0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 29

terns for streets, “beautiful old canopy
trees and … cute older bungalows.”
Mayor Christopher Cabaldon has
watched the emergence of the food
scene in the Washington District. “Even
though (the district is) relatively new,
it is the best of what West Sacramento
is, and it feels as though it’s been there
since the gold rush,” Cabaldon says.
The district dates to the late 1840s
when it was part of the Town of Washington,
with the town later renamed
Broderick in honor of a U.S. senator
killed in a duel in 1859. West Sacramento
eventually incorporated as a city in 1987.
But in recent decades, the Washington
District deteriorated. “It’s an area that,
over time, had really lost all economic
vitality,” Jacobson says. “The area began
to stagnate. It was blighted, there (were)
a lot of vacant properties, there were
security concerns and safety concerns.”
Chris Jarosz saw problems firsthand
after he became the owner in 2012 of a
bar at 319 Sixth St., which straddles the
Washington District and the present-day
Broderick neighborhood to the west.
Jarosz remembers issues with homelessness,
as well as a curfew the city had
in place because of violence caused
by the Broderick Boys street gang. But
Jarosz’s business, Broderick Roadhouse,
soon developed an unusual clientele
mix of bikers and public officials.
With help from a U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development
Sustainable Communities Initiative grant
of roughly $400,000, plus $300,000 in local
matching funds, the city developed a plan
adopted by its city council in 2015 that
focused on creating a better quality of life
in the district. Jacobson says improvements
included infrastructure to support
“more urban-scale development” in the
largely industrial area and walkability upgrades
such as sidewalks and streetlights.
One of Jacobson’s staff members also
helped recruit Sacramento-based D&S
Development in 2015 for a publicprivate
project to restore the old Washington
Firehouse on Third Street. Built
in 1940 as a Works Progress Administration
project, it was a fire station until
The Washington Firehouse, built in 1940, was
restored by D&S Development and now houses
Burgers & Brew Station 1.
1979 and later a police station before
shuttering in the late 1990s. It sat vacant
for close to 20 years. “It was just a
mess,” Jacobson says. “Like, there (were)
thousands of bats that lived in it.”
The city sold the building to D&S in
early 2016 for $24,000, with a condition
the developer invest $700,000 in improvements.
Sara Lebastchi, a vice president
and project principal for D&S, remembered
the fire station’s circa-1950s limegreen
fridge and old appliances. “It’s exciting
to be able to be creative and rethink
how to repurpose an old building,” Lebastchi
says. “It’s a passion for us to do these
projects and make it financially feasible.”
The building now houses Burgers &
Brew Station 1 (owners Derar Zawaydeh
and Philippe Masoud didn’t respond to
interview requests). D&S, which maintains
ownership of properties it develops,
“It’s an area that, over time, had really lost all
economic vitality. The area began to stagnate.
It was blighted, there (were) a lot of vacant
properties, there were security concerns and
safety concerns.”
Katy Jacobson, economic development and housing director, City of West Sacramento
also owns a building across the street
with four businesses: Devil May Care Ice
Cream & Frozen Treats, Roy Mata’s Barber
Shop, Edible Pedal Bike Shop, and La
Crosta Pizza Bar. A fifth business, Stone
Vintage Music Boutique, has closed.
Jess Milbourn, who opened Devil
May Care four years ago, worked at Broderick
and other eateries before opening
his shop. Milbourn experiments with
offbeat ice cream flavors like toast, cold
September 2020 | comstocksmag.com 29