K Street Drama: Act 4444

We’ve been here many times before, another announcement of the resurgence of K Street, as reported by the Sacramento Press, and, as a Sacramento native remembering cruising down a thriving K Street in the 1950’s and later working in the charming Roos & Atkins store on 10th & K, as dearly as we want to believe in the resurgence, only time will tell if this is true or just another act in the endless K Street Drama.

All that being said, Randy Paragary does have a strong record of success, so we wish him, K Street, and ultimately, all Sacramentans, all the best.

An excerpt from the Sacramento Press article.

“The opening of Cafe Bernardo and KBar on K Street in the past two weeks by local restaurateur Randy Paragary are the latest steps in what many see as the street’s return to its former status as a vibrant shopping and entertainment district.

“What we’re seeing is a return of the nightlife centers to K Street, and that’s historically something it traditionally was,” said local historian William Burg. “A lot of it was forcibly done away with during the redevelopment era, but from the Gold Rush to the 1960s, K Street was where it was at.”

“Burg said the street was, until the latter part of the 20th century, a hub of activity – from retail to restaurants and nightlife spots. In later years, buildings emptied and, despite there still being activity on the street, perceptions changed.

“The new KBar and its adjoining Cafe Bernardo on the corner of 10th and K streets is the fourth Cafe Bernardo for Paragary. It replaces Cosmo Café, which he said he opened in 2007 to serve patrons of the Cosmopolitan Cabaret Theatre.

“What started off as a strong business model took a hit during the recession, and even now that the recession is technically over, Paragary said the concept didn’t fit the area.

“He added that when Pizza Rock, Dive Bar and District 30 opened more than a year ago, a different demographic came to the area.

“After considering how to fit in with the neighborhood, Paragary said he embarked on a $400,000 remodel of Cosmo Café to change it to a business model he said is designed to appeal to those who frequent the area for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night eats and drinks.

“Cafe Bernardo is billed as a European-style cafe with entrées ranging from under $10 to about $14, a midrange venue in the district that he said is dominated by higher-end restaurants such as Ella Dining Room & Bar, Grange and his own Esquire Grill, which opened about 13 years ago.

“You had a lot of those finer-dining places, and then you had Blimpie and Subway,” he said. “For the people around here, they aren’t going to the high-end places every day. Those are occasional places for retirements or birthdays.

“This is not Google’s headquarters,” he added. “This is California’s headquarters, and a lot of the people around here are state workers.”

Water Storage

Lambasting water contractors, as this Sacramento Bee editorial does, when the question isn’t whether California has enough water, but why doesn’t it have adequate water storage to capture the abundance during wet years for use during dry years; is continuing to exhibit the ideology-driven thinking that clouds the policy formulation of public leadership when clarity is so sorely needed.

An excerpt.

“Managing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta means managing expectations. So far, Gov. Jerry Brown and his water team are struggling spectacularly in that task.

“Since taking office, Brown has re-doubled the state’s efforts to complete the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. This proposal, launched and financed by water contractors south of the Delta, seeks to give them a 50-year “no surprises” permit to continue diverting water from the estuary.

“To get this permit, the water contractors will have to lay out scientifically defensible steps for improving populations of imperiled fish in the Delta. Some of these steps include restoring wetlands. Even more ambitious is a plan to build a canal or tunnel to divert water 45 miles around or under the estuary. In concept, such a canal or tunnel would relieve the need to operate the big pumps that now pull water out of the Delta near Tracy, killing fish directly and disturbing natural water flows.

“Despite considerable pressure to oppose it, this editorial board has kept an open mind on the Brown-led BDCP, partly because the alternatives look so much worse. The status quo has led to declining fish populations, disruptions of water supply and efforts by water exporters to roll back federal environmental laws and stake a claim to even more water from Northern California.

“Yet if BDCP is going to succeed, it has to be based on reality, not fantasy.

