Inside pocket mar 2017 by Inside Publications

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CLASSIC GREENHAVEN HOME Bright, light contemporary home waiting for you. Refreshed with new paint, new carpet, new stove. Personalize this 3 bedroom 2 bath and have your dream home. Family room ¿replace, Opportunity awaits! Steps to the greenbelt with walking and biking path! Close to schools. $329,000 SHEILA VAN NOY 505-5395

ISLANDS AT RIVERLAKE Amazing 3 bedroom 2 bath home, shows like a model. Located in the prestigious Riverlake community with a spectacular man-made lake. Features stainless steel appliances, shutters, custom built-in cabinets, crown molding, granite counters, designer carpet, ceiling fans and more. $360,000 MONA GERGEN 247-9555

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CLOSE TO WILDHAWK GOLF CLUB Gorgeous single story 3 bedroom 2 bath home with 3-car garage and RV access. Large premium oversized lot with beautiful professionally landscaped front and back yards. Fantastic covered patio with lights. Spectacular open Àoor plan with lots of windows, stainless steel appliances, and high ceilings. $375,000 MONA GERGEN 247-9555

ROSA DEL RIO A rare ¿nd, this 2 or 3 bedroom 2 bath two story home in the highly desirable Rosa Del Rio neighborhood! Enjoy the new carpets, loads of light and spacious rooms! This quiet, easy maintenance home is perfect to come home to and enjoy the Delta breezes on the backyard patio. $319,000 PAULA SWAYNE 425-9715

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GREENAHVEN HALFPLEX What a gorgeous remodeled 3 bedroom 2 bath home in the Didion School Boundaries. Tons of updates! New carpet, new paint in and out, and new kitchen counter top. Designer lights, recessed lights, solar tubes, leaf guard gutters, closet organizers. Cute yard with covered patio. $340,000 MONA GERGEN 247-9555

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LITTLE POCKET HOME Fantastic home in Little Pocket! This one of a kind has a great Àoor plan 3 bedrooms 2 baths with a fantastic remodeled kitchen that overlooks the landscaped yard. Beautiful hardwood Àoors throughout. Lots of upgrades, electrical panel, plumbing, windows, plantation shutters, recessed lighting! $475,000 DAVID KIRRENE 531-7495

for current home listings, please visit:

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PARK PLACE SOUTH Desirable single story 3 bedroom 2 bath halfplex. Tile entry opens to spacious great room with cozy ¿replace. Two master suites! Larger master suite has walk in closet plus triple closet, jetted tub and stall shower. Hardwd Àoors in kitchen and dining room. Skylights in entry and both baths. $379,000 CONNIE LANDSBERG 761-0411

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DELTA KING MODEL Nicely updated home in the highly desirable Greenhaven/Pocket neighborhood. 3 bedrooms 2½ bath, family room opens to kitchen. Formal dining room. Inside laundry room. Newer kitchen cabinet, granite counter tops, granite ¿replace. Extra wide lot with trellis. Dual pane windows. $335,000 MONA GERGEN 247-9555

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ELK GROVE CUL-DE-SAC Amazing remodeled home with a huge backyard on a cul-de-sac. 3 bedrooms 2 baths with re¿nished cabinets and granite counter tops throughout, beautiful light ¿xtures/faucets/hardware, and wood laminate Àoors. Premium lot w/ giant yard & huge patio cover. Wow! $359,000 MONA GERGEN 247-9555

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COVER ARTIST Pixeladies, Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki These two women have been collaborating since 2003. They integrate the visuals of fabric and quilting with the meanings of words. Their work, along with the work of Jan Soules, is on display in a show called “Mixed Messages: Art Quilts” at the Ella McClatchy Library 2112 22nd Street through March 25.

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info@insidepublications.com EDITOR Marybeth Bizjak mbbizjak@aol.com PRODUCTION M.J. McFarland DESIGN Cindy Fuller PHOTOGRAPHY Linda Smolek, Aniko Kiezel AD COORDINATOR Michele Mazzera, Julie Foster DISTRIBUTION Lauren Hastings lauren@insidepublications.com ACCOUNTING Jim Hastings, Daniel Nardinelli, Adrienne Kerins

916-443-5087 EDITORIAL POLICY Commentary reflects the views of the writers and does not necessarily reflect those of Inside Publications. Inside Publications is delivered for free to more than 75,000 households in Sacramento. Printing and distribution costs are paid entirely by advertising revenue. We spotlight selected advertisers, but all other stories are determined solely by our editorial staff and are not influenced by advertising. No portion may be reproduced mechanically or electronically without written permission of the publisher. All ad designs & editorial—©

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MARCH 17 VOL. 4 • ISSUE 2 7 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 30 34 36 42 44

Publisher's Desk Pocket Beat Inside City Hall Pocket Life Giving Back Life In Land Park Biggest Deadbeat Getting There Garden Jabber Home Insight Meet Your Neighbor Spirit Matters To Do Artist Spotlight Restaurant Insider

Construction Coming Soon The City of Sacramento, Department of Utilities and its construction contractors will soon begin construction on water meters, water mains, and water service lines in the area. Visit www.MetersMatter.org to learn more about the project and to ﬁnd out what may be happening in and around your neighborhood. This work may result in: • Traﬃc delays • Sidewalk closures • Construction-related dust and noise This work addresses the State’s mandate for water meters to be installed on all water services.

Thank you for your cooperation on this very important project.

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A Remarkable Woman MAKING A NEW AND MEANINGFUL FRIENDSHIP

recently heard a brief summary of three things you can do to help people take a liking to you. First, display an upbeat, positive attitude. Second, take an interest in other people by asking gentle questions and carefully listening to the answers. At the same time, be candid about yourself. In other words, engage in conversational give and take. Finally, be confident. My mother did all of these things and had many meaningful friendships throughout her long life. I recall her saying that making, deep friendships later in life could be tough. Hence, it is important to nurture the older connections that give you joy. I am very grateful for mother’s positive influence in my life. And when I meet someone who is like her, I happily reflect back on my mom’s lovely personality. A few years ago, I met someone whose life has roughly paralleled mine in many ways, and who clearly possesses these likable characteristics. Jane Einhorn is a legend in our city, mostly for her PR acumen. Her former partner (and husband of a friend of mine) introduced us at lunch several years ago, and we hit it off immediately. For 37 years,

CH By Cecily Hastings Publisher’s Desk

Jane Einhorn and Cecily Hastings enjoy time together. Inset: Jane Einhorn. Photo courtesy of Kent Lacin.

she was a partner in the venerable Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn agency (now called RS-E). In 2016, she left the partnership to lighten her workload and strike out on her own. Her departure was in the works for

more than a year as she transitioned out of the firm. I had heard lots of interesting stories about her over the years. I play tennis in the park across from her former home in Arden and first saw her out on her porch in her pink peignoir, letting her dog out in the early morning. The thought of that sight still makes me laugh! And her

husband, Jeffrey, played with my mixed-doubles tennis group many years ago. On the surface, we have many differences: She’s short and I’m fairly tall. (I tower over her when we hug!) She’s a fair-skinned blonde with perky short hair. I’m a sunloving brunette who’s always favored longer hair. She dresses seriously well, favoring designer dresses and separates, complemented by glamorous jewelry. I’m more likely PUBLISHER page 8

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PUBLISHER FROM page 7 to wear tennis and yoga outfits or rolled-up jeans, and I can count my simple jewelry pieces on one hand. She’s Jewish and I’m Christian. She has a New York accent, while I have a bit of a Midwestern twang. She marvels that I am so domestically hands-on in cooking, gardening and design. I admire that she has sat through thousands of board meetings and helped run a company much, much larger than ours. But far more important is what we have in common. We are roughly the same age, in our early 60s, both with long marriages. Our youngest sons are close in age. We both graduated from University of Michigan and were on the Ann Arbor campus at the same time. We are both voracious readers and exchange book recommendations every week. And that is just our life histories. It is our similar personalities that have sparked our deepest connection. Both of us really like people. We like meeting them, connecting with them and sharing those connections with

POC MAR n 17

others, trying to help others in the process. When Jane left her firm and went out on her own, I admired her ability to reinvent herself. Her confidence stemmed in part from the fact that she often befriends those she does business with, and those friendships continue. She did seem a bit concerned about the transition in terms of practical matters—the things she took for granted at a large agency. When I asked her about business cards, she wondered if she needed them. I said absolutely and designed her one, taking into consideration her colorful, bubbly personality. Underneath her name, I put the words “Extraordinary Connections in Public Relations & Marketing.” I sent her a proof of the design, and she loved it. I ordered them and had them sent to her. I also had our IT manager help her set up her home office. Jane clearly loves her new freedom and is thriving in her new role,

working directly with her business and nonprofit clients.

When there is common ground and both parties are willing to put care and energy into each other, good things can grow in any season of our lives. Jane has been an excellent source of suggestions for interesting people and projects for us to cover at Inside Publications. Given her early background as a writer and journalist, she is usually spot-on. When our book “Inside Sacramento: The Most Interesting

Neighborhood Places in America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital” was being planned and released, Jane was very helpful. She connected me with potential sponsors, bucked me up when I hit obstacles and wrote an early recommendation that is printed inside the cover. A few months ago, I chatted over coffee with Ed Goldman, a mutual friend. When I mentioned hitting it off with Jane, he was not the least bit surprised. “You both still have the hustle to make things happen. And that is a powerful asset to have in common,” he said. Jane and I are a good example that one can make new and meaningful friendships at any age. When there is common ground and both parties are willing to put care and energy into each other, good things can grow in any season of our lives. Cecily Hastings can be reached at publisher@insidepublications.com. n

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Levee Repairs Ahead PENDING PROJECT IS ‘LIKE NOTHING WE’VE SEEN BEFORE’

ike most Pocket residents, Jim Geary thinks a lot about the levees that protect his family and home from potential flooding by the Sacramento River. Unlike most, he tries to get his hands on every possible document that demonstrates how state flood control authorities plan to repair those levees over the next few years. Geary knows what to look for: timelines, costs, staging areas, scope of work. He’s a retired lawyer who spent his career reviewing documents to make sure people did precisely what they promised. The levee improvement project, which will encompass much of the river’s eastern shore from downtown to Freeport, is a massive undertaking. The bureaucratic involvement alone, from City Hall to the state Capitol to Washington, D.C., is exhaustive and comprehensive. “People have no idea how big this is going to be,” Geary says. “They remember previous levee improvement projects, where some walls were improved and trees were removed. This is far more significant. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before.” Geary is interested in the levee work for several reasons. For starters, he lives a few blocks from the levee, separated from it and the river by nothing more substantial than Pocket Road.

