The Bee Garden Diaries: Fair Oaks gardeners' hard work feeds hungry

It started simply. A group of Fair Oaks gardeners wanted to share this season's harvest with people in need.

This little idea turned into a big bonanza for a local food closet – and more than 1,500 pounds of locally grown, organic vegetables donated.

About 45 gardeners from the Fair Oaks Community Garden took part in the project at Fair Oaks Park.

"This hearty group decided they wanted to do something to help others during this economically challenging time," says Sandy Scammell, the garden's coordinator. "The coordinating committee of the garden did some research and found a food closet in the local area that was delighted to have fresh, organic produce."

Roy Tyree, a retired postal worker and garden member, coordinated the project. A 4,000-square-foot area was staked out. Park district personnel helped with the tilling and irrigation, but the garden volunteers provided the seeds, plants and more elbow grease, contributing hundreds of hours of labor.

"Along with red potatoes, we have a number of varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, beets, lettuce; crookneck, zucchini and butternut squashes; bush beans, pole beans and corn," Scammell reports.

So far, the group has made about 25 deliveries to the food closet. The tally includes 12 boxes of red potatoes; 14 bags of carrots, beets and radishes; four boxes of corn; 17 boxes of green beans; 23 boxes of tomatoes; and 28 boxes of cucumbers, zucchinis, eggplant and peppers.

"As crops are finishing, new beds of pumpkins and winter squashes have been planted," Scammell says. "A second crop of corn is growing taller. This has been an overwhelmingly rewarding experience for the Fair Oaks Community Garden and may be an ongoing project."

Do you have a gardening story to share, want to publicize a crop swap or know of a food bank that needs veggies?

Source Sac Bee

Sacramento police take action against homeless campground

Sacramento police this morning were citing and moving homeless people from a downtown lot where a Sacramento attorney has allowed them to camp.

About 30 people have been living at a makeshift homeless camp on a vacant lot on C Street between 12th and 13th streets, even as police warned that they are breaking the law.

"The individuals out here have been contacted multiple times in the past two weeks and they have been informed they are in violation of the Sacramento city camping ordinance," said Sacramento police spokeswoman Laura Peck. "We are out here citing those folks."

Peck said police are hopeful the homeless will gather their belongings and leave. Police are offering containers to the homeless to help gather up belongings.

About a dozen homeless people were on the site when police arrive, but police counted 33 tents on the lot.

Sacramento attorney Mark Merin has been leasing the land to a group of advocates who want the city to establish a legal "safe ground" where homeless people can sleep without police interference.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said the new camp threatens to become "a negative distraction" to efforts by the city to establish a sanctioned "safe ground."

A press release from homeless advocates sent out this morning is requesting that people come to the site "to bear witness" to the break up of the campground.

Source Sac Bee

A new world for 2 young captives

They've spent their entire lives in captivity, largely isolated from everyone except their mother and their captors.

Now Jaycee Dugard's two children, ages 11 and 15, will have to be introduced to a world – the real world – foreign to them.

"I really can't fathom it," said Sheila Boxley, president of the Child Abuse Prevention Center in Sacramento. "People living in isolation tend to be at risk for all sorts of things" and will need immediate, long-term treatment, Boxley added.

Carl Probyn, Dugard's stepfather, said in media reports Friday that the two young girls "look healthy. They haven't been educated, but they're happy, they're smiling." Dugard still has the children, and they're staying in a Bay Area motel, Probyn said.

The children were raised in the backyard of Phillip and Nancy Garrido, who allegedly kidnapped their mother from the El Dorado County town of Meyers in 1991, when she was 11. Authorities have said Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender, fathered the two girls with her. The Garridos were arrested earlier this week; they pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of kidnapping and rape in an El Dorado County courtroom Friday.

While there is little precedent for what the two girls have suffered and while many of the details of their plight remain cloudy, a few things are certain, said Boxley and other child abuse counselors.

First, child protection workers will conduct an investigation, evaluating their health and the health of their mother. Investigators generally try to keep children with their parents, unless they determine that the parents are unfit or unable to care for them.

If the two girls remain with their mother, child protective service workers will probably fade into the background, said Robert Wilson, executive director of Sacramento Child Advocates. Other care providers will then begin to repair some of the emotional damage the girls have likely suffered.

A public victim's compensation fund will probably take care of any costs associated with their care, and the care of their mother. They'll also likely benefit from professionals willing to help them for free, Wilson said.

It will be tough, especially in the short term, because the girls will be healing while two of the only people they knew are adjudicated in connection with the abduction of their mother.

"There will be an evidentiary exam," said Boxley. "The condition of the children and their mom are all going to be elements of the case."

"Hopefully," added Wilson, "they are being allowed to just acclimate to a new environment before they spend a significant amount of time with law enforcement."

The support the girls receive from their family may prove the most important factor in their healing. Their grandparents said Thursday they were thrilled to hear that their mother is still alive, and now safe.

"In the best possible situation, there was healthy attachment with the mother," too, said Boxley, referring to Dugard.

