Decision Time

Decision Time

Inside publisher Cecily Hastings interviewed mayoral candidates Kevin McCarty and Flojaune Cofer, and recorded their responses to important questions facing the city. Interviews were separate, but both candidates responded to the same questions. Views on homelessness, business retention and Proposition 37 appeared in September editions of Inside Sacramento.

Anything’s Possible

Anything’s Possible

Monica Hernandez is proud of her hometown. She went to McClatchy High School, City College and Sacramento State. It’s no coincidence she and husband Kevin Flanagan ended up homeowners in Curtis Park.

Flanagan grew up near Monterey, attended Sac State and returned home after graduation. He met Hernandez a few years later. They were together for eight years before getting married in 2015.

“Our first house was much smaller and located in the Med Center neighborhood of Oak Park,” Hernandez says. “The house was built in 1914, and we took on many ‘old home’ projects as do-it-yourselfers in the 11 years we lived there.”

But the couple had grander plans.

Loss Leader

Loss Leader

Grieving a loved one’s death is never easy, as I learned 20 months ago when my husband Jim passed away.

My biggest challenge was managing my publishing business alone. Jim retired several years earlier, but he was my business partner for more than two decades.

My focus was off, my employees unsure how to deal with me. No one wanted to deliver bad news. I struggled with decisions. It took time, but we all adjusted.

Boulevard Perfect

Boulevard Perfect

When Jennifer Tornatore and Eric Knutson married in 2003, seven years after joining households, they lived in a ranch-style home in Point Richmond. “Eric came as a package with two young sons, so we had a family-friendly home in a good school district,” Tornatore says. “But the home was uninspiring.”

Tornatore, an account executive with Uber, comes from the Sacramento suburbs. Knutson, an architect, grew up in the Bay Area. His design specialty is high-end residential, smaller commercials and multifamily homes.

Decision Time

Despair To Optimism

Inside Publisher Cecily Hastings interviewed mayoral candidates Flojaune Cofer and Kevin McCarty and recorded their responses to important questions facing the city. Interviews were separate, but both candidates responded to the same questions. More questions and answers will appear in our October editions.

Shame On Us

Shame On Us

The Old Sacramento Waterfront has a vacant, dark hole instead of a beautiful dining spot with the best views in town. Mark and Stephanie Miller closed Rio City Café Aug. 3, ending 30 years as a family-run landmark.

The café’s landlord was the city of Sacramento. City officials didn’t maintain the building as required under lease terms. Most egregious was the city’s neglectful approach to the river deck that produced 70% of the restaurant’s revenue.

Rather than make repairs, the city ordered the deck closed for safety reasons. And the city rejected efforts by the Millers to fund a temporary measure to reopen the deck while permanent fixes were planned, approved and funded.