Inside land park sep 2015b by Inside Publications

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NESTLED IN CURTIS PARK Just a short skip from the Park, this darling 2 bedroom cottage delights at every turn. From the built-in cabinetry and tray ceilings, to the vintage Wedgewood and cozy breakfast nook, this home oozes charm. On-demand hot water and upgraded electrical panel. $419,000 STEPHANIE GALLAGHER 342-2288

ELEGANT LAND PARK 3 bedroom 2 bath, you will love the classic features such as coved ceilings, beautiful wood Àoors, and arched doorways. Spacious layout with a separate living room and family room, formal dining room, remodeled kitchen with nook, lovely brick patio! $690,000 ERIN STUMPF 342-1372

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SOUTH LAND PARK Hello Sunshine! Delightful mid-century ranch in South Land Park. Beautifully maintained and immaculate. 4 bedrooms, 2½ baths, 2000 square feet on .22 acre. Pella dual pane windows - really, really nice. $415,000 SHEILA VAN NOY 505-5395

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PRIME LAND PARK This is a Frank (Squeaky) Williams built home in great location. Features three spacious bedrooms and three full baths; large living room and dining room with numerous individual details. Family room and updated kitchen have open views of beautifully landscaped rear yard. $779,000 RICHARD KITOWSKI 261-0811

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CURTIS PARK DUPLEX Tons of potential...but it is not for the faint of heart...needs work. A great ¿xer with many possibilities in a great location and a great price. Huge, deep lot! Second unit is over garage at back of property. Garage has been somewhat ¿nished and was used as a print shop! $310,000 PAULA SWAYNE 425-9715

NEW SOUTH LAND PARK Rare opportunity to own a nearly brand new home in South Land Park. 3 bedrooms 2 baths, open Àoor plan; lots of light! Quality wood laminate Àoors, 6 ft windows, master suite, spacious rooms 2-car garage. Steps from Land Park, Amazing quality home and location! $438,000 MONA GERGEN 247-9555

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HIDDEN GEM! This 4 bedroom 2½ bath will remind you of a European villa with a beautiful backyard garden! Fantastic kitchen plus casual and formal eating areas. A master suite, family room and home of¿ce. A pleasure to see and a treasure to own. $737,500 SHEILA VAN NOY 505-5395

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CURTIS PARK AREA 4-PLEX Minutes from downtown, freeways, McGeorge Law School, City College, Med Center and DMV. Super easy to rent, very well maintained. Four 1 bed 1 bath units, room for 2 cars to park in the back and street parking. Newer roof and gutters, dual pane windows, painted 2½ years ago. $469,000 LISA McCAULEY 601-5474

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MID-TOWN DUPLEX Newly renovated with a 1 bedroom unit and a 2 bedroom unit. Huge parcel with detached 3-car garage and alley access. Recently updated with new roof, new stucco, and fresh interior paint. Cute kitchens, wood Àoors, central heat and window a/c, nice spacious lay-outs. $450,000 ERIN STUMPF 342-1372

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COVER ARTIST Judy Lew Loose With experience comes greater clarity and awareness in knowing my emotions. My paintings speak of feelings that are layered by multiple, intense colors. I seek to transcend the moment, capturing the beauty I see to share with you. I received my BFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute, New York.This original painting will be on display at the 33rd Street Bistro special events room during the months of September and October.

Visit lewloosewatercolors.com

LOCAL PUBLISHER Cecily Hastings publisher@insidepublications.com 3104 O St. #120, Sac. CA 95816 (Mail Only) EDITOR PRODUCTION DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY AD COORDINATOR ACCOUNTING EDITORIAL POLICY

SEPTEMBER 2015 VOL. 18 • ISSUE 8 7 10 16 20 22 24 26 28 30 34 36 38 40 44 46 50 52 54 56 58 60 66

Marybeth Bizjak mbbizjak@aol.com M.J. McFarland Cindy Fuller, Daniel Nardinelli Linda Smolek, Aniko Kiezel Michele Mazzera, Julie Foster Jim Hastings, Daniel Nardinelli, Adrienne Kerins 916-443-5087 Commentary reflects the views of the writers and does not necessarily reflect those of Inside Publications. Inside Publications is delivered for free to more than 65,000 households in Sacramento. Printing and distribution costs are paid entirely by advertising revenue. We spotlight selected advertisers, but all other stories are determined solely by our editorial staff and are not influenced by advertising. No portion may be reproduced mechanically or electronically without written permission of the publisher. All ad designs & editorial—©

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Submit editorial contributions to mbbizjak@aol.com. SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions at $25 per year guarantees 3rd class mailing. Pay online at insidepublications.com or send check with name & address of recipient and specify publication edition.

Publisher's Desk Inside City Hall Life in the City Volunteer Profile Building Our Future Inside Downtown City Beat Local Heroes Home Insight Sports Authority Meet Your Neighbor Garden Jabber Science In The Neighborhood Shoptalk Writing Life Spirit Matters Farm to Fork Doing Good Getting There Artist Spotlight River City Previews Restaurant Insider

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The Ultimate Gallery PUBLICATION ON OUR COVERS EXPOSES ART TO TENS OF THOUSANDS

BY CECILY HASTINGS PUBLISHER’S DESK

ocal original art is the first thing you see when setting eyes on our publications. We consider it our distinctive signature. As we celebrate 20 years of publishing this year, it is fitting that we also celebrate 20 years of art on our covers. Brothers Matt and Fred Haines opened 33rd Street Bistro in East Sac in 1996, the same year we started publishing Inside East Sacramento, our first monthly. We’ve been good friends ever since. So the decision was easy to partner with them to present a collection of original art that has been on our covers in their special events room for the months of September and October. With four publications over 20 years, we have featured more than 660 art images on our covers. At best guess, we have represented the work of more than 200 artists. Since adding the Pocket edition in 2014, we now feature 48 art images each year. Original art was not on our first cover in February 1996. We started with a more traditional newspaper look with a story and a photo. But when my mother, who lived in Ann

Some of my favorite covers include art by Kathy Waste, David Lobenberg, Jill Estroff, William Tuthill, Earl Boley, Wayne Thiebaud, Sam Francis, Samantha Buller and Judy Lew Loose (left to right, top to bottom)

Arbor, Mich. (where I had gone to college), found out I was publishing a newspaper, she sent me a copy of her local newsmagazine, called Ann Arbor Observer. The minute I saw it, I knew this was the direction I wanted to go with our fledgling publication. In my college years, I had enjoyed the art on the Observer covers. Many people are surprised to find out that my college degree is in fine art, not journalism.

My husband loved the idea when I showed him, but he cautioned me that it probably wouldn’t take long for other Sacramento publications to copy such a great idea. I figured more art in our community was a good idea, and if it happened, all the better. But it never did. The first artist we featured painted watercolor home portraits. I photographed about a dozen of her

paintings, figuring I’d run them for several months until I discovered more artists. But once they were published and mailed to more than 10,000 homes, artist David Lobenberg contacted me and became a regular. He began doing watercolors of local events and arts organizations, setting the visual standard for what I wanted in terms of cover art. In turn, I recommended him for commissions for events, including the Pops in the Park summer concert series in East Sacramento. He painted the poster image for that event for several years. Lobenberg shared his feelings with me early on about the power of bringing art to so many each month. He earned a living on commissions and at the time did watercolor portraits of high-profile people. But he said those portraits are hung in private homes and are seen by few people other than friends and family. Our covers, he said, guaranteed that tens of thousands of people would see his work. He thought that exposure was priceless. Another milestone was our first edition of Inside The City (now Inside Land Park) in 1998. I met Barry Smith, owner of Smith Gallery, who introduced me to the work of artist William Tuthill, who is now deceased. Tuthill was a retired engineer; his meticulously detailed and brightly colored watercolors of the downtown Sacramento skyline stunned me with their beauty. It might be hard to imagine now, but in 1998 the city of Sacramento didn’t exactly have a great reputation as a dynamic central core for our region. When we first started pitching PUBLISHER page 8

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UArt Sacramento 2601 J Street 916-443-5721 UniversityArt.com PUBLISHER FROM page 7 our new city-focused edition, folks weren’t exactly sure how we could make it work. But as soon as they saw the first cover with Tuthill’s gorgeous view of the city, people quickly got on board. I am convinced the first cover did a great deal to lift the self-esteem of our city residents in showing the beauty of their city. That is just one example of the power of art to transform. Our first decade of publishing occurred before widespread Internet access, and during those early years, I spent time visiting galleries and going to shows and fairs. At that time, our local art scene was just a fraction of what it is now. For many years, I visited artists’ studios with a film camera to shoot their work for use on our covers. I professionally printed the photos and then scanned them to create digital images. About 12 years ago, I started using a digital camera, which was a huge improvement. Without websites to show their work, artists rarely used to photograph their art. Nowadays,

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just about every serious artist has a website and takes his or her own photographs. That makes my job much easier. Mastering the printing process was something I had to learn by trial and error since no one printed art images. Newsprint is an absorbent medium, and images “dot gain”—a process in which halftone dots grow in area between the original printed film and the final printed result. As a result, they have to be adjusted in Photoshop so that they don’t look too dark. I still prepare every image for print every month. Selecting the art for the covers is easily the most enjoyable job I have every month. I choose from hundreds of images on file from regularly featured artists. But I spend time and energy to bring in new artists each year. In early 2014, I started an art gallery preview page for our publications, highlighting gallery shows in the coming month. It has been a great way to discover new artists. Some months, I have even

been able to feature cover art to coincide with current gallery shows. In 2009, I was asked to judge a part of the California State Fair Fine Art Competition. I recognized a number of artists whose work had appeared on our covers and decided I’d feature their winning works on our cover the month of the fair. This evolved into my annual publisher’s awards at the fair, where framed covers are hung next to the original art. Judging at the fair has been a great way for me to discover new artists. I find out where the winners live and try to feature them in their neighborhood edition if possible. The Sac Open Studios tour being held this month has also been a godsend for me. I visit art studios, meet artists and discover many new artists every year. Someone once asked me to name the most famous artist we’ve ever featured on our cover. That is no doubt Wayne Thiebaud, whose art we put on our cover to celebrate a major retrospective of his work at Crocker Art Museum in 2010. We've also partnered with the Crocker to help promote other special exhibits., including a Sam Francis retrospective. Our most featured artist is Judy Lew Loose. As of this month, her art has appeared on more than 20 of our covers. Just this past spring, my husband and I attended a fundraising event at a winery. As we sat and enjoyed the concert with friends, a woman approached me and introduced herself as Jill Estroff. I immediately recognized her name. She’s an artist whose work appeared on the cover of the Land Park edition last October. Called “Curtis Park Blues,” it was a colorful, somewhat gestural depiction of homes in fall colors. She told me a heartwarming story about her experience as a first-time cover artist. Two summers ago, she was recovering from cancer treatment and was unable to do all the sports she enjoyed. She’d once worked at the Crocker and thought that maybe painting would help occupy her mind without physically taxing her. “Curtis Park Blues” was her first attempt. She’d sent it to me but said she’d had

no illusions it would be selected. I took one look at the piece and let her know I’d feature it on our October cover. I was touched by what she said next. “I was encouraged beyond belief,” she said, “and went on to paint more than a hundred paintings since then, almost all of which have been sold.” She said it was a lifechanging experience for her. I mentioned our upcoming art show and asked if the painting was still available. She said it’s still hanging proudly in her home, despite many offers to purchase it. “I told my husband I could never sell the art that was featured on your cover!” she said. While I know many of the artists we have featured over the years, I’ve never met some of the newer ones. But I get lovely notes and emails from artists expressing the pure joy they feel. I can only imagine what widespread publication of their art has meant to them. Our art show is designed to bring together these artists and our readers. We have assembled more than 45 original works of varying sizes and mediums for the show. Many are recent pieces. (Artworks featured on our covers tend to sell well, so they’re not available for exhibition.) But a few are more than a decade old. We also will have a huge wall of framed covers on display. In 2013, Crocker Art Museum held a fabulous retrospective of the work of legendary artist Norman Rockwell, featuring 50 original paintings and more than 300 original covers of The Saturday Evening Post. It gave me the idea for our show. Please join us at our Second Saturday reception on Sept. 12 from 5 to 9 p.m., where you may get a chance to meet the artists. Or stop by the bistro for a meal and visit their special events room to see the show all month long. Many of the pieces are available for purchase from the artists. The fact that we can keep bringing local art to you month after month on our covers is testament to the breadth and depth of artists who gratefully call Sacramento home. Cecily Hastings can be reached at publisher@insidepublications.com n

Celebrating 20 Years of Art

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LAND PARK CURTIS PARK SOUTH LAND PARK HOLLYWOOD PARK MIDTOWN DOWNTOWN

MAY 2012

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20TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW OF COVER ART 33RD STREET BISTRO Special Events Room

Second Saturday Reception Sept. 12 from 6-9 p.m. Show runs September/October

More than 45 original works of art on display from local artists

Elaine Bowers

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Accountability Deficit HOW AN ETHICS COMMISSION COULD RESTORE TRUST

BY CRAIG POWELL INSIDE CITY HALL

’ve been around long enough to remember when Sacramento city government enjoyed a reputation as a “clean” government, free of the kind of scandals that regularly bedeviled other California cities. With exceedingly rare exceptions, the eras of Mayors Isenberg, Rudin, Serna, Yee and Fargo were scandalfree. It has been a source of genuine civic pride among city residents, if not a little hubris. The events of the past few months show that, during the Kevin Johnson era, the days of scandal-free city government are long gone, at least for now. The tally of alleged recent misconduct is long and getting longer by the week, raising serious questions about whether our city government, as it’s currently constituted, lacks the capacity to hold elected officials accountable for their conduct: • In May, Mayor Johnson was accused of sexually harassing Estrellita Ilee Muller, a city staffer who was working at the time in city manager John Shirey’s office. The details are lurid. According to a claim form filed with the city clerk’s office

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and obtained by The Sacramento Bee, Johnson was accused of sending one of his bodyguards to fetch Muller and bring her to the mayor’s library. He was accused of grabbing Muller, who is married, and asking her if she “felt it.” Johnson, who is also married, was accused of repeatedly pressuring Muller to enter into an unwanted sexual relationship. According to the claim form, Muller alleged that city officials bungled their legal responsibility to deal with her claim in a fair and appropriate manner. • In July, R.E. Graswich, a local journalist and writer (and fellow columnist for Inside Publications) who worked as an aide for Johnson during his first term handling media and related matters, told a reporter for Sacramento News & Review that he and other Johnson staffers had used city offices and city equipment to perform campaign work for Johnson, knowing it is against the law to do so. • In early August came the news that Councilmember Allen Warren, who chairs the city council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Good Governance considering city ethics, transparency and redistricting reforms, was the subject of a claim of “quid pro quo” sexual harassment by Delia Chacon, a former staffer who worked in his council office. Chacon alleged that Warren threatened her job if she stopped providing him with sexual favors. He subsequently fired her. Her claim included an account of a bizarre incident at a cabin owned by Warren near Oroville, where she asserted that Warren shot targets with a shotgun, an action that made her fearful. He later allegedly told her “he could have done anything to her without anyone

knowing.” Chacon said that city officials mishandled her claim against Warren. Chacon also claimed that Warren asked her to perform work on behalf of Warren’s development company, New Faze, during regular business hours at city hall.

The tally of alleged recent misconduct is long and getting longer by the week, raising serious questions about whether our city government, as it’s currently constituted, lacks the capacity to hold elected officials accountable for their conduct. • Councilmember Angelique Ashby and the city are defendants in a lawsuit currently pending in federal court that alleges Ashby wrongfully fired a staffer, who claims to have worked 67 hours per week in her office, for seeking to take time off to receive medical care. The city attorney has said that she believes that Ashby acted “reasonably” in the matter. Ashby is also a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Good

Governance. (Councilmember Steven Hansen has asked that both Ashby and Warren step down from the committee while claims against them are pending.) Ashby has been strong opponent of a city ethics commission. • In addition to claims of personal misconduct, the public has seen skirmishes over city emails. Early on in his administration, Johnson created a private email system for his own city emails and those of many of his staffers, putting such emails beyond the reach of city officials who are obligated to turn over nonprivileged city emails when they are requested by the public. Johnson is currently in a position to be able to pick and choose which of his emails he releases to the public, taking advantage of a legal ambiguity under California law over whether emails kept on private email accounts, but involving city business, are considered public records and subject to disclosure. • Johnson recently took the highly unusual step of filing a lawsuit against the city and Sacramento News & Review seeking to stop the city from releasing emails between him and a private law firm that was advising him on a hostile takeover of a national black mayors organization. Upon assuming control, Johnson placed the organization in a bankruptcy proceeding and launched a replacement organization. Some are questioning the appropriateness of the mayor using taxpayer-funded city staff on such a venture. The mayor’s spokesman, Ben Sosenko, has been quoted as saying that there is nothing in the emails that the mayor is trying CITY HALL page 13

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CITY HALL FROM page 10 to hide; he just wants to protect his privileged communications. The emails in question ended up on the city’s email server in the first place because city staffers received copies of the emails. • While testifying in the arena fraud trial in July, Johnson admitted that he deleted text messages from his smartphone despite having received legal warnings not to do so. He testified that he did so inadvertently and because his habit is to delete his text messages. • City clerk Shirley Concolino was planning to delete 85 million city emails on July 1. That plan was interrupted when a Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction in late July ordering Concolino not to delete 15 million of the emails that included records requested by Rick Stevenson, a representative of Eye on Sacramento, and Katy Grimes, a local journalist. City councilmembers were reportedly advised by the city attorney to not discuss the planned deletion with either Eye on Sacramento or the media.

