Sactown Photos

[Ryan@CU]

Originally Posted by ThatDarnSacramentan

I graduated in June. Why?

I was looking through your photos and saw some @ CD. You have some amazing shots in there. Please tell me you used your talents on the Octagon.

I graduated in 03'. Photographer the year we won Pacemaker.

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

Originally Posted by Ryan@CU

I was looking through your photos and saw some @ CD. You have some amazing shots in there. Please tell me you used your talents on the Octagon.

I graduated in 03'. Photographer the year we won Pacemaker.

No kidding, huh? Well, no, I was never let onto Octagon (Fels thought I took too many sick days), but I did some unofficial work for them last year. All the photos from Ashland 2010 went on The Octagon Online. Let's just say I did a lot at/for Camp Country Day, and now I'll be taking my talents with me to Portland in two weeks. I didn't think I would, but I'm going to miss this city (and Country Day). You had Dr. Baird as a teacher, right, since he started in 2001?

And before we get too off topic, here's some shots from last night.


Standing In the Sunset (Portrait) by C.M. Keiner, on Flickr


Though the Looking Glass 2 by C.M. Keiner, on Flickr

[Ryan@CU]

Originally Posted by ThatDarnSacramentan

No kidding, huh? Well, no, I was never let onto Octagon (Fels thought I took too many sick days), but I did some unofficial work for them last year. All the photos from Ashland 2010 went on The Octagon Online. Let's just say I did a lot at/for Camp Country Day, and now I'll be taking my talents with me to Portland in two weeks. I didn't think I would, but I'm going to miss this city (and Country Day). You had Dr. Baird as a teacher, right, since he started in 2001?

Glad to know you're such a fan of Sacramento, it's great place And yes, I had Dr. Baird. He came in 2002, and I was part of his first class. Phenomenal teacher.

Love all your work. Enjoy Portland!

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

Originally Posted by Ryan@CU

Glad to know you're such a fan of Sacramento, it's great place And yes, I had Dr. Baird. He came in 2002, and I was part of his first class. Phenomenal teacher.

Love all your work. Enjoy Portland!

Haha, oh the things I could tell you about Dr. Baird . . .

Instead, I'll be a good forumer and stay on topic (although I'm sure we can continue this Country Day reminiscing in private messages).


Sprawling Apartments by C.M. Keiner, on Flickr


Under Watt Avenue 1 by C.M. Keiner, on Flickr

[innov8]

Railroad Track Relocation

The project will relocate and realign about 2.3 miles of Union Pacific railroad track to
make room for an expanded Sacramento Valley Station, which will be turned into an
intermodal hub that will handle Amtrak and Capitol Corridor service as well as light rail
and bus services.

Granite Construction Inc. was awarded $41 million last March for the track relocation
project, which includes major utility infrastructure and site improvements, construction
of multiple access tunnels for pedestrians and service vehicles as well as new
passenger tracks and platforms.

The project is being paid for by 12 funding sources, including $26 million in federal
stimulus funding, state bond funding and funding from Amtrak, the federal Department
of Transportation and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments

The track relocation project is estimated to be completed by December 2012.

[202_Cyclist]

The project is being paid for by 12 funding sources, including $26 million in federal stimulus funding, state bond funding and funding from Amtrak, the federal Department of Transportation and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments

Wouldn't you know, the stimulus is funding good projects that are putting people back to work. I'm sure every single person working on this job site appreciates the Recovery Act, as do the local businesses in the surrounding communities where these employed workers will be spending their wages.

[Korey]

Cell phone pics but they're something new...

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

I discovered something magnificent, something all Sacramentans should witness at one point. From the top floor of the parking garage above Melting Pot at 15th and H, on November 12th, the sun passes straight through the cupola of the cathedral. I discovered this completely inadvertently, but I sure am glad I did discover it.


Hazy Autumn Sunset 9 by C.M. Keiner, on Flickr

[Surefiresacto]

Originally Posted by ThatDarnSacramentan

I discovered something magnificent, something all Sacramentans should witness at one point. From the top floor of the parking garage above Melting Pot at 15th and H, on November 12th, the sun passes straight through the cupola of the cathedral. I discovered this completely inadvertently, but I sure am glad I did discover it.

Wow, that's awesome!!! I played a concert right below that garage at Byuti Salon that night. I wish I had gone up there before the sun went down.

[downtownserg89]

I recently walked up 12th street and noticed this old beat up building that is obviously 100% vacant, and immediately fell in love with it after a minute of studying it.



