A few months ago, our community was called to action to support tolerance and respect for all people. Thanks to you and many others, there is no doubt about where our community stands on issues of compassion and tolerance! However, work remains to be done.
The Good News (below the fold):
Close [...]The final judgment in the lawsuit against Lesson 9/Tolerance teaching in Alameda is out and the court doesn’t mince words. The District has prevailed! And what a smackdown of the petitioners it was.
Asked during the proceedings if the Plaintiffs would drop their suit if all 6 protected classes were [...]
Tomorrow (Tues) is the first hearing in the Lesson 9 court case, one of the two efforts to allow parents to avoid having tolerance for gays/children of gays taught to their children. Of the two efforts, the lawsuit is the less pernicious in my mind, though still depressing.
Stepping away from [...]
So back at the end of September, Renewed Hope released the much ballyhooed “Doubtful Promises” report. Upon reading it, I had some questions and reached out to Eve Bach and Bill Smith, the authors who graciously offered to answer them. Time availability being what it is (see:JKW:lack of [...]
At the Chamber of Commerce breakfast, which I have to admit I didn’t attend so I’m relying on feedback from a number of people here, the Mayor let slip that she thought the city should remove the “interim” from Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant’s title. It was an off-the-cuff [...]
Tuesday night, the City Council took up the issue of holding a presentation on the City’s two election reports. The referral was brought by the Mayor, and if you watch the full meeting the City Manager. (Interpretive video of the discussion below):
First off much appreciation to Marie Gilmore and [...]
Mayor Johnson’s waffling on the Alameda Point issue was hardly a big secret. Just about everybody in town was talking about it weeks before last Tuesday’s press release. What was surprising, and strange, and possibly worrisome, is how it rolled out.
First, it was sent out from the City of Alameda, [...]
I was glad to see someone else picked up on the interesting comment in SunCal’s response to the mayor last week. Michele at The Island not only noted that SunCal let drop that they have been negotiating an amended Development Agreement (DA) with the City, in response to some [...]
Apparently, hedge funds are so toxic in Alameda that just throwing the word around is enough to qualify as in depth criticism of the Alameda Point Revitalization initiative. The question at Alameda Point is whether or not there will be money to build the projects, and it seems that Hedge [...]
At the end of last week, Bill O’Reilly sat down with Fox news anchor Megyn Kelly to discuss the Alameda school “Lesson 9″ issue. What we heard was, well, almost unbelievable. Check it out:
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Last week, The City released its Traffic Impact Report for the Alameda Point project. And it’s a pretty good report. Honest, conservative (meaning likely overstating traffic), and presenting the information in a way that give readers (non-technical readers) the ability to understand the overall concepts and results.
I have been toying with the idea of instituting a comments policy to more clearly define what my expectations of behavior are on my site. Over the last two and a half years, I have moderated one comment out of the approximately 1300 that have been left (not including spam [...]
On Saturday, I attended the AC Transit service reduction workshop at Independence Plaza along with about 120 other folks. Someone called both the Fire Dept and the Police because the room was over capacity. The meeting went well: 30-minute presentation of what was happening, 60-minutes of discussion with planners. After [...]
As we head into another summer-like weekend, I thought the words of President Obama were appropriate for (and in line with) our community.
disclosure: I’m volunteering to work against the recall of Jensen, Tam and Mooney, lest anyone be confused where I stand on the issue.
[...]On Saturday, Alamedans have one last chance to weigh in on proposed changes to AC Transit’s service. I’ve highlighted what I see as the pros and cons here. The end result is less bus service in Alameda, and no matter what anybody does, that’s where we will end up.
Saturday, [...]
I thought it would be good to put together Alameda related commute options for tomorrow’s unexpected Bay Bridge closure. Though I’d imagine that everyone’s already come up with a plan since it was closed last Friday.
1. Telecommute
2. Ferries (lots of trips, but leave early or late!). Ride a bike, Line [...]
Dennis Evanosky has some great coverage of the S.E.R.V.E. meeting and claims therein. Rather than falling into the trap of thinking that journalism entails telling two sides of a story and leaving it at that, something we see a lot of in local news coverage, Evanosky digs a little deeper [...]
A little over three weeks ago, we learned about the efforts of 10 people who have started a recall effort of a majority of the school board. Since that time, their numbers have swelled to “about three dozen.” Lauren Do highlighted what appears to be glaring disingenousness within [...]