The one tool that appears best suited to hold elected officials accountable for their misconduct, and to clear them when they are innocent of claims, is an independent ethics commission. The concern of the groups that have been working on meaningful ethics, transparency and redistricting reform in Sacramento (a group that includes Eye on Sacramento) is that our city government, as currently constituted, lacks an effective means of holding elected officials accountable for their misconduct, as well as an

effective means of exonerating them when unsubstantiated or false claims are brought against them. The city’s go-to response to a claim of misconduct against an elected official has been to ask the city attorney to conduct an investigation of the matter and, in the case of the claims against both Johnson and Warren, to hire an outside law firm to conduct an investigation. In Johnson’s case, the investigations of the city attorney and the city’s outside private law firm concluded that the claim against him was “unsubstantiated.” Investigations into Allen’s case have just begun. But the city attorney has a direct and irreconcilable conflict of interest in issuing findings of guilt or innocence with respect to a sitting councilmember. After all, a councilmember has the power, when acting in concert with four other councilmembers, to fire him from his post. He is ethically compromised from conducting a credible, independent investigation. The same is effectively true of a private law firm brought in by the city attorney to conduct an “independent” investigation. Any private law firm that hopes to secure future business from the city or the city attorney can’t help but be hesitant to issue an investigative report that finds a powerful councilmember guilty of misconduct. Further, both the city attorney and an outside firm lack the power to subpoena witnesses and compel the giving of testimony under oath, essential tools in uncovering the truth in such cases. What about a grand jury investigation? Can grand juries hold councilmembers accountable for misconduct? While civil grand juries in California do have subpoena power and can place witnesses under oath, they lack the means to effectively enforce their findings. They can and do issue sometimes-scathing reports on wrongdoing by public officials (including Sacramento city officials), but they lack the teeth to enforce their judgments or to compel change. For wrongdoing that rises to the level of criminal misconduct (i.e.,

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3835 J STREET, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA | 916-456-0400 | SKINLASERS.COM CITY HALL FROM page 13 sexual battery, as distinguished from sexual harassment), the Sacramento County District Attorney can investigate and bring formal criminal charges against elected officials. While former DA Jan Scully made a campaign promise when she first ran for office that she would make the prosecution of public corruption and wrongdoing cases a priority if elected, her 12 years in office featured almost no prosecutions of elected officials for wrongdoing, which is rather remarkable when you consider that Scully had jurisdiction to prosecute crimes occurring in the State Legislature during that time. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office have had no trouble finding criminal wrongdoing under the dome to prosecute. We will see if our new DA, Anne Marie Schubert, who also made a campaign pledge to make the prosecution of public corruption and misconduct a priority, takes a different approach from Scully. The one tool that appears best suited to hold elected officials

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accountable for their misconduct, and to clear them when they are innocent of claims, is an independent ethics commission, armed with subpoena power and the power to place witnesses under oath, as well as the authority to levy fines, make findings and, in particularly egregious cases, remove officials from office. With appropriate safeguards in place to ensure that the full protection of due process of law is afforded to those subject to a commission’s jurisdiction, an ethics commission should help deter misconduct and help restore public trust in city government while ensuring that parties who come before it are treated fairly. A city ethics commission would cost between $400,000 and $500,000 annually to operate, amounting to about 0.005 percent of the city’s annual budget. The city has yet to publicly disclose the total cost in legal fees, lawyers’ salaries, investigation costs and other expenses that city taxpayers have incurred, or can expect to incur in the future, in connection with the investigations of Johnson and Warren and the lawsuit

involving Ashby. But given the very high hourly billing rates charged by attorneys these days, it’s very likely that the taxpayers’ tab will greatly exceed the costs of maintaining a city ethics commission. Would an independent and empowered ethics commission avoid all other future costs associated with claims against councilmembers and other senior city officials? No. But the prospect that city officials will be accountable to an ethics commission should deter some officials from

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engaging in misconduct. And if deterrence fails, such a commission would have the tools to ferret out the truth behind the allegations, impose consequences on the guilty and exonerate the innocent. Craig Powell is a local attorney, businessman, community activist and president of Eye on Sacramento, a civic watchdog and policy group. He can be reached at craig@ eyeonsacramento.org or 718-3030 n

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OPEN HOUSE Come and learn more about why Jesuit High School should be your choice for secondary education.

Sunday, October 18, 2015 12 pm - 3 pm

it High School Jesu est. 1963

Pre-Registration Opens September 1, 2015 JesuitHighSchool.org admissions@jesuithighschool.org or call 916.480.2127

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Children at Play FAIRYTALE TOWN HOSTS EXPERTS IN THE SCIENCE OF PLAYTIME

WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK

BY JESSICA LASKEY LIFE IN THE CITY

chool might be in full swing by now, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop on weekends. Don’t miss the exciting events at Fairytale Town this month, starting with the informative Sacramento Play Summit presented by Fairytale Town, Sacramento Public Library and ScholarShare Speaks on Saturday, Sept. 12. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, parents and kid caretakers will get a slew of useful information about the importance of play, the many types of play, ways to incorporate play into daily and school life and more to make a happy, healthy child. Keynote speakers will include author and psychology professor Dr. Peter Gray, musician Tom Chapin and pediatrician Louise Glaser. Tickets are $40 to $50 per person and are available starting Sept. 1. Later that same evening, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., spend some more quality time with keynote speaker Dr. Gray, a play expert and author, who will explain how play is essential to children’s healthy emotional and social development and suggest possible ways in which families, neighborhoods and communities can

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Let your bookworm go buck wild at the ScholarShare Children’s Book Festival on Saturday Sept. 26, and Sunday, Sept. 27 at Fairytale Town

restore opportunities for outdoor play. Advance tickets are $5.50 to $10 per person. Day-of tickets are $5.50 to $20 per person. Fairytale Town members get in free. For tickets and more information for either event, call 808-7462 or visit fairytaletown.org Tsakopoulos Library Galleria is at 828 I St. Bring those special someones— grandma and grandpa, that is—to Fairytale Town for a celebration of Grandparents Day on Sunday, Sept. 13, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Grandparents receive free admission when accompanied by a child ages 0 to 12. Weekend admission is $5.50 per person. And the memories? Priceless. Let your bookworm go buck wild at the ScholarShare Children’s Book Festival on Saturday Sept.

26, and Sunday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Enjoy readings and presentations by children’s book authors and illustrators, storytelling performances, hands-on literacy activities and family playtime at the largest early-childhood literacy festival in the region. Laura Numeroff, bestselling author of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” will headline the two-day festival. Admission to the event is free thanks to event sponsor ScholarShare College Savings Plan. For tickets and more information for all Fairytale Town events, call 808-7462 or visit fairytaletown.org Fairytale Town is located at 3901 Land Park Drive.

If you’re planning on coming to Fairytale Town anyway, arrive early with a pair of work gloves and a desire to get down and dirty and help out the Land Park Volunteer Corps on its monthly workday on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 8 a.m. at the picnic grounds directly behind Fairytale Town. Corps projects include painting park benches and tables, trimming ivy along Sutterville Road, cleaning the southern perimeter of Sacramento Zoo, mulching trees, trimming bushes and tree suckers, cleaning the ponds, preparing beds for new plantings, weeding, grooming bushes and more. Every pair of hands helps! If you’re getting hungry just thinking about all that exertion, don’t worry: Breakfast sponsor Espresso Metro will provide plenty of earlymorning grub, and lunch sponsor Jimmie Yee will make sure you don’t leave with an empty stomach. For more information, contact lead coordinator Craig Powell by phone at 718-3030 or email at ckpinsacto@ aol.com. Donations are always appreciated and can be sent to: Land Park Volunteer Corps, 3053 Freeport Blvd. #231, Sacramento 95818. Fairytale Town is at 3901 Land Park Drive.

SEEING RED Make time this fall to visit your favorite fluffy, furry and ferocious friends at Sacramento Zoo, which will host a series of events that are sure to have you roaring with delight. If you’re 55 or older, don’t miss the Senior Tea & Tours on Mondays,

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Sept. 14 and 21, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Enjoy a special tour of the zoo followed by snacks and tea. As this program is very popular, register by calling 808-5888. For those in the deaf and hardof-hearing community (and those who love and support them), Deaf Awareness Day at the zoo on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. is the place to be. The event is sponsored by NorCal Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which means that the zoo will have ASL interpreters on-site for the day. Do you love those fuzzy red raccoon look-alikes who snooze all day and make your heart go pitter-patter? Then be sure to celebrate Red Panda Day on Saturday, Sept. 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This interactive and educational event was developed to raise awareness about red panda conservation. Kids can become “Red Panda Rangers” after completing the panda activities—or, if you became a ranger last year, complete this year’s activities to become a Junior Forest Guardian. Visitors can also bid on red panda-themed artwork, decor and other keepsakes. Proceeds

benefit the Red Panda Network, a conservation group working directly with community-based organizations in the red panda’s homeland of Nepal. For more information on all zoo events, call 808-5888 or visit saczoo. org Sacramento Zoo is located at 3930 W. Land Park Drive.

TO A TEE If you’ve lived in Sacramento for any length of time, you know that it has a rich history dating back to its founder, John Sutter, of gold discovery fame. But did you also know that William Land Park and the beautiful golf course on its grounds also boast an interesting background? You will now, when William Land Golf Course celebrates its 90th anniversary with special events throughout the fall. Sacramento’s oldest public golf course opened in 1924 and was named in honor of William Land, an early Sacramentan who made his fortune as a hotelier and the founder of Western

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Call today! 916-706-0169 HomeCareAssistanceSacramento.com 5363 H Street, Suite A, Sacramento, CA LIFE IN THE CITY FROM page 17 Hotel on 2nd and K Streets, as well as Land Hotel downtown. Upon his death in 1911, Land left a legacy of $250,000 to “purchase a public park within a suitable distance of Sacramento to be used as a recreation spot for the children and a pleasure ground for the poor.” The 160-acre William Land Park was established on its present site in the 1920s, and the golf course was built shortly thereafter. Over the years, the nine-hole William Land Golf Course has hosted some of the area’s golfing elite, including Al “Mr. 59” Geiberger, Bob Lunn, Dick Lotz, Barbara Romack, Kevin Sutherland and more. It’s also home to The First Tee of Greater Sacramento, a youth development agency that teaches life-enhancing lessons and core values through the game of golf to 17,000 children a year. For more information about the golf course and its upcoming events, call 277-1207 or visit williamlandgc. com William Land Golf Course is at 1701 Sutterville Road.

WILY COYOTES Did you ever think eating nachos could contribute to a good cause? Dos Coyotes Border Cafe did when it teamed up with Land Park Schools Foundation to support public education in Land Park. On July 28, the team behind the restaurant at 1800 15th St. presented LPSF with a $2,100 check from the gross dinner receipts collected during the eatery’s Land Park

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Schools Night event on July 16. These funds will allow the nonprofit LPSF—a collection of parents, business owners and neighborhood citizens—to continue its work to sustain educational excellence at area schools through collaborations with school administrators, teachers, city officials and business leaders. And this isn’t the first time Dos Coyotes has chipped in with chips. Since the local chain opened its first restaurant in 1991, Dos Coyotes has contributed substantially to local arts, schools, sports and quality of life. Who’d have thought dinner could do so much good? For more information on Land Park Schools Foundation, visit landparkschools.org

GROWING PAINS If you’ve driven down Sutterville Road lately, you may have noticed quite a bit of construction going on. Sacramento Children’s Home is undergoing a major renovation, and the grocery store at the corner of Franklin Boulevard and Sutterville Road has been demolished to make room for a CVS Pharmacy that’s hoping to open a new location on that site before the holidays.

FEED ME, SEYMOUR! A man-eating plant? Doo-wop tunes? A ditzy blonde falling for a nerdy botanist? Sounds like none other than the cult classic musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” getting a loving revival with a live orchestra by

The cult classic musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” is getting a loving revival with a live orchestra by Runaway Stage Productions through Sept. 13 at 24th Street Theatre

Runaway Stage Productions through Sept. 13 at 24th Street Theatre. The deviously delicious Broadway and Hollywood sci-fi smash hit musical has devoured the hearts of theatergoers for more than 30 years. When meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names “Audrey II” after his coworker crush Audrey, the foulmouthed, R&B-singing carnivorous plant promises Krelborn unending fame and fortune as long as he keeps feeding it. But getting his hands on the plant’s favorite meal presents a problem for Krelborn: Audrey II will eat only blood! (Due to minor gore and some mature themes and

language, the show is suitable for audience members 16 and older.) Show times are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through Sept. 13. For tickets, call 207-1226 or visit runawaystage.com 24th Street Theatre is at 2791 24th St.

BEASTS AND BOOKS Fall festivities are in full swing at Belle Cooledge Library, so make sure you check out its awesome offerings all month long. If you’ve got a budding artist in the family, don’t miss Art for All on Friday, Sept. 4, from 3:30 to 4:30

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Don't miss the Fruit-to-Root Food Literacy Fair at McClatchy Park on Sept. 12

p.m. Hosted by Belle Cooledge and ArtBeast, this monthly program will allow artists of all ages and abilities to explore various media through three projects each session. Need to find a way to help your tyke practice reading? What’s better than reading a story aloud to a patient puppy friend? Read-To-A-Dog on Tuesday, Sept. 22, from 4 to 5 p.m. is a fun and proven method for boosting a child’s reading skills by reading to a trained therapy dog and adult volunteer. Children may bring their own books to read to these furry friends, or they may borrow a book from the library’s collection. For more event information, call 264-2700 or visit saclibrary.org Belle Cooledge Library is at 5600 South Land Park Drive.

EAT THE GLOBE Travel around the world without leaving your neighborhood at the St. Anthony Parish Annual Fall Festival on Saturday, Sept. 12, from noon to 9 p.m. at St. Anthony Parish on Florin Road. This edible event will feature booths full of international cuisine from all over the globe, including

Filipino, Italian, Mexican, Nigerian, Polish, Greek and American food. Activities will include carnival-style games, 50/50, bingo, a cake spin, a country store, pull tabs, a wine spin and books for sale, as well as live entertainment and a lively raffle. For more information, call 4285678. St. Anthony Parish is at 660 Florin Road.

FRUIT TO ROOT Do words like “organic” and “sustainable” boggle your mind? Get some clarity and some tasty food tips at the Fruit-to-Root Food Literacy Fair, a free community event presented by Food Literacy Center in partnership with America’s Farmto-Fork Capital, the Sacramento Public Library and NeighborWorks on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 9 a.m. to noon at McClatchy Park. This marks the fifth annual food literacy fair initially inspired by chef Dan Barber’s best-selling book “The Third Plate.” Local chefs and food trucks will transform their menus and create their interpretation of a Third Plate dish using the region’s most sustainable ingredients.

Drive In - Drive Out! Holy Spirit Parish - 3159 Land Park Drive (Church Parking Lot)

Only $10 per file box or large bag Fundraiser for St. Vincent de Paul Society Donations provide food, clothing, and emergency housing for those in need Participants can browse the farmers market, tuck into food truck fare, check out cooking demonstrations, groove to live music, take part in interactive activities and learn about the art of composting and the “zero waste” movement courtesy of David Thompson of Oak Park Soil. For more information, call 4764766 or visit foodliteracycenter.org McClatchy Park is at 3500 5th Ave.

LEARNING AT THE LIBRARY Looking for a new skill or a fun way to spend an evening with the family? Don’t miss the classes and screenings this month at Robbie Waters PocketGreenhaven Library. If you’ve ever marveled at the beautiful strokes of calligraphy and wondered how you, too, could sweep and swipe like a pro, check out the Modern Calligraphy class on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. But this isn’t your ancestors’ calligraphy! Modern calligraphy is a blending of styles that is perfect for journaling and scrapbooking along

with more traditional invitations and letters. Students will learn the history of the art, how to design notes and envelopes and practice with new alphabets. All materials will be provided. Space is limited, so registration is required. Call 264-2920 or visit saclibrary.org Still haven’t caught the newest live-action remake of “Cinderella”? (Or maybe you’ve seen it so many times you’re turning into a pumpkin?) Settle in for a family movie matinee on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 3:30 p.m. featuring the 2015 film “Cinderella” starring Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden and Helena Bonham Carter. The film is rated PG and will include English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. For more information on all library events, call 264-2700 or visit saclibrary.org Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library is at 7335 Gloria Drive. Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com n

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Liz Coleman SHE’S DONE IT ALL AS A ‘NUTCRACKER’ MOM

BY JESSICA LASKEY VOLUNTEER PROFILE

ook, Christmas doll, Ginger, Ginger, Ginger, party girl, Clara, candy cane …” Liz Coleman is ticking off the roles her daughter, Victoria, has danced in Sacramento Ballet’s iconic “The Nutcracker” over the past 12 years. “She made it to flower and snow angel last year,” Coleman says proudly. “And now she’s going off to college to study ballet.” Sacramento Ballet has long been instrumental in sparking childhood dreams of dancing onstage for the hundreds of local children cast in the beloved production each Christmas—500 kids per year, to be exact. Coleman has seen it all firsthand as a parent volunteer helping with auditions, working as a backstage chaperone, doing makeup, even running the headset that communicates with the stage crew to make sure the show comes off without a hitch. “‘The Nutcracker’ is a total family tradition for us,” says Coleman, who teaches second grade in the Twin Rivers District and has lived in Land Park since 1996. “Watching Victoria perform over the years from backstage—as a mom, it’s one of the proudest moments you have, to see her interacting with the professional dancers. It’s going to be very strange this year not to have her in it.” Inspired in part by her stellar experiences in “The Nutcracker” and with Sacramento Ballet’s co-artistic directors, Ron Cunningham and Carinne Binda,

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Liz Coleman and her daughter Victoria. Coleman is a parent volunteer for the Sac Ballet and Victoria has danced in the Ballet's "Nutcracker" for 12 years.

