Inside East Sacramento Dec 2020

DECEMBER 2020

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SUZANNE MURRAY AMY VIDRA

EAST SACRAMENTO • McKINLEY PARK • RIVER PARK • ELMHURST • TAHOE PARK • CAMPUS COMMONS Our Other Editions Serve: Land Park/Grid • Arden/Carmichael • Pocket

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SOLD

1431 46th Street, Fab Forties • $1,650,000 Spanish beauty on a coveted street! 4 Bed / 3 Bath Additional ~400 sf rec room plus quarter basement.

MELISSA WILLIAMS 916-996-9503 DRE #02027768

2910 Muir Way, Land Park • $629,000 Fabulous new kitchen, open concept. 3 Bed / 1 Bath Charming original wide–plank hardwood floors. Beautiful home!

JAMIE RICH 916-612-4000 DRE #01870143

PENDING

629 54th Street, East Sacramento • $749,000 Custom remodel completed in 2009. 3 Bed / 2 Bath Bright home, hardwood floors, high ceilings.

CARMAH HATCH 916-765-6210 DRE #00761003

3100 Benton Street, West Sacramento • $629,000 One of a kind home with extensive upgrades. 4 Bed / 3.5 Bath Energy efficient. Ground floor master suite w/ private laundry.

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PENDING

5644 Camellia Avenue, River Park • $515,000 Minutes to Caleb Greenwood School and Glen Hall Park. 2 Beds / 1 Bath. Backyard renovated with low maintenance features.

CHRIS BALESTRERI 916-996-2244 DRE #01511288

930 54th Street, East Sacramento $485,000 Cute cottage near great East Sac hangouts. 2 Bed / 1 Bath Large yard and deep garage.

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1818 L St #401, L Street Lofts • $435,000 Cozy modern loft in the heart of Midtown. 1 Bed / 1 Bath Private balcony overlooks the vibrant action of L St. JAMIE RICH 916-612-4000 DRE #01870143

5528 21st Avenue, Tallac Village • $379,000 Spacious home with 1702 sq. ft. 4 Bed + office / 2 Bath Original owners. Plenty of storage.

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Experience the Dunnigan Difference at DunniganRealtors.com Sierra Oaks (916) 484-2030 DRE #01103090 • Land Park (916) 454-5753 DRE#00707598

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One of San Francisco’s TIMOTHY SCOTT HAIRSTYLIST

FOR MEN AND WOMEN Sacramento’s newest hairstylist, Timothy Scott (Tim) has created a concept that’s new and quite appealing.

Gone is the typical minimalist salon look. His daring textiles, colors, and furnishings, combined with the perfect genre of music create a warm, luxurious, modern interior that is a direct extension of his creativity and attention to detail.

This is a private place for men as

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well as for women. There are no other stylists or clients or the roar of 20 other blow dryers to talk over. It’s just you and Tim in a comfortable, spacious environment. You can ask questions and talk freely about whatever you want without anyone else listening to your conversation and judging or having to listen to theirs. He’s fun, gregarious, and without pretense, is genuinely

is Now in East Sacramento For all that he gives to you, he’s astonishingly affordable. And with his help you can look and feel better than just your best, enabling you to be more confident in your professional life and in your private life. With his San Francisco Yelp rating of 4.5 stars, you would be truly thrilled to have him as your forever stylist. interested in you and your life as a person.

Tim does not double book or run his salon as an assembly line. He loves what he does. From the first shampoo to the blowout you won’t get tossed off to an assistant or another stylist that’s trying to gain experience. His consultations are a fun, in depth discussion of what you want to achieve addressing all the concerns and possibilities he sees.

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Power of Choice

50 hospices in Sacramento.

Just 1 Yolo.

More than 40 years ago, when grass-roots physicians and volunteers formed Yolo Hospice, they never imagined a future where dozens of other multi-million and billion dollar for-profit hospice companies would enter the market with the intent of profiting from patients during the most vulnerable time of their lives...often at the expense of quality of care.

Little known fact: One of the nation’s, and region’s, largest hospice providers is a wholly owned subsidiary of a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

3HRSOH RYHU SUR¿W 4XDOLW\ PDWWHUV Serving Sacramento, Yolo, Sutter, Colusa & Solano counties.

www.yolohospice.org

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EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY TO MAKE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD A BET TER PL ACE. DECEMBER 2020

DECEMBER 2020

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DECEMBER 2020

LAND PARK/GRID

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PATRICIA PRENDERGAST

ANYA WARDA

AMY VIDRA

RUTH HOLTON-HODSON

JILL ESTROFF

EAST SACRAMENTO • McKINLEY PARK • RIVER PARK • ELMHURST • TAHOE PARK • CAMPUS COMMONS

ARDEN • ARCADE • SIERRA OAKS • WILHAGGIN • DEL PASO MANOR • CARMICHAEL

LAND PARK • CURTIS PARK • HOLLYWOOD PARK • SOUTH LAND PARK • THE GRID • OAK PARK

POCKET • GREENHAVEN • SOUTH POCKET • LITTLE POCKET • RIVERLAKE • DELTA SHORES

Our Other Editions Serve: Land Park/Grid • Arden/Carmichael • Pocket

Our Other Editions Serve: East Sacramento • Land Park/Grid • Pocket

Our Other Editions Serve: East Sacramento • Arden/Carmichael • Pocket

Our Other Editions Serve: East Sacramento • Land Park/Grid • Arden/Carmichael

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM 3104 O ST. #120 • SACRAMENTO, CA 95816

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM 3104 O ST. #120 • SACRAMENTO, CA 95816

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: NSIDE ACRAMENTO.COM 3104 O ST. #120 • SACRAMENTO, CA 95816

THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE, PLACES, NEWS & OPINION IN AMERICA'S FARM-TO-FORK CAPITAL

THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE, PLACES, NEWS & OPINION IN AMERICA'S FARM-TO-FORK CAPITAL

THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE, PLACES, NEWS & OPINION IN AMERICA'S FARM-TO-FORK CAPITAL

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VISIT OUR WEBSITE: INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM 3104 O ST. #120 • SACRAMENTO, CA 95816

THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE, PLACES, NEWS & OPINION IN AMERICA'S FARM-TO-FORK CAPITAL

COVER ARTIST AMY VIDRA Amy Vidra is a Sacramento-area abstract painter. Her work is bold and expressive, and focuses on connecting through color.

Shown: “9 Rounds Down,” acrylic, ink, graphite and marker on panel, 40 inches by 30 inches. This piece is for sale at $2,000.

Visit amyvidra.com.

3104 O St. #120, Sac. CA 95816 (Mail Only)

info@insidepublications.com PUBLISHER Cecily Hastings EDITOR Cathryn Rakich editor@insidepublications.com PRODUCTION M.J. McFarland DESIGN Cindy Fuller PHOTOGRAPHY Linda Smolek, Aniko Kiezel @anikophotos AD COORDINATION Michele Mazzera, Julie Foster DISTRIBUTION Sue Pane Sue@insidepublications.com ACCOUNTING Daniel Nardinelli, COO, daniel@insidepublications.com

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DECEMBER 2020 VOL. 25 • ISSUE 11

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WE’RE OPEN

Roshaun Davis of the Display: California shop in Oak Park that reopened this month.

Photo by Aniko Kiezel

HARD ROAD

AHEAD BRIGHT ECONOMIC NEWS MAY NOT PLAY HERE

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By Cecily Hastings Publisher’s Desk

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ost among the election reports was some of the best national economic news ever. The October federal employment report showed 906,000 jobs were added in the private sector, with an increase of 724,000 jobs to the labor force. Wages were up 4.5 percent. Unemployment dropped dramatically across every demographic group.

The federal government said the gross domestic product—the measure of total economic output—grew by a record-setting 7.4 percent between July and September, or 33.1 percent on an annualized basis. The economy grew at a pace never seen before. This is what economists call a V-shaped recovery.

Locally, the news isn’t so rosy.

Sacramento’s recovery is on pace with our state, which trails the national economy. As a whole, California’s economy has been hit harder than elsewhere. Unemployment soared to 16.4 percent early in the pandemic before falling to 11 percent in late September. The national rate hit 14.7 percent, but now has fallen to 6.9 percent, well below California’s rate.

Several economic reports confirm the anecdotal evidence: California’s recovery from coronavirus shutdowns will be a long and difficult process— much slower than the recoveries taking place in other states.

The only state worse than California is New York. California’s peculiar mix of industries contributed to its woes.

Not surprisingly, the slowdown hit some of our industries particularly hard, with arts, entertainment, recreation, tourism, food services and other retail sectors facing the most trouble.

When the coronavirus closures began in March, the national economy was enjoying record growth and vitality. Many local small businesses were on track for healthy growth and profitability.

We are now nine months into a public health crisis that forced thousands of local restaurants, shops, entertainment venues and other businesses to close down. Many have reopened, at least partially, as coronavirus restrictions eased and the economy perked up.

But others remain shuttered, many permanently—and fewer than half of the 151,000 area residents who lost their jobs during the first wave of furloughs are working again. The area’s unemployment rate, which peaked at 14 percent, is at 8.9 percent.

Economists note the failure by Congress to pass another stimulus package has taken steam out of the California economy. Hopefully,

something will work out to help those who are hurting.

Whether winter coronavirus cases increase or not, the media seem to insist on predicting the worst of every potential scenario. I’ve heard the media referred to as peddling “pandemic panic porn,” and that sounds about right if you follow rational voices and opinions other than what mainstream media present. Even if the worst scenarios don’t occur, damage to the economy based upon stoking public fear is almost as bad. Let’s hope the positive news of a viable and effective vaccine helps turn around public perceptions of safety going into the New Year.

The holiday season is critical for a variety of small business folks. Retail shopping for gifts and home purchases always rises at year’s end. But restaurants, bars and food suppliers also depend on increases in family, friends and business gatherings at the holidays.

After a horrible year, there is little hope these sectors will end in better shape. Early 2021 will likely be a time of reckoning for many locally owned establishments.

Another factor darkening the economic forecast: With coronavirus infection rates rising again, another shutdown could very well occur just when shops are supposed to start bustling with shoppers. Although California’s COVID-19 numbers have stayed fairly low in recent weeks, several counties in the Sacramento area have seen worrisome increases.

In mid-November new restrictions were announced for Sacramento and Yolo counties that discontinued many indoor activities, including dining at restaurants. This will be a serious blow as outdoor venues are closed by winter weather.

Locally, business organizations and districts have fought back and petitioned the state to reconsider the dining closures. I wish I was hopeful the state might listen to the concerns of the economic sector.

Hair, skin and nail salons are fairing poorly. While they were among the last businesses to reopen, customers haven’t necessarily responded.

And this makes obvious the fact that local shutdowns punished some industries more than others. Job losses have been concentrated among lowerincome occupations and services where working from home is not possible.

California has some of the country’s worst economic disparities. This burden is especially heartbreaking and hard to reverse.

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Many of Sacramentoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neighborhood restaurants and retailers are struggling to make ends meet. In a cruel twist, digital sales by giants such as Amazon soaredâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;further crippling the little guyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to compete.

Unless those of us who are able to contribute to the local economy get out and spend in every sector, we are in for serious trouble for 2021. Many caring folks I know understand what is at risk by losing neighborhood businesses.

They are purposely stepping up their spending on local dining and shopping.

Yes, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve painted a dire picture, but it comes from my experience working with hundreds of small businesses over the years. Folks who have never been in business donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always understand the pain and loss our neighborhood business owners are going through. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to overstate the ease of small businesses â&#x20AC;&#x153;bouncing backâ&#x20AC;? if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never signed a paycheck, laid off an employee or faced uncertain prospects.

I just finished reading a terrific book called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Loserthinkâ&#x20AC;? by Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip. The book caused me to rethink how I think.

Adams explains how untrained brains and sneaky mental habits are ruining the world. The chapter â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thinking Like An Economistâ&#x20AC;? tackles the fallacy of

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most predications. He says a terrible way to predict the future is to assume things will keep going the same way.

And yet we do it all the time. A better approach is to anticipate surprises, understanding that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult to predict what those surprises might be.

Focusing on this way of thinking helped me cope with the heartbreaking reality of the pandemic. Looking down the road, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll admit at times itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to see a strong path forward for our community.

Facing difficulties and challenges often heightens our creativity, drive and ability to survive. The long-term success of many of the wonderful small businesses owners and entrepreneurs I know may have much rosier futures than we might expect today.

And the possibility of new economic activity also looks promising.

Sacramento was the most popular destination with home buyers shopping outside their own metro area in the third quarter of this year, according to real estate brokerage Redfin.

Everything depends on neighbors supporting local businesses and making the effort to safely venture out of hibernation. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the call to action with the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pledge 100% Localâ&#x20AC;? campaign we created last spring. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more important now than ever.

Angela Pratt owns The Plant Foundry Nursery & Store in Oak Park.

SUPPORT INSIDE Please sign up for our Inside Sacramento weekly newsletter with even more local news than we deliver in print. Also, consider an Inside membership starting at $19.95 a year.

Visit insidesacramento.com/shop.

Cecily Hastings can be reached at publisher@insidesacramento.com.

Previous columns can be read and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram: @insidesacramento.com. n

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Opposites Attract

Internationally renowned artist Jian Wang forged a long friendship with fellow artist Earl Boley.

2 ARTISTS FORGE FRIENDSHIP THROUGH PAINTING

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hen Carmichael painter Earl Boley passed away in December 2013, he left behind not only a colorful legacy of his own artwork, but friendships with many other local artists.

One of his most important friendships was with internationally renowned artist Jian Wang who lived and worked for many years near Boley in Carmichael.

The two artists met in 2003 when Boley was showing his art at a gallery.

“Jian walked up to Earl telling him how much he liked his work. Earl asked Jian what he did and Jian said, ‘I do what you do, but I’m successful!’ Earl had a good laugh and they then became close friends,” Boley’s widow Susan Leith says.

“Jian inspired Earl to paint on different sizes of canvas, mentored him on different brands of paint and, best of all to my thinking, Jian encouraged

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Earl to frame and present his work more professionally,” Leith says.

“Their personalities were opposites, yet they balanced each other out beautifully,” she adds. “Earl helped Jian see life and stress differently, helping him find a sense of calm and happiness.

Jian helped Earl progress in his art techniques and materials as his career grew.”

Leith says they would turn on classical music, paint quietly for several hours in the studio then take a lunch break and discus all sorts of things. Sometimes other local artists joined them.

Boley acquired many of Wang’s paintings during the 10 years they painted together at each other’s studios, often on a daily basis. Wang wrote a tribute to his friend for the memorial display of Boley’s work at the California State Fair.

Leith has since remarried and she is making plans for the thousands of oil paintings Boley left behind. She is currently working on a book of Boley’s artwork. Wang now lives and works in upstate New York.

