Hear How These Two People Are Shaping Sacramento's Skyline

We were so impressed with the things these two people said at our "Groundbreakers Q&A,” and how they represent the "old" and the "new" of Sacramento architecture, design and urban planning.

Kris Barkley, design director of Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture (sitting on the right in this photo), is taking great care of his firm's 70-year-old history and reputation, leading projects like renovating the Modernist gem of SMUD's Headquarters Building (originally designed and built by Dreyfuss and Blackford back in 1959), and building the new Powerhouse Science Center on the Sacramento River.

Nikky Mohanna is definitely one to watch as she builds innovative new residences in Sacramento, like the just-opened 19J Midtown and the about-to-break-ground 10K. She has forward-thinking ideas about urban planning and the uses of buildings for live/work/play, and she's bringing a "let's think outside the box" mindset to her discussions with Sacramento's city planners, construction firms and architects.

These two were so much fun to interview. And you can listen for yourself in our podcast of this great conversation.

Listen to "Bringing Economic Equality to the Neighborhoods that Need It"

After the Stephon Clark shooting put Sacramento in the national spotlight last year, one of the City’s big initiatives now is this: Come up with the right jobs strategy that boosts all of its neighborhoods, especially those with less-than average employment rates and high poverty.

So how will all that go down? What will the funding be spent on, and who and where is it benefiting? How can the City’s government, businesses, and nonprofits and turn these efforts into economic growth and good jobs that boost people’s incomes and improve the neighborhoods they live in?

We hosted a Pop-Up Panel discussion around these questions, “Getting Economic Growth to the Neighborhoods that Need It.,” with some California Groundbreakers who are giving their all to do just that.

They are (from left to right) Nicholas Haystings of Square Root Academy; Melissa Anguiano from the City of Sacramento’s Department of Economic Development; Tyrone Roderick Williams of Sacramento Promise Zone; Dianna Tremblay of ICA Fund Good Jobs in Oakland; and Mariah Lichtenstern of DiverseCity Ventures.

Listen to our podcast of this great discussion — and find out how you can help them with their efforts.

Podcast: The Good and The Bad of Gentrification

Sacramento is on Realtor.com's list of the Top 10 U.S. cities that are gentrifying the fastest. And while our median housing price increase in the last 15 years jumped by more than 100 percent, we're apparently only 26.5 percent gentrified. What's going to happen in the next few years?

Listen to the podcast recording of our panel "The Good and The Bad of Gentrification," the third of our four-part discussion series "California's Crazy Housing Market."

Next up: CEQA reform - wonky but relevant to everyone living in California.

A Group Named BARF Is Calling Out "Build, Baby, Build" in the Bay Area

Sonja Trauss is a great example of a California Groundbreaker. As founder of the Bay Area Renters Foundation (fondly known as BARF), she's got a motto of "Build, Baby, Build" in the Bay Area, advocating for any type of housing to be built, as long as it's built tall, high-density -- and soon. A former lawyer who makes BARF her full-time job, she recently hired a lawyer to sue the East Bay city of Lafayette for switching a high-density development to single-family homes instead.

Read this great New York Times profile of Trauss and BARF. And come to the Brickhouse Gallery on Wednesday to meet her -- after her court date in Lafayette, she's taking the Amtrak up here to be on our "Affordable Housing as Oxymoron in California" panel.