Visit the Crêpe Café at the corner of 9th and K!

As mentioned, on Life on K we wanted to showcase some of the local, independently owned restaurants in the midtown area. We highly recommend you drop by the Crêpe Café on 9th and K and try the Florentine (zomg), perhaps on your break from work, or if you happen to be in the area. Also great for hangovers.

"In 1976, Michel Bloch, a young French businessman, arrived in America to make hismark. Hedecided to introduce the French crêpe, perhaps the the world's very first fast food, to America. In 1982.After mastering the State and County Fair circuit, heest ablished a crêpe franchise with locations throughout California. He then left the crêpe business to become a trilingual international marketing manager for a French corporation. He returned to the fast food arena in 1995 with mobile Crêpe Carts followed by more permanent locations at California State University,Sacramento (recently closed), and the University of California, Davis. The Crepe Institute was created in order to teach the art of making crêpe and establishing a crêpe business at a desired location. Michel Bloch's most recent endeavor is a creperie established on the corner of 9th and K St. in downtown Sacramento. This new creperie features a handful of pleasant and diverse employees, an expanded menu, and a very busy lunch hour.

The most popular crêpe on the menu are the Coq au Vin (herb-roasted chicken breast, mushrooms, cheese, and a creamy mornay sauce made from garlic and white wine), and the Florentine (herb-roasted chicken breast, spinach, cheese, mushrooms, and mornay sauce). If you are looking for an exotic flavor, try the Kathmandu (herb-roasted
chicken breast, curry, cheese, mushrooms, and mango chutney), or the Nouvelle Orleans (herb-roasted chicken breast, prawns, mushrooms, cheese, and a spicy creole sauce). A sweet tooth can easily be cured with a Nutella crepe or a French Kiss (chocolate, bananas, topped with Grand Marnier). Other menu items include artisan paninis on rusic bread, Parisien sandwiches on baguette bread, salads, soups, and a multitude of different croissants. There is something for everyone at the Crêpe Café."

-- Heather Shetrawski is both a local and an employee of The Crêpe Café.

We Didn't Start The Fire

"Can you tell me what that is sitting on the ground there, Stan?" said Myron Moskovitz, pointing to a picture of an abandoned building on K Street, a puddle of piss gracing the door crevice. I sat in at the city council meeting concerning the 'resolution of necessity to acquire real property', Tuesday the 18th.

"Thats...er... human excrement," Stan, Moskovitz's assistant replied.

"Can you tell me who owns this building, Stan?"

"The city of Sacramento."

Moskavitz is Mohammed "Moe" Mohana's attorney. Moe Mohana is a land developer in Sacramento, who owns a strip of K Street, and the city is attempting (so far, with a bit of success) to take his buildings away from him. Last Tuesday, at a city council meeting, Heather Fargo and crew voted unanimously for the power of eminent domain.

Frankly, the SacBee is no help in this situation, with the usual shady, one-sided reporting. Are we really surprised that in the end all this comes down to is money? Who's really getting played here? Try every independent business owner in Sacramento, because in the end, it all comes down to one thing: Money. Same story every time, like a math formula you repeatedly write out expecting a different answer. I'm sure everyone is aware of what happens when you place a multi-million dollar chain next to an independent shop. Money. City council made their decision, with a 9-0 vote, to which I 'm not surprised, considering the council members had already made their decision before the meeting on Tuesday the 18th even took place. I envision a lot of independent businesses being hurt by this, not just on K Street, and if there's one thing the city shouldn't do, it's deny young entrepreneurs, in the face of big shot corporatism, their right to grow.

I hope something does happen to K Street, but my questions pertain to the validity, and the constitutionality, of eminent domain in this case? What does this say to every developer and independent business in Sacramento? Why won't anyone listen when Moe says he's ready to develop? We all agree that K Street needs some love, that particular stretch, but why was there no response to the blighted buildings owned by the city, not Moe, as Moskovitz pointed out? What does the city plan for those run-down crack-pots?

As far as the crime goes, none of the council members or policemen who spoke could pin any of the crimes on Moe's reported negligence, even though they tried, which is because everyone knows that high crime happens near a) light rail stations and b) closed down buildings. Who owns half the closed down buildings (more than half, even) on K Street? Oh that's right, the city. Still, when Moskovitz pointed this out, no one was listening. Why? Money. I fully appreciate the council and some other big names in Sacramento's desire to renovate, bring in bigger business, but, and it's a big but, what about the little guys? Are we forgetting that this city is known for its thriving independent business? Are we forgetting those are the people who support and participate in events such as Second Saturday and concerts at Caesar Chavez Park?

The policemen speaking at the meeting had little to offer in the argument, and at one point Robbie Waters argued that Toppingz's use of signage in their windows is against city code. Well, as Moskovitz pointed out, I think that issue is petty compared to hobo piss and other debris in front of dirty, empty buildings that are owned by the city. Who's blight is it, really? It isn't fair to blame crime and blight on Mohanna alone.

As an employee in one of Moe's buildings, I may come across as biased, but I'm not fearing for my job, because we will more than likely be relocated, then business, and life, will continue the way it always does. As far as I know, not a single person in Sacramento is against the idea of "redevelopment and revitalization" for a part of our town most of us regard as the center, the definition even, of urban Sacramento life, but what difference will Joe Zeidon really make? And what of taxpayers dollars that will go toward this change? Couldn't Moe do just as well if he were handed $26 million by the city as well? What the hell is the difference here?

I'm put off by the council for doing this. The redevelopment agency wants change "now", but this clearly will not happen, as Moe promises to have him and his family chained to the building should it come to that. Rock and roll. I would be doing the same thing if the government tried to take, well, anything of mine. What I'm wondering is, does the agency actually think a change will come about so immediately? All I see in the future of Sacramento is more legal battles, pushed out dates, emotional and heated debates all leading to the same end, and a couple of hollowed-out buildings getting nothing but dust and hobo piss.

