Winn Park/Capitol Avenue Neighborhood Association

Who's Who in the Neighborhood

Our founder: Karen Jacques

I grew up and spent my early adult years in Los Angeles. I’ve always been very critical of LA, but, looking back, I realize the time I spent there provided some gifts: It taught me the richness of living in a place that is truly multi-cultural. It made me think about what constitutes good urban design (and what doesn’t); how precious and fragile our architectural heritage is. It is also where I discovered my love of animals and became involved in groups aimed at helping them.

I moved to Sacramento in my 30s. I have always been glad I did, not only because this is where I met my wonderful husband, Ken, but because I think Sacramento, particularly the Central City where Ken and I have lived since 1982, is a great place. We currently live in a 1910 house that we rehabbed and share with some wonderful cats.

I’ve made a living doing a variety of things from teaching cultural anthropology, to testifying as an expert witness in battered women homicide cases, to working as a clinical psychologist at Kaiser. Now, together with my husband, we do hands-on rehabbing of Central City historic buildings. I do most of our design work, following federal guidelines known as the Secretary of Interior Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings. It gives me tremendous satisfaction to see something that I’ve designed come into being and to see horribly run down old buildings brought back to life. I love nothing more than thinking, talking and reading about design. Ken and I hope that the work that we do is a positive addition to the Central City streetscape. Besides design, I enjoy gardening (I’m trying to learn more about native and drought tolerant plants), running, reading (including good murder mysteries) restaurants that serve good vegetarian food, and trips where we get to relax and stay in buildings that other people have rehabbed.

I guess I’m an activist by nature. I’ve always thought if you really don’t like something, try to change it; if you really value something, fight for it. In Los Angeles it was rights for rape victims. In Sacramento, it started with working to close Rancho Seco and then animal protection (protecting feral cats and serving on the United Animal Nations board); historic preservation including founding the Fainted Ladies Task Force/Tour, teaching people about appropriate rehab and serving on the SOCA board; trying to improve neighborhoods; and, most recently, lobbying for sustainable transportation.

Central City neighborhoods have come a long way since Ken and I moved here. In the early 1990s they were still overrun by slumlords, drugs, run down buildings, and public officials who thought there was something wrong with anyone who lived here. It wasn’t uncommon for activists to receive death threats from drug dealers and other criminals, or to be told by city officials that the idea of new infill housing was just plain silly. I founded WPCANA in 1991. It was the efforts of WPCANA and other Central City neighborhood associations that helped change many of those negative aspects of our city life.

Over the years, WPCANA has had many dedicated board members and volunteers, and achieved many real successes including: Residential permit parking for our neighborhood (had to change a City ordinance to do it); having St. Francis Housing, one of our neighborhood’s nicest infill projects, redesigned from a suburban-style structure to the beautiful building it is today; we were part of successful lobbying efforts that led to a stronger preservation ordinance, adoption of the Central City Housing Strategy, getting R Street rezoned for housing and the inclusion of neighborhood interests in the recently adopted Central City Parking Plan; a crackdown on the 2400 block of Q Street, which used to be so dangerous that people didn’t feel safe walking there in daylight; we took on two of the neighborhood’s worst slum lords forcing them to either sell or hire professional property management, and the City to enforce its Social Nuisance Ordinance against them; and organized the assessment district that resulted in streetlights in part of our neighborhood (we still want to find a way to get streetlights in the rest of our neighborhood). We worked to have Winn Park refurbished including streetlights, a tot lot and rehab of the historic WPA building in its center; helped secure traffic calming, although we still need more; and we succeeded in having Sutter Hospital build 32 ‘for sale’ housing units as part of its expansion project. That’s a lot, but there is still plenty more to do.

Activism does make a difference and that’s why I urge all of you to get involved. The fringe benefit is that getting involved in something you care about is a way to meet nice people and make great friends.

Links

California Preservation Foundation
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Sacramento Old City Association
United Animal Nation
MidtownGrid.com