The planned $5.3 billion redevelopment of the Union Pacific Railroad yards will almost double the size of Sacramento’s downtown.

Cammie Maciel and her daughter, 4-month-old Alysah, are welcome at the Frank Zaccari Insurance Agency in Elk Grove, where she is able to pump breast milk “I’m so grateful for it. It’s why I continue to work as hard as I do,” Maciel said.Cammie Maciel jokes that her 4-month-old daughter is her company’s youngest employee.
“She works very hard,” Maciel said with a laugh. So does Maciel, an insurance agent at Frank Zaccari Insurance Agency in Elk Grove. That’s why the Elk Grove mother is relieved to be able to pump breast milk for Alysah on the job.
“I’m so grateful for it. It’s why I continue to work as hard as I do,” Maciel said. “For Alysah to see my face, that bond is so important, and I’m still able to provide for my family, which is huge.”
Zaccari Insurance is one of six local employers that will be honored as mother-baby friendly workplaces by the Breastfeeding Coalition of Greater Sacramento in ceremonies noon Thursday at the state Capitol.
Other local honorees include Carl’s Jr. restaurants, the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento, Elk Grove Unified School District, UC Davis Medical Center and the state Franchise Tax Board.
The California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness will also award four companies with statewide honors at the Thursday ceremony.
Zaccari’s workplace has long been friendly to mothers with children. Maciel, a mother of four, also brings her three school-age children to work on occasion. And fellow agent Isabel Zamudio, the only other employee, sometimes brings her 8-year-old daughter.
The children are made to feel welcome. A tiny kitchen is packed with snacks and juices and a spare office has a television, DVDs and a computer. When needed, the same room becomes “Baby Central,” with a bassinet, toys and privacy for mother and baby.
Zaccari said providing time and space for Maciel makes sense.
“She’s a very good employee and day care for a newborn is almost prohibitive,” Zaccari said. “She can come to work, and I get use of a very good employee. It’s not that hard to take care of people who take care of you.”
That sentiment is what drives the awards, showing that a workplace friendly to breast-feeding mothers is good for the employer, the employee and the business.
“Breast-feeding helps families save more money. It helps the employer save money, and employees don’t have to miss as much work. The family and employee win – it makes sense all the way,” said Jeannette Newman-Velez, a coordinator for the state Women, Infants and Children Program and an organizer of the local award program.
Women with children are the fastest growing segment of the work force, reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 55 percent of women with children under the age of 3 are employed.
“We’re trying to put (breast-feeding) in a positive light,” Newman-Velez said. “A mother shouldn’t have to choose between the health of their baby and their job.”
A 2002 state law requiring employers to provide break time and make an effort to provide a private space for employees to pump breast milk helps ensure that mothers don’t have to make that choice.
“There were a lot of pioneers who raised awareness. Employers saw the advantage and that encouraged moms to go the extra mile,” said Karen Dietzen, lactation program coordinator at UC Davis Medical Center. The hospital provides four rooms or “lactation stations” that see as many as 1,000 usages a month, Dietzen said.
Still, new mother Adrienne Bockskopf of Sacramento, hired at the Franchise Tax Board in March, was worried whether she would be able to nurse her newborn or pump milk at her new job.
But the board’s Rancho Cordova campus had stations throughout, including near her workstation.
“It saves a lot of money, and it’s good for your work,” Bockskopf said. “They’re helping you make your baby healthy.”

Sacramento ranks as the seventh most environmentally “smart” large city in the nation, according to the results of a survey announced Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group.
The study results ranked 67 cities on nine metrics, from energy production and conservation to green space and transportation.
Sacramento led the nation in “environmental standards and participation.” This measure assessed citizen involvement in local environmental initiatives and the degree to which departments within city government have incorporated environmental concerns into their policies.
The city, however, fared poorly in measures of affordability – which the study considered a component of sustainability – as well as air quality.
Full results are at smartercities.nrdc.org.

