Inside pocket jul 2014

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FABULOUS SLP YARD Magic Moment - When you realize you can pick your own fruits and vegetables galore - in your own backyard! A special South Land Park 4 bedroom 3 bath family home - Beautifully maintained and updated for you - Move in and enjoy! $499,500 SHEILA VAN NOY 505-5395

SPACIOUS DUTRA BEND Comfortable 4 bedroom 3 bath Dutra Bend home with over 2600 square feet of living space. Kitchen family room combination looks out on easy care backyard with deck and spa. One remote downstairs bedroom and bath. Big master suite and master bathroom upstairs. 3-car garage. $530,000 PAULA SWAYNE 425-9715

A REAL GEM! Hidden away in Old Land Park. This home is stunning … can you believe this kitchen? WOW! All new - including plumbing and electric.

Only one original wall. Quality features throughout plus super deep lot (.20 acres). Constructed to 2012 building codes. 4 bedroom 3 bath home! $899,500 SHEILA VAN NOY 505-5395

SOUTH LAND PARK TERRACE Spacious 3 bedroom 2½ bath home is light and bright throughout. The kitchen has lots of storage and a great eating area with views to the backyard. The well-manicured yard is ready for your personalization in the Àower bed areas. Meticulously maintained for your enjoyment. $469,000 TIM COLLOM 247-8048

IN THE HILLS OF SLP Potential abounds in this 3 bedroom ranch style home! Great circular Àoor plan, oversized family room and hardwood Àoors under the carpet waiting to be rediscovered. Beautifully paneled den with ¿replace.

Great SLP opportunity. $459,000 CHRIS BRIGGS 834-6483

QUIET S LAND PARK Seller is the original owner of this custom home in a South Land Park cul-de-sac. 3 bedrooms 2 baths on .27 acre lot. Updated baths, original kitchen, hardwood Àoors under carpet. Newer roof, windows, HVAC. Call to see. $349,000 JAMIE RICH 612-4000

RIVERGATE HOME Wonderful four bedroom home on a quiet street. This home has a great Àoor plan with lots of light! Private living room, kitchen family room combination and spacious master suite. Sliding glass doors in family room and master suite leading to generous sized backyard. $289,000 PAM VANDERFORD 799-7234

CONVENIENT SLP Wonderful location meets wonderful home! 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1500 square feet this home has it all. Original owner took great care of this home and it shows! You’ll love the hardwood Àoors under carpet, ¿replace, slate hallway, large kitchen, indoor laundry room. $315,000 KELLIE SWAYNE 206-1458

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S LAND PARK CORNER Roomy 3 bedroom home on a quiet corner lot. Over 2100 square feet of light and open living areas. Generous 1/4 acre lot. Detached bonus room with electricity is perfect for workshop, artist studio, of¿ce or hobby room.

Additional backyard space and a koi pond too! $449,000 CHRIS BRIGGS 834-6483

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COVER ARTIST Steve Walters Walters has worked the last 31 years as a commercial artist, art director, fine art teacher and painter. Steve has been called upon as a popular demonstration and workshop artist, as well as juror and judge for many regional competitions in both Southern and Northern California. He enjoys a wide range of subject matter.

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LOCAL JUL 2014

PUBLISHER Cecily Hastings publisher@insidepublications.com 3104 O St. #120, Sac. CA 95816 (Mail Only) 916-441-7026 (Information Line) EDITOR PRODUCTION DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY AD COORDINATOR ACCOUNTING EDITORIAL POLICY

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Michael Boyd

Cecily Hastings Publisher - Select Accounts

Neighborhood Identity CELEBRATING THE DIFFERENCES IN OUR UNIQUE URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS

BY CECILY HASTINGS PUBLISHER’S DESK

W

hen my husband and I first arrived in Sacramento in 1989, we had no knowledge of the city or environs, and we didn’t know a soul. It was not exactly a great way to select a neighborhood in which to buy a home and raise a family.

We were grateful that we had an experienced real estate agent who spent an entire day with us and, starting in Midtown, took us through a number of neighborhoods moving eastward and then to the south. We wanted to get a feel for the architectural identity of each neighborhood. Looking back now, I realize that our driving tour was wholly inadequate in helping us make such a big decision.

Here’s what I recall in a nutshell: Midtown had inexpensive historic homes that needed work and had small yards, and there was a lively shopping district. But we were warned that there weren’t many children in the neighborhood and that the crime rate was fairly high. McKinley Park looked fabulous, especially the park itself, but we were told the public

schools were weak. The Fab 40s were gorgeous, but house prices were too high for us and there was almost zero inventory on the market at the time. We never saw River Park.

Heading across the H Street Bridge, we toured Sierra Oaks and thought it was lovely, with big lots and varied home styles. But the houses for sale were small and dated. The Wilhaggin homes we saw were too big, while the Arden Park homes were too small.

Carmichael was a mixed bag, with some larger, luxurious homes located next to tiny cottages. The lots were huge—too large for our needs. There wasn’t much shopping close by.

We ended up buying that McKinley Park house. And I later learned that I had been dead wrong in my judgment of Curtis Park.

Heading south, we loved lush and expansive William Land Park, but the homes we saw were either too large and expensive or too small and needed too much work. Curtis Park had the most amazing collection of eclectic architectural styles we saw all day.

We never saw South Land Park or the Pocket or even heard their names. We probably just ran out of time that day.

It was almost a year before we actually purchased a home. The

decision ultimately came down to two houses: one directly across the street from McKinley Park, the other across the street from Curtis Park.

We visited both houses numerous times. Each time we went to Curtis Park, we noticed that the park was empty and lacked amenities.

In comparison, fun things always seemed to be happening in McKinley Park, with its numerous facilities.

To be honest, the lack of activity in Curtis Park caused me to judge the neighborhood in a negative way. It seemed like people didn’t get out of their houses to enjoy the neighborhood. I worried about making friends.

We ended up buying that McKinley Park house. And I later learned that I had been dead wrong in my judgment of Curtis Park. In time, I discovered that Curtis Park is one of the most dynamic and engaged neighborhoods in the region, and substantially more active and organized than either McKinley Park or East Sacramento.

In publishing four neighborhood editions, covering more than a dozen unique neighborhoods, I’ve learned that every one of our neighborhoods has its own distinct personality.

It takes time to discover that personality. The process goes much more quickly if you meet long-term neighbors who share their experiences with you.

To be sure, numerous biases for and against different neighborhoods exist among neighbors. For some, it is just simple pride and a reaffirmation of the neighborhood they chose.

But others are snobby about architecture, history, location or even class. And while most people

would never publicly share their biases about people of different races and cultures, they seem to have no problem disparaging other neighborhoods.

When we started publishing in the Pocket and Greenhaven neighborhoods earlier this year, we selected these neighborhoods based upon their distinct neighborhood identity and strong sense of community, in addition to their home values and income levels that our advertisers find valuable.

Many factors contribute to what makes each neighborhood definable and recognizable, no matter what the income levels and property values.

We were amazed when some folks from East Sac and Land Park disparaged these neighborhoods because they include gated communities (as do Arden and Carmichael) and what they consider “suburban lifestyles,” usually dropping snide comments about Natomas into their remarks.

Or consider Oak Park, which in its early years was considered one of our city’s nicest neighborhoods.

After decades of decline, it started PUBLISHER page 7

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5

Stay Out THESE PRIVATE FENCES DON’T NECESSARILY MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS

public parkway. For years, the public had access to the levee from those culde-sacs, going back at least to 1989.”

Buzzini did some checking. He went to the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office. He pulled Map Book 031. He flipped to page 129. He looked closely. Sure enough, the fences and warning signs were on public property. He made copies of page 129.

BY R.E. GRASWICH

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POCKET BEAT

sk Gary Buzzini to describe himself and he will laugh and declare that he’s a “normal, mild-mannered guy.” A folksy drawl helps prove the point.

A retired chief with Cal Fire, Buzzini was once responsible for protecting state lands and rural expanses of Napa, Butte and Shasta counties. These days, he minds his own business, more or less, and lives quietly with his wife in the Pocket, not far from the Sacramento River levee.

If there’s one thing that bothers Buzzini, one thing that makes him forget that he’s retired, it would be this: the idea of someone taking something that doesn’t belong to him (or her) and getting away with it.

Which brings us to the private fences that magically appeared four years ago along the public easement where two Pocket Road cul-de-sacs— Chicory Bend Court and Rivershore Court—meet the Sacramento River levee.

To the uninitiated, the fences look like officially sanctioned barricades deployed by governmental authorities to keep the public out. Six feet high, metal bars painted black, posts

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“I’ve been trying to get answers about those fences for years,” said Councilman Fong.

“Nobody seems to know who’s responsible for them.”

Gary Buzzini shown with one of the illegal Pocket security fences

anchored in concrete. The only thing missing is barbed wire.

Warning signs announce “No Public Access,” a nonnegotiable command that discourages anyone from even thinking about getting

from Chicory Bend or Rivershore to the river levee, which, believe it or not, is public.

“When I first saw those fences and signs, I began to wonder,” Buzzini says. “I knew the levee was part of the

Following the path blazed by generations of aggrieved citizens, Buzzini called city hall. Nobody there seemed to know what he was talking about. For a while, nobody seemed to care.

The old fire chief continued to dig. He followed his nose, which had taught him, literally, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. He knocked on doors. He talked to neighbors. And he pieced together a story that added up to fantastically outrageous behavior.

“What happened was, the neighbors took up a collection and paid for the fences and signs themselves,” Buzzini says. “One person who lives on Rivershore spearheaded the idea, and the others

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7385 Greenhaven Dr Suite 1 | Sacramento, CA 9583 | www.iyatkd.com went along. They installed the fences, put up the signs and built a couple of nice little gates for themselves to privately access the parkway. Only these neighbors have keys.”

At this discovery, Buzzini was practically amused by the arrogance of the homeowners. They hadn’t bothered with the planning process.

They hadn’t stood before the city council or planning commission to discuss their intention to blockade and annex a portion of the South Pocket Parkway. They just went out and did it.

“They even put in a nice little grass area for themselves,” Buzzini says.

“They took a piece of public property and made it their own.”

The fences and signs went up during a time of political change at city hall. Robbie Waters, who served as the Pocket’s councilmember for 16 years, had been defeated. A new councilman, Darrell Fong, would take over in November 2010. By then, the barricades were about six months old.

Bosnia sent a polite letter to his new councilmember. Included was a copy of Assessor’s Map page 129.

Fong’s office responded promptly.

Meetings were set.

The central issues—how could a few neighbors declare a public parkway off limits, erect private gates and give themselves keys? And what precedent did it set?—made the wheels turn at city hall.

Then the wheels stopped. When Buzzini heard Fong’s office planned to hold a meeting with the Chicory Bend and Rivershore homeowners, the old fire chief tried to invite himself.

“I was told no, it would be best if I didn’t show up,” he says.

Three years passed. Nothing happened. Fences still block Chicory Bend and Rivershore. The gates remain locked—except for the lucky few.

Buzzini pieced together a story that added up to fantastically outrageous behavior.

I emailed Councilmember Fong about the fences. Fong has taken a leadership role in trying to pry open privately gated sections of the Sacramento River levee—a public resource.

Fong called back with frustration in his voice. “I’ve been trying to get answers about those fences for years,” he told me. “Nobody seems to know who’s responsible for them.”

Which means our story about Gary Buzzini and the outrageous barricades is just beginning. Says the retired fire chief: “When I see those fences, I just want to tell those people, ‘If you’re so desperate to live in a gated community, why don’t you move to one?’”

Good question. Stay tuned.

R.E. Graswich can be reached at reg@graswich.com n

PUBLISHER FROM page 5

to turn around about 10 years ago, thanks in no small part to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s redevelopment efforts before he won office. Even as Oak Park is rapidly coming into its own, the stigma of the neighborhood’s name is still hard to reverse in some people’s minds.

During a community meeting last year regarding McKinley Village, one of the opposition group leaders worried aloud that the development would be another Natomas or South Sacramento and that it would become a “ghetto.” When audience applause followed that remark, I was embarrassed that members of my neighborhood would be so hostile and judgmental.

Our editorial mission is to help folks get to know their neighbors and community on a deeper and more meaningful level. Many factors contribute to what makes each neighborhood definable and

recognizable, no matter what the income levels and property values.

As we celebrate the Fourth of the July this year, we have charming organized parades in the neighborhoods of East Sac, River Park, Pocket, Arden Arcade and Carmichael, among others.

Each one has its unique feel and experience. Neighborhood parades are a wonderful way to connect with neighbors and build positive neighborhood identities. If you’ve never attended your neighborhood parade, by all means do so this year.

I consider it a privilege and honor to get to know so many wonderful people from every neighborhood we serve. Granted, there are huge differences in the unique identities of our neighborhoods. But isn’t it worth celebrating that Sacramento has so much diversity in its neighborhoods?

Cecily Hastings can be reached at publisher@insidepublications.com n

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Hardball Champs KENNEDY WINS ITS FIRST METRO LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP IN 20 YEARS

BY SHANE SINGH POCKET LIFE

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heers to the John F. Kennedy High School baseball team, which this spring won its first Metro League championship in two decades.

We connected with coach Marcos Pineda, who explained how the Cougars did it.

