News" readers were so eager to run to the rural backwoods) was because cities were perceived as unhealthy, dangerous, polluted places where people ate plastic food and had no connection with nature.

Urban farming--past, present, and future--provides a chunk of the solution. It connects the urban resident with a little chunk of the natural world, every vegetable grown in a city backyard is one that doesn't have to be trucked in from elsewhere, and they taste good. And it's just one of a baker's dozen other strategies for cities that are liveable, sustainable, preservable, walkable, and lots of other "ables..." including "vegetable."

A little stroll through Alkali Flat

2008-06-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I take advantage of my lunch hour and take a walk into nearby historic neighborhoods like Alkali Flat. As Sacramento's oldest residential neighborhood, it still contains a few houses from the late Gold Rush and early Transcontinental Railroad era. There are still a few stretches where you can squint your eyes and not really see anything that is newer than 100 years old (of course, there are telephone/electrical poles, but we had those in the 1890s too.)

The J. Neely Johnson Mansion, home to two of California's first governors before the "Historic Governor's Mansion" was even built (the aforementioned J. Neely Johnson, still California's youngest elected governor, and total jerk Peter Burnett), is getting some attention after looking a bit under the weather for a while:

Nearby, the Globe Mills project's first phase is open and renting. The units are senior apartments, intended for those 55 and up. Rent is based on income but varies from $350-650. This portion is all new construction, and fills a real need for affordable housing for older adults.

The market-rate section is still a couple of months from completion but definitely coming along. The old mill section will include apartments inside the massive silos, and public areas will feature interesting bits of the mill's mechanicals left in place, like driveshafts for belt-driven equipment, electric motors, and other heavy things. A bit more interesting lobby decor than a potted plant and an end table...

Sacramento Preservation Roundtable, Sat June 14

2008-06-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

When: Tomorrow, June 14 2008, 9:00am - 12:00pm
Where: Sacramento Amtrak Station
401 I St
Sacramento, CA

Cost: $5.00

What/Why:
The Sacramento Preservation Roundtable is quarterly gathering of Sacramento people and organizations interested in historic preservation and local history. A different topic is addressed at each Roundtable, along with updates about local preservation, museum, and history-related goings-on.

Preservation is Going Green. The speaker this quarter will be Randel Reidel, an energy specialist and managing director of the California Performance Contractors Association. A recent issue of Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, was devoted to this topic. Representatives from SMUD & PG & E will be on hand to answer your questions.

There is a $5 charge & continental breakfast is provided.

The Roundtable is Co-sponsored by the Sacramento Old City Association.

WHERE: SACRAMENTO VALLEY STATION DEPOT CONFERENCE ROOM, 401 I Street. The conference room is to the left of the main entrance to the train station.

WHEN: SATURDAY, JUNE 14, FLAG DAY!

TIME: 9:00 A.M. TO 12:00 NOON.

Parking is not free - please use transit or other means if you can. The light rail Gold Line comes right to the station as does the #30 or 31 bus.

For more info call SOCA at 916-455-2935
http://www.sacoldcity.org

The Greyhound move and preservation

2008-05-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, the Sacramento city council will hear a proposal to relocate the Greyhound station to Richards Boulevard: there was a story in the Bee this Friday http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/945786.html. The idea of moving Greyhound has been kicked around for a long time, but the issue of how the task could be done is not simple. Two major issues that occur to me are the issues of transportation and preservation.

The current Greyhound station, originally located on 7th and L in the 1930s, was very well situated for connection with other transit. All three city streetcar lines could be reached at 8th and K Street, a block away, the Sacramento Northern interurban line ran down 8th, and while the 7th Street trolley had already been replaced by a bus, it could be used too. After 1947 and the end of the city streetcar lines, Sacramento City Lines and later Sacramento Transit Authority/Regional Transit buses were nearby, and relatively convenient. For the past 20 years, the nearby Light Rail system and bus service have been close to Greyhound, because (obviously) people on Greyhound don't have cars, and for many a cab ride is an expensive proposition.

Relocating the Greyhound station to Richards Boulevard means that public transit is limited to three buses: the 15, which is daytime-only and runs between downtown and Rio Linda, the 11, which is weekday-only and hourly, and the 33, a neighborhood shuttle intended to help people get from Alkali Flat light rail station to various social services.

Theoretically, the Light Rail DNA line is supposed to advance to Richards and 7th in short order, but that's about a quarter-mile from the proposed Greyhound station at 420 Richards, not particularly convenient. A couple of full-time bus lines or another shuttle, between downtown and the station, is probably going to be necessary to allow Greyhound passengers to get wherever they're going in town--or to allow people in town without cars to get to the Greyhound station. In a lot of ways, Ricahrds makes sense as a lower-traffic and more freeway-conveient location than the current building, so the problem of connection to public transit has at least a potential solution.

The other problem, preservation, is a bit thornier. The owner, I am certain, plans to build something very tall on that plot of land. The current building, a Streamline Moderne structure of poured-concrete construction, is more than 70 years old and is already listed as a city landmark. While there are all sorts of pejorative terms people will use to describe the structure, go take a look at it sometime: the building is extremely solid, shows very few signs of serious exterior damager or wear, and isn't in any structural danger. And if you really look at it, and ignore the dust, the dirt, the indifferent paint, and the current use, it actually is a very nice building in its own right, and absolutely unique in the central city. Especially if there are redevelopment funds used in whatever project takes place, the issue of the building is something that has to be addressed, one way or the other.

So, what do we do? Some might assume that the appropriate answer would be to prevent Greyhound from relocating, or that the answer is to try to find a compatible use for the current building. But those aren't the only answers--or even the best.

While hunting around online I found some pictures of another former Greyhound station, one that was vacant for decades, and how the old facade was integrated very nicely into a new, quite tall, building:

This isn't even that new of an idea in Sacramento--it has been used as an adaptive reuse strategy on several of Sacramento's landmark buildings:

The Esquire Theatre, a 1940 Art Deco theater, became the home of an IMAX theater and the base of a modern, tall tower.

The Public Market, designed by famed architect Julia Morgan, was saved from years as an office building and became the grand entrance to Sacramento's Sheraton hotel, again with a tall tower behind it.

So why not do a similar project with the Greyhound station? The Moderne styling of the station could be complemented by something with similar style, or something more up-to-date that plays off the same themes and architecutral elements. It's a way to have our building and high-rise it too...just some food for thought. How digestible is it?

Preserve Me A Seat

2008-05-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

Friends at Shiny Object passed this along...looks like a must-see for those interested in preservation of the amazing.

Location: 600 4th St, West Sacramento - that's the corner of 4th & F in West Sacramento, just over the river from downtown.

We don't remember a lot about our distant past, but we do remember our favorite movie theatre. "Preserve Me a Seat" is a documentary about these theatres and the ongoing fight to protect and preserve them for future generations. Featuring preservation efforts in Boston (The Gaiety Theatre), Detroit (The former Michigan Theatre), Chicago (The DuPage Theatre), Omaha (The Indian Hills Cinerama Theatre), and Salt Lake City (The Villa Theatre), "Preserve Me a Seat" will appeal to anyone who has cherished memories of seeing their favorite movies in a grand theatre, and who appreciates the unique architecture of movie theatres. Even more than that, however, the documentary explores a number of urban development issues particularly relevant to Sacramento in a number of ways (not just theaters): adaptive reuse, a lack of response by city governments to their constituency, the destruction of historic spaces for the sake of what are essentially urban lofts (high-end residential units, at least), and much more. There's also the irony that we, who move into a space and create a theater to the best of our ability, are showing this, rather than a beautiful (actual) theater.

And then at 10 PM: (separate $6.00 admission)

http://www.shiny-object.com/

Governor's Mansion sneak preview tour May 10

2008-05-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA) and the Governor's Manison State Historic Park invite you to a sneak preview of the current 3rd floor restoration at the Governor's Mansion, never before open to the public, this Saturday, May 10. Recent efforts have unveiled stunning original 1877 detail inside this historic house.

The Governor's Mansion was originally constructed as the home of Albert Gallatin in 1877. It was California's official governor's residence from 1903 until 1967. Over the past year, scaffolding has concealed the extensive restoration work going on outside the mansion, and inside, the third floor has undergone a similar transformation. This event includes a complete tour of the mansion, including the newly accessible third floor.

Governor's Mansion State Historic Park is located at 1526 H Street in Sacramento.

Admission: FREE to SOCA members, $20 to non-members (or join SOCA for $25.)
RSVP REQUIRED: Call (916) 455-2935. Space on this tour is EXTREMELY LIMITED. All ages are welcome. The event begins at 5:30 PM and will last until about 7:30 PM.

Donations encouraged; will go to the 3rd floor restoration fund. Refreshments will be served.

http://www.sacoldcity.org has more information about SOCA and events like this one.

Streetcar Update

2008-04-18T12:37:00.001-07:00

The Sacramento/West Sacramento streetcar project is progressing. The current plan is to have a 2.5 mile starter route from West Sacramento's city hall up West Capitol, over the Tower Bridge onto Capitol, using RT Light Rail right of way (ROW) up 7th and 8th Street, down K Street, then circling around the Convention Center.

While many want the line to go farther, this is a starter route that is practical with the budget they have in mind, and one that is easy to expand once it is up and running. Using half a mile of Light Rail ROW on K Street actually helps extend things an extra half-mile while staying in budget.

The budget is going up a bit, from $50 million to $70 million, because it looks like they're going to use modern cars. They will make ADA compliance easier, make compatibility with existing light rail ROW simpler, and be closer to electeds' and disabled transit advocates' wishes for low-floor cars. Of course, this doesn't rule out the future inclusion of historic or replica cars.

The current plan is to have streetcars running by 2012-2013.

The basic operating assumptions are: 15 minute headways, 10 minutes during lunch hour. 10 stops. 22-minute end-to-end travel time. $1 fare. Operating cost: $3.55 million. Cars will be stored and maintained at Regional Transit's facility at Swanston. Extra provision for the post-game "pulse" at Raley Field will be provided by parking extra cars at a short spur in front of Raley Field. That spur can later become the beginning of an extension into the Triangle area of West Sacramento.

The funding for the $70 million capital cost will come from tax increment financing, parking revenues, a benefits assessment district, West Sacramento's sales tax, and private sponsorships. Operations costs will be covered by advertising, a hotel assessment, parking revenues, West Sacramento sales tax, reduced cost for equivalent bus service, and about 20% farebox recovery.

Ownership of the streetcar line is planned as a joint powers authority between Sacramento and West Sacramento, contracting to Regional Transit for operation and maintenance.

More can be found at http://www.riverfrontstreetcar.com

Presentations and preservation

2008-04-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday evening, I will be at the monthly meeting of the Sacramento Preservation Commission, giving a presentation on the history of Capitol Mall, or, as it was known before redevelopment, M Street.

The meeting will be held at Sacramento's New City Hall on I Street, Wednesday April 2, at 5:30 PM, in the City Council chambers. This meeting is open to the public.

The meeting agenda can be seen
here.

The sad part about oral history

2008-03-13T12:01:00.001-07:00

Oral history interviews have become an important part of my research into local history. There simply is no substitute, especially for subjects that didn't get covered in the newspapers or other media, to hear about the past from someone who was there. In my interviews I hear some amazing stories, and hopefully get to use some of those stories in history books and articles. And if I don't, maybe somebody else will. Even when an interviewee doesn't tell the truth, the story they do tell can be illustrative of their values, their ideas, and their opinions.

The down side is that oral history interviews generally involve interviewing people who probably aren't going to be around for much longer.

One of the first people I ever interviewed was Jack Davis. Unlike more recent interviews, where I used a digital recorder, Jack's interview was pencil and paper, jotted down notes in the busy entrance lobby of the Railroad Museum, and a few follow-up remarks. I wrote about some of Jack's childhood in Sacramento in Sacramento's Streetcars, including his early jobs as a soda jerk and delivery boy in Sacramento's drugstores, and his education in local schools.

Jack was an engineer for Southern Pacific--not the sort who drove the train, but a civil engineer who planned right-of-way and gave the trains something to run on. He volunteered at the Railroad Museum for many years, giving tours and relaying his enormous knowledge of railroad operation.

Jack died the other day. He was a heckuva guy. I'm glad I got to know a little bit about him. I wish I had had the time to do more interviews, with a recorder. Of course, one assumes that he wouldn't have minded sticking around longer either...