RG By R.E. Graswich Pocket Beat

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Jim Geary Also, he’s been frustrated by the small number of residents along the river who have falsely claimed ownership of the levee and have been allowed to erect nine private fences

across the levee, restricting public access. “Those fences should have never been allowed,” Geary says. “If you look at the history, there has been recreational use along the river

forever. The original farmers didn’t care if fishermen or anyone walked up there. The argument for fences began when people were driving cars and motorcycles on the levee years before subdivisions came in. Pipe gates took care of the vehicles. There’s no justification for the fences today.” Homeowners bullied their way into getting fence permits, claiming they “owned” the levees and needed barriers for privacy and safety. State flood control officials went along with the ruse and issued fence permits, primarily in the 1970s and 1980s. Next, homeowners created private enclaves on the levee. They planted vegetation and dug steps, customizing the land while ignoring the levee’s flood-protection purpose. The claim that levee fences bring safety has been debunked. Sacramento Police crime data for Pocket show zero difference between waterfront neighborhoods with or without fences. In several cases, serious crimes such as assault and battery and domestic violence were committed by riverfront residents themselves. Their fences brought no protection. As for homeowner privacy, that’s never been a concern for flood control authorities. The levee repair project will remove the fences forever. Construction will require residents to tear down their cross-levee barricades. The state’s new flood control policy reverses the sins of the past and rejects requests for new fence permits in Pocket and Little Pocket. A look at Geary’s documents—he asked the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency for any public

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information related to the local levee project—reveals the scope of the forthcoming repairs. Thick, colorful lines run along levee maps from Broadway to Meadowview. The colors indicate erosion improvements, height improvements and seepage and stability repairs. “The documents indicate 1,000 construction workers on the project,” Geary says. “Do you have any idea of the number of trucks and traffic those numbers generate? It’s staggering.” The staging areas in particular caught Geary’s eye. The maps show staging areas for trucks and equipment taking over Garcia Bend Park, Shore Park, the Pocket Canal Parkway and other locations. Levee height improvements will be made in large sections of Pocket. This means scraping the levees down about three feet and building them back taller and wider—work that requires personnel and heavy equipment. The flood control project documents are not specific about timelines. State and federal authorities use different

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designations for distances under repair and time frames, and they will need to coordinate their public information. State authorities have indicated the project would start by late 2017 or early 2018, but there’s no fixed time yet. Nature may not wait. Heavy rains this winter, frighteningly high water levels and boils and seepages that developed in locations around Sacramento have brought alarm and urgency. After years of drought, local, state and federal authorities look toward the churning, muddy waters of the Sacramento River and immediately understand the need to improve the city’s flood protection system. “The timing of all this work is a little nonspecific as far as I’m concerned,” Geary says as he packs up his documents. “But I’m definitely hoping they get this project underway sooner rather than later.” R.E. Graswich can be reached at reg@graswich.com. n

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Another Scandal SKY-HIGH FIREFIGHTER OVERTIME PAY DRAWS FIRE

here are two long-standing assumptions at Sacramento city hall about the fire department. The first is that it is perennially the number-one target of city budget hawks because of its well-known operational inefficiencies. The second is that it’s the city department most resistant to change because of a city hall perception that the firefighters union is the political equivalent of a 600-pound gorilla: able to stomp on every effort to bring the department to heel. A just-released report by city auditor Jose Oseguera revealing egregious overtime abuses in the fire department and calling for major reforms reaffirms the first assumption and will put the second to a major test this year. The auditor’s findings are eyeopening. He found two firefighters were paid for more than 6,000 hours of work in a single year, which equates to almost 70 percent of the time they were living and breathing. Nearly 150 firefighters in the department were found to have the ability to approve their own overtime without supervisor oversight. The amount spent on fire department overtime has almost doubled in recent years, increasing from $7.4 million in 2011 to more than $13 million in

CP By Craig Powell Inside City Hall

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fiscal year 2014–2015, representing more than 250,000 overtime hours.

A SCANDALOUS PAST If the utilities department is the most reliable scandal generator of city government, the fire department’s scandals have been the most lurid. There was the scandal over Sacramento firefighters who liked to drive their fire engines to local clubs on the weekends and offer joy rides to attractive women, a novel “community outreach” effort that was defended by some at the time with the excuse “boys will be boys.” Then there was the much more serious scandal involving firefighter

thefts of Demerol supplies from city ambulances, which are operated by the fire department. The scandal was compounded by reports that the thieves tried to cover up their thefts by refilling drained Demerol containers with water. As someone who hitched a ride in a city ambulance following a bone-shattering bicycle accident several years back, this last outrage hit home for me in a big way, particularly since the Demerol I received en route to the hospital seemed to do nothing to diminish my screaming (although, to be fair, my pain threshold is pretty low). The primary reason offered by the fire department for why it’s running up so much overtime is that hiring of

new firefighters hasn’t kept pace with staffing needs. The department has been on a hiring tear of late, hiring more than 100 firefighters in the past two years. As many as 44 firefighters are expected to join the department from the fire academy in July, which should knock back overtime hours significantly. Overtime hours are also driven up when city firefighters are called upon by Cal Fire to assist in fighting summer forest fires, although summer forest fires are as predictable as sunrises in California. One would have expected Cal Fire to have in place a less costly way of surging manpower in busy summer firefighting months than paying local firefighters overtime.

BIG EARNINGS FOR FIRE CAPTAIN So how bad is the abuse? Well, a recent public records request by Eye on Sacramento (the civic watchdog group I head) reveals some stunning numbers. In 2015, city fire chief Stanley Gholson received a base salary of $100,724 and $173,130 in overtime. His total pay, including $1,966 in supplemental pay, was $275,820. When his benefits of $47,148 were added in, his total 2015 compensation rose to an eye-popping $322,968. To put that in perspective, the current salary of the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is $263,300, while the vice president of the United States pulls down $230,700. Two local firefighters managed to nearly triple their salaries with overtime pay in 2015. One received a base salary of $84,096 and collected $155,655 in overtime plus supplemental pay of $2,131, for total pay of $241,882 (2.9 times base salary). With $38,669 in benefits, his total compensation in 2015 came to $280,551. The other received a base salary of $75,988 that year, augmented with $141,665 in overtime pay plus supplements of $1,517, resulting in total pay of $219,170 (2.9 times base salary). With $48,734 in benefits, his total compensation amounted to $267,904. Keep in mind these income figures are drawn from 2015 pay records. They do not reflect the impact of a labor pact with the firefighters union approved by the city council that year, which granted a 12 percent hike in firefighter salaries phased in over two years. (The pact expires in June 2018.) So if the same hours are worked by these firefighters this year, Gholson would collect $361,724 in total pay (nearly double the $190,100 current salary of California Gov. Jerry Brown), while the two firefighters’ total pay would, all other factors being equal, amount to $270,907 and $245,470. Ten firefighters accumulated so much overtime in 2015 that they earned more than the fire chief. In light of such numbers, it’s not surprising that the city auditor

found the fire department “has not established a formal overtime use policy.” The auditor also found, again unsurprisingly, that the department lacked “a formal process in place to ensure employees receive adequate rest breaks between shifts.” This departmental failure can have real-world consequences, as when an exhausted ambulance worker/ firefighter administering critical medical care is 46 hours into a normal 48-hour shift. (Fire employees, including ambulance personnel, work a crazy 48-hours-on/96-hoursoff schedule.) But when that same ambulance worker is at the tail end of a 96-hour double shift, merely maintaining consciousness is a major challenge, let alone making sound judgment calls and maintaining skill levels. The auditor found that, in some instances, fire employees worked six 24-hour shifts in a row without a break between shifts. He also found that a 72-hour maximum work period limit is routinely ignored. He reported that the total salary paid to firefighters who were away from work due to an injury on the job jumped an astonishing 144 percent between 2012 and 2016, which certainly suggests that the higher frequency of injuries on the job may be a consequence of excessive overtime work.

FIRE ENGINE STAFFING But the city auditor’s report went much further than chronicling the department’s overtime abuses. It made two major recommendations that strike at the core of the fire department’s well-deserved reputation for inefficiencies. First, Oseguera recommended that the city staff its ambulances with more cost-effective “singlerole” employees, which means that the city should abandon its current requirement that ambulance workers be qualified as both paramedics/EMTs and as firefighters. “Dual-qualified” ambulance workers currently cost the city nearly $50,000 more each year (in higher salaries, health-insurance costs, pensions, etc.) than ambulance workers qualified as paramedics or EMTs. By shifting staffing on the

city’s 15 ambulances to nonfirefighter paramedics and EMTs, the city could save $4.3 million a year in labor costs. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, which provides ambulance services in the unincorporated areas of the county, made a successful and cost-savings transition from dual-role to single-role ambulance personnel four years ago. City councilmember Jeff Harris has been the council’s primary champion of the city’s shifting to single-role ambulance workers since early last year. His proposal has been met with opposition from the firefighters union, which is loath to give up the current higher salary scale for ambulance personnel that the dualrole requirement provides. But the union’s opposition is based on greed, not sound policy. After all, how often do city ambulances come upon people in need of medical assistance or transport who happen to be on fire? The second major reform Oseguera recommended involves the staffing of firefighters on fire engines. The city currently requires all but one of its 24 fire engines to carry four firefighters,

while almost all of the surrounding jurisdictions have a staffing requirement of just three firefighters per engine. The auditor recommended that staffing be reduced to three firefighters on eight of the city’s 24 fire engines, using three-person crews in more suburban areas and keeping four-person crews on engines in the urban core with high-rise buildings. Oseguera’s recommendation is less aggressive than the reform urged by former city manager John Shirey a few years ago. Shirey recommended shifting to three-person crews on twothirds of all city engines and keeping four-person crews only on engines at fire stations in or near Downtown. Shirey’s recommendation came on the heels of a 2010 report from the city’s primary consulting firm, Management Partners, which urged the city seven years ago to shift to three-person crews in all areas except Downtown. Oseguera’s suggested change would save the city $3 million a year in labor costs, while the Shirey/Management

CITY page 15

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The Mayor Next Door DARRELL STEINBERG LOVES LIVING IN POCKET-GREENHAVEN

arts, assisting local businesses and attracting new jobs, these are things my vision and agenda will foster citywide,” he says. Nugget Market and Caffe Latte are his favorite places in the neighborhood to get a cup of coffee. He also has a “hard time turning down an opportunity to go to Shari’s for some coffee and pie.” Steinberg looks forward to working with Councilmember Rick Jennings, a fellow Pocket-Greenhaven resident. “Rick and his staff are excellent,” he says. “We work well together. I consult with Rick and take his lead on all issues in District 7.”

ocket-Greenhaven is home to Sacramento’s new mayor. Sworn in as mayor in December, Darrell Steinberg has lived in the neighborhood since the late 1990s. Steinberg and his wife, Julie, moved to the area from Tahoe Park when they were starting a family and needed a bigger home. He found their house while walking precincts during his first run for the State Assembly in 1998.