Investigators and police gather Tuesday at the shooting scene at the Richmond San Rafael Bridge in Richmond. Authorities say someone fired a shotgun at a toll booth near a heavily traveled bridge north of San Francisco, killing a toll collector and one other person.Police are on the lookout for the man suspected of shooting two people Tuesday night on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Police suspect Nathaniel Burris, 46, shot and killed a female toll collector and a man who was sitting in a parked vehicle at the toll plaza around 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“We believe the suspect’s family is from Sacramento and he is heading that way,” said Sgt. Bisa French, Richmond Police Department spokeswoman. “We believe his mother lives in Sacramento.”
Sacramento Police Department Spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said they were “actively following up on those leads.”
The suspect was driving a white 2005 Ford van with California license plate No. 8U40504, according to an official with the California Highway Patrol. The van had the name “Western Eagle Shuttle” on the side of the van.
The toll collector was a 51-year-old Richmond woman.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office said the woman was Deborah Ross, who had worked as a Caltrans toll collector for eight years. Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff in her honor, a statement said.
Officers found Ross’ body inside a toll booth, and investigators have been searching for clues amid shattered glass. Patrol Sgt. Trent Cross described the scene as “horrific.”
The patrol was working with Richmond police and other agencies to find the gunman.
The bridge over the northern portion of San Francisco Bay connects Marin County with Richmond and other East Bay suburbs.

Mike Lee wraps up a pastry to go recently at Mahoroba Japanese bakery in Sacramento, above. At top, anpan pastries are decorated with the face of a Japanese cartoon character. Owner Narusuke Monguchi opened the bakery two weeks ago in a landmark octagonal building on Freeport Boulevard.Sumi Larsen hasn’t lived in Japan for more than 40 years. But she’s found a little taste of home just a short drive from her Land Park home.
“This is good,” she said, pointing to a puffy pastry in a brightly lit glass case. “This one, too,” she said, pointing again. Then there’s the fluffy-looking raisin bread, so airy it appears it could float away.
Mahoroba Bakery, specializing in Japanese pastries, opened two weeks ago on Freeport Boulevard in a landmark, octagonal building. It’s a spark in a recession-weary environment begging for a cheery diversion, and could help the make the area a draw for customers seeking authentic Japanese food and other products.
Customers like Larsen are finding something familiar, while others are embracing entirely new taste sensations. On a recent weekday, employees waited on a mid-morning crush of customers.
The bakery’s Japanese-born owner and his staff are thrilled by the enthusiastic reception.
“We are so very happy,” said Mieko Namiki, who came from Japan to help launch the bakery and serves as interpreter for owner Narusuke Monguchi.
The business itself may be as rare as some of its specialty pastries. Japanese-born entrepreneurs aren’t among the top 20 nationalities of foreign business owners in this country, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Monguchi, who hails from a family that owns a wholesale bakery in Kobe, Japan, branched out to open retail bakeries, Namiki said. His first retail outlet opened in Kathmandu, Nepal.
He spent a year and a half in Sacramento before opening his second outlet and first U.S. location at 4900 Freeport in a building that was once a See’s Candy store and most recently a coffee shop. He was drawn to Sacramento, Namiki said, because he had acquaintances here.
Monguchi, 36, starts baking every morning just after midnight, producing tray after tray of pastries: Traditional anpan and cream-filled puffs named for his hometown; fruit-topped and chocolate-laced cake buns; even American-influenced versions with cheese and meat toppings, like mini-pizzas.
Tony Saca, who has owned the Freeport Boulevard shopping center site since 1976, said the bakery’s 1,500-square-foot building was spruced up with a new roof and improved handicapped access. A local developer and owner of the Filco electronics store, Saca is a frequent visitor to Japan and has already become a fan of his new tenant’s pastries.
Saca said the shopping center, his first property acquisition in Sacramento, remains his good-luck charm. Anchored on one end by Oto’s Marketplace, a Japanese grocery, the center also has a Japanese restaurant, Akebono II.
The congregation of ethnic businesses could make it a destination for suburban Japanese immigrants, said Russell Oto, the grocery store owner.
High-tech firms in Folsom and Rocklin have brought in many Japanese families, who could be lured by a new version of “Japan Town,” he said.
“We were excited to have them over there because they’ll bring more people into the area,” Oto said. “It reminds me of the Japanese bakeries in Los Angeles.”
He’s seen morning crowds at the bakery clear out the trays of baked goods.
Oto said the bakery fills a need for fresh-baked Japanese bread. He had a difficult time stocking bread, shipping it from Los Angeles, which meant it was never fresh and molded quickly. Now, he doesn’t need to bother.
Oto said he’s negotiating to open a store nearby that would sell Japanese dry goods, probably for one price, similar to the dollar-store concept. He envisions a new ethnic shopping enclave like the ones historically found in urban centers.
Before World War II, Japanese businesses in Sacramento clustered on Fourth Street, then shifted to 10th and W streets.
Creating a new “Japan Town” here would be difficult, said Glenn Fujii, chief operating officer of the Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce, noting that recession is hitting hard at existing centers in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Though Monguchi is one of relatively few Japanese-born business owners in the United States, immigrants represent 16.7 percent of all new small-business owners in the country, according to the Small Business Administration.
In California, they own 34.2 percent of the businesses that open each month, the country’s largest percentage, and their businesses generate $20 billion in annual income, a quarter of the state’s small-business total. Mexico is the dominant country of foreign-born small-business owners in California and nationally.
They can face hurdles, such as language barriers, in hiring staff and getting to know the community they will serve, said Bob Borden, an SBA spokesman. Plus, there is little government assistance specifically targeted for foreign-born small-business owners.
Monguchi’s venture – a small business with a sole foreign-born owner-operator – is risky, Borden said.
“Unless you have a really, really unique product,” he said. But “if (Monguchi) did his marketing and there is a definite demand for his product, who knows?”

