young, liberal, walkable areas

[wburg]

Sacramento is somewhat smaller than Portland--about 450,000 vs. Portland's 650,000--but the Sacramento metro area is bigger than Portland's.

Technically speaking, "Midtown" is between J and R Street from 15th to 29th. However, the neighborhoods to the north (Alkali/Mansion Flat, Boulevard Park, New Era Park, Marshall School) and south (Southside, Richmond Grove, Poverty Ridge, Newton Booth) are also generally called "Midtown" because they are all predominantly residential neighborhoods (with commercial strips every couple of blocks) with older homes and a lot of trees. Pay attention when you see "Midtown homes" listed: some unscrupulous real estate agents have started labeling houses in the southern part of Oak Park as "Midtown bungalows."

When looking at a map of Sacramento, note that on the very western end of the city, up against the Sacramento River, there is an off-center square defined by the Sacramento River on the west, the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the north, Highway 50 to the south, and Business Loop 80 to the east. That's basically the old city limits of Sacramento (technically Broadway and Alhambra, but who's counting) and that encompasses both "Midtown" and "Downtown."

Within that area there are rather a lot of coffee shops, small live music venues, bookstores, record stores, funky little boutiques, art galleries, restaurants of various sorts, specialty markets, and a positively huge number of beautiful historic homes, varying from a handful of grand mansions from the 1860-1870s to a lot of cute little 1920s-1930s cottages in varying states of repair. Some of them are offices or museums, some were split up into apartments (some were built as apartments) and some are single-family homes.

There are several concentrations of nightclubs: a gay bar district centered on 20th and K Street, a collection of divey bars centered on 21st and P Street, some trendy restaurant/bar spaces around 16th and J, very collegey places on J and 27th (called "The Bloc") and a relatively new cluster of bars/restaurants around 10th & K downtown. There are also assorted bars and nightclubs spread throughout the neighborhoods, some of which have been around since shortly after Prohibition (and considering how loose Sacramento was about enforcement of the Volstead Act, some have probably been around since Prohibition was still in effect.)

Lately, as rents in the central city have gone up, some of the hipsterdom has squeezed out into adjacent neighborhoods, including the northern edge of Land Park and Curtis Park, especially along the Broadway corridor, and into the northwestern corner of Oak Park. These neighborhoods look a lot like Midotwn (old homes, lots of trees, old streetcar/commercial corridors) so in a way the culture of Midtown is spreading, but it's still pretty strong within the central city neighborhoods.