When you pick up the new issue of the mag you’ll notice the survey form for Midtown Monthly’s first-ever Reader’s Choice Awards. We’re hoping you’ll fill it out and send it in to us (by July 1, please.) Or, if you just don’t feel like finding an envelope and stamp,  fill out our online survey instead. One way or the other, we want you to send us YOUR CHOICES for the best Midtown has to offer! We’ll publish the results in our August issue.

When the idea of Midtown Monthly doing a Reader’s Choice Issue was first proposed, I was, frankly, unexcited. It seems like every magazine, TV station and website has something similar, and I didn’t want to just jump on that bandwagon. After all, I like to think of our regular content as sort of a ‘Critic’s Choice’ for cool stuff in Sacramento.

But then, the more we talked about the idea, the more appealing it got – especially when we decided to make this a real Midtown survey – with ONLY Midtown spots up for vote. It’s been my experience that limitations tend to make things way more interesting (like how drummers with three piece kits are always better than drummers with a rack full of tom toms) and I suddenly found myself wondering just how a Midtown-only survey would turn out.

First off, where is Midtown?

I think most people, myself included, generally think of Midtown as starting at the Memorial Auditorium, ending near Alhambra and extending some distance north and south of J. A poll of MidMo contributors found a general consensus that Midtown went all the way to B Street but we were stumped on how far south it went. A quick call to the Midtown Business Association settled the question; according to the experts, the Midtown district runs from 15th Street to Alhambra and from B Street to X. Broadway is its own thang.

Taking that geography as our limiting factor, we asked contributors to suggest categories and then whittled down the suggestions to just over 20 choices. Keeping this Midtown-specific automatically eliminated a lot of options since we figured there had to be at least three prime contenders to make a category competitive. Goodbye Best Thrift Store, Best Grocery and Best Bike Trail. Sorry, Tony King, Best Jukebox didn’t make the cut either.

Some things were iffy and we just didn’t know how to make them work. Best DJ? Best Blogger? Best Fashionista? All could easily fit into the survey, but none are really geographically Midtown. We noodled around with ideas and came up with Best Dance Night, Best Blog for Midtown and Best Boutique. I’m expecting the competition on that last one to be brutal.

So that’s it. We’ve spent the last four years blathering on about what we think are the best things around – now we’re really eager to see what you think! I can’t wait to start reading your responses.

See you in a month…

-tim

June 2nd, 2011 | Posted in Blog | 4 Comments