Alkali Flat

Southern Pacific Rail yard on the North; 7th Street and G Street in the South; and 12th and 13th streets on the East and West

Alkali Flat is the oldest remaining neighborhood in Sacramento. Most of the older buildings were built between 1853 and 1869. At that time the most prominent of Sacramento's elite lived here. By the 1920’s, the neighborhood was home to Irish immigrants as well as a growing number of Mexicans. About this time the area got its name due to a white powdery substance that once coated the ground, a result of salt ocean tides that overflowed into the area through Sutter Slough.

By the 1950s the area fail into disrepair and become the focus of redevelopment efforts. Alkali Flat was rezoned C-4 and many businesses moved in such as KCRA Television. The County of Sacramento also used the area to build badly needed office space and a large number of parking lots. Many Latinos moved here at this time after being displaced by redevelopment efforts in the Capitol Corridor and the area now known as Old Sacramento which was "cut off" due to the construction of I5.

In the late 1960's The Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) became one of Alkali Flat’s most influential groups.

On February 10, 1972, the Sacramento City Council adopted the 30-year “Redevelopment Plan Alkali Flat Project No 6” and rezoned the area as residential. There began a struggle to preserve the history of the area.

During the 1980s the area became overrun by gangs from North and South Sacramento who considered it a "free area." Light rail opened in 1987 and the Alkali Flat station continues to this day to be a haven for drug dealers and other undesirables.

http://www.shra.org/Content/CommunityDevelopment/AlkaliFlat/EconHist.pdf