Victoria will pursue studies in ballet and journalism at The University of Utah this fall. Though Coleman is sad to see her go, she’s determined to carry on one of their favorite family traditions. “Lots of parents come back even after their kids are gone,” Coleman says. “This year, I’ll be helping out with the auditions and maybe doing makeup with the other flower moms. It’s a way to keep in contact with the ‘Nutcracker’ family.”

It also helps that the “family” is headed by two very caring figures. “To watch Ron and Carinne with the children is amazing,” Coleman says. “They’re so patient, always smiling. I don’t know how they keep their sanity! And we’re always told as parents, ‘Your kids are wonderful.’ It’s such validation. And to watch your child go from cook to flower, to see their progression, it’s amazing. ‘Nutcracker’ lets you be a part of your child’s growing up.”

Cook, candy cane, flower … prima ballerina? It’s only a matter of time. For more information about auditions for Sacramento Ballet’s ‘The Nutcracker’ on Sept. 9, 12 and 13, visit sacballet.org Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com n

It’s your turn for some TLC. Join us for Care Begins with Me, Sacramento’s premier annual health and lifestyle event focusing on inspiration and connection. Thursday, October 1, 2015, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel. Attend care talks with Dignity Health doctors, and hear from our featured keynote speaker Melanie Shankle. We’ll also have a lifestyle, fashion, and beauty galleria, along with gourmet food and drinks. Register today at CareBeginsWithMe.org. And don’t forget to bring friends—because of course you care about them, too.

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Our Store SACRAMENTO CO-OP GROWS WITH THE COMMUNITY

BY JORDAN VENEMA BUILDING OUR FUTURE

pring is a season of new beginnings and growth, for planting and harvesting the hardier greens like broccoli and collards. It’s only fitting then that the city’s premier grocer of those greens, Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, should also open the doors of its new location in spring of 2016. It will be a big move for the co-op, signifying tremendous growth in a relatively short time and even shorter distance: The store is moving just two blocks from its current location to a parcel bordered by 28th, 29th, R and S streets. Since its founding in 1973, the co-op has evolved with the organic revolution and been party to Sacramento’s emergence as the farmto-fork capital of the world. It’s due for new digs. The co-op began as a buying group that mostly purchased food in bulk, according to Jennifer Cliff, the co-op’s communication and design manager. “We’ve been a full-service grocery store essentially since the ’90s,” she says, “and we probably outgrew this space a long time ago.” Owned by the community (through membership), the co-op should also grow with the community. Serving approximately 12,000 members but open to any shopper, the co-op is ready for more space. The new 26,000-square-foot location will dwarf the current 16,000-squarefoot building and will also include a 16,000-square-foot mezzanine for offices. According to Cliff, the expansion will improve every department of the co-op, but will especially increase

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Rendering of Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op new store in Midtown

the prepared-foods department while introducing more self-serve options. The co-op also plans to significantly expand its deli, produce and meat departments. If the new co-op opens by its target of April 2016, it will get a jump on the new Midtown Whole Foods Market, which plans to begin construction around the same time. But the co-op isn’t exactly focused on competition. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Raley’s “all do phenomenal jobs,” says Cliff, “and there’s definitely room for everybody.” She believes that the co-op, as a smaller business, already has an advantage. “We truly engage in this community, and that’s something that’s harder to do for a really large company,” explains Cliff, who

Construction is in full swing on the parking garage.

suggests large corporations tend to lose connections with farms. “But that’s something we’ll continue focusing on. It’s really important to keep farmers in business [as well as] small food producers.”

Plus, by maintaining close relationships with farms, the co-op can guarantee the produce it sells is 100 percent organic. “We definitely know who we’re buying from, and in terms of food safety and knowing who

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5900 Elvas Avenue . Sacramento, CA 95819 . 916.737.5040 . www.stfrancishs.org your source is, the co-op is really your best choice,” says Cliff. “All of our signage indicates whether it’s a local producer and the mileage it’s coming from.” The co-op’s expansion will mean more space for more produce, and it could translate to relationships with new farms. In the wake of Sacramento’s recently passed urban agriculture ordinance, Cliff believes the co-op will be willing to work with urban farmers. “Absolutely,” she says. “Already, one of the main partnerships that we’ve had is with Soil Born Farms, and they’re an urban ag project.” That, says Cliff, “is an example of our commitment to supporting urban ag and small farms. We try to support our neighbors first.” One of the co-op’s main goals for its expansion is to increase its accessibility, especially for its customers. The new parcel will offer 108 new parking spaces, including five with charging stations for electric vehicles. For bikers, there will be 36 spaces, as well as a bicycle repair station. Plus, says Cliff, “we’ll be right on the transit line, so you can literally

get on and off. Being more accessible is something that we’re really excited about.” Accessibility isn’t just about convenience but also about outreach. “From our membership, we’re always directly connected to what’s happening,” says Cliff. “We have new programs working with the community, [like] our Co-op Community Kitchen. We are partnering with nonprofit organizations to serve low-income individuals and families throughout the Sacramento region.” Through Co-op Community Kitchen, the co-op offers free fourweek, two-hour classes to low-income individuals. The cooking classes focus on preparation of high-nutrition, low-cost meals (less than 2 bucks a serving) while educating about nutrition and labels. Beside the Community Kitchen, the co-op also offers a 10 percent discount on store purchases to income-qualifying individuals through its Community Discount Program. Cliff believes as the co-op grows, these programs will expand.

While growth is a sign of any healthy business, for the co-op there’s an underlying thread connecting food, health and environment, which gives a deeper meaning to growth. In an owner survey conducted in 2008, of the seven co-op goals, 82.5 percent of owners said this was the most important: “to honor the earth and cultivate the co-op’s relationships with the communities we serve and with the broader network of farmers, suppliers, manufacturers and cooperatives.” The words corporate and cooperative have a similar ring to them, and as grocers they function similarly, too—on the surface, at least. But the co-op really can be called our grocery store, since its ownership is open the community. “We’re an important part of the community,” says Cliff. “People who are members here, this is their business.” And come next April, not just its members but any Sacramentan who chooses to can appreciate the fruit of the co-op’s labor. Jordan Venema can be reached at jordan.venema@gmail.com n

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Reopening Washington THE MIDTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GETS A SECOND CHANCE

“Students who relocated to Theodore Judah or William Land don’t have to come back to Washington Elementary if they don’t want to,” Jay Hansen said. “We assume students living around the school will return because of the convenience, but we will need students from outside the area to enroll.”

BY SCOT CROCKER INSIDE DOWNTOWN

ashington Elementary School’s wild ride isn’t over just because Sacramento City Unified School District voted unanimously last month to reopen the school in fall 2016. The school, at 18th and E streets in Midtown, closed in 2013 when enrollment numbers plummeted to just over 200 students—the second lowest enrollment of any school in the district. The closure met with fierce opposition by neighborhood residents and parents. After it closed, students were reassigned to either Theodore Judah Elementary or William Land Elementary. Parents, stakeholders and a group of community leaders led by City Councilmember Steve Hansen and school board member Jay Hansen undertook a tenacious effort to reopen the school. The school is essential to accommodate the planned growth in residential housing and to help attract families to the city’s central core. Mayor Kevin Johnson and other city leaders are backing an initiative to build 10,000 housing units in the central city within the next 10 years. While the housing could run the gamut from low income to market

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After he was elected to the school board, Jay Hansen joined with Steve Hansen to push to reopen the school.

Jay Hansen has been involved in reopening Washington Elementary School in Midtown

rate, many new developments will target young, single professionals inclined to an urban lifestyle. There’s hope that families will come too, and that those young professionals will eventually have families and want schools close by. It took a lot of work, advocacy and a focused effort by the neighborhood to get Washington open again, according to Steve Hansen. “We can’t have a successful central city without good schools,” he said. “This could be a turning point for the central city and help reverse a trend of families leaving the city.” While the city itself has no direct control over schools, Steve Hansen got

involved in resurrecting Washington Elementary soon after taking office. “Before closing, there was a disconnect between the school and neighborhood,” Hansen said. “It was a downward spiral, and parents were pulling their kids out. But right before it closed, it was getting better under principal Richard Dixon, and the school and the neighborhood were coming together.” After he was elected to the school board, Jay Hansen joined with Steve Hansen to push to reopen the school. While he’s optimistic about the school’s success, he also knows there are no guarantees.

There’s an expectation that some of the thousands of commuters to the central city may opt to have their kids attend a school close to their work. “I would say if we could get to 250 enrolled students, it would be a win,” said Jay Hansen. “That’s about our break-even point financially. But our longer-term goal would be 500 or more students at the school.” To position the school as an attractive alternative, a number of programs are being considered. On top of the list is the STEAM program, which focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Another program might be Spanish language immersion. “The STEAM program would be in collaboration with the community,” said Steve Hansen. “Just look at the Midtown neighborhood. You have arts groups like B Street Theatre, the ballet and others. You also have

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Call Me Today! 698-1961 3rd Generation East Sac Resident the creative class and technology like Hacker Lab and VSP’s The Shop.” Currently, William Land Elementary and Theodore Judah Elementary are experiencing growth that could help build enrollment at Washington Elementary. William Land Elementary offers a very popular Mandarin language immersion program that’s oversubscribed, and because of enrollment growth, Judah now requires additional classroom construction. The McKinley Village development, currently under construction, is expected to bring even more students into the district. Many will likely attend Judah. With that growth, there’s an expectation that Washington will benefit if the other two schools become even more impacted. Both Hansens agree the success of Washington Elementary will be a collaborative effort between the school, the school district, neighborhood residents, local businesses and local organizations like Midtown Business Association

and Downtown Sacramento Partnership. “It took a lot of stakeholders to get Washington Elementary reopened, and it will take a lot of stakeholders to make sure the school is successful,” Steve Hansen said. “We have to get the word out. It won’t happen overnight, but we feel it’s the right time, right place and right people.” “Schools are an important amenity, and we’re supportive of quality schools as part of the fabric of a better urban community,” said Emilie Cameron, policy and advocacy manager for Downtown Sacramento Partnership. “Single downtown professionals will eventually shift to families and won’t want to give up their downtown lifestyle.” Also supporting the reopening of Washington Elementary was Midtown Business Association. “Our primary role is to inspire the greatest use of land and development,” said Emily Baime Michael, the association’s executive director. “When it came to an elementary school and educational opportunities, the Grid was light. The

opening of Washington Elementary addresses that.” Both Cameron and Michael feel that schools are critical in attracting families to live in the central core. Now that the school board has approved Washington’s reopening, the next steps will be to find a principal, get the facility ready, hire support staff and start marketing. The school board has already authorized funds for the principal and marketing. “We need to find the right person as principal,” Jay Hansen noted. “We hope to have someone on board

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by mid-October. We will be getting the community involved every step of the way. To get students enrolled, we hope parents will see a couple things: We have a great principal and teachers; we’re convenient and have a very beautiful campus.” “The opening of Washington will be great for the neighborhood,” concluded Steve Hansen. “I think everyone is committed to its success. How can we not be excited about the possibilities? But we have to continue to work at this and be proactive to see success.” n

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Bringing Back Broadway THE KITCHEN’S MOVE WILL KICK-START A TRANSFORMATION

BY R.E. GRASWICH CITY BEAT

mpty lots blanketed with brown weeds surrounded by chain-link fences, those signatures of failed dreams and shattered economic policies—that’s the landscape of Lower Broadway, gateway to Land Park. But not for much longer. A generational shift is underway along Lower Broadway. Once the city’s southern boundary, the place where we buried our pioneers in the old city cemetery, the Lower Broadway of generations past became a landscape of auto repair garages and small manufacturing plants and warehouses, cozy alongside two of our largest housing projects. Today, Lower Broadway can be called Sacramento’s premier comeback trail. The old Setzer fruit packing box factory is being transformed into a sparkling new community of 1,000 market-rate homes called The Mill at Broadway. And the city is painstakingly formulating plans to demolish and replace the public housing projects, with the mandate

ILP SEP n 15

to provide 21st-century opportunities and respect to our neediest residents. Good and smart people have responded. They bring creative powers, inspirational leadership and investment dollars to Lower Broadway. “You have to start doing things, and that nudges more people to action,” says Teresa Rocha, executive director of Greater Broadway Partnership, a group of business and property owners along the Broadway corridor organized to advocate for the community. “When things start to happen and people see actual change taking place, that’s when the imagination kicks in. The momentum is amazing.” Today, when Rocha walks from her office near Broadway at 15th Street and heads west along Lower Broadway, she sees only progress and possibilities. Empty lots and chainlink fences become restaurants and coffee shops and public gathering spaces. Broadway is inviting. It unifies. This is more than wishful thinking. One of Sacramento’s best and most ambitious restaurants, The Kitchen, is moving to Lower Broadway from its suburban home on Hurley Way. Randall Selland and family, who created The Kitchen’s unique fixed-price, demonstration-kitchen approach and carved a niche as the first interactive gourmet restaurant in town, are investing heavily in the Lower Broadway revitalization. The Kitchen has been a suburban institution since 1991. By late 2016, it will belong to Lower Broadway, occupying a building once know

Randall Selland is moving The Kitchen to Lower Broadway

as a grocery store but for decades reduced to an anonymous existence and neglect. The Kitchen, newly reimagined across from the old City Cemetery, will link Middle and Lower Broadway. It will become a bridge and meeting point along a boulevard that rivals any in the region for diversity, history, access and walkability. “I can’t say enough about what the Selland family is doing for

Lower Broadway,” Rocha says. “The Kitchen will be far more than just a restaurant. It’s extremely ambitious. There will be a courtyard with an outdoor kitchen, deliberate walkways and trees to give the site a Mediterranean feeling that takes advantage of Sacramento’s wonderful weather. It will be a gathering place.” Urban planners talk about accessibility and connectivity as

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855 57th Street (Between J & H Streets) if landscape links were a city’s holy grail—and they are. Previous generations bowed to the automobile. Access to convenient parking became the mantra, forcing designers to start not with a blank sheet of paper but a qualified set of guidelines, surrounded by asphalt and white stripes. The Kitchen will have parking (the Sellands and their partners make no apologies for the site’s bountiful accommodations for cars), but parking isn’t the point. What makes the project at 915 Broadway unique and appealing will be its ability to draw people away from cars. Guests will enter a group environment of festivity and celebration. Best from Rocha’s perspective is the concept of private investment, something easily overlooked in a town like Sacramento, where reliance on government, from state employment to redevelopment financing, became symbiotic and institutionalized. “The private investment we’re seeing in a project like The Kitchen is the most exciting thing of all,” she says. “When people start investing

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their own money, when they have a ‘Why don’t we do it here?’ attitude, that’s when you make real progress.” Now the trick will be to connect Lower Broadway with the reinvigorated amenities to the north—downtown and Midtown. The pathways to convenient linkage exist, but Lower Broadway remains spiritually separated by bureaucratically inspired obstacles, from a fence around the lake at Southside Park to the elevated highway that represents the W-X Freeway. “We’ve tended to turn inward in Sacramento,” Rocha says. “People build these amazing backyards for themselves, for example, and spend their time there. We lack the spectacular, inviting public gathering places you see in great cities around the world. We need to get there.” Broadway, the city’s historic demarcation line from urban to suburban, is the next bridge to human-scale connectivity. R.E. Graswich can be reached at reg@graswich.com n

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Reading Together VOLUNTEERS TEAM UP WITH SCHOOLKIDS TO TEACH THEM TO READ

BY TERRY KAUFMAN

LOCAL HEROES

ifteen years ago, three teachers on the San Francisco Peninsula launched a movement to bring the reading skills of struggling elementary schoolchildren up to grade level. The nonprofit they started, Reading Partners, now has a presence in 12 cities across the country, helping more than 11,000 students at 150 schools in 2014.

Beyond the lessons and sessions, something magical happens in the Reading Partners classroom. The Sacramento Reading Partners program, begun in 2009, could be the organization’s poster child. With a bright and energetic director, a team of hardworking program managers, site coordinators at each participating school and a community of dedicated volunteers from all walks of life,

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Reading Partners provide one-on-one reading instruction to elementary school students reading below grade level to help them succeed in school and in life

Reading Partners is changing lives in a fundamental way. “This is about building a movement for literacy,” says executive director Rachel Minnick. “It’s a strategy for the prevention of other social problems. If children can’t read, they can’t function in society. You can’t even get into the military now without a high school diploma. When we intervene early, we prevent other negative consequences, like gangs and crime. I want kids to have every option available to them.”

