Title:
Title
Park Naming of McKinley Village Park Site ES3 as Russ Solomon Park and Park Site ES4 as Ricardo Favela Park
End
FileID
File ID: 2018-01689
Location
Location: District 3
Recommendation:
Recommendation
Adopt a Resolution approving the Park Naming of McKinley Village Park Site ES3 as Russ Solomon Park and Park Site ES4 as Ricardo Favela Park.
Contact: Dennis Day, Landscape Architect, (916) 808-7633; Raymond Costantino, Division Manager, (916) 808-1941, Park Planning and Development Services, Department of Youth, Parks, & Community Enrichment.
Body
Presenter: None
Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
2-Park Location Map
3-Overall McKinley Village Parks Master Plan
4-Russ Solomon Park ES3 Master Plan
5-Ricardo Favela Park ES4 Master Plan
6-Resolution
Description/Analysis
Issue Detail: The Department of Youth, Parks, & Community Enrichment and the Parks and Recreation Commission recommend naming McKinley Village Park Site Park Site ES3 as Russ Solomon Park and Park Site ES4 as Ricardo Favela Park.
Russ Solomon Park - Park ES3, is a 0.68-acre neighborhood park to be named in honor of Russ Solomon, the legendary Sacramento resident who founded Tower Records and built it into a global music and cultural phenomenon. Park ES3 improvements will include a turf area, concrete table tennis, concrete walkways, shaded social spaces with benches, picnic tables and concrete tables and chairs, bike racks, pet waste stations, public art, shade trees and landscaping.
Ricardo Favela Park - Park ES4, is a 0.13-acre neighborhood park to be named in honor of Ricardo Favela, who was a professor of art at California State University Sacramento, an accomplished artist, and a founder of the renowned artists collective, the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF). Park ES4 improvements will include shade trees, shrubs and groundcover, concrete walkways, a social space with a bench and a picnic table, public art.
Park sites ES3 and ES 4 will be under construction in 2019.
Policy Considerations: The McKinley Village project was approved on April 29, 2014 and found to be consistent with the City’s General Plan.
On February 26, 2008, City Council adopted Resolution 2008-0112, establishing a Facility Naming Policy. The policy contains guidance when naming parks or park facilities. One of the guiding policies encourages facilities to be named for individuals or families that have contributed significantly to the community.
Providing parks and recreation facilities is consistent with the City’s strategic plan to enhance livability in Sacramento’s neighborhoods by expanding park, recreation, and trail facilities throughout the City. Park naming is part of the Park Development Process as outlined in the City of Sacramento’s 2005-2010 Parks and Recreation Master Plan.
Economic Impacts: None
Environmental Considerations:
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA): The City Council certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the McKinley Village project and adopted CEQA findings of fact, Mitigation Monitoring Program, and approved the project on April 29, 2014 (Resolution No. 2014-0102). The proposed naming of the parks is exempt from environmental review as an administrative activity. The placement of a park sign to acknowledge the park name is part of the park construction project which was included in the EIR.
Sustainability: Not Applicable
Commission/Committee Action: The park name was reviewed by the Parks and Recreation Commission at its December 6, 2018 meeting. The Commission recommended approval of the Russ Solomon Park as the name for McKinley Village Park Site ES3, and Ricardo Favela Park as the name of McKinley Village Park ES4 by a vote of 7 ayes and 2 abstentions. Two commissioners desired that the larger park site be named for Mr. Favela.
Rationale for Recommendation: Naming the McKinley Village Park Site ES3 as Russ Solomon Park and ES4 as Ricardo Favela Park is consistent with the City’s facility naming policy. The policy allows for facilities to be named for historical significance, distinct developmental features, or neighborhood, community or access streets.
Financial Considerations: The cost of the park signs are included in the project construction budgets.
Background: On August 12, 2014, the City Council approved the master plans for all five parks in the McKinley Village project. Three of the parks, Helen and Alan Post Park, R. Burnett Miller Park and Michael Himovitz Park, are currently completed and open to the public. Park sites ES3 and ES4 will be constructed in 2019 as turnkey parks by the developer. The developer proposed that Park Site ES3 be named as Russ Solomon Park and Park Site ES4 be named as Ricardo Favela Park.
Russ Solomon Park - Park site ES3, a 0.68-acre neighborhood park, is to be named in honor of Russ Solomon, the legendary Sacramento resident who founded Tower Records and built it into a global music and cultural phenomenon.