Leith is conducting a special private sale of five original oil paintings by Wang. The entire collection is priced below market value with an additional discount for two or more paintings.

For more information, contact Donald Kurasch at dkurasch@gmail.com or (312) 399-6630.

HISTORIC LANDMARK Nathaniel Colley, the first licensed Black attorney in Sacramento who fought for the desegregation of public housing, is finally being recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to the city.

The City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance placing his former Midtown office at 1810 S St. on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources. The structure was built in 1967 and designed by James C. Dodd, the first licensed Black architect in Sacramento.

Colley spent his career focusing on the fight to end segregation in housing,

education, politics and the workplace.

In one of his biggest victories before the Sacramento Superior Court, Colley successfully argued for forbidding segregation by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which opened up more units for Black families at the New Helvetia (now Alder Grove) housing project and finally made it possible for African Americans to apply for and receive public housing on an equal basis with other groups.

Colley died in 1992. New Helvetia and Colley’s former home in Land Park are also set to receive historic designation.

Nathaniel Colley, the first licensed Black attorney in Sacramento, fought to end segregation.

"A Journey Into Curiosity" is Sacramento’s largest mural.

Photo courtesy of Midtown Association.

Selling Real Estate Is Our Passion.

SEAL OF EXCELENSIA Sacramento State University is one of only five universities in the country— and the only Cal State campus—to be honored with the 2020 Seal of Excelencia from national organization Excelencia in Education for its commitment to Latino student success in higher education.

The award was based on Sac State’s “successful demonstration of specific inclusive strategies…that show intentional serving of Latino students.”

Programs include the College Assistance Migrant Program, which supports students from migrant and farmworker backgrounds; Serna Center, which focuses on political knowledge, activism and community service; Educational Opportunity Program, serving lowincome students; and Dreamer Resource Center, which helps undocumented students realize their goals.

“We address the social, emotional and physical needs of our students, as well as their academic needs,” says Viridiana Diaz, associate vice president for Strategic Student Support Programs.

“We have aligned many different pieces and built a sense of family and home for them.”

NEW WOMEN’S HOMELESS SHELTER The Meadowview Navigation Center, which assists women experiencing homelessness, officially opened in October on Meadowview Road in South Sacramento.

The center is managed by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency in partnership with the city of Sacramento, and operated 24 hours a day by Volunteers of America. Though its innovative “sprung structures” (prefab aluminum buildings topped with all-weather tension fabric) are designed to serve 100 people, they currently house 50 to allow for proper social distancing.

Clients are admitted by referral only.

For more information, visit voa-ncnn. org/meadowview.

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SACRAMENTO’S LARGEST MURAL The Eleanor Apartments at 16th and E streets and neighboring Washington Elementary School just got a whole lot brighter.

Last month, The Grupe Company and SKK Developments unveiled two complimentary murals—one on the fivestory exterior of the apartment building,

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safety instructions and wear personal protective masks and gloves. For more information, visit cityofsacramento.org/ hr/volunteer-opportunities/short-termopportunities.

Ginger Elizabeth Patisserie is one of four sweet spots on J Street. Photo is courtesy of Ginger Elizabeth Patisserie.

ART TO WEAR The Sacramento Center for the Textile Arts has transformed its highly anticipated annual show and sale—Art to Wear & More—from an in-person event at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center into a virtual marketplace.

As SCTA chair Gloria Roberston puts it, “The show must go on.”

The 2020 Art to Wear & More features dozens of local artists offering an amazing selection of unique clothing, jewelry, fashion accessories, home decor items, book/paper crafting arts, holiday gifts and more. Browse each artist’s listing to see examples of the work and learn a little about them.

Art to Wear & More will be online at sactextilearts.org through January. The Sacramento Center for the Textile Arts, a 41-year-old nonprofit membership organization, provides programming for

now Sacramento’s largest mural, and one at the entrance to the school. The project is part of an elaborate artistic partnership among the development companies, Wide Open Walls, Washington Elementary and more than a dozen muralists.

While the mural was painted by professional artists secured by Wide Open Walls, 200 Washington Elementary students were asked to create artwork based on the theme “A Journey Into Curiosity” as part of their virtual summer school curriculum. The entries were then judged by educators and artists, and the winning imagery was used in both murals.

“This is such a tremendous opportunity for our students and families,” says Dr. Gema GodinaMartinez, Washington Elementary School principal. “Midtown is our playground and this mural project will tie our students’ learning directly to our community in a meaningful way.”

SWEET SPOT ON J Just in time for the holidays, the 2400 block of J Street has become what the Midtown Association has lovingly dubbed the “Sweet Spot on J”—four

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artists, collectors and fans of textile and fiber arts.

THE TOY SHOW Archival Gallery in East Sacramento presents its annual holiday group show “The Toy Show” from Dec. 10–30, complete with its signature window display of vintage light-up Santas.

The exhibition features new works in paint, sculpture, fabric, collage, glass, pastel and more by featured artists Phyllis Cottrell, Shenny Cruces, Lindsey Dillon, Richard Feese, Lindsay Filby, Mason Gunn, Maureen Hood, Debra Kreck-Harnish, Kiny McCarrick, Leslie McCarron, Linda Nunes, Kellie Raines, Sean Royal, Victoria Smith, JC Strote, Maria Winkler and others.

Visitors are welcome during normal business hours with no appointment needed. Masks are required at all times. For more information, visit archivalgallery.com.

neighboring dessert shops that can satisfy any craving.

The newest addition, Ginger Elizabeth Patisserie, which opened Oct. 14 at 2413 J St., offers locally made desserts, breakfast pastries and a selection of melt-in-your-mouth chocolates. Babes Ice Cream & Donuts at 2417 J St., founded by the owners of Pushkin’s, features vegan and glutenfree ice cream and donuts, as well as plant-based milks at the espresso bar.

Icing on the Cupcake at 2416 J St. offers an array of cupcakes, brownies, pies and more. Rick’s Dessert Diner, a longtime Sacramento favorite at 2401 J St., has been voted No. 1 in desserts for 34 years.

GREAT PLATES DELIVERED Volunteers are needed for Mayor Steinberg’s COVID-19 initiative Great Plates Delivered, a service that delivers restaurant meals for homebound seniors.

Transportation is provided and deliveries are contactless. Deliveries take place Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Volunteers must be 18 to 64, in good health, and willing to follow

"This Gift Is Mine" by Leslie McCarron is part of “The Toy Show” at Archival Gallery.

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Artist Orlando "MC Zeps" Molina mentors students in Sacramento’s HeART and Mind program.

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The Sacramento City Council recently approved funding for Sacramento HeART and Mind, a new program that combines artists, community mentors and mental health support specialists to assist students affected by COVID-19 and school closures.

“The pandemic brought about… abrupt adjustments to the ‘new normal’ of distance learning, and forced students to physically isolate—something that our kids have really struggled with mentally and emotionally,” says Councilmember Jay Schenirer, who spearheaded the effort. “The program will provide a creative outlet for these students and make sure our artists and community organizations have the mental health training to support our kids during this challenging year.”

“Participation (in the arts) can reduce anxiety levels, improve selfesteem and allow students to express emotions and experiences that are otherwise difficult to put into words,” explains Megan Van Voorhis, the city’s cultural and creative economy manager.

The Office of Arts & Culture is working with the Sacramento City Unified School District and Twin Rivers Unified School District to finalize the schools that will participate in the program. A support team that includes a mental health specialist, community mentor and artist will work with each site. For more information, visit arts. cityofsacramento.org.

The Midtown Association has announced the recipients of its Street Food Sacramento grant, designed to celebrate and amplify Sacramento’s diverse street food culture, while reducing entry barriers of historically underrepresented populations.

Christopher Boone Argyros of Boone’s Red Onions, Celine Callejon of Épicée and Carla Vazquez of La Minerva won booth space at the Midtown Farmers Market and the Wednesdays at Winn evening market for one year, including infrastructure, marketing support, insurance and startup funds.

“As someone whose day job is working to help communities connect and thrive more equitably, I know that the access to opportunity designed specifically for communities of color, immigrants and the LGBTQIA are critical pathways to success and inclusion,” says selection committee member Monica Hernandez of Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

“The expertise offered by these Street Food Sacramento grants are the practical supports needed to help these businesses and communities grow and thrive.” For more information, visit exploremidtown.org/streetfoodsac.

MLK ESSAY CONTEST The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration is calling all middle and high school students in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado and Sutter

ADMISSIONS@SACCDS.ORG • SACCDS.ORG/SCHOLARS counties to submit an essay for its annual essay contest celebrating Dr. King.

This year’s theme: “Congressman John Lewis was an African-American politician and civil rights leader who fought to end legalized racial segregation in the United States. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis preached ‘get in good trouble, necessary trouble’ with an emphasis on non-violence. Congressman Lewis encouraged peaceful protests to achieve goals, such as guaranteeing the right to vote for all Americans. Congressman Lewis encouraged others to stand up for justice. With COVID-19 health guidelines in mind, describe an injustice that you see in today’s society and what you can do to address the issue and advancement of John Lewis’ call to action.”

Deadline to submit is Monday, Dec. 21, at 5 p.m. Essays can be sent as an attachment in Word or PDF format to mlkessaycontestsac@gmail.com or by mail to MLK Celebration, 2021 Essay Contest, 885 University Ave., Sacramento, CA 95825.

Essays will be judged on creativity, clarity, content, coherence and adherence to the theme. Winning essays will be published on the MLK

Committee website, recognized as part of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration event in January 2021 and published in the February edition of Inside Sacramento.

For more information, visit mlkcelebrationsacramento.org.

DIAPERS TO DIPLOMA Many readers will remember our popular Momservations column written

by Arden Oaks writer Kelli Wheeler.

“I wrote the monthly columns to share my parenting wisdom as I followed my children from diapers to diploma,” Wheeler says.

The award-winning family columnist and author took her readers on a parenting journey for 16 years as her kids grew up. “They grew from toosmart-for-their-own-good toddlers to typical, patience-testing teens,” Wheeler says. “My goal was to promise mothers that no matter how worried you might be about a parenting fail, raised with love, laughter and room for mistakes… most kids turn out okay!”

Just four months into her Inside column Wheeler was discovered by fellow mother and then-California First Lady Maria Shriver, who hired Wheeler

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platform/vehicle for what I wanted to share.

“To be honest, I miss the stage, the audiences, the comics—everything about live entertainment. Whatever is happening in your life, going to a live standup show will offer a respite and make you laugh and feel better... at least for a while. This podcast allows me to share that experience again with an audience and reconnect with old friends.”

A new podcast drops every Sunday at standupyourhostandmc.com. Also check out Edwards’ blog for amazing photos of your favorite funny faces.

Kelli Wheeler’s new book is “Don’t Forget Your Lunch: Diapers to Diploma Parenting Wisdom.”

BUDDY BENCH

to write for her blog, website and conferences.

Wheeler just released a new book titled “Don’t Forget Your Lunch: Diapers to Diploma Parenting Wisdom.”

The book features highlights from her columns over the 16-year run.

Visit momservations.com for more information.

English. Participants can register at sachcc.org/juntossacramento.

One-on-one consulting in Spanish and English is available anytime and provides assistance with digital marketing, budgeting, operational planning, financial planning and access to capital. Sign up at sachcc.org/1-on-1consulting.

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The Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce recently launched the #JuntoSacramento (#TogetherSacramento) campaign to provide support to regional Hispanic and minority-owned businesses impacted by the pandemic. The organization is offering webinars, one-on-one consulting and translation services.

Upcoming webinars will be Dec. 4 at 9 a.m. on financial planning; Dec. 18 at 9 a.m. on disaster preparedness; and (date and time TBD) on financial education and management. Webinars are free and instructed in Spanish and

Show business veteran R. Scott Edwards has launched a new laugh-outloud podcast, “Standup Comedy: Your Host & MC.” The show features stories, interviews and comedy sets from the golden age of comedy, including work from Joan Rivers, Sinbad, Steve Martin, Jay Leno, Dana Carvey, Bob Saget, Jerry Seinfeld and others.

“I wrote a book about my 40-plus years on the fringe of show business as a homage to standup comedy as an art form,” explains Edwards, who founded comedy club Laughs Unlimited in 1980.

“I had already had several turndowns by publishers, so the podcast, as (my wife) Jill suggested, offered me a

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Girl Scouts from East Sacramento Troop 2379 recently presented a Buddy Bench to St. Ignatius Parish School principal Patty Kochis.

But this is not just any bench. It’s made of household plastic lids the Girl Scouts collected for more than two years and then turned over to a specialized recycling facility that ground them up and molded them into a beautiful forestgreen bench.

After meeting with Kochis and presenting their idea, the scouts were authorized to deliver the bench. This project earned them the Girl Scout Bronze Service Award—the first award on the path to the Girl Scout Gold Award (the equivalent of the Boy Scouts Eagle Scout). The troop will present

a bench to Bancroft Elementary at a future date.

ONE FLOW YOGA One Flow Yoga, the East Sac vinyasa (flow/power yoga) studio at 56th and H streets, celebrated its 10th year in October.

In a thank you letter to their community, founders Kate Saal and Tracy da Silva reminisced about how far they’ve come: “Our first class was held on October 20, 2010, at 6 p.m. for 55 people. This has always been a bootstrap endeavor. When we opened, I (Kate) had $30 to my name…What have we learned in 10 years? To ask better questions. We ask what we’ve taken to heart, svadhyaya? What company do we keep in the form of our thoughts and words, and yes, people? Where do we put our efforts? What do we value? And who do we love?”

One Flow Yoga is currently offering virtual live classes through Zoom, ondemand classes through its website, and socially distanced studio and outdoor classes. For more information, visit oneflowyoga.com.

LA FAMILIA WORKFORCE TRAINING La Familia Counseling Center has introduced two new workforce

Girl Scouts from East Sacramento Troop 2379 presents a Buddy Bench to St. Ignatius Parish School principal Patty Kochis.

Boone’s Red Onions is the recipient of a Street Food Sacramento grant.

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916.381.0210 development programs to help disadvantaged community members.

The Green Technology Training program—in partnership with California Mobility Center and SMUD— provides Sacramento residents who were displaced from the labor force due to COVID-19 with training in manufacturing and vehicle technology.

CMC students will receive 80 hours of job-realigning training, coaching and potential placement at local advanced manufacturing companies upon completion. Participants must be at least 18 and living within the city of Sacramento, provide right-to-work documentation and have been impacted by the pandemic. Training will be held virtually at La Familia Counseling Center.

The Community Health Worker Model one-year certificate program provides training in frontline public health care to address the spread of COVID-19 in the Hispanic/Latino community. In partnership with Los Rios Community College District, participants will be aligned with a career coach and some will be hired as community health care worker interns and/or paired with contact tracers.

Upon completion, the career coaches

will assist graduates with securing employment.