The emphasis is, of course, on reading. The curriculum is developed by a national team of educators, and it focuses on grades 1 through 4, the period at which it will have the biggest impact. The objective is to bring children who are reading a half year to two years below grade level up to the skill level appropriate for their age. Although the curriculum is the same for every school in the system, it takes on its own character to reflect the geography and demographics of the local community.

Each student is assigned to one of three categories. Emerging readers are still learning letters and their sounds; beginning readers are starting to understand what they’re reading; comprehension readers are learning to read for meaning. Each child has an individual learning plan, and the tutors communicate regularly with teachers and principal. The results speak for themselves. Over the past academic year, more than 788 volunteer tutors served 488 students in one-on-one sessions at nine sites throughout Sacramento.

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Eighty-eight percent of participating students showed an increase in their monthly rate of learning, and 63 percent narrowed the literacy gaps with peers reading at grade level. Beyond the lessons and sessions, something magical happens in the Reading Partners classroom. A fourth “R” is introduced: relationships. Tutor and student are carefully paired because they will become part of each other’s life. Each tutor spends an hour a week working with and on behalf of their student, and each new achievement is a milestone in both lives. “It’s so personal,” says Minnick. “You’re interacting directly with the person you’re helping.” Maria Barrs still gets goose bumps when she remembers one of her students reading. “It was a story using a pattern, and she commented on how it kept repeating the same words. I suggested she come up with another way to say it, so she gave an alternative sentence. We turned the page, and there was the exact sentence she had just said. It was just perfect.”

Barrs has tutored with Reading Partners for several years, most recently at Ethel Phillips Elementary in Oak Park. When she’s not helping kids read, she is the president and general manager of KXTV News10. She came to the program after hearing about Mayor Johnson’s literacy initiative and made it a station project. “There’s a connection between illiteracy and crime,” she says. “I’m very passionate about the power of reading.” Equally passionate are members of the Sacramento Police Department, who see firsthand the consequences of illiteracy in the community. As part of their regular duties, officers adopt local schools and become part of their fabric, interacting with kids and keeping the schools safe. Reading Partners has given many of them the opportunity to connect on a much more intimate level with students. “These are kids who have the highest opportunity to be delinquent,” says Lt. Brian Ellis, who brought Reading Partners to the department. “Right off the bat, I saw that this was an awesome thing. The one-on-

one interaction tells such a great story. We’re helping a particular kid, empowering them to succeed.” Ellis notes that the kids aren’t the only ones who benefit. “We can all use interpersonal development skills. Our officers develop empathy as they connect with the kids, making behavioral changes for the community and for our workforce.” Reading Partners’ mission also resonated with Metro EDGE, the young-professionals arm of Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce. Metro EDGE selected the nonprofit as its 2015 sponsorship recipient, thanks to the advocacy of its president, Michael Marion, associate vice provost at Drexel University. “It was important to look at an area where we could make an immediate impact,” he says. “As an educator, this aligned perfectly with my vision. We can roll up our sleeves instead of just writing a check.” Learn more about Reading Partners at readingpartners.org Terry Kaufman can be reached at terry@1greatstory.com n

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Modern Showpiece AN EAST SAC HOME ON TOUR IS REMODELED TO BE BETTER THAN EVER BY JULIE FOSTER HOME INSIGHT

ringing his home back to its original style was a two-step process for John de la Vega. When de la Vega purchased his 2,800-square-foot East Sacramento house 12 years ago, it had already undergone a drastic remodel in the 1980s or ’90s. Built in 1926 in the Italianate style, the house was later redone with art deco flourishes.

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“It is better than we imagined. Now we live in every room in the house.”

In 2009, de la Vega remodeled the garage and backyard, altering the feel of the property. The original backyard offered no shade, just a kidney-shaped pool plopped in the middle of the yard that provided no inducement to linger. So local landscape architect David Gibson drafted a plan for a backyard haven, reconfiguring the pool into

“We wanted people to wonder what was original and what wasn’t,” de la Vega says. By adding wing walls in the front of the house, they created more defined rooms. They stained the floors a darker color and replaced the shiny brass fixtures with ones of softer brass or oil-rubbed bronze. They upgraded the living room fireplace to gas for a cozier feeling. They painted the interior and updated the HVAC and electrical systems.

The Gilmore-de la Vega house will be featured on the Urban Renaissance Home Tour of five new and remodeled homes in East Sacramento.

a rectangle surrounded by lush landscaping. With the addition of a second story, the detached garage became a comfortable studio with a bathroom. A loggia facing the pool provides shade as well as a snug seating area, complete with gas fireplace that provides a cozy spot during cool evenings. The transformation took a year.

A few years later, de la Vega married Jenny Gilmore. One evening, as they sat down to a Valentine’s Day dinner in the kitchen, the refrigerator’s water dispenser began gushing water onto the floor. The couple had talked briefly about redoing the kitchen, but now they had no choice. Soon, their remodeling plans expanded, and they embarked on a

complete house remodel that took six months. During construction, they lived in the garage studio, making it easy for them to keep tabs on the project’s progress. “We were lucky to be able to stay on-site during the construction,” says de la Vega. Converting the house from art deco back to its original Italianate look was key for the couple.

“We didn’t focus on changing the floor plan,” he says. “We did small things that had a big impact.” The kitchen, which felt very dark due to floor-to-ceiling cabinets, received a total revamp. Mahogany cabinets and marble counter tops showcase the show-stopping fiveburner Lacanche stove, which set the tone for the rest of the room. “We loved the old-world feel,” says Gilmore. “And it has a middle burner that will boil a pot of water in no time,” she explains. Since there wasn’t a kitchen nook, the couple opted for a long, movable table rather than a fixed island. The upstairs bath had what Gilmore describes as a glass tube shower in the middle of the room, with a wall full of mirrors and a skylight above. Showering was not a pleasant experience. So the couple added a new shower and a clawfoot tub from local vendor Mac The Antique Plumber. For decorating, the couple loves shopping at local mom-and-pop stores rather than big-box operations. HOME page 33

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HOME FROM page 31 “We wanted to make the point of supporting people who really knew and loved their product and enjoyed helping us create our home,” Gilmore says. River City Builders did the construction on both projects, and Kristy Lingner and Kirk Todd were involved throughout. Lingner advises flexibility when remodeling an older home. “Expect things to not go 100 percent as planned,” she says. “Always stand back and look at the big picture when considering the minutiae. Lastly, respect the house for what it was but still make it your own.” Gilmore and de la Vega are completely satisfied with their new home, noting there isn’t a thing they would change. “It is better than we imagined,” de la Vega says. “Now we live in every room in the house.” The Gilmore-de la Vega house will be featured on the Urban Renaissance Home Tour of five new and remodeled homes in East Sacramento. Sponsored by Friends of East Sacramento, the tour takes place Sunday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Proceeds benefit the McKinley Park Renewal Fund. Tickets are available at sacurbanhometour.com If you know of a home you think should be featured in Inside Publications, contact Julie Foster at foster julie91@yahoo.com n

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The Original BEFORE VIVEK RANADIVE, THERE WAS GREGG LUKENBILL

BY R.E. GRASWICH SPORTS AUTHORITY

wenty-three years have come and gone since those improbable days when decisions made by Gregg Lukenbill drew headlines and started arguments in Sacramento. Lukenbill was the city’s boy wonder then, in his 30s and living a dream life as managing partner of the basketball team he hammered into existence, the Sacramento Kings. And there he was one recent sunny Tuesday afternoon, looming over my table at Esquire Grill, wondering if he should sit down. Why, of course he should. We hadn’t seen each other in a decade, but we had plenty of history, the former NBA franchise owner and the old sportswriter who covered the Kings when Sleep Train Arena, originally named for a gas station in a marketing deal Lukenbill drew up on a cocktail napkin, opened its doors in North Natomas. He looks remarkably well preserved, down to the trademark mustache and running shoes. The flannel shirt and relentless chain of cigarettes are gone, replaced by a dressy baby-blue cotton number and reformed lifestyle.

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Gregg Lukenbill at his East Sacramento home

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Lukenbill tells me, noting he was supposed to dine with one of my regular Tuesday lunch mates, Rusty Areias. Apparently, Rusty didn’t explain how we all share one big table on Tuesday. You never know who may show up.

Lukenbill is one of those remarkable Sacramento characters who doesn’t receive the credit and love he deserves. Today, as a new arena rises at the old Downtown Plaza, aligning its structural steel with the city’s hopes for economic revitalization and cultural inspiration,

the accomplishments of Gregg Lukenbill are more relevant than ever. Bottom line: None of this would be possible without him. The story of Lukenbill’s creation of the Sacramento Kings may be vaguely familiar (he bought the Kings in 1983 from a group of Kansas City businessmen for $4.5 million in cash and $4.5 million in deferred payments, plus a $1.5 million moving bonus), but the motives behind the purchase are what matter today. Those motives shape the landscape of Sacramento circa 2015. Lukenbill was the first builder in the city’s history to deploy a new type of political leverage: the pressure of sports fanaticism. He connected planning decisions to the community’s pride in a big-league team. Lukenbill figured it out, twisted the right arms and made it happen. He won big—and lost. The blueprint created by Lukenbill is basically the same show now playing out downtown with Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and friends. The site and dollars are different, but the strategy is pure Lukenbill: Amass land parcels and use the basketball team to leverage the city to dream. Lukenbill brilliantly deployed the Kings to maneuver the city into hastening its zoning process in North Natomas. That’s where Gregg and partners, led by lead funder Joe Benvenuti, were eager to develop 1,620 acres of fallow farmland adjacent to the arena site. The city council, afraid to defy the men who owned the Kings and their legion of fans, voted unanimously to open the property for development SPORTS page 37

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The Alchemist HE TURNS RESTAURANT FOOD WASTE INTO COMPOSTING GOLD

BY JESSICA LASKEY MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR

here are more organisms in a tablespoon of soil than people on this earth,” David S. Baker says, and he should know. As the founder of Green Restaurants Alliance Sacramento (better known as GRAS), Baker is an avid advocate for maintaining healthy soil through the magic of composting. “Healthy soil is healthy food,” says Baker, whom most people know as Scott. “Soil sequesters the carbon we’ve released into the atmosphere, along with the help of trees. By composting organic matter, you’re keeping more water in the soil, which builds soil structure to prevent flooding, so it’s more drought resistant. Most vegetable matter is water, so instead of wasting this water and taking it to a landfill, you’re putting it right back into the soil.” Baker was somewhat ahead of his time in 2010 when he started collecting food waste from restaurants and redistributing it for use in residential, school and community gardens. In the past year, there’s been a worldwide push for the awareness of healthy soil—2015 was even declared the United Nations’ Year of Soil—as well as a more local focus on the need for mandates governing the diversion of organics (a technical term for composting). “Now it’s not just me making a big deal of this,” Baker says. The Sacramento native and former competitive cyclist first started churning up interest in community composting when he was working as a wine steward and doing graphic

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David Baker is the founder of Green Restaurants Alliance Sacramento and avid advocate for composting

design for Selland’s Market-Cafe. He had spent a dozen or so years in the Bay Area and, upon returning to his hometown, wondered why Sacramento wasn’t implementing some of the eco-friendly practices he’d observed elsewhere. “In San Francisco, everybody has to compost,” he explains. “It’s the most progressive city in the country in that way: The city drops off bins, educates everyone, picks up the bins. Unfortunately, there’s no funding here for a municipal program like that, so our investment is in community composting. Hopefully, by empowering and educating people, we can be out there with a spotlight.”

While working for Selland’s in 2010, Baker approached several local farm-to-fork restaurants about collecting their scraps for composting. (The farm-to-fork aspect is key because composting works best with whole produce that was broken down by hand on-site, not precut or packaged.) Perhaps not surprisingly, they jumped at the chance. “They said, ‘We’ve wanted to do something like that for a long time. Thank you for making it happen,’” Baker says proudly. ReSoil Sacramento, GRAS’s first composting project, collects produce scraps from farm-to-fork restaurants and local grocery stores like Selland’s, The Waterboy, Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, Magpie Cafe, Chocolate Fish

Coffee Roasters, Formoli’s Bistro and more. To date, 190,000 pounds of waste have been diverted thanks to Baker and what he calls “pedalpowered” community composting: a cargo bike that Baker rides in a 3-mile radius around downtown. “Our system is very boutique,” says Baker, who now counts on a “posse” of like-minded volunteers who tool around town with him, collecting waste and delivering it to community and school gardens as well as urban farmers in the area. The success of ReSoil Sacramento has led Baker to do zero-waste consulting for local restaurants and to provide zero-waste services for local events like Chalk It Up. GRAS has also partnered with Atlas Disposal for the past two years

to feed the CleanWorld anaerobic digester (Sacramento’s first), which makes fuel from the methane gas released from the composting process. “It’s an alchemy of sorts,” Baker explains. Anyone can perform this alchemy in his or her own backyard with the help of Baker and GRAS. “We encourage home composting because you don’t have to transfer it anywhere and it’s very sustainable,” Bakey says. “But with urban composting, there are a lot of things to watch for: odor, insects, vermin. We try to be very specific and careful, as well as very particular about the neighbors. You need to cover it well with straw, leaf or other organic matter. You don’t want to bother anybody with the smell. It’s kind of like baking a cake without a recipe.” Thanks to GRAS, residents, restaurants and community groups can get in on the eco-friendly action— one compost pile at a time. For more information about Green Restaurants Alliance Sacramento, visit grasacramento.org n

SPORTS FROM page 34 despite concerns about unabated sprawl and flood protection. Sound familiar? In one critical sense, the deal struck by Lukenbill was cheaper for city taxpayers than the production presently underway downtown. Lukenbill and Benvenuti built their own arenas (one temporary, one permanent) with their own money. In the 2015 model, the city must contribute $255 million to one new building and will own it. Ranadive will run the show and collect the proceeds. The modern partnership between the city and Ranadive is far more intimate than any municipal love affair sought by Lukenbill. He didn’t want the city’s money—just a green light to build. “All I ever wanted to do was make Sacramento a better place,” Lukenbill says. “I’d love for it to be a place where your kids and my kids want to stay, like we did. Too often these days, they leave for greener pastures.”

Things turned sour for Lukenbill because he wasn’t able to market his insight and creativity and love for Sacramento. He was the idea man. Benvenuti was the cash box. Lukenbill developed hundreds of acres around town. He created a beachhead downtown when he developed the Hyatt Regency, the city’s first big hotel in decades. But when he sold his Kings stock in 1994 and moved to other interests, like charter airlines, his financial rewards

were modest compared to Benvenuti, who was worth $600 million when he died in 2012. We touch on these things at lunch. But Lukenbill is more interested in whimsical topics worthy of a heroic visionary. What would it be like, he asks, to have lunch with Napoleon and Andrew Jackson? And of course he proceeds to answer. R.E. Graswich can be reached at reg@graswich.com n

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Flowers Every Day BRING THE OUTSIDE IN WITH BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS FROM THE GARDEN

greenery. More often, my bouquets are casual handfuls of whatever looks pretty. You can use vases, pitchers or jam jars. You can also float roses, camellias or other flowers in a glass bowl. To make flowers last, it’s best to harvest in the morning or evening. Choose blossoms that aren’t fully

BY ANITA CLEVENGER

open. Cut with a sharp knife or

GARDEN JABBER

pruning shears and plunge the stems immediately into water. Before

or many years, I worked in

arranging, cut the stems again under

windowless offices. Flowers

water so that cells don’t fill with air.

from my garden helped keep

Sunflowers and other flowers with

me sane. Sometimes I’d bring in a

milky sap in their stems don’t absorb

big bouquet, but usually I’d pick

water well unless you first plunge

just a little nosegay with a few

their cut ends into boiling water for

fragrant flowers to put on my desk.

15 seconds, followed immediately by

My goal was to have something

cold water. Scrub out the vase with

blooming in my garden that I could

soapy water and rinse it thoroughly

pick throughout the year. Nearly

to eliminate any bacteria that might

all of my time was spent inside, but

shorten the blossoms’ life. Remove

the flowers were a blessed reminder

any leaves that will be below the

of the world outside. I often didn’t get home from work or meetings until after dark, but there were flowers waiting for me in the house. I installed a shelf over the kitchen sink and kept little bouquets there and bigger ones on our dining tables. This followed the example set by my incredibly busy mother, who taught school and worked on the family farm but found time to put fresh posies in a milk glass bud vase on the kitchen table. Now that I am retired and outside every day, it’s less important to have flowers inside the house. Still, it makes me happy to look up from washing dishes and contemplate blossoms. It seems strange to sit down to eat without a floral centerpiece. It

ILP SEP n 15

adds a sense of peace and civility to have flowers nearby.