“Coming into this season, we had a pretty good idea that this team would be very competitive and have a good chance of winning the league,” he said. “We returned a veteran team that gained a ton of experience when we qualified for the playoffs the previous year for the first time since the mid 1990s. Combined with a solid start to the season, the coaching staff knew this group could build on their success from last year. It became a matter of getting the team to believe in themselves.”

The Kennedy team was anchored by nine seniors. Pineda reported that six of his graduating seniors will likely be playing college baseball next season.

In the competitive Metro League, Pineda noted, the Cougars had to get past their traditional foes on Freeport Boulevard. “C.K. McClatchy is our

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Coach Marcos Pineda and the John F. Kennedy High School baseball team won its first Metro League championship in two decades

biggest rival,” he said. “They have been on top of the Metro League in baseball for a long period of time.

Since I came aboard as the head coach two seasons ago, it has been a point of emphasis for us to compete with the best in our league. Up until this season, McClatchy was that program.

That’s why, when we were able to sweep the series against them this year, it was a turning point that got our team believing we could not only win league but also try to make a deep run in the playoffs.”

Neighborhood youth baseball programs are well represented at Kennedy. Said Pineda, “We have a

very healthy representation of Pocket Little League in our program now, and it appears as though that will be growing in the coming years.”

The Kennedy ball club has started summer programs to keep local youth players active in baseball during the off-season and to expose the high school team to the community.

Kennedy baseball star Adam Takeuchi was voted Metro League’s player of the year. His contributions came on both offense and defense. He posted a .371 batting average and had a 1.31 ERA with 59 strikeouts as a pitcher.

Pineda and his staff are looking forward to starting next year off with the first Kennedy Baseball Hall of Fame class induction at the John F. Kennedy Alumni Golf Tournament Oct. 4 at Lockeford Springs. For information on the tournament, contact Pineda at marcos-pineda@ scusd.edu Kennedy last won a league championship in the early 1990s under legendary baseball coach, P.E. teacher and athletic director Don Moak. There is a connection for Kings fans in the Pocket community: Moak is the father of Kings public address

announcer and Kennedy baseball alum Scott Moak.

Given the budget restrictions that hit local public schools in recent years, it’s truly an accomplishment for Pineda, his staff, student athletes and parents to win this championship.

They are knocking the ball out of the park on behalf of baseball in the Greenhaven-Pocket area.

FUTURE LEADERS We have a small but mighty school in our neighborhood. The School of Engineering & Sciences, which goes from grades seven through 12, shares property with Robbie Waters PocketGreenhaven Library. Engineering & Sciences finished the school year with 450 students but plans to enroll 520 for the fall semester, says learning support services coordinator Patrick Bohman.

One exceptional graduate of the school is senior Kristen Wong. Wong attended Matsuyama Elementary School and started at Engineering & Sciences as a seventh-grader. This fall, she plans to enroll at UC Merced and pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. Wong says, “I will later hope to go to graduate school and attain the highest degree possible.”

When asked about her favorite activities, she says, “My favorite extracurricular activity is the FIRST program, which is ‘For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.’ It’s a robotics competition. It has a sixweek build period, where we compete with teams around the world at a three-day competition. What I like most about it is being able to work and bond with my peers during late nights. I also like being able to create and design a fully functional robot and use it to compete with and meet other students in my age group from different places. By being a part of this program, I was able to gain new friendships, including with a student from Texas.”

Outside of school, Wong has been active in civic affairs. “I have been involved in other community groups such as Youth at City Council, a civics engagement program where we learn about government and help

out during city council meetings,” she says. “I was even able to help Mayor Kevin Johnson during one of his campaign events. I also volunteer at other community events for various organizations. I try to volunteer at as many community events as I am offered. There is nothing better than having a positive impact on your community where you can help others.”

“We have students attending top schools across the United States,” says Bohman. “These include UC Merced, CSUS, CSU Channel Islands, Green Mountain University, Morgan State and the University of La Verne.” He adds, “Twenty-one of our 36 graduates are going to be pursuing a career in science or engineering.” Given the technological age we live in, we are fortunate that educational leaders in the Pocket neighborhood have helped create a unique public school such as Engineering & Sciences to educate future leaders in the tech field.

We salute students such as Wong for their success in the classroom and passion for the community. We look forward to more great things from Engineering & Sciences.

POCKET PARADE Don’t miss the annual Pocket-area tradition, the Fourth of July parade.

Last year, the extravaganza had more than 85 entries. The parade starts at 10 a.m. at the former Lisbon School at Windbridge Drive and South Land Park Drive, continues along Windbridge and ends with a community fair at Garcia Bend Park.

Organizers are planning a wonderful day of fun events.

Candy will be distributed to kids from floats (done the old-fashioned way, by throwing it).

Candy will be distributed to kids from floats (done the old-fashioned

Walmart is looking to build a “supercenter” store as an anchor tenant in the new Delta Shores development south of the Pocket

way, by throwing it). The essence of the parade and post-parade fair is community unity. It’s a time for everyone to celebrate the neighborhood. See you there!

If you would like to enter your community group, school, sports team or band (or whatever), send an email to parade co-chair Kathy Garcia at kgbgarcia@aol.com

dedication of the local faith-based community is inspirational.”

DELTA SHORES WALMART The latest news has Walmart looking to build a “supercenter” store as an anchor tenant in the new Delta Shores development south of the Pocket. This project comes after

NEIGHBORHOOD BIKE TO CHURCH

the city council decided to relax

On Memorial Day weekend, local churches held their annual Bike or Walk to Church event. People were encouraged to ride their bike or walk to their house of worship. Following worship services, parishioners rode their bikes to Riverside Wesleyan Church for hors d’oeuvres. The route took the cyclists to Greenhaven Lutheran Church for salad. Then they rode to Faith Presbyterian for cheeseburgers. As the temperature rose, they proceeded to St. Anthony’s Parish for ice cream.

The Pocket Area Churches Together group was established by local pastors to bring parishioners from all faiths together to help with community events and charities.

Deadra “DeeDee” Elam, a participant in the bike event, said, “This was a fantastic community event. It was nice to see my neighbors celebrate both their faith and neighborhood.

I look forward to next year. The

a 2006 ordinance that effectively

restrictions on “big-box” stores in August 2013. The council repealed blocked big-box retailers inside city limits.

Walmart appears to be the first signed tenant for Delta Shores, a community that will eventually include 5,000 homes, parks and retail space along Interstate 5 south of Pocket Road and north of Laguna Boulevard. Walmart hopes to open the supercenter in 2016. Delta Shores is the largest infill project left within the city limits.

“While advocating for the repeal of the city’s big-box ordinance, we heard time and time again about the importance of having a strong superstore anchor tenant like Walmart,” said Joshua Wood, executive director of Region Builders, a local trade association representing commercial builders and real estate interests. “We are glad to hear Delta POCKET LIFE page 11

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Keeping Faith CITIZEN COMMITTEE CALLS FOR COMPLIANCE AUDIT ON MEASURE U SPENDING

BY CRAIG POWELL INSIDE CITY HALL

S

ome city boards and commissions have the reputation of being rubber stamps for the city council members who appoint them. But the Measure U Citizen Oversight Committee, while getting off to a very slow start and wielding minimal oversight powers, has surprised the pundits and produced a first report that keeps faith with city voters who are entrusting the city with $30 million in extra sales tax revenue each year.

The committee’s report, coauthored by River Oaks resident and CPA Jamie Matthews and Pocket resident and public health and education manager Chris Shipman, gives the city high marks for following through with campaign promises on how Measure U monies would be spent. But it candidly reveals that the committee has to rely on city management’s representations on how Measure U monies are being spent. The report calls on the city to hire an auditing firm to assure that Measure U monies are, in fact, being spent as represented.

The report also urges the city to start transition planning for when Measure U, a six-year tax hike,

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expires in March 2019. The city has shown no signs of planning for the day when Measure U money runs out, other than to dryly note in the city’s recently approved budget that the city’s general fund faces a fiscal cliff in 2019 when its general budget deficit is expected to hit $41 million due to the loss of Measure U revenues and spiraling employee benefit costs.

The failure to start planning now for the transition will only make the loss of Measure U funding that much more painful in 2019. The city’s failure to plan for a transition plays into the narrative that city officials intend for the loss of Measure U funding to be as painful as possible in 2019 so as to bully taxpayers into extending the tax.

Measure U, passed by city voters in November 2012, increased the city sales tax rate by one-half percent to fund a variety of city functions, ranging from police and fire services to parks and libraries. In the same election, California voters approved Proposition 30, which increased the state sales tax rate by a quarter percent (as well as hiking income taxes on higher-income state residents). Together, the measures raised the city sales tax rate to a record 8.5 percent, tied with Galt for the highest sales tax rate charged by any government in the Sacramento region. (The county sales tax rate, for instance, is 8 percent).

To help sell the Measure U sales tax hike to city voters, the city council included in the measure a requirement that Measure U spending be subject to oversight by a citizen oversight committee and that spending be audited by

Measure U Oversight Committee members Chris Shipman and Jamie Mathews

an independent auditor—common “confidence builders” to give voters assurance that their dollars will be spent as advertised and not on, say, sports arenas.

But the city council has not given the oversight committee independent staff or counsel; it has allocated it no budget, invested it with no subpoena powers or provided it with any other tools needed to function in a meaningful fashion. While the measure called for spending to be audited by an independent auditor, such a requirement is meaningless absent a compliance or performance audit that determines if dollars are actually being spent as promised. A financial audit merely checks that dollars are being accounted for but does nothing to confirm that the dollars are being spent in the ways the city promised to city voters.

One of the serious omissions in Measure U is the absence of “supplanting protection.” Before

your eyes gaze over, let me explain what supplanting protection is and is not. Let’s say the city’s general fund provides $1 million each year to operate the city’s animal shelter, but the shelter’s funding level falls far short of what animal lovers think it should be. (Hey, our family has two cats.) So, let’s say animal lovers convince the city council to place a tax hike measure on the ballot to raise taxes $1 million to double annual funding for the shelter. Let’s assume the measure passes with 80 percent of the vote (not impossible given the results of a recent national survey that found Sacramento is the seventh most cat-friendly city in the country).

Then let’s say that city unions press the city council to increase employee salaries (the city is currently locked in contract negotiations with all of its major unions) and the city, scrapping around for cash, decides to withdraw its existing $1 million annual funding for the shelter,

figuring that the shelter can get by on the $1 million new animal shelter tax (hypothetically) approved by voters.

Such budgetary sleight of hand is called “supplanting.” It involves withdrawing pre-existing general fund support for a program that is benefiting from a recently approved tax increase. It is a cynical maneuver used by unscrupulous government officials to rip off voters and taxpayers by breaking government’s promise to spend tax revenues as represented to voters. And it’s lawful for government to “supplant” unless a tax measure includes supplanting protection that forbids the maneuver. (The library parcel tax, Measure B, approved just last month by voters included an anti-supplanting section at the behest of Eye on Sacramento, courtesy of Councilmember Angelique Ashby.)

But Measure U includes no supplanting protection. Part of the reason is Measure U is not a special tax that provides funds for any specific programs. It is, instead, a general tax hike, which the city can legally spend on anything it wants.

General tax hikes require only a majority vote while special taxes, like the library tax, require a twothirds majority approval. Supplanting protections are typically used to protect the use of special taxes, not general taxes.

Nevertheless, the city sold Measure U to voters on the premise that proceeds would be used to increase funding for public safety, parks and libraries. So what happens when $300 million of arena bonds are sold (this year or next) and the $15.4 projected annual shortfall in arena bond payments (the difference between the $21.9 million annual arena bond payment and the $6.5 million annual arena lease payment paid by Kings owners) is not covered by hoped-for increases in city parking profits?

Absent major, unanticipated increases in the city’s other revenue sources, the city would have to cut other general fund spending to cover the $15.4 arena bond payment shortfall.

And what are the three biggest budget programs that together make up about 85 percent of the city’s general fund budget? Answer: police, fire protection and parks.

So if the city council is compelled to cut, say, $15 million from police, fire and parks budgets in 2019 to fund arena bond funding shortfalls, it will be withdrawing existing general fund support from Measure U-funded programs. In short, it will be supplanting Measure U funding and diverting it to underwrite arena bond payments. That’s why Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters last year characterized Measure U as a disguised “arena tax.”

The committee’s report gives the city high marks for following through with campaign promises on how Measure U monies would be spent.

Shipman and Matthews take very seriously the oversight committee’s responsibility for assuring that the city is fully transparent in how it spends Measure U receipts. Shipman, as a veteran staffer of health and education programs and a graduate of the city’s management academy, and Matthews, with 12 years of experience auditing local government finances and consulting with local government officials on behalf of Gilbert Associates, are both savvy to the ways of government budgeting and spending, including the potential for Measure U supplanting.

They have both demonstrated a willingness to press the city for changes that enhance such transparency. Matthews, a selfdescribed professional skeptic, worked hand in hand with the city’s budget director, Leyne Milstein, to secure an expansion of the scope of the city’s next outside independent audit to include a compliance audit of the city’s Measure U spending.

Shipman, a longtime community and neighborhood activist, is pressing the city to develop metrics to measure and assess the effectiveness of

Measure U spending, particularly as it relates to programs involving city youth and seniors. For her, tracking how money is spent is not enough.

Measurable results are what count.

As management guru Peter Drucker famously put it: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Shipman sees a need to build up our community’s “social capital” as a necessary element of community growth and health.