In the end, said Wilson, "children are very resilient. (Dugard) is going to be a lot more difficult. It's just unknowable what that will do to anybody."

Source Sac Bee

AG Brown launches independent inquiry into Jackson death

Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is widely expected to announce his candidacy for governor, said Friday that his office's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement has launched an independent investigation into physicians implicated in police investigations of pop star Michael Jackson's death.

Brown said in a news release: "Responding to a request from the (Los Angeles Police Department), agents from my office will investigate several physicians whose names have come up in the course of the Michael Jackson death inquiry. This investigation is at its earliest stages, and no conclusions can be drawn at this point."

The attorney general's office had already been assisting the LAPD with the investigation.

The Los Angeles County coroner declared Jackson's death a homicide Friday, according to news reports, and investigators have looked into whether Jackson's personal physician Conrad Murray caused the death by administering excess anti-anxiety and sleep medication to the singer.

"The drugs propofol and lorazepam were found to be the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson's death," the coroner's office was quoted as saying.

Source Sac Bee

The five biggest stimulus projects in Sacramento region

The federal government has approved more than $600 million in stimulus projects and programs so far in the Sacramento region, with more money still to come, according to a Bee analysis of multiple government sources.

Most of the projects are limited efforts with budgets under $1 million. A few, though, are huge, multi-million dollar jobs.

An official, comprehensive list of the region's projects doesn't yet exist. The Bee has created an unofficial list of hundreds of projects, all of them viewable at www.sacbee.com/stimulus.

Here's the skinny on the five construction projects in the region that, at this point, are getting the biggest share of stimulus funds:

Folsom Dam safety improvements – $22.3 million:

Built in 1955, Folsom Dam created Folsom Lake, one of the region's premier recreation spots. The dam is mostly for flood control, but also provides water for domestic and agricultural use.

The dam is in good shape but is starting to show its age, said Pete Lucero, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Officials have long planned to modify the dam's spillway gates to make them less susceptible to earthquakes. The stimulus money will go toward making that happen quickly.

There's no imminent danger, Lucero said, but "we are able to accommodate a project we were planning to do. It's a huge project."

Lucero said construction work would start soon, but he could not give an exact timeframe. Lucero also could not give a specific number of jobs that will be supported, instead referring to a federal formula that maintains about 20 jobs will be supported for every $1 million in stimulus spent.

Development at the Sacramento railyard – $20 million:

Probably the highest profile local stimulus project, Sacramento's railyard has long sat fallow on the edge of downtown. City planners hope a large, planned infill project at the railyard will be a shot in the arm for the region, and the stimulus money is a key component of their plans.

The $20 million would help move some train tracks a few hundred feet north, making room for a transit center behind a depot, and allowing Fifth and Sixth streets to extend on bridges into the railyard, all of which could jumpstart development.

"Everything hinges on the track relocation," the city's Fran Halbakken said soon after funding was announced.

But the plan has hit a snag. The rail move project is not yet shovel-ready. City officials have been given a Dec. 1 deadline to get paperwork in order and show that they are prepared to hire a contractor. If the city doesn't meet the deadline, the money gets pulled, and planners will redistribute the funds to take care of smaller projects.

Highway 70/99 rehab near the Sacramento/Sutter county line – $18.3 million:

North of Sacramento, Highway 99 has been getting a lot more traffic, largely because so many commuters flocked to Marysville and Plumas Lake in search of less-expensive housing. But large swaths of the road are in poor shape.

This project will apply rubberized paving to 10 miles of Highway 99 from the Sacramento County line to State Highway 70. Of the five projects mentioned here, it is the only one that is actively under way and creating jobs.

The project is supposed to be completed by November.

Live Oak wastewater treatment plant – $16 million:

It's easy to make a case that the small Sutter County town of Live Oak desperately needed stimulus funds. Its unemployment rate stands at 30 percent – almost three times the state average.

State regulators told the town years ago that its wastewater treatment plant wasn't up to snuff, and the plant has been operating under a cease-and-desist order since 2005, said Jim Goodwin, Live Oak's city manager.

The stimulus money – a $10 million grant and a $6 million low-interest loan – will build a new plant, support 45 local construction jobs and forestall a large rate increase, Goodwin said. Construction will start soon.

"The only way to meet the state's requirements was to completely rebuild the plant," Goodwin said. "We've been struggling on how we could do that at a rate our customers could afford."

American River levee improvements – $14 million:

The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency is concerned that water from the American River could flow under some levees and pool up on the other side, causing flooding.

This project, an extension of construction undertaken a decade ago, will let SAFCA work on that problem and fix "gaps along county roads and sewer lines that our initial construction couldn't do," said Pete Ghelfi, SAFCA director of engineering. Work will be done at multiple points in the region along the river, Ghelfi added.

What are your opinions on the 5 biggest stimulus projects that are currently taking place and that will take place in the near future?

Source Sac Bee

Mayor Johnson turns up the heat on Westfield

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson threw an elbow Tuesday in the city's years-long game with Westfield, the company that owns the Downtown Plaza.

