Author: Rob Turner
Inflatable Art: Why Not Here?
For decades, inflatable public art has been popping up around the world. We’d like to float this idea here too.
A Swinging Good Time
Playground swings are for kids—or so we thought. It turns out grown-ups love them too. In fact, such urban amenities are a surprisingly popular trend for people of all ages in cities like Boston and Tulsa. So what do you say? Let’s give this idea a big push.
Step It Up, Sacramento
In cities around the world, well-designed yet uncomplicated elevated structures have provided simple pleasures for locals and tourists alike. Can we rise to the occasion too?
Now Hear This
In cities like San Francisco and Houston, you can find amazing scientific wonders called whisper dishes. They require no wires, no batteries and no energy to power them—just the sound of your own voice. We think that’s something worth shouting about here at home.
The Eyes Have It
In Boston, a simple, inexpensive idea is brightening the faces of both trains and passengers. We think it’s worth taking a look at here too.
Flower Power
Solar flowers are popping up all over the world, proving that it’s easy—and beautiful—being green.
A Window to the World
In 2021, a Lithuanian artist created a set of large-scale urban portals to allow people from one country to interact in real time with strangers in another. Now he’s expanding. Let’s greet our global neighbors too.
Art for Earth’s Sake
We’re green with civic envy. With Earth Day coming up on April 22, now is the perfect time for Sacramento to follow the lead of those around the world creating public art from recycled materials.
Cops Who Hop
Police departments all over the West are converting police cars into lowriders to strengthen community relations. It's an idea that Sacramento should be jumping up and down about too.
Tops of the Town
In 2010, a new kind of swivel chair emerged, serving dual purposes—providing attractive seating, but also acting as a people magnet in cities around the world. It’s time for Sacramento to make some heads turn too.
A Lightbulb Moment
In recent decades, light festivals have become increasingly popular ways for cities around the world to create cultural attractions and boost tourism. Time to flip the switch here too.
Q&A with Estella Sanchez, Founder of Sol Collective
Born in Sacramento to Mexican immigrants, Estella Sanchez has always navigated the influences of both her Hispanic heritage and her California upbringing. In 2005, at age 30, she founded the local multicultural nonprofit Sol Collective to help others explore and express their own diverse identities by hosting gallery shows, leading art classes and participating in social justice and health initiatives at its headquarters and beyond. This fall, the group will host events throughout town to observe Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and Sanchez talks to us about those celebrations, growing a karmic bank account, and the power of perseverance.
The Perfect Pick to Honor the Man in Black
The first sculpture designed for Folsom’s Johnny Cash Trail—a massive guitar pick—is ready for its day in the sun. Get set to start your hike on a high note.
People-Powered Art
From Iowa City to Boston and beyond, interactive art installations are drawing crowds to experience art firsthand. Sacramento should get in on the action too.
Best of the City 2023
Airy French puffs, comforting cupcakes that taste just like Grandma’s, sports legends who go the extra mile, hot hotels that breathe fresh life into historic buildings, rockin’ speakers made from retro lunchboxes, and a whole bunch more. What’s old is new and what’s new is newsworthy in our annual list of the local people, places and things that have caught our eyes and captured our imagination this year.
A Rainbow Connection
In 2021, a very special span—carefully crafted to bring health and happiness to some humans who deserve them the most—was constructed in Australia. We should walk a similar path and build our own bridge to a brighter future.
All the World’s a Stage
From San Francisco to New York, a handful of theater companies have broken out of, well, the actual theater to take their shows into parks and playgrounds. We should think outside the black box too.
Best New Global Chocolate Emporium
What’s old is new and what’s new is newsworthy in our annual list of the local people, places and things that have caught our eyes and captured our imagination this year. Here's one of our picks for Best of the City 2023.
The Art of Recycling
Plastic bottles are filling up rivers and oceans at an alarming rate. But a growing number of cities are finding a whimsical new lure to catch them before they hit the water. We should go fish too.
Bee the Change
In recent years, a global trend of topping bus shelters with bee-friendly gardens has been spreading like, well, wildflowers. With Earth Day coming up on April 22, here’s the buzz on eco-forward “bee stops.”