La Familia Counseling Center has provided multicultural counseling, outreach and support services to the community for more than 40 years. For more information, visit lafcc.org.

ART AT WORK The main wing of Sutter Roseville Medical Center is getting a refresh thanks to a new partnership with Blue Line Arts’ “Art at Work” program. The nonprofit art organization will provide new contemporary artwork every three months to brighten up the hospital’s common areas, hallways and waiting rooms.

“The idea of art contributing to wellness is not new, but this year especially I think everyone is recognizing how their surroundings can contribute to their stress levels and overall wellness,” Blue Line Arts codirector Brooke Abrames says.

The Art at Work program rotates art quarterly for local businesses in exchange for an annual membership fee. The art remains for sale on consignment, creating more exhibition space and sales opportunities for local

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Music mentor Brian Chris Rogers is paired with a high school student in CLARA’s CATALYST program.

artists and providing fun and functional décor for businesses without the investment in permanent works. For more information, visit bluelinearts.org.

RIVER CITY FOOD BANK River City Food Bank has been named the 2020 Nonprofit of the Year

by Assemblymember Ken Cooley.

As Sacramento’s oldest continuously serving food bank, River City Food Bank serves healthy food to nearly 20,000 people per month through its emergency food distributions, an increase of 32 percent as a result of the pandemic. Many of those struggling with hunger are the most vulnerable populations: children and seniors. For more information and ways to donate, visit rivercityfoodbank.org.

12 DAYS OF MIDTOWN Midtown Association’s annual holiday celebration “12 Days of Midtown” will be held Dec. 1–12 with events and specials to fill you with holiday cheer.

Visit exploremidtown.org/12-days-ofmidtown or follow @ExploreMidtown on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter each day to check out daily specials, giveaways and sales from Midtown restaurants, boutiques, arts groups, coffeehouses and more.

Midtown is both walkable and bike-friendly with parking available in nearby garages and various lots.

Valet parking options are also available at 24th and K streets and 18th and Capitol streets on Friday and Saturday evenings.

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Also this holiday season, the city of Sacramento is offering free on-street metered parking from I to L streets and Front to 29th streets on weekdays after 4:30 p.m. and all day on weekends through Dec. 25.

CLARA CATALYST CLARA recently announced the winning participants of its new CATALYST program, a nine-month professional apprenticeship for emerging artists age 16–18.

Applicants from the Sacramento City Unified School District who plan to pursue an artistic career have been paired with a Sacramento-based artist mentor and personal coach to learn vocational skills. The students will also participate in a remote cohort that focuses on leadership development and goal-setting.

“There are things time has taught me,” says music mentor Brian Chris Rogers, an award-winning vocalist and drummer who has opened for Yo-Yo Ma, Bernie Sanders, Blues Traveler and Warren G. “As a mentor, my aim is to use that wisdom to give (McClatchy High School junior Kathryn Taytroe) the piece of the puzzle that will make her art soar…She can play circles around me—and that’s how it should be.”

The pairings are Taytroe and Rogers; Luther Burbank senior Estephany Anguiano and artist/illustrator Tabitha Jensen; The Met Sacramento senior

Silvia Fernanda Figueroa and choral conductor/music educator/performer Kamilyn Davis; John F. Kennedy High School senior Viviana Garcia and photographer/collagist/printmaker Emma Montalbano; The Met junior Karla Lopez and bassist/vocalist/ songwriter Casey Lipka; The Met junior Isabel Melchor and sculptor/designer Christina Pate; JFK junior Daniela Torres Melendrez and photographer Melissa Uroff; McClatchy senior Theo Osborn and multidisciplinary artist Brandon Alxndr; The Met junior Noah Sample and drummer Patrick Shelley; and The Met senior Leo Williams and photographer/tattooist Jocelyn McGreggor.

For more information, visit claramidtown.org/arts-education/ catalyst.

VIVIAN LEE CHRISTMAS SHOW The Sacramento Jazz Cooperative has announced it will continue its holiday tradition with the presentation of the Vivian Lee Quartet Christmas Show as part of its From the Living Room Series, available to stream starting the day after Thanksgiving.

With Joe Gilman on piano, Buca Necak on bass, Jeff Minnieweather on drums and Vivian Lee on vocals, the performance is sure to dazzle jazz aficionados of all stripes.

Rent the video for $10 on Vimeo and watch at your convenience for 30 days. Download the Vimeo app for best viewing quality. For more information, visit sacramentojazzcoop.org.

YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH Sacramento Youth Mental Health will present a free webinar at 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 14, in partnership with Art With Impact, as part of the Mindset Sacramento Webinar Series.

“Paradigm Shift #1” by Peter Foucault is part of the Blue Line Arts “Art at Work” program at Sutter Roseville Medical Center.

The youth-run organization connects high school age people around the region for peer-to-peer communication to destigmatize the conversation around mental health. With this proactive approach, SYMH hopes to stop the symptoms of common mental health issues before they become seriously degrading.

The December webinar will cover why and how art can help with mental health through five-minute movies created by local teens working with Art With Impact. For more information, visit sacymh.org.

Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Submissions are due six weeks prior to the publication month. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

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SOUNDS OF SILENCE CARR EXITS, WANTS COUNCIL TO STOP TALKING

Larry Carr Photo by Aniko Kiezel

L

eaving the City Council this month will mean blissful deliverance for Larry Carr. He will savor the sounds of silence.

Since replacing the late Bonnie Pannell in a 2014 special election, Carr has represented District 8, the city’s southeastern suburb that

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By R.E. Graswich City Beat

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includes Meadowview, Parkway and North Laguna. The district is home to some of the city’s more challenged neighborhoods and underserved residents.

Carr led the City Council to adopt a progressive police use-of-force policy, banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and requiring officers to intervene if fellow cops use excessive force. “I’m really proud of what the city has accomplished,” Carr says.

There were disappointments. He lost the fight to protect Meadowview against Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s determination to build a homeless shelter near the Pannell Community Center and swimming pool. Carr’s

efforts to encourage discipline and oversight among council colleagues also fell short.

“We have a totally dysfunctional system,” Carr says. “The City Council likes having the power to direct the entire city workforce to do whatever they want. It’s parochial and not

“

effective. They have no idea the impact that has on staff. It drives staff crazy.”

The problem, Carr believes, is the council’s inability to shut up. He says, “I have a theory, when people get elected, they think they’re expected to know everything about everything.

IT’S TIME TO GET OUT OF THE WAY. YOUNG PEOPLE WON’T GET ANY EXPERIENCE IF THE OLD GUYS ARE BLOCKING THEM.

„

Not knowing something would be a sign of weakness. So they speak. And they speak. It’s like they’re getting paid by the word.”

All those words, he says, come down to one: “Gibberish.”

Carr learned to limit his words in the Army, where he spent 23 years climbing from second lieutenant to lieutenant colonel. “You couldn’t go into the general’s office and speak to him for 15 minutes,” he says. “You could bring in three slides, option A, option B and the expected outcome.

He’d make a decision. That was that.”

The Army wasn’t unique in its disciplined approach. Carr found similar attributes at SMUD, where he served as a board member for 16 years. The difference between the SMUD board and City Council was significant. SMUD trustees thought collectively. They put the utility first.

Councilmembers think politically and parochially. They worry how issues will play with special interests.

“Here’s the difference,” Carr says.

“At council, a member says, ‘I want a new community center and swimming pool.’ Then we argue about that.

Instead, we should say, ‘Every kid in the city should be within 5 miles of a swimming pool.’ Then all staff needs is a tape measure to make it happen.”

The city’s response to homelessness left Carr deeply disappointed. He characterizes the approach as misguided, financially wasteful and ultimately doomed: “We shoot the gun before we know what we’re aiming at.”

The city’s mistakes on homelessness have deepened the crisis, Carr believes. Some people become homeless because their car

breaks down and they lose their job. Their trajectory can be turned around with modest cash benefits.

At the other end of the spectrum are chronically homeless people with mental and physical illnesses and long-term addictions.

“Our philosophy has been to show we can handle the hardest cases first,” he says. “Why didn’t we start with the easiest cases? You will notice communities that provide no homeless services have no homeless people. And the reverse is true. We’ve become a magnet. Build it and they will come.”

Carr is popular in District 8. He could have easily won re-election this year. But at 74, he’s seen—and heard—enough.

“The past five councilmembers who represented District 8—Bob Matsui, Patrick Donovan, Lynn Robie, Sam and Bonnie Pannell—they’re all dead.

I want to go on living,” he says. “And it’s time to get out of the way. Young people won’t get any experience if the old guys are blocking them.”

When the coronavirus subsides, Carr will hit the road. He toured Central and South America, Europe and the Pacific in the Army. But he missed the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. He wants to see America and visit places where a person can think without talking so much.

R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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Wilted Dreams FLOWER SHOP REFLECTS ANGUISH OF MEAN STREETS, VIRUS

BY LIEZET ARNOLD

A

s the owner of a florist shop, I’ve been in the business of emotions for two decades helping folks mark special occasions and milestones. But today those occasions are as scarce as people in Downtown Sacramento. And my emotions revolve around a lifeless and mostly empty Downtown as I struggle with how we can bring it back to its old vibrant self.

I remember how devastated I felt in March when the pandemic shutdown orders were issued. I felt the rug had been pulled out from under my feet. There is nothing worse than experiencing a loss of control over your life and livelihood after years of successfully managing a business.

So much of the fabric of Downtown has to do with people—walking, talking, laughing and socializing. Twenty-five percent of my business came from walk-ins. They are now gone. With the Downtown workforce largely

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working remote, the halt of conventions and organized events, dinners and concerts, plus the scaling back of Capitol activities, my business is down by at least half.

Adversity is a great test of character.

You can’t just throw up your hands and give up. I’ve had to change the fundamentals of how my shop runs. I now have half the staff I had in January.

I’ve scaled back hours and focused on online marketing in place of person-toperson contacts.

I understand the realities of the pandemic and the need for stay-at-home orders. But Downtown’s slide has been a domino effect of neglect that has gone far beyond COVID-19.

Each day, we face behavior related to drug and alcohol abuse and mental health issues. Without more attention to these illnesses, criminal behavior has become more common. In fact, there are times during the day when I have to lock my front door because it doesn’t feel safe. I shouldn’t have to do that.

The whole atmosphere has changed.

So much progress, spearheaded by the opening of Golden 1 Center and the sprouting of entertainment and restaurant venues, has been reversed in the last nine months.

People don’t feel comfortable coming Downtown, given what they see in the increasing numbers of people exhibiting criminal and aggressive behavior, homelessness, and the trash and waste that mar streets and doorsteps. The homeless people who dot the streets and doorways need more programs and assistance to help them recover.

Despite all this adversity, I still believe in Downtown. I believe it will come back. It has to. The pandemic will be controlled. The shutdown orders will eventually be lifted. The network of state workers will return to their offices and patronize our stores and restaurants. Basketball and concerts will return to our beautiful arena. But our fate is dependent on far more than controlling the public health crisis.

Liezet Arnold

How well it comes back depends on whether the mayor and City Council really listen to the plight that my fellow small business owners and I face. We are hanging on, but with too little support. We are not the loudest squeaky wheel. But we are essential to Downtown’s recovery. And we need help with public health, sanitation and safety.

I miss seeing people Downtown. We need city leadership to return the city’s heart to a living and breathing place of prosperity and promise—not the current littered landscape of despair and neglect.

Liezet Arnold owns Bloem Décor Florist at 1016 10th St. n

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Challenge Accepted

LEGALLY BLIND MIDTOWN RESIDENT LIVES LIFE TO FULLEST

Carol Rae Anapolsky with Zoe Photo by Aniko Kiezel

C

arol Rae Anapolsky loves a good challenge.

During her 91 years, the Midtown resident has been the only woman in a male-dominated job (more than once), owned one of the region’s largest gourmet chocolate shops, become a sought-after jewelry designer in Oregon and, more recently, learned to live independently despite being legally blind.

After graduating from McClatchy High School, Anapolsky didn’t want to go to a four-year college. Her father, a successful businessman who owned one of the area’s first home-improvement

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By Jessica Laskey Meet Your Neighbor

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stores, had inspired her to enter the business world—but he also insisted that his only daughter take two years of classes at Sacramento City College before striking out on her own.

While attending college, Anapolsky discovered a knack for acting that stayed with her through her adulthood—she performed regularly at the Eaglet Theatre (now the Sacramento Theatre Company) and Chautauqua Playhouse.

After moving to San Francisco to try her luck auditioning, Anapolsky landed a job as a secretary, first at an ad agency and later at the San Francisco Examiner. (At the Examiner interview, she was told they wouldn’t hire a woman because the language in the all-male secretarial pool was not very “becoming.” Anapolsky stood her ground, got the position and did “one hell of a job.”)

Anapolsky eventually moved back to Sacramento to be closer to her parents and adopted a baby boy. She also started working at Wells Fargo—again the only

woman in her department—where she worked for 21 years until the itch to go into business for herself came back.

“I always wanted the challenge of owning a business,” Anapolsky says. “I wanted to prove I didn’t need a college education and could learn by doing.”

Coupling her love of a challenge with her lifelong love of chocolate, Anapolsky opened gourmet chocolate shop Kaylah le Chocolatier (Kaylah is her Jewish name) at Downtown Plaza in 1984 and eventually moved to a historic building on K Street.

“If I ever bragged about anything in my life, it was that store,” says Anapolsky, who ran the shop for 10 years. “It was a place where people could hang out and feel comfortable, which made me feel like I was giving back to my community.”

After selling the store and retiring to Oregon at her husband Sylvan’s behest, Anapolsky didn’t slow down.

She got involved with Soroptimist International, threw chocolate and champagne soirées, and started a new venture as a jewelry designer and gallery owner.

When she lost her husband in 2015, her son insisted she return to Sacramento. Anapolsky spent an unhappy year at Selby Ranch before taking up residence at Governor’s Terrace in Midtown, where she lives with her best friend Zoe, a 5 1/2-pound Maltese.

Around that time, Anapolsky noticed that making necklaces was getting more and more challenging—and not in a good way.

“The colors weren’t right and I had trouble stringing,” she recalls. “I kept thinking I just needed to rest my eyes,

but really I was in denial. I wouldn’t accept that I couldn’t see.”

Finally, Anapolsky was referred to the Low Vision Clinic at the Society for the Blind—where she was declared legally blind. In shock, Anapolsky agreed to meet with one of the center’s occupational therapists, who helped set up a Kindle for the avid reader and enrolled Anapolsky in the Senior IMPACT program, a series of classes that teach non-visual techniques to people 55 and older experiencing vision loss. During an intensive fiveday retreat, Anapolsky learned the skills she now uses to maintain an active, independent life as a thriving nonagenarian.

The Society for the Blind “gave me life again—and gave me a challenge, which is the most wonderful thing I can have,” says Anapolsky, who regularly cruises Midtown with Zoe, her white cane and a walker to visit shop owners and friends.

