[wburg]

It seems like an ideal spot for a medium-sized music venue, larger than the small downtown clubs but smaller than the Memorial Auditorium. There aren't many options for spaces with a capacity of a few hundred, which is a big reason why touring bands tend to pass Sacramento by. The Crest does live shows sometimes, but it is pretty big, and because it is a theater not well-suited to dancing (or moshing.) A lot of bands end up playing at the Boardwalk in Orangevale, and assume that's downtown Sacramento! Music venues can also adapt to changing times, while the whole "mermaid bar" idea seems awfully faddish.

A bowling alley is a nice idea, and I suppose more family-friendly. But it's kind of faddish too.

I got a chance to visit Mix this Saturday night, and it certainly didn't look like business was suffering. It was pretty crowded, in fact. It seems like a pretty natural path to turn a stroll from Mix or deVere's to the bars around K Street and 10th, as long as there is a suitably well-lit walking path and enough things worth walking past (as in open businesses and other pedestrians.) Enough late-night foot traffic and some of those stateworker-lunchtime spots will start opening later. Maybe the city can offer a "mea culpa" to the folks who started "Junta" on 7th & K (only to be shut down within a few months) by offering them a space to re-open an all-ages music venue in the 700 block?

Exposure to a place tends to destroy incorrect assumptions about it. People who think downtown Sacramento is all scary and ooky may have their perceptions changed after coming downtown for entertainment a few times, and have more interest in taking up residence. At that point, we'll need some of that downtown housing we've been crying for. Take some of those redevelopment funds and turn the Bel-Vue at 8th & L into stunning market-rate apartments--sounds like a job for D&S, once they get done with the Maydestone!--and build a residential tower in the hole on 8th & K. Put a Nugget Market into the front facade of the Greyhound station (with a residential tower behind the front facade, taking up the former Royal Hotel site and the Greyhound garage) so those folks don't even have to hop light rail to Safeway to get their groceries.

It all starts with a single step--although that one needs to be followed by quite a few more.