Oral history interviewing is one of the crash-priority parts of history. Get the interview now; tomorrow they might be gone, and learning about their life becomes much harder, if not impossible. It's also a saddening thing to get to know these people, just regular folks with lives of success and disaster and routine, and then they're gone. But that's an inherent part of working with senior citizens, and the pain is more than compensated by the opportunity to learn about some of the richness of their lives--and being able to share some of those lives with others, through writing.

My books aren't best-sellers by any means, but I'm glad that maybe a few more people got a chance to meet Jack through his words in my book. Plenty of people will remember him, from friends and family and the other Railroad Museum docents to the thousands of people who went on his tours. If a few people meet him by way of my introduction, I figure that's a big part of my mission, as a writer and a historian.

'Scuse me. I've got to go get my recorder and make a few calls.

I've been indexed!

2008-03-07T15:55:00.003-08:00

My good friend Paul Trudeau, of the Southside Park Neighborhood Association, and also the person who provided me the most help in assembling Sacramento's Southside Park, has created a comprehensive index of names, places and businesses mentioned in the book.

Due to the page limits of Arcadia books, they only allow one-page indexes, and then only if a page of photos and text is sacrificed. Because I like to include a bibliography at the end of my books, I chose to not include an index. Paul, with some help from several of the people mentioned in the book, went through and created a 20-page index document.

http://groups.google.com/group/southsidepark

The surprising part is that there are connections between different parts of the book that I didn't spot when I was writing it--and also some inconsistencies. I can only hope that sales of Southside Park. are brisk enough that I'll be able to do a second edition--and issue some corrections! Perhaps the next thing I should do is produce an errata page...

Sacramento Preservation Roundtable

2008-03-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

School has again eaten my brain, making updates unpredictable. There are some neat things coming up, though, including this:

THE SPRING 2008 SACRAMENTO PRESERVATION ROUNDTABLE

Date: Saturday, March 8th – 9:00 a.m. to 12 Noon
Place: Towe Auto Museum – 2200 Front Street
---Continental Breakfast * $5 donation---

AGENDA:
9:00 Welcome
9:05 Preservation Roundtable reorganization,
establishment of Steering Committee—Kathleen Green
9:10 Preservation Issues & Update:
– Sacramento Heritage Grant program update—Red Banes
– State Parks Update (Indian Heritage Center project update;
Railroad Technology Museum update; and State Park
closure issue)—Pati Brown, State Parks; and
Kathy Daigle, CSRM Foundation
– Update on the Railyards Development
& National Register Nomination—Linda Whitney
– City Preservation Office update—Roberta Deering
– City’s General Plan—Karen Jacques
Questions & Answers welcome on all issues.
11:00 —Break—
11:20 Speaker: Native American Heritage Council—Randy Yonemura, Dir.
“How we can work together -Historic Preservation & NAHC ”
Questions & Answer session
11:50 Announcements
–SOCA’s very special behind-the-scenes Spring tour
12:00 ADJOURNMENT
Sponsored by: Sacramento Old City Association
Sacramento Bungalow Heritage
Next Preservation Roundtable meeting is Saturday, June 14, 2008

Sacramento's Streetcars, Part 6: Northern Electric

2008-01-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, electric railroad technology produced a new form of transportation, known as the electric interurban railroad. These systems provided a middle ground between the big, continent-spanning Class 1 railroads and local, city-serving streetcar lines. One of the advantages of electric railroading over steam railroads is lower cost of operation, especially for shorter trains. Steam locomotives pulling only one or two passenger cars are less cost-effective than the same locomotive pulling a long string of cars, but local service often does not require that much capacity. An electric interurban car is more flexible: like modern light rail, a single car can work during off-peak periods, but in situtations of higher demand trains can be made of multiple cars, controlled by a single motorman.

Electric railroads also carried freight. While electric freight motors were not as powerful as steam locomotives, they were fast, and did not need to stop to take on water or coal. This made electrics ideal for perishable and express cargo, less-than-carload freight, and short-haul deliveries.

Electric interurbans sprung up around the country. California was home to some of the largest and best-known interurbans, including the Pacific Electric in Los Angeles and the Key System in the Bay Area. Sacramento's first electric interurban was the Northern Electric, founded in Chico. Their system extended through Marysville/Yuba City, with branches to Colusa and Oroville, and reached Sacramento in 1907.

Another advantage of electric interurbans over steam railroads was the relatively small and non-noxious equipment they used: while steam trains used noisy, smoky locomotives and cars were large and bulky, interurbans were very quiet and the cars were smaller than steam railroad cars. This meant that interurban trains could literally run through the middle of downtown, very convenient for passengers.

In Sacramento, Northern Electric's mainline entered the city at 18th and C Street, next to the Blue Diamond almond grower's co-op, turned down D Street, and zig-zagged to Fifteenth and I Street. The train turned left on Eighth and I to Northern Electric's original station on 8th and J Street. The main line continued down 8th Street to M Street, and across the river on the M Street Bridge, predecessor of the Tower Bridge.

In order to secure permits for interurban operation on city streets, Northern Electric had to meet two conditions: First, freight trains could not run through town, and had to take a separate route around Sacramento's city limits. Second, Northern Electric had to provide local streetcar service in Sacramento, in addition to interurban trains.

Next time: the Northern Electric's streetcars in Sacramento.

Railyards update

2007-12-09T15:48:00.001-08:00

The latest news on the Railyards in the Sacramento Bee is that Thomas Enterprises has agreed to trade two of the seven Shops buildings to the state of California for use as the Railroad Technology Museum:

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/553781.html

There is also an editorial on the costs of the project:

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/551957.html

The Bee characterizes the land transfer as a "donation," but it is actually a trade. In return for the land for the RTM, Thomas Enterprises receives two parcels of land. One is at the northern edge of the railyards, in the area where the American River once ran, intended for the Bass Pro Shop and a park. The other is along the waterfront, where Thomas Enterprises wants to build a pair of hotel towers.

There are strings attached: the Boiler Shop will be transferred immediately, and thus restoration and repair of that building can start very quickly, but the Erecting Shop won't come into possession for three years, by which time the museum has to show they have money for restoration and 25% of the funds for exhibits. Considering that the RTM is currently 85% funded, and they have many of their intended exhibits sitting out behind the Boiler Shop, that shouldn't be much of a problem at all.

This Tuesday will be the final City Council meeting about this issue, and the Council will vote on whether to adopt the Railyards EIR, and approve other various measures that boil down to a big "go" flag for the Railyards project.

There are other issues, of course. The National Register of Historic Places Historic District has not yet been established. National Register designation will be an important factor in soliciting grants, loans, tax credits and other funds for historic preservation and restoration of all of the Shops buildings. Issues like access, infrastructure and the remaining million other details still have to be worked out, and then of course there's the big question of whether the state is willing to cough up the hundreds of millions of dollars that Thomas Enterprises wants to bankroll infrastructure.

But we're one step closer.

Some preservation items

2007-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Instead of another giant rant, here's an announcement about a couple of local history and preservation events:

This Saturday, December 8:

THE SACRAMENTO
PRESERVATION
ROUNDTABLE
WINTER 2007

Date: Saturday, Dec. 8th 9:00am to Noon
Place: YOUNG LADIES INSTITUTE; 1400 27th Street
Continental Breakfast provided; * $5 entrance donation
12/8/07 AGENDA:

9:00 Welcome
9:05 Hollow Sidewalks PowerPoint Presentation---Bill Burg
9:10 Preservation Issues & Update:
City Preservation Office Update---Roberta Deering
Meet the New Director of SAMCC (Sacramento Archives and
Museum Collection Center)---Marcia Eymann
Sacramento Heritage, Inc Update---Red Banes
State Parks Railroad Museum; Governors Mansion;
Sutter's Fort, and Stanford Mansion Museums---Pati Brown
Railyards Development Historic Nomination Update---Linda Whitney

10:45 Oak Park Proposed Historic Districts -PowerPoint
Presentation---Paula Boghosian and Don Cox
11:30 Announcements
Next Preservation Roundtable meeting Sat., March 8, 2008

And this Sunday, December 9:

(from the Sacramento Old City Association website)

DO YOU KNOW THE TOWN OF SAMA?

The Southside Park Neighborhood Association is inviting everyone to their
monthly meeting to learn more about who was here before the gold seekers, the downtown merchants and what we see every day.

UC Davis Professor Sheri Tatsch, PhD, will tell about Sama, a Nisenan town of perhaps 1200 to 1500 inhabitants that was on the site of the current Old City Cemetery.

Sunday evening, December 9
5:15 to 5:45
Southside Park Clubhouse
6th & U Streets

Zazz in the Railyards

2007-12-06T15:34:00.001-08:00

I noticed this article in today's Sacramento Bee, and it got me thinking about what sort of things are planned for the Railroad Technology Museum that would fit the requirements put forth in the article and some of the comments after the article.

The gist of the article is, how do you draw people with a railroad museum? In my mind, you do it by making the story modern as well as historical, by varying exhibits, and by giving people things to do.

The RTM plan, despite at least one Bee commenter's comment and the rather sketchy outline described by the Bee, is very much a developed plan. The original Railroad Technology Museum was supposed to be built in the mid-1980s before state budget crises delayed its construction at Front and R Street. The current RTM plan was started in 1999, when the plans to move it from Front and R Street to the Shops buildings was first put forth, and backed by the recommendation of the Sacramento City Council. There is not only a full, feasible proposal, it is also fully funded and ready to begin as soon as title to the buildings can be obtained (unlike Thomas Enterprises, who are depending on the city and the state for the vast majority of their funding.)

The two-building plan is based on a fairly simple concept: the Boiler Shop (the tin building nearest the freeway) would retain its current use as a restoration shop, while the Erecting Shop (the building next to the Boiler Shop) becomes the display area, with the transfer table in the middle to move equipment easily.

The boiler shop is a gigantic, working garage where railroad cars, locomotives, and other railroad equipment would be transformed from rusting hulks into museum pieces. This not only serves the purposes of historic preservation, it also continues the tradtion of the Shops as a site for locomotive repair, and provides educational opportunities for vocational training in fields from mechanical engineering to welding to woodworking to painting. By making the restoration operations part of a visitable museum, the public can come in and see the work in process. Instead of seeing static museum pieces or seemingly abandoned hulks, the public can see machines being worked on and specialists at work.

The erecting shop is far better suited for the formal museum than the boiler shop: made of brick, it can more easily be heated and cooled, and is aesthetically a lot prettier building. Displays planned for the erecting shop include cutaways of locomotives, a locomotive boiler (weighing tens of thousands of pounds) suspended in mid-air on one of the shop's heavy cranes, a high-speed rail locomotive (to point at where the future of railroading is going, assuming our government gets its act together) and other modern equipment (maybe things like the Green Goat, a hybrid diesel-electric locomotive that is more fuel-efficient than some large pickup trucks.) Interactive displays include locomotive cab simulators, where visitors can do more than just look at stuff: they can try out things firsthand.

The transfer table, in between the shops, has a very important role. It is used to move equipment between the bays of the shops. Having the transfer table means that the Railroad Technology Museum can do something that the existing CSRM can't do: it means that exhibits can very easily be swapped in and out, to add variety and interest. In the main Railroad Museum, most of the locomotives are fixed in place. Engines like the Gov. Stanford, CP Huntington, Sonoma and Empire were put inside the building before the floors were built, and the track taken up behind them. The million-pound Cab-Forward locomotive certainly can't be moved. The Roundhouse area has some movable exhibits, and several of the center stalls are occupied largely by equipment that can be changed out easily, but cars like the dining car and mail car can only be moved with great difficulty and extensive preparation, and the Pullman sleeper car, with its piston assembly (that simulates car motion), can't be moved at all.

But the RTM, with the transfer table, won't have that problem. A fully functioning restoration shop means that equipment rehab and exhibit preparation can be done constantly. The transfer table and track within the Erecting Shop means that moving and re-locating exhibits is as easy as pulling them out of one stall and moving them into another. More variety equals more interest.

