Adventures in Streetcar Suburbia

Long-time urban trekking friend Dave Todd and I ventured out this foggy morning to explore Oak Park, an historic Sacramento streetcar suburb. Dave and I have known each other for almost 20 years, since our days in Fresno. Three or four times a year we get coffee and go walking in an older Sacramento neighborhood, catching up with news and looking at designs.

A century ago Oak Park was one of the capital's first suburbs, connected by streetcar to downtown Sacramento. It still has great old infrastructure from that era. We discovered the wall of this one below, and felt rather like urban archaeologists. The wall paintings reveal the building as the home of Mother's Bread.
This whole wall looks like Gold Rush ruins you see along Highway 49 in the Sierra foothills. Is there anything that says classic like red brick and ivy?



This one below is like a cave painting. We saw "Horse Brand" painted on the wall. No mention of what it was. But here's the logo:



A few blocks down the line we looked up and saw the design embellishments that make these old office or retail buildings such classics. This one is near James McClatchy Park. Dave asked it out loud, the question so many have wondered about for 60 years: "Why could this be done then and not now?"






Across the park we saw the McGeorge School of Law, a division of Stockton's University of the Pacific. Look how this little street scene just invites you to come right on in.



Once more, without that bike route sign.

Baby Golden Gate Bridge

I went to a conference this morning at California State University, Sacramento, and parked in a garage near one of my favorite structures here in the capital. It's a mini-replica of San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge. This is a bike trail and pedestrian bridge across the American River, connecting the campus with the Campus Commons housing development. The bridge opened in 1966 and is one-tenth the size of the iconic original. I don't know the story of how it came to be. But it's sure pretty to look at, a visionary little piece of architecture named after the founding president of CSUS, Guy West.