Steinberg would like to see PocketGreenhaven develop more opportunities for residents to connect, volunteer and give back to their community. Steinberg grew up in Millbrae in San Mateo County. “Millbrae reminds me a lot of Pocket-Greenhaven: kid friendly, organized soccer and baseball,

By Shane Singh Pocket Life

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE AT KENNEDY HIGH

Mayor Darrell Steinberg a real focus on libraries,” he says. “Times have changed, but I love our neighborhood.” Steinberg’s roots in the community run deep. When his children were younger, he volunteered as a soccer coach with Greenhaven Soccer Club. His involvement with youth soccer reminded him of opportunities he’d had as a kid. “It was a great

bonding experience,” he says. “I loved coaching my kids, though the years went by way too fast.” Steinberg would like to see Pocket-Greenhaven develop more opportunities for residents to connect, volunteer and give back to their community. “Along with engaging our youth, supporting community policing, investing in the

John F. Kennedy High School’s Criminal Justice Academy was established in 1990 through a unique partnership between the Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento City Unified School District. The academy is a four-year career technical program in the field of criminal justice. Its objective is to turn out high-energy, productive citizens who give back to their communities. “The career goals vary among our students, but the students all share a common drive to meet high standards in citizenship, academics, attendance, physical fitness and community service,” says physical training instructor Kristen Goding. Over the years, the program has grown from 15 to more than 100 students. It has served as a model for similar programs in the district and across the nation.

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John F. Kennedy High School’s Criminal Justice Academy. The program’s college preparatory curriculum meets the requirements for U.S. government, economics and driver education. Other coursework includes computer proficiency, ethics, laws of evidence and arrest, history of law enforcement, patrol techniques, report writing and drug/ gang awareness. The academy’s goals include improved English and communication skills, higher SAT scores and preparation for college success. “The physical training portion of the academy promotes lifetime fitness, teamwork and practical skills. The four areas of emphasis are police and selfdefense tactics, weight training, cardiovascular training and teambuilding activities,” says Goding. Academy students take a senior trip to Washington, D.C., and a junior trip to the Los Angeles Police Department and Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Students wear a uniform every Thursday for inspection. Instructors include a designated academy teacher and a police officer from the Sacramento Police Department.

For more information or to schedule a visit, call 433-5528.

GOT E-WASTE? Boy Scout Troop 259 is holding an e-waste drive. Proceeds from the drive will benefit the troop. To arrange a pickup, go to ewaste4good.com.

CRAB ON THE MENU Elks Lodge No. 6 will hold its annual Don Puliz Crab & Shrimp Feast on Saturday, March 4, at 6 p.m. The feed will include all-you-caneat crab, shrimp, antipasto, pasta, green salad and garlic bread. The cost is $55. There will also be a no-host cocktail bar and a raffle following the dinner. Proceeds will benefit charitable activities. The lodge is at 6446 Riverside Blvd. To buy tickets or for more information, visit the lodge office or call 422-6666. Shane Singh can be reached at shane@shanesingh.com. n

Partners recommendation would save $6 million a year. But the big banana of reforms involves the city’s wasteful practice of dispatching a fully staffed fire engine (four persons) on every city ambulance call (two persons). The justification offered for this practice is that, because there are 24 fire engines and only 15 city ambulances, a fire engine is often the first vehicle to arrive at the scene of a medical emergency and can provide more immediate, on-the-spot care. While that may be true, it represents an abject failure of the city to adjust its resources to adapt the new reality: More than 65 percent of all 911 calls to the fire department are seeking emergency medical attention, while only 3.5 percent are fire-related calls. As Shirey once put it, the fire department has become a medical service provider that also happens to put out fires. The auditor reported that firefighters are grossly and consistently underworked in comparison to national standards, while the city’s ambulance personnel are substantially overworked. The fire department should reduce its firefighting resources (personnel, vehicles and equipment) to come into alignment with national standards while increasing its ambulance resources to assure faster response times to medical emergencies. By assigning smaller, less expensive SUV-size two-person emergency response vehicles to the city’s 24 fire stations, paramedics/EMTs would be able to beat fire engines to virtually every medical emergency call, which would obviate the need for sending a lumbering, fully staffed fire engine along on every medical call.

THE UNION AND THE COUNCIL Most of the city auditor’s major recommendations for the fire department aren’t new. Most, if not all, of the reforms can be enacted unilaterally by the city manager simply by changing administrative policies and don’t require renegotiation of the union’s

contract or even city council approval, according to an Eye on Sacramento’s review of the labor contract. It’s just that city managers have lacked the will to make the changes, fearing a political backlash from city councilmembers beholden to the firefighters union. But the old operating assumption that firefighters-union opposition is enough to stall every effort at reform is collapsing.

The prospects for real reform at the ﬁre department are brighter than ever.

First, we have a disruptive new mayor who was elected over the opposition of the firefighters union. His opponent, Angelique Ashby, actually announced her campaign for mayor at the union’s headquarters. Steinberg owes the union nothing politically. Second, an analysis of recent city elections (including the recent mayoral race) shows that the firefighters union’s endorsement offers no significant help to council candidates, and the union’s opposition is no impediment to winning election to the council. In recent years, Jay Schenirer, Jeff Harris and Eric Guerra have all won election to the council while being opposed by the firefighters union. The union’s biggest political ally was Mayor Kevin Johnson, who once famously signed a pre-election pledge to the union to never support a reduction in the number of firefighters per engine from four to three. With Johnson off the council and Steinberg firmly in control, the prospects for real reform at the fire department are brighter than ever. Craig Powell is a retired attorney, businessman, community activist and president of Eye on Sacramento, a civic watchdog and policy group.

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Molly Greene SHE JUST KEEPS RUNNING AND CYCLING

iver Park resident Molly Greene has had her fair share of challenges. Close friends and family members have been diagnosed with cancer. Some have died. Greene herself suffered a severe foot injury that required her to have a bone removed, so now she uses a wheelchair when covering long distances. But that hasn’t stopped the medical malpractice and business litigation attorney from doing what she loves: volunteering for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

While tragedy has hit Greene and her family hard, she maintains a positive outlook. “What I’ve seen my dollars do to help find a cure (for blood cancers) and come up with amazing research and advancements over the past 16 or so years is just amazing,” says Greene, who has participated in more than 20 events for LLS’s Team in Training, which raises money for blood-cancer research through running, cycling, triathlon and hiking events. “It’s necessary for me to keep going, to raise

JL By Jessica Laskey Giving Back

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Molly Greene crossing the ﬁnish line at America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride (left) and the California International Marathon.

a little bit of money every year. I’ll never stop doing what I’m doing.” Greene has worn many hats during her years of involvement with TNT: marathoner, cyclist (on a bicycle and, after her injury, a hand cycle), running mentor and assistant cycling coach. But she admits she first started participating “to impress a boy.” “In the year 2000, I had just joined a Bay Area-based band, and the best friend of the guy I liked had a 5-yearold son who was fighting leukemia,” Greene recalls. “Everybody in the band decided to help him out, which is how I first heard about TNT. So I—who had never done anything athletic in my life—decided to join TNT and run the California International Marathon, which happened to fall on my birthday that year. My training had not gone well and it was not a good marathon, but it was my first and I raised $2,500. I cried when I crossed the finish line.” After that race, Greene decided that running was not her favorite form of exercise, so she got involved with TNT’s cycling branch. By this point, the boy Greene had been trying to impress had become her husband. (They wed in 2005.) He, too, was interested in cycling for TNT—for even more personal reasons. “Three days after our wedding, my brother-in-law was diagnosed with leukemia,” says Greene, whose own mother died of cancer in 1994. “He died in 2006, the same year my husband’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My best friend was also diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma around that same time. I wanted to help my new family, so in 2007, my husband and I got new bikes and joined the cycling team. It had a

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“If everybody gave a little bit, imagine where we would be.” While tragedy has hit Greene and her family hard, she maintains a positive outlook. “I’ve met so many determined people who’ve worked through setbacks and still succeed,” says Greene, who hopes to hand cycle in the New York City Marathon this fall with Achilles International, a group that helps people with disabilities participate in mainstream running events. “It really opens your eyes. When I got injured, I had to adapt a lot, but I found a way to keep going. I have pain every day, but I have to remind myself that it could be a lot worse. That’s kind of the point of

TNT. People don’t want to run 26 miles or ride 100 miles. It hurts! But when you think about doing it for the people who can’t, it’s all about perspective.” Greene also serves as vice president of River Park Neighborhood Association. “I have a good life,” she says. “I’ve worked really hard to get where I am, but I believe we’re here to do good. If I can spend a little bit of my time and commit to fundraising, getting the word out on new research or making my neighborhood a safer place to live, I’m going to. If everybody gave a little bit, imagine where we would be.” For more information on the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, go to teamintraining.org. For more information on Achilles International, go to achillesinternational.org. For more information on River Park Neighborhood Association, go to riverparksacramento.net/rpna. Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. n

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Fun Is Good! FAIRYTALE TOWN CELEBRATES CHILDREN’S BOOK LEGEND

ake like Dr. Seuss from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 2, and join Fairytale Town for Books Before Bedtime, a wild and wonderful celebration of the one and only Theodore Seuss Geisel’s 113th birthday with Seuss-themed hands-on activities around the park. As the good doctor himself says, “If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.” Come dressed in your pajamas and enjoy fun literacy-based activities, readings from your favorite children’s books, bilingual story time, poetry, arts and crafts and more. “Books Before Bedtime” is free with paid park admission. And don’t forget, with April showers and May flowers come Fairytale Town’s warm-weather hours: The park will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily starting March 1, weather permitting. Want a change of scenery? Don’t miss Community Day at the Sacramento Adventure Playground from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 11. All ages are invited for a day of play at this special space where children create their own play structures by repurposing everyday items such as cardboard boxes, household wares, natural elements and unexpected items.

JL By Jessica Laskey Life in Land Park

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Ave.), it’s open rain or shine, and admission is free. Wondering what it takes to keep those tykes as healthy as can be? The Sutter Children’s Center Wellness Festival at Fairytale Town from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, will have answers as well as free play, games, healthy fun and more. Sutter’s representatives will be on hand to answer questions and provide information, and local health organizations will be offering activities, games and information on healthy lifestyles. Admission is free thanks to a generous grant from Sutter Children’s Center, Sacramento. For more information on all Fairytale Town events, call 808-7462 or go to fairytaletown.org. Fairytale Town is at 3901 Land Park Drive.