Come up with a plan to revitalize the downtrodden mall by the end of the year or get out, he said.

After several other meetings had fallen through, Johnson finally got together with Westfield officials Friday in Los Angeles and told them he expected them to invest in the Downtown Plaza.

Both sides agreed to work on a plan over the next four months to revive a mall where many storefronts sit empty.

"If we cannot get to where we need to be by the end of the year, then I think it's inevitable that we will be in a place where we really have to part ways," Johnson said.

Westfield officials said they are eager to work with the city.

"We will be working with the mayor and the city over the next several months to look at broader plans for the revitalization of K Street and downtown, and how we can best integrate improvements to the mall into those plans," said company spokeswoman Catharine Dickey.

While the mayor does not have the authority to force Westfield to sell the plaza, his statements Tuesday were his harshest to date on the state of the mall.

His meeting with Westfield officials followed months of delays on a planned $120 million renovation of the Downtown Plaza. In May, Westfield said it would not undertake any major construction at the mall for at least the remainder of the year.

Meanwhile, the company is in the midst of a $240 million expansion at its posh Westfield Galleria at Roseville.

"Let's not play games, let's not say we're going to do something that we're not going to do," Johnson said.

Downtown officials applauded Johnson's public challenge to Westfield.

Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, said the mall "is in critical need of reinvestment."

"Something clearly needs to be done to push this project along," Ault said.

"If the mayor wants to play a larger role in that, great, hallelujah."

The mayor would not provide details on what it would take to meet his demands. However, some ideas that have been floated by city leaders include incorporating residential and office space into the mall.

Ault said there is much the city has done to bring life back to the downtown core surrounding the mall.

Plans are moving forward to move the Greyhound bus station to Richards Boulevard, and a streetscape project is under way along the 700 block of K Street at the mall's east end.

"Westfield is going to need to believe that this is a market they can be successful in," Ault said.

"They're not going to throw money at a project that doesn't make sense."

What stores would you like to see come in?

Source Sac Bee

When the housing crash ends, how will Sacramento grow?

Some day this housing crash will end. Judging from history, Sacramento's ranks of developers will snap right back into growth mode – building a fresh wave of new homes.

The big question: Will this new wave of growth create a more urban, compact Sacramento, as many community activists and politicians hope? Or will it follow the time-tested pattern of past booms in the late 1970s, the second half of the 1980s and the first half of this decade, pushing ever-larger homes farther into farmland?

Perhaps it's easiest to expect more of the same. Suburban development has for decades been Sacramento's main growth industry, aside from state government.

During this decade's housing boom, builders constructed 156,000 homes, condos and apartments in the Sacramento region – largely on empty land in suburban cities. Much of this last wave of housing on former farmland has proved especially vulnerable to shredded values and foreclosures – a fate far less common in established neighborhoods closer to jobs.

Still, signs of change were starting to emerge even before the housing market fell apart. Loft-style housing projects were popping up all over Sacramento's central city. And construction had begun on two 53-story condominium towers on Capitol Mall.

So might visions of mid- and high-rise living in downtown Sacramento take off where they left off – just as it seemed the city was reaching a new level?

Looking ahead, analysts believe the next wave of residential growth in the Sacramento region – perhaps still several years off – might be different. It's likely to roll in with expensive gasoline, higher home energy costs and lenders' continued insistence on tight credit.

State and federal policies governing the flow of public money increasingly favor more compact, transit-friendly types of development. And as baby boomers age, they are expected to move down to smaller housing units.

All these forces could mean more people in the next wave of growth will live in smaller homes, and more may live downtown. But no one should underestimate the ethos of the Central Valley: People here like yards and space.

Around town, people who build houses and those trying to shape the market think daily about what the Sacramento of the future will look like. Here are some of their thoughts:

Industry tracker

Greg Gross flips open a laptop and counts the lots planned for houses, apartments and condos in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

His tally: 106,000.

The number is staggeringly ambitious in a housing crash where builders will be lucky to sell 4,000 homes this year. It speaks to the bullish nature of Sacramento land developers.

Around 91,000 lots are on vacant land and called future inventory, just "cows walking across the field," said Gross. He is a regional consultant with Houston's Metrostudy, advising developers and builders on what buyers want.

These lots are where the capital region's future will be written, assuming it follows the suburban development patterns that have guided the region since World War II. Many could remain undeveloped if patterns change, or could be filled with smaller homes or multi-family housing.

Gross' opinion: "The majority of folks are going to raise their family in a single-family home. There are not millions of people looking for a condo."

Giant publicly traded builders that rule this market will want that, too, he said. Builders need empty land to mass produce houses for a region projected to capture about 9 percent of California's job growth until 2050 – and possibly double its population to nearly 4 million.

Yet the consultant issues a caveat. What people want may become limited by constraints on resources, including water shortages and costly energy.

Downtown developers

Scott Syphax and Steve Goodwin are banking on such limits. They plan 2,900 mid-rise homes in an old industrial area north of downtown Sacramento. It's called Township 9.

Source Sac Bee