“If you’re blind late in life, it’s just a matter of how you decide what you’re going to do. Are you going to accept it, or sit on your booty and feel sorry for yourself? I’m not that type of person.

There’s still so much life out there for us if we want to have it. Don’t look back, look forward.”

On to the next challenge.

For more information, visit societyfortheblind.org.

Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Previous profiles can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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winds down, emergency dollars will likely disappear. Nonprofits could face a financial roller coaster.

It could be “feast or famine” when it comes to funding, Tucker says, but she is more concerned about nonprofits that receive the bulk of revenue through events. Many of those fundraising opportunities have been canceled or moved online.

“Nonprofits are really just like other small businesses,” Tucker says. “Nonprofits need to be entrepreneurial.

Kim Tucker We really don’t get Photo by Linda Smolek much respect.”

Her solution is for nonprofits to address problems themselves, starting with the likelihood that some smaller nonprofits provide redundant services. “It’s likely there are many others doing the same thing and they might want to consider stronger collaboration,” Tucker says.

Nonprofits are often under contract with government entities.

Sacramento County contracts out almost 80 percent of its health and human services to nonprofit groups.

“These nonprofits have to think like a business,” Tucker says.

So, if nonprofits fail, their loss ripples “They are engaging in through the local economy and tears a business contract with government. away parts of our social fabric.

They aren’t begging for a living. They The Impact Foundry is a support need to know the true value of what organization for nonprofits—a group they offer and get paid accordingly.” that provides training, consulting, Strategic advice is the core service of technical assistance and event planning The Impact Foundry. The organization while helping nonprofits build capacity. helps nonprofit management and boards “The nonprofit community has been create more effective and efficient in a growth mode ever since we came out operations. of the big recession,” says Kim Tucker, “Charity is about alleviating The Impact Foundry executive director. suffering,” Tucker says. “It’s the “COVID-19 has hit the nonprofit in mission of many nonprofits but I think many ways.” we need to go deeper. We need to do As Tucker explains, many nonprofits more than just solve immediate needs, received pandemic-related funds to help but to find root causes in the system with essential health services, food, that leads to suffering.” homelessness and more. As the virus

Helping

Themselves

N O N PROFI T S S T RUGGL E A S COVI D TA K E S TO L L

S

acramento is home to many people eager to help their community by joining nonprofit groups. But there are holes in this safety net.

Our region has about 15,000 nonprofit groups. These include fraternal organizations, charities, service clubs, foundations and chambers of commerce. The economic impact of local nonprofits is a monster number.

SC

By Scot Crocker

30

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She believes it’s time for nonprofits to look at more than feeding people or finding temporary shelter for the homeless. It’s time to seek solutions that cause these problems in the first place.

Many nonprofits will have to close their doors, says Beth Hassett, executive director of WEAVE, a nonprofit that provides crisis intervention for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

WEAVE has a $10 million budget, 140 employees, thrift stores, and multiple sites and apartments for people in crisis who need shelter and services.

“I really feel for those nonprofits who made their budgets through fundraising events and volunteerism, because those have stopped or pivoted to online events,” Hassett says. “We’ve had to change. We had to find a way to deliver services in new ways when you can’t serve people in person.”

The pandemic caused a major influx of people seeking support from WEAVE. “It started in July,” Hassett says. “We saw triple the number of calls and serious cases. It was like the recession, where tensions in the home escalate.

While there might have been mental and financial abuse before, it turned into serious physical abuse.”

Nonprofits employ thousands of local residents, engage in workforce development, buy office supplies, pay salaries and provide benefits.

Ultimately, they touch everyone in the community and are a lifeline for groups that assist everything from the Sacramento Zoo and cultural arts to church groups and local fraternal organizations.

The work is important—and so is the health of our nonprofits. Tucker believes nonprofits should examine their management teams and boards. “You have to ask why the management and boards of many nonprofits don’t often represent the diversity of the people they serve out in the community,” she says. “We need more data; we need to map who we serve and find leadership that reflects those they serve.”

Whether many nonprofits survive the pandemic is a question mark. It will depend on how they improve their practices, promote themselves and align with the diversity of the communities they help.

Scot Crocker can be reached at scot@crockerbranding.com. Previous stories can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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Mai Vang

Sean Loloee with his wife Maryam and children Pasha and Ayla.

NEW FAC E S COUNCIL CHANGES CUT MAYOR’S POWER

I

n his failed bid to become strong mayor, Darrell Steinberg may have lost his ability to command majority support on the Sacramento City Council.

The council expects three new members to arrive in December. None of the newcomers received support from Steinberg. Two veteran members—Jeff Harris and Angelique Ashby—have histories of opposing the mayor.

Mai Vang, a Sacramento City Unified School District board member and youth advocate, won a narrow victory in the District 8 seat vacated by Larry Carr, who is retiring from the council.

RG

By R.E. Graswich

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Vang held a lead of about 250 votes over Les Simmons, a pastor at South Sacramento Christian Center. The November race drew a robust turnout of around 9,000 votes across Meadowview and North Laguna.

“I’m nervous but super excited and I’m so proud of our team,” Vang said as votes were being counted. “The fact that there was a historic turnout in District 8, I think that’s something we should all celebrate.”

Vang, the daughter of Hmong refugees, was supported by councilmembers Carr, Ashby, Allen Warren and incoming member Katie

Valenzuela, who defeated District 4 incumbent Steve Hansen in the March primary.

Warren lost his District 2 seat in a November runoff with Sean Loloee, an entrepreneur who operates Viva Supermarkets in North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights, Rancho Cordova and Dixon.

Warren and Carr served as politically independent councilmembers who sometimes supported Steinberg, but also voted against him. Both opposed the strong mayor initiative, along with Harris, who represents District 3.

The remaining councilmembers—Jay Schenirer, Rick Jennings and Eric Guerra—are aligned with Steinberg.

Ashby, who ran against Steinberg for mayor in 2016, is expected to battle Guerra for a state Senate seat in 2022.

The strong mayor initiative, Measure A, was rejected by 57 percent of city voters—the same number that turned down a similar proposal from Mayor Kevin Johnson in 2014.

R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. n

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SINCE 1926

T R A D I T I O N S FO R T H E F U T U R E LYON VILLAGE

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Place

A

to Nest

LOCAL WOMAN CREDITED WITH BRINGING BACK THE BLUEBIRD

Vicki Butler Photo by Linda Smolek

BY MARY LYNNE VELLINGA

I

n this grim season of infection and lockdown, the resurgence of the western bluebird in Sacramento recently popped up as a bright thread on the social media site Nextdoor, where the chatter usually features more downbeat concerns like porch theft or the growing number of people living on sidewalks and in parks.

It’s hard not to notice the bluebird, which suddenly seems everywhere in this capital city. The males are vivid flashes of blue and rusty orange as they swoop and dart, chasing insects along golf fairways and expanses of grass. Bluebirds perch on street signs, venture up on porches and hop along the ground.

Like many native bird species, bluebirds fell into serious decline in

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Dr. Carl Shin Photo by Cecily Hastings

the 1950s and ‘60s due to the pesticide DDT, loss of nesting habitat and competition from non-native species. Until recently they were seldom seen in core Sacramento neighborhoods, whose stately trees and ample parks would seem to provide ideal habitat.

Now they are ubiquitous. What makes their comeback in Sacramento all the more remarkable is that it was engineered by a single bird enthusiast.

Vicki Butler is a retired water treatment plant manager who lives in South Land Park. She is one of hundreds of volunteers around the country who are devoted to saving the bluebird by erecting “trails” of nest boxes where the birds can raise their broods with

some protection from mortal enemies: aggressive, non-native interlopers like starlings and house sparrows that outcompete them for the limited inventory of tree cavities in which they nest.

Bluebirds, it turns out, have lots of fans. They are mild mannered and pretty.

Their soft, stuttering song is not harsh like the calls of the West’s other signature blue bird, the domineering scrub jay, which incidentally will peck baby bluebirds to death and eat them if given a chance. Male bluebirds are good dads. Butler has seen them give their fledglings flying lessons.

“There are lots of people who are pretty obsessed with bluebirds,” Butler says. “They are such a sweet bird. There is nothing annoying about them at all.”

On the question of the bluebird’s local recovery, Butler offers, “I’ve fledged hundreds of birds in my boxes.

The key is nesting availability. We’ve got lots of good habitat, parks and especially golf courses.”

Butler has been hanging bluebird boxes in trees at Sacramento parks

and golf courses for at least a dozen years. For a while, she even banded the fledglings so she could track their progress as they spread out at a rate of about 3 miles a year, turning up in one park after another.

Butler keeps meticulous track of what’s happening in her boxes, checking them each week to see how the bluebird broods are progressing. This year, she has counted 81 birds that fledged from 18 boxes she maintains on two Sacramento golf courses, Bing Maloney and Land Park. She also maintains boxes at Haggin Oaks golf course and McKinley Park.

“People will walk past my bluebird boxes and never see them because they’re up in the trees anywhere from 10 to 18 feet,” Butler says. Bluebird boxes erected on poles just invite vandalism, she adds.

Butler’s boxes are designed to maximize the bluebird’s chances. The holes are too small for starlings to get inside. While there isn’t a way to create a hole that would let a bluebird in and keep a house sparrow out, Butler includes a second hole so adult bluebirds have an escape hatch if a sparrow shows up and starts attacking them and their babies to take possession of the box.

Butler positions her boxes in groves away from snack bars and other places where people congregate and eat, because that’s where house sparrows hang out. If sparrows do show up, she traps them and disposes of them in a way she does not detail.

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SINCE 1926

T R A D I T I O N S FO R T H E F U T U R E LYON VILLAGE 2580 Fair Oaks Blvd. Ste 30. Sacramento 916.487.7853

One hot Sunday in late July at the Land Park golf course, Butler brought down a box. She found four baby bluebirds nestled inside, their yellow beaks craning and their black eyes wide open. They were the second brood of the year. Their siblings from the first brood had already fledged and could be seen flitting in the trees nearby.

“This is probably the last brood I’ll have going this year.” The babies were 13 days old, the latest Butler can safely open a box to check on them. All told, they’ll spend 21 days inside the box before fledging.

Bluebirds live about three to four years. They generally produce two broods, one in spring and one in summer, for a total of 10 to 12 offspring.

Butler is one of 170 or so Californians monitoring bluebird boxes around the state and reporting their results annually to the California Bluebird Recovery Program, created by a group of volunteers in 1994. Last year, the group reported that 21,164 baby bluebirds had fledged from their boxes, compared with 5,077 in 1996.

But their recovery is tenuous.

Insecticides continue to pose a threat and bluebirds are heavily dependent on an aging group of volunteers who

dedicate their time to erect and monitor nest boxes.

“I’ve not been as good as I should be about training other people,” Butler allows. “I’m sort of doing what I can at this time, but there’s plenty of opportunity for other people to put up boxes and monitor them.”

15+ years of thoughtful home remodeling

For information on how to build and monitor nest boxes, visit the North American Bluebird Society website at nabluebirdsociety.org.

Mary Lynne Vellinga lives in Land Park. She can be reached at mlvellinga@sbcglobal.net. n (530) 750-2209 info@makdesignbuild.com 430 F St. Suite B, Davis, CA 95616 CL# 840316

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Wheels of Fortune LOGISTICS EMPLOYMENT AGENCY SUPPORTS LOCAL CHARITIES

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Desiree Caldwell Amaral Photo by Linda Smolek

JL

By Jessica Laskey Giving Back: Volunteer Profile

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rucking and charity might seem like an unlikely pair. But for Desiree Caldwell Amaral— founder, owner and director of operations for Elite HR Logistics— helping people find lifelong careers and giving back to her community have always been inextricably linked.

For the past 20 years, Sacramentobased Elite HR Logistics has worked with numerous nonprofits, especially those focused on helping children, while simultaneously growing into one of California’s premiere employment agencies for all kinds of industries across seven states.

In 1998, after years in ad sales, Caldwell Amaral decided to switch careers and discovered an affinity for recruitment—particularly for jobs in the trucking industry.

“It was such a different feel talking to trucking clients,” Caldwell Amaral says.

“They were more down to earth. There was no sugar coating. We were able to talk about family and build relationships.

It wasn’t just about a contract.”

Caldwell Amaral joined the California Trucking Association in 2001—where she was “the only female in the room”—and started her recruitment company shortly thereafter, which has since diversified from truck driving to include jobs in management, office personnel and various warehouse opportunities. While growth has certainly always been part of Caldwell Amaral’s plan, so has been sharing her success with those in need.

“Each year, we look at different areas we feel could use our resources and make it our goal to give back to the local community any way that we can,” Caldwell Amaral says.

Since 2002, Elite HR Logistics has provided Thanksgiving dinners to Sacramento Children’s Home and donated bikes, helmets, bedding and Secret Santa gifts at the holidays to bring the “simple pleasures of comfort to all the kids of every age group,” Caldwell Amaral says. That same year, the company

started sponsoring CTA’s annual California Trucking Competition, which promotes driver safety.

Since 2007, Caldwell Amaral and her staff have partnered with the U.S. Postal Service’s Operation Santa to fulfill holiday wishes from “Dear Santa” letters written by local children in need.

In 2015, Elite HR Logistics joined the Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce to provide scholarships for graduating high school students who may not have the support at home to get them to the next stage of their academic careers.

For the past two years, Elite HR has participated in the Sacramento Food Bank’s Turkey Drive and Union Gospel Mission’s Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless, and has donated to WEAVE and environmental organizations addressing ocean cleanup and overfishing.

This year, Caldwell Amaral says she’s shifted her focus to adapting to needs in the community that have arisen due to the pandemic. To that end, the company is continuing its usual charity work, but added an additional effort around the holidays to provide 25 families with a meal from a local restaurant. Elite HR Logistics posted a call on its website and social media for letters about people who have been someone’s “rock or hero” this year for a chance to receive a meal.

“2020 has been an extraordinarily tough year for everyone,” Caldwell Amaral says. “Many families are still struggling to make ends meet. In an effort to relieve some of the stress and add some happy memories, we’re hoping to help families in need…and make this season a little brighter.”

For more information, visit elitehrlogistics.com.

Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Previous profiles can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

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A Designer’s Touch EAST SAC FAMILY TURNS 1920S DUPLEX INTO SINGLE-FAMILY HOME

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By Cathryn Rakich Photography by Aniko Kiezel OPEN HOUSE

W

ith three growing boys and two big dogs, homeowners Kristen and Eric Bassett were running out of space in their 47th Street home.

“It served our family well,” Kristen says. “But as our boys got bigger, the house got smaller.”

Wanting to stay in East Sacramento, the family came across a duplex for sale on a stately street only a few blocks from their home. “We obviously were not going to move into a duplex, but we saw the potential. We could make it exactly what we wanted and needed,” Kristen says.