On the other side, Moe promised to have redevelopment done by this month, and not much seems to have happened. Perhaps it is a slower process than the city hoped, but as far as I can tell, things ARE happening, with independent business owners opening shops in the 700 strip (Toppingz Pizza and Gear.) Mohanna promises to continue redevelopment despite this little scuffle for prom king with Zeidon.

Next on the agenda is to take this to the supreme court, where both sides will argue, with jury, over the constitutionality of eminent domain in this situation. Also, how about we debate the necessity of this, with people above our city council, whom I am currently disillusioned with.

I will certainly be reporting more of this issue as it develops. My advice to anyone who reads this column is to continue to stay involved in the happenings of Sacramento. Don't be afraid to speak, or shout, your opinion. This is our city, and we have the right to decide what happens to it, whether you are a rich millionaire in the Downtown Sacramento Partnership or a regular hard-working, opinionated Joe like yours truly attempting, if possible, to make some positive difference on this growing city.

In retrospect... Mohanna: get it together and improve these buildings on a large scale, get some new business in there, work with the city. City of Sac: Stop only paying attention to the rich people, a majority of Sacramento does not want large business to push out the newbies, they just don't know how to act. In fact, this blog was started in light of that very issue. To keep regular joe's like me in the light of what you are doing. Please find a common ground.

The meeting on Tuesday will be broadcasted Friday, December 21st at 7PM on channel 14.

We need contributors!

If you are interested in adding content to this website, please email me at baker.wayne.t@gmail.com. Here is what kind of stuff we are looking for:

- Underground, local Musician/Artist profiles
- Little known yet kick-ass restaurants
- Event posting
- Advertisement
- Anything else you feel would be useful information to place on this website

If you would like to be a frequent contributor to this website, I am looking for writers interested in publishing their work related to downtown Sacramento on here.

I'm hoping to have this website FULL of useful content by the end of the week, so by all means get in touch with me. I look forward to hearing from you!

As hard as it is to talk about yourself properly...

I'd like to go into who I am, a little, so readers can gain a sense of who will be telling these stories. Growing up in a pre-Costco Citrus Heights near the Greenback-I80 on-ramp, I never felt a connection to the suburbs. When my family and I originally moved into our house, there were bars on the windows, and most of the windows in the neighborhood. My parents promptly took them down to help remove the paranioa that comes from living in a white-fear neighborhood.

One of the only things that kept my attention as a child was comic books, and it was no surprise that I fell in love with downtown once I moved down there when I was nineteen. Sure, Sacramento's buildings are not as tall as the ones in Peter Parker's Manhattan or Bruce Wayne's Gotham, but it certainly is a connect-the-dot indication of what I was destined for when I finally was able to move out on my own.

From having my own place to being crammed like a sardine into a friend's living room, I am nostalgically connected to this city enough for it to keep me stuck inside of it like a minnow trap. There have been times that I wanted to leave, like when life hits a lowpoint or a short-lived opportunity to move to San Francisco comes along, but I am indefinitely tied to Sacramento and its unpreventable, odd occurences a passer-by, such as myself, gets to see everyday. If I really wanted to leave, I could. Perhaps this blog is my ultimatum, the defining point that will push me off the fence in whichever direction.

I have a special knack for observation. Growing up in an intensely artistic family, a certain level of cognizance of my surroundings passed itself down to me, and when I am not spacing out to the thoughts inside my head I have a high level of awareness for small details. Very Proustian, though he was much more articulate than I could hope to be.

I have always had trouble writing fiction, and this blog is an outlet for me to fuse the essence of fictional story-telling with the ascertive and detail-friendly behavior of non-fiction. I plan on including both light-hearted and sad themes, because the polarity of emotions in this city is quite possibly one of its greatest qualities which is often lost in the elite rush of, say, San Francisco life.

Last night one of my friends said, "San Francisco is like Sacramento on crack." This statement could not be more true.

Never a dull moment.

Often one will hear that Sacramento lacks character, that it is a culture-less cow-town with a heinously large and disorganized suburb, centered by a small joke-of-a-grid, and is filled with a bitter middle-class and a far more bitter lower class. This usually is the description made by people who have no clue what they are talking about, or are just unlucky for not being exposed to what Sacramento offers to the young and old alike. True, it is a city built on broken dreams (read: the 1849 gold rush), which is another thing any local who has lived here a few months has heard over and over, but the stories to be told are better than any I've heard in years.

Raised in Sacramento my entire life, I recall on several occasions that I participated in such conversations, usually looking upon my hometown with disdain, not realizing until recently how wrong I was. It seems that most people carry a love-hate relationship with our capital city, talking about how much they'd like to leave but feel an odd, unexplainable connection to it.

My entire world was flipped upside down when I started working on K Street, and as a side effect, I've become forced to spend much of my time there. I've lived and hung around downtown for years, and nothing shows a more diverse culture and city life that K Street has to offer, even with most of the businesses that already are, or are getting, shut down. Most Sacramento dwellers would agree that K Street is the epicenter and foundation of Sacramento's urban life, and that it is constantly struggling to take its next breath. The reason for this resides in a conflict between the city and some individual developers and land owners, which this blog will highlight extensively. The city would like to rip down all of the historical buildings and transform K Street into a corporate megalith (Century Theaters, Wal-mart, etc.), while the individual business owners would rather remodel the old buildings and bring in fresh independent business to inflate the already-prospering life and heart of Sactown.

This is the first post of many, and I hope that it will be the go-to place for people who would like to feel more connected to their city, as I plan on keeping this updated with local events worth going to, but also as a place where people can share their stories, good and bad, which give this city its unique spice.