This fall, plant for winter and spring bloom. Stock, snapdragons,

What kinds of flowers are good

pansies and calendula will bloom for

for cutting? Roses are my favorites,

months. This is the best time to sow

for fragrance and long-lasting

seeds of sweet peas, California poppies

flowers. Anything that flowers is a

and other spring-flowering annuals

possibility, however. Many shrubs

and to plant perennials. To extend

have flowers that look nice in a vase.

the flowering period of spring bulbs,

Annuals such as cosmos, zinnias,

put some into pots and bring them

poppies and sunflowers, as well as

inside to force earlier bloom. You can

many perennials (including drought-

also force bloom on branches cut from

tolerant varieties), will keep on

flowering shrubs and trees such as

blooming longer if you cut off the

quince, cherry, forsythia and plum.

flowers before they set seed. Iris,

Some people make elaborate

dahlias, gladiolus, narcissus: The list

arrangements, but mine are

goes on and on. Even flowering vines

simple. Occasionally I start with a

like clematis have blossoms that can

foundation of beautiful foliage and

last a long time as cut flowers.

fill in with flowers. I grow a few plants, including ferns, just for their

water level to keep the water as clean as possible. Should you put an additive into the water? I don’t usually bother, but I do change the water every day or two. According to the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, you can prepare a simple solution by mixing regular lemon-lime soda with three parts of water, or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of sugar, in a quart of warm water. In either case, add 1/4 teaspoon of household bleach per quart to keep the solution clear. Their tests have shown that commercial flower preservatives are not equally effective. For roses, if you condition them in the refrigerator or a cool space overnight, the flowers will last

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longer. Remove any fruit from the refrigerator that emits ethylene gas

Rae Ann Whitten, DDS

(apples and pears, especially) because

to hold in moisture. Flowers are fleeting, no matter what. If you look at still-life paintings, you often see petals scattered on the table. I don’t mind that. It shows that the flowers are real, and that time passes on. When the arrangement begins to fade, there are fresh flowers outside, waiting to come in. Anita Clevenger is a UC Master Gardener. If you are interested in becoming a Sacramento County Master Gardener, applications will be available in September for training in 2016. Call 875-5338 or go to ucanr.edu/sites/sacmg for more information about training or answers to gardening questions. Fair Oaks Horticulture Center (11549 Fair Oaks Blvd.) will host its next Open Garden on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to noon. n

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lightly cover the flowers with plastic

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Golden Opportunity E-WASTE RECYCLING COMES OF AGE

BY DR. AMY ROGERS SCIENCE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

t e-waste collection sites, printers, TVs, mobile phones, VCRs, laptops and

video game consoles are piled high. There’s gold in them thar hills. And platinum, copper, cadmium, mercury … Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a type of trash that didn’t exist decades ago when the county’s Kiefer Landfill started operations. Now, e-waste is the fastest growing part of the

that are valuable if salvaged and

dumps that quickly became some of

Asset Recovery) contracted with

county’s waste stream, with more

recycled properly.

the most poisonous environments on

Sacramento County to manage the

the planet.

county’s e-waste, including CRTs. The

than 25 million pounds processed last

Because of toxic lead in the glass,

year, and an increase of 10 percent

in 2001 California banned landfill

expected this year. We own more

disposal of CRTs (cathode ray tubes),

California passed a bill (effective

his business and has assured that

electronic devices than ever, and

those fat TVs and computer monitors

2005) that required consumers to

millions of pounds of discarded TVs

we’re rejecting or upgrading them

that used to swallow your desk. The

pay an electronic waste recycling

and monitors were safely recycled

with astonishing haste.

only safe way to dispose of such

fee, collected by the retailer, when

close to home.

E-waste, which includes anything

In response to this travesty,

new consumer fee greatly expanded

screens is to disassemble them by

they purchase any device with a

that has a circuit board and a power

hand, piece by piece. Because this is

screen larger than 4 inches. This pot

was certified as an e-Steward by the

cord, is both a menace and an

costly, vast quantities of American

of money is used to pay California

Basel Action Network,” Gao says. The

opportunity. Menace, because circuit

e-waste have been shipped to

recyclers for environmentally

network is a global advocacy group

boards and screens contain toxic

developing nations by unscrupulous

responsible dismantling of those

dedicated to stopping the export of

heavy metals that, if dumped in a

exporters who turn a blind eye to the

devices here in the state.

hazardous waste from rich countries

landfill, can poison the surrounding

fate of these devices. In the slums of

land and water. Opportunity, because

China and Nigeria, desperately poor

Gao, this was a big opportunity.

At Gao’s Mather facility, devices

e-waste also contains precious metals,

people have plucked apart our e-waste

Gao had been recycling e-waste

with a screen larger than 4 inches,

aluminum and high-quality plastics

under appalling conditions, using

commercially since 2000. In 2003, his

improvised smelters in huge trash

company CEAR (California Electronic

ILP SEP n 15

For Sacramento engineer Paul

“I’m very proud that in 2010 CEAR

to poor ones.

SCIENCE page 42

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And those are capacitors. Also mostly

spins a bit like a washing machine,

aluminum. If you run them through

but without plastering the e-waste

a knife shredder, the oils inside

of (mercury-containing) fluorescent

For the past five years, CEAR has

against the sides. Instead, it hurls a

contaminate the rest of the material.

light bulb, still must be taken apart

operated a more efficient separator

pair of chains (fixed to the bottom) in

But in the centrifuge, they stay

by hand, a process subsidized by

affectionately called “the green

such a way that a tornadolike vortex

whole.”

the recycling fee. Dismantling all

machine.” This noisy green metal

is created. This forces the e-waste up

I asked DiLallo Sherrill about data

other “universal” e-waste is less

box the size of a two-story bedroom

and into the air, where pieces collide

security. If I turn in an old computer,

labor-intensive. According to Kristin

contains California’s only centrifugal

against each other hard enough to

what happens to the hard drive? “Any

DiLallo Sherrill of CEAR, most

chain shredder. The green machine

crack the material into its component

hard drives we get from the public,

e-waste recyclers use knife shredding:

uses 30 percent less energy than a

parts. This generates a lot of heat, so

we shred,” she said. Can’t some be

E-waste is cut up into pieces by giant

knife shredder and produces cleaner

the chamber’s walls are filled with

erased and reused? “In theory, but we

steel blades, followed by automated

output material, which has a higher

water for cooling. After the spin,

salvage drives only for certain specific

value when sold to recyclers.

broken fragments are separated by

customers’ contracts.”

But Gao envisioned a better way.

a giant magnet into ferrous (steel)

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Ultimately, materials are sold to

and nonferrous components. Then

recyclers who smelt the metals or

an eddy current device pulls out the

reuse the plastics, and nothing toxic

aluminum. Humans sort the rest,

goes to the landfill. To responsibly get

picking out wires and plastics. The

rid of your old electronics, never put

last one-third or so goes to a shredder.

them in the trash. Surrender them at

The resulting lower-purity bits are

a county drop-off center or directly to

separated by color and shape by an

CEAR, or donate them to an e-waste

optical sorting machine.

drive for charity.

On a conveyor belt running out of the green machine, I saw weirdly intact blocks of aluminum and metallic cylinders amid general brokenness. “Heat sinks,” DiLallo Sherrill said. “Almost pure aluminum.

Amy Rogers is a novelist, scientist, and educator. To invite her to speak at your book club or public event, email her at Amy@AmyRogers.com n

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Meet the Artists TOUR GIVES PATRONS A BEHIND-THE-SCENES, INTIMATE LOOK AT CREATIVITY

BY JESSICA LASKEY SHOPTALK

f you’ve ever seen a pretty painting or an eye-catching collage hanging on a gallery wall and wondered how the artist created such an interesting piece, the Sacramento Open Studios Tour on Sept. 12, 13, 19 and 20 is the answer to your artistic queries. The free, self-guided tour, now celebrating its 10th year, presents a unique opportunity for the public to meet and greet 125 emerging and established artists in their personal workspaces all across the county. “The tour is the only venue like it in the region,” says Shirley Hazlett, a watercolor artist and former board member of the tour’s founding body, the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento (CCAS). She has participated for nine of the past 10 years. “By coming on the tour, people get a better sense of the artists,” Hazlett says. “You get an expanded sense of who they are, how they work, and you get an opportunity to talk to them. It’s very different than just seeing art on exhibit.” This interpersonal interaction is just what the tour founders had in mind when they launched the program in 2006. Former CCAS board president Cheryl Holben and her fellow board members observed other communities having great success with events of this kind and immediately got to wondering why their own active artistic community couldn’t do the same. What originally began as the Capital Artists Studio Tour—a two-day event with a focus

ILP SEP n 15

Elaine Bowers of Land Park is one of the artists to be featured on the tour

on women artists and a strict scope of studios within 3 miles of CCAS’s former location on 19th Street—has since grown to be the largest nonjuried art event in the region. “The robust nature of Sacramento’s arts community dictated an expansion

of the tour in those early years to include all artists citywide with a much larger geographic reach,” explains Liv Moe, the founding executive director of Verge Center for the Arts, which merged with CCAS

and took over administration of the tour last year. “As the tour expanded, market research was done to look at tours in other cities throughout the West Coast to determine how Sacramento’s studio tour should evolve to meet regional trends. These investigations resulted in the development of the Sac Open Studios Guide (a 21-page handout complete with maps and artist info), along with the addition of special events, artist workshops and hands-on art demos.” Hazlett can speak to this evolution first-hand, citing “major changes” in the first few years that have only served to better the experience for all involved, thanks in part to Verge’s commitment to maintaining CCAS’s original vision. “I’m very thankful to Verge for continuing this tradition,” Hazlett says. “The tour keeps growing and expanding, but all within a similar trajectory. It’s a good thing for Sacramento. It’s part of the richness and the fabric of the city, and I look forward to it every fall.” Though painter Kathy Dana is relatively new to the tour (she’s now in her second year), she echoes Hazlett’s appreciation of the tour’s focus on one-on-one conversations and community camaraderie. “The experience is really like a pilgrimage from studio to studio,” Dana says. “It’s on a different level than showing work at a gallery. People see your art in the guide, they’re attracted to certain pieces and then they come to the studio knowing they’re going to be meeting the artist. That’s very different from wandering from gallery to gallery. You don’t

Painter Kathy Dana's East Sac studio will be open for visits during the tour

usually get that kind of intimate exposure.” Leslie Toms, an accomplished painter, is celebrating 35 years as an artist-in-residence in East Sacramento. Toms’ studio is at 1641 41st St. “As an artist I’ve long enjoyed the privilege of visiting other artists in their studios, so extending this to the public is very special,” Toms says. “It is truly a delight for me to welcome guests to my space during this event; especially when they bring children. “Open studios and private hosted art parties in cities from coast to coast are now considered very hip. And it’s always a surprise to see who drops in.” The first weekend, on Sept. 12 and 13, will feature studios west of Business 80 and Highway 99. The second weekend, Sept. 19 and 20, will feature studios to the east. In addition to facilitating these personal pilgrimages to artists’ sites over those four days, the tour offers a variety of special events to get locals excited about and involved in the arts that make up Sacramento’s unique creative community.

Events include a free reception at the newly opened Warehouse Artist Lofts (WAL) at 1108 R St. on Sept. 12, featuring food, drink and live performances by WAL residents as well as visits to their studios; a letterpress printing demonstration at Delta Workshop at 2589 21st St. on Sept. 13; the grand opening of Blick Art Materials at 905 Howe Ave. on Sept. 19, which will include a special art activity led by Verge teaching artists; and plenty of other interactive events during both weekends. So whether you’re in the market for a new piece to add to your art collection, you’re interested in finding out what the inside of a working studio really looks like, or you want to hobnob with fellow art aficionados in your area, the Sacramento Open Studios Tour is the place to be. Elaine Bowers' studio is at 2613 14th St., Shirley Hazlett’s studio is at 4311 Attawa Ave., and Kathy Dana’s studio is at 3810 McKinley Blvd. For more information on Sac Open Studios and to access the guide, visit vergeart.com n

ILP n INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

Bookstore Meditations ADVICE ON HOW TO BE A GOOD READER

bookstore, consider the following recommendations from someone who has probably spent more time in bookstores than in any other type of commercial establishment.

DON’T BE A ONE-SHELF READER BY KEVIN MIMS WRITING LIFE

’ve spent enough time in bookstores—as both an employee and a customer—to know that, in many ways, they are small representations of the world at large. They have sections on birth (where you’ll find titles such as “What To Expect When You’re Expecting”) and sections on death (“On Grief and Grieving,” “How to Prepare a Last Will and Testament”). They have sections devoted to food, health, money, crime, love, parenting, art, entertainment, travel, history, politics, philosophy, religion and much more. To get the most out of your visits to the

The one-shelf reader, like the person with tunnel vision, tends to focus on just a single thing obsessively. At the bookstore where I work, I have a customer who reads only cozy mystery novels with culinary themes. Most of these books have silly, punning titles: “Affairs of Steak,” “Chili Con Corpses,” “The Long Quiche Goodbye,” “Cloche and Dagger,” “Finger-Lickin’ Dead,” “Delicious and Suspicious,” “A Batter of Life and Death,” “Dead Men Don’t Get the Munchies”—you get the point. This customer is a kind and friendly woman. I always enjoy her visits. But it’s difficult to engage her in conversation for very long. She doesn’t seem to have many interests outside of cozy culinary mysteries. Generally, the more sections a regular

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customer of mine visits, the more interesting he or she is to talk to. If you want to be a well-rounded person, visit as many sections as you can in the bookstore of life. This doesn’t mean that you have to master every discipline known to mankind. There’s nothing wrong with preferring histories or mysteries or romances to all other kinds of books. But you shouldn’t let your favorite genre of book become your only genre of book, any more than you should let your favorite kind of food—say, pizza— become the only thing you ever eat. It’s nice to know what you like, but it’s also nice to remain open to new experiences.

READ A FEW PAGES FIRST Just as you wouldn’t buy a car without first test-driving it, you shouldn’t buy a book without first reading a few pages of it, even if it comes heavily recommended by Oprah Winfrey, President Obama and Pope Francis. People are as various as snowflakes. Just because everyone you know loves a particular title doesn’t meant that you’ll like it, too. You can save yourself a lot of wasted time and money by always reading a few pages of a book before deciding whether to buy it.

NEVER BE TOO OLD TO ENJOY CHILDISH THINGS I honestly believe that the children’s section of the bookstore contains more wisdom than can be found in the self-help section. We sell

children’s books about the importance of sharing with others (“The Boy Who Wouldn’t Share,” “The Rainbow Fish”), about resisting conformity (“The Story of Ferdinand”), about dealing with divorce (“My Family’s Changing,” “Where Am I Sleeping Tonight?” “My Bonus Mom”), about dealing with the death of a loved one (“Someone I Love Died,” “The Invisible String,” “Are You Sad, Little Bear?”), about LGBT issues (“This is My Family,” “Jack and Jim,” “The Different Dragon”) and a lot of other subjects that you might not expect to find in a section aimed at little children, some of whom are too young to read.

It’s nice to know what you like, but it’s also nice to remain open to new experiences. What’s more, if you were an enthusiastic reader as a child, then there’s no better way to reconnect with your childhood than by reacquainting yourself with the adventures of Babar or Madeline or Curious George. And if you find yourself feeling left out when you hear other people discussing “Where the Sidewalk Ends” or “The Lonely Doll” or some other classic children’s book that no one ever read to you when you were a child, remember that it’s never too late to fill the gaps in your cultural education. Just as you

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WWW.SACBALLET.ORG/SCHOOL 916-552-5800 EXT 100 don’t have to be a literary professor to purchase a copy of Ulysses, you don’t have to be a child—or even have any children of your own—to purchase a copy of “The Cat in the Hat” or “Miss Masham’s Repose.” Self-help authors frequently urge readers to get in touch with their inner child. There is no better place to do that than in a bookstore with a really good selection of children’s books.

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literature of the West, such as “True Grit,” “Lonesome Dove” or “Little Big Man.” I’m talking about cheap paperback originals from the 1950s and ’60s with titles like “The Law of The Gun,” “Ride Into Danger” and “Death Stalks Yellow Horse.” Man does not live by Proust alone. Indulge your passion for literary comfort food whenever you feel the need.