The Bassetts purchased the two-story duplex and went to work converting it into a 3,000-square-foot single-family home with five bedrooms and three full baths. “It was a huge remodel. Down to the studs,” Kristen says. “Now it’s almost a new house.”

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The nine-month renovation went “smoothly with no real surprises,” Kristen adds, with help from Casci DesignWorks, A-Z Construction in West Sacramento and interior designer Cheryl Holben. “Cheryl helped me with a lot of the interior and pushed me to think outside of what I would have normally done.”

As an example, instead of a traditional kitchen island, Kristen’s father hand built a 10-foot-long, barheight table from elm wood. The hobby woodworker also created a coffee table for the family, a dining room buffet and a bed for one of the boys.

Retained elements include a swinging pantry door (originally leading to the dining room) and crystal drawer pulls

40

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(transferred from a built-in dining room cabinet that was removed). The pulls are now on the hallway closet and laundry room cabinets.

The original front door was painted a statement-making “Heritage Red”

by Benjamin Moore. A neighbor refurbished the door handle for the Bassetts, embedding a 1923 dime into the metal plate as a nod to the year the duplex was built.

The homeowners gave the living room’s brick fireplace a facelift with white paint, a mantel and gas insert.

The original staircase and bannister also received new paint.

Windows throughout the home were replaced for energy efficiency, but the Bassetts were careful to replicate the windows’ original design. The floor is engineered wood with a medium brown

stain. “I wanted it to look like it’s been here for years,” Kristen says.

Two eye-catching red pendant lights hang above the kitchen table/island, lending a pop of color to the all-white surroundings. Countertops are Calcutta marble. The square beveled-tile backsplash is a twist on the standard subway tile. “It felt like I spent all last summer in a tile store,” Kristen laughs.

“There is some of form of white subwayish tile in all the rooms.”

Custom kitchen cabinets and drawers sport brushed-gold knobs. The sink faucet and handles are chrome. “I love mixing and not matching every single thing.”

A six-burner Wolf range/oven was salvaged from the lower-level duplex, which had been recently remodeled.

“It’s beautiful. I don’t think I would have picked something different,” Kristen says. The range hood is concealed in smooth white plaster.

A stunning crystal chandelier, another Cheryl Holben influence, is the centerpiece of the dining room. “I told Cheryl, ‘I’ve got three boys—we are not fancy. This seems super fancy,’” Kristen explains. Holben convinced the homeowner to indulge herself. “She said, ‘You’re the only girl in the house.’”

Three hallway floor-to-ceiling lockers—one for each boy—hide away backpacks and other miscellaneous teenage gear. Each locker contains a charging outlet. The doors are painted the same red as the front door.

A wow factor is found in the downstairs bathroom, which features a striking and unexpected chinoiserie (Chinese motif) wallpaper, complemented by a bamboo-style mirror and penny tile floor. The upstairs master bath has Carrera marble countertops, charcoal-grey custom cabinets and a shower of beveled subway tiles. The boys’ bathroom has quartz countertops and hexagon floor tile.

A small basketball court behind the garage is “a saving grace” during the pandemic, Kristen says. “They have something to do that is not inside playing a video game or on a device. And dad loves playing with them too.”

The backyard is also home to a new wooden pergola over the patio and builtin brick barbeque for outdoor dining and entertaining. With December upon us, the family looks forward to their first holiday—with indoor and outdoor festivities—in their new home.

SACRAMENTO HOME MAKEOVER SHOW High Noon Entertainment, which produces programs such as HGTV’s Good Bones and Fixer Upper, is debuting a new home makeover show featuring Sacramento. The series will focus on homeowners ready to take on a large-scale renovation, but don’t have a shared vision for style, scope and/ or functionality. The show will feature an expert design team that specializes in helping duos with opposite tastes.

Stay tuned for more information on the series’ debut.

To recommend a home or garden for Open House, contact editor@insidepublications.com.

More photography and previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

A wow factor is found in the downstairs bathroom, which features a striking and unexpected chinoiserie (Chinese motif) wallpaper.

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Photo by Aniko Kiezel

Bad to Worse HOMELESSNESS DEFIES MAYOR’S PLANS

A

n October column in The New York Times called attention to California’s “epidemic of homelessness that seems to defy all attempts to fix it.”

Clicking on a link in the text, readers were directed to a Los Angeles Times article headlined: “This was supposed to be the year for California’s homeless.

Instead it’s a slow train wreck.”

All true, but don’t expect the dire observations to discourage Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who has invested more political capital on this issue than most California mayors.

When Steinberg vowed in 2017 to find shelter for 2,000 homeless people by 2020, there were more than a few skeptics. City data show Sacramento has handily surpassed the target.

That was before COVID-19 changed everything.

“I don’t know if it’s gotten worse or not,” Steinberg says. “It appears to be worse. The problem remains, in part, because the people becoming homeless

GD

By Gary Delsohn Building Our Future

42

IES DEC n 20

outnumber the people we’re getting off the streets.”

Since the pandemic hit, scores of businesses have closed, thousands of jobs have been lost, yet rents are spiking again in Sacramento in large part because people are fleeing the Bay Area.

“That’s one of the parts of it that rarely gets talked about,” Steinberg says. “That’s poverty, that’s high housing costs, that’s loss of jobs. Yes, that’s mental health and substance abuse as well, but there is a significant economic piece to this.”

By the mayor’s account, he has brought more than $100 million into the city to attack a problem confounding mayors and cities across the country.

A new shelter for women has opened in Meadowview, though Steinberg was frustrated it took 14 months to get it done. The city has benefitted from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious Project Roomkey and Project Homekey initiatives that put several thousand homeless people into local motels and hotels.

Two-thirds of the costs for those programs have been covered by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as part of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But some businesses and residents who live near the hotels and motels have complained about the behavior of their new neighbors.

Steinberg, who Newsom named co-chair of the governor’s Homeless

and Supportive Housing Advisory Task Force, led the charge in August to win City Council approval to spend up to $62.3 million in state and federal funds on homeless projects. Included in the list is $4 million for Steinberg’s plan to put tiny homes on sites around town.

But Steinberg knows federal assistance is limited. It will never be enough to eradicate the problem, though he believes a President Joe Biden would do much more to attack the issue than President Trump.

One current frustration has been resistance from the Trump administration to Sacramento’s plans for a 100-bed sprung shelter at Alhambra and X Street, where Steinberg says, “The problem is horrendous.” Sprung shelters stretch durable tension fabric over metal frames and can be erected in weeks.

Steinberg has been calling for a new approach to homelessness. He wants public policy that treats homelessness as a public health emergency, just as California declared a public health emergency with COVID-19.

“What I’ve argued at the state level, somewhat imperfectly, is that cities and counties have a legal obligation to bring people indoors. The (Newsom) administration and others haven’t preferred that approach, but there is something out there that we’ll work on with the governor and Legislature that presents a clear north star that is tantamount to ‘we must do this and

we must have a housing and services solution to everybody that is out on our streets in California.’”

Without that hard commitment, Steinberg believes the public will see pilot program after pilot program.

Progress will be hard to track.

If we do get to the point where cities and counties are legally obligated to bring people in off the streets, Steinberg wants the obligation to work both ways. Homeless people offered safe shelter should be obligated to take it, but current laws make that extremely difficult.

“I fundamentally believe that housing should be a right, but I also believe that we ought to have a public policy in this state that says it’s OK under no circumstances to have people live out on the street,” Steinberg says.

“That if people are offered a safe place to come in, there ought to be some obligations that come with that.”

Unfortunately, homelessness in America has proven to be an issue that no matter how much progress is made, there always seem to be more people with nowhere to live.

Gary Delsohn can be reached at gdelsohn@gmail.com. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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Seasonal SAFETY PROTECT YOUR PETS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

T

he 4-month-old kitten was neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and ready to take on the world—including the festive new “cat tree” with the shiny round “toys” dangling within paws’ reach.

One exuberant leap into the decorated fir branches and the whole Christmas tree came crashing down.

Though the holidays look a little different this year as people scale down the family get-togethers and forgo neighborhood parties, it doesn’t mean we won’t be adorning a tree, hanging a wreath or indulging in spiked eggnog. Including our companion animals in the festivities is part of the fun—just remember to do it safely with these tips by the American SPCA:

CR

By Cathryn Rakich Animals & Their Allies

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DECORATION DANGERS Secure the Christmas tree. Pets are curious about this exciting new addition to the home. Cats and kittens will bat at ornaments and climb branches. Puppies will gnaw on trunks. It’s important to properly anchor the tree so it doesn’t tip over.

Keep a cover on the tree’s water container—stagnant tree water may contain fertilizer, preservatives or bacteria, which can cause nausea or diarrhea if pets imbibe. Clean up needles as they fall.

Hang lights, ornaments and garlands, including strings of popcorn, out of reach. Shards of glass from broken decorations, if swallowed, can cause intestinal hemorrhaging and blockage.

Toss out the tinsel. Cats and kittens love sparkly, light-catching tinsel they can chew and swallow, which can lead to an obstructed digestive tract (and possible surgery), severe vomiting and dehydration.

Keep wrapping paper, ribbons and bows away from pets.

Ensure holly, mistletoe and lilies are inaccessible. When ingested,

holly can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in pets. Mistletoe can cause gastrointestinal upset and cardiovascular problems. Many varieties of lilies can result in kidney failure in felines.

Embrace battery-powered candles.

Pets can burn themselves on lighted candles or knock them over, causing a fire. Hide wires and batteries. A wire can deliver a potentially lethal shock.

A punctured battery can cause burns to the mouth and esophagus.

FOOD PERILS Don’t leave appetizers, dinner or desserts unattended on countertops and tables. Turkey bones can splinter and puncture a dog’s digestive tract. Meat fat trimmings with heavy seasoning and salt can upset stomachs.

Chocolate can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and death. Dark chocolate, especially baking chocolate, is more dangerous than milk chocolate.

Xylitol, a sweetener used in products such as gum, candy and baked goods, can lead to liver failure in pets. Initial signs of toxicosis include vomiting, lethargy, loss of coordination and seizures. Baked goods, such a holiday fruitcakes, often contain raisins and currants, which can result in kidney failure in dogs.

Be careful with cocktails. Alcoholic beverages can cause vomiting, diarrhea, decreased coordination, central nervous system depression, difficulty breathing, tremors, abnormal blood acidity, coma and death.

Stuff stockings with pet-friendly treats. Choose indestructible chew toys or treats designed for safe digestion. Avoid cat toys with loose little parts that can get stuck inside intestines. Instead, gift a new ball that is too big to swallow or a stuffed catnip toy.

PLAY IT SAFE If you are entertaining this season, give your pet a quiet space to retreat

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significant meaning to watching over our neighbors, embracing community spirit and valuing one another, including our four-legged friends.

Let’s keep them safe, too.

Cathryn Rakich can be reached at crakich@surewest.net. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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45

Shifting in Flight IRRATIONAL LABELS LIMIT RELATIONSHIPS

n a time before COVID, I found myself in a boarding line clinching the coveted A-lister pass issued by Southwest Airlines. The pass granted me privileged first-choice seating while B- and C-listers scrambled for significance.

Inside the plane, a flight attendant cheerfully suggested a front seat.

“Wonderful. Looks like I’ll be flying first class.”

I took the aisle seat and soon a woman scooted past into the window seat. After several minutes, the plane took off with no one between us.

We engaged in the routine seatmatestranger conversation. She proudly announced she raced cars with her boyfriend and they’d just won first place in three races.

Race car drivers! Impressive!

Definitely an A-list person. Eventually, she put her racing monologue in idle long enough to ask what I did.

I

NB

By Norris Burkes Spirit Matters

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“I’m a health care chaplain.”

“Oh,” she said apparently doubting my qualifications as an A-lister and a human being.

After a pause, she added eleven words demoting me to her F list.

“My ex-husband is a hospital chaplain. He left me for God.” I offered condolences, mentioning that I’d been happily married for more than three decades.

“Well, we were married 32 years, so….”

She left me twisting in a 650-knot headwind and then offered, “He is Southern Baptist. What are you?”

May Day. May Day. My ego rapidly depressurized as this woman tried to morph me into someone she hated.

Fortunately for me, I found some relevant questions tucked beneath my chaplain cap.

“Where has all this left you spiritually?” I asked.

“Nowhere. I have nothing to do with church.”

“Church is only a vehicle for spirituality. I hope you’ve not given your ex the power to dismiss your spirituality.”

She returned a pained look suggesting she’d cordoned off her life from anything remotely reminding her of the person who’d brought her so much pain.

Suddenly, our conversation was interrupted by the overhead announcement of final approach. I adjusted my seatback and stowed my belongings.

But more than that, I quietly admitted to myself that I had once followed a similar strategy. A few years ago, I had let rumors spread by a Lutheran colleague spin me into a major depressive episode. Despite the fact that God showed me a U-turn out of my depression, I still found it hard to appreciate Lutherans.

I tried building an emotional dam that would prevent me from drowning in Lutherans. I assumed there could be no good Lutherans, so I had crossed these people off my A list.

However, when one works as an interfaith chaplain, meeting Lutherans is a fairly common experience. In addition to many Lutheran patients, God placed a Lutheran supervisor in my life who became a caring colleague.

Furthermore, my daughter did the unthinkable and enrolled in a Lutheran college.

I relearned the truth that people can’t be grouped or cloned. Attempting to judge people by A, B or C lists is a futile way of building our own private biosphere of quarantined living. Life needn’t be a set of hostile rerunning tapes that doom us to poor relationships.

Our conversation remained engaging and before we knew it our plane landed, and we were taxiing to the terminal.

Our attendant issued the perfunctory warning to be careful unloading the overhead bags as they may have shifted in flight.

During our short taxi, the woman’s expressions exhibited a new friendliness, suggesting a willingness to consider that I might not resemble the hurtful person she knew.

Once on the ground, I stood to open the overhead as the woman braved a venerable request.

“Do you have a card?” she asked. “I’d like to stay in touch.”

“Sure,” I said.

Our seats had given her the perfect opportunity to target a Southern Baptist hospital chaplain, but in the end, she chose a different path. Her opinion of chaplains, like the luggage in the overhead, had indeed shifted during flight.

Norris Burkes can be reached at comment@thechaplain.net. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. Burkes is available for public speaking at civic organizations, places of worship, veterans groups and more. For details and fees, visit thechaplain.net. n

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We are happy to report that the TAKE THE 100% LOCAL PLEDGE campaign continues to grow and pick up new supporters. We invite other businesses and groups to join the effort as well. You can participate as simply as posting our signs at your business or by donating to fund signs and other resources. Visit insidesacramento.com/100local/. For more information, contact cecily@insidepublications.com.