“To date, the contractors driving the process – Westlands Water District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Kern County Water Agency – are living in a dream world. They seem to have an expectation that BDCP can provide them with even more Delta water – more than the record high pumping of the previous decade – and that federal and state agencies will sign off on such a plan as “fish friendly.”

Rose Garden Under New Management

In an excellent example—though not with very good timing—the city has contracted with the Friends of East Sacramento, to manage the famous rose garden at McKinley Park, as reported by the Sacramento Bee.

The bad timing is in reference to developing this strategy during a crisis—the rose garden was quickly degrading due to lack of city funding—rather than during flush times when it could have been done prior to the degradation.

Though local governments resist entering into these pubic/private relationships, the history of them in Sacramento has been good enough that more should be considered, especially for the Parkway, which we have long been advocating for.

 An excerpt from the Bee article.

“In a public-private partnership, the Friends of East Sacramento will take over the garden’s management and care from the cash-strapped city parks department. The 20-year contract includes renewals every five years by mutual consent.

“Cecily Hastings, co-founder of Friends of East Sacramento, lives across the street from the rose garden. She had watched firsthand as the roses withered and weeds grew.

“I had a vested interest,”Hastings said. “One of the things that attracted us when we purchased our house 23 years ago was that rose garden. It was on auto-pilot for years. When the recession hit city services, the garden went dramatically downhill.”

“Last year, Hastings and Lisa Schmidt of Friends of East Sacramento had their own crusade to save the park’s Clunie Center. Eventually, that campaign morphed to include the rose garden, too.

“It seemed like a natural combination, the Clunie Center and the rose garden,”Hastings said. “But the city had never marketed it that way.”

“The Friends also paid for the new historical sign that welcomes visitors and refurbished 26 park benches.

“With the garden’s renovation comes changes. The old memorial markers, remnants of prior donations, were removed along with old bushes. Those memorial markers are now available for pick-up from the city.

“Instead, a new memorial program encourages patrons to “adopt” a bed of roses on an annual basis.

“People want to help, they want to donate, but they didn’t have a way to do it,”Hastings said. “Some people who had memorials have contacted us and want to adopt beds.”

“Because the care of the garden has been privatized, it’s going to be more expensive to hold a wedding amid the roses. The city had charged $140 for a half-day; that rate initially will go up to $300 plus a suggested donation to the Friends of East Sacramento for 21/2 hours.

“We have to be self-sufficient,”Hastings said. “The city had not raised the rate in 10 years. We’re starting slowly and see how it goes.”

Optimal Salmon Conditions

Maintaining these conditions in the Lower American River running through the Parkway is the second of our six Guiding Principles: “What’s good for the salmon is good for the river.”

A crucial element in the health of the salmon is the river water temperature—one of the reasons we advocate for the Auburn Dam to supplement Folsom Dam, which could hold much more cold water for the salmon runs.

A comprehensive report about temperature is: The Effects of Temperature on Steelhead Trout, Coho Salmon, and Chinook Salmon Biology and Function by Life Stage, by Katherine Carter.

An excerpt.

“Temperature is one of the most important environmental influences on salmonid biology. Most aquatic organisms, including salmon and steelhead, are poikilotherms, meaning their temperature and metabolism is determined by the ambient temperature of water. Temperature therefore influences growth and feeding rates, metabolism, development of embryos and alevins, timing of life history events such as upstream migration, spawning, freshwater rearing, and seaward migration, and the availability of food. Temperature changes can also cause stress and lethality (Ligon et al. 1999). Temperatures at sub-lethal levels can effectively block migration, lead to reduced growth, stress fish, affect reproduction, inhibit smoltification, create disease problems, and alter competitive dominance (Elliott 1981, USEPA 1999). Further, the stressful impacts of water temperatures on salmonids are cumulative and positively correlated to the duration and severity of exposure. The longer the salmonid is exposed to thermal stress, the less chance it has for long-term survival (Ligon et al. 1999).” (p. 1)

 

American River is Ice Cold

As happens so often around this time of year, the hot sun calls us out to the cool American River, but right now it is real cold, as this article from the Sacramento Bee reminds us, so, be careful out there.

