Comstock's magazine 0620 - June June 2020 | Page 13

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Crawling Back Into
Business During a Crisis
PHOTO BY TERENCE DUFFY
There’s no question the shelter-in-place and socialdistancing
orders have had a dramatic affect on businesses
and employees. In this issue of Comstock’s, Managing Editor
Sena Christian writes about the stress and anxiety it is causing,
especially for first responders and health care workers, and writer
and longtime arts critic Marcus Crowder explores how performing
arts organizations in the Capital Region are coping with being
shut down. We also have stories about how breweries and an
independent bookstore have adapted and are operating.
One interesting adjustment has been by Giggle & Riot, a
Sacramento-based photo booth company launched in 2013 by
Caroline Winata and Josh Daniels. As freelancer Vanessa Labi
wrote for our website in late April, Winata and Daniels were
providing photo booths for up to 400 events a year, but with
events canceled, their clientele immediately vanished. So they
came up with Giggle & Riot Fun, which includes activity kits for
children and adults and the Curbside Crawl, which promotes
local businesses.
“We aren’t making money out of the Curbside Crawls,” Winata
says. “It’s something to do for the community,” says Daniels.
Winata and Daniels say they launched the crawls to stay connected
to the community and businesses with which they’ve
done business.
Three crawls are offered — Midtown Sacramento, Downtown
Sacramento and Oak Park — with two more planned, so I set out
on a Friday morning in late April on the Curbside Crawl - Midtown
for what is essentially a scavenger hunt, from the safety of
my car, armed with a face mask and gloves.
My first stop, at Tea Cozy and Rumpelstiltskin Yarn at the
Arthouse on R Street, was a bust, because the main doors for
the building that houses both (and more than 20 artists) were
chained and locked due to the edict against nonessential businesses
(and posted by the Sacramento Police Department). I
failed to read the fine print on the Giggle & Riot website that Tea
Cozy has curbside pickup on Saturdays only, and Rumpelstiltskin
is only selling online.
The next stops included murals along R Street at Warehouse
Artist Lofts and the Ice Blocks, which gave me a good reason to
get out of the car, walk around the neighborhood and check out
some of the art in the city. I accepted the challenge and discovered
Brian Barneclo’s 200-foot-long “Sound & Vision” mural.
Another stop, Milk Money doughnut shop in the Ice Blocks,
wasn’t yet set up for online ordering and curbside pickup, but it’s
definitely on my list for a visit in the future. Next up were Sun &
Soil Juice Company on P Street (which was busy that day) and Allie’s
Paw Spa & Sitting (which sells homemade treats for dogs), but
I was craving something different for lunch, so I ordered ahead
online from Old Soul Co. The Alley. I grabbed my fancy grilled
cheese (cheddar, Swiss, brie, spinach and tomato on ciabatta),
had a quick catch-up with co-owner Jason Griest, then hunkered
down next to my car to take in the view of two impressive
murals while enjoying my lunch. But my quiet was interrupted
by protesters headed to the Capitol, demanding an end to Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s shelter-in-place order. The standstill traffic
kept me from the rest of the crawl, missing stops with curbside
pickup such as Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates; Aioli la Bodega, the
corner-market version of restaurant Aioli Bodega Española (it
transformed into a market in response to the pandemic); Revolution
Wines; and Pushkin’s Bakery.
Though there were some hiccups — Saturday would have
been better, and I didn’t expect the protesters — Winata and
Daniels’ adaptation of their business is a smart way to stay
relevant during these unprecedented times, and it was a fun
couple of hours. Here’s hoping that these types of planned crawls
continue when businesses can fully and safely reopen.
Tom Couzens
Executive Editor
Comstock’s Honored by CNPA
Comstock’s was awarded first place for general excellence
by the California News Publishers Association in its 2019
California Journalism Awards for our August (“Bring It”) and
September (“We Hate Meetings”) print editions. The judges
comments included: “Comstock’s magazine is beautifully
designed throughout, both ad and news pages. This is one
gorgeous magazine.”
We also received a first-place honor for photo illustration
in the print contest (“We Hate Meetings,” a collaboration
between former art director Kelly Barr and freelance photographer
Mike Graff) and a second place for front page layout
and design. Our website also received a fourth place in the
general excellence category. We also placed in the top five in
11 other categories, including in-depth reporting, coverage of
local government, agriculture reporting, land-use reporting,
overall layout and design, and special section cover design.
June 2020 | comstocksmag.com 13