IES n INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM

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A Magic

Collection Joe Wilson Photos by Aniko Kiezel

KK

By Katie Kishi Meet Your Neighbor

LOCAL COLLECTOR DISCOVERS MEANING BEHIND ORNAMENTS

W

hen the coronavirus pandemic forced the world to quarantine back in March, Joe Wilson followed the common theme of many Americans— use his extra time to organize and declutter his house. He intended to throw out old items, but ended up adding many new ones.

“Just like everyone else, I wanted to do something I hadn’t had the time to do before the pandemic,” Wilson says.

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As he went through boxes of holiday decorations, he discovered a Christopher Radko ornament with a hand-written number on it. The Carmichael resident became intrigued and researched the history and purpose of the handcrafted glass ornament, and soon found out about the “Magic 25.”

The ornaments originated in 1986 after the Radko family Christmas tree fell, leading to broken ornaments and a distraught young Christopher Radko. He

couldn’t find the perfect replacements, so he decided to start from scratch and create his own ornaments.

With help from a Polish glassblower and old European molds, Christopher Radko was able to recreate his family’s lost ornaments. Today, the company has produced more than 18 million glass-blown ornaments that have become heirlooms for many families.

Among them are the “Magic 25,” created in 1995 when the factories

couldn’t deliver ornaments to retailers in time for Christmas. To make up for the issue, Christopher Radko rereleased 25 hand-numbered styles he planned to retire. These 25 are the most limited, and only about 200 people own all of them.

Wilson started collecting these treasured ornaments in 1991 simply because he liked their aesthetic. “They became a travel journal. I would buy one in different states to represent all my trips,” Wilson says. But after learning about the “Magic 25,” he went on a mission to collect them all.

He joined Facebook groups with other Christopher Radko collectors, specifically those on the hunt for the “Magic 25.” Messaging fellow collectors helped him find ornaments all over the

c

n connect him to people who were selling them.

“I became friends with these people I’ve never met. That was the fun of the search,” Wilson says.

After months of looking, Wilson acquired all 25 “magic” ornaments in August. “The most fun was not to say that I was one of the 200 people who have the 25, but rather having conversations with different people who also collect them.”

Wilson’s favorite ornament? He couldn’t say. He loves so many of them for different reasons. “I enjoy the unique, odd ones like the goblins, or the commemorative ones like those based on the Kennedy Center Honors.”

However, he has always liked one of a forlorn-looking boy wearing a striped shirt named “Mugsy” because his niece shares the same nickname.

After taking inventory on an Excel spreadsheet, Wilson estimates he has about 875 ornaments, which he proudly arranges on his Christmas tree every year. Decorating the tree is “usually a three- to four-day process,” says Wilson, who likes to display it in his front window so people can see it from outside.

Collecting Radko ornaments used to be a casual hobby for Wilson, acquiring

them here and there. Now it’s a weekly endeavor looking at auction sites and Facebook groups to see what he can find. Although his collection has grown immensely this year, Wilson says he doesn’t need every Christopher Radko ornament. “If they make me happy, I’ll buy something, but I don’t have to have all of them.”

Looking back at what he has accomplished, Wilson finds great joy.

His collection has kept him occupied during quarantine and allowed him to connect with new friends while discovering ornaments he never expected to find. He plans to continue his collection because of what the ornaments represent about his experiences throughout this year.

“Different pieces remind me of trips and places I got them, or of people who gave them to me or ones I purchased to remind me of someone special,” Wilson says. What began as an attempt to record his ornaments soon became a journey to turn them into a beloved collection.

Katie Kishi can be reached at kkishi22@gmail.com. Previous profiles can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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country. Some were valued reasonably, while others had large price tags.

Wilson’s most expensive purchase was $350.

Oftentimes Wilson would buy an ornament directly from someone in the groups, but several times he had to dig deeper. He would tell people which ornaments he needed, and they would

IES n INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM

49

He’s Our

Best DUSTY BAKER EXEMPLIFIES SACRAMENTO CLASS

S

ometimes I wish Inside Sacramento had an award called “Local Sports Person of the Year.” I know the guy I would nominate for 2020: Dusty Baker. He’s at the top of his game at age 71. And while the year was miserable and Baker did his best work in Houston rather than Sacramento, he will always belong to the city he calls home. He’s a paragon of leadership, integrity, pride, hard work and perseverance. He’s also pretty good at baseball.

As 2020 began, Baker was unemployed in Sacramento, his career finished. It was a bittersweet end.

Baker has been involved in professional baseball since 1967, when he was a senior at Del Campo High School and drafted by the Atlanta Braves.

Over the next 53 years, he won a World Series playing outfield for the

RG

By R.E. Graswich Sports Authority

50

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Dodgers plus multiple honors for his managerial skills. He has the talent to motivate players whose egos reject any hints of imperfection. There’s nothing magical about Baker. He succeeds on personality, wisdom, insight, humor and an ability to connect with people regardless of age, disposition or background.

His last managing job ended badly, doused by suggestions he was too old and ineffective to win big games. He was fired after his Washington Nationals were bounced from the first round of playoffs in 2017. No job offers followed.

He wasn’t ready to retire. But baseball seemed done with him.

I’ve known Baker for years and have spent hours with him over lunch at the old Esquire Grill on K Street. Baker is a talker, a guy who loves to commune with friends. He has terrific stories to tell.

Talking with Baker means traveling far beyond the green lawns and dugouts of baseball. In two hours over shrimp salad he can cover civil rights, racism in America, homelessness and drug addiction among friends and family, Jesse Jackson, Hugh Hefner, a new wine varietal that caught his attention, a business opportunity in Hawaii and a fish that got away.

When Baker does talk baseball, he avoids statistics. He’s a traditionalist who knows people matter more than numbers. His old-school humanism exposes Baker to criticism from statobsessed fans who believe baseball can only be understood by studying averages and percentages.

Baker knows baseball managerial lifespans can be brief. But he was plainly disappointed after being fired by the Nationals. It wasn’t fair. He did a good job. Worse, the dismissal meant his legacy would be a story of playoff failures. Then the Houston Astros called. Baker suddenly became a singular solution to a reputational disaster.

In January, the Astros were baseball’s most reviled team. A lengthy investigation by league headquarters proved they cheated to win the 2017 World Series by stealing proprietary signals between opposing catchers and pitchers. In the end, baseball leadership declined to punish the villains. The Astros were allowed to keep the tainted 2017 title.

As furious fans threatened to quit the game, Astros owner Jim Crane decided he needed a new manager who could serve with unimpeachable credibility—an elder statesman with

universal respect and top managerial skills. There aren’t many people with that profile. In late January, Crane hired Dusty Baker.

The coronavirus delayed the season and kept stadiums empty of fans. The pandemic banished high-fives, which Baker and Glenn Burke invented in 1977. But the games went on for TV dollars. Baker’s Astros overcame injuries and defeats and climbed into the playoffs. They beat the Twins and A’s but lost the American League championship to Tampa Bay. Even then, the Astros overachieved. Nobody could say Baker was a lousy post-season skipper.

“You’ve got to love this team, or some people hate this team, but I mean you’ve at least got to respect this team, the way they’ve worked,” Baker says, perfectly summarizing the Astros.

His presence tempered the scandal, reduced the ridicule and moved the game onward. Baseball is lucky to have the guy from Sacramento.

R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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51

TOOL TIME JUNK CAN MAKE YOUR GARDEN GROW

W

acky gardening tools are lurking in dark corners of garages, kitchen drawers, yard sales and local stores. The tool arsenal is more than pricey pruners, digging forks and hand trowels.

One fine morning I stopped at a yard sale in East Sacramento. I spotted two old school metal mailboxes, the type with the red flag that signifies outgoing mail. Both were purchased for a grand total of $5. They are extremely useful for tool storage in a main garden area and will save countless trips back to the house, shed or garage for a needed tool. Mount them on a post for the true postal experience. Stow gloves, hand pruners, and other small gear and accessories.

A common lament of frustrated gardeners goes like this: “Something is

DV

By Dan Vierria Garden Jabber

52

IES DEC n 20

eating my plants, but I can’t find any bugs.” Light ’em up with a flashlight.

Flashlights are not just for Sacramento’s winter storm emergencies. When darkness falls, shine a beam of light on plants under attack.

Nocturnal feeders include earwigs, slugs and snails. Some caterpillars feed at night, too. During daylight hours, these destructive pests hide under boards, nearby pots or in the soil. Inspect the underside of leaves.

A UV black light used at night will make tomato foliage appear reddishorange and those hard-to-find tomato hornworms a standout bright green.

Gotcha!

Readers squeamish about handpicking or stomping on garden pests can wear gloves and brush the destructive munchers into a container of soapy water. At ground level, empty tuna or cat food cans filled with a halfinch of vegetable oil will lure and doom earwigs.

If insecticides are used, make sure you have a positive ID of the pest, use a pesticide (hopefully organic) that targets your specific pest and follow all label instructions. When unsure of the pest, take a bagged sample to the neighborhood nursery or send an email and photo of unknown pests to the

UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County at mgsacramento@ucanr.edu.

The common wood and metal-hinged clothespin is an inexpensive and valuable gardening tool. A couple dozen will set you back a buck at the Dollar Store. Use them to attach shade cloth during Sacramento’s hottest months and secure frost covers to tender plants, such as citrus and avocado trees, succulents and tropical plants, when freezing temperatures are forecast.

An old wire brush—the type with a paint scrapper on the back and stiff wire bristles—has kept the peace in my home. Gardeners wear an assortment of footwear, clogs, crocs, “wellies” and more. However, if you shun the appropriate footwear or are inclined to venture outside for a brief bit of gardening in running shoes, a wire brush will remove any debris, even on waffle soles. The exception is a ripe fig, nature’s equivalent to stepping on bubble gum.

The humble heavy-duty tarp, made from canvas or polyethylene, can be extremely useful when repotting large and small container plants. Repot atop the tarp for easy cleanup. I use a tarp when transplanting large perennials to a different location. Lay the plant and root ball on the tarp and drag to the new planting site. Tarps also can

be used to cover compost piles, create new planting areas (a covered area will kill weeds and turf grass) and protect outdoor furniture in winter.

Mostly associated with kabobs on the grill, bamboo skewers can support orchids in danger of toppling because of an ailing root system. Pushed into the growing medium, skewers will align the plant and, hopefully, support it while new roots form. They also support bloom stalks.

Old T-shirts can be used for slings.

If you visit the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, you may notice cut-up T-shirts used as supportive slings for melons grown on trellising. Each melon swings in its own “hammock.”

Dan Vierria is a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener for Sacramento County and former Home & Garden writer for The Sacramento Bee. He can be reached at masterg29@gmail.com. For answers to gardening questions, contact the UCCE Master Gardeners at (916) 8765338, email mgsacramento@ucanr. edu or visit sacmg.ucanr.edu. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

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IES n INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM

53

Scooter Logic RIDERS MUST THINK FIRST, THEN RIDE

fter a hiatus due to COVID-19, rideshare electric scooters are back on Sacramento streets.

They are a relatively new transportation option, around in the U.S. since 2017. Just about everyone who rides a scooter knows how much fun it is.

Unfortunately, there’s growing evidence that e-scooters also pose danger. As shared e-scooters have proliferated in cities, scooter trips and injuries have surged. Injuries nearly doubled between 2018 and 2019.

When people focus on the potential fun of toy-like e-scooters, they may underestimate their speed and danger.

Getting hurt is not fun and scooter injuries aren’t just trivial scrapes and bruises. Several studies have shown that from about 30 to 50 percent are head and neck injuries. Evidence indicates about half of the head injuries

A

WS

By Walt SeLfert Getting There

54

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result in brain trauma. Broken bones and hospital admissions, sometimes to intensive-care units, are not uncommon.

The dangers from e-scooters stem from three sources: the rider, the machine and the environment.

It’s quite clear the first ride on an e-scooter is by far the most dangerous.

On my initial ride I discovered, to my considerable consternation, that when I reached a red light I wasn’t really sure how to stop. I was able to hop off, but my lack of familiarity with the simple brake lever was a problem. New riders should take time to identify the controls and practice handling in a safe setting.

Besides having different levels of experience, riders can vary wildly in skills, knowledge, judgment and balance. Risks for the elderly, because of loss of dexterity and balance and slower reaction times, can be higher.

Carrying something on a scooter, whether on the handlebars or slung over your shoulder, may throw you off kilter. Riding double on a device that can barely accommodate one is not wise. Standing upright and riding stiff-legged instead of with knees bent makes absorbing and managing the inevitable bumps in the road difficult.

Very few scooter riders wear helmets.

And I’ve never seen a scooter rider sport kneepads or other protective gear, a

recommendation of some ER doctors.

Riding a scooter while under the influence of drugs or alcohol might be safer than driving, but it’s a foolhardy practice and a frequent cause of crashes.

The small wheels on scooters are a fundamental problem. Low curbs or small potholes that large bicycle tires handle with ease can stop a scooter cold.

When that happens, the unlucky riders tend to keep on going, to their dismay and detriment.

Scooters don’t have rearview mirrors or turn indicators, making riders less in touch with their surroundings. Taking a hand off the handlebars, where the throttle is, to signal a turn is a lot more destabilizing on a scooter than a bike.

Nighttime operation can be problematic.

Scooter taillights are only a few inches from the ground, making them difficult for motorists to see. Since scooter use is often spontaneous, riders don’t necessarily think about having reflective gear to make them more visible after dark.

In most places, including Sacramento, e-scooters are banned from sidewalks and must operate in the street. Instead of endangering soft, slow pedestrians, scooter riders feel endangered themselves by heavy, hard and fast vehicles on pavement that may not be in the best condition.

Bike lanes and neighborhood streets provide some refuge from cars and trucks, but low traffic or trafficfree cycling infrastructure is often spotty. Because of that, scooter riders sometimes choose to retreat to the sidewalk despite the law—or because they don’t know the law.

When more people ride electric scooters, electric bikes, pedal bikes and walk, it makes roads safer by reducing car trips. Cars are the most dangerous form of transportation, especially to vulnerable sidewalk and road users outside of cars. Scooters are a good form of physically distanced transportation.

Operators Bird, Spin and Lime (owner of JUMP bikes and scooters) sanitize scooters multiple times a day and encourage riders to use sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizers.

If you decide to scoot, have fun and be safe. There’s a bit more to think about than you might imagine.