 An excerpt.

“With temperatures in Sacramento pushing toward 90 degrees Monday, Blair Lynch and her friends couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend the afternoon soaking up some sun and enjoying a quick dip at their favorite beach spot along the American River.

“It’s gorgeous,” Lynch, a local community college teacher, said of her spot near the Watt Avenue bridge. “This river is the best thing about summers in Sac.”

“The scene around her played out like a postcard. Three older men tried their luck from a fishing boat. Children played under a shade umbrella as their parents watched. Jake the dog bounded tirelessly through the cold waters.

“As picturesque as the scene was, officials warn that even as temperatures rise – which they are expected to do this week – the river is especially dangerous this time of year.

“Not only is the American River still ice cold from snowmelt, but water officials recently increased its flows by nearly 50 percent to handle expected snowmelt in areas upriver.

“That makes for tough conditions for swimmers, even if you are a strong swimmer,” said Kelly McFarlane, a spokeswoman for DART, or the Sacramento Drowning and Accident Rescue Team.

“The season is early, but it has proved deadly.

“Stan Decker, 59, of Sonoma County drowned Saturday after attempting to aid rafters on the north fork of the American River near Iowa Hill.

“McFarlane said folks should take caution when it comes to local waterways.”

Global Warming & Water Storage

The possibility of flooding resulting from global warming, as this story in the Sacramento Bee reports, provides yet another argument for additional water storage to protect us from flooding and drought.

An excerpt.

“Concerns that area rivers will flow high in winter and that extreme weather events will result in floods were on the minds of 50 people who gathered Saturday morning at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area levee as part of a worldwide demonstration.

“That event dovetailed with the recent release of a report that predicts that, locally, climate change will result in more rainfall earlier in the winter and less snowpack runoff later in the season, causing rivers to remain fuller for a longer period of time….

“Flood control issues in the Sacramento Valley have always been a significant aspect here … and as climate patterns change – and there are greater periods of intense rain inundations – those issues will be of great concern,” Saylor said.

“That concern was mirrored by hydrologist Robert Shibatani, who recently released the report: “Water – Where and When? Planning for Water Supply and Flood Control.”

“We have infrastructure and methods from the 20th century that are currently addressing a 21st-century problem,” Shibatani said.”

Biking Heaven & Heritage

Sacramento is already a biking heaven in many ways, but some major improvements could really take us into the stratosphere and this Sacramento Bee article notes many of them.

Our contribution, building on our heritage, is the Golden Necklace Trail concept, tied to the creation of a National Heritage Area within which a multi-use trail from Sacramento to Coloma could connect much of the historical legacy of the Gold Rush, which is contained in our 2007 research report The American River Parkway: Governance, Ecoregionalism, & Heritage, A Vision & Policy Primer, and the concept map of the Sacramento County part of the trail is on our News Page (second item).

An excerpt from the Report.

“As we look at the work already being done along the rivers of the Capitol region including the American River Watershed, what we see emerging is a still unlinked Golden Necklace of parkways, lakeside trailways, and greenbelts potentially linking the region’s historic and new treasures into a seamless, ecoregional strand.

“Let’s begin at the clasp, the gold discovery site at Sutter’s Mill where modern California really began, along the south fork of the American River, in Coloma….

“The American River Conservancy is working on a trail project eventually linking the discovery site at Coloma to downtown Sacramento—which would wind its way alongside the mountain lake created by the Auburn Dam on the American River whenever it is built—on its way downtown…. (p. 18)

“Visioning this as one long linked entity, allowing people to travel, by bike, by foot, by horse-drawn carriage, by historic steam engine, and by car, along the historic and beautiful golden trails that can become the Rivers of Gold National Heritage Area, easily outshining many of the already established sites listed at the National Park Service National Heritage Areas website.” (p. 26)