On Thursday morning I am off to do research and take photographs for an article I hope will be accepted by Rock&Gem Magazine. It’s another article written on spec (internal link), risky business for a writer since there is no assignment and hence no guarantee of acceptance. Still, there’s a story I want to tell and rural Nevada calls. Wish me luck.
My article on West Sacramento’s waterfront stories has just been published in the West Sacramento News-Ledger. Click here to read at their site. (external link) If you have trouble viewing the graphic in the article, click here (internal link) or on the image below for a better look.
West Sacramento’s waterfront has stories behind every tule, wharf, and wetland. Here’s a few partial sketches about three different properties. Together, these accounts and anecdotes form a larger tale far from finished.
Seaway is a mostly rectangular shaped land directly south of the Port. Some two hundred acres, it stretches from the Port’s border on the west to the Palmadessi Bridge on the east. Despite its name, this is actually lakefront property. How’s that?
When you look at the Port’s turning basin, its widest part, you are looking at Lake Washington. This old and isolated lake of the Central Valley is now a Frankenstein lake, its depths and contours dredged and altered to make room for the Port. To boggle your mind even further, you’ve probably driven over Lake Washington without even knowing it.
As you travel across the Seaway acreage on Southport Parkway, you pass over the vestigial remains of the lake. See the photo. Ever notice those “Wildlife Crossing” signs on Parkway? This area is part of Lake Washington, a finger that extends almost to the Pheasant Club at the intersection of Lake Washington Boulevard and Jefferson. A true wetland when flooded, all parts make for good birding and wandering.
The Stone Lock District was named for William G. Stone, “The Father of the Port.” It extends from the Palmadessi Bridge on the West to the Sacramento River on the East. Its distinctive features are the Barge Canal, the navigation lock, and its accompanying control tower. A civil engineering rarity in California, the lock is one of only three others in our state. Why is there a lock at all?
Sacramento River water can be twenty feet higher than the Port. The lock’s gates keep the River from flooding the property and from depositing silt. Boats traveling between the River and the Port used the lock to lift or lower craft to the proper level. Decreasing boat traffic and high operating costs doomed the lock and it was decommissioned in 2000.
The Mike McGowan Bridge is a new addition to the District. Its roadway connects two parts of South River Road at a “T” intersection. Soon, Village Parkway will join that intersection. Note the dashed line in the photograph. This extension of Village Parkway through the Honda Hills will provide an alternative to Jefferson Boulevard and a corridor to Raley Field and The Bridge District.
A few years ago the Cordish Companies proposed ambitious plans for the Stone Lock District but negotiations fell through. The architectural renderings are still on-line and show a tree-lined waterfront community bustling with pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Shops and recreation were depicted, with the Sacramento River and the Canal providing a cool and scenic background. It’s the kind of marina village that the City still hopes for. And the kind of community most people would also like in another waterfront area, The Pioneer Bluffs.
The Pioneer Bluffs starts at the Barge Canal and runs north to Highway 50 where the Bridge District begins. South River Road bisects the area. Jefferson Boulevard marks the Bluff’s west boundary but redevelopment will probably come first on its eastern side along the Sacramento River. Removing the CEMEX concrete silos was a vital step in repurposing this riverfront. What’s next? Perhaps a decade long process of relocating the tank farms, filling stations, and maintenance yards that line South River Road.
The stories of West Sacramento and its waterfront are still being written. In time, they should make quite a book.
lovetoknow.com (external link) is a content creation company I just found out about through craigslist. lovetoknow is looking for experts in a variety of fields. I took about a half hour to complete their application page. It’s fairly straightforward, although you may have to check on a topic you are not interested in order to go forward with submitting the application. You’ll see what I mean.
I’ve written on applying to freelance sites many times before. For example, check this page and this page. (internal links). Although I haven’t had much luck in getting accepted by these media companies, I keep applying. The success rate on the internet is no different than getting a W-2 job. What’s that acceptance rate? 5% or less for every fifty applications?
Winston Churchill once said, “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” Keep applying, keep resume building, keep writing, for whatever market will have you. Good luck!