Shipman and Matthews, as well as their fellow oversight committee members, Cecily Hastings (publisher of Inside Publications), Carlos Anguiano and Michelle Brattmiller, are proving that they are not rubber stamps for anyone in the important work they are doing on behalf of Sacramento taxpayers. They are also showing us all how important civic service—a major component of social capital, as Shipman would put it—is to the quality of life of our community.

What do Shipman and Matthews draw from the experience of serving on the oversight committee and authoring the committee’s report?

For Matthews, a 13-year Sacramento resident, “The experience has given me the confidence to know that I bring something to the table, to see that I could add value.” Shipman, a 24-year resident who has worked on the master plan of education for New Jersey and hospitals at Emory University in Atlanta and in Indiana, is committed “to keeping the city accountable, from helping high-risk kids, to improving graduation rates, to reducing gang involvement. I want to know: What has the city done to make things better?”

POCKET LIFE FROM page 9

Shores has signed its strong anchor tenant and will be bringing jobs and shopping opportunities to the city of Sacramento as early as fall 2016.

We are proud to support any effort that will advance regional economic development.”

We reached out to the organized labor community regarding this proposal, but they did not respond before our deadline. There is no doubt that Delta Shores is going to have a huge impact on the PocketGreenhaven area. The addition of 5,000 homes is significant. And there are opportunities for the city to gain revenue in the form of development fees, property taxes and retail sales taxes. As it stands, a number of local residents shop in outlying communities, which denies the city revenue. We can look forward to new parks and other open space for public recreation. We welcome our future neighbors.

LIBRARY NEEDS MORE FRIENDS The local Friends group of Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library had 188 members in January 2013.

By April 2014, the group saw a significant decline in membership, down to only 137, which, if our math is correct (remember, we went to Kennedy, not Engineering & Sciences), means a net loss of 51 members in just over a year. Library Friends is a membership-supported nonprofit that provides critical support for library programs. Please

THREE COUNCIL RACES DECIDED WHILE ONE HEADS TO A RUNOFF

help our local library by becoming a

he results of last month’s city council races covered the spectrum from a slam-dunk victory in North Natomas (District 1) for first-term incumbent Angelique Ashby, who ran unopposed, to a lopsided win for Jay Schenirer in Curtis Park and Oak Park (District 4), a very tight

children. Membership contributions

Friend. To join, go to saclibfriends.org and choose the Robbie Waters branch.

T

Memberships start at just $10 for will help keep our local library branch strong.

Shane Singh can be reached at shane@shanesingh.com n

CITY HALL page 13

INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

11

The Ring Master CITY MANAGER JOHN SHIREY ON BUDGETS, DEVELOPMENT AND MORE

BY R.E. GRASWICH MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR

I

n Sacramento, the city council sets policy. The city manager runs the show. When John Shirey was hired at the city’s chief executive in 2011, his arrival ended a period of musical chairs at the manager’s office. Shirey, a Pocket resident, recently talked to Inside Publications about a range of topics, from organizational problems at the fire department to the prospects of quitting his job if voters approve the strong-mayor initiative in November.

What kind of shape is the city’s budget in?

The good news is I’ll be able to present a balanced budget this summer. We had a deficit of about $12 million. We were able to reduce that to about $3 million, but we will be balanced ending the year. The bad news is that while we’ve seen an increase in property and sales taxes, our expenses are still increasing faster than our revenues. While I expect to have not great but good budgets for the next two fiscal years, that quickly changes in those out years and becomes pretty red, mostly because of increased pension costs.

Here’s a fact for your readers: We currently pay about $48 million per year to CalPERS. In five years time, that will increase to $82 million.

That gives people an idea of the increases the CalPERS board has been approving. We’re not alone. This is being experienced by most cities in the state.

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POCKET JUL n 14

City manager John Shirey

You mentioned CalPERS raising the rates it charges cities to pay public employee pensions. How are you dealing with two other budget busters: the expiration of Measure U in five years and $470 million in unfunded liability for long-term

medical benefits for retired city workers?

Your question is right on the money. The PERS problem is most immediate. The second is the expiration of Measure U, which comes in 2019, when it sunsets. Of course, the city council could decide

to present that to voters and it could be extended. Another outcome is that it will expire. Then we will have a fiscal cliff. That cliff will be around $30 million. We can’t absorb that. I’m trying to convince the council to not spend all those dollars, but instead to create a cushion that will ease the drop-off come 2019. In addition, I’m hoping we have increases in revenue to cushion that blow. We’ll have to have discipline. We’ll have to have reserves. We can’t just keep spending it on new initiatives or more employees or whatever. I have to assume it will be allowed to expire. I can’t operate on the assumption that council will go back to voters and ask for an extension.

The unfunded health-care obligation to our employees is very troubling. Unfortunately, when that benefit was given to employees in the 1970s, no funds were ever set aside to pay for it. Apparently, I’m the first city manager who ever raised questions about that.

It’s an obligation that has serious consequences for this city’s future.

Right now, that’s about $472 million and growing by the minute. It will increase several thousand dollars during this interview. I convinced the city council to establish a trust fund.

We’ve set aside $4 million, and I’m going to recommend more. That seem like a small amount, but it establishes that we are at least acknowledging the problem. And it sends a good message to rating agencies.

Now, take these three issues and put them together: It’s unsustainable.

We have to do something. We’re

not going to be laying off people for the coming fiscal year, but I can’t guarantee that won’t be necessary down the road. Something has to give. These are unsustainable numbers.

You’ve been unable to get police officers to pay their pension share. What’s the prognosis?

Up until a few years ago, when I was hired, none of our employees were paying their pension share.

Now, 80 percent do, with the notable exception of police officers and sergeants. Our negotiations have moved to mediation-arbitration. It may come to an arbitrator deciding whether they pay their pension share or not. For every month that goes by and police officers and sergeants don’t pay their pension share, the city loses $450,000. That’s enough to hire four officers for a year.

The police say they are still understaffed, yet major crime stats are dropping. Maybe police staffing is at the right level?

I believe we are understaffed, and I think our new police chief, Sam Somers, is doing a terrific job using his resources wisely. That’s why we’re seeing good trends in terms of crime numbers. We’re also getting good help from the community. People are doing more for themselves, such as our Neighbor Next Door program, which has 12,000 subscribers. People are communicating with each other about suspicious things they see. What I do is look at our crime in terms of other cities, and we’re not as safe as we should be. One reason is we have an unusually high number of parolees living in Sacramento. We want to think that people who have gone through prison will start new lives, but sometimes they start new lives of crime. The good news is the crime numbers are down. The bad news is they are still relatively high compared to other jurisdictions. I am a firm believer that we need more policing and more people to do crime analysis, crime solving, and to work with our neighborhoods.

NEIGHBOR page 14

CITY HALL FROM page 11 outright primary victory for Rick Jennings in the Pocket/Greenhaven area (District 7) and a thrilling free-for-all race in East Sacramento and South Natomas (District 3), where the winner will be decided in a November runoff election.

In District 4, Schenirer, a firstterm councilmember, faced a spirited challenge from SEIU political director Ali Cooper, who challenged Schenirer on his vote on the downtown arena subsidy, his support of a modification of the big-box retail ordinance and his raising of charitable contributions, particularly from a Walmart affiliate, to support a robust set of nonprofit projects in his district. Schenirer won handily with 5,312 votes or 62.8 percent to Cooper’s 3,105 votes or 36.7 percent. In the money race, Schenirer vastly outraised Cooper $134,000 to $45,000.

Rick Jennings won the race outright with 5,046 votes or 50.6 percent to Julius Cherry’s 4,187 or 42 percent. Third-place finisher Abe Snobar received 709 votes or 7.1 percent.

The District 7 seat opened up when incumbent Darrell Fong decided to jump into the race for State Assembly District 9. Both Jennings and Cherry had strong personal stories and campaigned door to door. They raised a comparable amount of money, with Jennings taking in $140,000 and Cherry collecting $128,000.

The mayor was a real presence in the District 7 race, with Cherry distancing himself from the mayor early, saying, “I’m not the mayor’s favorite candidate, but I’d like to be yours.” Jennings was criticized for being too close to the mayor, while Cherry was the subject of a hit piece slamming him for collecting the largest pension check of any retired city employee. The piece was financed by an obscure out-of-the-area PAC with alleged ties to Philip Morris, according to the Cherry campaign.

The real nail biter race of the night was the fight for the East Sacramento/ South Natomas seat vacated by two-decade incumbent Steve Cohn, who gave up his seat to run for State Assembly. A sizable field of seven

candidates fought it out for a spot in the November general election, as no candidate was expected to capture a majority in the primary.

The presumptive favorite going into the election was financial planner Cyril Shah, who raised an eye-popping $182,000, more than three times the amount raised by all the other candidates combined. But Shah barely squeezed his way into a second-place finish, edging out schoolteacher Ellen Cochrane for a spot in the November runoff. The big winner of the night was general contractor Jeff Harris, who came in with a surprising first-place finish. Despite raising just $10,000, Harris parlayed his long experience as a neighborhood volunteer, community activist and parks commission member into the top spot by winning 2,305 votes or 26 percent of the votes cast. Shah collected 2,104 votes or 23.8 percent and Cochrane received 1,967 votes or 22.2 percent.

The big issue in the District 3 race was the McKinley Village development project, which was up for approval before the city council just as the council race hit full stride.

Cochrane was the organizer of the group opposing the project, a position that almost catapulted her into the runoff. Harris and Shah will face off against one another in November.

An interesting statistic: Shah spent a lavish $86.50 for every vote he received, while Harris spent a miserly $4.34 for each of his votes.

Sacramento city schools board member Patrick Kennedy, who lost narrowly to Schenirer for city council four years ago, managed to soundly win the county supervisorial seat opened up by the retirement of longtime supervisor and former councilmember Jimmie Yee. Kennedy garnered 84.5 percent of the vote to defeat Jrmar Jefferson, who picked up 15 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, first-term county supervisor Phil Serna and longtime county supervisor Don Nottoli both ran for re-election unopposed. First-term county assessor Kathleen Kelleher also ran unopposed.

In the State Assembly race in District 9, Elk Grove councilmember and Sacramento sheriff’s captain

Congratulations to Councilmember-elect Rick Jennings who won the District 7 primary outright on June 3. He will take office in November.

Jim Cooper went toe to toe with retired city police captain and city councilman Darrell Fong. Cooper narrowly captured first place with 31.1 percent of the vote, while Fong took second place with 29.2 percent.

As the two top vote getters, both advance to the November general election.

In what appears to be an historic first, Republicans have been entirely shut out of the November general election in all of the state legislative races that touch upon the city of Sacramento, victims of the new top-two primary system. It raises the question: Where will Republican voters, who make up about 24 percent of all city voters, go on Election Day in November? Will they organize and throw their support behind one or more of the top Democratic finishers?

Will they split their votes among the Democratic contenders? Or will they just sit this one out? The answer may decide the outcome of more than one state legislative race this year.

Craig Powell is a local attorney, businessman, community activist and president of Eye on Sacramento, a civic watchdog and policy group. In 2012, he chaired the No on Measure U Committee. He can be reached at craig@eyeonsacramento.org or 7183030. n

INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

13

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I wrote an e-book that summarizes advice I give to friends and family when they start the search for a Montessori school. It includes specific things to look for, questions to ask and other valuable tidbits that I have learned over the past 39 years.

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NEIGHBOR FROM page 13 The fire department hasn’t changed its culture in generations. Now firefighters work 48-hour shifts but rarely fight fires. Most 911 fire calls are medical. Isn’t it time to update the fire department?

The reality is we no longer have a fire department. We have a paramedicine department. That’s not unusual. That’s the way most fire departments have gone across the country. About 70 percent of our calls are paramedic calls. Even fire calls are often false alarms or very minor fires, not the large structural fires you hear about every so often.

Our resources are not deployed accordingly. We don’t have enough paramedic resources. And the staffing model, which is 48-hour shifts, isn’t appropriate for people who are working in paramedicine. Think about somebody who’s putting an IV in your arm on his 36th hour on the job. We need to rethink how we

14

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deploy people who are on the medic vans as opposed to people on fire trucks and engines. It’s time to think about changing how we approach services. We need new, creative ideas in terms of the fire department, which is really a paramedic service.

Police and fire both build overtime into their cultures.

They say it’s cheaper, but is the city well served by cops and firefighters working so much overtime?

Overtime by itself is not a bad thing. Any organization that’s staffed around the clock can’t be managed without the use of overtime. That goes for utilities as well as police and fire. We have to have people available anytime for anything that might go wrong. It’s true that we can provide additional staffing cheaper by using overtime. However, it sometimes gets overused. When we have people who are making double their salaries by virtue of overtime, it suggests we have something wrong on the management

side. We either don’t have enough people or we’re granting too much OT. It’s not good to work people that many hours. They’re not as effective, not as alert. It takes a toll on their health. We have examples of where we’ve overused overtime, and we need to correct those.

Politically, the city council refuses to talk about privatizing services such as garbage, ambulance, even water. But could the city benefit from some privatization?

What’s important for us is to compare ourselves to the competition.

One thing the city hasn’t done is what I call “performance management,” which includes using metrics that measure how efficiently we provide services. We’re going to start doing that on July 1. That will give us data by which we can better see how we’re managing the organization, and to compare ourselves to the competition: other cities and the private sector. We should always be willing to provide

services in the most efficient and most effective way. It shouldn’t matter whether that service is provided by a public employee or a private-sector employee.

