Aug 28, 2025
If you believe the old narrative that Sacramento is boring, oil your bike chain and join the next Cool Projects Bike Tour.
Organized by local planners and architects affiliated with Urban Land Institute Sacramento, the July ride was an eye-opening, uplifting experience. I tagged along with about 30 urban planning enthusiasts.
“It’s always a fun and informative ride,” says Tim Denham, a planner with the local firm Wood Rodgers. He and urban planners Bob Chase and John Hodgson, along with former mortgage broker Dean O’Brien, originated the rides in 2009.
Aug 28, 2025
Selland Hospitality Group is a juggernaut on the restaurant scene, from grab-and-go to Michelin stars. Most popular among the collection are Sellands Neighborhood Cafe and Bar.
With locations at H Street and Broadway, and another in El Dorado Hills, the casual restaurants combine high-end cooking and cafe accessibility.
But times change. While the food at Sellands stays consistent and delightful, the style and look of the Broadway and H Street locations have leveled up.
Aug 28, 2025
Are you familiar with a business named Chispa?
I’m not talking about Chispa Project, the nonprofit my daughter Sara founded to establish children’s libraries in Honduras.
I mean the Latino dating app. The platform’s website says Chispa is “Fluent in Amor.” It claims to be “the perfect dating app for single Latina women and single Latino men.”
Chispa is Spanish for spark. That’s why both the dating app and literacy organization chose the name. Both are appropriately identified. After all, your love life and books you read can light up your life and change your future.
Aug 28, 2025
Here’s what happens when 100 or more women each donate $1,000 and pool the money.
They define “power in numbers.” And they make a difference with transformational grants.
The dollars, gathered by a group called Impact100 Greater Sacramento, support nonprofits in five focus areas: arts and culture, environment, health and wellness, education, and family.
“One thousand dollars helps, but when we collectively pool our resources together, we’re able to do even greater things,” chapter President Sarina Paulson says. “It’s really good to know as a member that yes, I donated $1,000, but 391 other women also donated $1,000, so collectively my $1,000 has morphed into $452,000 (with a matching campaign). I went to six site visits this year and I can tell you firsthand the good that is going to do.”
Aug 28, 2025
Joe Gedeon was a bartender with a sense of humor. He would love the gambling ads that bombard Sacramento sports fans today.
You can’t watch an A’s or Kings game without getting hustled to make a bet. The irony would make Gedeon laugh.
Joe Gedeon poured drinks at Riverside Clubhouse two iterations ago. He predates the Clubhouse’s predecessor, Hereford House. He oversaw the bar when it was a Depression era speakeasy called the White House.
Aug 28, 2025
As a resident of Livermore, Kathy Nolan liked to visit Sacramento. When her daughter and family settled in North Natomas, Nolan felt the gentle pull to move closer to them.
Widowed and retired, she wasn’t in a rush. “My timeline was maybe five years out,” Nolan says.
But when a midcentury modern house in South Land Park hit the market, urgency struck. “I found it on Zillow and fell in love with it. There were multiple offers and luckily, I was the top bidder,” she says.
