Downtown Sacramento is now home to a new – and eccentric – bakery.
Odd Cookie Bakery Cafe and Bar has moved into the old home of the Bar Rouse on 9th Street near J Street. An opening is set for mid-December.
The locally owned business will offer unexpected food and drink combinations: cupcakes topped with fried chicken, deep-fried calzones, sweet and spicy cocktails, and so much more. Traditional treats will also be available for less adventurous eaters. Yum!
Over 7,000 new residents moved to Sacramento last year alone, making it the fastest growing Californian city. These newcomers are likely enjoying cheaper rents and warmer temperatures alongside all the funky, good old-fashioned weird stuff Sacramento has to offer.
As the city’s director of tourism, Nick Leonti, says “Sacramento is about 80% weird stuff.” So whether you are on your way in or out of Sacramento, you should definitely check these out:
Home of the Martini– just a few miles out of Sacramento, you’ll hit Martinez, the birthplace of the classic cocktail, the Martini. Cheers.
Jelly Belly Factory– located at 1 Jelly Belly Lane, this place is wall-to-wall jellybeans of the most delicious kind. Once you have donned your paper hat, you can walk along the factory floors to watch the magic happen and hear the fascinating history of the Jelly Belly craze.
Osaka-Ya has been making manju and mochi since 1963; they are one of the three remaining manju shops in Northern California. But it is also a snowcone heaven. The storefront is a tiny shop tucked away near the freeway on 10th Street. From a small window next to the shop’s entrance, they sell snow cones that run from “extra small” (about as big as your face) to “extra large” (major brainfreeze potential).
Leonti explains that the city’s “history” of weird, stems from the gold rush, when scrappy adventurers from all over the world arrived in droves. Today, that quirk remains alive and well.
We love living and working in Sacramento, so its nice to know our good feelings are confirmed by independent surveys examining what makes living in a city special.
To begin with, Sacramento ranked 44th out of 182 cities in the USA for best cities to raise a family. Personal finance website WalletHub evaluate America’s large cities for several factors such as family fun, affordability and childcare, and Sacramento scored high. Check out how we did compared to other cities on their website.
Our town is still growing. The Arizona-based home-builder Taylor Morrison purchased about 29.4 acres worth of lots in the Fiddyment area just west of Roseville. The three parcels of land along the future North Hayden Parkway cost Taylor Morrison $6.96 million.
Sacramento has benefited, and continues to benefit, from the incubator for start-ups centered at UC Davis. Expect to see more and more medical technology and pharmaceutical companies contributing to the growing economy in the area. During the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2019, 14 startups were launched by this innovative program.
We would be remiss not to include at least one word about beer. Folsom’s iconic Red Bus Brewing Company is getting ready to open a similar space on Sutter Street. We can hardly wait.
The Old Sacramento waterfront will be getting an upgrade. Ideas on how to update the area have been submitted by professionals as well as the public.
This hybrid process—when both the public and professionals submit proposals—is a unique one. According to Carlos Eliason, a creative specialist in the city, the process has generated a lot of positive attention.
“We have a lot of new ideas, and energy and momentum are starting to build up,” Eliason said. “We want people to think of Old Sac as a place where emotion and imagination can combine … and this is kind of where it starts.”
In January, five professional design team were invited to submit proposals for the riverfront. The public was also invited to submit designs, and a children’s design competition was launched.
Voting is open to the public. The children’s competition will offer several prizes of $100, and the winning proposal can win up to $6,000.
First 5 California and Supply Bank are making sure families are covered no matter what the need. The First 5 Diaper Kit Pilot Program which provides 100 diapers and 200 baby wipes to families to help relieve some of the financial stress they may be dealing with.
Working together and having a sense of collaboration $50-70 in the store could be pennies on the dollar. Instead of 25 cents for a diaper, it’s a dime. The kits are being provided to families for free or reduced prices to homes based on needs.
This video is the entire meeting of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges in Sacramento. The President, Cecilia V. Estolano welcomed everyone to the “momentous occasion,” that being the first organized meeting of the new California community online college.
Agenda presented by Vice President Epstein:
Following the shooting by local police officers of Stephon Clark, the Sacramento City Council has taken action. One possibility currently being debated is the prohibition against entrance of “abusive/threatening” protestors in all council meetings. Tension has risen since the shooting and activists have had to be accompanied out of meetings.
Quite simply, Councilman Steve Hansen said to one such activist: “Because you broke our laws we are asking you to leave.” Some speakers have claimed that what has transpired in these meetings is not only “unfair,” but actually even illegal.
The establishment of Black Lives Matter occurred five years ago. A “cease and desist” order was submitted to the council by Ben DeBerry for Brown Act violations protecting the public’s right to participate in council meetings. On March 22, a protest was held at Evergreen State College and further events have been planned on the matter of inclusion and the problem of racism on campus as a response to the cancellation of this year’s “Day of Absence.”
The California News Publishers Association just awarded The Sacramento Bee 11 honors!!!!
In its 2017 California Journalism Awards contest, The Sacramento Bee came out with two 1st place honors as well as a staggering 9 other awards, from over 3,000 entries from various news journals. Other competitors included newspapers that have a readership circulation of up to 150,000.
One of the 1st place honors was awarded to writers: Cynthia Hubert, Ryan Lillis and Phillip Reese for their coverage of youth and education in their story: “In the killing zone: Why can’t we keep them safe?” which investigated and try to understand the high level of teen murders in Sacramento County.
Sacramento native Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird”, an award-winning film, has brought much publicity and artistic interest to its set: Sacramento. Yesterday, Gerwig added another award to her collection at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, with “Lady Bird” taking the Spirit award for best screenplay.
Lady Bird was Gerwig’s directorial debut, and has been nominated for several awards, including Best Feature. In January it was named best motion picture musical or comedy and also won best performance by an actress in a motion picture musical or comedy at the Golden Globes.
Though Oscar prospects seems slim, it has been nominated for five categories.
The film premiered in Sacramento and Gerwig spoke to the crowd about the autobiographical piece both before and after the viewing.
Sacramento State recently received its largest cash donation in history from former Sleep Train owner Dale Carlsen. The $6 million donation was made in support of a new innovation and entrepreneurship center on campus.
After the announcement, Carlsen said: “Right now at Sacramento State and in our region, this is a transformative time. This is the time to grow more entrepreneurs, grow more businesses, grow more jobs in our area, and this is the way to do it. We have to do it through innovation. We’ve got to do it through creativity.”
“The old-school way doesn’t do it anymore” he added. “Changing the mindset at the campus will change the mindset in the region.”
The Dale and Katy Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will include classes and a curriculum from UC Berkley, and will take place in the library’s multimedia room. The university is looking for the right executive director to take over the project and build an appropriate program.
“Our vision is to provide the tools, resources and guidance to achieve it,” Carlsen said.