Born in San Francisco in 1925, Russ grew up mostly in Sacramento where his father Clayton established Tower Cut Rate Drugs in the Tower Theatre building in the 1930s. In 1941, at the age of 16, Russ began selling used jukebox records at his father’s drugstore and soon had his own street entrance for his music business. In 1960, he opened his second store (Tower North on Watt Avenue); in 1968, a third store in San Francisco just as the golden age of rock was peaking; and soon thereafter, the iconic Tower Records on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. By the 1990s, Tower was a global enterprise with over $1 billion in revenues and more than 200 stores. With stores in the United States and 14 other countries, Tower was the nation’s largest privately held music retailer.
Tower Records was more than a business enterprise - it transformed the music business as its innovative, vibrant megastores became gathering spots for music, video, and book lovers who shopped and mingled late into the evening. Like the store in New York’s Greenwich Village, they were all landmarks. While Tower ultimately gave way to massive shifts in music retailing, Solomon’s contributions to the music world had a profound effect for decades around the world. In March 2015, a poignant documentary on Tower’s history and legacy, “All Things Must Pass,” produced by former Sacramentan and actor Colin Hanks debuted in Austin, Texas. In 2016, Russ was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He passed away in 2018.
In addition to shaping the modern music scene across the world, Russ was an active supporter of the Sacramento arts scene. He was a member of the Crocker Art Museum Board of Directors and an early Board member of KVIE. Russ was instrumental in the formation of Sacramento’s Artists Cooperative Gallery, which later became known as the Artists Contemporary Gallery. He supported the work of and collected many of Sacramento’s well-known artists such as Wayne Thiebaud, Gary Pruner, Suzanne Adan, Jack Ogden, Jerald Silva, Helen Post, Ralph Goings, Ken Waterstreet, Ruth Rippon, Darrell Forney, Maija Peeples-Bright, Roy De Forest, Sandra Shannonhouse, Robert Arneson, Peter Vandenberg, Camille Vandenberg, and others.
Russ was a talented photographer and had several exhibitions of his own work during his lifetime, including a 2015 exhibition at the Sacramento City College Kondos Gallery featuring portraits he took of Sacramento community leaders and residents.
Ricardo Favela Park - Park site ES4, a 0.13-acre neighborhood park, is to be named in honor of Ricardo Favela, who was a professor of art at California State University Sacramento, an accomplished artist, and a founder of the renowned artists collective, the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF).
Born in 1945 in Kingsburg, California to parents who were migrant farmworkers, Ricardo grew up in the Sacramento valley town of Dinuba, pursuing his artistic studies first at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia and then at Sacramento State where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1971.
Favela was best known for his silk screen posters that heralded political, community, and artistic events and causes and for his ceramic works that celebrated Chicano life and culture. His art imparted powerful political and social commentary, including support for the farmworker rights movement that was close to his heart.
He began his teaching career as a graduate student and became a full-time professor in 1997. Throughout his career, he was known as a generous mentor to his students. His office was a center of activity and haven for students, particularly those from migrant worker families like himself. He encouraged his students by often exhibiting their work alongside his own, by teaching them to be proud of their cultural roots and to keep their culture alive through art, and by inspiring them to get involved in community issues.
In 1969, Ricardo joined with Sacramento State art professors Jose Montoya and Esteban Villa and others to form the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), initially named the Rebel Chicano Art Front, an activist artists collective based in Sacramento founded to support the civil rights and farmworkers movements, celebrate Chicano culture and history, and create a venue where artists could come together to exchange ideas, provide mutual support, and make available to the public artistic, cultural, and educational programs and events. The RCAF became widely known for their artworks, including fine art posters and murals in Sacramento and throughout California, as well as for their wonderful sense of humor and community activism. In 1972, the RCAF created the Centro De Artistas Chicanos that became the springboard for multiple community programs including the La Nueva Raza Bookstore (with its Galeria Posada), RCAF Danzantes (cultural dance venue), RCAF Graphics and Design Center, and the Barrio Art Program for underprivileged children.
Ricardo passed away in 2007. Through his artwork, his extraordinary mentoring of art students, and his contributions to the work of the RCAF, he helped shaped Sacramento’s contemporary art and cultural scene.
The naming of the Park Sites ES3 as Russ Solomon Park and ES4 as Ricardo Favela Park in McKinley Village is not only a fitting tribute to both Russ Solomon and Richard Favela, it’s also in keeping with McKinley Village’s dedication to public art and with the unique McKinley Village Art Walk, a project undertaken in collaboration with the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Community. To learn more about the McKinley Village Art Walk, visit: <http://www.sacmetroarts.org/Programs/Public-Art/McKinley-VillageArt>