What Are You Doing For National Night Out?

National Night Out is coming up on August 5 and THE BUZZ was wondering what our Natomas neighbors are going to be doing...

Click on "comments" below and share your neighborhood's plans for America's Night Out Against Crime!

City To Support Natomas Police Resource Center

Mayor Heather Fargo last night announced city officials have agreed to sign a lease that will allow a Police Resource Center to open in North Natomas.

The resource center -- a project of the North Natomas Crime & Safety Leadership Team -- will be in the Town Center shopping center (think Safeway) owned by Lewis Planned Communities. Plans are to locate the center in the storefront formerly occupied by Hot Dog Music, next door to Hollywood Video.

Lewis Planned Communities donated the store space for free, but the space needed to be insured by whomever signed the lease.

"The insurance component has been a big hurdle for the leadership team to overcome," says Angelique Ashby, Creekside Neighborhood Association prez and member of the safety team.

According to Ashby, the team reached out to Fargo and asked for her help with the insurance issue. At last night's Creekside meeting, Fargo announced talks with City Manager Ray Kerridge resulted in an agreement the city would sign the resource center lease.

The center will include resources for the community such as computers where area residents can file an online police reports or pick up neighborhood watch information. Sacramento police officer Kurt McCray, who helps coordinate area neighborhood watch efforts, is expected to be at the center one day a week.

The city's Neighborhood Services division is also slated to have a presence at the center. Efforts are underway to get code enforcement and a youth services component at the center.

Team reps say the police resource center is not meant to replace plans for a police substation in the North Natomas neighborhood. The city currently has long-term plans to build a combination fire and police station on the west side.

Volunteers will be needed to help staff the new police resource center which is expected to open some time in August. Look for it!

Updated: Seen In The Neighborhood

Rebuild Fort Natomas organizers are asking supporters contact City Hall today!

"They need to know that we want to relocate the playground to near the South Natomas Library/Community Center and Rebuild Fort Natomas in November."

E-mail Councilman Ray Tretheway at rtretheway@cityofsacramento.org.

Red Rover, Red Rover Send A Gardener On Over!

There has been a lot of online chatter about all the short sales, foreclosures and bank repos in Natomas.

The main cause for concern? Front yards like this one spotted by THE BUZZ on Archcrest.

What's a neighbor to do?

First off, contact the listing agent and let them know the condition of the property. Second, if the home is located within the boundaries of a homeowner's association, report it to them as well. And, third, homes within the city limits can be reported to the Sacramento code enforcement division.

But honestly, what folks have found to be most affective? Adopt the yard next door. Water it, mow it. Not only will this help your neighborhood look better, but it's good karma!

Update: Check out this NATOMAS BUZZ post from December for Sac County tips on how to handle foreclosed homes...

A West Side Story = Controversial Retail Project

Click on image for larger view.

Natomas residents recently received postcards and fliers inviting them to an "open house" scheduled Monday to showcase plans for a controversial west-side retail project.

Monday, July 14, 2008
3:30 - 5 p.m. or 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Westlake Clubhouse
4701 Westlake Parkway
Sacramento, CA 95835

"Natomas Landing" is proposed for a 70-acre, triangular-shaped piece of property at the corner of Del Paso and El Centro roads which is owned by the Ose family.

The land in question was originally designated for use as an employment center in the North Natomas Community Plan. About four years ago, the Ose family proposed a large retail project for the area instead.

Property located kiddie corner to the Natomas Landing site, owned by the Tsakopolous family, is slated for 400,000 square feet of community commercial development.

Area residents worry that if the Ose's plan is approved, the two projects combined will create about 1 million square feet of retail -- or the equivalent of Arden Fair Mall. Traffic congestion and pedestrian safety are among the issues being raised by those who oppose Natomas Landing as proposed.

In May, the Sacramento Planning Commission vote 5-0 against the plan and directed Ose "to go back to the drawing board," sources tell THE BUZZ. Apparently the Ose's want to get the project to the Sacramento City Council for a vote at its July 22 meeting in an effort to pull permits before the December FEMA moratorium goes into effect.

Click here to read a July 9 letter from Westlake residents opposed to the project as currently proposed.

Click on image for larger view.

Meeting Set For Fort Natomas Rebuild

www.fortnatomas.org

Mark you calendars for a meeting 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 19 at Jefferson Elementary School, 2001 Pebblewood Drive.

City representatives are expected to be on hand to meet with community members and hear comments and ideas for rebuilding Fort Natomas.

The hope is to rebuild the playground November 4-9.

Meeting organizers ask that attendees show their support for Fort Natomas by wearing a red shirt or your old Fort Natomas t-shirt.

If you have questions about the process e-mail, call 808-7001 or check the group's website.

Another Way To Get Involved

Click on image for larger view.

Seen In The Neighborhood

THE BUZZ received the following from one of the many e-mail lists we belong to and thought it was worth sharing (with the author's permission).

What have YOU done today to improve your neighborhood?

This morning I called the city to report:

• An abandoned car on Chimney Rock Way
• Blight on Far Niente Way (case already pending)
• Two street lights out on Flora Springs Way
• A dead lawn on Saintsbury Drive
• Gang graffiti in South Natomas in front of the veterinary clinic we use
  

Your turn... Can YOU outdo this NATOMAS BUZZ reader and area resident? Click on "comments" below and spread let us know!

New In The Neighborhood

A grassroots effort on the part of four dedicated community-minded homeowners in the Gateway West and Park View neighborhoods of North Natomas has created a new neighborhood association.

The name Witter Ranch Community Alliance was chosen to honor historic Witter Ranch within the new association's boundaries, plus the elementary school and park central to the community which share the same name as the landmark.

The group's web site, launched over the weekend, can be found at WitterRanchCommunity.org.

The Witter Ranch Community Alliance boundaries include south of Arena Blvd., west of Duckhorn Drive, north of San Juan Avenue, and east of Witter Way.

The group's founders had planned to unveil the organization at a later date, once bylaws, among other things, were in place. But the recent spree of armed robberies and home-invasion crimes move up the association's launch.

Plans are now in the works to hold a "Meet Your Neighbors" event in time for this year's National Night Out on August 5.

Almost Famous...

After all our bitchin' and the moanin' about the media, THE BUZZ is glad to see the Natomas area in the news for something other than our risk of flooding and Arco Arena. After all, we've got so much more going on than that!

The best part? Recognition that Natomas is a community that's got it together. Not only are we keeping each other informed, but we can rally. And by rally, we mean BRING IT!

Seems like everyone keeps coming back to the 450+ peeps who showed up to the crime forum last week. Even we were surprised when driving into the Inderkum H.S. parking lot.

Our carpool buddy, Trixie said to us, "All these cars cannot be here for this thing!"

Turns out, all those cars were there for the community forum. Turns out, every media outlet -- even the Spanish ones -- were there for the community forum. (Even KJ showed up.)

And when Creekside HOA prez Angelique Ashby asked for a show of hands as to how folks heard about the event? The majority indicated it had been via e-mail, Yahoo Group or website.

NATOMAS BUZZ readers take note: Sac Bee columnist Marcos Breton last week pointed out this neighborhood information network, as did the paper's editorial column this morning.

Yes, it's true, Natomas has a lot going for it... We have each other -- north, south, east and west -- for neighbors, and not much can top that!

Don't Forget: Community Day School Forum At Heron K-8 School Tonight!

Here is a copy of the Natomas Unified School District's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) revised after meeting with representatives from Creekside.

District officials say the decision to place the proposed Community Day School at the H. Allen Hight campus will be on the agenda for the board of trustees' July 9 meeting -- as an action item.

Community Day School FAQ - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Community Day School FAQ

Last Night Was Awesome

Photo by Jonathan Burke.
As a Natomas resident for nearly seven years, THE BUZZ thinks the community meeting last night kicked it!

The standing-room only 450+ crowd more than demonstrated how north, south, east and west neighborhoods will come together in the face of adversity. From the Guardian Angels to KJ, seems like everyone was there...

We don't pretend to have the answers to why teens are (a) getting their hands on firearms and (b) sticking up people for cell phones, but we do agree with Capt. Hahn that community can be a force for change.

As promised at last night's meeting, we will be posting copies of the handouts some time today.

p.s. Anyone else notice Natomas on the front page of the Sac Bee this morning? F-i-n-a-l-l-y.

What's Been Going On?

Now that the local media has picked up the story about the recent series of armed robberies here in Natomas, THE BUZZ wanted to give our readers a recap of what's been going on to date, and what they should expect to hear at tonight's community meeting on the topic.

So we chatted at length this morning with police Capt. Daniel Hahn who initiated the meeting with Creekside HOA president Angelique Ashby after noticing an unusual spike in violent crimes throughout Natomas neighborhoods.

"A significant number of these home invasions and robberies were in broad daylight," says Hahn. "There were no commonalities on the victims. They were male, female, black, white, young and old."

Between June 1 and June 24, Sac PD recorded more than two dozen separate robberies including :

• 15 home invasion robberies. Of those nine were at apartments and six at houses.
• Five of these were through open garage doors and the victims were women ages 29 to 68. Four of these occurred between 1:40 p.m. and 5 p.m. and one was at 9:18 a.m.
• In 6 cases, the suspect knocked on the door, the victim opened the door and the suspect rushed in brandishing a firearm. Most of these occurred at night.
• Two of the 15 home invasion robbery victims were actually hit during the crime.
• Items taken included money, purses, cellular phones and laptops.
• Suspects had guns in all 15 cases.

Also of note during the same time period:

• 14 robberies, 11 of which were with guns and one with a knife. No weapons were seen by the victims in two of the incidents.
• Two of the 14 victims were assaulted.
• More than half these robberies occurred during daylight hours, between 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. One robbery was late at night and the other five in the morning between 3 and 11 a.m.
• Four of the robberies were in the Northgate/West El Camino area.
• Nine of the 14 robberies were successful, the other five were not and have been classified as attempted robberies.

In some of the above-mentioned incidents, the difference between the crimes was simply geography. If a victim was standing in their garage, for example, that crime was considered a home-invasion robbery. If they were on the sidewalk in front of their home, it was not.

After a run of about two incidents a day there have been no home-invasion robberies since a week ago Tuesday and there has been only one street robbery on June 27, where the suspect snatched a cellular phone, but tonight's community meeting is going forward as planned.

"That's the way we are going to catch these guys in partnership with the community."

Capt. Hahn warns area residents should not get too hung up on the suspect descriptions now circulating. The important thing to pay attention to is peoples' actions.

"The biggest thing people can do to help themselves and help us is to trust your instincts," says Hahn. "The car acting weird, the guy who's on the street and seems to be watching houses and looking in windows, at least write down license plate numbers."

To date, Hahn reports police investigations have led to the arrest of seven people in connection with the series of robberies in Natomas. And although police believe these suspects -- all ages 15 to 19 years old -- are linked to many of the crimes, they have not arrested everyone responsible.

Hahn believes these arrests have put a damper on the robbery spree and that is why police are seeing fewer incidents in recent days. He hopes raised community awareness will send a message to criminals that Natomas is not easy pickings.

"Crime is not up in Natomas," says Hahn. "This is a dramatic spike in robberies and it's very unusual."

All The Deats

The official flier for Monday's community meeting about Natomas crime...

Looks like Mayor Fargo and Councilman Tretheway will be on hand.

Natomas Residents Respond To School District Officials' Plans For Community Day School

A seemingly innocuous item on the Natomas Unified School District board of trustees' agenda last week has since generated outcry by some area residents.

The item in question appeared on the school board's June 18 agenda as follows:

XIV. PUBLIC HEARINGS
a. Proposal to establish a Community Day School for grades six - eight within the Natomas Unified School District Time Certain: 06:50 PM

Residents in Creekside, Hamptons and Natomas Park tell THE BUZZ they weren't aware of the proposed community day school or that it had any bearing on their community -- being located at the brand-new H. Allen Hight Learning Center -- until a few days after trustees approved the proposal. There was no public comment.

That's when area resident Darryl White, also a member of the grassroots Natomas Parent Alliance Organization, started passing out these fliers at a neighborhood garage sale held over the weekend:

"It is clear the Natomas School District is trying to put one over on the Creekside and Hampton community regarding its placement of the Community Day School Program on the Hight campus," White tells THE BUZZ. "Placement of a program with negative community potential in any neighborhood one would think the district has enough respect for the community to ask first."

To say White's fliers ignited a firestorm is an understatement as a flurry of telephone calls and electronic messages were exchanged between community leaders, school district reps, and other entities.

"What I can tell you is that several board members (I specifically) voiced serious concern and disappointment in the fact that this proposal was not an information item and very unhappy that it was an action item," trustee Lisa Kaplan tells THE BUZZ. "It was expressed to the board that this item needed to be voted on so that it could be presented to the (California Department of Education) at its July hearing for review and approval."

Kaplan says she and the other trustees were told they could not delay voting on the proposed community day school if the district planned to open one this year. The reason, she says, is the state Department of Education meets in July and then again in September -- which would be too late for the school to open on August 11 as planned.

"The board's approval of the plan was conditioned on the fact that this was needed for California Department of Education review and approval only and if the board did not feel our questions and concerns about the success of this program were satisfactorily answered by the district we could pull the approval of opening the school," she adds.

But Creekside residents call into question both the timing of last week's vote and the district's failure to include the neighborhood in their planning process for a community day school.

"(They cannot) say they did not know us -- since obviously they do," says Angelique Ashby, president of the Creekside homeowner association. "(The district) asked us for help reaching out to get folks to the (H. Allen Hight) introduction meetings and registrations."

Kaplan confirmed the board asked the Natomas district to move toward establishing a community day school for middle school-age students about a year ago.

"The board has had several public discussions regarding the establishment a community day school for kids from our community since 2006," said board president Ron Dwyer-Voss. "The decision to locate it, for now, at H.Allen Hight was a recent development based on the availability of space."

Agenda documents show a committee was formed consisting of two middle school principals, the Discovery High School Principal, the middle grades Opportunity Teacher, the Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and Planning and representatives from Student Services and Special Education as a result of this action.

The committee reviewed several models provided by the California Department of Education, made recommendations and developed the proposal trustees later voted to approve. According to these same documents, reps on the state level have already reviewed the proposal and made recommendations to assure its approval at the State Board of Education's meeting on July 11.

Students expected to attend the new community day school are 11 to 14 year olds who live in Natomas. They will reportedly be in a closed campus environment, and not free to roam the neighborhood or elementary portion of the school.

"They are kids who have made a mistake or are not fitting into our traditional, large middle schools very well and need a more focused environment with a higher staff-student ratio," Dwyer-Voss says. "They are not children who pose a danger to the neighborhood or elementary students at the school."

Currently, Natomas students go to school community day school in another area. It's Dwyer-Voss' opinion, however, "schooling options provided by the county office of education or other districts for these students are not up to our community's standards, and therefore we do well by our kids to run our own community day school."

According to Dwyer-Voss, the Natomas district will be more effective -- educationally and financially -- running its own community day school.

The proposal presented to trustees last week indicates the district expects 16 students in the new program and that the district will receive an additional $5,485.53 per student in the program. The numbers also indicate the district could net more than $9,000 in revenue after school expenses.