Former firefighter Lino Catabran started RVBrokers Inc. online in the 1990s as a way to make money while he earned his real estate license. But it quickly grew into a three-location business with 40 employees. “It was a lot of fun to grow so quickly,” he said.If you’re looking for that recreational vehicle of your dreams, Lino Catabran might have a deal for you.
RVBrokers Inc., which once had three locations and racked up annual sales of $15 million, will close by the end of August and is liquidating inventory.
Catabran, a former firefighter, started his business online in the 1990s, hoping to make money as he got a real estate license. Instead, he grew RVBrokers into a multi-location business with 40 employees.
“It was a lot of fun to grow so quickly,” he said.
The industry’s heyday began in the mid-1990s and peaked in 2005, he said, as customers bought recreational vehicles with equity pulled from their homes. Then the price of gas soared and home values collapsed. Many RV manufacturers went out of business.
At one time, there were 15 RV dealers within a mile of RVBrokers on El Camino Avenue, Catabran said. Only a handful remain, he said.
He’s confident he can sell his remaining 30 RVs and truck campers at or below inventory prices, he said. Buyers will respond if the prices are low enough: “You got to show they can steal it,” he said.
Catabran, who will let go his eight remaining employees, said he might return to selling RVs online.
That would be typical of the RV industry’s cyclical nature. Several RV operations in the Sacramento area closed in the financial crunch of 2008, only to return later via online sales, discount operations or as sellers of used RVs.
Builder becomes buyer
After 50 years of constructing buildings, Potter-Taylor & Co. in Sacramento is turning to buying them.
Potter-Taylor has built a number of shopping centers in the region – 2 million square feet in the past five years. But when the recession hit, it was time to shift gears, said Lux Taylor, company president.
“There’s no reason to build right now,” he said, noting that rents have dropped so low there is virtually no demand for new retail construction.
Instead, Taylor has turned to buying the same types of shopping centers he once built – and is finding deals.
In July, Potter-Taylor bought a 26-year-old shopping center anchored by Raley’s and JCPenney in Yreka near the Oregon border. The 14-acre property, with 127,148 square feet of leasable space and about 20 stores, had been listed for $16 million. Potter-Taylor says it bought the center for $9.6 million.
The price drop eased the financing, said Taylor, who went through River City Bank in Sacramento.
The only other large, anchored shopping center to sell in Northern California this year was anchored by Safeway in Vallejo, Taylor said.
The company is looking to buy similar property, said Taylor, who already manages 1.5 million square feet of retail space in Northern California.
“We like the grocery-drugstore idea since daily needs are doing well,” he said.
The company’s foray into buying has taught Taylor one thing: “It’s a hell of a lot easier to buy them than build them.”

RVBrokers is liquidating its inventory at its lot on El Camino Avenue. Founder Lino Catabran says the industry peaked in 2005 as customers pulled equity out of their homes to buy RVs. Then higher gas prices and the collapse of the housing market took their toll.

