Dec 28, 2025
With state employees working remotely, Downtown needs a boost. Our business district always depended on state workers for daytime vitality. Despite recent progress, Downtown continues to suffer.
Like any big idea, it’s hard to say if this one will ever happen. But Sacramento State University’s compelling proposal for a mixed-use campus on Capitol Mall excites some smart, influential people.
“Downtown is flat on its back,” West Sac developer Mark Friedman tells me. “The daytime population is 40% less than what it was pre-COVID.”
California is the only U.S. location where state employees haven’t been sent back to the office, he notes.
Dec 28, 2025
Max Baer loved to cruise Broadway in his convertible wearing nothing but swim trunks. The car was a yellow Pontiac Chieftain, a gift from his pal Larry Cameron.
Cameron was a North Sacramento auto dealer and scratch golfer. In the 1960s, he subdivided his ranch near Highway 50 and named it Cameron Park.
Max Baer was famous long before he met Larry Cameron. Baer was the world heavyweight boxing champ and a movie star. He could live anywhere. He chose Eighth Avenue, behind McClatchy High School.
Baer, wife Mary and children Maxie Jr., Jim and Maudie settled into a 4,270-square-foot, four-bedroom home with a balcony along the second floor.
Dec 28, 2025
If you walk past the Sterling Hotel at 13th and H streets on Sunday, Jan. 11, and see people in Regency dress, you haven’t stumbled into a time warp.
It’s Jane Austen’s 250th birthday party, put on by the Jane Austen Society of North America, Greater Sacramento Region.
With luck, you’re a reveler in the ballroom, dressed in Austen-era finery, enjoying small plates, stimulating conversation and English country dance in an Austen novel come to life.
“Because it’s her 250th birthday, we decided we’d pull out all the stops,” event Chair Alanna Butterworth says. “We’re hoping to entice people who have not participated yet or who’ve never been to a Regency dance to come and enjoy a warm environment.”
Dec 28, 2025
Two recent coffee additions serve more than coffee. Zoe Coffee & Tacos pairs excellent dishes from Mexico and El Salvador with traditional coffee shop fare. The Coco Cafe draws on its Thai roots. Both expand what coffee shops can be.
Zoe Coffee & Tacos, opened in June 2024, is a fantastic little shop tucked into a corner of Poverty Ridge in Midtown.
A stone’s throw from the construction site where The Sacramento Bee stood, this tiny spot makes the most of its footprint. Once, it was part of the Bee’s delivery truck garage.
Owner and chef Josue Acosta recalls his Salvadoran roots to make excellent pupusas, tacos and more.
Dec 28, 2025
Welcome to the eve of renewal. A new year of nurturing our plant babies dawns once holiday decor is packed and stored. Plant yourself in a favorite chair and contemplate what great gardening deeds might be accomplished with gloved hands and inventive minds.
Few things in life are certain. One is essential. We need to eat. Food insecurity is rising, along with the cost of feeding ourselves and families.
Health care costs are soaring, too. What we eat affects overall health. Swapping donuts and cookies for blueberries, citrus and tomatoes is a nutritional slam dunk.
Dec 28, 2025
In my family, only one person likes Old Sacramento. That’s me. I enjoy the wooden sidewalks, wrought iron balconies, tourist traps, train sheds and steamboat docks.
My feelings for Old Sac are nostalgic. I’m the only one in the family old enough to remember what Front and Second streets looked like six decades ago.
In those days, Old Sac was the West End. Residents were derelicts, bums, drifters, tramps, winos. They loafed in the shade, weary from picking fruit, drunk.
