Who Will Bring Free Noontime Neighborhood Classical Music Concerts to More Senior Citizen Nondrivers?

In Sacramento's Arden Arcade area there are many senior citizen women. Most would love to attend free weekday or weekend concerts at noon of classical and/or world music. Many are nondrivers who use public transportation, when it's available. What they see are few sidewalks and fast-food eateries on nearly every other corner. If you organize noontime concerts, people will come and also shop.

How about the senior citizens, usually women, who are free one day a week at noontime banding together and asking volunteer musicians, usually students or retired music instructors, to play and/or sing classical or world music one hour a week from noon to one at any of the numerous shopping malls, library conference rooms or church social halls or perhaps even eateries along Marconi Avenue? Harpists, especially welcome to play healing music.

The men in Sacramento have their "Sons in Retirement" meetings locally, but what about us women nondrivers who live where there are no sidewalks and bus service that comes only once an hour, never on Sunday, and not much after dark? How about one more free music at noon concert in some public place--school lounges, shopping malls, library conference rooms, social halls of houses of worship, or any other public place along Marconi Avenue between Watt Avenue and Eastern Avenue where there are so many senior citizen women, few sidewalks, and nothing really happening much weekdays or even weekends at noon for us senior nondrivers.

You have clubs for older women, but most meet either in areas that require you have a car or at night. For those who walk or take the bus, we need more classical and/or world music concerts at noon any day, at the shopping centers or other public places. As more seniors arrive, we also do more shopping. Also the many churches along Marconi Avenue might offer one day a week free classical music or world music concerts open to the public.

Take an example from Westminster Presbyterian Church. But for the seniors in Arden Arcade, that means waiting up to an hour for a bus ride to the light rail station, and another nearly half hour ride downtown, plus a walk through Capitol Park to see the Wednesday concert. With few, if any senior centers in Arden Arcade easily accessible by nondrivers from Marconi Avenue, us seniors, mostly women and especially the low-income seniors, would love to see more noontime free concerts.

Who will come forward and organize a place and the volunteer musicians to come and play at noon for an hour once a week in Arden Arcade? Most of the senior women, especially the nondrivers, live along Marconi Avenue, on the side streets, between Fulton Avenue and Eastern Avenue, and around El Camino and Watt Avenues, along those side streets near the Country Club mall.

Arden Arcade has too few senior centers where nondrivers can take public transportation or walk. And the Country Club shopping center could use more noontime musicians. The one harpist who comes there on Fridays plays from 11 to 1 pm. Seniors would really enjoy other musicians playing classical or world music there noontime to 1 pm or similar daylight hours for the many seniors living walking distance from Country Club shopping mall, the libraries, and various houses of workshop along Marconi Avenue. Seniors in Sacramento who no longer drive or who have always rode public transportation enjoy classical, world, ambient, or ethnic music at noon. Since most concerts are at night, what is being done to bring music to senior centers during daylight hours? Most seniors using buses and light rail ride only in the daylight hours.

With so many music students at CSUS and UC Davis, there are a lot of opportunities to perform at local senior centers and other places easy to get to by bus or light rail at noon. Besides the Wednesdays concerts at Westminster Presbyterian Church, are there any other similar concerts for seniors at convenient places--malls, senior centers, various churches, campuses, or community centers, particularly in the Arden Arcade area--where there are two walkable shopping malls?

Where do you go at noon when there are no sidewalks around Marconi Avenue near Watt, and you're a senior nondriver? How about some classical and world music concerts in the area given by music students, retired instructors, or those who want to showcase their music once a week, or even once a month? If you'd like to organize entertainment for seniors in the Watt and Marconi Avenue areas of Arden Arcade, it's really needed in this area where there are many seniors, few sidewalks, and bus service that only runs once an hour in the daytime.