Modern railroad companies have a vested interest in promoting railroad museums: with railroad freight traffic at an all-time high, and many cities turning to rail to relieve freeway congestion, railroads need employees. And most of those employees (and I know many) started out as kids that fell in love with trains and just never fell out when they grew up. I know not many people believe it, but railroads are in our future. Those who claim it is "19th century technology" somehow fail to understand that cars are 19th century technology too, and the way things are going, cars may not be as ubiquitous as they were in the last century. Many folks who commented remarked that we have a long way to go to catch up with railroading in the rest of the world: a railroad technology museum, which teaches how railroads affect our lives and where the technology is going (as well as where others have led) can help prompt us to catch up! At least one manufacturer of high-speed railroad locomotives has already pledged their support to provide a HSR locomotive for the RTM.

Feasibly, thanks to the planned rail reorientation, there will be a direct rail connection between the Sacramento Southern (CSRM's tourist railroad) and the Shops, and there's no reason why either a rail shuttle or actual trains couldn't be used to go between them. How cool would it be to take (for example) a gas motor car or other lightweight rail equipment from the Shops to Old Sac?

Oh yeah, about the "one building" idea: Because the Boiler Shop is made of tin, it is not feasible to add air conditioning or heating. Effectively, you'd have to strip off the tin, build an internal structure inside the building, then put the tin back on. In the process, you'd lose a lot of the building's chunky, industrial aesthetic appeal (a look that could be restored, despite how run-down the building is now) and dramatic views of the internal building frame. Worse, they would lose the Boiler Shop as a restoration shop space. Restoration operations would have to be set up at State Parks' property on Front and R Street.

One thing I think people forget is that trains are BIG. The Shops buildings are massive buildings because they were intended to construct entire locomotives. A railroad museum is not intended to hold little things, or pictures. Railroad museums hold BIG things, like the last Cab-Forward locomotive left on the planet, or the massive Santa Fe 5000-series freight locomotives. Equipment for whom the term "it weighs a million pounds" is not an exaggeration, but, in some cases, an understatement. The RTM needs two buildings because this equipment just doesn't fit in a small space--and because the two buildings will fill very different roles.

Sacramento has the potential here to become the home of the finest railroad museum in the world. We are already home to one of the finest railroad museums in the country. Adding the RTM would make us the home of a museum in the class of the Field Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, or the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. Why a railroad museum, some might ask? Because Sacramento is an enormously important place in the history of railroading--and thus the history of California, the history of the United States, and, yes, world history. And we're still an important economic place for railroads--and thus the economy of California, the economy of the United States, and, yes, the world economy.

When do condos work? When they're historic!

2007-11-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

Speaking of D&S Development (same people planning on building on the Alhambra & T gas station lot, mentioned in my last post) their Old Sacramento historic-building rehab project is just about sold out, as reported in the Bee:

http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/525826.html

The Mechanics' Exchange building is a century-old structure with some very nice condo lofts inside. I got a chance to tour them while I was writing a story on Old Sacramento for Midtown Monthly a while back, and they really went all-out, not only to make the building comfortable but to restore its historic appearance and physical integrity. The windows were restored, not replaced, although they re-did the panes with dual-pane glass (for insulation and soundproofing) using the original 100 year old wooden frames, restored so they'll last another century.

How do you sell fairly expensive condos in a "down" housing market--ones that come without parking spaces? By putting them in an absolutely unique building in a great location. These units sold for the same reason why midtown properties are still selling as new-home sales are stagnant: people will pay extra to live in beautiful old buildings, especially if they're fixed up to modern standards, and especially if they're in urban settings where people want to live. I just hope that more vacant downtown buildings get the same treatment. My own first choice for a "next project" of that sort would be the Bel-Vue on 8th and L Street; the Berry across the street is due for a rehab, and the Bel-Vue is currently owned by SHRA. Considering its location and the beauty of its architecture, the Bel-Vue would sell as rapidly as the Mechanics' Exchange project, and probably at similar price points. It would also help preserve a currently vacant and at-risk structure.

It's nice to see a small, local developer do well. D&S are the real deal: their office is in this great Italianate mansion, and they already have a good track record of central city infill and historic rehab projects. In a weird market like this one, locals who can offer a unique product will do better than the big behemoths who assume that the only way to make money is to build the same crud in greater quantities.

New plans for Alhambra & T

2007-11-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

The aforementioned project at Alhambra and T has been revised. The original art deco look of the project, intended to reflect the appearance of the original gas station, has been replaced by a "Craftsman-ish" brick structure that is more oriented towards the corner. It's still four stories tall, 12 units with 13 parking spaces.

Here's a note from Mike Malinowski, the architect who designed the building:

"Attached are rough concept sketches of our current design direction for 3030 T Street. I hope this new tack addresses all the concerns that have been raised to date. This design has 12 units with 13 parking spaces, and is 3 story at the street frontages, with the fourth level reduced in footprint so it pulls back from the façade for significantly reduced massing. Materials and style are ‘neo craftsman’ which is in concert with both existing surrounding homes, and the newly approved development at Alhambra and S, as well as nearby structures in brick such as the cannery and the natural foods coop. The elevator was relocated to allow the rounded corner to be softened and opened up with a continuous balcony treatment, with brick columns and perforated metal railings (so that view of potential occupant balcony clutter is obscured). The unit design, site parking and circulation layout, and internal circulation have all been improved. Note that the elevations and fourth floor are not yet worked out in any detail - pending an approval of this direction, and the drawings are rough sketches consistent with the developers need to either find common ground to proceed in earnest, or stop.

Please also note that the attached rendering has been revised since the meeting late today with staff and it incorporates the suggestions for brick pilaster/column treatment, metal balcony railing vs glass, floor lines expressed at balconies, as well as a more ‘red brick’ coloration as is consistent with brick use in Alhambra projects noted above.

It is my hope that this new direction is a project that can be supported at all levels so that it can proceed. What is needed is a clear ‘yeah or nay’ – so that the developer can devote their resources to their other projects that have a clear path to success. After such considerable work and investment, it is easy to understand their position.

We will be meeting with Councilperson Fong on the 19th. at 11 am. Perhaps staff might circulate these electronic files to the neighborhood as appropriate prior to that.

Regards

Michael F. Malinowski AIA"

While I liked the original design, I think this sketch was done as a way to make the building blend a bit better with the existing buildings, and personally, I would rather have seen something a bit bolder, that acknowledged the gas station. But I also kind of like this too. And the approval of development on this lot means that the gas station structure can be disassembled and restored, and given to the Towe for future use.

And often, when it comes to infill development, the winner becomes the project that leaves all parties equally dissatisfied.

Historic Architecture Liberation Front

2007-11-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

I picked up a copy of American Bungalow Magazine at Newsbeat today, and was fairly inspired by an article by Jane Powell, entitled "Confessions of a Radical Preservationist." She proposed the creation of an organization called HALF: Historic Architecture Liberation Front, founded on the following principles:

1. All historic buildings are created equal, and endowed by their creators with the inalienable right to remain standing, be properly maintained and not be sacrificed on a whim, be that the whim of an individual, a government, an institution, or a corporation.

2. To paraphrase a Buddhist motto: No matter how innumerable historic buildings are, we vow to save them all.

3. Historic buildings should not be sacrificed in the name of "economic development," which is almost always code for "profit" or "power."

4. "Smart growth" that demolishes historic buildings and replaces them with inappropriately dense "infill" is not smart at all and will eventually be as discredited as the "urban renewal" of the 1960s.

5. There is no essential difference whatsoever between building more density in urban cores (at the expense of historic buildigns) and paving farmland. Both are driven solely by the pursuit of profit.

6. Historic buildings are not to blame for whatever social ills may be associated with them. The building did not choose to become a drug house or to have irresponsible owners.

7. 99% of contemporary architecture sucks.

8. There is no bigger scam than window replacement.

9. NIMBY really stands for Not Intimidated Much By Yelling.

Spotted on Alhambra and T

2007-11-09T08:36:00.000-08:00

Just some evidence that preservation seems to be sinking in...for a long time someone had a hanging sign that said "EYESORE" on the fence in front of this long-abandoned gas station. More recently, someone else added two more signs with different interpretations of the structure.

What is...and isn't...a trolley?

2007-10-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

This article in Monday's Bee on the ongoing plans to build a streetcar line between Sacramento and West Sacramento prompted quite a few comments. One thing I notice is that, for many people, it isn't at all what a streetcar, or a trolley, is.

The term "streetcar" refers to fixed-rail transit that is run on city streets, rather than on separated grades like a railroad. The term was originally used to describe horse-drawn cars operating on rails, but can also cover cable cars, steam dummies (small steam locomotives intended to pull cars on city streets) and electric trolleys. Because horse cars, cable cars and steam dummies were all supplanted by electric trolley cars, the terms "streetcar" and "trolley" are pretty much identical.

The term "trolley" comes from the pole used to connect an elevated high-voltage power line to an electric vehicle. One of the earliest prototype electric streetcars had a four-wheel device that hung from the overhead wire, connected via a cable to the car, referred to as a "troller," is probably the origin of the term. Trolley poles came in various forms, using either a wheel or a shoe at the end of the pole to ensure good connection to the wire.

Trolley vehicles normally run between 24 to 50 feet: about the size of a modern bus, but generally wider. Speeds vary, but for the most part trolleys run at 20-40 miles per hour.

That being said, what ISN'T a trolley?

This is not a trolley. This is a bus. People have frequently suggested a "test run" of a trolley system by trotting out one of these instead, or they argue that a trolley system won't work because the RT bus-that-looks-like-a-trolley is seldom crowded.

The problem is, this ISN'T A TROLLEY. It is intended to look like a certan type of trolley, if you kind of squint, but it fails for several reasons. For starters, it's still a smoky, noisy bus. Second, it runs on wheels instead of rails, and therefore doesn't run as smoothly. Third, because it has no fixed path, its schedule and route can change at the whim of the operating company, thus it gives little security to land developers who want to encourage transit-oriented growth that the transit won't vanish in the next fiscal wind.

Finally, this isn't a trolley because "quaintness" is not a required feature of a streetcar. Modern streetcars (and even some historic ones) aren't necessarily long on charm, wood paneling or quaint design (even though many of them are.) They're a vehicle built for a purpose, and the purpose isn't to look cute (even though many of them do): they exist to move people.

However, in the other direction:

This isn't a trolley either. This is a light rail vehicle. Many people assume that LRVs were the modern version of trolleys/streetcars. They are wrong. LRVs are intended to run primarily on private right-of-way rather than city streets, are typically 60-80 feet long and intended to run as multi-unit vehicles, are capable of higher speeds (up to 50-70 mph) and are intended for inter-city and suburban service. They are the historical replacement for the interurban, which is a type of transportation virtually unknown in modern society. Interurbans operated like LRVs do now: they run on streets in cities, but their real strength is in open country and private ROW where their larger size and faster speeds aid commuters. But a city trolley isn't intended to do that.

The classic example people think of when you refer to trolleys is the Pacific Electric (aka the "Red Car") of Los Angeles and Orange County, but that was an interurban system. Streetcar service in Los Angeles was covered by the Los Angeles Railway (aka the "Yellow Car"), a physically separate system (originally a cable car system, they operated on 3'6" cable car gauge instead of standard 4'8/5" gauge) owned by the same person (Henry Huntington.) Why would Huntington, a financial wizard on a par with his uncle Collis P., operate two "redundant" electric railroad systems in the same area? Because he realized that they served two distinct and separate roles! LARY streetcars moved people around in downtown Los Angeles and adjacent neighborhoods: PE interurbans moved people around throughout the greater Los Angeles area, in between cities.

Incidentally, this is what an interurban looks like:

(The SN's COMET with parlor car in Marysville, on its way between Chico and Sacramento and then on to Oakland.)

So, some of you might be asking: What DOES a streetcar look like?

Well, they can look like this:

Or like this:

Or like this:

Or even like this:

But this....

...just ain't a trolley.

Et in Arcadia ego

2007-10-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

The book signing for Sacramento's Southside Park at the Avid Reader is this Sunday, and unlike the ones I did at Barnes & Noble, this one will be a little different: instead of just signing books, Paul Trudeau (who helped a great deal with the book) suggested that we invite the people I interviewed (and some who contributed photos) to come join us at the signing. The idea, I suppose, is to make it more of a neighborhood event than just a book signing, and to hear from more people than just me.

The signing is this Sunday, October 28, 1:00 PM at The Avid Reader on Broadway and 16th (the old Tower Books.)

Railyards, reality and rhetoric

2007-10-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

I posted this over on the Heckasac blog (http://heckasac.blogspot.com/) today, regarding development at the railyards:
================================================
I'm of two minds on this. When it comes to the railyards, "leave things the way they are" really isn't an option: leaving the buildings alone just means they will fall down or burn down. They need to be restored.

