McKinley East Sacramento Neighborhood Association (MENA)

Little Al’s may have survived if neighbors were more open-minded

May 31, 2006

The following is an editorial piece by MENA Vice President and Land Use Co-chairperson Nancy Cornelius

We all know where 48th and J Street is, having traveled to the post office and the grocery store for many years. We have taken for granted the mixed-use environment that exists in the block between 47th and 48th Streets, as there are businesses with apartments above that have been there since my family moved to East Sacramento in the 1970s. In fact, if we look we see mixed use in many old buildings in East Sacramento.
It was within the last few years that we learned that Little Albertson?’s was struggling to remain open for business. There was a proposal put before the citizens of East Sacramento to change Little Albertson?’s to a mixed-use project, which would include parking underneath and living quarters over an updated grocery store. Even though mixed use existed in the area with apartments over retail businesses in the very next block, there was public outrage over this project. Of course, it never went forward and was not built. If the neighbors and citizens of East Sacramento had endorsed this project, there would, in all likelihood, be a grocery store on this site today. Yes, it would have been a little different parking underneath a building instead of parking in a blistering asphalt parking lot, but we would have retained our neighborhood grocery store.
Let?’s face it; due to lack of foresight we lost our grocery store on 48th and J Streets. There is now considerable concern, disapproval and complaints over the arrival of a large drug store which to the site. Maybe the next time there is an innovative project that includes mixed use we should step back and listen to all sides before we say ?“no.?” We lost a grocery store due to myopic inflexibility.
The fact is, we have more people who want to live in Sacramento and particularly East Sacramento, which results in more traffic. We need to wake up and welcome innovative building projects into our neighborhood that have the potential to reduce vehicle trips and mixed use does exactly that.
I grew up in a mixed-use building with two working parents. My mother walked down the stairs to a beauty shop where she worked and came home at lunch time by walking upstairs. My parents managed three children, two jobs, and income property and this was common in the 1960s. My family walked everywhere and we lived simply. At that time, there was not the emphasis on buying more to be happy. Certainly, we did not drive a car to visit our neighborhood grocery store!