Tag: Downtown

Believing in the “Skyscraper Fairy”

Esquire IMAX
cc, by happyshooter

Sometime Sac Rag commenter William Burg has a great op-ed on the front page of the Sac Press today: A 10-Step Plan To Fix K Street, Or: The Legend of the Skyscraper Fairy.

1. Accept that the Skyscraper Fairy does not exist.
Many landlords along K Street have no apparent interest in maintaining or improving their properties. Some are convinced that as long as they own the land, the magical Skyscraper Fairy will give them uncountable millions for the land where their decaying buildings sit, and will replace them with shiny new skyscrapers. Thus, they have little interest in maintaining or tenanting their buildings. The result is under-utilized or vacant buildings whose facades continue to crumble.

He has some wonderful ideas (my favorites: streetcars and a permanent farmer’s market) and offers them in a hopeful manner. It leaves me a bit depressed, though, as I am skeptical that the politicians and developers currently working on Downtown will ever attach themselves to anything but the status quo.

Railyards Project featured in NYT

Today’s New York Times Real Estate section features a story on the Railyards development. It is interesting to read about it from an out-of-towner’s point of view. We locals seem to be wrapped up in the details of making it happen, such as the toxic clean-up, the I-5 expansion, transit issues, the stadium controversy, and more. I think we forget the immensity of the project (one of the largest proposed urban expansions in the nation) and the history behind the land. Enjoy.

Downtown to get mermaids??

We would be remiss if this planned testament to d-baggery were allowed to go unremarked:

[San Francisco nightclub owner George] Karpaty’s K Street proposal has some novel elements: a pizza shop with staffers doing “dough acrobatics,” a dance club targeting the 30-and-up crowd, and a bar featuring a built-in aquarium with women swimmers costumed as mermaids.

I’m trying to find the local news clip touting the mermaid idea as being “straight out of the movies” — the movie in this case being the totally relevant “Analyze This” from 1999. I’d like to see this idea carried forward into a whole block of ’90s movie-themed d-bag hangout spots. For example, a “breakfast any time” Vegas diner joint, a “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” juice bar, or perhaps a “Crying Game” hot dog shop run by women.

And let’s not forget the “dance club targeting the 30-and-up crowd.” Who really wants to see that?

How I Met Your Reservoir

Joe Sacramento (didn’t you move? :)) has a great roundup of the Docks project on the riverfront near Miller Park and the I-80 bridge, including his discussion of what would happen to the Pioneer Reservoir, which I’m not sure I was entirely aware existed–it is apparently a massive sewage treatment plant across the street from the city animal shelter. Anyway it reminded me of when Marshall and Lily buy a house in the chic up-and-coming NY neighborhood of DoWiSiTrePla, only to find out it is a realtor nickname for “Downwind of the Sewage Treatment Plant” on How I Met Your Mother.

Joe claims Heather Fargo has advocated placing a Ferris wheel atop the plant, but I can’t tell if that’s a joke on his part. And that’s more a sad comment on Fargo and this city than it is a dig at Joe’s wry humor…

More development strong-arming on K Street

I still do not understand the tactics that the City of Sacramento is employing to “revitalize” downtown, K Street in particular. Read today in the Bee that the city is suing developer Moe Mohanna to force him to trade property with Joe Zeiden. This would give Zeiden the 700 block and Mohanna the 800 block. I have ranted about this in the past, and you’ll be happy (or much more likely, unhappy) to know that I’m still up for more ranting.

Continue reading “More development strong-arming on K Street”

Grand jury slams arena backdoor dealings

News10 reported yesterday that the County grand jury found that Sacramento officials “violated the public trust” in rushing measures Q and R to the ballot last fall. Ironically, it’s not a binding decision and finds nobody at fault for any specific infraction.

My own take on this saga is completely in evidence so obviously you know how I feel. However, read the PDF of the Grand Jury’s report. It is very strange. With headings like “Hail to the Kings! The Costly Illusion that City Greatness Requires the Presence of Professional Sports” and “Downtown Railyard Development – What Have We Gotten Into?” and “The Train has left and the City now has the Station!” and with language like “Has the city initiated the much wished for revitalization of downtown or has it stepped into a polluted black hole?” it doesn’t read anything like the legal document you will expect. It reads more like some snarky blog poster obviously biased against the whole deal from the start. I don’t know much about grand jury proceedings but is this normal?

Looks like the city and county officials have to respond to the findings in this report later in the year. Specifically, by “June 00, 2007.” So we’ll all stay tuned for that!

SNR website revamped; Mayor admits railyard purchase misstep

I’m getting a little behind here, working on launching a new website called BLUE MAG, an entertainment wing to my online mansion. Enjoy…

So a completely new look for the News & Review website. I think aspects of it are very attractive but it seems to me to be way too busy.

A great railyard story in last week’s issue as well. Mayor Fargo thinks that Thomas Enterprises didn’t bargain hard enough to get Union Pacific to move the tracks to accomodate the new infrastructure.

“Union Pacific should have moved their tracks. They could have done it. It would have been easy. … It’s a little bit of a sore subject, because we had hoped that our partners in all of this would be stepping up a little more, but the reality is, we wanted to get this done badly.”

So had we, Heather.

Railyard cleanup on the fast track, or pile that asbestos in the closet

According to the Bee today, Thomas Enterprises, Inc., new owner and developer of the railyard, are going to be moving as fast as possible to clean up the toxic areas of that site.

The faster the cleanup, the sooner Thomas will get city approval for development. The sooner the company sells parcels to developers, the faster it can pay off loans and turn a profit.

My mom always loved this approach to cleaning my room. Why on earth would you attempt to portray your handling of a gigantic environmental mess as proceeding as fast as humanly possible? It’s one thing if there are just a few big-box stores going in there, but there are going to be thousands of homes on that site.

David Stern, the world is watching

I found an interesting editorial addressed to David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, regarding his taking over of Sacramento’s arena negotiations:

Nov. 19 – Dear David Stern: Thanks for deciding to be a lead negotiator for the National Basketball Association in efforts to build a new arena in Sacramento. The last arena proposal — Measures Q and R on the November ballot — was so strange that not even the Sacramento Kings ended up supporting it. Even you wondered why anyone would vote Yes. You sensed the pickle Sacramento is in. A respected outside influence sure would be helpful, maybe even necessary, to figure out a solution.

It’s an interesting, and might I say, refreshing take on the future of Sacramento’s arena issue.  Whether David Stern was brought in to try to get a deal done, or if he’s simply coming to town to eventually say that a deal can’t be done, time will tell.  However, the final thought of the article is what I found most compelling:

…The Sacramento arena problem is a symptom of a broader problem with the NBA. Medium-sized markets like ours need huge government subsidies to deal with financial inequities within the league. The league’s business model is screwed up more than Sacramento’s priorities are.

This community won’t and can’t paper over the NBA’s problem with gobs of new taxes. It can work with just about anyone for a worthy civic goal. Keep that in mind. And welcome to town.

Sacramento’s local issue might have great implications for professional basketball in the United States. Indeed, whether the Kings stay in this town is not just a measure of Sacramento, but also a measure of the NBA.

Guess the city! (And it’s not Sacramento)

From a piece in the NY Times:

The owners […] had warned that the team would leave unless the city provided a new arena.

The vote delighted Citizens for More Important Things, a group that, with the help of a statewide health care union, spent $60,000 to sponsor the initiative. Other cities “may be so desperate to lure tourists there that they have to overpay for an N.B.A. team,” said Chris Van Dyk, a founder of the group. “[We don’t] have to lure anybody.”

Mr. Van Dyk’s priorities are schools, transportation projects and health care, and he openly disdains wealthy people who buy professional teams, pay huge salaries to players and then demand handouts. Owners who threaten to take their teams elsewhere, Mr. Van Dyk said, are no better than “the neighborhood crack cocaine dealer.”

Guesses? The answer is here. (Need a log-in?)