Walt Seifert is executive director of Sacramento Trailnet, an organization devoted to promoting greenways with paved trails. He can be reached at bikeguy@surewest.net. Previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

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7032 FAIR OAKS BLVD 7121 STELLA LN 7131 STELLA LN 5249 MANZANITA AVE 2436 VIA CAMINO AVE 4022 KNOLL TOP CT 4724 GOOD CT 5132 EL CAMINO AVE 5028 VERDANT LN 5241 MISSION VIEW CT 5130 PATTI JO DR 6035 REMINGTON AVE 5101 BOYD DR 6000 ELLERSLEE DR 3936 HENDERSON WAY 3809 OLIVEBRANCH LN 4816 ENGLE RD 4039 EASTWOOD VILLAGE LN 4829 FOSTER WAY 5913 ASHWORTH WAY 5531 SAINT CHARLES DR 4633 MEYER WAY 1921 WALNUT AVE 3124 WILKINS WAY 6021 HOMESWEET WAY 3917 GARFIELD AVE 4633 JAN DR 3120 MISSION AVE 4125 VALIANT ST 4441 ROLLINGROCK WAY 5618 VALHALLA DR 3507 CALIFORNIA AVE 5022 ROBERTSON AVE 3531 PICKWICK CT 5423 WOODLEIGH DR 5304 ENGLE RD 6032 ROSWITHA CT 5501 HASKELL AVE 3575 SUE PAM DR 4313 GLENRIDGE DR 4831 ZUBE CT 2760 RANDOLPH AVE 5949 CAMRAY CIR 2631 FOOTHILL DR 5132 VON WAY 2000 SANTA LUCIA WAY 5127 ADELINA WAY 4910 THOR WAY 4336 RUSTIC RD 3221 MURCHISON WAY 4756 HIXON CIR 4841 ANDREW CIR 5600 KIVA DR 5021 BRANDON OAKS LN 3921 MONA PARK LN 4501 STONEY WAY 5009 SCHUYLER DR 4170 SCRANTON CIR 4904 KIPLING DR 3652 HOLLISTER AVE 6136 DAHLIA DR 56 RIVERKNOLL PL 4218 CLOVER KNOLL CT 5221 VALHALLA DR 5233 BELLWOOD WAY 2616 JAVAN LN 2206 HOMEWOOD WAY 2916 MARCO WAY 5550 RYAN LN 35 RIVER BLUFF LN 3711 DELL RD 4749 MARLBOROUGH WAY 5244 ARDEN WAY 6105 HOLT LN 3459 QUAIL HAVEN LN 1950 CLAREMONT RD 1209 KINGSFORD DR 1365 PARS OAK LN 1361 PARS OAK LN

$200,000 $219,000 $219,000 $260,000 $266,000 $280,000 $289,000 $315,000 $315,000 $340,000 $348,000 $352,000 $355,000 $360,000 $360,000 $360,000 $372,500 $375,000 $385,500 $395,000 $395,000 $395,000 $399,900 $412,000 $421,000 $425,000 $428,000 $433,000 $437,000 $440,000 $443,000 $445,000 $445,000 $455,000 $455,000 $477,000 $481,000 $485,000 $489,500 $495,000 $497,500 $499,000 $500,000 $505,000 $507,500 $509,000 $510,000 $512,000 $512,000 $515,000 $519,000 $525,000 $525,000 $528,000 $528,900 $540,000 $540,000 $550,000 $555,000 $555,000 $571,000 $595,000 $601,000 $605,000 $608,000 $630,000 $637,000 $655,000 $665,000 $730,000 $730,000 $845,000 $850,000 $852,500 $900,000 $951,000 $1,199,000 $1,347,500 $1,395,000

95815

565 LAMPASAS AVE 430 LAMPASAS AVE 230 CHRISTINE DR 1181 OPAL LN 2467 KNOLL ST 250 SANTIAGO AVE 1207 OPAL LN 1009 OLIVERA WAY 325 LAMPASAS AVE 3070 DEL PASO BLVD 2378 CAMBRIDGE ST 2128 NEW HAVEN RD 2388 BEAUMONT ST 633 REDWOOD AVE 2253 FAIRFIELD ST 1315 ACACIA AVE 212 CHRISTINE DR 2001 WATERFORD RD 2485 ERICKSON ST 1925 WATERFORD RD 690 BLACKWOOD ST 2485 BOXWOOD ST 171 BAXTER AVE

95816

1818 - 22ND ST 3004 G ST 317 - 23RD ST 3125 CARLY WAY 611 - 26TH ST 1304 SANTA YNEZ WAY 3429 FOLSOM BLVD 3808 S ST 2230 H ST 542 - 38TH ST 2431 F ST 2413 I ST 1152 - 39TH ST

95817

3216 SANTA CRUZ WAY 4218 - 12TH AVE 4006 BROADWAY 4041 - 11TH AVE 3970 - 8TH AVE 3304 SAN CARLOS WAY 4055 - 12TH AVE 2525 - 59TH ST 2986 - 39TH ST 6151 - 1ST AVE 2828 - 43RD ST 6130 - 4TH AVE 6237 - 2ND AVE 3149 U ST 2105 GERBER RD 4732 U ST 4316 U ST 3953 Y ST 2254 - 34TH ST 4322 - 4TH AVE

95818

476 LUG LN 1030 X ST 2018 X ST 2575 HARKNESS ST 2600 - 27TH ST 864 - 7TH AVE 2115 - 25TH ST 2565 FREEPORT BLVD 565 - 6TH AVE 2672 SAN FERNANDO WAY 2127 - 14TH ST 1820 - 1ST AVE 2517 - 8TH AVE 2336 RIVER CATS ALY 2701 - 2ND AVE

$227,000 $235,000 $236,000 $250,000 $250,000 $264,000 $270,000 $270,000 $270,500 $289,000 $290,000 $290,000 $295,000 $298,000 $310,000 $325,000 $330,000 $360,000 $360,000 $371,000 $418,000 $450,000 $495,000

$470,000 $499,900 $545,000 $550,000 $560,000 $575,000 $635,000 $639,000 $662,500 $801,000 $935,000 $1,400,000 $2,407,000

$210,000 $275,000 $300,000 $310,000 $326,500 $335,000 $345,000 $356,000 $379,900 $420,000 $421,500 $422,000 $440,000 $442,000 $455,000 $525,000 $560,000 $635,000 $648,400 $699,800

$400,000 $405,000 $424,000 $425,000 $425,000 $450,000 $475,000 $490,000 $500,000 $525,000 $549,000 $560,000 $560,000 $570,000 $572,500

2530 SAN FERNANDO WAY 2111 - 28TH ST 2685 - 17TH ST 3050 - 17TH ST 2111 - 26TH ST 642 JONES WAY 3693 CROCKER DR 2620 - 18TH ST 901 - 3RD AVE 2710 LAND PARK DR 2682 - 14TH ST 1383 WELLER WAY 1803 BIDWELL WAY 2929 MUIR WAY 1616 - 4TH AVE 1776 - 10TH AVE 2551 - 5TH AVE 2110 U ST

95819

1165 -51ST ST 1370 - 62ND ST 5747 M ST 1348 -60TH ST 772 EL DORADO WAY 5530 E ST 5631 MODDISON AVE 1356 - 51ST ST 5340 AILEEN WAY 3995 H ST 880 MISSION WAY 5734 MONALEE AVE 59 TAYLOR WAY 5424 SPILMAN AVE 1330 - 60TH ST 5332 SPILMAN AVE 808 - 43RD ST 4894 REID WAY 3976 MCKINLEY BLVD 1332 - 42ND ST 5525 CALEB AVE 5615 SPILMAN AVE 4132 T ST 1046 - 43RD ST 917 - 45TH ST

95821

2950 MARCONI AVE #104 2551 FULTON SQUARE LANE #47 2505 ETHAN WAY 2000 EL CAMINO AVE 2612 ANNA WAY 2516 ANNA WAY 3329 MARLENE DR 3421 WHITNEY AVE 2240 EL CAMINO AVE 3637 WHITNEY AVE 2970 WRIGHT ST 3801 SANDRA CT 3313 HORSESHOE DR 3208 EL CAMINO AVE 4235 DAY BREAK LN 2751 BELL ST 3110 LERWICK RD 3713 SUN SHADOWS LN 3613 FRENCH AVE 3531 GREENVIEW LN 2331 RAINBOW AVE 2911 TAMALPAIS WAY 3936 PASADENA AVE 4120 STONE CT 3570 WEST WAY 3240 SAINT MATHEWS DR 3604 SEAN DR 4408 ROBERTSON AVE 3509 MORROW ST 2700 BELL ST 3601 WILLIAM WAY 4190 EUNICE WAY 2630 AVALON DR

$589,500 $605,000 $617,500 $628,500 $660,000 $675,000 $715,000 $763,517 $770,000 $780,000 $825,000 $860,000 $915,000 $934,000 $1,025,000 $1,200,000 $1,300,000 $1,430,000

$356,000 $465,000 $495,000 $518,000 $525,000 $545,000 $565,000 $590,000 $595,000 $610,000 $610,000 $615,000 $617,500 $620,000 $635,000 $645,000 $680,000 $770,000 $850,000 $907,500 $950,000 $1,050,000 $1,050,000 $1,100,000 $1,200,000

$190,000 $220,000 $287,000 $290,000 $293,500 $298,000 $305,000 $305,000 $305,000 $305,000 $306,000 $326,000 $331,000 $335,000 $349,000 $350,000 $350,000 $350,000 $350,000 $352,000 $360,000 $378,000 $378,000 $379,500 $395,000 $395,000 $400,000 $400,000 $402,000 $410,000 $415,000 $415,000 $420,000

3964 ROSEMARY CIR 3533 LYNNE WAY 3919 NORRIS AVE 4521 RAVENWOOD AVE 3148 MONTCLAIRE ST 3185 YELLOWSTONE LN 4613 ROBERTSON AVE 3741 NORRIS AVE 4630 EMDEE CT 4516 ELIZABETH AVE 3713 MIRADERA ST 3244 CLAIRIDGE WAY 4237 MASON LN 4525 ELIZABETH AVE 4324 RAVENWOOD AVE 2911 MORSE AVE

$437,000 $440,000 $444,500 $450,000 $450,000 $460,000 $467,250 $475,000 $481,250 $507,000 $525,000 $629,000 $655,000 $690,000 $890,000 $1,250,000

95822

7341 TILDEN WAY 3211 TRENTWOOD WAY 6221 HERMOSA ST 7293 MILFORD ST 5677 JOHNS DR 2118 - 62ND AVE 6323 - 24TH ST 7225 CROMWELL WAY 2813 SWIFT WAY 6910 DIEGEL CIR 2401 - 37TH AVE 2520 ENCINAL AVE 7563 THORPE WAY 7507 WAINSCOTT WAY 2421 - 38TH AVE 7370 TILDEN WAY 2124 FLORIN RD 7404 CANDLEWOOD WAY 1940 - 60TH AVE 2150 - 63RD AVE 2167 - 56TH AVE 7013 AMHERST ST 5901 KAHARA CT 1601 ARVILLA DR 2342 HALDIS WAY 5301 CARMEN WAY 2179 IRVIN WAY 5721 HOLSTEIN WAY 1511 WENTWORTH AVE 1511 AKRON WAY 4630 FEGAN WAY 4605 SUNSET DR 5300 SOUTH LAND PARK DR 1125 - 25TH AVE 5517 DORSET WAY 1101 - 34TH AVE 1464 - 27TH AVE 4287 WARREN AVE 4320 CONSTANCE LN 811 RIVERVIEW CT 1515 SHERWOOD AVE 4625 SUNSET DR 5621 KINGSTON WAY

95825

923 FULTON AVE #426 1019 DORNAJO WAY #161 1019 DORNAJO WAY #158 2486 LARKSPUR LANE #188 2432 LARKSPUR LANE #284 2286 WOODSIDE LANE #6 873 WOODSIDE LANE #11 649 WOODSIDE SIERRA #3 877 WOODSIDE LANE EAST #10 621 WOODSIDE SIERRA #4 2428 LARKSPUR LANE #275 2436 LARKSPUR LANE #294 1353 HOOD RD 2280 HURLEY WAY #56 1604 HOOD RD 2470 NORTHROP AVE #5 2100 BOWLING GREEN DR

$269,000 $272,000 $280,000 $280,000 $282,000 $305,000 $315,000 $320,000 $325,000 $330,000 $330,000 $335,000 $335,000 $340,000 $346,053 $350,000 $350,000 $350,000 $350,000 $360,000 $365,000 $380,000 $400,000 $445,000 $450,000 $453,000 $460,000 $470,000 $480,000 $484,000 $500,000 $517,077 $525,000 $525,000 $529,997 $565,000 $565,000 $597,000 $625,000 $634,000 $659,000 $725,000 $769,000

$120,000 $126,804 $145,000 $168,000 $183,000 $185,000 $185,500 $190,000 $190,000 $200,000 $200,000 $210,000 $221,000 $225,000 $226,000 $280,000 $290,000

648 WOODSIDE SIERRA #2 2200 BELL ST 1315 BELL ST 2316 LAREDO ROAD 2761 ARMSTRONG DR 820 COMMONS DR 2066 UNIVERSITY PARK DR 2319 HIGHRIDGE DR 2320 CORTEZ LN 275 HARTNELL PL 312 ELMHURST CIR 2528 VILLA TERRACE LN 319 FAIRGATE RD

95831

7741 PARK RIVER OAK CIR 7658 AMBROSE WAY 10 MARINA GRANDE CT 1 GARCIA CT 1216 SPRUCE TREE CIR 3 NAPLES CT 7503 SUMMERWIND WAY 1262 SUNLAND VISTA AVE 6 EDUARDO CT 43 ROSE MEAD CIR 6924 HAVENHURST DR 7689 GREENHAVEN DR 642 RIVERCREST DR 683 CULLIVAN DR 1055 SILVER LAKE DR 433 SAILWIND WAY 6640 HAVENSIDE DR 275 BREWSTER AVE 31 STARGLOW CIR 7 MARINA BLUE CT 1411 SAN CLEMENTE WAY 7026 HAVENHURST DR 338 BLACKBIRD LN 707 BRIDGESIDE DR 10 BLACK RIVER CT 22 VISTA ALEGRE CT 14 RIVERBREA CT 6214 ALLENPORT WAY 1281 - 47TH AVE 784 LAKE FRONT DR 51 WATERSHORE CIR 16 STILL REEF CT

95864

3105 BERKSHIRE WAY 1004 HAMPTON RD 1337 GLADSTONE DR 3136 WEMBERLEY DR 1412 KEENEY WAY 3208 BERKSHIRE WAY 2428 AVALON DR 3413 BARRINGTON RD 1721 MERCURY WAY 3204 MAYFAIR DR 4341 COTTAGE WAY 2000 DAPHNE AVE 1723 PLUTO WAY 4504 ANDOVER CT 4425 VALMONTE DR 737 WHITEHALL WAY 3556 EL RICON WAY 1804 DEVONSHIRE RD 821 LAVERSTOCK WAY 2909 ROYCE WAY 670 MORRIS WAY 441 LARCH LN 801 SIERRA OAKS VISTA LN 3343 AMERICAN RIVER DR 2928 LATHAM DR 900 TUSCAN LN 796 CROCKER RD 3020 HUNTINGTON RD 810 EL CHORRO WAY

$310,000 $333,000 $353,000 $355,000 $381,000 $388,000 $392,000 $402,000 $415,000 $449,000 $495,000 $575,000 $871,000

$349,000 $350,000 $372,000 $401,000 $405,000 $411,000 $418,000 $418,500 $429,000 $435,000 $450,000 $480,000 $520,000 $522,000 $522,000 $545,000 $580,000 $586,500 $600,000 $610,000 $612,000 $630,000 $630,000 $640,000 $642,000 $646,000 $675,000 $690,000 $720,000 $798,900 $805,000 $835,000

$315,000 $319,000 $320,000 $330,000 $335,000 $337,000 $345,000 $369,000 $390,000 $395,000 $449,000 $472,000 $515,100 $555,000 $630,000 $735,000 $745,000 $750,000 $765,000 $768,000 $824,500 $880,000 $920,000 $930,000 $985,000 $1,155,000 $1,275,000 $1,400,000 $1,420,000

VISIT INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM FOR COMPREHENSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD REAL ESTATE GUIDES WITH 6 MONTH HISTORICAL SALES DATA * BASED UPON INFORMATION FROM METROLIST SERVICES, INC, FOR THE PERIOD OCTOBER 1, 2020 THROUGH OCTOBER 31, 2020.

