In 2006, my husband Jim and I embarked on a dream-of-a-lifetime project. My career prior to publishing was interior design, and I always wanted to design and build a home from scratch. Before the age of 30, I had already bought, rehabbed and sold four houses. When we moved to McKinley Park in 1989, we remodeled a lovely circa 1925 Tudor home over the course of 16 years.
While my wish to design and build was brewing, Jim made it clear he loved our home, our street and our neighborhood. He’d worked for IBM and was transferred every few years. Now he wanted to put down roots. And as luck would have it, we both were able to find satisfaction.
On Sept. 19, 2020, Barbara Crockett celebrated her 100th birthday—a tremendous milestone by any calculation. She also celebrated nearly a century in the dance world as a performer, teacher and founder of arts organizations that continue to offer top-level dance education and performance—in Sacramento and beyond.
“My mother has been one of the important strongholds of classical ballet in the country for over 70 years,” says Allyson Deane, Crockett’s daughter. Crockett, along with her husband Deane Crockett, Allyson Deane and Deane’s husband Don Schwennesen, co-founded the Sacramento Civic Ballet Company and Deane Dance Center—one of Sacramento’s premiere dance schools.
With more shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, and fewer options to interact with local food-service small businesses, it’s harder and harder to enjoy a simple trip to get a sandwich or grab a cup of coffee. Dining rooms are off limits and the weather is just a bit too cold most days to dine outside.
Therefore, it’s more important than ever to find those quick grab-and-go outposts that offer safe and convenient locations with delicious food and customer care.
Lost among the election reports was some of the best national economic news ever. The October federal employment report showed 906,000 jobs were added in the private sector, with an increase of 724,000 jobs to the labor force. Wages were up 4.5 percent. Unemployment dropped dramatically across every demographic group.
The federal government said the gross domestic product—the measure of total economic output—grew by a record-setting 7.4 percent between July and September, or 33.1 percent on an annualized basis. The economy grew at a pace never seen before. This is what economists call a V-shaped recovery.
In his failed bid to become strong mayor, Darrell Steinberg may have lost his ability to command majority support on the Sacramento City Council.
The council expects three new members to arrive in December. None of the newcomers received support from Steinberg. Two veteran members—Jeff Harris and Angelique Ashby—have histories of opposing the mayor.
We’ve seen more than a few food fads in the last decade. Most of them, for the betterment of the local food scene, have stuck. Food trucks appear here to stay. Poke joints, though fewer in number than before COVID shutdowns, are still plentiful and delicious. The resurgence of old-school barbecue seems like a permanent fixture on the West Coast.
The latest of these fads is, without a doubt, Nashville hot chicken. Four restaurants have opened in the last year that serve the geographically specific and orally intense chicken dish. It’s a niche, but one that is deliciously filled by the flavorful and sometimes overwhelming fried chicken first made famous in Music City.
