Sacramento’s failure to fix midtown parking could get much worse. Here is why | Opinion
A hot new music venue is about to open in midtown on 24th Street with an impressive array of bands ready to come to town.
Channel 24 has everything save one amenity — parking.
This neighborhood is on a collision course with parking bedlam, and the city council is late to the party on an issue that it should have confronted and addressed long ago.
Residents living in a four-block radius of the Channel 24 venue at R and 24th streets, received a letter from the city this week informing them of a proposed change to the neighborhood’s permitted parking. The modification would impose a one-hour parking limitation from 8 a.m. to midnight, every day of the week, except with a permit, between 20th and 28th streets, and between N and V streets.
Meaning that, from early morning until midnight every day, no one without a permit will be able to park in that large square of blocks for more than an hour. This area is mostly residential, but includes bars, restaurants, gym studios and hair salons, who will all be forced to subject their customers to a parking time limit.
Emails for comment to the Channel 24 venue went unanswered, but the website’s FAQ section says that the venue “highly encourages the use of public transportation, rideshare, biking or carpooling as there is limited parking around Channel 24” but also that there is “street parking around the venue… (and) several parking lots nearby.”
Clearly, the city is attempting to discourage concert-goers from driving to the venue, but doing so while limiting the ability of residents and business owners to welcome visitors and clients is a poor plan.
On R Street in Sacramento, there are large and impressive music venues like Ace of Spades and the Shady Lady that have no parking facilities of their own. But Channel 24 has a capacity of more than 2,100 people, and it is surrounded by neighborhoods where residents rely on the streets for their own vehicles.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the production company behind the venue is the same as the company that runs Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park and owns venues like the Fox Theater in Oakland. Channel 24’s initial line up of bands includes names like Death Cab For Cutie, Shakey Graves, Tycho, Lake Street Dive and Sierra Farrell. This venue will bring in thousands of people to the central midtown city with every concert. Great for business, but a parking disaster.
As a former resident of midtown — I lived in an old Victorian near N and 18th streets for several years — I can attest to just how awful it is to find street parking there. Often, I would have to park several blocks away from my home to walk through the streets alone at night, and received several parking tickets from overzealous city parking enforcement officers after I had again failed to decipher the obscure hieroglyphics of the city’s signs. (“Parking allowed here between 13:42 a.m. and 21:48 a.m., Mhursdays through Suesdays only” — or something like that.)
Such a permitting plan would certainly be a revenue-booster for our budget-impacted city, as Sacramento drivers are unlikely to realize that parking for more than an hour would result in parking tickets, fines and possibly a tow.
The proposed change in permitting would also complicate residents’ ability to host family and friends at their home, and it could make access to homes and businesses difficult for disabled residents, who may have to travel from a parking spot several blocks away.
While the city has been relying on increased parking tickets and its revenues to balance its seriously out-of-whack budget, friends visiting midtown residents could get caught up in the city’s costly, last-minute strategy to deal with concert goers.
This new venue — an exciting addition to the city’s music scene that’s sure to draw in many hundreds of concert-goers — is indeed a perfect opportunity to boost the city’s transportation options, including the 23rd Street light rail station that is just steps away from the building’s location.
When the City of Sacramento Parking Services Division prepares its report for presentation to the City Council for approval, which is likely to appear in the following weeks, it should include options to mitigate the impact of this new venue on residents. Permit holders are already given one guest pass, but perhaps giving them more than one would be a way to keep both sides of this issue happy?
The city could also offer incentives to people who choose traveling options other than driving to attend these concerts.
Regardless, the city council could have a hotly contested item on their agenda soon, as the venue’s opening concert date is just around the corner — April 24.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
