They took to the streets Friday morning armed with smiles, handshakes and a simple question.
"How's business?"
"We're trying to get a pulse of what's happening in the business community," said Andrew Rogerson, a business consultant at Murphy Business & Financial Corp., and a member of the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce.
About 40 chamber members and local economic development officials visited 100 Arden Arcade-area businesses as part of the chamber's annual Business Walk series.
The chamber launched the program in 2004 with a walk through Arden Arcade. But it's not just a meet-and-greet. From the talks, chamber officials hope to gauge local businesses' health and address concerns from traffic to crime to code enforcement issues.
Feedback from earlier tours prompted increased sheriff's and police patrols of major Arden Arcade shopping areas during the winter holidays; seminars in the Power Inn area on how businesses can take advantage of enterprise zone credits; and more aggressive promotion of businesses in Rocklin.
"We're getting good feedback from local businesses," Rogerson said.
He said "times are tough" but business people in Arden Arcade are hopeful that the Kings will move to a new arena at nearby Cal Expo, drawing thousands of fans to the area.
Elias Zumout was one of those. Zumout, of commercial property manager Atlas Properties on Hurley Way, hopes plans for the arena come to fruition.
In today's economy, business has been "a little bit slow for everybody, but you need to be positive," Zumout said.
He's relying on the Arden Arcade's business corridor, with a number of restaurants, banks and retail establishments, to bounce back as the economy recovers.
"It's all here," he said of the unincorporated Sacramento County neighborhood, which has a population of nearly 100,000 and includes the commercial corridors of Arden Way and Watt, Howe and Fulton avenues.
Similar walks are planned for Rancho Cordova and Power Inn Road in October and West Sacramento in November.
For more information on the 2009 Business Walk series, call the chamber's Matt Yancey at (916) 321-9153 or visit www.metrochamber.org.
Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.