Assemblymember Jared Huffman co-wrote an editorial in yesterday’s Insight section of the SF Chronicle. From Walk this way – urge ’sustainable development.
So why is suburban sprawl the norm instead of housing close to shops, cafes and transit? The primary roadblock to this development is local land-use policies.
Yet market trends [...]
While it’s easy to say, memorable, and shocking, the West End of Alameda is not losing its bus service. But unfortunately, this is becoming the framing for AC Transit’s reduction/restructuring plan. First the map:
Animated image showing existing [...]
What Can We Learn from the Dutch Self Explaining Roads? from the sustainable cities collective has an interesting piece on how wider roads in urbanized areas (read Alameda) are not creating the safest environement for drivers, walkers or bicyclists. It’s an issue that is ongoing in Alameda, where our [...]
Wednesday night, there will be a public study session on “Proposed I-880 Improvements Between 23rd Avenue and 29th Avenue.” The project is due to be completed in 2015 and promises to be pretty disruptive to drivers traveling North on I-88o.
Remove and replace the 23rd Ave and 29th Ave. overcrossings Reconstruct [...]Not an article can be written or cited about SunCal these days without what is becoming an almost ubiquitous comment posting from alamedapointinfo.com. The site is totally anti-SunCal, but I wanted to give the creators props as an example of moderated criticism that has so far been missing from [...]
Don’t forget to show your support for Tolerance, Diversity and just plain-old doing the right thing. Sign the Petition in support of Jensen, Tam and Mooney.
The Intent to move forward with a recall has been filed and the candidate Statements against the recall, which are required to accompany each [...]
If you drive by city hall today, the flags will be at half mast for May Mew in honor of her service to the city. She passed away on August 12th at the age of 94.
I never had the privilege to meet Ms. May, but did have a chance to [...]
The Petition against the School Board recall got over 300 signers before midnight of the first day. If you haven’t signed it. Please do.
Now news has broken that the Pacific Justice Institute, the defenders of “religious freedom” (often known as insisting that their version of religion be taught [...]
The folks behind the AUSD Board recall movement have yet to file their paperwork (which will give them 120 days to collect 8600 signatures). This not just a colosal waste of energy and a major act of non-compassion, it’s also a huge waste of money and time on behalf [...]
Tonight, the Alameda Soccer Club will be voting on an issue that will have long standing ramifications for Alameda children’s access to fields in the city. If you’re child plays ASC soccer, you’re a member and can attend.
Quick background:
The Jack London Youth Soccer League (JLYSL) is made up of [...]Yesterday, members of our school board, Jensen, Tam and Mooney, were served with paperwork announcing that a group of Alamedans have filed papers to initiate a recall of them on the school board. They are calling themselves SERVE, after the process to deliver legal papers on a weekend to people’s [...]
Tonight is the Transportation Commission/Public Hearing on AC Transit’s proposed 15% service reduction. Alameda City Hall – 7:30 pm.
Bay Farm has been very lucky in terms for the bus service that it has had for the past few years. It was scheduled to have 30-minute headways, but AC Transit combined [...]
For today’s post, the Northern Waterfront will be included in the east end of the island. Significant changes include:
Line 19 no longer running along Buena Vista (households North of Buena Vista will be more than 1200 feet from [...]On Wednesday (July 22), the Transportation Commission will hold a joint public hearing with the Social Services Human Relations Board to discuss the proposed AC Transit service changes aimed at reducing overall service by 15% due to reductions in operations funding from sales tax collection and the State Transportatio Account [...]
Word is out and confirmed that the Alameda Beltline lawsuit is over. The railroads have decided it’s time to stop fighting, meaning the city has prevailed, and now there are some procedural steps and documents that need to be created, but for less than $1 million, the city will be [...]
Fun parade today (photos below the fold), a couple of quick observations and highlights:
Thrilled to see the lincoln middle school marching band actually marching The irony of the fitness club members riding stationary bikes and treadmills while be driven on the back of a semi. Overheard a lot of comments about how [...]Rin Kelly has done it. Written the perfect Rorshach test for Alameda Point. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. Apparently it doesn’t matter what her article says (and says well and fairly), you can see that it has proved you right all along. Which either says [...]
Last Friday, AC transit released its proposal for service adjustments in light of the fiscal emergency that has been declared for the District. Those who have been following this issue know that there were public workshops held in May in which AC transit outline their overall methodology for dealing [...]
