We agree with this recent editorial from the Sacramento Bee that K Street should have another hotel and be reopened to automobile traffic, as it will finally rectify a very bad idea to close the street so many years ago.
The model for downtown Sacramento has to be that of a bustling state capitol of the largest state in the nation, where the preponderance of business comes from the resident state legislature, state administrative offices, and the numerous lobbyists, attorneys, association and organization professionals, and all of the other services connected to them.
And we can add to the governmental mix the administrations of the city of Sacramento and Sacramento County.
This necessarily imposes some restrictions as to the hours the city is occupied to any degree, but a bustling day-time and early evening city is preferable to what we now have; an uncertain downtown struggling to be something it is not nor probably can ever be, a 24 hour city.
The acceptance of the strengths of our fair city—its status as the capitol and its lovely downtown and midtown grid so interestingly mixed with residential and commercial development all beautifully embraced by our two rivers—is long over-due.
An excerpt.
“Over the years, Sacramento's central shopping district has struggled to get foot traffic beyond the 8-to-5 weekday workday.
“That's largely because the core city has lots of government and office buildings but less in the way of housing and hotels. And the city cut off K Street car traffic downtown and created a pedestrian/transit-only area.
“All this is beginning to turn around. The city now has more hotels and housing options downtown. And a couple of new developments on K Street are promising.
“One is that the City Council in May approved urban design guidelines that call for reintroducing "low-volume, low-speed automobile traffic" to K Street "to create the pass-by traffic that main street retailers so depend on." The idea would be to allow car traffic to share street space with light rail and include on-street parking. A consultant is expected to present options by October.”