The thing that concerns me is opposition to a proposed National Register historic district designation for the Railyards and environs. Despite the fears of development fans like Marcos Breton, a National Register designation does not mean that the site has to be left as-is, nor does it mean that only faux-antique buildings can be built there, nor does it mean that building signage has to have an Old West font.

In fact, there are NO federal restrictions on what property owners can do with a National Register property. From their website (http://www.nps.gov/nr/owners.htm):

"Under Federal law, private property owners can do anything they wish with their National Register-listed property, provided that no Federal license, permit, or funding is involved.
Owners have no obligation to open their properties to the public, to restore them, or even to maintain them, if they choose not to do so."

So, why create a National Register district?

Because such a district is eligible for MILLIONS in federal funds, grants, matching funds, and other monies available for restoration of historic buildings that are ONLY available to that sort of district. Once such funds are accepted, of course, you can't just knock over the buildings anymore, but if the whole point (and according to Thomas Enterprises, it is) is to open the Shops buildings to the public, restore and preserve them, then National Register listing is a way to bring in some of that desperately needed money everyone keeps going on about.
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So, I went to a presentation at City Hall about the upcoming Railroad Technology Museum. There were a lot of Railroad Museum supporters present, and most of the presentation talked about how the RTM is intended as a technology museum, while the current CSRM is a history museum, and what that means in terms of how the museum is laid out. The RTM was originally specified as part of the Railroad Musuem plan back in 1981, but due to budget cuts it was deferred for decades. A plan was developed for a Museum of Railroad Technology on Front and R Street, current site of the Docks project, and State Parks owns a plot of land in that area that was intended for this plan. At the time, the Shops were still in use by Southern Pacific, although they allowed CSRM to store equipment on spare track and restoration work to be done in the old Unit Shop. All this changed in the 1990s when Union Pacific bought Southern Pacific, and decided to close the Shops for good. The idea for an RTM in the Shops was then born. The city of Sacramento, hoping to spur redevelopment along Front Street (in a project now known as the Docks Project,) formally asked that the MORT be moved to the Shops area.

The RTM plan is designed around two of the seven Shops buildings, the Boiler Shop and the Erecting Shop, and based on this plan, a transfer table (costing about $500,000 in materials, with all volunteer labor) was installed between the two buildings in 2003 to move cars and locomotives between the shop buildings' bays. A letter of intent was included with the sale of the property from UP to Thomas Enterprises, specifying that those two buildings were to be transferred to State Parks for the RTM. Since the sale went through, Thomas Enterprises has decided that the letter of intent doesn't apply, and are now claiming that they want the Erecting Shop, the larger, more intact, and more historic of the two buildings.

Without the Erecting Shop, the museum won't happen and they'll have to switch back to the 1980s plan site on Front and R Street.

Anyhow, plenty of people came out to speak in support, and even more emailed. At the end of public comment Mayor Fargo held up a stack of paper about the size of a ream, indicating emails supporting the RTM from the public, and then another stack of maybe a dozen sheets, indicating emails opposing the RTM.

The truth of the matter is that the Thomas Enterprises redevelopment of the railyards is profoundly important to the execution and success of the RTM. The RTM will become a fantastic anchor tenant, giving Sacramento a cultural destination equal to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Combined with the planned arts center, Yee Fow museum, science museum in the old PG&E building, and the other museums already downtown, we would have a serious critical mass of cultural/historical destinations. Thomas Enterprises' plan to build retail, restaurants, nightlife, etcetera, in the remaining Shops buildings, plus new construction throughout the rest of the Railyards area, give the RTM city context and nearby amenities for museum visitors. And, personally, I'm just fine with development in the remaining Railyards to a density that Thomas sees fit: they have already planned a transition zone that effectively is identical to a Sacramento historic preservation district in regulatory intensity, with height limits.

The two projects need each other. Historic preservation and economic development work TOGETHER, not at odds, and Sacramento can be a beacon for this principle. This is a site which is significant not just to Sacramento history, but to American history, from many, many perspectives (from the Pacific railroad to the Pullman strike to immigrant and cultural and womens' and labor and social history) and it can still be part of our future without giving up its roots in our past.

This is now way longer than a blog post has any right to be. But more needs to be said.

Sic transit gloria

2007-10-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

My spot on "Insight" was moved to Friday, October 12 instead of yesterday: here's the link for anyone who might be interested in hearing me pontificate about Southside Park.
http://www.capradio.org/programs/insight/default.aspx?showdate=10/12/2007

Riding the bus and light rail is still pretty fun. I haven't gotten caught in the rain yet. After hearing some other folks' less positive experiences from riding public transit, I wonder how much my past experience on transit affects how I view it now.

As I mentioned a while back, I didn't have a car in high school, or in college. For me, getting around on my own outside walking/biking radius meant taking the bus. The first time I did this a lot was when I was 14-15 years old, taking summer classes at Sac State. For me, the bus represented escape and independence, and being able to daydream and read and stare out the window while I enjoyed that island of reverie. The same bus took me downtown to visit my aunt (who lived in midtown and inspired me to move down here) and let me explore a place that was far unlike Citrus Heights. On the return trip, I could pore over whatever weird swag (typically comic books or records, or used SF novel from one of downtown's many used bookstores) I had picked up on my brief transit-based adventure. So that association with freedom is still there.

Cars, on the other hand, don't give me that feeling. It's work. Other drivers piss me off almost immediately. I may rankle at some other bus rider's behaviors, but somehow it's less infuriating than the people who don't use turn signals while they cut me off, burn through red lights, talk on their cell phone, eat pizza, have bumper stickers I don't agree with, etcetera. People on the bus are encountered at the human scale, and the tendency is to treat other people like humans. When you're driving, you're dealing with other cars, not with people, and interacting with machines is necessarily less civil than with people.

For many people that's a bad thing. I suppose I am fortunate in that I guess I look kind of intimidating, or have some subconscious "I could kill you at any time" vibe, because nobody ever messes with me on the bus. I hear fearful tales of the threatening glares of gangster thugs and the unwanted advances of the homeless all the time, but somehow they're not on my car. I suppose I'm a little more used to interacting with street folks than most, and I imagine that can be unnerving if you're not used to it.

So while the cynical part of myself still awaits that moment when my transit honeymoon ends, the 14 year old part of me that really dug the freedom and independence of taking the bus gets to have his good time, and maybe enjoy a comic book.

A brief transitarian pause

2007-10-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

For the past month or so I have been inspired by a few different sources to drive my car less, and either walk or take public transit more.

The background: I live in midtown and work downtown. Both work and home are within two blocks of light rail and bus routes, and about a half-hour walk from each other. Since I moved there I have walked a lot more in the evenings and days off, but aside from a couple of days when my car was in the shop I still drove to work. The main reason I drive to work is because I use the car as part of my job sometimes, running errands and transporting people.

The inspiration: The writings of RT Rider provided some encouragement in the efforts of someone who lived a lot farther from work than I do to take public transit. The argument to decouple cars as a requirement for transportation, while leaving them as an option, was encouraging. The other inspiration was my first day as a graduate student at Sacramento State, wending my way around the parking lot.

Y'see, parking at Sac State is $5 a day now. A semester permit costs $108. But if you have a current semester sticker, you can ride bus and light rail for free. And, in my experience, you get wetter walking in the rain from your car through the parking lot to the CSUS campus than you do walking from the bus drop-off point.

So I figured, with the free ride incentive, I'd give it a try.

The practice: In the interest of leaving my options open, I have spent the last few weeks trying a variety of transit modes. Typically, there are three basic scenarios for transportation:
#1 is on school days. I have my choice of walking or taking light rail to work, but from work it's an easy shot to CSUS via buses 30, 31 or others. Home is either bus or light rail--I find bus is a little easier and doesn't require a transfer.
#2 is on non-school days. That's a maximum choice kind of day: Walking, bus, or light rail? Possibly my favorite is the half & half: walk to L Street and catch the next bus that comes by. It's a good middle ground between exercise and speed.
#3 is the car. I still need to drive in on days when I will need it for work--typically one or two days a week. If something comes up on a day when I didn't drive in, I can hop on the light rail and be back with my car in 20 minutes.

Now, I'm no newcomer to transit use. I grew up in a household that was often one-car, and one of my strongest childhood memories was riding downtown with my mom in RT's old GMC fishbowl buses. When I was 14, I took summer classes for gifted kids at Sacramento State, and took the bus to CSUS--in many ways, taking the bus to the Sac State transit center is a trip down memory lane. When Light Rail opened in 1987, I used to skip school and take the bus & train downtown to hang out at Java City or shop at the record and comic shops.

After college I got around by bike and public transit: it takes a special kind of girl to date a guy who suggests taking the bus downtown for a date, but somehow I did it. I didn't even know how to drive until a bit before my 26th birthday, when I finally got a job that allowed me to afford a car, and also required me to drive it for work.

The intervening decade or so included unlearning a lot of transit habits. While I never stopped walking around midtown, taking the car to work was a job requirement. I'd still take transit for other trips, usually with the regularity of a "regular church-goer" who goes in every Christmas and Easter.

But this past month has been an opportunity to bring back some old transit habits. The nice weather this time of years certainly makes it easier, and the acid test will be how much I use transit when the weather is less friendly.

What this has to do with Sacramento History: One of the nicest things about walking or taking transit vs. driving is being able to focus on things besides traffic. Sacramento's grid pattern streets also allows many different walking paths, which means I can stroll by a different set of my favorite historic buildings each time I take the walk. On the bus, the slightly higher vantage point offers a look at some of the Queen Anne cottages hidden behind "retail blisters" along downtown streets, ones that are often missed at street level. And, of course, there's the opportunity for reading on the bus if I don't want to admire the view.

A bit of self-promotion

2007-10-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Today marks the official release date of my new book, Sacramento's Southside Park. It is part of the Arcadia Publishing "Images of America" series, like my earlier book Sacramento's Streetcars.

A link to Arcadia's page on the book

This book represents a very different approach from the streetcar book, and, in my mind, something of a different approach than most of the Images of America series done on Sacramento neighborhoods.

While I made much use of sources like SAMCC and the Sacramento Room for this book, most of the information was gathered in a series of oral history interviews with neighborhood residents. I interviewed people from many walks of life, but mainly working people: people who worked in canneries and vegetable distribution, clerks and florists, truckers and bartenders. I tried to represent as clearly as I know how the incredible ethnic diversity of Southside Park, including its Mexican, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian neighborhoods. Many of the photos came from family collections rather than archives, although there are plenty of historic archive photographs.

The interviews and personal photos helped make this book more of an exploration of the lives of people in the neighborhood, rather than simply a collection of photos of buildings and unidentified people. While writing the book, I got a great sense of the level of civic pride and community that is present in Southside, and hopefully some of that comes through in the book's text.

I will also be doing a series of signings:
Thursday, October 4, 6:30 PM at Barnes & Noble, 1725 Arden Way, Sacramento
Saturday, October 6, 1:00 PM at Barnes & Noble, 6111 Sunrise Blvd, Citrus Heights
Sunday, October 28, 1:00 PM at The Avid Reader on Broadway and 16th (old Tower Books)

Finally, I will be on the KXJZ Radio program INSIGHT next Wednesday, October 10, at 2:00 PM:

http://www.capradio.org/programs/insight/

Sacramento's Streetcar Suburbs, Part 5: Land Park

2007-09-26T12:47:00.001-07:00

The line extending down on the lower left is the Land Park streetcar line. Originally, streetcar service on Tenth Street started in the horsecar era, primarily serving the Old City cemetery. It was maintained and expanded after electrification to serve a wide variety of needs.

This line featured several different things that encouraged transit visits. Across Riverside from the cemetery was a baseball field, originally known as Buffalo Park, built in 1911. Down Riverside, at the other end of the neighborhood, was the Riverside Baths, located approximately where the Sacramento Southern Railroad crosses Riverside Boulevard. That dropping off point also proved a convenient connection to William Land Park, established later. The Baths were an enclosed structure with both cold and heated pools, private bathing areas, and slides. The structure was later rebuilt as the Riverside Plunge and was destroyed to make way for Interstate 5.

