How has the Sacramento Area changed in the last 5-10 years?

[rgb123]

thanks curmedgeon, this latest discussion is what I was after. This sounds like a fair assessment, much more so than... there is a mall there and it doesn't belong so it's no longer vibrant.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

I remember a slice of the Jazz Festival coming down to Old Sac again but they also used to have at least one outdoor venue on the Mall across from the Convention Center as well as smaller performances put on by individual groups down the Mall and into the Plaza as youth performance venues and warm-ups. Have those come back.

It works that way now--most of the festival takes place in Old Sac, but there were also venues at the Hyatt, Sheraton, Clarion and Convention Center:
http://www.sacjazz.com/pdfs/sacJazzMap.jpg (broken link)

I also remember the issue with "Mo" less than fondly and was disgusted that he was permitted to stand in the way of safety and progress as long as he did while continuing to rent his wrecks to questionable and low-class businesses. Amgen's been good but centers around the Capitol. Of course, there are also the many West and North Lawn demonstrations for entertainment.

He wasn't so much "permitted" to block things--he was able to because he had enough money and resources to block things with lawsuits, and legally, he did own the property. I'm enough of a fan of property rights that I don't think cities should be able to come in and take people's land without due process. Amgen centered around the Capitol but also runs down L and N Street right up against the heart of the downtown core, and the crowds that came out ended up in a lot of the new restaurants on K Street like Cosmo, Grange, Ella etcetera.

There are other things in the works for K Street--we'll see how things go in the coming year as the dust settles on one block and construction starts on another. The nice thing about the projects selected is that they are relatively simple and should be quick to complete--famous last words, perhaps, but compared to major, more "visionary" projects like the Railyards, the Docks, the WP railyards, Crystal Ice, Crystal Dairy, and Township 9, we have plenty of ambitious long-shot projects already in the pipeline. The success stories of the last few years were incremental, reasonable and cost-effective projects, often reusing existing buildings: Firestone, Citizen Hotel, Cosmopolitan, 14th & R, MARRS.