READ ASPIRATIONALLY This is the flip side of the previous entry. In the bookstore, as in life, you should dream big. If you’ve always wished you were the kind of person who could enjoy daunting literary classics such as “Moby Dick” or “War and Peace,” then go ahead and be that person. Book clerks don’t require you to pass any kind of test before purchasing a book. You don’t have to look professorial in order to purchase a copy of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” or Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow.” Don’t read only the books you think someone of your intellect

and educational level should read. Read the books that the person you want to be would read. Read books that challenge your preconceived notions about religion, politics, history, the environment, finance and other topics. It’s not enough to visit numerous sections of the bookstore. Every now and then, you should expand your mind by sampling the best of the best. Read things that you fear might be over your head. And don’t be ashamed if it turns out that

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916-925-2577 they are over your head. Someday, all those difficult words, sentences and ideas may start to make sense to you. You can apply this advice to other venues of life as well. It seems to me that those who read boldly are more likely to live boldly as well. Kevin Mims lives in Land Park. He can be reached at kevinmims@ sbcglobal.net n

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95822 SOUTH LAND PARK 7561 ASHWOOD WAY 941 SAGAMORE WAY 1125 BROWNWYK DR 5673 CAZADERO WAY 2200 AMANDA WAY 7045 CROMWELL WAY 7517 GEORGICA WAY 2111 ARLISS WAY 4129 23RD ST

$154,900 $300,500 $433,900 $130,000 $185,000 $220,000 $227,000 $140,000 $249,000

4211 MOSS DR 7556 24TH ST 2813 SWIFT WAY 2337 51ST AVE 5330 25TH ST 2711 50TH AVE 5616 BRADD WAY 2163 53RD AVE 2167 FLORIN RD 2230 51ST AVE 7429 29TH ST 2037 STOVER WAY 2509 48TH AVE 7541 LEMARSH 2123 AMANDA WAY 7555 SWEETFERN WAY 5684 JACKS LN 2510 FERNDALE AVE 139 QUASAR CIR 2733 TOY AVE 2025 65TH AVE 51 PULSAR CIR 1512 DICKSON ST 2670 CASA LINDA DR 2308 MATSON DR 4070 22ND ST 1908 63RD AVE 6741 DEMARET DR 5528 DANJAC CIR 7343 22ND ST 7591 SAN FELICE CIR 1501 ARVILLA DR 2416 57TH AVE 4650 CUSTIS AVE 5608 ROSEDALE WAY 7563 RED WILLOW 1457 FRUITRIDGE RD

95825 ARDEN

1653 UNIVERSITY AVE 1019 DORNAJO WAY #233 1718 WRIGHT ST 2537 EXETER SQUARE LN 2398 LARKSPUR LN #268 801 DUNBARTON CIR 943 FULTON AVE #516 2320 WYDA 246 HARTNELL PL 2280 HURLEY WAY #76 792 E WOODSIDE LN #11 2258 WOODSIDE LN #1 905 DUNBARTON CIR 1125 BELL ST #2 3161 VIA GRANDE 2312 DARWIN ST 2656 LA VIA WAY 315 E RANCH RD 544 HARTNELL 2430 PAVILIONS PL LN #311 945 COMMONS DR

95831 GREENHAVEN, SOUTH LAND PARK 7419 MOONCREST WAY 6860 CLAIBORNE 9 WATERTHRUSH CT 509 COOL WIND WAY

$620,000 $175,000 $166,000 $185,000 $187,500 $205,000 $234,500 $150,000 $195,000 $215,000 $232,000 $399,000 $131,500 $170,000 $184,000 $175,000 $250,000 $100,000 $126,000 $125,000 $227,000 $135,000 $193,000 $142,000 $170,000 $210,000 $225,000 $250,000 $400,000 $160,000 $227,000 $335,000 $135,000 $325,000 $350,000 $205,000 $240,000 $339,950 $108,000 $160,000 $230,000 $85,000 $365,000 $97,000 $213,000 $330,000 $89,000 $127,000 $181,000 $384,000 $107,000 $116,000 $235,000 $339,000 $360,000 $277,250 $480,000 $350,000

$345,000 $365,000 $525,000 $319,000

8 SHADY RIVER CIR $360,000 8009 LINDA ISLE LN $379,000 778 SKYLAKE WAY $405,000 688 RIVERLAKE WAY $600,000 1163 CEDAR TREE WAY $279,000 7516 DELTAWIND DR $313,000 7107 POCKET RD $315,000 950 TRESTLE GLEN $379,000 6340 SURFSIDE WAY $485,000 7330 GLORIA DR $262,000 7318 CAMINO DEL REY ST $315,000 72 SUNLIT CIR $327,500 10 SAND CT $366,500 741 RIVERCREST DR $479,000 34 MARINA GRANDE CT $325,000 7029 TREASURE WAY $395,000 6460 DRIFTWOOD ST $395,000 801 STILL BREEZE WAY $443,750 9 STILL SHORE CT $940,000 1216 EL ENCANTO WAY $382,000 105 BLUE WATER CIR $329,000 971 PARK RANCH WAY $410,000 7686 RIVER RANCH WAY $539,000 968 S BEACH DR $605,000 846 COBBLE COVE LN $895,000 338 BLACKBIRD LN $321,000 774 STILL BREEZE WAY $1,085,000 824 MARYMANUEL CIR $150,000 7 TUSCANY CT $295,000 22 WINDUBEY CIRCLE $323,750 7458 GRIGGS WAY $341,000 6661 S LAND PARK DR $420,000

95864 ARDEN

1324 GLADSTONE DR $220,000 1227 LA SIERRA DR $545,000 4096 CRESTA WAY $575,000 321 ROSS WAY $922,000 3425 WELLINGTON DR $195,000 3431 CLEMENS WAY $583,250 1030 CORONADO BLVD $635,000 1607 EL NIDO WAY $500,000 4305 SURITA STREET $585,000 3562 EL RICON WAY $795,000 810 LARCH LN $1,285,000 911 LOS MOLINOS WAY $575,000 3100 BARBERRY LN $775,000 2436 AVALON DR $183,000 2048 MARYAL DR $270,000 4304 VULCAN DR $275,000 2048 EASTERN AVE $289,000 4127 PUENTE WAY $700,000 2008 EASTERN AVE $215,000 1971 WINDEMERE LN $499,000 4317 BAYWOOD $385,000 3516 KERSEY LN $510,000 707 ESTATES DR $1,550,000 4204 AMERICAN RIVER DR $660,000 1509 GREENHILLS RD $190,000 610 LA SIERRA DRIVE $375,000 2991 JOSEPH AVE $1,100,000

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Ted@TedRussert.com ILP n INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

Change of Address MOVE BRINGS PEACEFUL CHANGE

retirees. But spiritually, I knew it was

community, which the 2010 U.S.

beneath the shrubs and a nest of

more than that.

census identified in 2010 as 70

rabbits scampered for their holes.

Homeownership in the ’burbs seemed more and more about the

SPIRIT MATTERS

y wife and I recently sold our McMansion and donated or sold much of

street noise intensified with delivery

front of our new, yet old and very

trucks and two passing freight

dated, mobile home. As we unloaded

decorated every wall. It was time for

trains. The social scenery changed

the contents, our movers expressed

a change.

drastically, too. Youths loitered

what we already knew: “This is very

outside a convenience store and

different,” they said, comparing our

to declare that we had more than

shirtless men gathered in a liquor

new home to our old one.

enough things. We said goodbye to all

store parking lot.

the stuff that weighed us down. We

Crime here is 167 percent above the

We’ve transitioned from a privileged

saw wisdom in the biblical admonition

national average. I now have a 1 in 13

community to a modest, working-class

from Hebrews 12:1 to “throw off

chance of becoming a crime victim.

community. There are no libraries, no golf courses or health food stores. The

that so easily entangles.”

nearest Starbucks is five miles away,

So, during Sacramento’s recordsetting 109-degree heat, we hired three men, two boys and a truck to squeeze the remains of our

wide from a friend at a third of our

2,800-square-feet of home furnishings

former house payment.

into a U-Haul. We drove north out of our manicured subdivision and then

who almost choked at the news,

literally across the proverbial tracks

asking why we’d made “such a

toward our new neighborhood.

It’s a question I couldn’t completely

We followed the moving van in

We passed over 10 speed bumps before finally parking our truck in front of our new, yet old and very dated, mobile home.

our cars and were soon caught up

answer, but I tried to explain how we

in a jam of older-model cars. Their

were preparing for an itinerant life of

drivers reflected the racially diverse

The whole gang is waiting for you.

Soon we arrived at the park, and I cars entered on my coattails. My sense of security faltered until I entered the kept homes. The new neighborhood was quiet enough to be a golf course. The only noises I heard were Shar-Peis and poodles yapping through open porch doors as retired residents told them

ILP SEP n 15

INSIDE PUBLICATIONS

aren’t fireworks. After the movers finished, my wife and I took a breather on our living room couch to look out our window into the shaded playground. We watched as a dad played catch with his son, a retired couple strolled by and our neighbor unloaded his work truck. feel at peace here.”

park, where I found an island of well-

sacpetsearch.com sspca.org happytails.org saccountyshelter.net

and the booms in the distant night

My wife turned to me and said, “I

punched the gate code. Three other

Brought to you by the animal lovers at

“Different” was putting it mildly.

everything that hinders and the sin

and rented a 40-year-old double-

whopping change.”

We passed over 10 speed bumps before finally parking our truck in

We had filled every room and

its contents. We banked the equity

This shocked our financial planner,

During our 15-minute convoy, the

obesity and audacity of materialism.

We drew a line in the fiscal sand

BY NORRIS BURKES

percent nonwhite.

to stop. Flags, wind chimes and bird feeders swayed from cleanly swept porches. A gaggle of geese crossed the road, a covey of quail scurried

“Me, too, sweetie.” I said. “I just hope our financial planner finds some of that peace.” Norris Burkes is a chaplain, syndicated columnist, national speaker and author of the book “Hero’s Highway,” about his experiences as a hospital chaplain in Iraq. He can be reached at ask@ TheChaplain.net. To download a free chapter from “Hero’s Highway,” go to thechaplain.net n

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Fresh From the Farm A LOCAL CHEF TRANSFORMS FARMER’S BOUNTY

BY GWEN SCHOEN FARM TO FORK

arly this past spring, I spent a morning visiting Singing Frog Farm in Pleasant Grove.

That day, tomato grower Milt Whaley was busy planting heirloom tomatoes and tending to the fragile new sprouts. He had high hopes for a bumper crop. I recently caught up with the farmer as he was making the rounds of local restaurants where chefs feature the best locally grown produce our region has to offer. He had just arrived at Masullo, a pizzeria on Riverside Boulevard in Land Park. He was pulling boxes loaded with Farmer Milt Whaley delivers tomatoes and peppers to Robert Masullo of Masullo Pizza

eggplant, okra and peppers out of his truck when I arrived. No tomatoes? “It wasn’t a great year for our

hand. “I’m not sure what you could

heirlooms,” said Whatley. “We are

do with them,” he said. “But they are

just now finishing up with the last

just so cute and sweet. They’d make a

of them. Things don’t always go

great garnish or sprinkled on a salad.

as planned when farming. We just

Next year, I’m going to plant a lot

switched gears and planted lots of

more.”

eggplant, squash and okra. And I’ve

Whaley carried his bounty into the

had fun trying out some Sweet Pea

restaurant, and we watched as chef

tomatoes. Each one is about the size

Robert Masullo picked through the

of a pea, and they grow in clusters on

box. The process was part of the farm-

long stems.” He held out a branch of

to-fork stage that consumers don’t

the tiny red buttons in the palm of his

often get to watch. He checked the

ILP SEP n 15

heft of the eggplant, asked about the

Sacramento region, which means it’s

hotness of the peppers and studied

seasonal and as fresh as possible. You

the purple okra.

won’t find corn or watermelon on the

Masullo has high standards. He

menu in January. This is the epitome

buys local almond wood. Each log is

of farm to fork: local, fresh and

split by hand so that it precisely fits

seasonal. It doesn’t get much better.

into the wood-burning oven. He uses

One of the things Masullo says he

only Frate Sole extra virgin olive

enjoys about buying from small local

oil, which is grown and produced on

growers such as Whaley is being able

a family estate in Woodland. The

to make special requests.

produce he uses is all grown in the

He rinsed off a handful of peppers, drizzled them with olive oil and

popped them into the oven close to

something new. I’m hoping the trend

the hot flames. When the peppers

just continues to grow.”

began to char, he slid the pan onto the

As I studied the menu, deciding

counter using a long wooden paddle

what to order for dinner, I noticed one

and gave them a taste. They were

of the pizzas on the menu was called

wonderful to my palate, but Masullo

Singing Frog, named after Whaley’s

thought they needed a little more

farm. It featured fresh mozzarella,

time in the field before harvesting.

heirloom tomatoes and basil, a perfect

Whaley made a promise to return the

choice for a late-summer dinner.

next week with more peppers, melons and Canada Crookneck squash. Then he packed the boxes back into his truck and headed off to Bella Bru Cafe and Biba, where he’d go through the whole process again with other top Sacramento chefs who specialize in farm-to-fork fare. Masullo says he loves how his customers have embraced the farmto-fork movement. “It’s unfortunate that people are just now excited about discovering locally grown, fresh, seasonal foods in restaurants,” he said. “That’s

In September, the Sacramento region gears up for a celebration of all things farm to fork. The festivities begin Sept. 10 and last through the 27th. Restaurants will feature daily specials and farm dinners showcasing locally produced food and beverages. The highlight of the event takes place Sept. 26 with the Farm-to-Fork Festival featuring food, wine and beer vendors along with farm displays, cooking demonstrations and live music on Capitol Mall. Admission is free. Last year, the festival attracted more than 40,000 people. For more information, go to farmtofork.com

something that should have been expected all along. Now it seems like

Gwen Schoen can be reached at gwen.schoen@aol.com n

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Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 8:00 PM

Donald Kendrick Conductor

Fremont Presbyterian Church 5770 Carlson Drive, Sacramento

Tickets: 916 536-9065 or SacramentoChoral.com

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Working Together MEMBERS POOL DONATIONS TO INCREASE THEIR GIVING POWER

BY TERRY KAUFMAN DOING GOOD

nspire Giving is the philanthropic arm of the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce. Over the past five years, it has given a total of $55,000 to local nonprofits. Members of the fund make a one-time minimum donation of $250, and the first 1,000 individuals contributing $1,000 are considered “founding members.” Members pool their donations to create an endowment for the benefit of worthy charities in the community. Each year, they decide collaboratively how the dividends of the endowment will be distributed to charitable organizations in the region. Members also volunteer their time and resources in support of the projects they choose. This year, Inspire Giving fund members selected 916 Ink as their grant recipient. The nonprofit’s mission is to empower students in the Sacramento region through creative writing, helping them to develop into strong readers and writers who lead a higher quality of life due to increased literacy skills and improved academics.

ILP SEP n 15

The Inspire Giving donation will support the 916 Ink Imaginarium, a creative writing space for children and teens in Sacramento. The Imaginarium will host book-making field trips for schoolchildren from second through fifth grade. Students will co-write two action-packed stories that will be published at the Imaginarium with the help of 916 Ink staff and trained volunteers. Each child will receive a journal to personalize with their name and stickers, as well as a copy of their published stories compiled in a book to take home to family and friends. The 916 Ink Imaginarium is located at the former site of Maple Elementary off Franklin Boulevard and Fruitridge Road in South Sacramento near the closed Campbell’s Soup Factory. For more information, go to 916ink.org

INSPIRED SHOPPING How would you like to earn money and support your favorite nonprofit every time you shop online? Through the DubLi Partner Program, participating nonprofits earn a commission on every online purchase made by their members and supporters at thousands of merchants worldwide. At the same time, their members earn cash back with every purchase. It works like this: When a nonprofit joins the program, it receives at no cost a branded website that serves as a portal to retailers around the world. Individuals who sign up to make online purchases through DubLi earn cash rebates on everything they purchase, from clothing to home products to travel and more. There

is no cost to join the program, and if they shop through their chosen nonprofit’s site, they are also contributing to its bottom line. “Once you sign up and get cash back, you realize how easy it is to shop online,” says Dr. Elisabeth Schleicher, who helps nonprofits benefit from the program. “You only buy what you need or want.” To learn more, go to shop-and-travel.com

SSVMSA GRANT RECIPIENTS The Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society Alliance recently announced its 2015 grant recipients. SSVMSA is a women’s organization with ties to the medical community. The grants, totaling $38,125, were given to nine local organizations: Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento provides care for children and youth who have nowhere else to turn. SSVMSA will provide funding for recurring disposable medical supplies and an automated external defibrillator for the medical clinic. Loaves and Fishes serves the homeless by providing meals and shelter, while addressing other issues of mental and physical illness. SSVMSA will fund the purchase of 100 sleeping bags for use at the shelter. The Elder and Health Law Clinic is a student-run clinic at University of Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. SSVMSA will help support the community educational outreach program for the upcoming year. Mercy Housing program operates affordable housing for families,

seniors and people with special needs who lack economic resources to access affordable housing. SSVMSA will fund a new project, Matters of Balance. UC Davis’ Camp Kesem is a student-run program that offers summer camp experience for children of families touched by cancer. SSVMSA will sponsor the teen backpacking trip. A Touch of Understanding’s threehour workshop gives students an opportunity to explore what it is like to have a disability. SSVMSA funds will support workshops and necessary materials for the 2015-2016 school year. Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School’s running program teaches students the value of physical fitness. SSVMSA will match funds that students raise to purchase running shoes and pay fees for locally organized races. Keaton Raphael Memorial supports children with cancer and their families by providing emotional, educational and financial support. SSVMSA will fund 100 food and/or transportation vouchers for KRM families. The Sacramento Life Center serves pregnant women and teens who do not know how to cope with the responsibility of being a new mother. SSVMSA will cover the cost of 100 baby baskets for low-income women and teens with a starter kit to help them weather the financial strain of having a child. Terry Kaufman can be reached at terry@1greatstory.com n

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National

rate”

pi “Talk like a

day!