The land in between the baseball field and the public baths, originally hop fields, became a new neighborhood of homes, originally known as Riverside (and at other times as Homeland) but now known as Land Park. Like other perimeter streetcar suburbs, the streetcar route (Riverside Boulevard) became the main commercial corridor, and the residential neighborhoods connected to this primary artery. Many of the older commercial structures along Riverside, as well as along Tenth Street, are artifacts of this period.

The construction of this neighborhood would later illustrate two of the weaknesses of streetcar networks as the 20th century progressed.

During the initial period of streetcar expansion, car lines are typically installed through potential high-traffic areas. As cities grow geographically, they extend their own borders. As seen in earlier examples, streetcars are a common mechanism for encouraging development in new areas. This creates two potential problems: traffic density and proximity to the rail line.

In order for a streetcar to run at a profit, it must have sufficient customers. This is less of a problem in a dense central city area with high population, but the density of suburbs dropped gradually as the 20th century progressed. Residential areas like midtown and Oak Park might have 12-20 dwellings per acre in parts dominated by single-family homes and duplexes on 40x80 lots, or go potentially much higher if two and three story apartment buildings were constructed. In neighborhoods like Land Park, single-family homes on large lots were the rule, with only scattered apartments. The result was a density more like 4-8 units per acre, which means fewer transit customers per mile of track, and thus lower potential revenues.

The second problem of proximity occurs in any growing transit system. As a city expands, streetcar lines extend from the center like spokes from a wheel. As distance from the center increases, so does the distance between the spokes. The only way to solve this problem is to build more spokes or add intersecting transit lines to fill in the gaps, which was expensive and typically beyond most streetcar companies' fiscal abilities.

The Sacramento map above shows the lines extending from the central city: the areas adjacent to streetcar lines were most attractive and commanded the highest prices. Thus, the lots in between were cheaper. Up until the early 20th century, these areas would have remained remote, but the introduction of the automobile created a way to make these areas useful. Potentially, a cheaper plot of land far from public transit meant that the owner could far more easily afford a car. This solved two problems at once. It also meant that residents on the outer edge of transit proximity would see their neighbors with cars, riding to work in comfort while they trudged to the streetcar line, and often bought cars of their own--resulting in fewer transit riders. Over time, even the ones who lived closer to Riverside purchased the cars that they saw their neighbors enjoying.

Streetcar companies, including PG&E, tried to fill in the gaps using buses, starting in 1929, to serve areas where streetcars did not yet run. However, streetcar business began a decline in that decade, and within ten years, the Land Park streetcar line was replaced by a bus route.

Sacramento's Streetcar Suburbs, Part 4: East Sacramento and Elmhurst

2007-09-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

The above map, from about 1900, shows the Sacramento Electric, Gas & Railway Company system in Sacramento. Most of the streetcar lines stuck fairly close to the central city's grid, but there were several satellite lines that diverged from the main line.

The original line was the old Highland Park Railway line, which traveled through Highland Park (now part of Curtis Park) and Oak Park. This line was extended when the State Fairgrounds moved to Stockton and Broadway: the State Fair streetcar line can be seen in the lower right corner of the map.

The line on the upper right was an extension of the J Street line, extending into newly developing neighborhoods in East Sacramento. At this time, the area was not yet part of the city of Sacramento, but still in the unincorporated county. This area, originally farmland, was subdivided into tract homes by Wright & Kimbrough. The line started at the Southern Pacific station at Second and H and traveled all the way through the business district on J Street, through midtown, and out into the new suburbs. The line turned south on 46th Street and ran all the way through the East Lawn Cemetery.

A word on cemeteries: Cemeteries were an important streetcar destination. Even during the horsecar era, a car line ran to the Old City Cemetery at Tenth and Y Street, and the original J Street line was convenient for the old New Helvetia cemetery at 31st and J. The Highland Park line ran down Twenty-first Street past the Catholic cemetery behind Christian Brothers school on 21st south of Y. Some streetcar and interurban lines, like the Pacific Electric, actually had special "funeral cars" like the PE's Descano with open spaces for a coffin, but so far as I can tell no such equivalent existed in Sacramento. Streetcars could be chartered to carry groups of mourners to cemeteries.

Eventually, the J Street line was renamed the "E-L" line, and later the #3 line. It was extended south down 46th Street, south across the Southern Pacific mainline at 46th and R, and did a brief "dog leg" on T Street, coming to a terminus at 48th and V Streets. This extension served two purposes: it provided streetcar service to the back entrance to the State Fairgrounds, and it also served the new suburb of Elmhurst. There were plans to construct a streetcar line to connect the E-L line to the terminus of the T Street line at 28th and T. The line was registered with the state as the "Elmhurst Railway" and in 1910 a ground-breaking ceremony in Elmhurst was held, but for some reason (and believe me, I'd love to know why) the line was never constructed. The large parkway down the center of T Street, from about 39th Street to 48th, was probably originally intended as the right-of-way for the streetcar line that was never built.

Next time: The Land Park streetcar line.

Sacramento's Streetcar Suburbs, Part 3: PG&E and its predecessors

2007-08-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

Albert Gallatin and his projects left a strong mark in Sacramento's streetcar history. His home at 1526 H Street was built along the old City Street Railway horsecar line in the heyday of Mansion Flat. As the manager of Huntington-Hopkins Hardware, main hardware supplier to the Pacific railway and the growing railroad empire of Central Pacific, Gallatin spent lavishly on the building that would later serve as the California governor's mansion. In 1887, he sold his home to Lincoln Steffens and relocated to San Francisco when Huntington & Hopkins moved their headquarters from Sacramento to San Francisco.

However, Gallatin's days in Sacramento were not over. In 1892, he and his partner H.P. Livermore applied for a franchise to operate a street railway in Sacramento. This system would be powered by a new hydroelectric plant, then under construction in Folsom. The new company was called the Sacramento Electric Power and Light Company, and it purchased and consolidated the Central Street Railway into its new system.

In 1895, an Electric Carnival celebrated the completion of the first long-range power transmission lines in California, from Folsom to Sacramento. The carnival showcased the various uses of electricity, including electric light and electric streetcars. The new hydroelectric system was far cheaper than coal-fired steam boilers to generate electrical power, and a streetcar system provided an excellent and steady customer. Owning both the electrical utility and the streetcar system provided a winning combination. Gallatin's new company was able to deliver cheap electric power to Sacramento homes, and transport Sacramentans on his electric cars. Electricity also played a role in the Oak Park suburb, as a new electric amusement park, Joyland, was built to draw riders, showcase electric power, and bring more suburban growth to Oak Park. By 1895, Gallatin's company was consolidated again and renamed the Sacramento Electric, Gas & Railway Company. In that year, there were seven operating lines in Sacramento: two to East Park, four at Oak Park, and one at the city cemetery. In 1906, SEG&R was made part of Pacific Gas & Electric.

Gallatin, like earlier streetcar operators Alsip and Carey, followed the same basic rule seen in other streetcar systems: Streetcar systems are great ways to make one's other business investments more profitable.

Other California capitalists learned this lesson, and expressed it in even more successful ways in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Henry Huntington, nephew of Central Pacific/Southern Pacific's president Collis P. Huntington, learned the business building streetcar lines for Southern Pacific in San Francisco, and applied what he had learned in Los Angeles. He consolidated the multitude of streetcar and small interurban lines in Los Angeles and Orange County into the Los Angeles Railway and the Pacific Electric, the largest interurban network in the United States. Huntington also perfected a "triangle trade" of development which produced great results: In addition to operating the streetcar system, Huntington also owned a real estate company, and he also owned a power company. Thus, Huntington streetcars were powered by Huntington electricity, and ran to Huntington suburbs.

It was common practice for Huntington's streetcar or interurban lines to build out to open fields, where there were not yet customers, and advertise lots for sale. Potential purchasers of suburban homes, who might otherwise be unwilling to move out to the suburbs far from their jobs, liked the idea of easy streetcar transit from home to work. Because the neighborhoods were mostly vacant land, the streetcar lines operated at a loss.

Francis "Borax" Smith followed much the same model in the Bay Area with his Key System interurban trains and in-city streetcars. Smith's system sold real estate throughout the East Bay, and built attractions like the Claremont Hotel and Idora Park (an electric amusement park, similar to Joyland) to attract ridership. Key System had its own powerhouse as well, constructed in Emeryville. From its completion in 1939 until 1958, Key System interurban trains carried passengers over the lower level of the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.

In Sacramento, population growth was slower than that seen in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, but many businessmen saw the potential for suburban growth surrounding the central city, all operating on streetcar lines. Next time: The suburbs leapfrog Sacramento's city limits--with PG&E streetcars leading the way.

Sacramento's Streetcar Suburbs, Part 2: Central Street Railway

2007-08-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

Central Street Railway was founded by real estate investor Edwin K. Alsip and plumbing & tinware seller Leonidas Lee Lewis. Operating from the new 1879 Central Pacific depot at Second and H Street, which replaced the older depot at Front Street, Central Street Railway ran down J Street, a block from the City Street Railway tracks on K, and turned south at 28th Street. The line continued south past their horsecar barn at 28th and M, and eventually went outside the city limits, into the new suburbs of Highland Park and Oak Park. The eastern terminus was a public park, then known as Oak Park, on 35th Street and Fifth Avenue.

The Central Street Railway's headquarters were at 1015 K Street. This office was also the center for Alsip's real estate sales, selling land in Oak Park and Highland Park. At the time, both neighborhoods were outside of Sacramento city limits, and there were tax advantages to building suburban homes outside of those limits.

One important development that allowed Central Street Railway to reach Oak Park in reasonable time was the introduction of electric cars. The first electrics were battery-powered cars, introduced in 1888. These were not very successful, due to the era's primitive batteries, which ran down after only a few runs. These cars were taken out of service and the older horsecars reintroduced. The idea of using cable cars, like those found in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities of the era, was considered, and at least one promotional poster for Oak Park real estate indicates the use of cable cars to Oak Park, but cable cars were made obsolete by the development of the overhead trolley.

Central Street Railway introduced the first electric trolley cars to Sacramento in 1891. Generating power from their own coal-fired dynamo, they strung overhead wire along their routes and added electric motors and overhead poles to their cars. Electric cars were faster than horse-drawn cars, making the longer runs to Oak Park practical and economical, and solved many of the problems involved with horsecars, such as horse dung on the streets (which simplified street sprinkling and grading, an obligation of the streetcar company) and the short (and therefore expensive) service life of horses in streetcar service. Also in 1891, the Central Street Railway bought out Carey's City Street Railway.

A probable side effect of the Central Street Railway's car lines is the spurring of development in midtown Sacramento. Anywhere the streetcar ran became an ideal location for retail business, offices, or restaurants. J and K Street still shows much evidence of this, as does 28th Street. Later streetcar lines also became retail corridors: Third, Seventh, Tenth, Fifteenth, Twenty-first (numbered streets) as well as M, P and T Streets (lettered streets) gained retail attention and higher land value largely due to close proximity to transit. Land along streetcar corridors was always more valuable than land farther away, so more intensive use was made of streetcar-adjacent property. Because it was easy to walk to the streetcar line, the streets within several blocks of the car line became attractive as residential neighborhoods. So, while its primary purpose was to motivate people to move to Oak Park and Highland Park, the streetcar had a beneficial effect on the intervening neighborhoods where it ran. Because riders could get on and off at will (you could simply flag down a car to get on, or jump off to exit) every point along the line became an equally convenient destination.

Next: Albert Gallatin and the coming of Pacific Gas & Electric

Sacramento's Streetcar Suburbs

2007-08-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

Since I really haven't used this weblog too much so far, I figured I would give myself a project that would need regular updating. Thus, I present the first of a series of weblog posts discussing the development of streetcar suburbs in Sacramento. This isn't intended to be an exhaustive history, just a brief overview with some discussion of how streetcar suburbs work.

Gallatin Mansion, with horsecar running in front of it

Sacramento's Streetcar Suburbs, Part 1: Alkali Flat and Mansion Flat

Despite the contemporary image of public transportation as primarily a means for the working class and poor to get around, streetcars (along with other early public transit methods like steamboats, steam railroads and omnibuses) were originally intended for the middle class. While the wealthy were able to afford carriages, horses and stables, middle-class households typically did not, especially in cities. While a nickel for a ride seems ridiculously cheap now, that added up to fifty cents a week. For a 19th century laborer, that 50 cents represented food for their family that they might not otherwise be able to afford, and typically the denser, less expensive housing of working people was located closer to downtown.

