For anyone in the Sacramento area looking to get away for a day or weekend, the Capital Region has plenty of hidden gems — the many downtowns in rural enclaves that are easy to drive to and explore by foot.

When Abe Alizadeh’s empire collapsed in 2008, eventually leading to a 56-month federal prison sentence for the developer for real estate fraud, the fate of a large unfinished building in downtown Roseville hung in the balance.

The Urban Technology Lab aimed to offer businesses and academic institutions a space to develop their ideas, products and services with the goal of making Sacramento more tech savvy. Is the program making good on that promise?

Part of this month’s Innovation issue

Ten of the 20 most destructive wildfires in state history have occurred since 2015. These megafires fueled by hot, dry winds and climate change seemingly blanket every late summer with gray, smoky skies and a gnawing worry among Californians that the next one might take out their home.

Between 2000 and 2010, Lincoln quadrupled in size from roughly 10,000 residents to 40,000. But revitalizing the city’s downtown and growing its economic base has been an ongoing work in progress.

Mark Otero left Electronic Arts and Capital Games, the subsidiary he helped found, with a strict noncompete agreement.

After a lengthy negotiation period punctuated by a few unofficial leaks, the announcement several years in the making finally happened Monday morning: Sacramento earned a Major League Soccer franchise.

One of the latest high-dollar projects downtown for the City of Sacramento is a surreal sight on a sunny September morning.

When Lucky Rodrigues drove by the storefront at 703 19th St. in Sacramento, he knew he had his work cut out for him. The two-story Victorian, constructed in 1900, according to Sacramento County assessor records, boasts something noticeable to anyone who’s been around the central city grid: space in front for a small convenience market.

A prior story about Liz Salmi ended on a hopeful note, with the long-term brain cancer patient quitting her job and flying to Austria to participate as a fellow in an annual conference on topics of global importance. 

Five things to know about Ron Burkle, who joined Sacramento Republic FC as lead investor in its bid to join Major League Soccer.

There’s a word that comes to mind for Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg regarding the largest infill project in his city, The Railyards. “The one word I would use to describe the state of where we’re at is ‘breakthrough,’” Steinberg says.

Brandon Weber stood in front of a group of Sacramento entrepreneurs and local leaders, including Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and confronted a truth: Efforts to support the regional chapter of the California Innovation Hub have slowed in recent years.

After appearing on the cover of Comstock’s magazine in 2014, Cindy Garcia has gone on to compete in several butchery competitions and will soon appear on a nationally-broadcast television program.

For the first time in several years, something at least resembling the storied Crawdad Festival of years past is going to be held in Isleton.

Pretty soon, the next phase of life for the Sacramento River waterfront could become evident — with help from the public needed to make it happen.

In September 2018, a Davis-based Community Choice Aggregation option known as Valley Clean Energy offered to extend its service to Winters and West Sacramento, months after launching in Woodland, Davis and unincorporated Yolo County.

An apartment building at the corner of 17th and Q streets wasn’t a bad place to live in 2005.

Until recently, Tower Cafe in Sacramento was one of the only food options west of 16th Street on Broadway, with some of the most well-known establishments east of the intersection, including Willie’s Hamburgers, Los Jarritos and Pancake Circus. The west end of Broadway heading toward Sacramento River, while not completely devoid of restaurants, was largely an industrial hub.

Not too long ago, when Sakata Seed America was looking to relocate some of its operations from Morgan Hill, there was an easy choice near Woodland.

The question for the State Hornet — and for newspapers everywhere — is if this media operation can find new life as it navigates a major transition.

Crocker Park is three acres of unimproved land at 2nd and O streets adjacent to Interstate 5. Prior to the construction of the freeway and the redevelopment of Sacramento’s west end in the mid-1900s, this land once had housing on it.

Over the last few decades, Tracy has experienced a massive population boom.

Throughout Sacramento’s central city, houses, apartments and businesses have often sat next to vacant lots. It’s been a sign of economic imperfection and, perhaps, of Midtown’s funkiness, with the land sometimes turned into unofficial parks, urban gardens or vehicle parking.

This is starting to change.

The California Military Department headquarters in Rancho Cordova is one of the first large-scale efforts attempting to meet a California mandate regarding the energy efficiency of state facilities.

A little over two years ago, as Sacramento City Council put the finishing touches on one of the region’s first ordinances allowing short-term residential rentals via online platforms such as Airbnb, Councilman Eric Guerra offered some support.

For the past year, the Fiddyment House, a former pioneer homestead dating to the mid-19th century, has sat vacant in West Roseville. All around it, land is being developed into residential neighborhoods, as the owner of that historic house — the City of Roseville — considers the future of the property.

Bryan Barrett knows this land well.

Before much of the land was slated for development in recent years, Barrett’s grandparents David and Dolly Fiddyment owned a ranch near what is now Blue Oaks Boulevard and Orchard View Road in West Roseville. Barrett learned how to drive a tractor on this land, how to swim in a nearby creek.