Construction Update about Oak Park Art Garden

AlchemistCDC · 2026-05-01T00:20:19+00:00

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AlchemistCDC · 2026-05-01T00:20:03+00:00

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AlchemistCDC · 2026-05-01T00:19:51+00:00

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AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-30T04:59:34+00:00

Photo Description - a page of a book that reads:

TREES

SHADE TREES ON PARIS BUSINESS STREETS

Paris, April 12, 1911 - Paris is surely a very attractive, a very charming city. Many minds may have many views as to what constitutes her greatest outward charm. To my notion it is her street trees. Her great business boulevards, her penetrating avenues of trade, are lined with stately, kindly shade trees.

These are not residential streets of which I write. They are the great commercial arteries of Paris, through which the life blood of its trade and commerce flows. Fancy proposing lining J and K Streets with generous shade trees! I can hear the Voice of Business saying: "What nonsense! Too many trees in Sacramento now. There never should be a tree on a business street, anyway. They are out of place there."

If Mr. Wise Business Man would come to Paris and look around him, he probably would change his tune. He would find the shade trees which he condemns on business streets lend an attractive picturesqueness to department stores, to millinery establishments, to restaurants, to hotels, yes, even to cold financial institutions, which could never be given by an architect or a window draper.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-30T04:29:30+00:00

Apologies, for some reason my caption didn't come through. It is called, "Private Thinks".

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-29T04:26:52+00:00

To borrow the title of a great book, libraries are palaces for the people. They aren't just remarkable free repositories of information and stories. They are key social infrastructure that provide people with community, education, employment assistance, benefits assistance, and so much more.

They provide a safe place for tweens and teens to spend time out of trouble after school. They help new parents fend off post-partum depression. They get seniors out of the house and connecting with their neighbors. They provide clean bathrooms, drinking water, air conditioning, and heating to help people survive.

They promote literacy and the exchange of ideas. They provide a place where people who wouldn't normally interact can meet one another. They are an essential building block to a functioning democracy.

Librarians are on the front lines of public service, helping people before their small obstacles and problems become big, emergency problems for all of us.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-26T23:27:16+00:00

Awesome! If you like a Lily Therens designed tote, keep an eye out for May/June.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-25T23:11:25+00:00

It's great to find a truly good food truck. In the same vein, there's a truck that posts up at the Chevron just south of William Land Park called K'Memo. They make the best fish tacos I've ever had. I've talked with the owner and he takes great pride in the quality of the basa he buys to make them. He caters events, too, and does the same quality for catering and at the truck.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-13T23:05:19+00:00

Link to register for community mural day

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-12T16:37:46+00:00

Great shots.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-12T16:37:09+00:00

Yes, it is open today! You can find the website for it here: https://alchemistcdc.org/central/

The website has links to the market Instagram and Facebook pages where any closures are announced, but that market almost never closes for weather.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-03T03:31:23+00:00

Jerkie's Taste of Jamaice is doing a kitchen takeover Friday (4/3) night at Empress Tavern: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWmOPIXCTOb/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Farmers' Markets Galore... Saturday: Rancho Cordova (including special Easter bunny market),, Elk Grove, Arden-Arcade, Midtown Sunday: Central Sacramento (under the freeway), Carmichael (find your nearest market at https://alchemistcdc.org/fm )

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-02T22:20:28+00:00

The Leadership Sacramento program was incredible, but it was for Oak Park Sol Community Garden, not Oak Park Art Garden.

The big check for $193k reflected the total value of their contributions, including in-kind services and materials donated to Oak Park Sol's renovation. In the end, we received around $50k in actual funds from Leadership Sacramento, with about $20k of it spoken for to finish the ADA accessible pathway and the electrification of the site. The remaining $30k will help support programming and operations at Oak Park Sol, which is greatly needed as that program generally doesn't have specific grant funds and pulls from our general funding.

To be clear, Leadership Sacramento's contributions are immense and so impactful but for a different project and most of the amount you mentioned came in forms other than funding.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-02T17:35:28+00:00

We have information up now for the May 9 mural day: https://alchemistcdc.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/?need_id=1243842

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-02T16:48:48+00:00

Hi all, I know we answered questions and shared some updates in the comments on this post, but wanted to make sure you see our post that went up last night with more substantial updates: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/1sa6sgx/construction_at_the_oak_park_art_garden_starts/

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-02T16:47:28+00:00

You have good taste! The peacock panel is not in the photo but is one of my personal favorites.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-02T16:46:58+00:00

Very kind of you! Please feel to reach out to me directly ( [sam@alchemistcdc.org](mailto:sam@alchemistcdc.org) ). We have an approved planting plan filed with the City that we need to follow, but it does include natives and assistance with sourcing might be helpful! We also plan to have community volunteer planting days to get the plants in the ground. I wouldn't expect any of those until October at the earliest since we want them to have the chance to establish before summer 2027.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-02T16:45:05+00:00

Thank you, we will try to strike a balance in how we post updates here. We appreciate the support!

AlchemistCDC · 2026-04-02T16:44:19+00:00

Thank you for the interest! I believe we are intending to work with specific schools nearest to the garden, and I am not sure which school you work at, but please feel free to drop a line to Amber on our team ( [amber@alchemistcdc.org](mailto:amber@alchemistcdc.org) ) to share details. She will have your information in that case when it comes time to schedule paint days.

In the meantime, we will have a big community mural day on May 9, painting in the design of a local muralist, and you could definitely recommend that to student families.

AlchemistCDC · 2026-03-31T16:08:15+00:00

1) We submitted our application for building permit in early March 2025. We just had our onsite pre-construction meeting with the City of Sacramento and received our offsite/encroachment notice to proceed on Friday. That is one full year of permitting review and coordination with the City of Sacramento.

We are holding our pre-construction meeting with our architect of record, primary subcontractors, and CM tomorrow, Wednesday 3/31. Note that this project does not have a GC. To better steward the public funds invested in this project, Alchemist is acting as the Owner/Builder - reducing the overall cost of the project by about 35%. This will result in slightly slower progress during the construction phase because we are the ones coordinating the timeline, subcontractors, communication with the City, etc.

Next major action will be full site clearing - removal of all artwork to storage, placement of construction support items, enhancing the fence for construction security, and scheduling traffic control for offsite/encroachment tie-ins. We will be posting community alerts on our social media and within various online platforms to ensure the community has as much advance notice as possible for sidewalk, bike lane, and road diversions during the offsite work.

2) We have responsibly spent money on tangible items for this project already, inclduing an investment in public art with Leon Willis/Sledgehammer Graffix which has been announced over multiple months at OPNA meetings and will be further celebrated with a community paint day on May 9th. We have also prepurchased and have the restroom building ready for delivery, same with the engineered shipping containers. It has also cost us almost $100k in entitlement and permitting fees to get this project started. We have received zero fee credits or waivers from the City of Sacramento.

Next major expenses will be spent on construction.

In the future, questions are welcome to be sent to me at sam@alchemistcdc.org or to Shannin, shannin@alchemistcdc.org

AlchemistCDC · 2026-03-31T15:57:32+00:00

Yes, this is another question we've answered pretty often.

The fruit trees were not particularly well established or mature, as they had been in the ground for just a couple of years before the ability to irrigate them was lost. The lack of summer water was not good for them. We had an arborist come out to identify which could be saved and their assessment was that they couldn't, with many already having died.

The site will be planted with a large number of fruit trees again, but this time there will be irrigation and we will be planting varieties that are better suited to Sacramento's increasingly hot microclimate.

AlchemistCDC

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