Omnibuses, the horse-drawn predecessor to the city bus, were common in Sacramento in the 1860s. They did have limitations, though, as they could not carry very many people and they were generally slow in Sacramento's unpaved streets. The coming of horse-drawn streetcars represented an improvement in speed and capacity, as rail-supported cars had less friction to overcome and wouldn't sink into a muddy street.

Sacramento's first suburban streetcar line was the City Street Railway, inaugurated on August 20, 1870. It ran from the Central Pacific depot on Front Street, down K Street, to the California state fairgrounds at 20th and H Streets. R.S. Carey was also a president of the State Agricultural Society, which organized the State Fair. This meant that his streetcar line served several purposes: in addition to providing public transporation for commuters, the line was an easy way for visitors to get from the train station to the state fair. This connection appears again and again in the history of streetcars: typically the owner of a streetcar line also owned something else which made the line money. In addition to the line to the fairgrounds, there was also a line to the State Fair Pavilion, which was located on what is now the grounds of Capitol Park.

The homes along the City Street Railway were the homes of the middle class or the wealthy, in the neighborhoods now known as Alkali Flat, Mansion Flat, and New Era Park. Once the state fairgrounds were moved to the corner of Stockton and Broadway, the old fairgrounds area became Boulevard Park. While the area has changed much, the streetcar line ran directly in front of homes like the Gallatin Mansion, better known as the former Governor's Mansion. While Gallatin had a carriage-house and stables, many of his slightly less wealthy neighbors took the convenient streetcar.

Within a year, Carey's streetcar line had run all the way to the eastern edge of town, Thirty-first Street, and a privately-owned park known as East Park (known today as McKinley Park.) This provided another neighborhood amenity that was convenient to visit via horsecar, including a pond, gardens, a small zoo, and a bandstand and dance area.

Next time: The Central Street Railway's lines to Highland Park and Oak Park, and the coming of the electric trolley.

Preservation Roundtable announcement

2007-08-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

THE SACRAMENTO PRESERVATION ROUNDTABLE

AUTUMN 2007

Saturday, September 8, 2007
9:00 a.m. to 12 noon
at the YWCA
Northwest Corner of 17th & L Streets

9/8/07 AGENDA

9:00 Welcome – Information about the YWCA BUILDING

9:10 City’s General Plan update - Tom Pace, City Staff

9:20 The Preservation of the Hollow Sidewalks in the
Downtown – Bruce Booher, Preservation
Commission

9:45 Yee Fow Museum - Steve Yee & Vicki Beaton

10:00 Break

10:20 Preservation Organizations 5 to 10 min
Information presentations; accomplishments, their goals and
current issues:

-Sacramento Old City Association – SOCA –
Linda Whitney

-Sacramento Art Deco Society – Leslie Douglas

-Sacramento Bungalow Heritage Association - Beth Hendrickson

-Capitol City Preservation Trust- Allen Owen

-Sacramento Heritage, Inc. – Kay Knepprath & Red Banes

-Sacramento County Historical Society – Susan Ballew

-Florin Historical Society – John Newman/representative

-West Sacramento Historical Association- Lana Paulhumas

-FOSMA -Friends of Memorial Auditorium – Bob Rakela

Note: Questions are welcome

11:55 Announcements

Next Preservation Roundtable in December at the American Youth Hostel (Williams
Mansion) at 10th & H Streets

12:00 Adjournment

The Preservation Roundtable is sponsored by SOCA & refreshment
provided by Friends of Memorial Auditorium (FOSMA)

Urban Pioneers

2007-07-18T09:50:00.001-07:00

At the dawn of the 21st Century, marketing forces appeared in Sacramento that wanted to draw Bay Arean dot-com failures to Sacramento. The Sacramento Regional Marketing Campaign came up with a pair of mutated action figures, "Take-No-Prisoners Randy" and "Take Command Pam," to represent the target market of plastic-formed trendoids that they wanted to draw to Sacramento.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/04.05.01/urbanpioneers-0114.html

Shortly after that, a bold little newspaper called Sacramento Comment posted a parody of that campaign. The Comment was the product of Scott Soriano, local smart guy and troublemaker, and this is his product:

The Uber Pioneers are here, and they're out to remake the city in their own image: basically, the suburbs plus tall buildings.

An urban history primer

2007-07-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

While not related specifically to Sacramento, there are a few books out there that identify some important trends in city development that apply to Sacramento and other cities. They make for interesting reading:

Fogelson, Robert, Downtown: its rise and fall, 1880-1950. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001

A close look at how urban downtowns went from the place where all the action was to the place nobody wanted to be anymore, and downtown's varied responses to those changes. Excellent chapter on urban redevelopment called "Inventing Blight" which explains that "blight," a term one hears constantly when people want to knock down old buildings, is an economic problem, not a social one.

Jackson, Keneth, Crabgrass Frontier: The suburbanization of the United States, New York: Oxford University Press, 1985

Worthwhile for its discussion of why Americans got so enamored of the idea of suburbs. Turns out the idea goes back to the 1830s. Explains the process of "redlining," a racially-driven land practice that encouraged suburban growth at the expense of inner-city neighborhoods.

Monkkonen, Eric, America Becomes Urban: The Development Of U.S. Cities And Towns, 1780-1980 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990)

Includes a good historiography of urban history, and provides insight into why American cities are so different physically from European cities. Also points out how, in many ways, city population densities rose shortly after the automobile replaced the streetcar.

Warner, Sam Bass Jr., Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston (1870-1900) (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1978)

I'm still reading this one but it provides an excellent specific case history of how streetcars and commuter railroads created suburbs around Boston, and the building forms that worked well with rail-borne public transit. The author's interest in the region is apparent, and his attention to detail parallels my own ongoing obsession with Sacramento's old neighborhoods.

Bottles, Scott L., Los Angeles And The Automobile: The Making of the Modern City.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press Ltd., 1987.

Another case study, this time of Los Angeles, which goes into some detail about how the development of Pacific Electric, not the automobile, was the seed of southern California's legendary sprawl. The lessons of Los Angeles were applied all over California--by "Borax" Smith and others in the Bay Area, and by the owners of Northern Electric in the Sacramento region.

Tooting my own horn, or ringing my own trolley bell

2007-06-27T09:56:00.001-07:00

Tonight at 7:30 on Channel 6, the locally-produced Sacramento history show Street Signs will feature a segment on the streetcar system, including an interview with yours truly. Other broadcast times include:

ViewFinder : Street Signs IV

Wednesday, June 27, 7:30pm

Saturday, June 30, 1:30am

Sunday, July 1, 6:00pm

Monday, July 2, 3:00am

Putting preservation on the map

2007-06-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Part of the Sacramento General Plan Update went before City Council on Tuesday--the map for the land-use element. This map included proposed maximum building heights, densities, preferred uses and other land-use designations, but the initial drafts (produced just a couple weeks ago) included things like a land-use designation that would have allowed silly things like 24-story buildings in Boulevard Park. Since this map becomes the central guide to the rest of the General Plan, many in the preservation community considered it very important to ensure that the land use map reflected Sacramento's preservation districts.

After a multitude of meetings, including Planning Commission, Preservation Commission, a couple of meetings with city planning staff, and last night's City Council meeting, the map has changed dramatically: a new set of designations, including "urban corridor high" (2-7 stories) west of 19th Street and "urban corridor low" (2-4 stories) east of 19th, explicit delineation of historic preservation districts on the land-use map, and, as of last night, instructions to staff to pursue policies that will preserve the historic character of neighborhoods on the General Plan land-use map. The next phase is an EIR based on the current map, so there are still changes due down the pike, but it's a valuable step. One recommendation by Preservation Board was to explore the establishment of Historic Preservation Overlay Zones, used in cities like Los Angeles. I'm still learning about these, but it seems like a combination of Sacramento's current mode of "historic preservation districts" and a neighborhood association, with just a dash of tax incentive to encourage preservation. I'm eager to learn more...

SOCA Preservation Roundtable: UPDATE

2007-06-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/projects/railyards/events/06-09-2007-preservation-roundtable/

Tour of Railyards Paint Shop by Sacramento Preservation Roundtable
When
Saturday, June 9, 2007
9:00am to 12 noon
Meeting Agenda
Where
Jibboom Street Gate of Railyards
See map (PDF - 171 KB)

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/projects/railyards/events/06-09-2007-preservation-roundtable/documents/preservation-roundtable-map.pdf

What
You are invited to attend the ROUNDTABLE to discuss the current & future state of Historic Preservation in Sacramento. This is a rare opportunity to see these historic shops bldgs! BRING YOUR CAMERAS. A thanks to Thomas Enterprises, Inc.

Parking available - see map w/Agenda for directions. Carpooling strongly preferred. Walking or Biking is not permitted because of terrain, fences, & tracks (liability issues).

$5.00 Donation Fee, payable at the door. Complimentary coffee, juices, and pastries will be provided.

Required reading

2007-05-29T16:12:00.001-07:00

Why Historic Preseration Is Smart Growth by Donovan Rypkema, who is my new hero. Some outstanding points in why historic preservation and smart growth/urban development are not only not mutually exclusive but are natural partners.

It's neat seeing some of this sort of thing put into action: for example, folks like LJ Urbanjust got their project at 27th & V approved. Instead of simply knocking down the one building (a Craftsman bungalow in need of some serious restoration) they went out and found a new home for the bungalow. And when one deal fell through, instead of giving up they went and found another home. The owner of the land had originally planned on building a duplex on the site, but moving and re-siting the building (and the needed restoration) will cost less. Thus, we get multiple wins: a historic home gets preserved and re-utilized, land is consolidated for an infill housing project, and the landfill remains free of a house-sized pile of old-growth timber.

Raising the trolley pole

2007-05-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

The feasibility study for the Riverfront Streetcar project is up, along with the draft for the route. It's looking all right--this is supposed to be the first phase of a multi-phase project that will eventually send out feeder routes into residential areas of Midtown and West Sacramento. Cost is about $50 million, timeline is still about 5 years, and they're still weighing reproduction historic streetcars vs. modern cars--apparently the repro models are cheapest.

I'm a big advocate of restoring at least one more Sacramento car for use on this system, for obvious reasons and because I think it would benefit the system. While there are obvious limitations to historic cars, including ADA accessibility and air conditioning, they add greatly to the character and context of the system in the same way that old buildings in a modern downtown do. The historic cars in San Francisco are a good model for this: they preserve history AND DO PRACTICAL WORK. By putting them in the mix with modern vehicles with the modern conveniences, the needs and interests of more people are provided.

Part of the strength of this modular system is that they can make changes and additions later--maybe start with repro cars for cost-effectiveness, and add modern and restored cars as proof of concept is established.

I suppose I just really, really want to ride one of the old single-truck Birneys over the Tower Bridge.

SAMCC Open House May 11

2007-05-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

From the Sacramento Archives & Museum Collection Center Web site:

The Mayor of Sacramento, Heather Fargo, and
The Sacramento County Historical Society
Invite you to
The Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center's
SOUNDS OF SACRAMENTO:
Hearing Our History
2007 Open House & History Fair
Friday, May 11th, 2007
5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95814

Experience the Sounds of Sacramento as you wander through displays documenting local icons like Tower Records, Bill Rase Studios, Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, Charlie Brandt Studios, and KFBK. Enjoy recordings from early wax cylinders and wire recorders to modern day audio tapes and compact discs. Stop and listen to early television and radio programming, and hear oral histories and sports broadcasts.

View SAMCC's recent acquisitions including:
Bion Gregory Collection - toys and games from the 1950s
Michael Himovitz Collection - artifacts and images from a pioneering art gallery
Joey D Collection - music, ephemera, and photographs of 1960s local rock bands
Joe Sun Collection - artifacts from the K Street clothier
George G. Gudie Collection - early twentieth century photography
Discover the diversity of Sacramento's neighborhoods as you meander through the History Fair and mingle with members of historical societies and history-related associations. Exhibits, publications, and brochures will be available for your enjoyment.

Participate in a silent auction on everything from gift baskets to performance tickets.

For your entertainment, DJ's JOEY D of Frantic Records and ALEC PALAO of Ace Records, will be spinning Sacramento tunes from the 1960s! Enjoy a special live appearance by Sacramento's own, THE SHRUGGS, at 8 p.m. These hip-cats will be grinding out goodies from an era when garage-bands ruled the scene, covering original tunes from Sacramento's rock-n-roll past.