CiCi Mattiuzzi says her job hunting book contains several self-evaluation quizzes.From her front-row seat on the recession, Sac State career expert Cici Mattiuzzi has seen the increasing frustration of job-seeking college grads.
This summer she’s doing something about it.
After 31 years in career advising, Mattiuzzi is rewriting her job-hunting book aimed at CSUS engineering/computer science students and turning it into a how-to manual for any job seeker.
Better yet, she’s posting the book online – for free – at www.seriousjobseeker.com.
Putting it online will cost her some book royalties. She doesn’t mind.
“Will it really make a difference in my life? No,” she says. “But could it make a difference in some kid’s life? Yes.”
The online book, called “The Ultimate Career Planning Manual for the Serious Job Seeker,” is not yet finished. But Mattiuzzi is posting chapters and sections as she completes them.
It’s filled with personalized features, starting with an “IQ” test to determine if job seekers are really serious – and self-assessment tools to identify their skills and accomplishments.
There’s also a personality test to help job hunters determine “who they are” and what jobs best suit them.
By the end of summer, Mattiuzzi will have added résumé templates where “all you have to do is type in your information and it electronically formats this amazing résumé.”
Mattiuzzi’s advice: Finding a job requires hard work and being prepared to stay at it for months.
“There are jobs out there even in the toughest economy,” she says. “You just need to know how to look for them.”
Sold out
Developers of the 28-unit Sutter Brownstones complex in midtown have pulled off a coup in the toughest of housing markets: They’ve sold out the project in just 16 months.
The last two units – priced at $450,000 each – went into escrow last week after sales director Mollie Nelson sent out an e-mail blast offering a $10,000 cut in closing costs.
Aside from that, she said no discounts were ever offered on the brick-covered single-family units that went on sale in April 2008 at prices ranging from $370,000 to $625,000.
“Other (housing developers) discounted; we never did,” says Nelson, who represents the LoftWorks partnership that built the three-story project on N Street between 26th and 27th streets. “If I lived there, I’d be happy knowing that none of my neighbors got a better deal than me.”
Opening soon …
… is the long-planned Iron Steaks eatery in the former Fuji Japanese restaurant site at 13th and Broadway.
Owner Bill Taylor plans a soft opening next week with a series of cocktail parties to show off nearly $800,000 worth of building renovations, including fir floors, faux-leather booths and aluminum grillwork suspended from the ceiling. Dinner service will start a week later and lunches will be added by the end of August. An upstairs banquet room opens later this year.
Taylor, who also owns the popular Willie’s Burgers chain, says Iron will be a Midwest-style steakhouse – specializing in porterhouse cuts – but with some Asian influences on the menu in deference to the former Fuji restaurant and its Japanese-influenced architecture.
In keeping with the new restaurant’s name, Taylor plans to dish up his signature steaks on cast-iron plates to boost the “sizzle factor.”
Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.

Sacramento firefighters are responding to Sand Cove Park, near the Garden Highway and Interstate 80, for a water rescue in the Sacramento River, according to authorities.
The call came in to dispatch about 4:30 p.m., said city fire Capt. Jason Hemler. He said the circumstances of the water rescue are not yet clear.
Return to www.sacbee.com for more details.

Homebuilders in Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties reported their second worst sales month of 2009 in June, selling just 197 homes, condominiums and townhouses, the California Building Industry Association reported about an hour ago.

Temperatures will fluctuate just below or over 100 degrees this week, according to the National Weather Service.
In Sacramento, today’s high is forecast at 99 degrees. Then the daily highs will hover over the century mark through Wednesday before dropping into the mid-90s at the end of the week.
In the metropolitan region — Vacaville to Folsom and Elk Grove to Citrus Heights — temperatures will range from 94 degrees to 104 degrees in the same period.
Here is the local forecast:
Today: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99. Calm wind becoming west northwest around 6 mph.
Tonight: Clear, with a low around 63. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south southeast.
Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Calm wind becoming west around 6 mph.
Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 64. Southwest wind between 6 and 10 mph.
Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. South southwest wind between 5 and 8 mph.
Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 61.
Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 99.
Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 61.
Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96.
Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 60.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 94.
Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 60.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 92.