Profiles
Best of the City 2017
Elvis cinnamon rolls crowned with peanut butter and bacon, heavenly angel food cake French toast, a hidden tearoom to cozy up to, a steampunk bicycle repairium, a mobile boutique in full bloom, grape-clove shrub syrup for your homemade soda, a basketball tale that became a Cinderella story, and much more. Behold this year’s top crop of the people, places and things that make our hometown a home run—or a slam dunk—for everyone.
Greener Acres
Longing for more breathing room, the co-creator of "Yard Crashers" and his wife, who owns Karen’s Bakery in Folsom, built a modern Orangevale oasis that lets the outside in.
Hot New Hoods
It’s no secret that Sacramento is at a tipping point. Amidst all the construction dust, however, there are a few areas, such as R Street, Oak Park and West Sacramento, that are ready for their close-ups right now, and they are where you should be heading this weekend if you want a taste or a sip of the buzziest neighborhoods in the region (a flaming Sex Panther cocktail, anyone?). Consider the next 18 pages your insider’s guide to these hot hubs, where new restaurants, bars, boutiques and one-of-a-kind urban experiences await your arrival. Ready, set, go out!
Troubled Waters
On Feb. 7, following heavy storms, a massive crater was discovered in the main spillway at Oroville Dam, the tallest in the United States, which led to the use of a second, emergency spillway. Days later, over 180,000 people in the region were forced to evacuate amid threats of the emergency spillway’s collapse. Photojournalist Max Whittaker chronicled the crisis as residents fled to seek safety and shelter.
The Place Maker
If you felt the pulse of the city quickening the last time you spent an evening out dining, shopping or gallery hopping in midtown, Oak Park or the R Street Corridor, Ron Vrilakas likely had a hand in that.
The Man Who Fell for Earth
The New Yorker has called him “one of the most important political writers working in America today.” Time magazine has called him a hero of the environment. But it’s being a science fiction author that has landed Kim Stanley Robinson on the global literary map and The New York Times bestseller list.
30 Things Every Sacramentan Must Eat
Boy, are we full—of both nosh and nostalgia. That’s because we’ve spent the past two months ambling down memory lane and chowing down on foods we can’t live (or rather, live well) without. From forever favorites like Squeeze Inn’s Squeeze with Cheese and Frank Fat’s banana cream pie to instant classics like Bacon & Butter’s flawless flapjacks and Mother’s chicken-fried mushroom po’boy, here is our guide to 30 essential edibles in the Sacramento region. If you live here, or are even just passing through, this is required reading—and eating. Scroll down and get ready to start ticking off your gustatory “must” list.
Back to the Future
Don’t believe in time travel? For centuries, humans have found ways to speak to the people of the future without all those pesky wormholes in space. Rather they’ve stuffed sturdy vessels—time capsules, as we now know them—with letters, photographs and assorted ephemera, and buried them for subsequent generations to discover. Word has it that Paul Revere and Samuel Adams were the first Americans to create such a capsule in 1795.
Home Grown
The Yisrael family’s urban farm has flourished in the middle of a food desert, planting the seeds for a whole new farm-to-fork movement
New Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg
Darrell Steinberg is a San Francisco native who moved here in 1981 to attend UC Davis law school. After six years on the Sacramento City Council in the ’90s and a career in the Capitol that peaked with his role as Senate president, Steinberg, 57, won a hard-fought mayoral campaign in June. We met with him in October after he spent a long day in the Bay Area courting tech companies, and he shared his thoughts on his top priorities, being a strong mayor and even his morning workout routine.
Top of the Town
Sactown invited seven architecture firms from around the country to submit their best ideas for a new observation tower for the capital city, which would create an instant civic icon while giving us a chance to see our hometown from a whole new perspective. Let’s build one and take Sacramento to new heights.
Coloring Outside the Lines
For the plaza outside the new Kings arena, Sacramento pulled out all the stops and spent $8 million to land Jeff Koons’ sculpture "Coloring Book" in what was the art world equivalent of a No. 1 draft pick—expensive and potentially game-changing. Here’s the behind-the-scenes look at how fate, fortunes and family connections came together to make it possible.
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