The city council is studying ways to fund a new performing arts theater. Is this the right time to think about replacing the Community Center Theater?

I’d like nothing more than to see the capital city of California have a first-class performing arts center.

The issue has always been money.

This debate started long before I became city manager. I’m just trying to get some decisions made. One of the weaknesses of Sacramento is we don’t have a lot of wealth and we don’t have a strong corporate base. In other communities, they do, plus large foundations. They can undertake projects as large as putting in a new performing arts center. I’d like for us to be able to do the same. Whether we can remains to be seen.

Sacramento was once a great agricultural processing center.

That’s gone. What’s our next great industry?

The recession showed us we have to have a diverse economy that doesn’t rely on government jobs and construction jobs. One of the things we’ve tried to do through the “Next Economy” plan is identify sectors for diversification, not just for the city but for the region. It identifies agriculture as a strength.

We are the capital of the richest agricultural valley in the world. We can rebuild that sector. It may have a different focus than it did in the past.

We’ve lost a lot of food processing businesses. That’s gone the way of a lot of manufacturing jobs. But where we have a strong possibility of gaining jobs is in the area of food research and food safety. With the presence of UC Davis, we can move into new areas of ag. We’ve got to look at how we can grow more food for a hungry land and a hungry world and make sure that food is safe. It’s false economic development to think we can just steal business from somewhere else.

We’ve got to grow our own.

Nobody’s talking about the downtown railyards anymore, with the arena moving to the downtown mall. What’s going on at the railyards?

I wish that project was moving faster than it is. The hang-up is there has to be an agreement reached with Inland American, which owns most of the land, and Union Pacific, which is the responsible party for the cleanup, and with a developer (Larry

Kelley’s Downtown Railyard Venture group). Those three parties need to come together and reach an agreement.

There’s little the city can do to force those parties to work together. But with Larry Kelley’s company, we have the best chance we’ve had to finally see private development activity in the railyards. The new courthouse project is still alive, but there isn’t funding. Again, some of these other things need to happen before the courthouse can move ahead. It all depends on an agreement about how future environmental liabilities on the property will be handled among those three parties.

There are seven residential infill projects in the works: Sutter Memorial, McKinley Village, Setzer, New Helvetia-Seavey Circle, Curtis Park railyards, Delta Shores and the downtown railyards. This is unprecedented.

How will you manage the impact on services and infrastructure?

It’s a wonderful sign for the city that we have that many projects pending. They are infill projects, and we are living up to the spirit and the word of The Blueprint, which was adopted sometime ago by our regional planning agency (SACOG)—that we should focus on infill. The obvious place for that is Sacramento, where we already have a concentration of jobs and we have more public transportation than other places. This is wonderful news for our economy, our air quality and environment. In terms of infrastructure, they will have to pay their share of the costs. They will have to be self-supporting. It’s our job to make sure they don’t become unfeasible for economic reasons, so we have to work hand in hand with the developers and property owners. I’ve tried to bring a spirit of cooperation with the private sector, so we’re doing things in partnership.

You will have at least three new city councilmembers this November. How are you getting along with the council?

I think we have a great council, both the one that hired me and the one we have now. It’s unusual for Sacramento

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to have so much turnover. We’ve had people such as Steve Cohn, who served for 20 years, and Bonnie Pannell, who served for 15 years. We won’t have those kinds of tenures any longer. But that presents an opportunity for new, perhaps younger leadership to step up and provide fresh ideas and help us achieve some of these goals, such as more jobs and a stronger economy.

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Strong mayor is on the ballot in November. You’re opposed.

Will you resign if it passes?

I’m a professional city manager.

That’s the career that I’ve chosen.

That’s what I believe in. I gravitated to this field because I felt it was the best form of local government.

Right now, I can’t imagine a scenario that would make me serve as city manager under a system other than the one we have in place now. But I also keep an open mind on these things.

R.E. Graswich can be reached at reg@graswich.com n

Neighborhood Real Estate Sales

The downtown arena is moving forward. What happens if the Kings come to the city midway into the project and say they need more money or else?

One of the strengths of this agreement, as opposed to the agreement that we had tentatively with the previous owners: This agreement makes it very clear that any additional costs or cost overruns are the obligations of the Kings and not the city. I’m not worried about that. It’s very clearly spelled out.

308 RIVER ISLE WAY 6360 CHETWOOD WAY 61 WINDUBEY CIR 19 ESTUARY CT 10 SEA CT 7647 ROMAN OAK WAY 7361 DURFEE WAY 443 DE MAR DR 7756 PARK RIVER OAK CIR 563 RIVERGATE WAY 6824 GLORIA DR 6319 N POINT WAY 6241 RIVERSIDE BLVD #201 7341 BARR WAY 15 WATERFRONT CT 737 EL MACERO WAY 40 ESTUARY CT 14 RIPPLE CT 508 ROUNDTREE CT 6875 CLAIBORNE WAY 6150 RIVERTON WAY 6705 FREEHAVEN DR 6457 S. LAND PARK DR 1107 ROUNDTREE CT 403 ROUNDTREE CT 7448 DELTAWIND DRIVE 1157 MONTE VISTA WAY 7720 OAKSHORE DR 109 BLUE WATER CIR 6456 S LAND PARK DR 825 FLORIN RD 775 PORTUGAL WAY 728 RIVERCREST DR 7268 FARM DALE WAY 23 PARK WEST CT 1065 SILVER LAKE DR 23 PARKSHORE CIR 1009 GREENHURST WAY 528 VALIM WAY

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INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

15

Her Just Desserts FREEPORT BAKERY CO-OWNER TAKES THE LEAD AT NATIONAL ORGANIZATION

BY JESSICA LASKEY SHOPTALK

B

akers share,” Marlene Goetzler says. “We’re very generous with information.”

Goetzler should know. As the coowner (with her husband, Walter) of the popular Freeport Bakery for the past 27 years, Goetlzer knows how far the exchange of information—recipes, business tips—can go toward making a bakery business soar. This acute acumen is perhaps part of the reason Goetzler was tapped this year to be president of Retail Bakers of America (RBA), a job that’s just as sweet as it sounds.

“The RBA has about 550 members and we focus on certification and education for bakers, including webinars and road shows,” says Goetzler, who has served on the RBA board for the past seven years.

“We have a service called Baker to Baker, a Web-based support group you can come to if you’re having a problem with an employee, if you have a question about a formula or a piece of equipment you’re using.

The only thing we don’t discuss is pricing.”

The group’s goal of bolstering bakers across the country is a challenging one and requires a lot of infrastructure, which is why when Goetzler took the reins, she had her work cut out for her.

“The current board is just amazing,” Goetzler says, “but when I first became involved with the RBA, the building (we’d had) 10 years ago in Washington, D.C., was gone, we only had four part-time employees”— down from 20 full-time—“and the

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Marlene Goetzler is co-owner of Freeport Bakery and the president of Retail Bakers of America

money was almost gone. We were looking at closing it down. We were even talking to an attorney, but we decided to give it one more try and

worked with a strategic planner and participated in full-day workshops back East.

“We just kept asking ourselves, ‘What do bakers want?’ ” The teamwork and dedication paid off. Not only is the RBA still in business, it’s thriving. Its widespread membership keeps Goetzler traveling frequently to attend the road shows that she sees as the backbone of the RBA’s mission.

“We used to do a big trade show every year, but had to eliminate that for the expense,” Goetzler says.

“Now that people can find and buy equipment online, the trade shows lost momentum. But we also lost the connection with people. Road shows allow you to network, to support each other and learn.”

In her new role as president, Goetzler travels to as many shows as she can, from Tucson to Long Island.

But she wouldn’t change her busy schedule for the world.

“As president, I’m going to support them,” Goetzler says. “We do hands-on workshops, bakery tours, educational classes and vendor display areas for local vendors. We try to go to places that have lots of bakeries but that don’t get the chance to go to big shows.

“If the show is in your town, you can have employees come and participate. We’re even bringing a road show to Sacramento in January 2015.”

So while Goetzler is running all over the country, who’s holding down the fort on Freeport Boulevard?

“I have a great support staff,” Goetzler says. “I’ve been able to be on the RBA board for the past several years without affecting the bakery.

We’re even doing a little facelift to

the front this summer, a little ‘zhuzhing.’ ” For this busy bakery business woman, life sounds pretty sweet.

Hungry for something delicious?

Check out Freeport Bakery at 2966 Freeport Blvd., call 442-4256 or go to freeportbakery.org Interested in all things baking?

Find out more at retailbakersofamerica.org

WHAT’S IN YOUR MATTRESS? Admit it. If you’ve had your mattress for at least a few years, perhaps even less, you’ve probably already noticed that dreaded “two dips and a hump” bedscape that is all too familiar to conventional mattress owners.

Save kicking out your bed partner (“Sorry, Hon, you make the mattress sag”), what’s an uncomfortable sleeper to do?

Jill and Chip Huckaby, owners of European Sleep Design, are out to fix that failed mattress model once and for all.

“You’re only as good as your weakest link,” Jill Huckaby says, “and polyurethane foam (traditional mattress cushioning) is the weakest link.”

Huckaby explains that conventional companies—she rattles off their names, and I definitely recognize my own mattress maker in that list—all use polyurethane (read: synthetic) foam cushioning as the top layer of their products.

“It’s the egg crate-looking stuff,” Huckaby says. “Memory foam is also polyurethane, just denser and heat sensitive. Densities can vary.

The softer, lesser-quality poly will compress faster, but if it’s really hard it’s not comfortable to lie on.

“Other companies are trying to sell you a $2,000 to $3,000 mattress that looks like it’s two stories high, but they’re using foam to build it up. You bought that 24-inch mattress, which just means there are more layers of cheap foam inside.”

Deflated density is one thing, but Huckaby also explains that polyurethane is made of petrochemicals, products that release

Jill and Chip Huckaby are the owners of European Sleep Design

volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as the mattress ages, not to mention the flame-retardant chemicals that are added to meet fire resistance laws.

But what if you’ve been smart and instead of relying on layers of foam, you’ve sprung for a spring mattress?

Metal coils can’t fail, right?

“The coils are tempered steel for rigidity,” Huckaby explains. “If you cut open a 5-, 10-, 20-year-old mattress, the coils are still usable, but the steel is so hard, it just holds your body mass up. It’s not conforming.

The foam on top is where the contour support comes from, and in short order, within months of purchase, it starts to compress and form body impressions.”

Huckaby is not trying to be an alarmist, but it is pretty frightening to think about all the compounds we could be ingesting just by trying to get a good night’s sleep. With all these scary stats, what’s the solution for true beauty rest?

“We’re not your typical mattress store,” Huckaby says. “We bring our components in from Europe. The German and Swedish designs are

more advanced, they put more effort into building products for durability and performance with natural, nontoxic materials.”

So how much better built is a European Sleep Design mattress?

“When you come in, you can feel and see the difference,” Huckaby says.

“We’re a full-disclosure company. All our mattresses have a zippered cover so you can inspect the internal organs of your mattress. The cover is made of knit organic cotton backed by a layer of organic merino wool, which means it has the pliability to conform to your body contours.

“Wool wicks moisture to keep your temperature regulated and acts as a natural fire barrier: flame retardants on other mattresses are known carcinogens, but our materials are all Öeko-Tex certified nontoxic.

“Next is a layer of all-natural latex that we source from Holland, which provides greater elasticity and a better feel. Then there are up to 3,500 micro coils—the support layers— from Germany and Sweden, which are high-grade steel and smaller in diameter than traditional coils so they

can nest like a honeycomb. They’re individually pocketed, which makes them very flexible and map very closely to your body.”

The final foundation of the mattress is a suspension system of flexible wooden slats that are entirely customizable to the sleeper’s support needs, even with two very different snoozers in one bed.

So what are you waiting for? Your best, most natural, comfortable sleep is just a mattress away.

Ready for some high-quality Zs? Contact the Huckabys at European Sleep Design at 989-8909, go to sleepdesign.com or visit their Folsom showroom at 6606 Folsom-Auburn Road, Suite 5.

YARD DUTY “After 30-plus years, you get to know a lot of people,” says Steve Demetre, owner and operator of Demetre Landscapes. That person-toperson connection is what has kept Demetre in business since 1984.

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3001 P St. Sacramento, CA

“I’d always been interested in landscaping,” Demetre says, “so when I left Bell Hardware Nursery & Landscape,” which he’d owned with his brother, Doug, since 1979, “I decided to start my own business.”

He loaded up on horticulture classes at California State University, Sacramento, American River College and UC Davis Extension so that when he and his business partner started Demetre Landscaping, he was more than ready.

Now, Demetre counts clients in numerous neighborhoods, including Rancho Cordova, the Pocket, Land Park, Curtis Park, Tahoe Park, East Sacramento, Fair Oaks, Carmichael and Citrus Heights, to name a few, and a stellar record with the Better Business Bureau.

“I operate on the premise that people are willing to wait patiently if they know you’re going to do a good job,” Demetre says. “We stay on the job 100 percent until it’s done. We don’t have two or three jobs going at one time. I work with the crew so it’s done right the first time.

“We’ve made a lot of people happy.”

So happy, in fact, that Demetre often does repeat business. Where he did a front yard, he’s called back “a year or 10” later to complete the backyard. The company can tackle so many yard issues that it’s no wonder

he’s so busy all the time: he and his crew handle irrigation, planting, sod, lighting, drainage, pruning, you name it—just no hardscaping.

