The Bank Culinary Palace

The Bank - 629 J Street - built in 1912

The historic Mills Bank building at Seventh and J streets has been transformed into fast-casual kitchens.  The 30,000 square foot building will have seven kitchens, several private event rooms, and 68 self-serve beer and cider taps. The main floor has stayed original including golden ceilings, light fixtures and in the basement circular vault doors to the taproom.  The tenant include the Poke Bros., Chocolate Fish Coffee, Mama Kim’s, Preservation & Co., Station 8, Platypus Pizza and street taqueria. Today The Bank opens to the public, I’m looking forward to the experience.

$22 Million Toward Redevelopment Agency

The county and city of Sacramento have contributed about $22 million to keep their redevelopment agency running another year.

To help balance the budget, state lawmakers passed bills in June that dissolved redevelopment agencies across California, but allowed local governments to create voluntary redevelopment agencies.

The county Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to provide $3.5 million for the current fiscal year to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday night to provide $18.3 million to the agency for this fiscal year.

The funding will allow the agency to continue with planned redevelopment projects, officials said. In Sacramento, that includes improvements on the 800 block of K Street, and the Grand Theater renovation.

The California Redevelopment Association, the League of California Cities and two Bay Area cities have petitioned the state Supreme Court to block implementation of the state laws and to overturn them.

State lawmakers, including Gov. Jerry Brown, have argued that redevelopment money often went to wasteful projects, and continued funding didn't make sense when core services are being cut.

Noted comment from Sac Bee: I thought the city was broke? At least they claimed to be. Now suddenly they have over $18 MILLION to donate?? Wonder why all layoffs had to happen if they had this much to spend. Just goes to show you what liars the city councilmembers are.

Read more here.

Globe Mills Gone Bad

It appears the good intentions to convert the Globe Mills feed and flour mill into affordable senior housing isn’t faring so well. According to the Sac Bee, after being redeveloped two years ago with the help of government funds, Globe Mills was billed as a safe yet hip place for seniors to settle. But police calls to the building have been frequent. Residence have been attacked in the complex's elevator and are fed up with the criminal activity of other tenants, drug dealing and prostitution which are common place according to some residents whom are starting to move out.

Globe Mills is a former feed and flour mill built in 1914 that has now been converted to affordable senior apartments starting at $650 / 1br. The cost to transformed a former grain storage and flour mill into a mixed-income residential development, $38 million.
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I saw these crime problems coming three years ago when I was in the area taking photos with a friend. It only took a few minutes before we saw some guy taking a pee on the side of the under construction Globe Mills building while across the street homeless were gathering. The real draw back to this location is the steady traffic of downtrodden walking along 12th Street to and from Loves & Fishes. Three years later, I don’t think much has changed. If the city is going to spend this kind of money on projects downtown, they really need to provide a more visible security presents. This has been a sketchy area for decades just like some areas of K Street, so it’s now time to put more police in the area if you want opinions to change of what urban living is like in Sac.