Sacramento Press

The Sacramento Press is an online, hyper-local newspaper. www.sacpress.com

[sacpress]

It's been a long time coming, but Der Biergarten, the outdoor German beer hall made from cargo containers, finally has all of the permits in place it needs to open on the corner of 24th and K Streets by next month.

The concept behind behind Der Biergarten is a novel one: Owner Sean Derfield will use oversized cargo containers to house a restaurant on vacant land. The the idea is that the containers, and therefore the restaurant, can be easily picked up and moved to a new location once the land owner decides to develop the property.

- Jared Goyette

[sacpress]

Much of the conversation about the closure of Blackbird Restaurant & Bar has focused on how and when employees were laid off – the night before a shift and via email.

The restaurant was owned by three people: Chef Carina Lampkin; her mother, Karen; and her stepfather, John Thacker, who sent the email.

In an interview with Sac Press on Tuesday afternoon, Thacker explained the reasons for the closure, and why he sent that email when he did. He also apologized to employees and gave his perspective on the business climate in downtown Sacramento.

- Jared Goyette

[sacpress]

They were more than just passionate about what they did, it wasn't a job for Carina, it was her lifestyle and identity. Every time I walked through the door I was impressed, and frankly jealous, of the amazing things they did.

Featured Comment of the Day

from Blackbird Kitchen & Bar 'closing permanently

- cjarosz

[sacpress]

From 1967 to 1973, Sacramento was home to the world's most respected journal of avant-garde music and art, called Source Magazine. The late 1960s were a period of dramatic social change in the worlds of art and music. During this era, groups of like-minded artists gathered in a few cities that became epicenters of creativity. San Francisco’s “Summer of Love” in Haight-Ashbury was one such epicenter, as was Paris during the uprisings of May 1968, or the East Village in Manhattan via Andy Warhol’s “Factory” scene. Sacramento’s epicenter of cutting-edge music was located in the basement of a Victorian home in Midtown’s Poverty Ridge neighborhood, where Source was produced.

- William Burg

[sacpress]

600 food lovers who paid $175 to eat dinner on the Tower Bridge last night were treated to a special four-course meal designed to showcase locally grown and/or produced products and ingredients, including: tomato, cucumber, watermelon, feta, herbs, sweet corn, jimmy nardello peppers, summer squash and chimicchurri sauce, roasted whole pig, summer peppers, sweet onions and puffed rice, white sturgeon, beans, pumpkin, sweet potato, endive and pears, wines and beer.

- Kati Garner

[sacpress]

Sacramento Fire Chief Ray Jones has retired as a member of the Sacramento Fire Department. Jones started with the department in 1986. According to the fire department’s web site, Jones promoted through the ranks from firefighter to Chief. Jones was sworn in as Sacramento’s 20th fire chief on February 6, 2008.

[sacpress]

Blackbird Kitchen & Bar, the downtown seafood restaurant, popular happy-hour spot and occasional center for neighborhood activism, has closed.

The restaurant's staff received an email from owners late Monday afternoon saying that Blackbird, at 1015 9th St., was "closing permanently effective immediately."

Blackbird opened in March of 2012 with a staff of 22. Chef Carina Lampkin was the spokeswoman and creative force, along with her culinary collaborator chef Kevin O'Connor.

- Jared Goyette

[sacpress]

Dutch cycling blogger praises and criticizes biking in Davis

[sacpress]

[Photos] Kulture Kegger hosted 2nd annual Red Dress Party kickoff

by Kati Garner

[sacpress]

The future of Sacramento Press is on the brink, and on Thursday, we’ll gather at the Downtown Plaza to discuss our options and how best to save the site. 

Making Sac Press viable was always going to be a challenge, as there are few nuts harder to crack in media than local online-only news. Big newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian have all tried to enter the "hyperlocal" or neighborhood news market with online ventures that failed. AOL made the biggest push with Patch, which despite some bright spots, has proved a dismal failure financially.

- Jared Goyette

[sacpress]

[Photos] Cattle drive kicks off Farm to Fork week in Sacramento

by Kati Garner

[sacpress]

One of Sacramento's funkiest and most innovative art galleries is prepping for a relaunch and could use your help.

The Verge Center for the Arts has started a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help pay for their first year of exhibition programing in their space at 625 S Street in downtown Sacramento. The gallery has been in the warehouse since 2010, but it bought the building on Aug. 23, and has begun six months of construction before a planned reopening next spring.

- Jared Goyette

[sacpress]

Sacramento's bike-share program may be a few years away, but planners are starting off by thinking big: They intend for Sacramento's bike-share program to connect with the one launched last month in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The goal is to eventually have bike-share kiosks, where people can rent bikes with the swipe of a card, all along Amtrak's Capitol Corridor route, creating a line of stops with bike access from San Francisco to Sacramento.

- Jared Goyette

[sacpress]

On October 5, 2013, an expected 500 red dress-wearing guests will converge on Badlands Nightclub for Sacramento's Second Annual Red Dress Party, 2003 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95811, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. The event raises awareness and funds for the Sacramento LBGT Community Center and Sunburst Projects, organizations that engage in HIV/AIDS prevention, education and wellness support for youth, adults, and families affected by HIV.

The color red, found on the red ribbon worn on the lapel of people around the world, is commonly accepted as the international symbol of HIV/AIDS awareness. The Sacramento Red Dress Party uses that symbol to build on a party concept popularized with sell-out events attended by thousands annually in Portland, Seattle, and cities across the country.

- George Raya

[sacpress]

Sacramento is an ideal place for geothermal energy, even though you may not hear about it much. The fact that the temperature of heat absorbed into the ground stays consistent throughout the year around 68 degrees creates excellent conditions. Geothermal energy works with the ground similar to how solar panels absorb the sun's energy.

There are industrial businesses that use this form of clean renewable energy because of its huge energy cost savings. On a consumer level, however, it doesn't get talked about much partly because there aren't that many companies offering it in Sacramento. Geremia Pools, though, stands out as the lone company in town offering an innovative idea that recycles energy from the ground and swimming pools to heat and cool residential homes. The company is based here in Sacramento near Power Inn and 14th Avenue. Geremia is a family business that's been around for nearly a century, although it has only been in the geothermal energy business for the past three years.

- Alex Cosper

[sacpress]

Sacramento is at a crossroads in the history of its urban development. With a new arena set to be built downtown, constructing starting again on developments in the central city and a farm-to-fork fueled culinary renaissance, this is shaping up to be a time to remember in the city of trees.

What better time for an event focused on the potential of cities and urban thinking?

This Friday, Sept. 20, TEDxSacramento's TEDxCity2.0 will coincide with TED's anchor event, TEDCity2.0, in New York, and more than 130 independently organized TEDxCity2.0 events around the world.

- Ronnie Ledesma

[sacpress]

This week a chapter ends for The Sacramento Press. The cuts that our owner announced last week will kick in, and there will no longer be a full-fledged editorial team or community contributor program. The question now is what exactly is next for us as an organization.

The short answer is that I don't know and I don't think anyone does. Our owner, Ben Ilfeld, has indicated some possible options for moving forward: selling to a new owner, converting to a nonprofit or becoming a co-op.

- Jared Goyette