FRIENDS OF SMAC PRESENT

ART JAM 2015 A modern pARTy

CREATE interactive art, INDULGE in artisanal food and libations, REVEL in extraordinary pop-up art installations, ENGAGE with distinctive art experiences, and PARTY into the night. All for the love of arts education Proceeds will help fund artists in the schools through Arts for Any Given Child. DATE: SATURDAY OCTOBER 3, 2015 TIME: 6:00 PM TO 10:00 PM TICKET: $100 PER PERSON | $175 FOR TWO LOCATION: 1401 C STREET | SACRAMENTO, CA COUNCILMEMBER ERIC GUERRA, DISTRICT 6

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Coming Soon: The Robocab SELF-DRIVING CARS COULD DISRUPT TRANSPORTATION AND MORE

BY WALT SEIFERT GETTING THERE

t’s fun to speculate. I’ve been thinking more and more about how the coming changes in automotive technology might transform the many facets of our lives that revolve around private automobiles. Cars haven’t really changed much functionally for 100 years. Sure, there have been mechanical upgrades, but to many consumers, the addition of cup holders has been the most significant innovation. Now, however, we’re on the cusp of something truly revolutionary. Selfdriving cars are going to change how we live in profound ways. Unlike the still-farfetched and impractical dreams of flying cars and personal jetpacks, the advent of self-driving cars appears to be an inevitable development. Major car manufacturers have already made incremental changes and are delving into new forms of automated driving. Deep-pocketed tech giants Google, Apple and upstart mobile app developer Uber are in the hunt as well. Their goal is bigger: to have completely autonomous vehicles, not just ones that can stay in a freeway lane or parallel park on demand. Last

ILP SEP n 15

year, Google asserted its autonomous technology was only five years away. Certainly, some drivers will be reluctant to turn over control to sensors and a computer. But at airports, society has long accepted driverless trams. The notion of elevators requiring operators is downright quaint. Today we simply push a button and trust Otis. Once autonomous cars are perfected and accepted, a next logical step after private, individual ownership of the cars is corporate or public “robocab” fleets. Robocabs would relieve individuals of the burdens of ownership. Fleet operation would allow highly efficient utilization of cars, which are costly capital assets, and create economies of scale. Currently, cars are not well used. Their size is often a compromise. Parking lots and garages take up a surprising amount of real estate: 31

percent of central business district land, according to one study. Cars are usually parked. They sit idle (but still depreciating) 90 to 95 percent of the time. Family cars are sized to meet a variety of uses. That means they have four empty seats for trips such as the typical single-occupant commute. Storing cars, in a home garage or in a parking lot, is a real, but often ignored, cost and waste of valuable space. A robocab will be able to respond to a call in minutes. Ordering and payment could be made with a cell phone app. Consumers will be able to tailor the vehicle to their specific trip need. One might request a onepassenger, highly fuel-efficient or electric car for a commute. You might want a car designed to get you there as cheaply as possible without any frills, a luxurious vehicle or a wellequipped office on wheels. A bigger,

multiseated robovan could take the family to a ballgame or to visit relatives. Need to haul something bulky? Just order up a robopickup for an occasional use. Even cheaper robobuses could replace carpools. Autonomous cars will give people higher disposable incomes and more time. They will create monumental changes in the marketplace for auto manufacturers, car dealers, insurance companies and transportation providers. They may cut congestion and affect how cities are designed, including whether there is onstreet parking and traffic signals. It’s likely they will spawn many other predictable and unpredictable changes. People will be able to read, text, work, watch movies or sleep while getting someplace. One prognosticator suggests people will routinely have sex in cars. Nothing new there really, but unlike drive-in

A new twist on Sacramento’s longest-running y grea at summer jazz series. On 3rd Thursdays, enjoy great ional music curated and hosted by Vivian Lee, regional jazz matriarch and aﬁcionado. Jazz Night makes makes m the Crocker the cool place to be this summer. Don’t’t r.. Don’ miss the last two concerts of the season! MEDIA SPONSORS

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escapades in the past, the cars will be in transit. Some consequences of limited car ownership are easier to envision. Large tracts of real estate will be opened up for development and reuse. Parking lots can become building sites or parks. Rental cars and cabs will likely disappear. Public transit will have to adapt to a formidable competitor or adopt the change itself. Millions of individual auto insurance policies will no longer be needed. Uber’s software app will give it a leg up in the market. In addition, not only will it be able to forgo giving benefits to its drivers; it can forgo the drivers themselves. Consumers won’t have to license, fuel, maintain, repair, wash or store cars. Fleet operators will take care of that. All car occupants will be passengers, not drivers, so no driver’s licenses or driver training will be needed. Kids, the elderly and the disabled, including the blind, will be able to get around without a chauffeur. Robocabs will operate most efficiently in urban areas, where cars can quickly be dispatched. Rural

residents may need to buy their own self-driving vehicle. Billions of dollars in crash damages will be prevented, millions of injuries avoided and thousands of lives saved as driving becomes safer due to the elimination of human error. No more crashes caused by drunks, distracted drivers or speeding. Walking and bicycling will be safer and more desirable. Entrepreneur and Tesla owner Elon Musk has suggested driving by humans might be banned as too dangerous. Another observer opined that a downside to fewer vehicle fatalities will be a shortage of donated organs from crash victims. Of course, there’s a lot yet to sort out. It will take decades to replace the current fleet with autonomous cars. There are regulatory and policy issues that must be addressed. And perhaps truly autonomous car technology is still a year away from being five years away. Nonetheless, the future is coming, and it’s fun to dream about how much getting there may change. Walt Seifert is a bicyclist, driver and transportation writer. He can be reached at bikeguy@surewest.net n

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Beyond Childhood THIS ARTIST LOOKS AT THE DARK SIDE OF GROWING UP

BY DEBRA BELT

lurks or something is about to

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

happen. The figures are usually solemn and serious. “I feel like there

is a sense of loss and longing in usan Silvester opens the door

their expressions, a tension between

to her second-floor studio at

innocence and anxiety,” she says.

Verge Center for the Arts and

The works tap into the difficult

reveals a space full of multimedia

nature of a child making his or her

works depicting forests, mysterious

way in an uncertain world. But

flowers and innocent figures. It’s a

they also reach back to a time when

world where sci-fi, natural history,

Silvester says she clearly visualized

fairy tales and the decorative arts

beauty as a 5-year-old sitting under

meet and emotional themes play

the Brooklyn Bridge. “It was summer

out in subtle colors and complex

and the sun was going down,” she

compositions.

recalls. “My parents were there.

“I try to create a psychological

There was a sense of the earth and

rather than a literal interpretation in

the bridge. It was perfect. I knew then

my work,” she says. Memory, loss and

I would be an artist.”

nostalgia merge in her imagery and

The daughter of an elementary

cast reflections of joy, but there is a

schoolteacher and a homemaker,

darker reality, too.

Silvester says her mom encouraged

These themes figure in Silvester’s

her and her sister to try creative

paintings, drawings, prints, computer

endeavors such as decoupage,

renderings and sculptures. In a recent

knitting and sewing. “We were always

leap to public art, she translated

making things,” she says. “One of my

her signature style onto large-scale

playmates even asked me: ‘Can’t we

surfaces such as a 22-foot-long

stop making things and just play?’”

dumpster and a downtown utility

Silvester’s creative ambitions set

box. But she’s not stopping there.

her on a course leading from art

“I don’t want to be known only as

history studies at the State University

the dumpster lady,” she jokes while

of New York at Buffalo to a BFA

showing her work.

from Long Island University and a

While her surfaces range

master’s in painting and digital art

from paint-primed steel to wax-

from Sacramento State. In between,

coated canvas, Silvester’s style remains consistent and her images

Susan Silvester in her studio

recognizable. Animal references convey a dreamlike quality, and

“I am just looking to touch upon

realizing a sense of play, a balance, a

symbolic rabbits are ever present.

some emotion and get a reaction from

sense of calm. “I would like the worlds

“I am drawn to using rabbits in

the viewer,” says Silvester. Her work

I create to be safe, but they can be

particular as they are a symbol

is about that precarious time between

scary.”

of rebirth, new beginnings and

adolescence and adulthood, a time

innocence. Plus they have an

of uncertainty. It’s about reliving

in her work, there is a sense that

interesting form,” she points out.

that time and trying to make it right,

something sinister, some danger,

ILP SEP n 15

Regarding the darker elements

she spent 15 years as a freelancer tackling a broad swath of work including fabricating art pieces for artists Robert Rauschenberg and Tom Wesselman. During her gig with Rauschenberg, Silvester worked with a partner and created four fiberglass resin bicycles with fabricated geese attached to each set of handlebars. For Wesselman, they constructed a

large lightbox, kind of like the signs

Gallery, who especially responded to

seen at gas stations.

her felted wool sculptures.

Commercial work led her to diverse

“Susan is wonderful at using

jobs such sculpting and painting

her background in model and toy

Pillsbury Doughboy heads, creating

fabrication and her fascination with

sculpted animals for “Pee-wee’s

childhood to create these almost

Playhouse” and supervising the set

magical sculptures,” Nelson says.

creation of the “Back to the Future”

“They are felted, which gives them

ride for Universal Studios. She

an inviting, tactile appearance that

worked as a digital designer on one of

you just want to hug. Yet Susan also

first PC computer games, called “Rise

shows that growth and childhood

of the Triad.”

is not all peachy. She’s got a lot of

Her work took her from New York

dark in her paintings, prints and

to Dallas and, ultimately, Sacramento

sculptures, which gives them a

where she had the chance to leave

slightly surreal touch.”

commercial work behind and focus on

Silvester says she feels like her

being a painter. Here she tapped into

work is never absolutely done.

the fertile creative culture and studied

She borrows a quote from writer

with Mick Sheldon and Jim Albertson

Paul Gardner: “A painting is never

at American River College and Rachel

finished. It simply stops in interesting

Clarke at Sacramento State. Silvester

places.”

began showing in local galleries and caught the attention of owners such as Natalie Nelson at Pence Art

For more information, go to susansilvester.com n

ILP n INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

Cover Story SHOW SPOTLIGHTS 20 YEARS OF INSIDE PUBLICATIONS’ SIGNATURE FRONT-PAGE ART

BY JESSICA LASKEY RIVER CITY PREVIEWS

f you’re a reader of Inside Publications (considering you’re reading this paragraph, I’m assuming you are), you’ll know that each edition of the paper is graced with stunning cover art every month. To celebrate Inside’s 20th anniversary, and to showcase the beautiful work that’s made our covers so eye-catching through the years, don’t miss a special art show at 33rd Street Bistro featuring the original pieces that have been featured on our covers. “Matt and Fred Haines opened their first bistro the same year we started publishing,” says Inside publisher Cecily Hastings. “We’ve been friends ever since, so it was natural that we’d partner with them for this special show.” More than 40 original paintings and drawings will be on display by more than 35 local artists, along with a framed print of the cover from the month the piece first appeared. Some are on loan from the artists or collectors, but many paintings are still available for purchase, so if you have a favorite piece of cover art, don’t wait too long to snap it up.

ILP SEP n 15

Has your tyke been bitten by the ballet bug? Don’t miss the chance for her or him to dance in Sacramento’s favorite Christmastime classic, Sacramento Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”

Hoping to meet some of the artists in person? Swing by the Second Saturday artists reception from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, or stop by the bistro’s special events room anytime to view the show. 33rd Street Bistro is at 3301 Folsom Blvd.

TINY DANCERS Has your tyke been bitten by the ballet bug? Don’t miss the chance for her or him to dance in Sacramento’s favorite Christmastime

classic, Sacramento Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.” Auditions for the children’s cast will be held on Sept. 9, 12 and 13 at the ballet’s studios on K Street. “We normally have approximately 800 local children throughout the community auditioning over a single weekend for 500 roles,” says the ballet’s co-artistic director, Ron Cunningham. “Some come from as far as Yuba City, Lake Tahoe, Stockton and Fairfield. With kids lined up

around the block from morning to night, it is quite a major operation.” Some things to keep in mind if your kid wants in on the act: Children must be at least 6 years old by Dec. 1, 2015, to participate. They may audition for more than one role if they meet the height and skill requirements. However, once they are cast in a part, they may not audition for a second role. Rehearsals for some roles may begin as early as Sept. 13. Dancers selected to dance in

“The Nutcracker” will be required to attend all pertinent rehearsals. For specific audition requirements and appointments, go to sacballet.org The Sacramento Ballet studios are at 1631 K St.

OPEN SESAME For a chance to see the studios of Sacramento’s coolest creatives, don’t miss the Sacramento Open Studios Tour on Sept. 12, 13, 19 and 20. The free, self-guided tour, now celebrating its 10th year, presents a unique opportunity for the public to meet and greet 125 emerging and established artists in their personal workspaces all across Sacramento County. What was originally founded by the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento (CCAS) in 2006 as the Capital Artists Studio Tour—a twoday event with a focus on women artists and a strict scope of studios within 3 miles of CCAS’s former location on 19th Street—has since grown to be the largest non-juried art event in the region. The event is now run by Verge Center for the Arts, which merged with CCAS and took over the tour last year. The first weekend will feature studios west of Business 80 and Highway 99, while on Sept. 19 and 20 studios to the east will be spotlighted. For more information on the Sacramento Open Studios Tour and to access the free, 21-page guide complete with interactive maps, go to vergeart.com

will go to the programs and services offered by the Sacramento SPCA. For ticket and more information, call 504-2802, email events@sspca.org or go to sspca.org

HISTORY AT HOME You may not know that when you drive through the area bounded by W, R, 10th and 19th streets, you are driving through an area with a rich, untapped history called Richmond Grove. Discover everything that this unique neighborhood has to offer at the 40th Annual Historic Home Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20. The tour is sponsored by Preservation Sacramento (formerly the Sacramento Old City Association), a citywide nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Sacramento’s irreplaceable historic places and encouraging quality urban design through advocacy, outreach and activism. Though it is Richmond Grove’s first time on the tour, the bustling area boasts Arts & Crafts and Art Deco architecture, a Buddhist temple, a Portuguese Catholic church and the vibrant R Street corridor, a hip hangout chock-ablock with restaurants, art galleries, entertainment venues and artists’ lofts. The tour costs $30 on the day of the event or $25 in advance via Brown Paper Tickets. Buy your tickets now at http://2015hometour. brownpapertickets.com

If you're interested in older homes, dont miss the 40th Annual Historic Home Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20

For an even better deal, why not become a docent? Docents will work a two-hour shift in one of the tour homes and pay only $10 for a ticket. Contact volunteer coordinator Vickie Valine to sign up at 442-1160 or vhvaline@cwo.com The tour starts on the lot at the southeastern corner of 14th and R streets, which will also host a free street fair in conjunction with the tour. The fair will include appearances by local contractors and artisans specializing in historic home rehabilitation and remodeling; businesses, artists and craftspeople displaying their wares; and nonprofit, advocacy and history organizations. For more information, go to preservationsacramento.org

PONY UP Where else could you get the excitement of a polo exhibition while also contributing to a worthy cause? Nowhere but at the Lasher Polo Classic from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, benefitting the Sacramento SPCA. This elegant event, set at the beautiful Chamberlain Ranch in Wilton, features an exhibition polo match—with all the regalia reminiscent of royal polo events—as well as food by chef Matt Wolston, fine wines, a champagne divot stomp, a parade of hats, and more. Proceeds

The Lasher Polo Classic takes place from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12 and benefits the Sacramento SPCA

MUSIC AND MAYHEM There’s a lot going on at the Crocker Art Museum this month, from musical guests to the Crocker’s own comic book convention. Don’t miss out! First up is Art Mix Crocker-Con from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10. Bust out your cape and tights to meet local comic book artists and writers, try out new comics and board games, shake hands with a Storm Trooper from the 501st Legion, compete in the costume contest, get your groove on to beats from the Sleeprockers, or test your skills in a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament. Hook & Stone will be onsite recording live podcasts and Big Brother, Empire Comics and Comics & Collectibles will host a reading lounge where you can kick back and peruse your favorite reading material. The event is free for museum members, free with general admission for nonmembers and free for cosplayers, so don’t forget your costume! Enjoy food and drink discounts during happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. and $5 drink specials all evening. If classical music helps you keep your cool, be sure to lend an ear to the Classical Concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 13, featuring Konstantin Soukhovetski on piano. PREVIEWS page 62

ILP n INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

Enjoy the Lazy Days of Summer Creating spaces for

gatherings & entertaining with beauty and comfort

“For a solid, honest contractor, I highly recommend Impact Builders. They are a rare find for sure!!!” - R. Hammond

Innovative Designs and Remodels Decks, Porches, Kitchens & Bathrooms

Call Impact Builders for your FREE estimate today! PREVIEWS FROM page 61 The Julliard graduate and multiaward-winning pianist will explore the themes of classicism in the ongoing David Ligare exhibition as well as offer his own transcriptions of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” and Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème.” Tickets are $6 for museum members; $10 for students, youths and Capital Public Radio members; and $12 for nonmembers. For tickets, call 8081182.

This exhibition features 100 works by the Canelos Quichuaspeaking people of eastern Ecuador, and represents one of the first of its kind in an art museum. Turn up the heat on Thursday, Sept. 17 with the Crocker’s final Jazz Night of the season featuring Carlos McCoy’s High Octane Latin Band. Combining the power and excitement of dance rhythms with the soul and complexity of jazz, the band will present a mesmerizing Main Stage show at 6:30 p.m., preceded by a performance of the Grant Union High School Sextet on the Cafe Stage at 5:15 p.m. Tickets are $7 for museum

ILP SEP n 15

members; $12 for Capital Public Radio members, students and youths; and $14 for nonmembers. While you’re on the premises, don’t forget to check out the Crocker’s newest exhibition, “Rain Forest Visions: Amazonian Ceramics from Ecuador, The Melza and Ted Barr Collection,” on display from Sept. 19 through Feb. 14, 2016. This exhibition features 100 works by the Canelos Quichua-speaking people of eastern Ecuador, and represents one of the first of its kind in an art museum. The beautiful bowls, vessels and sculptures that make up this collection hail from a geographic area ranging from the Andean foothills through the Upper Amazonian regions. For more information on all Crocker events, call 808-1182 or go to crockerartmuseum.org The Crocker Art Museum is at 216 O St.

