A Beverly Hills native sets his sights on revitalizing Sacramento's grittiest neighborhood

The gritty streets of Oak Park aren't laid with red carpets inviting idealistic young law school graduates from Beverly Hills to come in and revitalize the neighborhood. Welcome mats are not found in front of the boarded-up crack houses, and friendly faces are not easy to spot among the gangs in the vacant lots.

But Brian Fischer, who makes his home in one of the most crime-ridden and dangerous areas of the once-grand Oak Park, is too busy working on societal change to notice. Fischer's essential philosophy has a beautiful simplicity: "I'm better off if you're happier," he says. "We are all better off if you go after your dream."

Fischer believes that if everyone is encouraged to pursue his or her own dream of happiness as a business, the entire society will benefit. He's chosen Oak Park as the testing ground for his social experiments.

Fischer and a group of like-minded artists and thinkers have formed 100 Minds Network to stimulate business development in Oak Park by taking advantage of group efficiencies and knowledge mentoring. The concept of 100 Minds comes from oil magnate and capitalist J. Paul Getty, who said he'd rather have 1 percent of 100 people's minds than 100 percent of his own.

The group will incubate new businesses in Oak Park, partly by providing mentorship from established firms to those just starting, and partly by sharing or pooling resources such as advertising dollars and access to investment funds.

By establishing a new social and economic structure, revitalization can begin from inside Oak Park, Fischer says.

Fischer, 33, came to Northern California from Los Angeles to attend law school at U.C. Davis. He's got glamorous Southern California roots: His grandfather was George Fischer, an old-time radio announcer who has a star on Hollywood's walk of fame, and he went to high school at Beverly Hills High. Eric Menendez was in his graduating class, and he sang in a stage production with Monica Lewinsky, although he's quick to point out he didn't know she was there at the time.

His LSAT scores were high enough for him to gain admission to almost any law school in the state, but Fischer chose Davis for its reputation for public-mindedness. That's important to him. He thinks the disparity between a privileged upbringing and one that is less favored is not fair.

"If I went to Beverly Hills High and got to take my books home, and another school doesn't allow their students to do that, that gives me an edge," he explains. "If students don't get to learn etymology, they're lacking an advantage." And he thinks education in general needs revamping. "Our educational system is so outdated. People are not taught to dream and pursue happiness," he says.

Teaching students to be entrepreneurs, or even just the basics of business and economic principles and tasks, would be a step in the right direction.

"You shouldn't have to go to law school or get an MBA to know how to start a business. When you graduate from high school, you should know how to write a business plan. It's a disservice, an express disservice, that people don't even know how to fill out a tax form," he says with heat. "Even the majority of law school students don't know how to start a business, or how to manage a credit card, or keep a budget."

Fischer has long admired what former NBA basketball star Kevin Johnson has done for Oak Park, beginning its revitalization through the St. Hope charter school project, and his successes in bringing Starbucks and other businesses to its downtown.

"I started studying Kevin Johnson and St. Hope and felt that he had the connections and the legitimacy to take such efforts to another level, but I also knew that all revitalization projects require other such projects to create enough synergy for the tide to rise" says Fischer.

To help raise that tide, Fischer is burning the candle at both ends. In addition to crafting his ambitious social strategies, he is also the marketing director for SacramentoMidtown.com, a central hub for the Midtown community, and a singer/songwriter for the band Diluvio.

A slow ride down Broadway reveals some of Oak Park's past glory. Tall, identical palms fringe the sky, giving the street an air of L.A.'s elegance. A few gorgeous Victorians catch your breath with their beauty. It's only when your eyes drop back to the ground that you notice every house seems bordered by a chain-link fence, and the homes are not palatial, but rather sad cottages with peeling paint and boarded-up windows.

Young women in short shorts trade on street corners at 7 a.m., and old '60s sedans, big as boats, with gold fins and vertical taillights weave down M.L.K. Boulevard or Broadway at all hours of the day. Small boys running drugs dart in and out of traffic on bicycles. It's a disheartening scene, but Fischer's eyes remain on the sky.

He insists that everyone in the neighborhood has a special value; everyone is a resource waiting to be tapped. When confronted with protests that many people don't want to be entrepreneurs, or aspire to anything more than their daily lives, he challenges that assumption: "Did anyone even ask them?" he retorts.

Fischer contends that three things taken together would alleviate poverty and create a higher standard of living and quality of life for adults who live in a depressed economic area: a neighborhood-based think tank and small business incubator, to help write business plans and grants for budding entrepreneurs; a free microloan association, similar to those in the Chinese and Jewish communities; and a liquor store buyout and redevelopment fund. No neighborhood needs three liquor stores in a two-block area selling 40-ounce beers for $1, he says.

Fischer has engaging green eyes that burn brightly and a perpetual smile. He's immersed in his community. Everyone seems to know him; he can't step outside without being greeted with genuine warmth and respect by longtime Oak Park residents. Although he could easily be making six figures at any law firm in the state, Fischer never bothered to take the bar exam.

"It's never been my intention to practice law," he says, "only to have an understanding of it to build community." The Declaration of Independence holds that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right. Fischer is pursuing his own vision of happiness by bringing about social change.