When Tommy and Susan Poirier began thinking about the next chapter of their lives, they didn’t go searching for a smaller house. They wanted a different way to live.
For more than two decades, the couple lived on a sprawling property in Carmichael. Filled with gardens, the homestead stretched for nearly an acre. It was meant to be their forever place.
But time found a way to reshape their priorities.
“As the kids grew up and moved away, the house just became too much,” Susan says. “We loved it, but there comes a point where you realize you’re taking care of the property more than enjoying it.”
As cities rethink their urban cores, a new paradigm emerges: vibrant, walkable downtowns that feel like neighborhoods, not just business districts.
In “The Great Downtown Renaissance,” a recent piece in Dwell magazine, urbanists emphasize successful revival requires more than office towers and event districts. It demands thriving public spaces, mixed-use housing and a genuine sense of community.
Orlando, Indianapolis and Houston are reimagining their downtowns as places where people live, work and play. This “renaissance” is aimed at reversing decades of postwar planning that emptied city cores, prioritized cars over pedestrians and made downtowns ghost towns after 5 p.m.
In the quiet, tree-lined streets of Sierra Oaks, trust attorney Mark Drobny created the kind of home he envisioned for this chapter of his life: modern and minimalist, designed for solitude and celebration. “It’s a refuge,” Drobny says. “I wanted a place where I could come home from work every night and completely unwind.”
The 4,500-square-foot residence, completed a little over a year ago, feels both expansive and deeply personal.
Natural light floods nearly every room through oversized windows and soaring expanses of glass. A dramatic glass-paneled front door offers an uninterrupted sightline through the living space to the sparkling pool beyond, establishing the home’s clean architectural lines and indoor-outdoor connection.
For Margaret Kane, the story of Sacramento’s Music Circus isn’t just history. It’s something that needed capturing before it slipped away.
Her new book, “Broadway Sacramento: 75 Years of Theater Magic,” is the result of that urgency. What began as an idea in 2023 grew into a two-and-a-half-year labor of research, writing, design and production.
“I felt a real urgency to preserve these stories while the people who lived them were still here to tell them,” Kane says.
Royal Chicano Air Force, one of California’s most influential artistic cultural movements, winds down its exhibition this month at the Crocker Art Museum. The four-month show closes June 28.
Billed as “the largest exhibition ever” of Royal Chicano Air Force material, the exhibit marks a defining moment for the museum and its recognition of a collective that helped shape Sacramento’s artistic identity and civic pride.
Nearly 100 screen-printed posters created by local RCAF artists highlight the show. Bold in color, graphic in style and bilingual in message, many of the works were designed for street displays rather than gallery walls.
They rallied support for social justice and cultural pride, announced events and gave visual voice to Chicano Power.
Jim Tracy believes volunteer work should be practical and purposeful. After a 27-year career with SMUD, including 10 years as chief financial officer, he looks for ways to contribute where his experience can make a measurable difference.
“As a public organization with no shareholders, SMUD’s focus was on low rates and quality service to the people of Sacramento County,” Tracy says. “I feel that focus provides me a good foundation for volunteering with community organizations.”
That foundation guides how he chooses to serve. Rather than spread himself across many groups, Tracy focuses on where he can be most useful.
