The Four Corners of the Earth are Contained Within the Four Corners of Fair Oaks

Fair Oaks Village

A certain energy emanates from Plaza Park, the heart of Fair Oaks Village, and the hub of cultural and community events. Promptly, at 7:30 a.m., Dick Hill's crew at Oaks Hardware lines the storefront sidewalk with merchandise displays. The store doesn't open until eight, but customers arrive long before business hours just to chat, and to get the local morning news. The chickens crowd around local businesses hoping to be the first to get to the feed scattered on the ground by shop owners.

A few hours after sunrise, every Tuesday and Thursday, Village Park becomes a canvas of poetic movement. Dan Wold's T'ai Chi classes practice their forms and movements, while chickens, roosters and neighborhood dogs practice their own routines.

Folks stop by the Fair Oaks Coffee Shop and Deli to say hi to Izzy, swap local gossip (who the local security patrol nabbed last night), and to meet for conversation with good friends.

Madison Plaza/Brickyard

Big John stands behind the counter of the locksmith shop, keeping guard at the corner of Kenneth and Madison. Patrons quickly go in and out of the convenience store for coffee and a morning paper, stopping for a moment to chat.

Madison and Hazel

The center parking lot fills up early with folks who want to get a head start on the day's grocery shopping, or folks who want a cappuccino and some good conversation with friends and new acquaintances.

Madison and Fair Oaks

Other folks combine a trip for a bagel and a mocha, or sit on the shared patio of Bruegger's and Aric's, planning prospects of the day ahead, or prolonging their morning leisure with conversation.

Fair Oaks seems to revolve around coffee, food, hardware and friendly chat. Everywhere you go people are talking to one another-and not just about business. In the Village, folks sit in the coffee shops and breakfast houses to talk about health, their kids and families, and what's going on in the community. You don't get that in downtown Sacramento, or even as close as Carmichael, where people seldom talk to one another about anything other than business. In Fair Oaks, though, there's a whole lot of conversation going on, from the Northridge and Winding Oaks Shopping Centers aong San Juan Avenue, and Winding Way to Hazel Ridge near Currough Downs. Whether consciously, or driven subconsciously by a certain energy that flows throughout the centennial district, the people in Fair Oaks are communicating. They are working together to build and maintain a sense of community. They care about their community and one another.

It is in that spirit that the Fair Oaks Guardian exists. We hope to find enough advertising support from the business community to provide another link in the overwhelming communication that is happening in Fair Oaks. We want to provide a central link so that the folks from one corner of the community can share their ideas and concerns with the other corners of town.

We are an eclectic community, comprised of young, old, newcomers and dependable rocks, all of whom seem to have more of a tolerance and enjoyment of one another than folks of other communities. Our crime rate is one of the lowest in the Sacramento Valley. Our children attend some of the finest schools with some of the finest teachers in the San Juan Unified School District. Our streets and parks are some of the cleanest in the metropolitan area.

Other than a movie theater, everything found at the four corners of the Earth can be found from the Four Corners of Fairs Oaks. We do seem to have a lot more than most folks.

Still, as with all things, there is a lot of work to be done. The Fair Oaks Guardian hopes to provide a vehicle for all of Fair Oaks to stay current with the work going on.

Our goal is to become a community newspaper in every sense of the word. We want the residents of Fair Oaks to write the news. Young and not-so-young alike, we invite you to write about the events happening on your block. If you don't feel like writing, give us a call. We'd be happy to hear what you know.

And if you happen to see us sitting around the local coffee shops (we frequent them all), feel free to sit down and chat. We like to talk as much as we like to write.