“I’m 66 years old I don’t do that anymore,” Demetre says with a laugh.

The workload got even harder nine years ago, when his business partner died.

“He used to run the crew, but now it’s all me,” Demetre says. “I’ll drive the big loading truck before 2 p.m. and then switch to a smaller truck to do bids and repairs.”

And some tasks aren’t even landscape-related: Demetre regularly has customers call and ask his advice on where to find household items. Like with his landscaping, Demetre always takes the time to give his clients as much attention and accuracy as possible.

“It’s a comfort zone people have with me,” Demetre says. “As you can imagine, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve learned a lot over the years.

“And things run smoother when you’ve been doing it so long.”

Does your yard need some sprucing up? Call Demetre Landscapes at 6488455 or go to demetrelandscapes.com Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com n

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19

Trash to Treasure POWER INN ART PROJECT TURNS DUMPSTERS INTO CANVASES

BY DEBRA BELT ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

I

t was going to be a great idea or we were going to become a laughingstock,” says Sally Freedlander, vice chair of the Power Inn Alliance board of directors, about the Art of the Dumpster project on display this summer at 3101 Power Inn Road.

A look at the dumpsters painted by 10 regional artists confirms that it is a brilliant idea. From bold to cool to glistening chrome, the lowly receptacles have been transformed into symbols of creativity and possibility. “To see what these artists did, how they took one thing and turned it into something completely different, is just one small example of what we can do with our surroundings,” Freedlander says.

Commissioned by Power Inn Alliance, which advocates for the Power Inn business and transportation triangle, and curated

by Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, Art of the Dumpster brings together artists Brenda Louie, Nathan Cordero, Waylon Homer, John Berger, Gioia Fonda, Jim Piskoti, Mark Emerson, Joy Bertinuson, Robert Ortbal and Susan Silvester in an exhibit in which 22-foot-long dumpsters serve as their canvases.

Each artist brought a different approach to the project. Together, the works form a cohesive statement of ingenuity.

Emerson, a veteran painter, transferred his trademark bold and geometric style to an Atlas Disposal dumpster using exterior house paint and 11 daring colors including black, turquoise, orange and light pink.

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POCKET JUL n 14

The Art of the Dumpster project on display this summer at 3101 Power Inn Road features artwork by 10 regional artists

"Bulldozer with Passengers" by John Piskoti

This, he says, is the largest piece he’s ever worked on. The dumpster was “rusty and dirty,” he says, but he wiped it down, scraped off the Atlas label and went to work, spending about six weeks to lay down a double coat of paint and pattern.

Silvester went after her dumpster with a spray washer and primer paint.

“There was rust and gunk and the surface was slick,” she says. Using house paint and acrylics, Silvester created an elaborate forest scene with dreamlike characters. One side depicts daytime in pale green and

blue. On the other side, nighttime is rendered in deep blues. “I don’t see it as a dumpster,” Silvester says. “It’s another surface, a blank space that needed painting.”

Piskoti, a retired art professor, tapped into the trash aspect of his dumpster. Large yellow bulldozers dominate the surface of his work, and purple mountains of garbage make up the background. Seagulls and a skunk watch over the scene.

LED lights extend upward to indicate puffs of smoke from the bulldozers.

“I remember going to the city dump,” he says, “and I was struck by this surreal apocalyptic scene of garbage and bulldozers and seagulls. It was an out-of-this-world experience, and it’s played out every day all over the world.”

Piskoti’s visual commentary reflects the active industry in the Power Inn area, which Freedlander describes as a center for innovation,

green jobs and repurposing. The area’s Atlas Disposal is on the “cutting edge of trash, using anaerobic digestion for waste management and employing food waste to run trucks,” she says. “The Art of the Dumpster project initiates inventive thinking and uses art, business and advocacy to draw people into the heartbeat of the Power Inn area.”

Ortbal says this was a different kind of project that called for a different kind of approach. He sorted through 10 possible ideas and opted to have his dumpster painted in chrome. Working with Sacramento Chrome & Paint, Ortbal specified a line near the bottom of the dumpster that shows the original surface in varying degrees. “I was trying to get at perceiving the world in a different way—our ethereal nature versus our corporal nature,” he explains. It’s a conceptual piece with a lot of nuance.

Chrome is a highly reflective surface that functions like a mirror, tapping into our narcissistic tendencies. (Some people may check their reflection when viewing the piece.) Ortbal also predicts that the photographic appeal

of the chrome piece will be a magnet for social media.

With all the work and creativity invested in the project, one question looms: What will happen to the dumpsters after this summer’s exhibit? Emerson says he wouldn’t mind if his dumpster returned to its original purpose. But according to Freedlander, it will be impossible to send the dumpsters back to their former life. “We plan to take the collection and sprinkle it throughout the Power Inn community at entry and focal points,” she says. “Our next task is to identify areas and work with landowners to place the art there. We are very optimistic.”

Freedlander says she hopes the art will encourage community dialogue and interaction all summer long with Second Saturday celebrations July 12 and Aug. 9 and free public access from sunup to sundown every day through Aug. 30.

For more information about Art of the Dumpster, go to powerinn.org/art Debra Belt can be reached at fab. studio@att.net n

Joy Bertinuson created a functional piece inspired by a parklet, which invites visitors to sit down and relax

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21

The Misunderstood Pit Bull BRINGING HOME A DOG WITH A BAD REP AND A SWEET DISPOSITION

BY R.E. GRASWICH CITY BEAT

A

year or two after our family dog, a stray German shepherd named Jade, died a peaceful death from old age, my wife Elizabeth decided we needed a new family pet. There were three conditions. The new dog had to be female. She had to be an orphan from the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter. And she had to be something other than a pit bull.

My wife had never been around pit bulls. She had no personal experience with the breed. She just didn’t like them. Her prejudice was the classic type that grows from the toxic brew of myth and fear and media reports and legends, some true, some embroidered, some lies, all repeated relentlessly until they harden into accepted fact.

I was in no position to argue.

Pit bulls can be dangerous. They are extraordinarily powerful. Their strength can intensify negative consequences of behavior that would be considered normal in other breeds.

Many of them have been notoriously tormented by sadistic human captors and exploited for violence.

There was another consideration.

By the time my wife was ready for her new dog, I had been serving

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POCKET JUL n 14

Elizabeth Graswich and Madeleine Rose

as a volunteer at the Front Street shelter for a few years. I had taken dog-handling classes and knew how to safely remove a 65-pound pit bull from his kennel, leash him and take him for a walk. (Pit bulls are far easier to remove than a trio of Chihuahuas, which can bolt through the smallest opening and dash madly through the shelter. They have done this to me twice.)

Thus experienced, I thought it only fair to warn my wife before we toured the shelter: We will see pit bulls,

more pit bulls, a few fill-in-the-blank breeds, a Chihuahua or three, and pit bulls. I told her: “It’s not the shelter’s fault, but pit bulls are really overbred in Sacramento, and a lot of them end up in the shelter, and, well, you’re going to run into a lot of them.”

The warning didn’t bother Elizabeth. Determined to rescue a shelter dog, she pressed ahead. She counted on the fill-in-the-blanks to make her day.

When we entered the kennel area, the first two young females we saw

were Coconut and Paisley, both brown and white, about 50 pounds. Clearly pit bulls. Elizabeth peered into the kennels. She read the information cards. Both dogs had been at the shelter for about three months.

Neither looked sinister. They were sort of cute. Elizabeth agreed to meet them, one at a time, in the socializing yard, a fenced area at the back of the shelter.

Coconut arrived first. Aloof, calm and indifferent, she did nothing to sell herself. Fair enough. Next we brought out Paisley. She sniffed us, then patrolled the fence line, nose to the ground, tail wagging, enjoying her freedom. She came back and sniffed us again. She was pleased to be out of her kennel but didn’t want to make any emotional attachments, as if she had been disappointed by people and wasn’t ready for more rejection.

My wife looked at me and said, “What do you think?” Before I could answer, she said, “I want her.”

Paisley, to judge from her astonishingly white teeth, was about 1 year old. She was not spayed, a condition that under shelter laws would have to change before she could come home. We paid our fees and were instructed to return in four days, after surgery.

On the appropriate day, Paisley was handed over. We were warned she was raw from surgery and would be groggy and sensitive. (She was neither, oblivious to her scar.) We were required to sign up for pit bull training classes.

I won’t say the first few weeks were easy. Madeleine Rose—we ditched the name Paisley—ate two wooden door moldings and chewed on the leg of an antique bedroom bureau.

In late afternoon, she would become

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One afternoon, she raced around and leaped onto the dining room table.

We attended classes with other pit bull people at the county shelter on Bradshaw Road. We were not the best students. We joked too much and let Madeleine lead us around.

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Madeleine stopped eating furniture and behaving like Curly Howard. She

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Today, ask Elizabeth about pit bulls and she will say they’re the finest dogs on earth. She will say they are mistreated, misunderstood and need only love, a love they will happily return if given half a chance. We can prove she’s right.

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23

Family Friendly A LAND PARK HOUSE GETS A 21ST-CENTURY MAKEOVER

BY JULIE FOSTER HOME INSIGHT

“A really nice family lived here before us and raised their kids here.

It had a good feel.�

W

ith the idea of children in their future, Scott and Gayle Govenar knew they needed more space than their two-bedroom, one-bath house could

24

POCKET JUL n 14

provide. So when a 3,600-squarefoot house facing William Land Park came on the market, they were interested.

In 2005, they became the third owners of the house, built in 1951

by Newton Cope. (Cope is famous locally as the man who turned an 1853 firehouse in Old Sac into The

Firehouse Restaurant.) Though the house had been well maintained, it needed updating and reconfiguring.

Scott, a fan of midcentury modern HOME page 26

INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

25

The existing crystal chandelier, though not technically midcentury modern, worked perfectly in the room, so the Govenars left it in place in a tribute to the original home.

HOME FROM page 24 architecture, envisioned a home that combined their need for more family space with the clean, modern look he appreciated.

“Scott had the vision for this house,” says Gayle. “I don’t think I have that kind of vision for seeing how we could open it up and achieve what we wanted.” What she appreciated was the house’s familyfriendly vibe. “A really nice family lived here before us and raised their kids here,” she explains. “It had a good feel.”

Remodeling took eight months.

Wanting no delay once the project commenced, they stored all the appliances and materials in the garage before building began. During construction, the couple lived in the house except for two occasions: when the maple flooring was installed and when the walls were plastered.

The house needed major updating of its heating, plumbing and electrical systems.

“When you buy an older house, you have the expectation that you will need to do these things,” Scott explains. “And you have to have contingencies since you don’t know what’s behind those old walls.”

The interior was a mishmash of colors and patterns. The light fixtures

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POCKET JUL n 14

and window coverings were outdated, and concrete tiles covered most of the floor, though the white carpeting in the living room was spotless.

The front and back yards needed attention.

Previous owners had painted the living room’s flagstone fireplace white.

Adding a raised concrete hearth stained a warm brown, along with shelving and cabinets of zebrawood, added a warm snap of color.

The couple refreshed the dining room by removing the draperies and a set of accordion doors and painting the walls. The existing crystal chandelier, though not technically midcentury modern, worked perfectly in the room, so the Govenars left it in place in a tribute to the original home.

Creating an open, efficient area for family and social gatherings meant reconfiguring the kitchen. The couple removed a wall and relocated a small bathroom. A new pantry created more storage space and lessened counter clutter. A new entryway allows for an enticing visual sweep of 60 feet through the kitchen and playroom to the revitalized backyard.

Anigre, an African hardwood, was used for the kitchen cabinets.

Countertops are dark gray flecked with black. Dark-blue concrete tops

The Govenar family

the island. On the walls, glass tiles in light blue and opaque white are interspersed with small blue ceramic Spanish accent tiles.

Throughout the house, art by local artists including Joan Moment, Darrell Forney, Gary Dinnen, Eric Dahlin, Peter and Camille VandenBerge, John Tarahteeff, Alan Post, Shirley Hazlett and Ianna Frisby adorns walls and shelves.

“A good designer who is willing to work outside the box smoothes the entire process. It is really an exercise in flexibility.� “Sacramento has an incredibly robust art scene with some of the most talented artists.� Gayle explains. “We enjoy supporting them and their work. We especially enjoy meeting them on the Studio Arts tour in September.�

Landscaping, which took a year, began once interior work was complete. What was a “sea of grass� in the front yard became a charming entry/family area buffered from the street, yet still offering views of the park. “We wanted a place where we

could sit and the kids could play,�

Gayle says.

Local landscape architect David Gibson planted a hedge of Grecian laurel to divide the space into two distinct areas. On one side of the hedge is a grassy street-side verge. On the other, there’s a patio and a grassy area for children to romp. The frontentry gate is made of powder-coated steel in a simple geometric pattern.

Built from artificial flagstones painted white, the backyard fireplace creates a visual link between the inside and outside spaces.

Utilizing artificial flagstones saved a considerable sum as well. Artificial turf in a shady spot of the backyard play area keeps the children and the sweet family dog from tracking mud into the house.