The art installation for Joey Lopes Park will be a knock-out. The City Council voted on Wednesday, Jan. 13 to accept a design from nationally known artist Michael Clapper of Denver, Colorado. He beat out over 75 submissions. There were no artist submissions from West Sacramento. Commissioners from the City of West Sacramento’s Arts, Culture & Historic Preservation Commission weighed in on the decision as well as the Yolo Arts Council, City staff, an outside artist, and a landscape architect. The artwork will cost $70,000, less than two percent of the budget to build the new park off of West Capitol.
Joey Lopes was a hometown boxer who fought in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. At many times he competed at the Memorial Auditorium across the river. In his early career he was selected for the 1948 U.S. Olympics boxing team. He went on to fight three times for the World Lightweight crown. A community leader in retirement, Lopes did work for the West Sacramento Sanitary District, the West Sacramento Optimist Club and the West Sacramento Babe Ruth Baseball League. It was only natural that a park be named after him, and just as naturally a fitting tribute to him in art would be constructed.
As solid as the boxer and community steward himself, the stone and steel artwork will show Lopes at the height of his powers, in profile, reaching out to deliver a punch. The metal’s rusty finish connects with his blue-collar roots, the son of a grocer, fighting his way toward the top of his sport. Where did the ideas and inspiration come from to produce such a design?
Michael Clapper says he drew on materials supplied to him by the Yolo Arts Council and the West Sacramento Historical Society. But as with all of his projects, he did his own independent research as well, even taking to watching old Joey Lopes fights now on YouTube. Along the way, Clapper said he could identify with Lopes rise from a working-class neighborhood, as he did from north-east industrial Ohio, the first in his family to graduate from college.
A collaborative effort, Clapper’s team includes an engineer, a graphics company, a water-jet shop that cuts steel, and even an electrician to provide the installation’s night-lighting. As this article goes to print, the artwork’s stone is being brought from Kansas to Clapper’s studio. Preparations are underway to meet a tight deadline, with late May the hoped for completion date. Clapper wants West Sacramento to know that he is proud and pleased to be selected as the champion for Lopes’ tribute and hopes that it will embody the boxer and civic leader’s spirit: fighting for the community.
The Sail Inn on Jefferson Boulevard is being reopened and rechristened as the Sail Inn Grotto & Bar. Launch date is late February. All aboard.
The old Sail Inn, its full name The Sail Inn Food and Spirits, has been closed since August, 2013. That’s when Joan Washburn lost her lease to run the place, which she had been doing since 1986.
The Sail Inn was a family owned property of the Kristoffs, best known for Bill Kristoff, the longest-serving member of the West Sacramento City Council. The new restaurant and bar retains a Kristoff family member, Ellie Marie, but now includes Archie Morse as the chief owner. The new management team also has equity in the business.
A West Sacramento landmark, The Sail, as it was simply known to most folks, was a working-class bar that served good food and made people feel welcome. A port of call for many on a long Friday night, the bar appealed beyond its State Streets location to the greater Sacramento area. Although the exterior may have been rough, the bathrooms small and scary, the Harleys parked outside intimidating, few places had a greater charm for after work, after a River Cats’ game, or after the kids were left with the sitter. The new managers understand this.
The Sail’s operating team are Garrett Van Vleck, Jason Boggs and Alex Origoni. They are behind the wildly successful and nationally recognized Shady Lady Saloon across the river. Van Vleck used to go to the Sail Inn. “I went there several times. In renovating the place, I think we kept a lot of the old roadhouse feel and the basic nautical theme, but we cleaned it up considerably and brought everything up to code. I hope the people in West Sac will appreciate the transformation and enjoy the nod to what it used to be.” He says there will be a varied cocktail menu and surf food to complement the sea-faring theme.
So when does the party start? “I think we should be open near the end of February. We are still debating the exact night time hours. We’ll probably stay open until midnight on the weekdays and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Possibly open at 11 a.m. for lunch and keep serving food until about 10 p.m. at night. We may have some live music and DJs occasionally but no juke box or karaoke. There also won’t be a pool table but we are still discussing the possibility of some bar games.”
The Sail Inn’s transformation may change its looks but not its destination to good times. Instead of a tramp steamer, perhaps West Sacramento will have a boutique cruise ship with a good living attitude. And a Mai Tai. All aboard.
Resources and Updates
For an article on the Sail Inn’s closing click here. (internal link)