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Celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday at Fairytale Town's Books Before Bedtime. Photo courtesy of Dina Heidrich. Sacramento Adventure Playground is a fun and safe environment where children can use their imagination

and creativity to direct their own play. It is located at the Maple Neighborhood Center (3301 37th

Great news for all you softball enthusiasts in Land Park: Little League International has granted approval for a new girls softball league in the Land Park neighborhood starting in 2017, and registration is now open! The new league, Land Park Softball, is open to girls who reside or attend school in Land Park and the surrounding neighborhoods, including South Land Park, Curtis Park, Hollywood Park and midtown as far north as P Street. (A boundary map can be found on the league’s website.) The season runs from March through early June, with an opening day ceremony set for 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 11, at the softball diamond off

Registration for the new girls softball league in Land Park is now open. Land Park Drive (across the street from the amphitheater). As of last season, girls softball was not available through Land Park Pacific Little League. To bring the game back to this part of the city, a group of determined volunteers submitted a charter application over the summer to Little League International and has been preparing for the 2017 season. “We are thrilled to have this beloved game right here in our local neighborhoods for girls to enjoy,” says Valerie Turella Vlahos, president of the Land Park Softball board of directors. “Softball teaches important life skills, such as teamwork and discipline, and gets the girls outside having some fun.” Girls born in the years 2004 through 2010 are welcome to register. Registration materials are available for download on the league’s website and can be delivered in person to the league’s registrar (contact registrar@landparksoftball.com to coordinate the delivery). In addition, the league welcomes volunteers and monetary donations to cover items such as insurance, field permits and equipment. To volunteer, contact Turella Vlahos at president@ landparksoftball.com. For business sponsorship opportunities, email president@landparksoftball.com.

For more information, go to landparksoftball.com. Now let’s play ball!

MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK It’s that time of year again to dig out your work gloves and don a sun hat. The eighth season of the Land Park Volunteer Corps starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 4, in William Land Park. Come one, come all for the corps’ first Park Workday of 2017 and help trim, clean, weed, mulch and otherwise spiff up Land Park as the spring growing season begins in earnest. Check-in will be at 9 a.m. at the Corps’ Base Camp, located in the picnic grounds directly behind Fairytale Town. Enjoy coffee courtesy of Espresso Metro and tasty pastries to get your motor running. For more information, go to the corps’ Facebook page at facebook/com/ LandParkVolunteerCorps or call lead coordinator Craig Powell at 718-3030. Fairytale Town is at 3901 Land Park Drive.

RUNNING WILD Ready to lace up your running shoes and have a wildly good time

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Biggest Deadbeat THE STATE SHOULD PAY FOR CITY SERVICES IT USES

BY RICK STEVENSON For several political seasons, there has been much talk that all should pay their “fair share” of taxes to support vital and necessary public services. In Sacramento, a huge entity consumes copious quantities of city services but does not pay property taxes, sales taxes or all utility taxes, which are the primary sources of this city’s funding. This deadbeat rapacious consumer of city services is not a greedy corporation or a taxdodging rich person. The culprit is the state of California. The resulting systemic chronic fiscal problem is unique to this city, due to the huge amount of prime real estate that is off the tax rolls due to ownership or lease by the state. The result is that Sacramento residents subsidize state government use of city services. School districts, county facilities, federal offices, courthouses, SMUD and joint powers authorities are in similar situations but have a minor impact on city finances when compared to the state. Some state government entities do render a few crumbs of financial compensation to the city, such as the possessory interest tax paid by the Capitol Area Development Authority, some types of utility taxes, and assessments for entities such as property and business improvement districts and business improvement areas. A cursory look at state-owned and leased properties in Sacramento makes it appear likely that the

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property tax impact factor alone exceeds $10 million dollars per year and may be far higher. Sacramento should undertake a detailed study to determine the full extent of the financial hole this situation creates. The city must fully understand the impact of this monetary deficit and adjust city expenditures to reality, including city employee pay, pensions and postemployment health care. Current city budget practices in those areas are unsustainable, and the constant resort to raising taxes and fees only succeeds in punishing city residents,

rather than solving this underlying problem. Sacramento property taxpayers have been long victimized by the fact that there is no way to legally force the state to pay more. Withholding selected city services might be one way to get the state’s attention. This issue has never been brought to public attention as far as can be recalled in the decades that I have followed the machinations of Sacramento city government. Mayor Darrell Steinberg spoke of his ability to get greater state government cooperation and

participation with Sacramento when he ran for the office last year. He and the city council should put forth ideas and effort to get the state of California, as a good Sacramento resident, to volunteer greater compensation for services received. Can the city finesse the governor and legislature to get the state to pay its fair share? Rick Stevenson is a member of Eye on Sacramento, a civic watchdog and policy group. n

LIFE IN THE CITY FROM page 19 raising money for the Sacramento Zoo? The 37th annual ZooZoom will take place from 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday, March 26, in William Land Park.

Proceeds from the 2017 ZooZoom will go toward animal care and enrichment. There are options for everyone, from a 5K run/walk (3.1 miles) to a 10K run (6.2 miles). The 5K run/walk and 10K run will lead participants through beautiful Land Park and finish near the back entrance to the zoo. Kids ages 4-12 are also welcome to participate in various Fun Runs by age group (220-yard run for ages 4 and younger; 440-yard run for ages 5-6; half-mile run for ages 7-9; onemile run for ages 10-12) and all will receive a special finishers medal and race number. Proceeds from the 2017 ZooZoom will go toward animal care and enrichment. Feeding animals and keeping them occupied can be a difficult and expensive task. In order to keep their minds and skills sharp, a variety of enrichments that emulate foraging for food in the wild need to be made daily. More than 450 animals call the Sacramento Zoo home and ZooZoom helps fill their bellies and exercise their minds. For race information, go to sacramentozoozoom.com. It might not feel like it, but summer is right around the corner, so get a jump start on your plans. Registration for Summer Camp for Zoo members starts at noon on Tuesday, March 14. (Nonmember registration starts at noon on Tuesday, March 28.) Don’t delay, as classes fill up quickly. Do your little ones fancy themselves as a future zookeeper or wildlife expert? Check out Nature

This year's ZooZoom is on March 26. Explorers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, and join the zoo and the Sacramento Library in an open play environment where you can read stories, play and explore the wonders of the natural world with a new topic each month. For more information on all zoo events, call 808-5888 or go to saczoo. org. The Sacramento Zoo is at 3930 W. Land Park Drive.

MORE THAN JUST BOOKS Belle Cooledge Library is more than just a great place to find your favorite reads. Don’t miss these awesome March events. First up is Art for Everyone from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 4. Come express yourself in this process-based art program that’s free for all ages hosted by ArtBeast Children’s Studio in partnership with Belle Cooledge. All materials will be provided; expect to get messy!

Looking for some budget books? Check out the Pop-up Book Sale from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7. On the first Tuesday of every month, you can support your local library and pick up some great reads at this all-ages book sale. All proceeds benefit library programs. Do you know a teen attending prom who has nothing to wear? Point him or her in the direction of the Prom Giveaway from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 18. Community donations of dresses, accessories and other formal wear will be given away for free to youths ages 13-19 (with a valid school ID). Check the website at saclibrary. org/About-Us/News/2017/February/ Prom-Dress-Drive for more giveaway dates and locations and for guidelines on participating. This program is part of the Go Local series. For more information on all things Belle Cooledge, go to saclibrary.org. The Belle Cooledge Library is at 5600 S. Land Park Drive. Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. n

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Concrete Fact CAN WE PAVE OUR WAY OUT OF CONGESTION?

t’s intuitive that the way to unclog streets and highways is to widen them and build more of them. Don’t doctors increase blood flow through blocked arteries by widening them with tiny inflatable balloons? Even though it’s an obvious approach, widening roads hasn’t worked well in the real world. Adding asphalt is no magic cure for congestion. That fact, grounded in real-life observations from many cities, didn’t stop proponents of the transportation sales tax on last fall’s ballot (Measure B) from claiming that more and wider roads would provide “congestion relief.” They promised motorists, many frustrated by congestion, that projects such as widening the Capital City Freeway and building a 33-mile SouthEast Connector (located in a distinctly rural part of the county) would ease freeway gridlock. There’s no doubt that roadway expansion is good for the paving industry, homebuilders and developers. More roads are especially good for land speculators. They can buy cheap land and have the public foot the bill to increase its value. For the rest of us, more pavement isn’t so good. More roads mean higher taxes, sprawl, pollution, a diminished quality of life and loss of farmland and habitat. Most importantly, more roads usually mean more traffic. Congestion may be unaffected or even increase.

S W By Walt SeLfert Getting There

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The 26-lane Katy Freeway in Houston. Considerable evidence suggests that more miles of paved lanes don’t provide relief from congestion in the long run. Yes, road expansions can provide temporary relief, but that typically lasts only a few years. Further, during the construction period, already-bad

congestion can be made far worse as traffic backs up in construction zones. The reason congestion doesn’t go away is a phenomenon called “induced demand.” Traffic tends to increase proportionately as miles of new lanes are added. With new and wider roads,

people move to more distant locations and take longer trips. They take more trips. They alter trip destinations. They choose to drive instead of walking, biking or using transit. Walking to a neighborhood restaurant may be the best choice when roads are packed. Driving to a distant restaurant is more viable when traffic is less of a deterrent. Essentially, induced demand is the embodiment of the principle “build it, and they will come.” It’s basic economics. People demand more of a good when it’s cheap and available. Interestingly there’s a corollary principle: “Destroy it, and they will go away.” Roads have been narrowed, demolished and removed in San Francisco, Paris, Seoul, South Korea and elsewhere. The traffic hasn’t merely been displaced in those cities and caused gridlock elsewhere; it’s disappeared. Besides the unfavorable and uncertain results on congestion, there are practical limits to widening roads and building more of them. Katy Freeway in Houston has an astonishing 26 lanes, counting access and frontage roads. Congestion on it returned soon after $2.8 billion was spent on widening. Most urban areas don’t have Texas’ wide-open spaces. Space in urban areas is scarce. Peter Samuel, writing for Reason Foundation, blithely suggests accommodating traffic by either building over or under existing rights of way. Decking a freeway or putting roads in tunnels can be enormously expensive and disruptive propositions. Decks and tunnels are also more costly to maintain than surface-level roads.