Looking back on the project, Gayle says she was astounded by the number of decisions involved in remodeling an older home. The process, she points out, requires patience and a sense of humor. “A good designer who is willing to work outside the box smoothes the entire process,� she says, noting the contributions made by designers Kari Miner and Cheryl Holben, Kristy Lingner of River City Builders and landscape designer Gibson. “It is really an exercise in flexibility.�

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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27

Soccer Star SACRAMENTO REPUBLIC FOOTBALL CLUB PRESIDENT SHOOTS FOR THE MAJOR LEAGUE

BY R.E. GRASWICH SPORTS AUTHORITY

W

arren Smith was in high school when he played his first soccer game.

He survived less than one minute.

As the game began, the ball came toward Smith. An opposing player executed a technique known as the slide tackle. The opponent slid into Smith and Smith’s leg snapped.

The broken bone ended his soccer career.

Fortunately for Sacramento soccer fans, the devastation of a high school sports injury didn’t destroy Smith’s appreciation for soccer or sports.

Today, as president of the Sacramento Republic Football Club professional soccer team, Smith is trying to lead the city to the promised land of bigtime soccer.

He’s off to an impressive start. The Republic, which two summers ago was a figment of Smith’s imagination, is the hottest ticket in town, with about 5,100 season ticket holders and more box-office demand than can be satisfied. Not bad for a club that lacks a permanent home and plays in a developmental minor league.

“We’ve been blessed with early success,” Smith says. “But I tell our

28

POCKET JUL n 14

Warren Smith is president of Sacramento Republic Football Club

people we’ve got a long way to go.

This is only the beginning.”

Smith knows about pacing and patience. He has seen countless pro sports teams disintegrate in Sacramento, from indoor (and outdoor) soccer and outdoor (and indoor) football to hockey. Amid the wreckage of broken franchises, Smith can present himself as a unique Sacramento sports promoter, the guy who has done it right, twice.

About 18 years ago, Smith and Bob Hemond dreamed up Raley Field and the Sacramento River Cats, which became one of the most successful minor-league baseball teams in history. Smith went on to run minor-

league baseball and soccer franchises in Portland, Ore., rescuing them from bankruptcy and helping turn them into multimillion-dollar assets. He did this without leaving Sacramento.

Today, Smith is applying the triumphs and errors from his sports background to the Republic, which is building a temporary home at Cal Expo after selling out three games at Hughes Stadium on the Sac City College campus.

“It’s pretty basic,” he says. “We keep close watch on our expenses and put our focus on marketing and promotion. Sports teams get in trouble because they spend too much.

We won’t do that.”

For an entrepreneur who has inspired soccer fans across the Sacramento region to buy Republic tickets, hats, shirts and scarves, Smith has a professionally detached view about soccer. Maybe it’s the broken leg.

“Let me make it clear, I love soccer,” he says. “But what we’re doing isn’t about soccer. It’s about Sacramento. We want to give Sacramento an attraction where people can gather and have fun and celebrate our community.”

Soccer is the perfect vehicle for Smith’s dream of community involvement because Sacramento loves soccer. Before Smith sold one

Republic ticket, he immersed himself in data that confirmed 130,000 soccer players in the region and some of the nation’s highest TV ratings for World Cup matches. He knew pro soccer would work, if the product, marketing and promotion were done right.

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“Let me make it clear, I love soccer,” he says. “But what we’re doing isn’t about soccer. It’s about Sacramento. We want to give Sacramento an attraction where people can gather and have fun and celebrate our community.”

One early challenge was hooking up with the right league. In the United States, pro soccer leagues come and go like commuter trains, leaving and arriving on the hour. Smith went with the USL Pro league, a 14-city alignment with player development pipelines to the big-time, Major League Soccer.

That’s why Smith cautions Republic employees about getting too excited about early success. The long-term goal is full membership in the MLS. Smith won’t celebrate until the Republic and Sacramento are established as MLS material.

“We need three things to get an MLS franchise,” Smith says. “First, we need a proven market. We’re demonstrating that right now.

Second, we need representative owners. We’ll have that. And third, we need a downtown urban stadium, or at least a clear path to one with site control and a financing plan.”

The stadium piece is most difficult.

Smith is considering eight sites around the downtown grid, including the railyards, where a new arena for the Kings was planned before the

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switch to Downtown Plaza. Smith figures he will need $100 million for an 18,000-seat pro stadium. He hopes taxpayers will agree to subsidize about $30 million.

Talk of a rival suburban MLS stadium in Elk Grove doesn’t bother Smith. The MLS, he says, isn’t interested in suburban stadiums, noting, “They’ve learned the model works best in the urban core, where you generate excitement before and after games, which only last 90 minutes.”

For the next few years, the Cal Expo stadium, named Bonney Field after the plumbing company, will have to satisfy Sacramento’s thirst for soccer. With only 8,000 seats at Cal Expo, Smith worries about disappointing eager fans. He knows selling tickets can be either the easiest thing or the hardest thing in sports.

An afternoon with Author Bill George July 17th Call for details!

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Friendships blossom at our picturesque lodge, where you can join in on the recreation and excursions, spend time on the putting green or in the garden, or meet friends over tasty meals in our dining room. Surrounded by three acres of trees and minutes from downtown Sacramento, Eskaton Monroe Lodge is a country-like retreat with city advantages. Convenient services keep life easy (and fun).

Join us for our guest lecturer Bill George on July 17 to learn fascinating facts about the transcontinental railroad.

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29

Nice Guys Win TAKE A MOMENT TO SAY SOMETHING UPLIFTING OR ENCOURAGING

is an effort “to say something nice, uplifting or encouraging.”

Well, I thought, as I left the office to visit patients, this should be easy.

I may have missed the formal day, but I can still salvage the sentiment.

After all, chaplains get paid to avoid derogatory comments and promote uplifting things.

BY NORRIS BURKES SPIRIT MATTERS

R

ecently I was sitting in my hospital office, staring at the June calendar, when I noticed I’d missed participating in the eighth annual Say Something Nice Sunday on June 1.

In case you missed it, too, the day was organized by a Baptist church in Charleston, S.C., to encourage people to be nice. Participants are asked to take a two-part Civility Pledge.

The first part contains a promise to “Refrain from saying anything ugly, demeaning or derogatory to anyone in my workplace.” The second part

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“Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.”

At a nearby nurses’ station, I saw my first opportunity to kick off my pledge drive. Behind the desk sat a familiar doctor wearing a bright checked shirt.

“I like that pink shirt, doctor,” I said.

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He responded with a glare.

“He doesn’t think it’s pink,” a nurse said in his defense. “He says it’s orange.”

“Aren’t those red squares on a white background?” I asked her.

“Don’t red and white make pink?”

“I tried to tell him that,” she whispered. The doctor dismissively swiveled his chair away from us.

This “nice” stuff wasn’t as easy as it sounds. I was beginning to wonder if nice guys really do finish last.

An hour later, I was back in my office charting patient visits when my email program chirped. Hoping the Baptists were sending revised instructions, I quickly checked my in-box.

The email was from Rev. Christopher Flesoras, a Greek Orthodox priest from Roseville. He’s a newly commissioned chaplain in the Air National Guard and is in line to replace me when I retire next month.

His email contained a nice thank-you for my mentorship during the past year.

He sounded as if he could be bucking to become grand marshal of the Say Something Nice Sunday Parade, even.

But his note, like his recent life, took a solemn turn. Flesoras asked for prayers for his 41-year-old wife, Krissy, as she undergoes more clinical trials for lung cancer.

“Please ask your readers to pray for Krissy,” he said. “Every prayer lifted up and intercession with God is a blessing for her and, by extension, for our family.”

This athletic mother of two had been battling lung cancer for the past two years. And before you ask, she never smoked cigarettes. In fact, she’s

the one out of every nine lung-cancer victims stricken through apparently no fault of their own.

Wow. Here was a guy who took a moment, literally on his way to the doctor’s office with his sick wife, to say something nice to me. His words were a true reflection of Apostle Paul’s admonition in Colossians 4:5-6: “Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.”

Wow. Here was a guy who took a moment, literally on his way to the doctor’s office with his sick wife, to say something nice to me.

At the end of the day, I’ll be taking the Say Something Nice pledge because people like Flesoras inspire me to believe that being nice to others just might help our world. And just to be clear, I know June 1 has passed, but I’m thinking we’ll need more than just one Sunday a year.

Norris Burkes is a chaplain, syndicated columnist, national speaker and author of the book “No Small Miracles.” He has posted a link to Krissy Flesoras’ blog documenting her saga and providing resources for those who support people with lung cancer on his website, the chaplain. net n

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31

Moving Past Trauma FORMER REFUGEE HELPS FELLOW IMMIGRANTS FIND A SAFE HARBOR

emasculated by a system in which they have no jobs, no stature and no power. Depression, domestic violence and divorce are epidemic. “Those who make it do so only after years of trial and tribulation,” says Koga.

“We refugees come from cultures with a communal mentality,” he observes. “In the American system, there is no discrimination; everybody is equally disregarded.”

BY TERRY KAUFMAN LOCAL HEROES

M

arius Koga is an expert on the traumatic effects of war, deprivation, dislocation and transplantation.

He has spent years studying posttraumatic stress disorder, tracking the psychological landscape of refugee populations resettled in the United States and writing scholarly works on the science behind the debilitating brain changes that plague these populations. He holds degrees in medicine and public health from prestigious universities and is a well-respected international expert on PTSD. Even if he didn’t have these credentials, Koga would be an expert: He spent more than a decade imprisoned, beaten and tortured in postwar Romania, where he incurred the wrath of the Communist government for speaking out against the psychological control of political dissidents. He fled under cover of night in 1989 to a refugee camp in Serbia, leaving behind everything he had known, then found his way to the United States, a land of both opportunity and lack of interest. “We refugees come from cultures with a communal mentality,” he observes.

“In the American system, there is no

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Marius Koga is an expert on the traumatic effects of war, deprivation, dislocation and transplantation

discrimination; everybody is equally disregarded.”

For immigrants whose wounds are still fresh, that sink-or-swim mentality is one more nightmare with which they must cope. Koga himself struggled with the demons of his immigrant experience while establishing a career, as well as a home for his wife and two children,

in Sacramento. He knew that he was more fortunate that most. “These refugees move from pre-migration trauma to post-migration stress,” he says. In addition to a new language, they are expected to learn a new culture, new ways of interacting, new definitions of right and wrong. Men who once held important jobs and supported families find themselves

Koga ended up using his own immigrant experience to change the way California’s health system manages these fragile communities.

As the director of refugee health research for UC Davis’s School of Medicine, he oversees a system that is tracking, in real time, the mental health of large groups of immigrants across the state. Physicians at nine major county clinics are capturing data on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and disparities among patients and transmitting it to Koga’s team. “We’re getting a GPS on the lives of refugees,” he says, “profiling them and seeing pathologies.”

He also founded VIRTIS, the Veteran, Immigrant and Refugee Trauma Institute of Sacramento, a nonprofit whose logo is Odysseus’s ship. Like Odysseus, immigrants

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Funded by Koga and other volunteers, VIRTIS provides critical services and resources to refugees, including free psychological counseling, mentoring by former refugees with similar backgrounds, and training for educators and law enforcement personnel who regularly interact with refugees. Koga receives no salary for his work; it is a labor of love. He points with pride to the partnership between VIRTIS and UC Davis Medical School. “We want to recruit others to underwrite this work,” he says. “My biggest challenge is ensuring that VIRTIS will continue even if people leave. I

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want to translate it into a model that is bigger, wiser and smarter.”

The organization’s original focus on refugees from Eastern Europe has expanded to encompass refugees from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other turbulent regions. VIRTIS is steeling itself for an influx of Syrian refugees over the next few years. For Koga, the stories continue to resonate. “I was a refugee myself,” he says. “I remember the border guards and the dogs. I look at everyone as myself. I hear stories of loss, grief, trauma, confusion. My years of imprisonment are nothing compared to what I hear.”

He sees an even deeper purpose to his work. “I’ve written about the anatomy of evil, and my work with refugees keeps me close to the source of evil,” says Koga. “I have empathy but also a desire to fight the enemy.

I want to get beyond what happened to me and ask, ‘How is it possible for people to do this?’”

For more information about VIRTIS, go to virtis-ptsd.org Terry Kaufman can be reached at terry@1greatstory.com n

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33

Tag, You’re It! WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO LABEL YOUR PLANTS

BY ANITA CLEVENGER GARDEN JABBER

M

y husband gave me a set of tall metal plant markers for our garden years ago. They are still on a shelf in the garage. Back then, I knew the names and locations of everything I’d planted. Labels were for public gardens and forgetful gardeners.

Not for me.

I still know the names of my 60-odd roses, but it sometimes takes me a moment to pull them out of my memory. Will there be a time when I can’t recall them at all? Already I don’t remember the identities of other plants in my garden or in the driveway “pot ghetto.” Once, they all had plastic stick tags, but many are now gone or illegible. Not only do I forget their names, but I don’t remember what I’ve planted or where.

I dig into forgotten dormant bulbs in the winter, wonder what is popping up in the spring and mourn the loss of a small smothered plant during fall cleanup. I need to do better at keeping track.

Things are much better organized in the public gardens where I volunteer. In the Historic Rose Garden in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, we list all of the roses

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by location in a database, and we hang laminated tags on each rose.

Water-efficient plants at Fair Oaks Horticulture Center are marked with sturdy metal stakes bearing plant labels. It’s good information for visitors and gardeners alike.

Many kinds of plant markers, mounted on wires or stakes, are sold in garden centers and online.

There are some drawbacks to putting upright markers in the garden. I’ve tripped over them again and again.

Inexpensive ones bend out of shape.

