Love our local FITNESS business owners!!!

Here is a shout out and a big THANK YOU to Alicia Stewart, the owner of Figure 8 up at the corner of 24th and 4th Ave.  I love your sign Alicia!  And to Marco Guizar who promotes the concept of buying local at his Fitsom studio on Franklin Blvd.  I will be back to post a picture of Christina And Sham Sanghera's Inspired Wellness studio (whenever I'm there the sweat seems to blur my vision!).

Everyone in Curtis Park has a chance to be in their best possible shape with these talented entrepreneurs in our midst!  Thanks for keeping us healthy folks!!!

-- Kathleen

More franchise businesses are coming to Sacramento

Why do we need to make a special effort to protect our neighborhood character?  And preserve space for local entrepreneurs?

One chain store with eyes on Sacramento is Dunkin' Donuts which wants to open 46 new stores in the Sacramento area.  46!!!!!   You can bet that one or two of those will be headed our way unless we make it clear that we'd prefer they not.  You can read the story which was reported in March of 2014 right here.

Franchise businesses in general are looking at Sacramento as a big fat target for their expansion. The Sacramento Bee reported on this July 20th. The story is here. The threat is real.  We think there are plenty of talented local business people who can meet local needs and deserve a shot at building their own "Made in Sacramento" empires for export.  Why should we import other people's ideas and fill our streets up with them?  What does that say about Sacramento?

The Sacramento Business Journal recently reported on ways that locally owned, independent coffee shop owners are competing with the big chains.  Bravo!!!  More, more, more!!!  You can read the story here.

Let's bring more of what we like to Curtis Park!

It can be easy for critics to claim that neighbors like us don't ever want any change.  But they're wrong. Most reasonable people recognize that change is inevitable. The challenge happens when there is effort required to ensure that the changes are for the better!  This is a curve that we can definitely get ahead of here in Curtis Park.  If we want to avoid costly battles with big-box developers down the road we can take proactive steps to increase awareness of what the neighborhood wants to support.  This is an opportunity and really, an obligation if we really care about the unique character of our neighborhood.

We have begun working to attract more locally-owned, independent business owners to Curtis Park. Entrepreneurs who enjoy our neighborhood's character as much as we do and who are looking for a ready audience for their original work, whatever it might happen to be.  We're doing this in a few ways, and one of them is this nascent marketing campaign to better define our personality in the minds of prospective developers, business owners, shoppers, travelers and neighbors.  A neighborhood with lots of unique businesses will be more and more attractive over time, as more chain stores creep across the landscape.

Here are a few of the draft concepts.  Send your ideas to curtisparkcharacter@gmail.com!  And look for more of these around the neighborhood soon!

Sign the Petition to limit new or expanded chain stores in Curtis Park

So what's a neighborhood to do?  Well, we can organize to promote shopping local and also to support new restrictions on formula businesses in Curtis Park.  Communities all over the country have implemented ordinances to protect their unique virtues and we can too.   Please visit our petition on Change.org and sign your name!  You don't need to live in Curtis Park to sign it because - in the same way we ALL have a stake in agricultural land and national parks - we ALL have an interest in maintaining neighborhood diversity.  Please leave a comment explaining your connection to the neighborhood, and why you support this effort.  Thank you!

Here is another link to the petition :)

And the great businesses that give our neighborhood amazing character

Let's not take these folks for granted! They contribute just as much to our neighborhood's character as do our unique homes, wonderful parks and beautiful streetscapes.  It seems like a strong possibility that some of them will feel the impact of an additional 256,000 square feet of commercial space in the area (the amount currently being marketed at the Curtis Park "Village").

Support them as much as you can!  And help us develop new code to protect them from invading corporate chains that only want to sell us replicated commodities even as they erode the character of our neighborhood.

And then there is Broadway...Our best hope for a walkable urban streetscape!

So much potential.  There are some really great locally owned businesses on Broadway, many of which have signed on to our project (Thank you Sterling Cleaners, L'Amour Shoppe and Pancho's Cucina & Grill so far!).  But in the Curtis Park section of Broadway?  One big DMV parking lot (which is slated for future development) and Subway, Carl's Jr, Der Wienerschnitzel, McDonalds and Taco Bell, all within 2 blocks.  We are aware that the owners of the McDonalds in particular have invested a LOT in the remodeling of their store - that is to be commended.  And thank you also to ULI for working with the Greater Broadway Partnership on a very interesting 2012 Vision Plan for the corridor.  The report calls out the need for "Creating a unique character and urban form along the Broadway Corridor" and for development that "Reinforces the existing "funky, off beat vibe" of the neighborhood.   More of the same is just not going to get us there.  How many more of these obesity-inducing character killers do we need?

Broadway needs to turn a corner.  It's our neighborhood's best hope for interesting small businesses, shops and restaurants that we can walk or bike to.   So we need to get serious about protecting it from mediocrity and homogeneity.

SCNA is on record opposing big boxes and chain stores in CPV

The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association, which represents Curtis Park, has been advocating for neighborhood-serving small businesses in the Curtis Park Village project for a very, very long time.  Below is a screenshot from the Association's website describing their position, again related specifically to the CPV project.  As of July 2014, the SCNA board has not taken a position on the Curtis Park Character Advocates new petition language proposal which would essentially extend this policy to the rest of the Curtis Park neighborhood.  They have assigned two board members to work with us as we continue to collect information from neighbors, raise awareness of the benefits of shopping local, and plan for a new "Shop Local" campaign and events. 

Bravo Sarah Singleton for pushing back on CVS

While we are sympathetic to the needs of the Sacramento Children's Home, which owns the land, like many others we are very uncomfortable with the plan to replace a locally owned independent business with a corporate pharmaceutical chain store, no matter how "nice" it looks.

Sarah started a petition on Change.org to oppose this change.  If you read the comments, you will find equal parts love for Mercado Loco and DREAD of another neighborhood character-killer in the form of a generic chain store.

567 signatures as of July 4, 2014.  Thank you Sarah for galvanizing this movement!

Curtis Park "Village" being marketed to big box chain stores

Meanwhile, while there is no "official" announcement of any tenants who have signed leases to occupy the commercial area in CPV, there is this promotional video that was posted on Youtube last year which makes clear the developer's intentions:

Link to YouTube video of CPV Marketing

Not only is the depiction completely unlike a "Traditional Center" as it defined in the General Plan Urban Form Guidelines and as it is zoned, but it is full of the kinds of big boxes that neighbors have been opposing for years.

But alas, invites Superstores to wreak havok with them...

Last year the Sacramento City Council decided to make it easier for Big Boxes to locate in Sacramento's City limits, by eliminating what was basically a toothless requirement to study the impact of these "Super" stores on local wages and other small businesses.  With comments 2-1opposed to this action, who exactly was the council working for? And where does this leave us as we face potential Big Box development in Curtis Park "Village"?

http://blogs.sacbee.com/city-beat/2013/08/sacramento-city-council-eases-restrictions-on-big-box-stores.html

Excellent commentary leading up to the vote by Cosmo Garvin in the News &Review:

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/big-box-theory/content?oid=10217191

Sacramento Loves Neighborhoods!

The City of Sacramento created this video last year to promote our "History, Character & Lifestyle." It's no surprise that 28 seconds into it the focus is on "Neighborhoods with Small Town Charm." Here, as the world over, neighborhoods and their unique character give our city rich texture and make it feel special, even human.  For now, let's enjoy the love: