Here’s a recipe to breathe new life into a lifeless block of R Street: Start with a 5-story warehouse made of solid concrete, suitable for loft conversion. Add subsidized rents. Then attract artists, writers and other creative types, plus their spouses, lovers, kids and hangers-on. Sprinkle in baby strollers, coffee shops, galleries, some painful-looking piercings and plenty of ink on skin.

Get up close and personal with the artists who are set on making the Warehouse Artist Lofts the most creatively inspirational place to call home. 

Development activity on R Street has gained momentum, with at least six renovation projects taking place in formerly obsolete industrial buildings on the corridor between 11th and 20th streets. The formerly grungy corridor has become arguably the most active development area in downtown Sacramento. 

Last May we reported on the upcoming development of a $30 million, 12-field soccer complex in west Roseville and the addition of five baseball and softball fields in the existing Whitney Park complex in Rocklin. Here’s where things stand: 

Coworking spaces in Sacramento have evolved from simple work spaces reminiscent of coffee houses to communities that offer classes, art galleries and networking events. In January, Outlet Coworking, a new coworking space at 2110 K St., will open to meet the growing demand for such spaces and services.

Here’s a look at key developments in the northern San Joaquin Valley, which has dubbed itself “Greater Silicon Valley.”

What images does Silicon Valley conjure? Google, Apple, Facebook, and on and on? Mainstays of the world’s hub of technology and innovation? Did a glimpse of Stockton appear in that mix? If the San Joaquin Partnership’s campaign to rebrand the area as Greater Silicon Valley works out, it soon will.

In a county where 218,510 residents are food insecure (meaning they don’t know where their next meal will come from), and where a local food bank will distribute groceries to 40,000 individuals each month, food activists are continually innovating ways to break the cycle of poverty—for good. The solution is actually under our feet: the soil.

Election day saw the defeat of measures M, N and O in El Dorado County. These highly charged measures were opposed by a broad coalition of farmers, business owners and civic leaders who believed these initiatives would diminish local control and restrict development decisions to bureaucrats outside El Dorado County. Although the measures were soundly defeated, the question remains, what happens now?

From the unmarred concrete sidewalk along Riverine Way, above Richards Boulevard in the city’s River District, you can take a slow 360-turn and view the past, present and future of housing development in Sacramento. You’ll likely be standing alone, since the street is only one bone of an incomplete skeleton that will eventually support the mixed-use urban infill taking shape around it.