DUNNIGAN, REALTORS DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN ALL OF THESE SALES.

IES n INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM

55

Raising Her Voice

LOCAL OPERA SINGER HAS BUILT MULTIFACETED CREATIVE CAREER

A

ll the world really is a stage for Carrie Hennessey. Though you could describe Hennessey as “an opera singer,” that wouldn’t do justice to the creative mind and talent she brings to productions of all kinds—opera, musical theater, cabaret, chamber music, master classes, lectures, song cycles and more.

“I’m always about being open to whatever the inspiration is,” the Natomas resident says. “When the whim or spark of an idea comes to me, I don’t question it—I roll with it.”

This flexibility has served Hennessey well during a career that has spanned decades, states and countries. As a child growing up in Minneapolis, Hennessey was “the loud singer” early on, thanks in part to her mother’s work as a pianist for choir groups. Hennessey’s father died when she was quite young and she consequently saw the role music played in her mother’s life as “a source of comfort, motivation, community and communication.”

After a mentor in high school suggested Hennessey try opera, she took six months of lessons and then decided to try out for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a competition for promising young opera singers—and placed in regionals.

Heartened by her early success, she went on to study singing at the University of Minnesota Morris, a small liberal arts college with an “amazing music faculty.” However, an emotional trauma she’d experienced began to wreak havoc on her voice—Hennessey had panic attacks for the first time in her life and, at the next Met Opera competition, she cracked a note onstage and walked away from performing…for 12 years.

“I thought, if this is what this (job) is—worrying and interpreting every interaction and audition—it’s not the career I want,” Hennessey says.

JL

By Jessica Laskey Open Studio

Carrie Hennessey Photo by Aniko Kiezel

56

IES DEC n 20

Luckily for audiences everywhere, Hennessey eventually found her way back to singing when she joined the celebrated Theatre de la Jeune Lune, a Minneapolis-based company known for its physical performance style combining clowning, mime, dance and opera. The troupe’s multifaceted philosophy fit Hennessey to a tee, so she toured with them for two years.

When her husband’s telecom job relocated the family—they have two children, now 18 and 20—to Sacramento in 2008, Hennessey wasted no time diving into the local performance scene.

She’s sung with the Sacramento Opera, Sacramento Ballet (where she also collaborated on a world premiere ballet with choreographer Darrell Grand Moultrie), Sacramento Children’s Chorus and Chamber Music Society of Sacramento, among others. But she’s also maintained her national and global connections, performing in New York City, Colorado, Texas, Hungary, Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany, to name just a few.

In addition, Hennessey has found some of her most beloved collaborators in Sacramento. She works regularly with pianist Jennifer Reason, with whom she’s formed two performance groups: adventurous musical collective Rogue Music Project and mashup band The Reassemblers of Whimsy. The duo is also working on a recital for next spring of all-female composers titled “And Yet She Persisted: Stories and Music of Women in Classical Music.”

“I always like to explore the gray areas (of female characters),” Hennessey says. “I’m not interested in the traditional way. ‘That’s how it’s always been done’ is a killer phrase. I’d much rather make people think and feel something. I want to know what’s underneath—the gray is where all the information lives.”

Though performance plans have been put on hold due to the pandemic, Hennessey is still teaching private vocal lessons over Zoom—preparing the next generation of genre-busting artists to take on the world—and is busy planning her return to the many kinds of stages she calls home.

For more information, visit carriehennessey.com.

Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Previous profiles can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @ insidesacramento. n

READERS NEAR & FAR 1. Wayne Thom, Eddie Fong and Victor Yee crossing Abbey Road in London, England.

2. Kathy Hatch at the Taj Mahal.

3. John Fitchett and Janice Powell-Fitchett riding the Santorini Cable Car in Santorini, Greece.

4. Rita Gibson at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

5. Debbie Hunter sheltering in place in Land Park.

6. Madeline and Sullivan Groppo in Bozeman, Montana.

Visit our new website at InsideSacramento.com, under â&#x20AC;&#x153;Near & Far,â&#x20AC;? for a map with past readers' photos! You can also submit photos directly from our website.

It's never been so easy!

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IES n INSIDESACRAMENTO.COM

57

Time to Grow Again FORMER CITY NURSERY IS SITE FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE

T

he former City Tree Nursery soon will be growing again under the new branches of a nonprofit called Planting

Justice.

Earlier this year, the city of Sacramento entered into a lease agreement with Oakland-based Planting Justice for a subarea of the city-owned 5-acre site in the James Mangan Park neighborhood. Planting Justice is partnering with Sacramento’s Yisrael Family Urban Farm and West Sacramento’s Three Sisters Gardens to bring life back to the land.

City Tree Nursery at 1920 34th Ave., formerly used for city landscaping

TMO

By Tessa Marguerite Outland Farm-to-Fork

58

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operations, was once the place where many of Sacramento’s annual and perennial plants and tree stock were grown. As more plants were purchased from commercial growers, the site eventually became obsolete. Downsizing of city operations led to the nursery’s closure in 2008.

For the past 12 years, the land has been almost entirely vacant and is now wildly overgrown. Only a dilapidated greenhouse and former administrative building loom ominously on the abandoned plot.

In 2019, with the support of Councilmember Jay Schenirer, whose district covers the City Tree Nursery site, Sacramento attempted to activate the site for urban agriculture use.

Planting Justice responded and a lease was settled at a rate of $1 per year, according to the Department of Public Works.

Gavin Raders, co-founder and codirector of Planting Justice, says the project is more than a revitalization of a tree nursery. It’s an opportunity for healing and growth for the

Miguel Lopez and Alfred Melbourne of Three Sisters Gardens. community. “I just personally view this as a critical moment when we see a lot of our systems fail us or expose our vulnerabilities in food and economic systems,” Raders says. “I want to be spending my time developing and

inspiring others as part of an effort to transform our food system.”

Planting Justice, Yisrael Family Farm and Three Sisters Gardens are prepared to revive the former City Tree Nursery and add community-minded

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806 L Street Downtown Sacramento 916-442-7092 www.FrankFats.com

A Three Sisters Gardens staff member harvests peppers. elements, such as a center for urban agriculture, youth mentorship, livingwage jobs and farmer training. The site will support gardens, educational programs and a production nursery for Planting Justice’s existing organic plant nursery in Oakland, which includes more than 1,200 varieties of certified organic fruit trees.

Planting Justice’s production and retail nursery intends to provide jobs for the community, generate revenue needed to support itself long-term, and create community access to nutrientdense and climate-resilient trees, shrubs, vegetables, herbs, flowers and native plants. The nursery will include 1 acre of outdoor field production, 7,000 square feet of indoor greenhouse production and a small space for onsite retail.

All three partners will offer educational programs in growing, cooking and sharing food. Programs will also include employment and life skills related to ecological design, farming, landscaping, plant propagation and horticulture, backyard kitchen gardens, and shipping and retail.

Three Sisters Gardens will care for 1 acre on which to grow nutrient-

dense, medicinal vegetables and herbs, including native foods, that will be distributed to restaurants and community-supported agriculture members, and low-income families for free or on a sliding scale. The community will have access to a farm stand at least once a week.

Alfred Melbourne, executive director and founder of Three Sisters Gardens, is a proud Native American of the Hunkpapa Lakota tribe. Melbourne was born and raised in California where he says there is longstanding overcriminalization of Native Americans and people of color. He spent 18 years in prison, and has been home in West Sacramento off parole for four years.

Melbourne started the nonprofit in 2018 to provide a safe place for mentoring and the opportunity for others to work and give back to their community. “I’m using what I've gone through to give back to the youth,” Melbourne says.

Currently, Three Sisters Gardens freely gives more than half of all four of its farms’ vegetables to the community.

“We want to bring our organic, sustainable, regenerative practices to the tree nursery,” Melbourne says.

“We’re relying on our native and indigenous knowledge as we do this.”

Before the project can proceed, however, there’s the matter of funding.

Planting hasn’t started yet, but the earth-minded participants have been planning, taking soil samples and fundraising. Melbourne says to have a fully functioning tree nursery, they will need $1.2 million over the next five years.

Planting Justice hopes to have all the necessary funds to complete construction of shade housing and raised beds next year in order to begin crop plantings in winter 2021.

“This project is going to be exactly what we need in our area to rebuild our ecology with native plants,” Melbourne says. “It stands to have so many longterm benefits for the community and the environment.”

7+$, %581&+ 1HZ 7KDL 6W\OH %UHDNIDVW %UXQFK ,WHPV

Sat & Sun 11am-3pm

For more information, visit cityofsacramento.org/public-works/ city-tree-nursery or email treenursery@ cityofsacramento.org.

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Tessa Marguerite Outland can be reached at tessa.m.outland@gmail.com.

Previous columns can be found and shared at the all-new InsideSacramento. com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

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Photos by Linda Smolek

Hot,

Hot, Hot

NASHVILLE CHICKEN IS NEXT NEW FOOD FAD

W

e’ve seen more than a few food fads in the last decade.

Most of them, for the betterment of the local food scene, have stuck. Food trucks appear here to stay. Poke joints, though fewer in number than before COVID shutdowns, are still plentiful and delicious. The resurgence of oldschool barbecue seems like a permanent fixture on the West Coast.

The latest of these fads is, without a doubt, Nashville hot chicken. Four

GS

By Greg Sabin Restaurant Insider

60

IES DEC n 20

restaurants have opened in the last year that serve the geographically specific and orally intense chicken dish.

It’s a niche, but one that is deliciously filled by the flavorful and sometimes overwhelming fried chicken first made famous in Music City.

The story goes (taken with a grain of salt) that Thornton Prince, a Nashville man and friend to single ladies everywhere, came home to his longtime girlfriend after a night of carousing.

Being a less than sensitive figure, he asked his lady to make him something to eat for he had worked up quite an appetite. Well, the crafty lass cooked up Mr. Prince’s favorite dish, fried chicken.

But in order to show him a thing or two, she burdened the chicken with more hot spice than any human should endure.

Instead of burning his lips off, Prince relished the spicy bird. Not long after, he started his own restaurant featuring the hot chicken originally concocted as a punishment. This was nearly 90

years ago, and the legend has only grown. Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack is now pretty much world famous and has spawned a whole food subculture, inspiring restaurants worldwide to serve the signature dish.

In Sacramento, the most popular and longstanding purveyor of hot chicken is Nash & Proper. Started as a food truck a few years ago, N&P has expanded to several physical locations and a flagship restaurant on K Street in Downtown.

The menu is pretty simple, but the results are far from straightforward.

Featuring fried chicken, chicken sandwiches, chicken wings and tenders, and fried cauliflower for our vegetarian friends, the menu seems simple at first.

But then you must choose your level of heat: naked (no spice), mild (bit of heat), medium (now you feel it), hot (it’s burning) and clucking hot, which I imagine is fit only for those most tuned into the pain/pleasure centers of their psyche.

N&P does exceptionally good work on its food. The sandwich is a delightful grease and heat bomb made with expertise. Each ingredient, from the bread to the slaw to the pickles to the sauce, is either beautifully crafted inhouse or sourced with care.

The cooking skill is just as evident.

The fry is lovely on the chicken. In addition, my vegetarian friend Patrick, a longtime veteran of Sacramento kitchens himself, was more than a little impressed by N&P’s handling of the cauliflower.

Some sides that will delight your palate (after being scorched into oblivion if that’s your thing) are the exceptionally delicious potato salad and solid mac and cheese.

Like many newer restaurants during the COVID age, especially those with food truck roots, the locations and hours of Nash & Proper are better absorbed through online sources, such as Facebook and Instagram. N&P’s truck,

7:00 AM - 6:30 PM 7:30 AM - 7:00 PM Open ‘til 8:00 PM FRI SAT ARDEN

DOCO

which can be found several days a week at 37th and Broadway, has also been seen regularly at Sac Yard Tap House and other locations throughout the region. A pop-up location in Jazz Alley off 24th Street in Midtown comes to life some nights of the week for hungry lateniters. Nash & Proper is at 1023 K St.; (916) 426-6712; nashandproper.com.

Opened just a few months ago (always a brave move during a pandemic), World Famous Hotboys dishes out world-class hot chicken sandwiches almost exclusively. The 21st

Famous Hotboys is at 1115 21st St.; worldfamoushotboys.com.

In addition to these two standouts, you’ll find a couple more hot chicken specialists in town. The Angry Bird Hot Chicken in Citrus Heights puts out some spicy eats. Also, Sacville Hot Chicken (serving food mostly by delivery) located inside Goldfield Trading Post at J and 17th streets, dishes out indulgent comfort food like a sloppy plate of fries, mac and cheese, and slaw covered with hot chicken pieces.

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IT’S A NICHE, BUT ONE THAT IS DELICIOUSLY FILLED BY THE FLAVORFUL AND SOMETIMES OVERWHELMING FRIED CHICKEN FIRST MADE FAMOUS IN MUSIC CITY.

Street location is its first restaurant outside of native Oakland, and we’re lucky to have it.

World Famous Hotboys features a highly seasoned thigh and killer sauce/ pickle/slaw combo in a great sandwich.

It has a few other items on the menu like slaw and fries, but the star is the chicken sandwich.

This is a no-frills outfit with a table and shade tent outside the storefront. If you walk up without having pre-ordered online, you’ll be asked to go online and order. No live ordering. World

Whichever way you go, all roads lead to Nashville when it comes to hot chicken, but those roads reach out as far as Sacramento and we’ve got the chicken and the burning hot lips to prove it.

Greg Sabin can be reached at gregsabin@hotmail.com. Our Inside Sacramento Restaurant Guide and previous columns can be found and shared at InsideSacramento.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento. n

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