The Rio City Cafe has sat empty next to the Sacramento River for nearly two years, the previous long-time operators victims of a city that refused to maintain the riverfront deck that made the historic district restaurant so popular, as it became off-limits for safety reasons.
This replica of a steamship warehouse is 32 years old and shows it.
The city of Sacramento, which is responsible for the property, has never replaced its original wooden shake roof, a fire hazard just waiting for something to happen. Dead weeds stand in the gutters. A building begging for fresh paint is surrounded by a chain-link fence…