Remember to bring your invitation and redeem it for a special gift sure to be a hit amongst collectors - an exclusive four-song vinyl EP, "Sound of Young Sacramento." This 45 rpm record includes the first rock-n-roll song recorded in the River City! This offer is only valid during the Open House. A real vinyl gem, the four-song vinyl EP is available that evening for $5 to anyone requesting a copy.

Light refreshments will be served, and food vendors will be on-hand. No RSVP is needed.

R Street Historic Tour

2007-04-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

The Sacramento Old City Association presents:

SOCA's R Street Historic Sites Tour
Saturday, May 12
10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Admission free to SOCA members, $10 for non-members
Studio Theater, 1028 R Street, Sacramento

The tour will explore R Street's history as a railroad and industrial corridor, including a PowerPoint presentation and walking tour of R Street's remaining historic structures.. The tour will conclude inside the Crystal Ice building at 16th and R Streets, with a look at the interior courtesy of Fulcrum Properties, the developer who is planning an adaptive reuse project of the site.

For more information visit the SOCA website.

Updated railyards plan

2007-04-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

The City of Sacramento sent out this early notification about the latest revision of the Railyards plan. Along with this map, they sent along a list of bullet points, including:

* A mix of housing types and affordability ranges--between 10,000-12,000 units, 25 du/ac to 300 du/ac.

* About 1.4 million square feet of mixed use retail, 2.5 million sf of office space, about 500,000 sf of cultural/entertainment, 1100 hotel rooms and the Railroad Technology Museum. In addition, a school, 40 acres of open space, pedestrian/bike linkages, and some kind of national monument along the riverfront. All this, plus a solar co-generation plant.

* Extension of downtown grid pattern for walkability and seamless transition

* Intermodal facility and transit hub

* Light rail extensions, both Sacramento Valley Station and the south end of what will eventually be the DNA line

* Public infrastructure funding mechanisms

I'm most curious about the last bullet point, as it seems like it would be the driving force behind the rest of the bullet points. One semi-troubling thing about the new map is that it doesn't clearly delineate which of the historic Shops buildings, if any, are explicitly part of the Railroad Technology Museum--one of the more interesting upcoming discussions will be how State Parks and Thomas Enterprises come to terms over what will belong to Parks (ideally, the majority of the Shops buildings, if not all of them) and what will be restored by Thomas (hopefully at least a small part like the Paint Shop, for use as a public-accessible market building.)

They got rid of the silly canals idea. Not sure how I feel about the parkway--if they're just green strips they will wind up being dead space like Capitol Mall. If they can make those parks usable (with shade, walk/bike paths and recreation facilities)they could be pretty cool. They're keeping the Fifth Street "armature" and the Seventh Street underpass, although it isn't clear how light rail will run.

They're still keeping their options open, arena-wise. Apparently they're sticking to the story they gave me this winter--if they can do an arena, cool, if not, still cool, but in a different direction.

Commuter Economics

2007-03-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

While it doesn't really have anything to do with history, reading more silly comments in the Sacramento Bee's online edition led me to do a little math regarding the costs of commuting.

A comment I hear a lot is, "Why should I spend $100,000 more for a house downtown than one in the suburbs?" I'll consider lifestyle considerations an intangible but a given--as my last rant indicates, people who think that there is no nightlife, culture, etcetera in downtown Sacramento are simply wrong. But I just want to talk economics.

Let's take the example of two people: Susie Suburb and Mona Midtown. Both earn fairly median salaries of $50,000 a year, and drive cars that get 25 miles per gallon, and both work downtown.

Susie Suburb lives in Elk Grove, about 15 miles from her job downtown. Commuting takes about 45 minutes each way, which means 90 minutes a day or 7.5 hours a week. 50 weeks a year (assuming 2 weeks vacation) means about 375 hours per years spent commuting. Her time is worth about $25 an hour, based on salary, and so those hours represent a cost of about $9375. She also uses 300 gallons of gas a year to commute, at $3 a gallon means another $900.

Mona Midtown lives in Newton Booth, the chunk of midtown farthest from downtown, about 2 miles from her job. Her weekly commute time is about 10 minutes, which means 1 hour 40 minutes a week or 83-1/3 hours a year, costing $2083. Gas, for a trip of two miles each way, adds up to 40 gallons, or $120.

This means a difference, merely in time and gasoline, of about $8000. Assuming a 30-year mortgage, Mona would have gotten back that $100,000 in twelve years. This figure does not include parking, child care (Susie would need to pay for an additional 190 hours of child care), extra wear & tear on cars, fast-food breakfasts (Mona has an extra half-hour to fix breakfast at home) and overall stress levels. It also fails to take into account that Mona could spend $2 a day to take light rail or bus downtown, spending $500 on transit, instead of driving, and saving $1500 (plus not having to worry about parking.)

So, even ignoring that a suburbanite will be extra burnt out from the added stress of driving to and from work in rush-hour traffic, has to go to bed earlier to wake up earlier and beat the rush, and has to spend more time driving to cultural amenities after work (assuming they have the time and energy to do so,) the downtownie gets back the difference in home expenses within a decade--and they'd have more equity and a bigger home-interest tax deduction to boot.

So yeah, it really is worth it. Unless the suburbs are really your bag, in which case I'd recommend staying there and getting in some quality time on the Xbox.

The Invisible Culture?

2007-03-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Reading the Bee online is a comical experience sometimes, especially when people talk about downtown Sacramento. The online Bee's comments section provides some of the best evidence yet that the Internet provides a forum for people who have no idea what they're talking about (of course, blogs provide some pretty strong evidence for that too.)

Anyhow, in the Bee's comments section and elsewhere, I hear a lot about how Sacramento has no culture. Maybe they're just not looking for it--just haven't bothered or don't know where to look--but I see it all over the place. Downtown Sacramento has a very distinct vibe and culture, and always has--it was here in the 1970s when I was a little kid and could already sense it, it was here in the 1980s when I used to skip school to ride the bus (and later light rail) downtown, it was here in mighty quantities in the 1990s when I moved downtown to be a part of it, and it's here now, in some ways bigger than ever before despite the detractors, the people who claim it doesn't exist, and frequent efforts by the city and certain business elements to suppress it because they don't seem to recognize it for what it is.

News flash for all of you who say that there's no nightlife in this town: my main problem on weekends is figuring out which of several interesting activities I'd like to attend. And I'm no ear-to-the-ground full-time club crawler: I'm a late-thirties nerd with a day job who gets most of his info from picking up flyers and checking three or four websites. Sacramento definitely has a gap when it comes to medium-sized venues: we've got the Crest and Empire and not much else, which is why a lot of touring bands end up clear out in Orangevale at the Boardwalk. But we've got plenty of small clubs, and the ones I see tend to be pretty full. We've got a rich mix of great local bands that are worth checking out, a double handful of DJ-driven clubs, and we have *always* had quite a few places to get coffee that weren't Starbuck's.

The other focus of my ire are people who claim downtown is some kind of wasteland, generally people who have never seen any portion of downtown other than the K Street Mall. My advice: GET THE HELL OFF OF THE K STREET MALL. K Street, like much of Downtown's redevelopment zones, has been the victim of a half-century of cockamamie ideas about how urban planners think cities should look, instead of how people actually live and work. K Street used to be a pretty neat place until the term "blight" was invented to describe a neighborhood with relatively low property tax revenues and frequent non-white inhabitants. The assumption was that if you took people's homes and replaced them with more expensive commercial structures, the neighborhood's inhabitants would simply wither and die like an unwatered plant. Instead, a legacy of deliberate homelessness, barren streetscapes, and urban failure was created--and the latest attempts simply continue this cycle. People see a block of vacated stores and assume that they closed because the market was so bad--not that THEY WERE CLOSED BECAUSE THE CITY FORCED THEM OUT, or some skyscraper-crazed developer deliberately ended their leases. In this case the homeless become a useful target of blame: that historic structure that burned down was some homeless guy's fault, not the product of an arsonist with a pocketful of developer's cash, and questions about preservation and adaptive reuse turn, like the buildings themselves, to ash and rubble.

For those who think downtown lacks culture: You probably live in the suburbs, and you probably don't know what an urban culture is. Urban culture is based on neighbors and neighborhoods--on urban inhabitants who know each other because they can't miss each other when we walk down the street. You don't know us because you don't see us, you spend an hour driving home to a neighborhood where your neighbors are invisible and you are equally invisible. You probably don't go to local businesses because you don't recognize them. You walked past No Jive and New Helvetia and Greta's and Cambire and claimed there were no coffee shops because there wasn't a Starbuck's. You walked past Big Mama's and B-Bop and Prevues and claimed there was no place to shop because there wasn't an Urban Outfitters. You walked past Americo's and Luis's and Camellia Cafe' and claimed there was no place to eat because you couldn't find a McDonald's. You walked past the shows at Bojangles and Capitol Garage and Old Ironsides and claimed there was no music because Sacramento doesn't have a House of Blues. Sacramento has it all, you just have to go find it--it's not quite as easy as walking through the mall and recognizing every store because they're the same stores as you find in every other mall in the country.

And, worst and most damning of all, it galls me when the neo-urbanites claim an area as "crime-ridden" or "blighted" when what they mean is that they saw non-whites there. There seems to be a lot of language going on to separate the urban experience from nonwhites: "urbane", "urbanite", anything but the term "urban" which became an euphemism for "black." (I suppose that an "urbanite" is short for "urban white"?) Downtown, it is true, has many inhabitants that are non-white. Their presence seems to be distressing to suburbanites, as is the presence of poor people, young people, old people, people with too many piercings, tattoos, or funny hair color, and, well, anyone who isn't white, of a certain age bracket, and a certain style of clothing. This diversity, this mix, is what gives a city its culture. New urbanism has to embrace diversity of incomes, lifestyles, and ethnicities or it is nothing more than new suburbanism in taller buildings.

Okay, this post has officially degenerated from talking about Sacramento's culture to grouching about people who seem to be physiologically incapable of seeing things that I see all around me. I suppose they shouldn't gall me so much: they're the ones who are apparently bored and have to stay home playing Xbox on Saturday nights while I'm out seeing some great band.

Coolness in Crystal Ice

2007-03-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

I went to a presentation/tour last night inside Crystal Ice on R Street. The new owner is the same person who did the Loftworks project on J and 16th, and he has a similar sort of adaptive reuse plan for Crystal Ice. One of the structures is not really stable enough to remain (the one closest to 17th) but the original brick structure and the newer concrete structure on 16th are planned for adaptive reuse. He wants to build up on top of the 16th Street side to about 90 feet, and open up the walls. A new structure on the 17th Street end will go up about as high. A second set of structures will replace the existing buildings between 17th and 18th, again about 90 feet high.

While inside, I took some photos with my cheesy cellphone camera (curse me for not bringing my digital camera!!)

I got a chance to talk with the developer. He expressed a serious commitment, as evidenced by his earlier projects, to adaptive reuse and the importance of historic architecture in placemaking. Of course, this all has to meet up with the realities of the bottom line--which means a tall building, expensive rents, and other compromises. But the ideal is there, and the folks involved have a pretty good track record. I wouldn't mind if 16th and R were as bouncy as 16th and J on the weekends, as long as there was a place I could get a cheeseburger for under eight bucks.

Sacramento Preservation Roundtable

2007-03-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

THE SACRAMENTO

PRESERVATION

ROUNDTABLE

---SPRING 2007---

You are invited to attend the resurrection of the ROUNDTABLE to discuss the current & future state of Historic Preservation in Sacramento!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

9:00am to 12 noon

STANFORD GALLERY AT

CA STATE RAILROAD MUSEUM

111 I Street (West of Museum entrance)

Parking available in Garage across from the Museum-fee charged

(We suggest carpooling or light-rail to RR Depot & walk to Museum)

$5.00 Donation Fee, payable at the door –

Complimentary coffee, juices, pastries & fruit

Mailing Address: 2515 Capitol Ave., Sacramento, CA 95816

Event Contracts: Linda Whitney - E-mail:
owcathouse@aol. com
Kathleen Green – 442-1117 E-mail:
kdgreenone@yahoo. com
HOSTED BY

Sacramento Old City Association

-Agenda-

AGENDA:

9:00 Resurrecting the Sacramento Preservation Roundtable and its purpose – Linda Whitney and Kathleen Green

9:05 Introductions and representations all around

9:20 Cathy Taylor, Superintendent of Capitol District of CA State Parks & Kyle Wyatt, Curator of History & Technology for CA State Railroad Museum.