Heavy-duty ones can hurt you. They may get overgrown or moved out of position. Still, it’s a simple way to mark what you have—or what you have lost. A sign next to a dead plant or in an empty space may indicate that a plant is gone for good or is just dormant and will come back.

Gardeners are optimists and know that hope and some plants spring eternally.

Every potted plant in my garden came with a label on its pot or a tag stuck into the pot. I find plastic “stick tags” all over the place, like little white grave markers reminding me of dearly departed plants.

My friend Barbara Oliva says that tags “go walking.” While I’ve never seen one move on its own, I’ve watched squirrels toss them aside as they frantically bury a nut, and I’ve heard about dogs or children pulling

them out. Worse yet, kids sometimes move the tags around. Tags break, get buried or fall out. For a while, I used popsicle sticks, but they are only good for a little while until they rot. Plastic or metal is much more durable and more likely to stay put if attached to something rather than stuck into the soil. For roses and other plants with woody stems, you can use wraparound plastic tags that loop and lock. You can also punch a hole into a stick tag and attach it to the plant, its pot or support, or a stake. The tags for my tomatoes are at eye level, fastened onto each cage with a zip tie.

Our favorite material for fastening hanging tags in the cemetery rose garden is strips of nylon stockings, which are an increasingly rare commodity now that women wear pants or go bare-legged. The nylon

is soft, unobtrusive and rots away after a couple of years. More sturdy materials can damage the plant.

Twine, string and wire all have their advocates.

Most “permanent” marking pens will fade in the sun, leaving faint frustrating traces. A soft pencil makes surprisingly durable markings. Other alternatives are printed labels, paint pens or garden pens.

There are many creative ways to label your plants. I’ve visited friends’ gardens where they paint the names of roses onto rocks, plates or handmade ceramic plaques. If you aren’t into garden art, you can make a schematic map of your garden, identifying the locations of your plants. Many people use garden journals to write down what they’ve planted and where, illustrating them with sketches or photos. A simple list of what you’ve planted is better than what I usually do: digging a hole, thrusting a plant into it and losing its tag in the process.

A rose by any name smells as sweet. If you want to know how to take care of it, buy another just like it or recommend it to a friend, you need to know what the heck it is.

Anita Clevenger is a lifetime Sacramento County UC Master Gardener. For answers to gardening questions, call 875-6913 or go to ucanr.edu/sites/sacmg n

Another reason to have the right living trust: Your daughter-in-law, Lucy • She has at least three personal shoppers on speed dial.

• Her poodle owns more designer clothing than you do.

• She suggests “upgrades” to your home each time she visits.

• She thinks you can buy happiness – and she measures it in karats.

• She likes to be seen at the trendiest night clubs in town; your son prefers to stay home with the kids.

What if your estate ended up in her control? Call me for a free consultation and learn how you can plan for the “Lucy” in your life. Or visit www.wyattlegal.com.

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35

Many Hats MORE THAN AN ACTOR, HE ALSO WRITES, TEACHES, DIRECTS AND DOES VOICEOVERS

BY JESSICA LASKEY ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

W

hen people use the term “Renaissance man,” they’re usually being generous. If you’re using it to describe Matt K. Miller, you’re being accurate.

Miller is one of those rare artistic professionals who does more than just act. He also directs, teaches, writes award-winning plays and lends his expressive, resonant voice to everything from commercials to anime. Yes, you read that right: anime.

“When I was living in Los Angeles, I submitted a cassette tape—that tells you how long ago it was—to an anime producer I knew,” says Miller, who was cast as Tenchi in the Cartoon Network anime series “Tenchi Muyô!”

Miller’s cartoon work is just one fascinating facet of his career, which started back in his native Rockville Centre, N.Y. He did theater in high school and college, then looked for a place where he could spread his wings.

He didn’t want to go straight to New York without a union card, so he headed to Chicago instead. It was the early 1980s, a good time to be an actor in the Windy City. With consistent acting work, it wasn’t long before he earned his membership card for all three unions: Actors’ Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. After eight years in Chicago, Miller moved to Los Angeles in 1990.

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Matt Miller

“I really tried to do it all in L.A.,” Miller says. “I got a lot of anime work because I could record really fast. You have to be able to act, have a character and match the ‘lip flap’ of the animation. It’s tricky, but I happened to have a knack for it.”

There, he added to his résumé, working in anime, theater, television and film. He had roles on the soap operas “Santa Barbara” and “General Hospital” and appeared in the film “Gods and Generals.” But Miller wasn’t satisfied living in L.A. “I was working a lot but had no real artistic satisfaction,” he admits.

“I wasn’t happy in L.A. My first marriage was breaking up, and I

found I was happier doing work out of town.”

A majority of those out-of-town opportunities were coming from Sacramento Theatre Company, where Miller was performing regularly. (In fact, the first time I ever saw Miller onstage was at STC in 2003 in “Fully Committed,” a manic one-man show in which Miller played a total of 40 distinct characters.) STC’s thenartistic director, Peggy Shannon, loved working with Miller so much that she offered to keep him busy onstage if he moved to Sacramento.

Move Miller did, in the one week he had off between “Fully Committed” and his next show.

"I rented a truck, packed up my stuff in L.A. and got outta Dodge,” Miller says.

Now situated in Sacramento, Miller has worked as both an actor and director with nearly every professional theater company in town, including STC, B Street Theatre, Capital Stage and New Helvetia. He even served as STC’s artistic director during the 2010-2011 season. But it was his connection to Sacramento Shakespeare Festival that got him going on his current career track.

"I directed ‘Twelfth Night’ for the festival,” Miller recalls, “and because the plays are technically part of a class at Sacramento City College, the

school made me an adjunct professor so I could direct. After ‘Twelfth Night,’ they offered me Storytime— directing children’s theater—and this year I’ll be teaching Intro to Acting as well.”

“I really tried to do it all in L.A. I got a lot of anime work because I could record really fast.

You have to be able to act, have a character and match the ‘lip flap’ of the animation."

Miller is not new to teaching, considering he’s done one-on-one actor coaching for years as well as led master classes for STC’s Young Professionals Conservatory and

sessions at various summer camps.

But teaching gives him the stability he was longing for, especially since settling down with his wife, Katherine, and having a child.

“People kept telling Kat that she should meet me,” Miller says.

(You can hear his grin all the way through the phone.) “So many people tried to set us up that she thought, ‘Is he paying you people?!’” The persistence paid off: After a six-month engagement, the pair married onstage at STC in May 2006 and welcomed their son, Max, two years later.

While Miller and his wife are both professional actors, they might have to make way for the newest addition to the acting clan. “Max played Tiny Tim in ‘A Christmas Carol’ at STC,” Miller says proudly. “He stole the show. Now he’s been asking when he can be in a show again.”

With a Renaissance man like Miller as his dad, you can sure that Max will be wowing the world in no time. n

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Celebrating Spiritual Awareness COMMUNITY SUPPORT GROUP HOSTS HOLIDAY CARNIVAL

By Jessica Laskey RIVER CITY PREVIEWS

Y

ou can celebrate not only the founding of our fair nation, but also the universal good that lives in us all at the Center for Spiritual Awareness’ 4th of July Carnival: Picnic & Performance in West Sacramento.

The CSA was founded in 1998 to provide compassionate, spiritual support to its members and the community at large—regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation—under the spiritual leadership of the Rev. Georgia Prescott. Combine that with traditional Fourth of July fare (hot dogs, potato salad and apple pie), original performances and familyfriendly activities galore, and you’ve got one kickin’ carnival.

Festivities begin at noon, when children are turned loose outside the CSA’s 12,500-square-foot facility to bop in the bounce houses, enjoy the slick Slip ’n’ Slide, get their faces painted and dunk (or get dunked) in the dunk tank. At 1:30 p.m., the CSA Teens group will present an original theater piece, “America the Change,” that incorporates spoken word, dance

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Scene from the Center for Spiritual Awareness' 4th July Carnival. Photo by David Seals Photography

and musical duets on cello and violin to explore their experiences growing up American.

Next, the team at Generation Next Media will perform “The Living Constitution: A Lively Look at the Creation of America,” which was commissioned by the Sacramento Public Library for its 2012 “One Book” celebration and has since been performed around the region at elementary schools, high schools and churches. The witty, high-energy romp through 250 years of the making of a nation will have history buffs, patriotic parents and energetic kids highly entertained.

Admission to the picnic is free.

Admission for both performances is a suggested donation of $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12, though no one will be turned away for inability to pay. Satisfy your hunger with a hot dog, potato salad and

beverage combo for $2, plus plenty of separate side dishes and desserts to choose from.

For more information, call CSA at 374-9177. The Center for Spiritual Awareness is at 1275 Starboard Drive in West Sacramento.

ROCK THE CROCKER Summer is in full swing, so why not cool off and catch some even cooler activities at the Crocker Art Museum this month?

First up is Art Mix/Hip Hop from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 10.

Get hyped for everything hip-hop including live performances by FLOW Sacramento (featuring the Element Brass Band), hip-hop DJ sets by Sacramento’s best mix-masters, a music video showcase presented by Sol Collective, a DIY beat laboratory and writing workshop, wearable

mix tape art making, plus in-gallery performances by Foreign Native.

Shop at the Hip Hop Pop Up Shop for local music, merchandise and more, enjoy under-$5 drink specials all night and 10-minute talks on the current exhibition “African American Art: The Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond If classical music is more your jam, don’t miss the Classical Concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 13, featuring musicians from the Camellia Symphony under the direction of conductor Christian Baldini.

The concert will highlight female composers and their compelling stories, and music, to complement the “Workt by Hand: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts” exhibition.

Be a cool cat and get down at the Jazz in the Courtyard concert at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 17, featuring PREVIEWS page 40

INSIDE

OUT P.A.C.T. (Pocket Area Churches Together) held its second annual Bike or Walk to Church event on Sunday, May 25. Following Sunday worship services, a progressive lunch was served to more than 100 attendees from four churches including Riverside Wesleyan Church, Greenhaven Lutheran Church, Faith Presbyterian Church and St. Anthony’s Parish.

More than 100 attended the event. P.A.C.T. was created by pastors from Pocket-Greenhaven churches to bring people of faith together to do community service projects.

Stephen Becker of Greenhaven Lutheran Church, Loreto B. Rojas, Jr. of St. Anthony Parish Michael Higley, Sr of Riverside Wesleyan Church and Jeff Chapman of Faith Presbyterian Church

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PREVIEWS FROM page 38 MJ’s Brass Boppers, a “singing and swinging” party band that will transport you to New Orleans with its sensational Southern sound. Tickets are $6 for members, $10 for students and kids, $12 for nonmembers.

Has your tyke ever dreamed of being locked in a museum overnight like Ben Stiller in the kooky adventure movie “Night at the Museum”? From 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 24, make their dreams a reality with the Night at the Museum event presented by the Crocker with the help of the Sacramento Theatre Company. Kids can wear their PJs or dress up as their favorite character from the movie while they enjoy art activities, live animal shows, screenings of the film, dancing and more at this familyfriendly fun fest. The event is free for members and is included in general admission.

For tickets and more information on all Crocker events, call 808-1182 or go to crockerartmuseum.org The Crocker Art Museum is at 216 O St.

UNDER THE BIG TOP It’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

“Mary Poppins” flies into the Wells Fargo Pavilion from July 8 through 13 as part of the Sacramento Music Circus season.

You surely won’t need a spoonful of sugar to swallow this whimsical Disney classic, complete with flying nanny (played by Julie Andrews in the film, who won an Academy Award for her portrayal), bottomless bag and famously hummable songs. For this show only, you can get a $20 discount off tickets in the yellow, red or blue seating sections for kids ages 4-12.

Just don’t feed the birds …

Ride an umbrella from England to the sunny “South Pacific” for the musical of the same name on July 22 through 27. The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic will have you singing before you even sit down, with songs like “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Bali Ha’I,” “Younger Than Springtime” and “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My

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Hair,” tunes that helped the show win a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1950 and 10 Tony Awards when it debuted on Broadway in 1949. The show, which explores themes of love, war and race amid a lush musical backdrop, inspired the movie that was the third-highest-grossing U.S. film in the 1950s.

For tickets and more information, call 557-1999. The Wells Fargo Pavilion is at 1419 H St.

THE FOREST FOR THE TREES See the great outdoors depicted by a great artistic eye when artist Matt Bult’s solo exhibition “Meadow/ Wood” comes to the Alex Bult Gallery (the names aren’t coincidence: the gallery is owned by Bult’s son) from July 10 through Aug. 2.

Bult is a multimedia mastermind, making arresting artwork with everything from traditional acrylics and watercolor to assemblage and collage to found pieces of wood. This particular exhibition was inspired by a meadow near Bult’s Nevada City home and is dedicated “to the memory of our dog Kira, who passed away on March 10th, 2014,” Bult says.

Meet the award-winning artist at the preview party from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 10 or during the Second Saturday artist reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 12. For

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For tickets and more information, go to bigfun.org Cal Expo is at 1600 Exposition Blvd.

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DROP-DEAD AWESOME

Just as it’s starting to get blistering outside, it’s time for the state’s biggest outdoor extravaganza: the 2014 California State Fair is open for business July 11-27 at Cal Expo. Just be sure to bring your sunscreen.