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If paving the countryside doesn’t work to relieve congestion, what does? Creating better conditions for walking and biking and providing better transit service are alternatives. Walking and biking are particularly cost effective but have suffered from severe underinvestment for decades. Increasing their share of trips not only would help relieve congestion; it would improve public health and reduce environmental harms. Having motorists pay for road use through tolls or congestion charges has been shown to change behavior. Charges reduce the number of trips or change the time trips are made. After all, outside of peak hours, the road system has excess capacity. Congestion pricing has worked well in London. It’s a market-based approach that prices road use higher when demand is highest. It could pay for that decking Reason Foundation recommends. However, it’s never been politically popular to start charging for something that previously has been free, whether it’s plastic bags, parking or road use. That’s true even when everyone is better off afterward. London’s former

mayor called the reluctance of other cities to adopt congestion pricing schemes “political cowardice.” Smart land use can put destinations closer to origins and reduce the need to drive. Kids going to a small neighborhood school don’t have to be chauffeured. Grocery stores, drugstores, hardware stores and restaurants in the immediate neighborhood don’t require every trip to be made by car. What new technology, such as selfdriving cars, will do to road demand is unclear. There very likely will be far less need for parking and less car ownership, but it probably will take greater acceptance and use of shared vehicles to lessen the number of cars on the road. There are alternatives to paving paradise. Since all that paving ultimately seems to be fruitless, perhaps those alternatives should be considered first, rather than last or not at all. Walt Seifert is a bicyclist, driver and transportation writer. He can be reached at bikeguy@surewest.net. n

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Soggy Bottom DON’T OVERWATER YOUR PLANTS

o you have a plant that’s suddenly drooping, leaves limp and curled? Quick, give it some water! Is it dead now? What happened? When diagnosing a plant problem, Master Gardeners first ask, “How is the plant watered?” Occasionally, the problem is too little water, or watering that doesn’t go deep enough. Sometimes, it’s inconsistent watering. Usually, it’s too much water. Way, way too much water. I work with the garden at David Lubin Elementary School in East Sacramento. Last summer, the tomatoes in the main planting bed developed curled, limp and brown leaves. Others growing over by the fence were in great condition. All of them bore some nice tomatoes, but those ugly plants were an embarrassment. They drooped so pathetically that just about every garden visitor turned on the hose and watered them. While it was clear the plants were being overwatered, I didn’t figure out the magnitude of the problem until planting the bed anew this spring. One of the planting holes happened to fill with water, and it stayed full for a couple of hours. The bed where the tomatoes were planted is a lower spot in the garden. There is a very dense clay-soil layer underneath the rich, light garden

AC By Anita Clevenger Garden Jabber

POC MAR n 17

loam. Last year’s tomatoes were standing in water. No wonder they looked so miserable! Clay soil has some great gardening attributes, but drainage isn’t one of them. Water penetrates clay slowly, so it may run off into your garden’s low spots or flood your gutter. Once clay is wet, it stays wet for a long time. Watering once a week is often enough if you’ve watered deeply. Before you add more water, dig down 6 inches and see if the soil is still moist.

When putting in new plants, it’s a good idea to dig a hole, fill it with water and see how quickly it drains. If water stands for an hour or more, your plants are going into a watery grave. There are several ways to improve drainage. Installing French drains, perforated pipes buried over a bed of gravel, may solve the problem. That’s a major job, especially if you need to trench through existing trees and shrubs. Mixing in organic

amendments, such as compost, will lighten heavy soil and help it drain. Another, perhaps easier way to improve drainage is to build raised beds. They can be as shallow as 6 inches, or as much as 2 or more feet high. It’s best to mix some organic amendments into the soil beneath before filling the raised beds with a well-draining mix of topsoil and compost. Container gardening is the easiest solution of all if you have severe drainage problems. Growing in pots has become very popular, but it has some drawbacks. Containers can be expensive. Many garden plants like to send down very deep roots. They will grow, bloom and produce fruit in large containers, but they probably would do better planted in the ground. Roots of containerized plants can cook in the blazing sun, especially in smaller plastic pots. Clay pots insulate roots better but dry out quickly. To make watering easier, many people run a drip system to their containers. How much should you be watering? There are some rules of thumb, but the only correct answer is “water when your plants need it.” Master Gardeners are often asked how long sprinklers or a drip system should run. It’s impossible to answer that without knowing the type of soil and how much water the system delivers. For lawns planted with “coolseason” grasses such as tall fescue, about 2 inches of water a week is recommended. Bermudagrass, a “warm-season” grass, needs about half of that. Lawns should be watered only two or three times a week, even in the hottest weather. You can measure how much water your

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New Patient Special | Free Exam and X-rays lawn is getting by distributing empty tuna or pet food cans around the lawn, running the sprinklers and measuring. If water runs off into the gutter before you have applied enough water, set the sprinklers to run for a while, turn them off for an hour, then run them again. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best to water any of your plants in the early morning. Not only does it reduce evaporation; it gives them a chance to dry out before night. Fungal diseases love cool humidity. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why they are rare during Sacramento

summers, unless the homeowner has been watering too much or too late in the day. Before you add more water to a stressed plant, be sure that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dry. Unfortunately, the symptoms of over- and underwatering are often the same. Fortunately, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to dig down and find out if your plant is thirsty or drowning. Anita Clevenger is a Sacramento County UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener. For advice on

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Only Temporary

THIS FAMILY WILL STAY A COUPLE OF YEARS BEFORE MOVING ON

POC MAR n 17

ome people build a home and stay put. Others, like Erica and Nate Cunningham, build a home, settle in for a few years, then move again. In 2016, the Cunninghams relocated to their latest home, a family-friendly 3,000-squarefoot home in East Sacramento. “We’re builders. That’s what we do,” Erica Cunningham says. “We’re always scouting around for a new home.” Initially, the couple began restoring Craftsman bungalows in 2001. They were old-house people through and

JF By Julie Foster Home Insight

through. But in 2007, they altered course. “We got on this modern kick after spending every single summer staining the shingles on our 100-year-old bungalow,” Cunningham explains. “We started thinking about other stuff.” Today, she’s a broker with the couple’s company, Indie Capital Real Estate. On the development side of the business, Indie Capital LLC, she works with architects and engineers on design. Nate, a licensed general contractor, oversees construction. Most years, the couple manages a handful of projects. This year, they’ve got 24 in the works. “We’ve had a lot of experience, have made mistakes along the way and figured out things as well,” Cunningham explains.

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“Now we know what we like. It’s all about having the time to do the things you want.” For their East Sac home, the pair worked with local architect Stephen Henry of Henry + Associates. The modern exterior is a combination of stucco, fiber cement siding and weathered steel panels. The interior, while refreshingly free of doodads, still evokes a warm family environment. The decorating scheme is simple and spotless. “I don’t like cleaning, so the less stuff we have around, the better,” Cunningham says. She kept the design scheme neutral, using mainly whites, grays and beiges. She uses the same fixtures and porcelain tiles in all the bathrooms. “When I do the color boards for a house, I like to keep it to four or five materials,” she says. “I think it gets too distracting with more.”

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The home’s most prominent feature is the abundance of natural light. Every room benefits from expanses of large aluminum-clad wood windows. The front door is essentially a large glass panel. A skylight over the staircase drenches the interior with natural light. Both bathrooms have skylights as well. “When we build a home, we put money where it will matter most,” says Cunningham. “And that is usually in the windows and doors.” The kitchen’s exposed structural beam, made of parallel strand lumber, adds visual appeal. The quartz countertops are 2 centimeters thick, rather than the standard 3 centimeters, for a more modern look. The custom-made powdercoated steel wall unit, by local artist Thomas Ramey, stores dishes and utensils within easy reach. A built-in microwave drawer reduces counter clutter. The digitally controlled Electrolux induction range offers more temperature precision that gas. In the living room, the piano, which both daughters play, sits against the wall, ready for family concerts. Suspended from the ceiling is an eye-catching, eco-friendly Fireorb fireplace. “You pop it open and pour in some denatured alcohol, which burns clean so we can burn every night,” she says. Sanded and sealed on-site so there are no seams, engineered white oak flooring, brightens the upstairs hallway. The stair railing (also by Thomas Ramey) is metal topped with a wood cap for a touch of warmth. Storage space is vital to Cunningham’s uncluttered style. The master bedroom’s walk-in closet is enviable for its size and organization. Cunningham dislikes tiny closets where she can’t see everything at a glance. Both daughters’ rooms are impeccably neat. Cunningham noted that since prospective clients often stop by to tour their home, the girls know keeping their rooms tidy is the rule. And since the family moves regularly, possessions are kept to a minimum. Initially the girls were a bit unsettled by the moves, but staying in the same general area allows them to attend the same schools.

“Now they wonder where their next home will be,” Cunningham says. “My girls are nomads.” Outside, an ipe wood deck expands the family living space. The koi pond is a tank painted black. The swimming pool’s deep shelf is a bonus for young swimmers. Native California plants dot the space. Veggies thrive in raised beds. A dining table allows for alfresco meals.

Behind the house is a two-story, 600-square-foot garage. Tucked off to one side is a chicken coop. The garage floor’s epoxy coating resists stains. The second story is a separately metered rental unit. The roof is home to several beehives. The family plans on staying put until next spring. Cunningham doesn’t mind leaving a house as long

as it’s in good hands. But often it’s hard to say goodbye. “We go back and visit neighbors,” she says. We make the rounds and stay in touch.” 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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Telling Stories SHE FINDS POWER IN CREATIVE NONFICTION

he philosophy behind Under the Gum Tree—the literary-arts micro magazine that writer and editor Janna Marlies Maron started in 2011—is “Tell stories without shame.” This philosophy not only informs the creative nonfiction and visual artwork featured in Maron’s beautiful quarterly publication, but also her own life and career. “When I was in grad school at Sac State for creative writing, I was introduced to the genre of creative nonfiction,” says Maron, who moved to Sacramento in 2001 and gradually fell in love with Midtown after growing up in the Bay Area. “Everybody goes to grad school and writes fiction and poetry. I was writing really bad biographical fiction. When I write fiction, it feels contrived. It’s not who I am as a person or a writer. When I was introduced to creative nonfiction, I was blown away by the concept. I thought, ‘I can write true stories in the manner of fiction and call it nonfiction? That’s a thing?’ It unlocked my voice as a writer. The freedom to write nonfiction in a literary form was really liberating.” This creative liberation was a long time coming for Maron, who wrote for a newspaper in El Dorado Hills after college, then worked in magazine publishing and eventually got involved in the coworking movement in town with a space

JL By Jessica Laskey Meet Your Neighbor

POC MAR n 17

Writer and editor Janna Marlies Maron called ThinkHouse Collective that she co-owned with her husband for four years. After earning her master’s degree, Maron also ran a Meetup group called Shut Up and Write for fellow artists. She teaches at Sacramento City College and in private writing workshops and acts as the adviser for the literary journal at William Jessup University. But

something was still missing for the dedicated wordsmith. “By the time I graduated from Sac State, I’d become obsessed with the creative nonfiction genre,” Maron recalls. “But aside from reading memoirs, I was desperately searching for where to read more of this kind of writing and wondering where I

could publish my own.” So she started Under the Gum Tree in 2011. “What I loved about magazine publishing was the design and layout and the glossy, full-color treatment of the content,” Maron says. “There aren’t a lot of publications focusing on creative nonfiction and certainly no other publications that are doing a glossy, full-color product. I realized that I could bring my background in magazine publishing to the literary space and converge both of my interests.” The response to Maron’s magazine has been wonderful. But she didn’t realize how important that support would be until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis eight months after the first edition of Under the Gum Tree was published. “The diagnosis was a huge shock and surprise,” says Maron, who started experiencing mysterious symptoms in 2012. “My biggest symptom was fatigue. I could barely make it up the stairs of our building. I would go to bed at 6 p.m. and sleep till 9 or 10 the next day and not realize I was sleeping that long. I thought, ‘What’s wrong with me? I’m young, relatively healthy, I jog and practice yoga.’ My official diagnosis of MS came when I was only 33.” Maron refused to be beaten by extreme fatigue. She pared back on what she could, and she and her husband closed the coworking space in 2015. But she says it wasn’t even a question whether or not she would continue the literary magazine. “I wanted desperately to see how far I could take it, and I had only just started,” says Maron, who manages her condition holistically (without

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5363 H Street, Suite A, Sacramento, CA 95819 www.HomeCareAssistanceSacramento.com drugs) and has been symptom free for two years. “Having my own magazine is the culmination of everything I’ve ever done. I’m really proud of it. My amazing staff—all of whom are volunteers—remind me that what I’m doing is much bigger than I am. If it had been just me all these five years, it wouldn’t have lasted this long.” Under the Gum Tree also serves as a constant reminder of the power of storytelling, even in the face of debilitating illness.