Why isn't this building being utilized properly?? I would totally live here. I wish they could "maydestone" this building, because it sits on a magnificent location and has so much potential. I mean come on! it even has bay windows.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by downtownserg89

I recently walked up 12th street and noticed this old beat up building that is obviously 100% vacant, and immediately fell in love with it after a minute of studying it.



Why isn't this building being utilized properly?? I would totally live here. I wish they could "maydestone" this building, because it sits on a magnificent location and has so much potential. I mean come on! it even has bay windows.

Ridgeway Hotel. It is an SRO hotel, but the owners moved the residents out a couple of years ago and haven't made clear what they want to do with it. It is supposed to remain part of the SRO housing stock. It could definitely use some love, but that takes money, something in short supply right now, and any remaining redevelopment funds are tied up until the big court cases come around.

We used to have thousands of rooms of this sort--now we have a few hundred. The loss of that housing stock still needs to be overcome--and that housing type may well be returning to fashion. While SRO housing has had a bad reputation for the past few decades, the original residential hotels had residents of working and middle class, and even some aspiring upper-class folks in downtown "palace hotels." And as the article below shows, it may be time to bring the rooming house and residential hotel back into planning vogue:

http://citiwire.net/post/3020/?utm_s...paign=dispatch

Recognize, they urge, that we’re into a new urban age. Cities are “in”, especially with youth. And those millennials are delaying marriage — by a full five years over the previous decade, the Census Bureau reports. And rather than the suburbs where many grew up, they are instead seeking, Hinshaw observes, “cities or older, close-in suburbs that have a rich array of choices — in employment, transit, bicycling, arts and entertainment, and a ‘cafe culture’ similar to what’s found in many European cities.”

Smith argues it’s high time we shake “the tyranny of the homestead vision as expressed in antiquated, restrictive, and exclusionary zoning and building codes.” Examples of such rules include arbitrary density limits based on units per acre, minimum lot sizes, minimum setbacks, minimum bedroom sizes, and prohibitions against dividing flats.

Smith and Hinshaw suggest we even take on the sacred cow of minimum parking requirements for apartment complexes, saving both cash and prime real estate by repealing them. (Many of today’s young urbanites don’t have cars anyway — so why oblige them to rent units with a car stall figured in, inflating the cost?)

[downtownserg89]

That's good to know. I considered renting a room at the Shasta Hotel a couple months ago, mainly because of the price, but really the view from the room is was captured my heart. 4th floor, looking down on 10th street between J and K. Unfortunately, the tenants are mostly ex-druggies and kept staring at me. I decided that I would only live there if the building was bought by someone that would restore into an appealing place targeted for young adults.

Personally, I would suggest they restore the Ridgeway Hotel's interior, and leave the outside the way it is. I really dig the rugged effect.

[wburg]

The Shasta is one of the only ones left--and for a lot of the folks there, it's all they can afford but certainly better than the streets. Because there is so much demand for housing at that income level, folks who can afford more typically don't stay there long. When there were thousands of those rooms, some were more oriented towards seniors and the disabled, but there were others intended for more middle-class tenants. Are you familiar with Marc Almond, Serg? It's a bit before your time. His song "Bedsitter" is about being a club kid who lives in just such a place:

http://youtu.be/wFaIhDLb_NE

[downtownserg89]

Originally Posted by wburg

Are you familiar with Marc Almond, Serg? It's a bit before your time. His song "Bedsitter" is about being a club kid who lives in just such a place:

http://youtu.be/wFaIhDLb_NE

WOW, I have never seen this before, but I am immediately obsessed. It basically describes my life right now. I want to be the 2011 version of him from Sacramento!

[wburg]

If you liked that, download the album it's from--"Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret" by Soft Cell. It's a classic.

The Maydestone was fairly notorious as a club-kid hangout in the eighties and nineties, as were a few other buildings like the Merrium Apartments, which were demolished to make way for an expanded Convention Center. They were a good hangout for someone whose entertaining was done at Java City, Weatherstone, Club Can't Tell, Galactica 2000, the Oasis Ballroom, Faces, or other downtown nightspot (people didn't call it "Midtown" then.)

Personally I'd like to see a few currently vacant places, like the Bel-Vue on 8th Street (across from the Berry Hotel) or the Clinton Hotel (above Hamburger Pattie's), or the former SRO rooms above Procida Florist on 12th and J, rehabbed--they all were originally that sort of urban "efficiency apartment" or SRO units. Of course, while we're talking crazy, I'd like to see some of the old hotels like the Traveler's, Senator and Ramona turned back into residential (they were converted to offices in the 1950s-60s but there's a huge office glut now) or maybe even see the Kress Building turned into condos!

