June 2004, for Just Down Around Town: SacramentoMidtown.com Moves in to Promote the Community

If you're living downtown, considering a relocation to Sacramento, or if you're just interested in learning more about the heart of California's capital, there's a new website for you to add to your online favorites: SacramentoMidtown.com.

With one section devoted to business and another to community, co-creators Julia Seebach and Scott Smithline hope to strike a balance between promoting local businesses and otherwise inspiring residents to participate in the activities that shape their community and beyond.

"We want to be a voice for people," says Seebach, who studies graphic design at California State University, Sacramento, and has years of experience in the industry.

To do so, Seebach and Smithline are planning to work with local writers, in particular those with knowledge of city development issues and who can help make public the discussions happening around midtown that affect its residents.

Smithline, an environmentalist working for a non-profit, describes it as "an opportunity for local writers to get their material out, to write provocative things... provocative in the good sense of the word, and, at the same time, draw more people to the site, which helps promote the businesses, helps promote community thought, community development... That's sort of our goal with it, basically," he says.

Launched on March 1, 2004, SacramentoMidtown.com already boasts traffic of 1,500 visitors per week and advertises for a number of businesses involved in the commerce that makes the midtown area so unique. Among those represented are Zanzibar Trading Co., Tres Chic, Middle Way Health and Faces.
"It's these kind of places that make a place special and make it feel like a community," says Seebach of the businesses with which she's been working.

The site began as a free directory listing, compiled through public information, but Seebach began walking around the neighborhood, store to store, introducing herself and the visual materials she'd prepared to get people interested in memberships.

Although Seebach says she lacked experience in outside sales and didn't get a response from all of the establishments she solicited, soon her enthusiasm, and the site's low introductory rates, captured the attention of some local business owners, including Kevin McCann, owner of Midtown Framing & Gallery, who thought it would be a good way to get online and has since referred others to the site. "She was really helpful and convincing," says McCann of Seebach. "Everything just felt right."

Denise Evangelista, owner of Choice's Gift Shop, another SacramentoMidtown.com member, was also impressed by Seebach's presentation and is excited about the development of the site. "I like everything about it. I like [Seebach's] format, the ease with which you can move through the program, and her photographs are fantastic," says Evangelista. "I hope and encourage other businesses to participate in this program."

One business that didn't seem to require much encouragement to work with Seebach and Smithline was Britt Steele Boutique, which hosted an event for the Second Saturday Art Walk on June 12, 2004, where SacramentoMidtown.com held its first raffle. "I thought it was really good because then it got people to go to their website," says Britt Steele, owner of the boutique, about the collaboration. "The foot traffic was incredible." There were three fashion shows held at See's Candy Courtyard throughout the day, and over 200 people attended the first show alone, says Steele. Meanwhile, SacramentoMidtown.com gave away raffle tickets. There was one catch, though. Ticket holders had to visit the site to find out if they'd won one of five prizes donated by site members Art of Party, Blue Sky Day Spa, The Bread Store, Progressive Image Hair Art and Tea Cozy.

The event proved to be the perfect opportunity for Seebach, Smithline and Ross Pruden, who does sales for the site, to really get involved with the community while promoting its members and supporting the local artists who participated in the show. Seebach says they plan to participate in the Second Saturday Art Walk each month, working with one of their gallery members to promote its art show and the raffle prior to the event on the website. You will find them on Saturday, July 10, 2004, at "The Building" on R Street, which houses Arareity, Art Foundry Gallery, Tea Cozy and Mt. Shasta Naturals. "We want to be out in the community personally telling people about the site," says Seebach, who finds meeting people the most rewarding aspect of the endeavor so far. "It was a huge success last time."

For the couple, who hopes to eventually work together on the website full time, SacramentoMidtown.com is also an experiment in achieving a sense of security while remaining true to their personal goals. "We want to come up with an affordable way that will allow us to help promote the area and keep it as independent as possible, yet, at the same time, make a viable business for ourselves out of it," explains Smithline. "It's an artistic expression, it's a business venture, it's a community venture - it's all of those things kind of wrapped into one."

-Written by Elizabeth Fitzer