TALES FOR TAILS Take in a stunning storytelling session while raising life-changing funds for the local chapter of Heifer International at “Heifer Tails: Uplifting Stories from Around the World” from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20, at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Storytellers will include Mary McGrath telling “The Palace Monkey,” a story from India; Ray Tatar telling “Anansi Brings Stories to the World,” a story from Africa; Diana Zuniga telling “The Aztec Legend of the Birds,” a story from Mexico; and Nancy Griffith telling “The Camel,” a story from Lebanon.

ImpactBuilders.org

916-826-1849

License No. 938975

Don't miss the auction at Withrell's auction house gallery on Sept. 26. This early painting by Wayne Thiebaud is one of the items featured.

The afternoon will also include live musical interludes between each story that are sure to delight listeners of all ages. All proceeds from the event will go to benefit Heifer International’s Nepal relief fund. Heifer International is a worldwide organization whose mission is to end hunger and poverty by strategically placing farm animals in specific communities. Each family who receives an animal passes on the first female offspring to another needy family, along with the training in its care. As the gift is passed along, entire communities are lifted out of poverty and are able to use their own resources to build community facilities such as hospitals and schools.

This storytelling session will focus on helping Heifer International communities in Nepal that were drastically affected by the 7.0-plus magnitude earthquakes on April 25 and May 12 of this year. All proceeds from this event will benefit those communities, both for immediate relief and long-term recovery. Tickets are $10 general, $5 for children and $20 for families. For tickets and more information, go to heifertails.eventbrite.com or contact Linda Eisenman at 838-4338. Westminster Presbyterian Church is at 1300 N St.

IMPRESSIVE FEET Congratulations are in order for Fleet Feet Sports Sacramento, which

recently was awarded a $1,000 grant by its parent franchisor, Fleet Feet Inc., for its continued commitment to the ongoing Project Fit program. Project Fit is a free, after-school running program for elementary school-age children that provides additional financial support to underserved schools through coaching stipends and race fees. Since its inception in 2002, Project Fit has served more than 10,000 students in four states. The “FITlanthropy” Grant that Fleet Feet Sacramento recently received (for the third time and counting!) was established to help fund the important work Fleet Feet Sports stores do to support the needs of their local communities. Hoping to get in on some of the dogooding action? Simply by shopping, you can help the Sacramento store raise funds for the Front Street Animal Shelter through the Power of Running campaign. On weekends for the next several weeks, Fleet Feet Sacramento will collect a portion of the proceeds from select products and donate the funds to help keep stray animals off the streets through the tireless efforts of the Front Street Animal Shelter. Eligible products are as follows: on Sept. 5 and 6, Asics Gel Kayano 21 and 22 shoes; on Sept. 12 and 13, all Addaday Rollers; on Sept. 19 and 20, all CEP compression products; and on Sept. 26 and 27, all Nathan Visibility products will send funds to the shelter. For more information, go to fleetfeetsacramento.com Fleet Feet Sports is at 2311 J St.

FASCINATING FINDS If you’re a collector, you’re not going to want to miss one of the top three auctions in the area from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Witherell’s auction house gallery in midtown. Its catalog boasts some fascinating finds, including a cream-colored 1964 230 SL Mercedes, a framed early watercolor by legendary Sacramentoborn artist Wayne Thiebaud, a Hermann Herzog landscape painting discovered in a Woodland thrift store, a Three Graces chandelier,

serving over 1,000 young authors in the Sacramento region. For more information, visit 916ink.org Meet Gilmore in person at the artist’s reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, or at the Second Saturday Art Walk from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 12. For more information, call 333-3493 or go to gallery2110.com

HEAVY METAL

From Sept. 12 through Oct. 10, see what the talented trio of Taylor Gutermute, Vinay Sharma and Zbigniew Kozikowski have cooked up at their group show, “Paper Ink Metal,” at ARTHOUSE on R

and a pair of 19th century gold scales accompanied by a note that reads, “Yankee Jim, the namesake of the famous town of Yankee Jim near Foresthill, used these scales in his business with the early miners.” For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 4466490 or go to witherells.com Witherell’s gallery is at 300 20th St.

SENSES OF SELF See the beautiful images that abound when artist Laurelin Gilmore explores her emotions surrounding identity in her solo show on display at Gallery 2110 this month. Gilmore, a life-long artist, began to realize that painting people with hooves, wings, scales and horns were so attractive to her artist’s eye because they were expressions of her own experience. As a woman of blended ethnicities living with Vitiligo, a skin condition that shows up as patches of colorless skin, the duality of fence sitters, go-betweens

and people with a foot in two different worlds captivates her imagination. Through her art, Gilmore has been able to move the conversation about Vitiligo to the forefront and look at the reality of living with the condition without the mask of metaphor. As part of Gallery 2110’s mission to support nonprofit organizations, the gallery and Gilmore will be donating a percentage of all sales to “916ink,” a local nonprofit dedicated to promoting youth literacy in Sacramento through creative writing workshops. They have published more than 30 books,

From Sept. 12 through Oct. 10, see what the talented trio of Taylor Gutermute, Vinay Sharma and Zbigniew Kozikowski have cooked up at their group show, “Paper Ink Metal,” at ARTHOUSE on R. All of the works on display are based in the monotype printmaking and drypoint etching processes, but the results are anything but industrial. Gutermute and Sharma worked as a team to create large, wallmounted installation pieces that meld together hard metal surfaces with both monochromatic and brightly colored monotypes. Kozikowski’s monotypes reflect his use of abstract forms and the vivacious beauty of nature, light and color that he usually captures on canvas. Hobnob with all three artists at the Second Saturday opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 12. For more information, call 455-4988 or go to arthouseonr.com ARTHOUSE on R is at 1021 R St. Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Please email items for consideration by the first of the month, at least one month in advance of the event n

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Art Preview

GALLERY ART SHOWS IN SEPTEMBER

WASH Inc. Annual Open Watercolor Exhibition“Go With The Flow 2015” runs through September 26 at the Sacramento Fine Arst Center. Shown above: 2014 Best of Show, “Did Someone Say Carrot” by Ronnie Rector. Sacramento Fine Arts Center, 5330B Gibbons Drive

Gallery 1855 presents “Life Histories” by artist Christopher Dewees. “Life Histories” provides the viewer a unique experience blending science, history and the ancient art form of gyotaku. The show runs through September 30. Shown above: A gyotaku by Christopher Dewees. Gallery 1855 is at 820 Pole Line Road in Davis. Visit davisgallery.wordpress.com

Artspace 1616 presents works by Robert Jean Ray, Lou Bermingham, Vera Ximenes, Phillip Kunz, Linda Welch and sculpture by Roy Tatman. Shown right: “Surge” oil on canvas by Vera Ximenes. Shown below: “Royal Seed” by Lou Bermingham. The show runs Sept. 9 through Nov. 1. Artspace is at 1616 Del Paso Blvd.

Helen Jones Gallery presents bronze sculptures by Jay Bishop. The show runs Sept. 4 through Oct. 3 with a sculpting demonstration by the artist on Sat., Sept.12. Shown above: “Hope,” bronze, by Jay Bishop. Helen Jones Gallery is in Arden Town Center, 588 La Sierra Drive. helenjonesgallery.com

ILP SEP n 15

HAVE “INSIDE,” WILL TRAVEL 1. Robert & Kathy Sanchez at Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Israel 2. Megan and Toney Sebra at Mae Sa Elephant Camp, Mae Rim District, Chiang Mai, Thailand 3. Barbera Bass's husband, Gary Marshall, and father, Jack Bass, in Jack's hometown or New York to celebrate his 90th birthday 4. John and Thao Franks in front of downtown Saigon, Vietnam 5. The Sacramento Friendship Force with their hosts in Australia's Blue Mountains 6. Kris and Erika Frank at Casa Cosmos in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Take a picture with Inside Publications and e-mail a high-resolution copy to travel@insidepublications.com. Due to volume of submissions, we cannot guarantee all photos will be printed or posted. Can’t get enough of Have Inside, Will Travel? Find more photos on Instagram: InsidePublications

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Paragary’s Reimagined MIDTOWN STAPLE REOPENS AFTER EXTENSIVE REMODEL

BY GREG SABIN RESTAURANT INSIDER

aragary Restaurant Group is one of the foundational food presences in the Capital region. Randy Paragary and his myriad associates have carved out a rather large place for themselves throughout the area, with upscale restaurants, quick-casual cafes and bars of all stripes. Among the stable of eateries and drinkeries under the Paragary umbrella are Cafe Bernardo, Centro Cocina Mexicana, Esquire Grill, Monkey Bar, R15 and Hock Farm Craft & Provisions. But the flagship restaurant of the group has always been the Midtown restaurant Paragary’s Bar & Oven, known to most locals as simply Paragary’s. Open since 1983, Paragary’s has been known for California-style cuisine and one of the best outdoor dining spaces in Sacramento. When it closed for an extensive remodel in February of last year, loyal patrons and casual observers weren’t sure what to expect. Would the menu be completely different? Would the atmosphere be something progressive and minimal? Would the outdoor patio lose its luster? Turns out that the answer to each is “no.” Instead of going for a more modern menu and forward-looking design concept, the newly named Paragary’s Midtown Bistro went in the other direction: traditional. Traditional French, to be precise. The remodeled Paragary’s looks, feels and tastes like a French brasserie. Black and white dominate the space: stark white walls, black

ILP SEP n 15

The remodeled Paragary’s looks, feels and tastes like a French brasserie with crisp black and white design features

cane-back chairs, white bulbs in black sconces, black chalkboard elegantly scripted with white chalk. It’s a loud, bright space, not exactly cozy, but not uncomfortable. The patio, always a favorite of local diners, hasn’t changed as radically as the indoor space. The effort to capture that Parisian feel throughout the restaurant falls away as you go outdoors. The patio still has its man-sized fireplace and waterfalls. The tree canopy shades the tables and makes the patio a destination on all but summer’s hottest days. Put the two spaces, indoor and outdoor, together and you have a busy, urban French eatery with a lush California backyard. The menu, too, has one foot in the traditional French world and one in California. New to the menu are a passel of French favorites. Basic

dishes on the lunch menu include that iconic sandwich, the croque monsieur, as well as wood-fired mussels, chicken liver mousse, trout almondine and steak frites. All these dishes are handled with flair and with an emphasis on plating. The actual preparations are classic and without any newfangled additions. Other classics get a little bit of an update, such as the salad nicoise, which features seared ahi tuna and a garlic dressing that would make a vampire stay away for weeks. Then there are the crab beignets, a decadent take on the traditional French doughnut, speckled with crabmeat and served with a piquillo pepper aioli. Despite this new image as an outpost for French cuisine, Paragary’s still maintains some of

its old favorites. Remaining on the menu is the shaved mushroom salad. It remains basically unchanged with shaved mushrooms topped with Jarlsberg, parsley and lemon vinaigrette. Also remaining on the menu are Paragary’s signature wood-fired pizzas. It doesn’t quite jive with the French theme, but it feels like a necessary holdover from the restaurant’s previous iteration. On the dinner menu there are some standout dishes. Chief among them is the chicken ballotine, a rolled and prosciutto-stuffed chicken breast, served alongside summer corn and a luscious jus. It’s a beautifully presented and wonderfully flavorful dish. The summer flavors meld perfectly with the chicken and salty prosciutto. I would hope that the kitchen keeps the dish on the menu and adapts it to the seasons.

INSIDE’S

Midtown

MIDTOWN

Jack’s Urban Eats

1800 L St. 447-9440

L D $ Full Bar Made-to-order comfort food in a casual setting • Jacksurbaneats.com

1230 20th St. 444-0307

Aioli Bodega Espanola L D $$ Full Bar Patio Andalusian cuisine served in a casual European atmosphere

2115 J St. 442-4388

Biba Ristorante

2801 Capitol Ave. 455-2422 L D $$$ Full Bar Upscale Northern Italian

cuisine served a la carte • Biba-restaurant.com

1801 L St. 446-3757

L D $$ Wine/Beer A counter service restaurant with high-quality chicken, char-roasted beef, salmon, and entrée salads

Moxie

B L D $-$$ Wine/Beer Patio Casual California cuisine with counter service

Mulvaney’s Building & Loan

Centro Cocina Mexicana

L D Full Bar $$$ Modern American cuisine in an upscale historic setting

2730 J St. 442-2552

1215 19th St. 441-6022

L D $$ Full Bar Patio Regional Mexican cooking served in a casual atmosphere • Paragarys.com

Old Soul Co.

Chicago Fire

B L D $ No table service at this coffee roaster and bakery, also serving creative artisanal sandwiches

D $$ Full Bar Chicago-style pizza, salads wings served in a family-friendly atmosphere • Chicagofirerestaurant.com

Paesano’s Pizzeria

2416 J St. 443-0440

1716 L St. 443-7685

1806 Capitol Ave. 447-8646

L D $$ Gourmet pizza, pasta, salads in casual setting • Paesanos.biz

Crepeville

1730 L St. 444-1100

B L D $-$$ Wine/Beer Outdoor Dining Crepes, omelets, salads, soups and sandwiches served in a casual setting

Paragary’s Midtown Bistro is at 1401 28th St.; 457-5737; paragarys.com Greg Sabin can be reached at gregsabin@hotmail.com n

L D Full Bar $$-$$$ Patio Mediterranean cuisine in a casual, chic atmosphere • Luccarestaurant.com

D $$-$$$ Eclectic menu in a boutique neighborhood setting

2726 Capitol Ave. 443-1180 1431 R St. 930-9191

reservations are suggested almost any day or night. So the Paragary’s reboot sure seems to be a winner with diners flocking to see the dramatic changes to the interior and patio and try the new menu. The choice to rebrand as a (mostly) French eatery is a very interesting choice, but those who loved the old Paragary’s will still find familiar favorites and the high quality they’ve come to expect from Paragary Restaurant Group.

Lucca Restaurant & Bar

2028 H St. 443-7585

Café Bernardo

The diver scallops make a nice plate as well. Also using seasonal corn, and served with a slightly sweet vanilla sauce, it’s a picture on the plate and a total treat for the senses. There are a couple misses on the menu as well, but no doubt they'll quickly work out any miscues. An example is the poached lobster salad, which pairs a rather diminutive serving of lobster and indulgently rich burrata cheese. The richness of the burrata tended to overpower the lobster. In the first few months after Paragary’s reopened, local diners are filling up the dining room day and night. It can be tough to find a seat at the bar on a weekday evening, and

D Full Bar $$ Middle Eastern cuisine in a Moroccan setting

1615 J St. 669-5300

Buckhorn Grill

Your meal is served!

Kasbah Lounge

Ernesto’s Mexican Food 1901 16th St. 441-5850

B L D $-$$ Full Bar Outdoor Dining Fresh Mexican food served in an upscale, yet familyfriendly setting • Ernestosmexicanfood.com

Paragary’s Bar & Oven 1401 28th St. 457-5737

D $$ Full Bar Outdoor Patio California cuisine with an Italian touch • Paragarys.com

Suzie Burger

29th and P Sts. 455-3300

L D $ Classic burgers, cheesesteaks, shakes, chili dogs, and other tasty treats • suzieburger.com

58 Degrees & Holding Co.

The Streets of London Pub

L D $$$ Wine/Beer California cuisine served in a chic, upscale setting • 58degrees.com

L D $ Wine/Beer English Pub fare in an authentic casual atmosphere, 17 beers on tap

1217 18th St. 442-5858

Fox & Goose Public House

1804 J St. 498-1388

Tapa The World

1001 R St. 443-8825

B L D $-$$ Wine/Beer English Pub favorites in an historic setting • Foxandgoose.com

Harlow’s Restaurant 2708 J Street 441-4693

L D $$ Full Bar Modern Italian/California cuisine with Asian inspirations • Harlows.com

Italian Importing Company

2115 J St. 442-4353

L D $-$$ Wine/Beer/Sangria Spanish/world cuisine in a casual authentic atmosphere, live flamenco music - tapathewworld.com

Thai Basil Café

2431 J St. 442-7690

L D $-$$ Wine/Beer Patio Housemade curries among their authentic Thai specialties Thaibasilrestaurant.com

1827 J Street 442-6678

B L $ Italian food in a casual grocery setting

ILP n INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

ARNHA and Sacramento Water Forum present

2015 NatureFest logo by Olivia T., age 10

Sunday, October 4 10am to 3pm

TASTING ROOM events

ONLY A 30 -MIN DRIVE FROM SACRAMENTO

SEPTEMBER EVENT SIPPIN’ SATURDAY EXTENDED HOURS 12:00pm – 6:00pm

September 12

at Eﬃe Yeaw Nature Center Carmichael, CA

Live Animal Shows Kids AcƟviƟes Guided Nature Hikes DemonstraƟons & Exhibits and Much More!

Our favorite lobster truck is back! As seen on Shark Tank. Wine tasting and delectable lobster–the perfect pairing!

FREE parking! Family-friendly food!

More info at (916) 489-4918 or www.SacNatureCenter.net

Next Month: SUNDAY, October 18, 1 pm-4 pm

Afternoon Acoustics with guitarist Jimmy Ashley. Bring a picnic and enjoy some music while tasting wines.

Admission $5 per adult Kids 12 & under FREE