[downtownserg89]

Downloading now, thanks.

God you make me wish I was around in the 80's! Sacramento sounded so hip. All I ever go to is townhouse, and press club, and the merc. everywhere else is too, "meh."

I agree about the vacant locations, ESPECIALLY above the 12th and J florist. I need to live there. Somewhere old and somewhat beat up, but on a busy street, above everything. Cars honking. Homeless shouting. Business people gossiping. I need that now.


Wburg, do you have any hidden photo albums at home with pictures of Sac in the 80's? Were you just like that Soft Cell guy? I want to see.

[downtownserg89]

No but really, this is where I legitimately want to reside. Upstairs. I need that round corner's view!




I hear it's office space though. How tragic.

[wburg]

I was an utterly nerdy high school kid in those days, about as far from Marc Almond as physically possible. I would take the bus (and after 1986, light rail) downtown to visit Comics & Comix and other downtown comic & book shops (like World's Best and House of Monkey) and the record stores on K Street (Records on K, Tower Records and Makoto Records all on the same block!) While I was there I'd often admire the amazingly beautiful girls in cat-eye glasses and faux leopard-print jackets hanging out at Espresso Metro or Java City but didn't have the guts to actually talk to them.

Here's a picture taken inside the Maydestone, pre-rehab (and no, I am not in the photo):


The building in your photo above is the Ruhstaller Building, which was the taproom and office building for the Ruhstaller Brewery on 12th and H. Recently a couple of guys (JE Paino and Peter Hoey) brought back the "Ruhstaller Beer" name--wouldn't this be a perfect place for a new Ruhstaller taproom? It's a couple of doors down from that new seafood place, Blackbird, that will have live DJs spinning while people dine.

[Mr. Ozo]

You don't have to go back to the 80's, try 10 years ago. The real estate boom really changed Sacramento, most for better but some for worse.

The building next to what is now the Citizen on J was known as Joe's Style Shop. It was full of studios that bands and artists rented out with communal bathrooms on each floor. There were amazing underground shows in the basement, aka the original first floor.

Our bands monthly rent on 10th and J for our own studio in the early 00's? 160$ - Now that's the price for one night next door at the Citizen.

Then they kicked everyone out, remodeled it (ruined it), the market crashed and they went bankrupt. It was vacant for years although now it is a beauty shop.

Then in 2004 we moved to 20th and S right by the tracks and the same exact thing happened a year later. The owner kicked everyone out to try and make the big bucks. Only this building never even got finished. It remains vacant and for sale.

[downtownserg89]

Originally Posted by wburg

I was an utterly nerdy high school kid in those days, about as far from Marc Almond as physically possible. I would take the bus (and after 1986, light rail) downtown to visit Comics & Comix and other downtown comic & book shops (like World's Best and House of Monkey) and the record stores on K Street (Records on K, Tower Records and Makoto Records all on the same block!) While I was there I'd often admire the amazingly beautiful girls in cat-eye glasses and faux leopard-print jackets hanging out at Espresso Metro or Java City but didn't have the guts to actually talk to them.

Here's a picture taken inside the Maydestone, pre-rehab (and no, I am not in the photo):


The building in your photo above is the Ruhstaller Building, which was the taproom and office building for the Ruhstaller Brewery on 12th and H. Recently a couple of guys (JE Paino and Peter Hoey) brought back the "Ruhstaller Beer" name--wouldn't this be a perfect place for a new Ruhstaller taproom? It's a couple of doors down from that new seafood place, Blackbird, that will have live DJs spinning while people dine.

What an awesome photo. Those chicks look really edgy, in their black, hanging out by the bay window. I love it.

It's a shame that some really cool spaces sit there as vacant office space, instead of art studios/apartments. Midtown sort of has that going on, but downtown J street doesn't, and that makes me sad.



A few months ago I had a dream, and I vividly remember this dream because it was so cool.

I got this off google maps so it's kinda lowsy, but you know this little mini mart on K street with the open neon sign?

I had a dream that I lived there. Like, if you walked by all you would see if my living room... Couch, tv, coffee table, etc etc etc. And I remember looking out the front window and seeing my 'view', which was a bunch of people walking down k street. And then I woke up and was like " whoah, that was a hella cool dream. I wish I really lived there."

and every time I pass that mini mart, I just think about that dream.