It's mid-morning on a weekday on the 900 block of K Street, and all you can hear are leaves rustling in the wind. That's not much of a change from three years ago, in the spring of 2008, when all you could hear then were birds chirping in the trees.
City officials have spent years trying to re-energize the J-K-L corridor. This week, they're getting help - from a team of consultants with a program that teaches mayors about urban design. Betsy Jackson is one of them.
Jackson: "Too often we think we have to jump to the biggest and most expensive solution and fill in around it. And practically speaking, most of our lives don't function that way, and urban spaces don't really function that way as well."
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson says the help comes at a crucial time. The city is working on numerous projects downtown - including moving the Greyhound bus station away from L Street and redeveloping the much-maligned 700 and 800 blocks of K Street.
