Sacramento Neighborhoods, From the Grid to the River Bend

Sacramento neighborhoods change every couple of miles. A Midtown Victorian on a lettered street, a 1950s Eichler in South Land Park Hills and a 2000s tract home in North Natomas all carry the same city address. They come with very different lots, commutes and questions.

The California Department of Finance counted 539,765 people in the City of Sacramento on January 1, 2026. That was up 1.3% from a year earlier and made it California's sixth largest city. The city was laid out in 1848 and incorporated in 1850, and the Legislature moved here for good in 1854.

The city sits where the American River runs into the Sacramento River. In 1978 the Arbor Day Foundation named it the first "City of Trees" in the country. The city measures its tree canopy at about 19% today, and its Urban Forest Plan aims for 35% by 2045.

Inside the city limits you have state offices downtown, Sacramento State in East Sacramento and the airport about 10.5 miles northwest of downtown. Electricity comes from SMUD rather than PG&E, which still supplies gas. People coming from the Bay Area notice that on the first bill.

The clearest way to understand the city is by the decade each part was built.

• Midtown. Usually defined as J to R Streets and 16th to 30th Streets, Midtown is a tree-lined grid of old Victorians with infill lofts and apartments between them. Sutter's Fort, Second Saturday and the Saturday farmers market at 1050 20th Street are all inside it. The Boulevard Park and Newton Booth historic districts sit at its edges.
• Downtown. Golden 1 Center opened here in 2016, and the state offices that now ask most workers in four days a week are a short walk away. The Crocker Art Museum, founded in 1885, and the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento anchor the riverfront.
• East Sacramento. Development began in the 1890s, and the area joined the city in 1911. The Fabulous Forties, 38th to 47th Streets between J Street and Folsom Boulevard, carry the largest lots. McKinley Park and Sacramento State bracket the neighborhood.
• Land Park. Land Park is mostly single-family streets between I-5 and Freeport Boulevard, wrapped around William Land Park. South Land Park Hills holds Eichler homes from 1955 and 1956, made a city historic district in 2024.
• Curtis Park. Curtis Park grew as Victorian, bungalow and 1920s revival subdivisions between Freeport Boulevard and Highway 99, from Broadway to Sutterville Road.
• Pocket and Greenhaven. This river bend began as the master-planned Greenhaven '70 in 1958 and filled in during the 1980s and early 1990s. Lake Greenhaven, a former brickyard clay pit, is ringed by private lakefront homes.
• Natomas. South Natomas was built mostly from the 1950s to the 1980s. North Natomas was farmland until the mid-1990s, and its subareas include Natomas Park, Westlake and Willowcreek. It also holds the city's two gated 55+ communities, covered on our downsizing in Sacramento page.

The city's biggest farmers market runs every Sunday morning year-round under the freeway at 8th and W Streets. Capitol Mall adds a Wednesday market from April to October, and Meadowview runs Sundays from May to October.

The Kitchen at 915 Broadway earned Sacramento's first Michelin star in 2019 and kept it in June 2026. Frank Fat's on L Street marked 87 years in 2026. The Torch Club on 15th Street has booked live blues since 1934, and Channel 24 opened in Midtown in April 2025 with room for 2,150.

Golfers have four city courses. Haggin Oaks has an Alister MacKenzie course that opened in 1932, and William Land's nine holes date to 1924. Bing Maloney and Bartley Cavanaugh sit on Freeport Boulevard.

The Sacramento Zoo has been in William Land Park since 1927. Its planned move to Elk Grove was cancelled in 2025, and an expansion at the park was approved in April 2026.