Why are some areas of Sacramento litterally left for dead?

[wburg]

The difference is that CADA is a far more collaborative organization than SHRA. Instead of being strictly top-down, they work with the neighborhood. That makes a lot of the difference--working with the neighborhood vs. working against it. That has been part of the key to their success--it isn't strictly top-down instruction but public/private/community partnership. Another part is CADA's low-income requirement--their proportion of low-income housing is far above the requirement for new infill areas (25% vs. 15%) and they have helped keep the central city a mixed-income neighborhood.

Let me rephrase things: it takes more than just throwing money at a neighborhood to get a success. In the case of CADA's sphere of influence (according to your map, only including 5-6 blocks of Midtown, but those blocks are technically part of CArSA neighborhood association rather than Midtown NA) they didn't just throw money--they rehabilitated existing properties and worked with local organizations (including preservation advocates) who were working along similar lines. SHRA tends to view existing buildings as obstacles, at best, and are a far less responsive organization in terms of community input and outreach.

But when people think of Midtown as Sacramento's urban success story, they generally aren't thinking of CADA's sphere of influence, other than perhaps in the immediate vicinity of Fremont Park. They're thinking of the J/K/L corridors through Midtown and the dining/drinking/dancing establishments, Boulevard Park, Capitol Mansions, Poverty Ridge, all outside CADA's sphere of influence. A great deal of Midtown's success is due to individual property owners, buying old buildings and fixing them up, starting as far back as the 1970s when Midtown property was still redlined and living in the central city was viewed as something just short of clinical insanity by most middle-class folks.

Unlike the Pocket, there isn't a freeway that cuts off midtown from the rest of the grid.

But there are three freeways that cut off Midtown and the other central city neighborhoods from the rest of the city! Overcoming those government-erected barriers has taken decades--they severed neighborhoods, destroyed a lot of housing stock and in some cases finished demolitions that redevelopment started.

[JefferyT]

Those freeways give a "walled city" feel to the Old City. So maybe not totally a bad thing as it helps very clearly define that area from the rest of the city.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by JefferyT

Those freeways give a "walled city" feel to the Old City. So maybe not totally a bad thing as it helps very clearly define that area from the rest of the city.

That area was already pretty clearly defined by the old city limits and the Broadway/Alhambra corridors (in addition to the railroad tracks.) The freeways cut off the central city from the rest of the city, and demolished many blocks of existing neighborhoods. If they created a "walled city," it was to wall off East Sacramento and Land Park from the central city and Oak Park.

North Sacramento's freeway killed it off in a different way: the construction of Highway 160 meant people had little reason to drive through North Sacramento, which killed off most of the businesses there. I-5/99 killed off traffic on Marysville Boulevard (which, of course, had formerly been the road to Marysville) and thus the businesses along that route that Majin noticed in such disrepair.