Despite Dwyer-Voss' assurances the community day school would not impact on the surrounding neighborhood beyond the normal traffic that comes with a school, he agrees with area residents the district should have met with the community.

"What is most disconcerting to residents of Creekside and Natomas Park was the lack of notice and opportunity for public comment on such an important issue," Sean Avalos, Creekside Neighborhood Watch program coordinator said Thursday night. "I met with Board President Ron Dwyer-Ross and Superintendent Dr. Steve Farrar this evening. They both agreed that the community did not have an adequate opportunity to review and comment on the proposal prior to the NUSD Board approval of this action item."

The Natomas Unified School District has agreed to hold a public informational meeting on 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on July 1, at Heron School. At this meeting, area residents will have an opportunity to review the plan and ask questions about the community day school program.

According to Avalos, on trustees' July 9 meeting agenda the district will have an action item whether or not the community day school should be placed on the H. Allen Hight Learning Center campus.

"I do believe in the success of a CDS and that we can develop one that will meet the needs of our students who are having difficulty in school and their personal life," says Kaplan. "Now with that said, I do believe in making sure we start off on the right foot with a well thought out plan to optimize the success of a community day school."

Be There Or Be Scared: Home Invasion Spree Subject Of Natomas Community Meeting

Updated Thursday, June 26 at 5:05 p.m.

When one or more home invasion robberies are committed in Natomas on a daily basis, that warrants someone's attention.

Even if "the media" have failed to report on this recent phenomena, Natomas-area bloggers and Sac PD have not let it go unnoticed.

THE BUZZ got word this morning that a community meeting is in the works for Monday evening, so go ahead and mark your calendars NOW!

Neighbors, let's take back Natomas together!

Sent this morning by police Capt. Hahn:

The Natomas (both North and South) community/neighborhood associations and the Police Department will be hosting a community meeting on 6:30 p.m. Monday at Inderkum H.S. regarding the recent rash of Home Invasion robberies and street robberies.

We do not have a location confirmed as of yet, but wanted to let you know the date/time so you could put it on your calendars.

This is a very important meeting where we will provide details on these crimes, update you on the progress of our investigations, and provide safety tips to residents.

I look forward to seeing you there and please invite your communities - Together we will put an end to these very serious crimes.

Captain Daniel Hahn
Sacramento Police Department
Patrol Division - North Command
3550 Marysville Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95838
(916) 566-6401
dhahn@pd.cityofsacramento.org

Now That's What I'm Talkin' About

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During a recent visit to Redbud Park, Natomas Park residents Curtis and Tristan Godt were disappointed to see how it had been "let go."

So the couple took matters into their own hands this past weekend! They weeded, then sprayed, tossed on some weed and feed, and laid the bark.

Pictured here is evidence of their handiwork.

Area PTA Protests Budget Cuts

Not Your Run-of-the-Mill PTA Bake Sale

PTA parents will hold a bake sale on the north steps of the capitol 9:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday, June 19, 2008.

Cupcakes will be priced at $1 billion each.

The bake sale will be held to let legislators know that PTAs cannot shoulder the proposed cuts to education and other children’s programs on their own. Other sources of revenue must be found in order to properly support our children.

The bake sale will be held by third district PTA which represents Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba Counties.

Is RT The Ticket To Ride?

The Interstate 5 construction project has given a boost to ridership of Regional Transit's bus and light rail system, but RT is stilll looking for more feedback from area residents regarding its services in the years ahead.

Provide input by taking Regional Transit's online survey.

A Relay For Life

19 teams, 203 participants and $12,028 raised

THE BUZZ is almost certain we're not the only ones whose lives have been touched by cancer in recent years...

The fight against cancer will continue this weekend -- 10 p.m. June 21 to 10 a.m. June 22 -- during the Relay For Life at Natomas High School.

The American Cancer Society Relay For Life® is a time to celebrate those who have survived cancer, remember those we’ve lost, and fight back against a disease that touches too many lives.

Click here for more information!