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Urban Loss
I just read in the Business Journal that a design college and culinary school is being planned for North Natomas and will occupy 1/2 of a 2-story 105,000 sq. ft. Buzz Oates building.

All I can say is “Arghh!”

While it will be nice to have something like this in the Sacramento region, I think the downtown/central city area is so much more fitting: put creative people in a creative, vibrant setting and all kinds of cool things happen. LivinginUrbanSac suggested the Kress building which I thought was a great idea.

I could be wrong about this, but the description of the school sounded like it would be along the lines of a “tech” school, in the same vein as the for-profit University of Arizona cropping up everywhere. If this turns out to be the case, it may not be the kind of cutting-edge/artsy school that would fit well in Downtown; however, it also would pretty much ensure that those schools don’t come in (i.e. market saturation and all that). So, either way, its lose-lose.

The Natomas “campus” is slated to have approx. 1000 design students and 450 culinary students.

The sad thing is that I’m sure the school will be marketed as located “minutes from downtown” or something like that…when we all know that Natomas is neither “minutes from” or anything like an offshoot of Downtown. Contrast it with the soon-to-be burgeoning “arts district” of lower Del Paso Boulevard where this kind of school really could fit in as an immediate extension of Downtown.

Urban Score
On a much nicer note, Midtown Guru gave me some really good news yesterday morning. The True Love Coffeehouse will re-open next week one block from our office. I was excited when Grind opened six months ago on 28th and J because I could walk to get a decaf cappuccino breve without going to Starbucks a block away (if you haven’t tried Grind’s panini’s, you’re missing out). Now I have an even closer option (for coffee at least).

So my thanks to the guru for speaking out on behalf of True Love.

The soul of a city can never be defined by ubiquity. Midtown is defined by its entrepreneurs, by small, locally owned businesses, by character, by risk, by eclectic offerings, by mixed use.

First Tamarind, now True Love. Midtown just gets better and better!

Jason