Topic: Power-point presentation on the Update of the Railroad Technology Museum

9:50 Questions & Answer session

10:05 Break

10:20 Introduction of William Crouch, AIA, FRAIA, NCARB, Urban Design Manager, City of Sacramento
• Creation of the City’s new Urban Design Team, including Preservation Office, Design Review Office, and new Urban Design functions.
• New Urban Design Team Monthly Newsletter

10:35 Questions & Answer session

10:45 Introduction of Roberta Deering, Senior Planner for Historic Preservation, City of Sacramento
New Preservation Chapter of the City Code New Preservation Commissioners and meeting schedule & Preservation Director Hearing schedules New Preservation Project Review Thresholds & Citywide MATRIX Program Status Reports: Historic Districts Infill & New Construction Standards; Historic Resources Surveys

11:20 Questions & Answer session

11:40 Announcements of upcoming events of interest to all

11:55 Next planned Preservation Roundtable date and topics of discussion: Updates from Sac.Heritage, Inc; Capitol City Preservation Trust (CCPT); Sac. Art Deco Society; Bungalow Heritage; SOCA; others. Meet the members of the Preservaton Commission & discuss their objectives. Do’s & Don’t’s of old window repair. Form Based Zoning update.

12:00 Adjournment

The Preservation Roundtable sponsored by & refreshments provided by Sacramento Old City Association

Why Build Streetcars To Nowhere?

2007-03-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

While I couldn't quite explain myself on the radio show, lacking time, I realized today that I have a blog and can spend more time grouching about it.

The plan for the Sacramento/West Sacramento streetcar line isn't too dissimilar, in some ways, to the historic use of streetcars as a stimulus for development. In the late 19th and early 20th century, development companies would either pay a streetcar line (or start their own streetcar line) to run to their not-yet-constructed subdivisions, and encourage home buyers to come on out and buy a plot of land. This was done in all directions from downtown Sacramento: north to North Sacramento, south to Colonial Heights and Colonial Acres, and across the river to West Sacramento. (I actually just wrote an article for the Midtown Monthly on the history of the West Sacramento streetcar.) Operating deficits are paid by the land development company. This was done because the potential buyer and subdivision builders felt more confident about the future of the area: the spot may have been way out of walking distance from work, but they could just take the streetcar.

The problem arose when the neighborhood got built out, more often than not with single-family homes on large lots. A suburban-style development doesn't generate enough trips to fulfill operating revenue, especially considering the restrictions streetcar lines operated under (they were responsible for street maintenance near their right-of-way, and raising fares was almost impossible.) So, rather than operate the streetcar line at a loss, the line would be closed down. Lines to North Sacramento and Swanston, Rio Linda and Elverta, and West Sacramento only ran for a decade or so before their subsidies ended and the trains stopped. The tracks for these systems didn't go out of service, because interurban trains ran on them too (the M Street Bridge and Tower Bridge were the mainline for the Sacramento Northern trains from Oakland to Chico) but local service simply couldn't pay for itself.

This wasn't initially a problem in the central city--the PG&E cars operated mostly in downtown and midtown, which had much denser populations. There were also other things to see on the PG&E streetcar, like downtown shops, offices and workplaces, and recreational destinations like East Park, Joyland the Riverside Baths, and especially the State Fairgrounds.

Eventually, though, the PG&E lines ran into trouble. The problem with a streetcar system is that it has to expand like spokes from a central hub, and the farther you get from the hub, the farther apart the spokes are. Most streetcar systems didn't make enough money to provide connecting routes between these spokes, which meant that areas in between the "spokes" didn't get streetcar service, and were therefore cheaper. In the 1920s, automobiles were starting to become accessible, and a potential homeowner had a choice between a more expensive home near the streetcar line or a cheaper one with a car--and more and more started choosing the latter.

This move towards suburbanization, and depopulation of downtown, had started as early as the early 19th century, but streetcars made them more possible and automobiles accelerated the process. Eventually, even in central city neighborhoods there wasn't enough traffic left to pay operating expenses. While many blame National City Lines for the demise of many streetcar systems, including Sacramento's, they were more of the straw that broke the camel's back: when NCL took over operations in 1943, PG&E was only operating four of its original streetcar lines--one of which was only brought back into service (#3) due to wartime gas shortages. The rest had already been replaced by buses, and the SN and CCT streetcar lines were being run at a loss as a condition of their continued freight trackage rights through the central city.

What does this mean today? Building a streetcar from already dense and trip-attracting midtown/downtown Sacramento, and relatively dispersed West Sacramento, means that West Sac had better not repeat its mistake of a century ago, and build at a higher density. If they can go dense enough (and affordable enough that moderate-income folks can afford it, not just executives, empty-nesters and DINKs) they will get enough traffic to justify it and then some. It also means that it wouldn't hurt to have more of the sort of dense development we're starting to see in downtown Sacramento--as long as it is mixed-income as well. It's kind of silly to have high-level execs who can take the streetcar to work but people who work at a coffee shop have to drive in from Orangevale.

Sacramento's streetcars on Capital Public Radio

2007-03-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today on Capital Public Radio (KXJZ/KXPR) there will be a program about Sacramento's streetcars, the 20th anniversary of Light Rail, and upcoming plans for a streetcar line between Sacramento and West Sacramento. Guests will include West Sacramento mayor Chris Cabaldon, Mike Wiley from Sacramento Regional Transit, Jason DeJong from UC Davis, and some guy who wrote the Arcadia "Sacramento's Streetcars" book. Tune in at 2:00-3:00 PM, on 88.9 or 90.9 FM, or listen online:

http://www.capradio.org/programs/insight/default.aspx?showid=3036&programid=10

this is beautiful.

2007-02-13T12:36:00.001-08:00

this is beautiful.

the fate of elvas

2007-02-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Apparently Union Pacific will tear down Elvas Tower, the interlocking control tower at the Elvas Avenue wye, in early March. It has been out of service for decades but still stands, becoming slowly more dilapidated and frequently vandalized despite the heroic efforts of the California State Railroad Museum's Maintenance of Way department.

Take your photos now if you want to catch 'em. Apparently the last group of vandals ripped everything copper out of the tower and left an awful mess. CSRM crews are trying to extract anything worth salvaging or preserving that is left inside, including the actual mechanical interlocking hardware.

There was some hope that Elvas Tower could be moved, in order to someday be part of the Railroad Technology Museum. Sounds like UP is following its usual policy of selecting the dumb option and just knocking down a piece of local history, after letting it stand neglected for so long. Take your photos now...

West Sacramento history link

2007-02-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

Interesting link on the LJ Urban weblog today here on West Sacramento history, including a link to a PDF of a book on West Sacramento history. Lots of valuable tidbits to be found here.

Waiting for the jitney?

2007-02-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

Apparently some local transit advocates are exploring the possibility of a private "jitney" service to provide short-headway minibus service to Central City neighborhoods. The idea would be to supplement existing RT routes and replace some privately held commuter vans used by senior residences by establishing short-run "jitney" routes from residential neighborhoods to nearby services.

"Jitney" is an archaic term for a bus, and many private jitney services appeared in the early 20th century as an alternative to streetcars. They were generally smaller and slower than streetcars (due to the relatively primitive state of gasoline-powered vehicles) but were more flexible than streetcars, with the ability to easily change routes or avoid obstacles. Streetcar companies objected to their presence, of course, and argued that unlicensed public conveyances caused undue wear to public roads without paying for street improvements like streetcars did, but as automobile technology improved many streetcar companies started "bustitution" as early as the 1920s, replacing older streetcars with buses, which were larger and faster than the original jitneys.

The potential target market would mainly be seniors or others with limited mobility who have difficulty getting around on RT due to limited headway times and lack of access, but a wider potential market to all sorts of urban dwellers could exist.

The potential vehicles would be mini-buses, probably purchased used from local organizations like senior homes that use them for resident transportation, or other such agencies. Potentially they could be purchased new.

While this sort of organization would probably call for some kind of public funding, it has some interesting potentials. Projected headway times of 5-10 minutes between buses mean that it would be more convenient than taking RT. It could feasibly reduce short-trip traffic, and thus be a potential mitigation measure that developers could subsidize instead of providing additional parking spaces (for example, give developers a choice between paying $40,000 for an additional parking space, or $25,000 towards public transit that will be convenient for residents of their project.) Finally, by being convenient enough to encourage people to take it, other modes of transit will be better utilized (a jitney won't run out to the suburbs, for example.)

So, is it time to bring back the jitney? Is the central city dense enough, and transit-ready enough, to support such a service? More details as I find them out...

History As A Resource

2007-01-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

I find myself stuck between two seemingly competing sets of interests. On one hand, there are a lot of people in Sacramento these days who are excited about the prospects of making downtown a more livley, active place and overcoming a half-century of urban decay. On the other hand, I am intensely drawn towards preserving the existing culture, institutions and physical structures of downtown Sacramento, as they play an important role in making the city what it is, and, I think, a valid role in what the city can become. A lot of pro-development types seem to have a "knock it down, build it up" mentality that seems unaware (or unwilling to recognize) the value of the city's history, or minimizes it as an unimportant casualty on the way to the future.

History is a resource--an exploitable and non-renewable one. Go to any "great city" and you will find history at the forefront. Even in cities like Los Angeles, known for their rapid expansion and relative lack of historic preservation, elements of history like Art Deco architecture and their role in the history of American filmmaking are preserved proudly. In San Francisco, history is represented in static structures throughout the town, on islands around the bay and historic ships floating in it along Fisherman's Wharf, and even trundling around its streets in the form of cable cars and streetcars. In these cities, the past is not considered an inconvenient obstacle or something to knock down to make way for shiny stuff: it is a draw for tourism, a call for civic pride, and positive physical proof of a city's genealogy, heritage and seniority.

So why does Sacramento fear its old buildings? Why are urban phenomena like demolition by neglect so prominent here? I have theories--in part, based on a citywide shame over the destruction of many of Sacramento's older neighborhoods, to make way for freeways and civic structures. These neighborhoods often featured properties that urban planners hail as the hallmark of future development: mixed use, density, effective transit services, ethnic, cultural and economic diversity, and a distinct sense of place. Sacramento chose, consciously, to try to erase its urbanity during the era when urbanity fell from favor, and now we seem to be choosing to wipe out the remaining traces of our own urban history at a time when we can make the most use of this history to return downtown to its rightful (and previously held) place as the epicenter for culture, entertainment and retail activity for the region.

Extracting the resources of history is easier in places where the history has not been scraped off the face of the earth. In such places, more difficult methods must be used for extraction: this requires the specialized skill of a historian, who can coax the traces of history from scattered notes and interviews and physical landmarks into a coherent whole, a story that gives new and old Sacramentans an idea of where they live and what this place is. It is my hope that this process of resource extraction, and its presentation to the general public, will help introduce Sacramentans new and old to the city in which they live: a city that has, in many ways, sat unnoticed beneath our feet like the buried catacombs under downtown Sacramento's sidewalks.

Say goodbye to your free time, sachistory buffs...

2007-01-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

The Sacramento Archives & Museum Collections Center has put a large chunk of their photograph database online, including some amazing stuff like the Eugene Hepting photo collection. Enter if you dare, but be prepared to spend some time gawking...

http://www.sacramenities.com/history/Catalog/catalog.html

A couple shots Sacramento's West End...

Herein lies the deal.

2007-01-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

Here's the deal.

I like history.

I like trains.

I like Sacramento.

I especially like Sacramento history, especially that having to do with trains: Southern Pacific and Western Pacific, Central California Traction, Sacramento Northern, Sacramento Valley Railroad, Sacramento Southern, Pacific Gas & Electric (they ran the streetcars until they sold to National City Lines in 1943) and so on. Especially the streetcars. I like this stuff so much I wrote a book about it:

http://www.amazon.com/Sacramentos-Streetcars-Images-Rail/dp/0738531472

Why this blog? Because I think more people should be talking about, and hearing about, Sacramento's history. For the most part, the only local history that gets much attention is the Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railroad, and the past 130 years pretty much went on without comment. Sacramento is one of the oldest cities in the state of California, but much of its history, like its historic buildings, is hidden from view and unknown. I aim to preserve both, or at least get people talking about them, and hearing about them.

And by posting my natterings about them in a potentially worldwide forum, I figure at least six people will be reading them.