Hey there Gridsters,

Yeah, the title sounds a bit aggressive. But alas no worries, no one's busting in with riot gear.   We all want a thriving art scene and walkability.

The Guru chairs the newly minted 2nd Saturday Task Force as a collaborative committee for the Midtown Business Association (MBA) and the City.  By Monday afternoon, we'll bring together the Downtown Partnership as a voice.

April's Green 2nd Saturday created a lot of buzz and the crowd grew exponentially. On the same plane, 2nd Saturday as a whole sits on a natural progression of attendance. The consistent size of the crowd brought it to the radar of the police and therefore the City.  

Yes, the City.  True enough, many of us had elaborate visions of the now forgotten Thursday Night Market, the event that made The Guru want to live in this City post-graduate school.    Then Chief of Police Albert Najera over-reacted to a stabbing and without any understanding of economics  or social life, he pressured the Sacramento City Council and management to shut down the most important and vibrant ongoing social gathering next to 2nd Saturday.  

Ironically, right after The City kaiboshed this miraculous late evening farmer's market, developers spent the next few years trying to market mixed use, high-rise urban living in Downtown.  

The funny thing is that if the City and Chief No-Hair-on-His-Economic-Chest would have figured out the security picture like a normal place of its stature and size, developers would have sold those units because thousands of natural buyers would have been hanging out in Downtown every Thursday night and spilling over into all of those new restaurants on K Street Mall right about now.  

Now we're left with moon craters on Capitol Avenue that might need to become public swimming holes.  That's what happens when an old school police chief is put in charge of your economy.   Death to the economy.  

At the City folks remember that in hindsight shutting down rather than evolving the light rail security situation may not have been good for the revitalization of Downtown.  And the new police chief, Rick Braziel, has written a book on community policing.   While there will be some mistakes, the police department seeks to be a partner not a manager of this event.

With that in mind, the 2nd Saturday Task Force heralds the highest collaboration The Guru can imagine among all partners: residents, the business communities of Midtown and Downtown (and one day East Sac, Broadway, and maybe even Del Paso) , and several City departments, including the police.  

What to Expect:  Proactivity vs Reactivity

The major goal of 2nd Saturday is to preserve and even to emphasize walkability.    And that's just what we'll do.

1. On Walkability

-No parking from 19th-21st on J Street in order to reduce traffic

-Street closures on 20th from I Street to K Street, eventually 18th from K to Capitol

2. Off-Street Parking

-$2 for the night at 17th and L in the East End Complex

3. 2nd Saturday Shuttle Launch

- 2 shuttle buses will ferry people at approximately 4-block intervals to make it easy to park and to jump from center of gravity to center of gravity.

-Shuttles will run throughout the evening from 16th and J up to 29th and Capitol and then continue west on L Street from 28th back to 16th. 

-Shuttles should run in approxmiately 15-minute intervals.

Hopefully, 2nd Saturday will lead the way to bringing back the trolley to Midtown and connecting the Central City from Alhambra to Downtown. 

The idea is to look ahead to the future as the word of 2nd Saturday as a public art festival grows and to ensure that our infrastructure is in place to facilitate larger and larger walking crowds while also preserving the free-flowing character of 2nd Saturday.   We also want to make it easier for bike riders to peruse the streets safely with fewer cars traversing The  Grid during the hours of 6-9:30 p.m.

That takes a bit of planning and then getting ourselves out of the way and that's just what all of these partners seem to have in mind.   We'll keep you posted.

As an aside, many thanks to Sue Brown and Councilman Steve Cohn.  They have been a tremendous help in navigating the City's departments and making this experience a really easy and even light-hearted process.   That's right, the City's on course for 2nd Saturday.  

The Grid Guru