Aug 27, 2020
With each month it becomes more difficult to see even a few weeks into the future when it comes to the restaurant scene. We’ve lost beloved favorites. Local treasures have reopened only to shut down again within weeks. Some landlords have been graciously flexible with rental and lease terms. Others have not.
It’s with confidence, though, that I say the following local institutions will still be plying their wares well after this column comes out. The humble bakery—set up for takeaway business and designed for in-home consumption—is an integral part of the community.
Aug 27, 2020
They started jazz dancing at age 6 growing up as latchkey kids in a single-mother household in San Francisco. Today, twins Heather and Holly Singleteary helm the BlyueRose Dance Project in the Tallac Village Shopping Center in Tahoe Park.
Pre-COVID, the duo affordably instructed 90 students, from elementary school kids to adults, at their studio. Today, classes are held outside in Tahoe Park.
Aug 27, 2020
When COVID-19 shut down businesses, Inside Sacramento created TAKE THE 100% LOCAL PLEDGE, a campaign to encourage Sacramentans to buy from local businesses—be it food, products or services—to help them stay afloat in the tenuous economy.
When Bryce McKernan noticed his favorite farmers markets in Midtown and Oak Park experiencing similar struggles, he decided to make buying local even easier. He created Marketbook, a virtual marketplace that brings locally made products and produce to the Sacramento community via an online platform modeled after e-commerce site Etsy.
Aug 27, 2020
Dirty cops always lie. They know lying is an automatic way to get fired, but they lie anyway. This is where retired Sacramento Police Capt. Kevin Johnson comes in.
Johnson, who runs a business called Command Strategies Consulting, works for police departments across California. He breaks down the blue wall of silence and catches lying cops.
Jul 27, 2020
It was in March when I saw the Facebook meme, “I would like to exercise the 90-day return provision on the Year 2020.”
As more than one person has observed, 2020 has proven to be the conflated sum of cataclysmic elements from the 1918 flu pandemic, the financial crisis of 1929 and the social seismicity of 1968.
Jul 27, 2020
Katie Valenzuela won’t join the City Council until December. But she is already learning how she won’t fit in. Steve Hansen, the two-term councilmember Valenzuela defeated in March, won’t speak to her. Other members smile and offer congratulations, but the words carry little weight.
At first, this bothered Valenzuela. “I was pretty depressed when the pandemic started,” she says. Sheltered in her Boulevard Park home with her two rescue terriers, socially distanced from work and friends, months from being sworn into office, Valenzuela felt disconnected from the motivations that propelled her run for office.