With 70 exhilarating midway rides, statewide competitions for everything from art to agriculture, wine and beer gardens, livestock displays, live horse racing, free concerts galore and more food than you could ever consume in one sitting—get a deep-fried Snickers; you’ll thank me—the State Fair has the most summer excitement you can get for a single ticket.

Whether you’ve jumped on the zombie bandwagon or cover your eyes during ads for “The Walking Dead” television show, the Trash Film Orgy (TFO) Zombie Walk is sure to draw undead aficionados of all kinds on Saturday, July 12, which also marks the opening of the 14th annual TFO Film Festival.

Started in 2001, the Zombie Walk is designed to promote the TFO Film Festival, and it’s better than ever this year. Beginning at 5 p.m. at Roosevelt Park (940 P St.), get your zombie on at the free Carnival of the Dead, which will include hours of undead entertainment (including live music with Tragically White), food trucks (including Squeeze Inn and Fuzion), professional make-up stations, a zombie shooting gallery, dancing, carnival games, vendors, contests, prizes and more. At 9 p.m., the Dead Walk starts, which is a largescale performance art experience where folks dress up as zombies and infiltrate the streets of midtown.

New this year, the TFO will actually shut down 10th Street to do a zombie parade to the tunes of the Undead Marching Band.

Once you’ve dragged your undead self around midtown, the party continues at 10 p.m. at the Dead Party at the Crest Theatre (1013 K St.) for the opening night of the TFO Film Festival, which will feature a stage performance and a special

Artist Matt Bult's solo exhibition comes to Alex Bult Gallery July 10 through Aug. 2

The 25th annual Festival of Concerts, presented by the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s Summer Chamber Music Workshop is scheduled for July 9, 16, 18, 19 and 20 at various venues.

screening of “Dawn of the Dead.”

Though the Crest event is only for adults 18 and over, the rest of the evening’s events (the Carnival of the Dead and the Dead Walk) are open to all ages. Bloody good!

For more information, go to trashfilmorgy.com

SUMMER STRUMMIN’ What do you get when you combine talented young musicians, top-notch instruction and fun, free performances? The 25th annual Festival of Concerts, presented by the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s Summer Chamber Music Workshop and directed by Susan Lamb Cook, on July 9, 16, 18, 19 and 20 at various venues.

Founded in 1990 by Cook, the summer session of the SYS Summer Chamber Music Workshop introduces young musicians to chamber music literature and rehearsal techniques through individualized coaching in duets, trios and quartets with music professionals, as well as public performance opportunities. Over the years, the program has gone from teaching 15 participants with three teachers to serving more than 70

students a week with a staff of 25.

Talk about a growth spurt!

This year’s Festival of Concerts will feature student chamber ensembles at noon on two Wednesdays, July 9 and 16, at Westminster Presbyterian Church (1300 N St.) and at 3 p.m. on Friday, July 18 at Capistrano Hall at California State University, Sacramento (6000 J St.). The students will be joined by faculty performers at the Festival Chamber Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 19 in the Music Recital Hall at CSUS. The annual Concert in the Courtyard, featuring orchestra, piano and woodwind students from the SYS Chamber Music Workshop joined by faculty players, will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 20 at St. Anthony’s Memorial Center at St. Anthony’s Church (660 Florin Road), with a reception following in the courtyard.

For more information, call 731-5777 or go to sacramentoyouthsymphony.org

everything from food to furniture with an emphasis on education and community, and the next

market takes place from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 6 on Del Paso Boulevard.

The award-winning event is designed to bring consumers and creators into direct contact.

Merchants must go through a rigorous selection process to offer their wares, which range from artists offering home decor, furnishings, clothing and jewelry to fine food purveyors, local chefs, grocers, bakers and organics urban farmers serving delectable—and sensible—food items.

Groove to live music while you shop for local products and you’ll be saying one thing when the afternoon is over: “That was GOOD!” The GOOD Street Food + Design Market takes places the first Sunday of every month at 1409 Del Paso Blvd. For more information, go to gooddesignmarket.com Please email items for consideration by the first of the month, at least one month in advance of the event. Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@ gmail.com n

More kittens are born each year than there are families available to give them a home.

Join the Sacramento SPCA in reducing pet overpopulation.

Schedule an appointment to have your cat spayed or neutered at its affordable, highquality spay/neuter clinic.

Call 504-2811

LOOKING GOOD The name of the GOOD Street Food + Design Market really says it all. The modern market is an amalgam of local vendors selling

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Two Good THESE TWO MEAT & CHEESE SHOPS ARE TOPS IN DOLING OUT DELICIOUSNESS

BY GREG SABIN RESTAURANT INSIDER

T

here’s something convivial about a plate of meat and cheese. Maybe it’s because it’s meant to be shared, each diner groping and grabbing, stabbing at the plate with knives, forks and fingers. A pile of beautifully shaved meat sitting daintily, enticingly on a strong wood-grain board surrounded with pickled bits is as close to art as simple food gets.

Sure, you can create a visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory masterpiece with an amazing variety of equipment, time and skill. You can master the world of molecular gastronomy or modernist cuisine or zero-gravity braising. You can paint a plate with smears and smudges and foams. But that’s a different world.

The world I find myself gravitating toward is one of perfectly aged ham, sliced translucent-thin, a solid triangle of sheep’s milk cheese and a pile of vinegar-soaked veggies. It’s a world I do not tire of. A world that I’ll return to for any occasion, not just a special occasion.

Lucky me, then, that I got to sample the wares at Sacramento’s two newest meat-and-cheese joints.

We’ll start with Block Butcher Bar. Located right next door to LowBrau Bierhall on 20th and K streets, Block feels a world away from the high-pitched party atmosphere at the popular sausage-and-beer hangout. Owned by the same group as LowBrau, Block feels like a place

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POCKET JUL n 14

Warm your belly with a classic from The Cultured and The Cured, mac and cheese made with Fiscalini cheddar and Parmigiano Reggiano

for more quiet contemplation—serene revelry, if you will.

The music is low. The waiters and waitresses show no skin. The walls are adorned with meat hooks and pickling spices. The beauty of wood and steel and hundreds of bottles of whiskey creates the right vibe for you to enjoy the simple, but by no means plain, treats that will be put before you.

Other than a handful of appetizers and a decent grilled cheese sandwich, Block’s menu is as simple as “pick your meat, pick your cheese.” That’s it.

The meat selection is lovely, sophisticated and not so large as to be

overwhelming. The cheese selection is easily broken down into four simple categories: cow, goat, sheep and blue.

This is not an intimidating selection for the average diner. You do not need to have majored in curds and minored in whey to understand what is going on. However, should you just not want to choose, the cultured servers will be happy to bring out a plate of their favorites. But whatever you do, don’t skip the Iowa white spread, a seasoned whipped lard concoction that melts on toast and tastes wonderfully like pig butter.

Along with the well-curated selection of meats and cheeses is a selection of brown alcohol large

enough to make comprehending it difficult. More than 100 bottles of whiskey rise up the ceiling, looming over the bar with their glowing brownness. Whether you are a fan of single-malt, blended, bourbon, rye, American, Canadian, Irish, Scotch or Japanese (that’s right, Japanese), you’ll find a nip of something to your liking. For nondrinkers, there’s an exceptional array of hand-mixed colas and other nonalcoholic treats.

Compared to the cacophony next door at LowBrau, and the overall party happening most nights on 20th Street, Block feels like a little oasis where adults are allowed to eat,

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SENIORS EAT FREE!

A S I A

B I S T R O

www.fatsbistro.com

A ST RE IL Y M FA D AN LL SE

1500 Eureka Road, Roseville (916) 787-3287

( A L L J U LY )

2585 Iron Point Road, Folsom (916) 983-1133

LUNCH, DINNER & HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS

Maximum discount $15, one discount per senior. Offer good May 1 - July 31, 2014. Dine in only.

Must present proof of age. Not valid for Happy Hour nor in combination with any other offer.

drink and feel comfortable acting like adults.

A bit farther down J Street in East Sac, you’ll come across a brighter, lighter, cheerier version of Block Butcher Bar: The Cultured & The Cured. This little (and I mean little) meat-and-cheese shop feels much more like a shop and less of a restaurant than Block. The deli case is front and center, showcasing another well-curated variety of incredibly fine culinary delights.

A small selection of plates is available to eat on-site or off, but they are worth the stop. This is going to sound like a bit of overstatement but here goes: C&C probably has the best mac and cheese in town.

There, I said it.

Rich, thick, cheesy, it’s everything you want mac and cheese to be. A fork will stand up in it. A crispy cracker of fried prosciutto actually does stand up in it. Peas are thrown in when in season. It’s my ultimate m&c.

Get ready for another: best grilled cheese in town, too.

A

If you’re a senior, at least 55 years young, purchase one entrée at regular price and receive a second entrée FREE!

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J O I N U S F O R O U R F AT H E R ’ S D A Y

I don’t know that I’d order a grilled cheese anywhere else. These people turn perfectly delicious firm cheeses into beautiful lava flows of scrumptious dairy on ridiculous bread, then add little touches like sauteed seasonal mushrooms. I have simply never had better.

Other dishes blow it up as well.

Yummy bites like brie and asparagus bread pudding and fresh pea soup are handled deftly and with skill.

With a few tweaks to the seating arrangement (on a recent visit, all the tables were on the sidewalk) and the addition of a beer and wine license (can’t even bring your own), it’ll be a perfect hang for after-work and earlyevening meals.

Insider tip: C&C will deliver across J Street to local favorite Bonn Lair.

Block Butcher Bar is at 1050 20th St.; 476-6306; blockbutcherbar.com The Cultured & The Cured is at 3644 J St.; 732-3600; culturedandcured.com Greg Sabin can be reached at gregsabin@hotmail.com n

RARE BOURBONS & BOURBON DRINK SPECIALS WWW. ELLA DINING ROOM AND BAR.COM 1131 K STREET DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO 916.443.3772

French-inspired pastries, cakes and breads handcrafted on-site every morning by artisan bakers and chefs!

FRIDAYS Doughnut Day &

SUNDAY Croixnut Day (flavor changes every week)

FRENCH TEA SERVICE $25/PERSON Set menu includes: tea sandwiches, assorted pastries, macaroon, tarts and choice of organic tea (reservation required)

Located on the corner of 9th & K in downtown Sacramento M-F 7-6, Sat 8-6, Sun 8-4 | 551-1500 | info@estellspatisserie.com

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WE’RE YOUR NEIGHBOR!

COUNTRY LIVING IN 95831

You’ll love Rio Park’s rural feeling & this charming 3 bd, den, 3.5 bth ranch style w/large Rec room, plus pool & RV access w/pad on nearly ½ acre lot! With its own well, owner has enjoyed having no city water bills! Upd roof, windows, more! $385,000 BILL BONNER 916-320-1888

GATED RIVERLAKE

3 bed, 2 bth, single family home within the gates of Cobble Shores. Open Àoorplan w/lge ¿replace & hearth of marble tile, skylights in baths, master w/sep shower & jetted tub, new metal roof, sunroom addition, swimming pool & much more! $479,900 NICK LAPLACA 916-734-7500

GREENHAVEN/POCKET HALF-PLEX

3 bed, 2 bth halfplex in Grangers Dairy. Upd carpet, int & ext paint. Upd tile Àoor in baths. Living rm w/¿replace & sliding door to the patio, master ste to one side, 2 bedrooms on the other side. Inside laundry w/cabinets & sink. $292,500 BILL BONNER 916-320-1888

CLASSIC OLD LAND PARK

Location, tradition & potential abound in this single story 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car detached garage home of 1941sf. Blomberg dual pane windows, newer HVAC & water heater, copper plumbing and so much more! $599,500 NICK LAPLACA 916-764-7500

POCKET AREA

Attractive 3 bd, 2.5 bth ½ plex w/3-car garage on a great street. Within the Didion school boundaries. Kitchen w/ granite tile counters & gas cook top. Master ste w/balcony.

Hall bath w/jetted tub. Upd roof, heat & air, more! $299,900 BILL BONNER 916-320-1888

GREENHAVEN/POCKET CONDO

2 bed, 1 bth, single story condo. Dual Pane windows, tile Àooring, updated kitchen with white cabinets, recessed lights, & crown molding, bath w/shower over jetted tub, tile surround, & quartz-like vanity. Must see!$127,900 LYNN LUK LEE 916-628-2843

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SOUTH LAND PARK HILLS

3 bed, 2bth single story home in original condition. Nice Àoor plan. Lge formal Living & Dining room. Kitchen w/breakfast nook area & opens to the Family room. HVAC, Water Heater & Roof were replaced 6-8 years ago. $279,000 LYNN LUK LEE 916-628-2843

ELK GROVE

4 bed, 2 bth one story home. Gated entry w/fountain, lge livingroom w/formal dining & family room w/¿replace. Kitchen w/corian counters, breakfast bar, custom lighting, maple cabinets. Park like backyard w/covered patio. $419,000 NEAL ALIE 916-981-7129

RIVERLAKE

Elegant & spacious 5 bd, 3ba, with lg updated kitchen w/ granite counters, island, double ovens & 5-burner gas cooktop. Both formal living & dining rms, family rm w/¿replace.

Huge master suite w/ large retreat. Update tile roof. Access to private lake. $695,000 BILL BONNER 916-320-1888

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Our agents come with a network of experience and are backed by the most admired name in the world.

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Good to Know.™

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©2014 BHH AfÀliates, LLC. An independently owned and operated franchisee of BHH AfÀliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Houseing Opportunity.