“I feel passionately about the healing process,” Maron explains. “When a writer writes a story and shares it with an audience, there’s a powerful synergy that comes from sharing and owning the experience. It’s a way of saying, ‘This is my truth. This is what has happened to me in my life.’ It’s empowering.” To subscribe to Under the Gum Tree, go to underthegumtree.com. n

WildÀower Forest Preschool Program opening in September 2017 Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade Open House March 4, 2017 9:00-10:00am Discover the Difference

New location: 7450 Pocket Road (916) 427-5022 camelliawaldorf.org

The Master of Science in Law (MSL) is a degree for professionals who seek advanced legal knowledge and skills without becoming a lawyer. The program offers a ﬂexible evening schedule and a curriculum customized to your career goals. Learn more at our Information Session on Tuesday, March 14 at 6:00 p.m. in the McGeorge Library, Grand Salon.

McGeorge.edu/MSL POC n INSIDEPUBLICATIONS.COM

Art Preview

GALLERY ART SHOWS IN MARCH

Tim Collom Gallery is showing works by painter Whitney Lofrano that explore her ﬁrst year of sobriety, through the end of March. Shown above: “The Deep End #1,” watercolor. 915 20th St.; timcollomgallery.com

ARTHOUSE on R presents “Winter’s Dawn: October in Iceland” by Victoria Veedell, through April 4. Shown right: “Iceland Dawn,” oil. 1021 R St.; arthouseonr.com

At Ella K. McClatchy Library, “Mixed Messages: Art Quilts” features the work of Jan Soules and The Pixeladies, through April 26. Shown above: “Blue Morningfull,” a quilt by Soules. 2122 22nd St.; saclibrary.org

New watercolor works by longtime graphic designer Michael Dunlavey is shown through March 31 at Sparrow Gallery. Shown above: “Black Pearl.” 2418 K St.; sparrowgallerysacramento.com

POC MAR n 17

Smith Gallery presents an exhibition of new “Costa Rica and Jungle” scenes, original mixed-media works on canvas by Steve Memering, through April 30. Shown above: “At the River’s Edge,” oil. 1011 K St.; smithgallery.com

INSIDE

OUT ArtStreet

CONTRIBUTED BY ANIKO KIEZEL

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Paying It Forward PRAYERS FOR OTHERS CAN BOOMERANG BACK ONTO YOURSELF

s you might imagine, offering prayers for patients is part of my daily routine as a healthcare chaplain. When they accept my offer, I ask if they’d rather me pray aloud at the moment, or pray for them silently later. I allow this option so as to not put the patient on the spot before staff or visitors. Most choose an audible prayer in the moment, but I can recall at least two octogenarians who countered my offer with a surprising one of their own. The first patient leaned forward from her pillow to ask, “Do you get paid for this job?” “Yes, ma’am,” I said. “The hospital pays me for my work.” “Well, then,” she concluded. “I’ll expect both.” “I’m sorry. Both?” I asked with a confused chuckle that proved me to be slow on the uptake. “I’m answering your question,” she said firmly. “If you’re paid to do this job, you should pray for me now and later.” I shook a finger toward her in the way one does when admitting that a worthy opponent has the upper ground. “You got me,” I said. “You definitely got me.” If she wanted two prayers for the price of one, I would certainly oblige.

NB By Norris Burkes Spirit Matters

POC MAR n 17

The second prayer patient gave a more serious response. His medical condition wasn’t serious, but as he was nearing 90 years old, his “heavenly discharge” was more likely with each passing year. With a bald head and a small frame, he had a Gandhi look about him and maybe even a touch of Gandhi’s spirit. At the end of our visit, I offered the aging Episcopalian a prayer, but he made a counteroffer that I’ve never forgotten. “Does anyone ever offer to pray for you, chaplain?” His question told me he was looking outside himself at a time when most patients look, understandably so, inside themselves.

“Well, uh …,” I stumbled, embarrassed that he’d focused his attention on my needs. “Have you ever had a patient pray for you?” he repeated with special emphasis on “ever.” “I guess not.” “It’s about time, don’t you think?” he declared with a wink in his voice. Perhaps he suspected that in my position as a caregiver, I imagined myself above receiving pastoral care from others. Perhaps he saw an attitude in me that said, “I’m here to help people, but I don’t need any help.” The wise elder found that while facing his own mortality, other people mattered that much more. And most importantly, he knew that the prayers he offered for others could boomerang and become a part of his own healing.

As he prayed for my work, my family and my health, I recalled the words of an old spiritual: “It’s not my brother, it’s not my sister, but it’s me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.” His prayerful plea multiplied my efforts to pay the blessings forward to the remaining patients on my rounds. At the end of the day, I couldn’t help but wonder if the old man had found the secret to longevity in Jesus’ words, “If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.” Norris Burkes is a chaplain, syndicated columnist, national speaker and author. He can be reached at norris@thechaplain.net. n

INSIDE’S

THE HANDLE The Rind 1801 L Street #40 441-7463 L D $-$$ Wine/Beer Cheese-centric menu paired with select wine and beer • therindsacramento.com

Zocolo 1801 Capitol Ave. 441-0303

DOWNTOWN Cafeteria 15L 116 15th Street 551-1559 L D $$ Classic American lunch counter with a millennial vibe • cafeteria15l.com

DeVere’s Pub 1521 L Street L D Full Bar $$ Family-run authentic Irish pub with a classic menu to match • deverespub.com

Downtown & Vine 1200 K Street #8 228-4518 Educational tasting experience of wines by the taste, ﬂight or glass • downtownandvine.com

Ella Dining Room & Bar

Rio City Cafe 1110 Front Street 442-8226 L D Wine/Beer $$ Bistro favorites with a distinctively Sacramento feeling in a riverfront setting • riocitycafe.com

1112 Second St. 442-4772

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

L D $$$ Full Bar Global and California cuisine in an upscale historic Old Sac setting • Firehouseoldsac.com

Café Bernardo

The Firehouse Restaurant

Ten 22 1022 Second St. 441-2211 L D Wine/Beer $$ American bistro favorites with a modern twist in a casual, Old Sac setting • ten22oldsac.com

L D $$$ Full Bar Modern American cuisine served family-style in a chic, upscale space Elladiningroomandbar.com

L D $ Great burgers and more. • williesburgers.com

R STREET Café Bernardo

L D $$-$$$ Full Bar Upscale American fare served in an elegant setting • Paragarys.com

1431 R St. 930-9191 B L D $-$$ Wine/Beer Casual California cuisine with counter service

Firestone Public House

Frank Fat’s 806 L St. 442-7092 L D Full Bar $$-$$$ Chinese favorites in an elegant setting • Fatsrestaurants.com

Ma Jong’s

Grange

Fish Face Poke Bar 1104 R Street Suite 100 L D $$ Humble Hawaiian poke breaks free • ﬁshfacepokebar.com

Hock Farm Craft & Provision

1116 15th Street L D $-$$ Full Bar Gastro-pub cuisine in a stylish industrial setting • ironhorsetavern.net

12th & R Streets B L D $ Full-service cafe with artisan coffee roasts, bakery goods and sandwiches • oldsoulco.com

Magpie Cafe

L D $-$$ Wine/Beer Wood-ﬁred pizzas in an inventive urban alley setting • federalistpublichouse.com

“Sacramento’s Volvo Service” 2009 Fulton Ave. Sacramento, CA 95825 (916) 971-1382 svsauto.com

Hot Italian L D Full Bar $$ Authentic hand-crafted pizzas with inventive ingredients, Gelato• hotitalian.net

Mulvaney’s Building & Loan L D Full Bar $$$ Modern American cuisine in an upscale historic setting

Tapa The World 2115 J St. 442-4353 L D $-$$ Wine/Beer/Sangria Spanish/world cuisine in a casual authentic atmosphere, live ﬂamenco music - tapathewworld.com

Thai Basil Café 2431 J St. 442-7690 L D $-$$ Wine/Beer Patio Housemade curries among their authentic Thai specialties Thaibasilrestaurant.com

Red Rabbit L D $$ Full Bar All things local contribute to a sophisticated urban menu • theredrabbit.net

1401 28th St. 457-5737

2005 11th Street 382-9722

Shoki Ramen House 1201 R Street L D $$ Japanese ﬁne dining using the best local ingredients • sshokiramenhouse.com

2000 Capitol Ave. 498-9891

OAK PARK La Venadita

2831 S Street 1409 R Street Suite 102

The Waterboy L D $$-$$$ Full Bar Patio Fine South of France and northern Italian cuisine in a chic neighborhood setting • waterboyrestaurant.com

Paragary’s Bar & Oven

Revolution Wines

L D $ Bakery treats and seasonal specialities • hellonido.com

D $$-$$$ Full Bar American cuisine served in a casual historic Old Sac location • Fatsrestaurants.com

2009 N Street

L D $$-$$$ Wine/Beer Seasonal menu using the best local ingredients • magpiecafe.com

South

1001 Front St. 446-6768

Federalist Public House

1601 16th Street

Nido Bakery

Fat City Bar & Cafe

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

L D $$ Full Bar Fabulous Outdoor Patio, California cuisine with a French touch • Paragarys.com

L D $$-$$ Full Bar Celebration of the region’s rich history and bountiful terrain • Paragarys.com

OLD SAC

2730 J St. 442-2552

2718 J Street

Old Soul & Pullman Bar

1415 L St. 440-8888

L D $-$$ Beer/Wine Timeless traditional Southern cuisine, counter service • weheartfriedchicken.com

Centro Cocina Mexicana

1215 19th St. 441-6022

Iron Horse Tavern

926 J Street • 492-4450 B L D Full Bar $$$ Simple, seasonal, soulful • grangerestaurant.com

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

1627 16th Street 444-3000

1431 L Street L D $-$$ Beer/Wine Cuisine from Japan, Thailand, China ad Vietnam. • majongs.com

Sacramento’s top-rated independent Volvo service and repair since 1980. Experts in ALL Volvo makes and models. • Experienced technicians • Complete repair & maintenance • Expert diagnosis & consultation • Shuttle service (just ask!) • Plush waiting lounge with wi-ﬁ, coffee and movies • The power of product knowledge How may we help you?