There’s No Place Like Home
A highly subjective, indisputably incomplete, utterly defensible list of compelling reasons that make us #SacramentoProud
Bring Back the Blue Diamond Almond Tour
Food factory tours have exploded in popularity over the decades. We should resurrect one here that both locals and visitors were nuts about.
Snap, Crackle & Pop Culture
A new cereal bar opens in Old Sacramento and serves up everything from Corn Pops to Instagrammable backdrops
Sowing the Seeds of Change
Pocket forests are sprouting in cities around the globe as a surprisingly effective way to fight climate change. It’s time for us to branch out too.
Best of the City 2022
From Old Sacramento’s new incandescent signage to luminescent lanterns hand-assembled in Newcastle to a just-opened microcinema in midtown and merciful cyclists with big hearts, we present our highly subjective, small-batch, 100% locally made list of our favorite people, places and things right now. We know it’s been a rough couple of years—here are 22 bright spots that are lighting up our town in 2022.
One for the Books
A likeness of native daughter Joan Didion is set to take a permanent seat in a fitting setting
Wayne’s World
Last year, Sacramento lost a local legend—painter Wayne Thiebaud. Like other cities around the country have done, we should remember our greatest hometown artist with a museum befitting his global stature.
Walking on Air
In Duisburg, Germany, and Pohang, South Korea, two massive works of “walkable art” have brought new life to their respective waterfronts. As a city trying to reinvigorate its own waterfront, Sacramento should walk this way too.
Where She Was From
Sacramento native Joan Didion, who was one of America’s greatest writers, passed away on Dec. 23, 2021, at the age of 87. We spoke with the literary giant 10 years earlier, as she reflected on the deaths of her husband and only child, and her memories of growing up in River City.
Sitting Down with a Good Book
Many cities have combined street furniture with great literature to beautify urban landscapes and improve literacy. Let’s take a page from that book.
Why Not Here? 15th Anniversary Edition
15 Fun Ways to Take Our City to New Heights
Fit for a King
To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, now is the perfect time to take the first steps to honor him in California’s capital with a statue befitting his legacy.
Trash Talk
In Baltimore, a school of large-mouth garbage gobblers is keeping the harbor clean. We should reel one in right here in River City.
The Wonders Down Under
Sacramento’s annual Wide Open Walls mural festival is upon us. But in many cities around the country, people are looking down on public art—about 5 to 6 feet down. It’s time to wash that gray right out of our streets.
Maine Attraction
In Portland, Maine, local artists have found a new kind of canvas: city bus shelters. With such inspiring designs, good things come to those who wait (for their bus to arrive).
Low Rent, High Design
A developer with roots in Davis is building affordable mid-century-modern housing for a Palm Springs neighborhood, proving that equity and aesthetics can co-exist. Color us inspired.
The Rebirth of Cool
The late, great Nut Tree restaurant in Vacaville is one of the most storied restaurants in Northern California history. And, as it turns out, it was designed by a bunch of Sacramentans. Let’s bring it back.
The Call of the Wild
Our region is a hiker’s paradise, but the one part that isn’t so heavenly is the pitiful state of restroom pit stops. One Colorado group has engineered a dignified solution.
Looky Loos
In Tokyo, a world-renowned architect conjured up an elegant solution to a not-so-elegant urban problem: public toilets. Sacramento needs to take the plunge on his very creative idea to build restrooms with, yes, see-through walls.
No Annexation Without Representation
A billion-dollar plan to demolish and rebuild the State Capitol annex, design an underground visitors center, and dig up part of our historic Capitol Park for an exclusive parking garage for legislators is at least partly ill-conceived and entirely ill-timed. But there is the potential to create something great, if we just invite more people into “the people’s house.”
Mayor, Redefined
What does it mean to be a mayor? It turns out the answer isn’t so black-and-white. For a hundred years, Sacramentans have hemmed and hawed about whether or not a “strong mayor” system will help or hurt us. In November, we have a chance to push our city forward. Here’s why it’s more important than ever to vote yes for a strong mayor.
Floating Our Boats
In Paris, a “floating cinema” emerged as a creative response to COVID, and now the concept is going global. We should make waves while going to the movies in the River City as well.
On Sale Now!
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