110 K Street

1213 K St. 448-8900

L D $$ Full Bar Sports bar with a classical american menu• ﬁrestonepublichouse.com

served a la carte • Biba-restaurant.com

OWNERS ONLY

2726 Capitol Ave. 443-1180

Willie’s Burgers

1132 16th Street

MIDTOWN Biba Ristorante

1131 K St. 443-3772

Esquire Grill

L D $$-$$$ Full Bar Patio Regional Mexican cuisine served in an authentic artistic setting • zocolosacramento.com

VOLVO

L D $-$$ Beer/Wine Urban winery and tasting room with a creative menu using local sources • rwwinery. com

Skool

3501 Thurd Ave. 4000-4676 L D $$ Full Bar Authentic Mexican cuisine with simple tasty menu in a colorful historic setting • lavenaditasac.com

Oak Park Brewing Company

2315 K Street D $$ Inventive Japansese-inspired seafood dishes • skoolonkstreet.com

3514 Broadway

Suzie Burger

Vibe Health Bar

29th and P. Sts. 455-3300 L D $ Classic burgers, cheesesteaks, shakes, chili dogs, and other tasty treats • suzieburger.com

L D $$ Full Bar Award-winning beers and a creative pub-style menu in an historic setting • opbrewco.com

3515 Broadway B L D $-$$ Clean, lean & healthy snacks. Acai bowls are speciality. Kombucha on tap • vibehealthbar.com n

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TO DO THIS MONTH'S CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT HIGHLIGHTS

I Gotta Crow! “Peter Pan” and “Viva Vivaldi” presented by the Sacramento Ballet March 24-26 Community Center Theater, 1301 L St. 808-5181, sacballet.org Let your imagination soar on a nonstop flight past the second star to the right and straight on to Neverland with the boy who won’t grow up, courtesy of Ron Cunningham’s stunning, high-flying choreography. Join Peter, Wendy, Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily and the Lost Boys, as they outwit the nefarious Captain Hook in this family-friendly classic. Sharing the performance program is the high-energy, tour-de-force “Viva Vivaldi,” the seminal work of Gerald Arpino (resident choreographer and co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet) that was part of the dance revolution that catapulted the Joffrey Ballet to international acclaim.

International Men Of Music World Music Series Concert featuring GYANI Tuesday, March 28 at 8 p.m. Capistrano Hall at Sacramento State, 6000 J St. 278-4323, csus.edu/music/worldmusic, gyaniindojazz.com This masterful music group combines Indian raga, jazz, Arabic melodies and global rhythms to make a unique brand of music that blends classic Hindustani (North Indian) forms and cutting-edge improvisation. The group is composed of internationally recognized musicians who are each masters of their own instrument: GYANI founder Pt. Binay Pathak (a classical Hindustani musician and composer whose lineage dates back centuries) on vocals and harmonium; Abbos Kosimov on doira (frame drum); Osam Ezzeldin on piano and keyboards; and Vishal Nagar on tabla. The California-based ensemble brings together world-class musicians who share a passion for exploring and expanding the possibilities of merging Indian music with other genres.

jL Sacramento Ballet is presenting "Peter Pan" at the end of March. Photo courtesy of Alexander Biber

POC MAR n 17

By Jessica Laskey

Luck o’ the Irish Three performances by the McKeever School of Irish Dance: “Irish Social” Saturday, March 11 from 1-5 p.m. Christian Brothers High School, 4315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. thelasalleclub.com, mckeeverdance.com

21st annual Sacramento St. Patrick’s Day Parade Saturday, March 18 (performances before the parade starts at 1 p.m.) Old Sacramento (Neesham and Front streets) oldsacramento.com/specialevents, mckeeverdance.com

“An Irish Hooley” Sunday, March 19 at 7 p.m. Harris Center for the Arts, 10 College Parkway, Folsom harriscenter.net, mckeeverdance.com The McKeever School of Irish Dance (housed in CLARA Midtown) offers students the opportunity to learn, master and preserve the art of Irish Dancing with founder and owner Nicole McKeever, who toured the world for seven years with shows such as “Riverdance,” before settling in Sacramento. The studio offers classes for children and adults in both solo and team choreography, from beginners through the professional level. Check out performances around town this month to see what that stunning high-stepping is all about!

Picture This “Images in Sound,” a Sacramento Symphonic Winds concert Sunday, March 19 at 2:30 pm. Crowne Plaza Sacramento Northeast, 5321 Date Ave. 489-2576, sacwinds.org The 60-piece adult symphonic band conducted by Music and Artistic Director Timothy M. Smith, will delight your ears and your mind’s eye, with this concert featuring “Three London Miniatures” by Mark Camphouse, “George Washington Bridge” by William Schuman, “The Othello Suite” by Alfred Reed, and more.

Photos by Indian photographer Pranlal K. Patel will be on display at City Hall during March. “Carrying Goods. Kalupur Railway Station, Ahmedabad, 1937” Copyright Pranlal K. Patel.

McKeever School of Irish Dance will be performing in March.

Refocusing the Lens “Refocusing the Lens: An Exhibit of Pranlal Patel’s Photographs of Women at Work in Ahmedabad” On display through March 31 Sacramento City Hall, 915 I St. dhi.ucdavis.edu The UC Davis Middle East and South Asia Studies Program’s “South Asia Without Borders” initiative, is pleased to announce its 2017 public event with a special focus on Gujarat, India, in partnership with the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. “Refocusing the Lens” features images documenting lives of women who were part of India’s labor force in the early 20th century, taken by celebrated Indian photographer Pranlal K. Patel. Commissioned for Jyoti Sangh, a women’s social reform organization dedicated to improving the lives of Indian women, these photographs provide insight into the everyday lives of working-class women engaged in a range of tasks in their homes, neighborhoods, markets or on the streets of Ahmedabad. “These photos show working women very active in the public sphere at a time when it was assumed that women were not permitted outside the confines of the house,” explains Mridula Udayagiri, a member of the UCD Middle East and South Asia Studies Program advisory board. “It breaks down stereotypes and helps us gain a deeper appreciation of why cross-cultural understandings of gender are important.” The exhibition is curated by Dr. Lisa Trivedi, a professor of history at Hamilton College in New York and a cultural and social historian of modern South Asia, who received her doctorate from UC Davis. Trivedi discovered Patel’s series during a sabbatical in Gujarat in 2011 and worked closely with the photographer for two years before his death to create this exhibition for the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, from which it is currently on loan.

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Into the Wood(winds) “Musical Scenery,” a Crocker Classical Concert featuring Trois Bois Sunday, March 12 at 3 p.m. Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St. 808-1182, crockerart.org Enter a pastoral soundscape with the woodwind trio Trois Bois, comprised of oboe, clarinet and bassoon. Drawing inspiration from bucolic artwork in the Crocker’s permanent collection, which includes August Renoir’s “Danseuse au Tambourin” and E. Charlton Fortune’s “Feeding Time,” Trois Bois has created an idyllic concert that is sure to delight the ears with music by Joseph Canteloube and Henri Sauguet, among others. Space is limited and advance registration is recommended. Trois Bois will perform at Crocker Art Museum.

Soothing Sounds

Posies For Your Nosey

“Love Heals: Songs of Hope in Trying Times,” a Sacramento Master Singers concert Saturday, March 18 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 19 at 3 p.m.

DIY Hand-Tied Bouquet Class at Relles Florist Saturday, March 25 from 10-11:30 a.m.

First United Methodist Church, 2100 J St. 788-7464, mastersingers.org Recent tragedies, violence and loss of lives, have spurred the Sacramento Master Singers to offer a choral program to help us mourn together, comfort one another and unite in love as a community. Audiences will be bathed in soothing favorites from John Rutter and Maurice Duruflé; Sacramento writer and spoken word artist Laura “immoBme as.i.be.we” Cook; favorites from Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Eric Whitacre and Pentatonix; fresh settings of “Kyrie Eleison” and “Pie Jesu” by Ken Medema; as well as Jake Runestad’s new work, “Let My Love Be Heard.”

Relles Florist, 2400 J St. 441-1478, rellesﬂorist.com Calling all budding floral designers, flower enthusiasts and admirers of European hand-tied bouquet design! Join the experts at Relles Florist for a class that explores the principals of hand-tied design techniques with a focus on seasonal spring flowers, including tips and tricks to help you make bouquets that are on-trend and vase-ready. You can even use what you learn to construct a wedding bouquet! Take home your handiwork and impress a loved one. Who says romance has to end in February?

Forbidden Fruit “Forbidden Fruit: Chris Antemann at Meissen” March 19 through June 25 Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St. 808-1182, crockerart.org In 2012, the renowned Meissen Porcelain Manufactory in Germany, invited Oregon-based sculptor Chris Antemann, to collaborate with Meissen’s master artisans on a series of contemporary sculptures. The results are this grand installation at the Crocker, that reinvents and invigorates the porcelain figurative tradition. Using the Garden of Eden as a metaphor, Antemann has created a contemporary celebration of an 18th-century banquet of “forbidden fruit”— including a 5-foot version of Meissen’s historical model of Johann Joachim Kändler’s monumental “Love Temple” from 1750—attended by a host of semiclothed revelers in a style that evokes the decadence of Boucher and Watteau. The exhibition also includes a pleasure garden, a massive porcelain chandelier and a collection of smaller sculptures.

POC MAR n 17

The late Darrell Forney is exhibiting at Beatnik Studios.

Going Downton “The Music of Downton Abbey,” a Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra concert Saturday, March 18 at 8 p.m.

Gyani will be at Sacramento State on Tuesday, March 28.

Community Center Theater, 1301 L St. 808-5181, sacchoral.com Enjoy music from the popular TV Series by Emmy Award-winning composer John Lunn, as well as British chorus and orchestra gems from the era by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry, Edward Elgar and Gustav Holst, alongside narrations about memorable events from the show. The song stylings of Carrie Hennessey and baritone Kevin Doherty, are sure to delight, as is the pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. by Conductor Donald Kendrick, and post-concert lobby reception with a full English tea service. Don’t forget to attend in your best post-Edwardian England dress. Photo opportunities abound!

Artists In “Repose”

Swanky Sacramento

“Playing Around: An Appreciation,” artwork by the late Darrell Forney Exhibition continues through March 23 Films will be shown on Tuesday, March 14 beginning at 7 p.m.

ArtMix | Vintage Swank at the Crocker Art Museum with TUBE. Magazine Thursday, March 9 from 5-9 p.m.

“Repose,” artwork by Marc Foster and Micah Crandall-Bear March 3 through April 20 Reception on Friday, March 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. Beatnik Studios, 723 S St. 400-4281, beatnik-studios.com Mother Nature’s trash is local artists Marc Foster and Micah Crandall-Bear’s treasure. As this two-dimensional artist and three-dimensional artist come together, totally distinctive approaches to how materials convey “abstract simplicity” merge. Crandall-Bear’s technique for layered painting applied to the normally monochromatic surfaces of Foster’s steel and wood work, delivers qualities of simple, elegant, industrial coalescence. Beatnik also continues its celebration of the late Darrell Forney. In addition to the exhibition “Playing Around: An Appreciation,” Beatnik will screen several of his films along with those of his friend and fellow filmmaker Horst Leissl, courtesy of the Center for Sacramento History. The films will be shown on Tuesday, March 14 beginning at 7 p.m.

Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St. 808-1182, crockerart.org The Crocker is partnering with TUBE.Magazine, to bring you a wild night of whimsical art, cirque performances, theatre, vintage fashion and lots of surprises. Enjoy magical music by Unwoman and bawdy dramatics by the Green Valley Cabaret Troop, food and drink discounts during happy hour from 5 to 6 p.m. and $5 drink specials all night. The event is free for museum members and only $10 for nonmembers. Just make sure you’re over 21 years old! Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. n

The Light of Day “An Evening of Inspiration and Celebration,” a concert beneﬁtting Shriners Hospitals for Children—Northern California Saturday, March 18 at 6 p.m. Elks Tower Historic Ballroom, 921 11th St. shrinerschildrens.org Grammy Award-nominated singer Andra Day, will share her virtuoso voice, at this memorable performance for the benefit of Shriners’ specialized pediatric health-care programs. The tone and flavor of this exclusive evening will be made all the more delectable thanks to the culinary gifts of guest chef Rick Mahan, owner of The Waterboy and OneSpeed Pizza.

Sacramento Master Singers perform “Love Heals: Songs of Hope in Trying Times.”

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HAVE INSIDE, WILL TRAVEL 1. Good friends Rosalie Spitz, Kathy Anapolsky, Carol Sabin, Janice Kimmel, and Pat Ingoglia enjoying good times in Times Square in New York City 2. Artist Reece Metzger ﬁnding inspiration in Western Australia 3. Gary Agosta and Kim Nguyen touring the Ninh Bình caves in northern Vietnam 4. Cindy Philpott and her mother enjoying the afternoon at The Palace of Versailles in France 5. Brian Davey, Sara Davey (Cain), Andi Owens and Marco Colucci enjoy a double rainbow on their last day in Bora Bora 6. Chynna and Xander Hinrichsen in Lisbon, Portugal

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

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One Determined Artist

FROM CHILDHOOD, SHE KNEW SHE WANTED TO PAINT

never entirely know what I’m doing, but that’s a good thing,” says artist Cherie Hacker. This refreshing honesty is pure Hacker, a Chicago native who’s been in Sacramento since 1983 and who specializes in vibrant abstract paintings that express her love of the environment and the energy of the outdoors.

JL By Jessica Laskey Artist Spotlight

POC MAR n 17

“I’ve made it a point to focus on abstraction for the last few years,” says Hacker, who works out of E Street Gallery and Studios with 11 other visual artists in a building that houses 12 studios and an exhibition space. “It expresses a raw, inner energy part of me. It was the way I wanted to paint early on but didn’t know how to accomplish that well. Now, after many years of painting and experience, I think I do it better. The most expressive part of me is always putting something down with paint.” Hacker has had this raw, inner artistic energy ever since she was a kid, when she would save up her allowance to buy herself art supplies

and her first easel. Though she came from a musical family, her strengths were visual, starting with drawing at the age of 5 and eventually showing her artwork at 19. “I’ve had jobs to keep everything going. I’ve worked at frame shops and learned a lot from different jobs. But no matter what I did, nothing was going to stop me from making art,” Hacker says. “Period.” She has an impressive resume that includes studies with Wayne Thiebaud and Roy De Forest when she was an undergraduate at UC Davis, an internship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum while earning her MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art, and group

gallery exhibitions and solo shows all over the country, including one at Ardgillan Castle outside of Dublin, Ireland. “I spent two months in Ireland last summer with my boyfriend, Jeffrey DeVore, who’s also an artist,” Hacker says. “We love to do projects together. We actually met when we were both featured in a show at the Sacramento Temporary Contemporary on Del Paso Boulevard. We saw that different castles were having art shows. We approached Ardgillan Castle, which is 20 minutes north of Dublin on the Irish Sea, and even though we weren’t from there, we were given a show. The small villages are very supportive of community art.”

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Hacker has a knack for becoming part of the community fabric wherever she lives. Upon returning to Sacramento after grad school in Maryland, she founded Asylum Gallery with fellow artist Ann Tracy at the R25 Arts Complex at 25th and R streets. She served as Asylum’s gallery director for four years, and while she loved sharing space with the Sacramento Poetry Center, California Stage and Alliance Française, she says she longed “to have dialogue with visual artists.” So when a spot opened up at E Street Gallery and Studios, Hacker leapt at the chance. “We meet once a year to pick which month we want to have something in the exhibition space,” Hacker says. “I’ve worked on student shows, I’ve curated shows and I’ve had my own shows there. We’re very fortunate to have the space available to us.” While Hacker loves her indoor studio, her love of the outdoors has kept her working on more environmental projects as well. “The environment is very important to me,” Hacker says.

“It’s part of where my heart is. The imagery in my abstract paintings often comes from nature—organic versus geometric shapes. I’ve internalized all my experience working out-of-doors, and it’s saturated and entered into my work.”

Hacker has a knack for becoming part of the community fabric wherever she lives. One example of Hacker’s enduring love for the outdoors is her ongoing Lamp and Endtable Environmental Art Project, which she started in 2003 after hearing a report on National Public Radio that sparked her imagination. “I was listening to a scientist talking about his 20-year research project and I thought, ‘I need something like that,’” she recalls. “So

I’ve used photography, printmaking, painting and sculpture to document the same two objects all this time, and I plan on continuing until I physically can’t do it anymore.”

For more information about Cherie Hacker, go to hackerartpub.com. Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. n

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Bring on the Cheese THE RIND DOES DAIRY IN MIDTOWN

ome studies show that cheese is more addictive than drugs or booze. While I find those claims a bit hard to believe, I will say that a leisurely evening spent with friends, indulgently sampling fine chesses and sipping wines, is an unparalleled pleasure.

sheep’s milk and a creamy number from Vermont—before deciding that the aged sheep’s milk cheese was our favorite. However, the creamy item from Vermont stood out, not only because it had a rind made of birch bark, but because it had the look and texture of brie but a completely different flavor profile. It was light and tangy without the distinct notes that make a brie a brie—what I typically think of as the flavors of an old utility drawer.

This is a space where the casual diner and practiced connoisseur can rub shoulders easily and without pretense. The Rind, one of the finer cheese outposts in Northern California, is a place where you can spend many a night going through an international sampling of cheeses in an unstuffy environment. This isn’t an intimidating room. This is a space where the casual diner and practiced connoisseur can rub shoulders easily and without pretense. The small Midtown eatery is a cozy delight that brings together a mixed bag of folks looking for a quick bite as well as

GS By Greg Sabin Restaurant Insider

POC MAR n 17

They are gooey and stretchy and molten and altogether indulgent.

The Rind's take on classic mac-and-cheese. those ready for an evening-long tour of dairyland. The Rind isn’t a cheese counter at which you can grab a few slices of things only fit for a picnic. It’s a proper restaurant with an insanely cheese-focused menu: cheese boards, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, salads

(with cheese) and soup (you guessed it, with cheese). Oh, and meats. I forgot meats. You know, to go with the cheese. A cold Sunday night found my wife and me joined by our friends, Pizza Pat and Carrie. We worked our way through a board of cheeses—two

Speaking of that birch bark rind, I asked our server what is standard etiquette when it comes to eating cheese rinds: eat or discard? He told us, very confidently, that unless otherwise instructed, a cheese rind is part of the cheese and imparts flavor and therefore should be eaten. After a brief pause, he then listed about 25 exceptions to this rule: Don’t eat wax rinds, lattice rinds, linen wrappers, wood rinds, plastic rinds, tinfoil wrappings, cling film, Tupperware containers, balsa wood, birch wood, or really any kind of wood, et cetera, et cetera, which left me wondering if it was really all that much of a rule or just a guideline. But still, it’s good information for dinner parties. We

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INSIDE

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POC MAR n 17

THEATRE GUIDE A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER

Community Center Theater March 7 – March 12 1301 L St, Sac 808-5181 Californiamusicaltheatre.com Getting away with murder can be so much fun… and there’s no better proof than the knock-‘em-dead hit show that’s earned unanimous raves and won the 2014 Tony Award® for BEST MUSICAL—A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder! Gentleman’s Guide tells the uproarious story of Monty Navarro, a distant heir to a family fortune who sets out to jump the line of succession by eliminating the eight pesky relatives (all played by one fearless man) who stand in his way. All the while, Monty has to juggle his mistress, his fiancée and the constant threat of landing behind bars! … and be done in time for tea.

SHAKESPEAR’S THE TEMPEST Sacramento Theatre Company Thru March 19 1419 H St, Sac 443-6722

Teeming with shipwrecks, fairies, and magic, The Tempest is considered by many to be Shakespeare’s finest romance. It concerns the deposed Duke Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, who have been stranded for a trying twelve years on a small island where nothing is quite as it seems. But as they separate fantasy from authenticity, they eventually triumph in a new world of love, harmony, and redemption.

CHICAGO THE MUSICAL

Harris Center for the Arts March 23-26 10 College Pkwy, Folsom Ticketoffice@harriscenter.net This sensational tale of sin, corruption, and all-that-jazz has everything that makes Broadway great: knockout dancing, a ripped-from-the-headlines story about fame and scandal and one show-stopping song after another. No wonder Chicago has been honored with six Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, a Grammy, and thousands of standing ovations. And now, Chicago is the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

ANGRY WOMEN by Reginald Rose

BELLVEVILLE

Big Idea Theatre Thru March 25 1616 Del Paso Blvd, Sac 960-3036 BigIdeaTheatre.org Abby and Zack are married ex-pats pursuing their dreams, living in a swanky apartment in the bohemian Parisian enclave of Belleville. They’re young, in love, and plunging headlong into an adventurous new chapter of their life together. But when Abby stumbles upon Zack home from work one afternoon, the seemingly innocuous discovery leads to other revelations that threaten to erode the foundation of their marriage. Amy Herzog’s honest and chilling portrayal of the pitfalls of intimacy examines the dependency within devotion, and the secrets and lies that make even our most cherished loved ones heartbreakingly unknowable.

an adaptation of "12 Angry Jurors"

A twelve person jury deliberates... a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence

March 17/18 - 7:00pm March 23/24 - 7:00pm March 25 - 1:00pm/7:00pm St. Francis Catholic High School Theatre 5900 Elvas Avenue . Sacramento, CA TICKETS: $12 Adults . $7 Children (under 19) www.stfrancishs.org/tickets

GOING WEST: THE STORY OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD B Street Theatre Thru April 2 2711 B St, Sac 443-5300 Bstreettheatre.org

In this original work, the men and women who two sides of this vast nation together are examined. With courage and fortitude, the singular vision of these leaders created one of the most celebrated and important ventures of all time

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