And clerks open cash drawers slow, slow

So the other day, I posted about the allegations that David Howard over at Action Alameda was making against the City of Alameda and the Alameda Police Department.   Based on “anonymous sources” David Howard decided to claim that there was a “cover-up” because he couldn’t get the 911 tapes he wanted.   Of course without verifying if the anonymous source’s information was correct he decided to run with the cover-up claims and the claims that the robbery attempt was an “inside job.”

See what happens when you keep posting story after story about the same 911 tapes and the supposed cover-up because you aren’t getting your tapes instead of taking up the Police Chief on his offer to meet with you means you end up looking sort of silly when you have to write about what actually happened, because it’s so less nefarious than you initially made it out to sound.

I will admit though, David Howard did a fair job of retelling the information that he received from the Police Chief even though in the end it made his anonymous source (or “sources”) look like a complete nutjob (or nutjobs).

History repeating

MI posted a link to this article a few weeks back and I think it’s interesting in light of the historic preservation community in Alameda and its weight when it comes to issue of development in Alameda.   The article is about the preservation community in San Francisco and the backlash around a proposed preservation ordinance, highlights:

After more than a decade in which San Francisco politics was partly defined by antidevelopment and historic preservation forces, a backlash has begun. Many are surprised, however, that Beckstead’s neighborhood of 90 Victorian homes, whose owners share a passion for preserving old houses, has become the rebel stronghold against the city’s ambitious plans to preserve large swathes of San Francisco in a patchwork of historic preservation zones.

…

Hiding in plain sight

So on Friday this particular piece of goodness was posted on Action Alameda, which essentially accused the City and the Alameda Police Department of attempting to cover up the fact that there was an armed robbery at a Park Street eatery.

TKO TK

Something to watch at tonight’s school board meeting, as mentioned by a potential Transitional Kindergarten student’s parent , depending on how the Governor’s budget shakes out, Transitional Kindergarten may not be offered for incoming Kindergartners with birthdays between November 1 and December 2.   As mentioned by the parent, it appears that if Transitional Kindergarten remains unfunded in the state budget, then AUSD will not offer it next year, leaving a lot of Alameda students in a state of limbo for next year until the state budget is finalized and AUSD can make a decision.

However, in the best case scenario, if Transitional Kindergarten is offered, it appears that AUSD intends to place them at scattered sites — it appears that two classes will probably be the magic number —  and not at all neighborhood schools.   In order to maximize funding, it would probably make sense to site as many in Title I schools to be able to collect that money from the Federal government in addition to state money, off the top of my head I would say Paden, Haight, and Washington appear to be good candidates because of capacity.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Today is the start of the Lunar New Year and is the year of the dragon.   Here is a nice story from The Mercury about the way that different Asian folks celebrate the new year, in case your go to was just to call the Lunar New Year the “Chinese New Year.”

#1 Daughter is already looking forward to receiving her red envelope, the money promptly goes into her little bank account which has amassed quite a bundle given that we haven’t given her access to ever spend anything out of it.

Apparently, Lawrence Berkeley Lab is supposed to announce today which city it will locate its second campus in, hopefully Alameda can get some good news this Lunar New Year.   Fingers crossed!

So this year may you and your families be healthy and prosperous!

Whataya want from me

I’ve noticed a rather disturbing trend with two recent restaurant openings in Alameda.  I hope this is just a fluky thing, but it’s almost as though some Yelp and Alameda Patch commenters go out of their way to have negative experiences so that they can complain about them.

Let me give you an example.   The first was a profile of Bluefin Sushi Thai, a Japanese/Thai restaurant that took over the old Bips Broiler location on the East End.   First off, I’ve heard that opening a restaurant and having a successful one is really really difficult.  So one would imagine that given the difficulty in opening a restaurant, a restaurant in its first few months would have a lot of kinks to work out.   So this restaurant opens on January 3 and right out of the gate it gets a negative review on Patch.   Someone went on opening night and had a less than stellar experience.  Surprise!

Some similar nasty reviews were also left on Yelp, but that’s the problem in general with Yelp, everyone thinks they’re fricken Ruth Reichl, it’s obnoxious.

Watching the neighbors

So this is a totally non-Alameda related post — well it will be marginally related — but I found this so interesting I feel compelled to blog about it.   Perhaps some folks have been following political news from our neighbors in San Leandro?   Yes?

Great!

For those of you do not, you may find this little bit of political gossip rather intriguing and it sort of is timely because Alameda’s Planning Board is on its way to being fully fleshed out with the nominations of John Knox White and Kristoffer Koster (there’s umlauts in there somewhere) on Tuesday night.    In Alameda, the nominations to the Planning Board are all made by the Mayor and then approved by the full Council.  The vote by the full Council is mostly ceremonial since I don’t think anyone has ever been blocked by the City Council for appointment or have received anything less than an unanimous vote.  I was just reminded that there was a non unanimous vote for one recent appointment.   Of course no reason was given for the abstention, but this appointment has gone on to be one of the best and most informed Planning Board members so just goes to show what happens when people vote (no abstain) for political reasons.   But I digress.   In San Leandro, each member of its City Council gets to appoint and individual to the Planning Board — they call it the Planning Commission over there — and technically that person serves as the pleasure of the appointing Councilperson.

Lab luck

On Monday, KQED’s Quest did a brief profile on Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s search for a new campus (hat tip to Eve Pearlman at Alameda Patch for pointing this one out).  Worth the less than six minutes to listen to.

There is the acknowledgement that Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s second campus is a highly desirable prize for the cities vying for the privileged of hosting the second campus because of the big J word: jobs.   Of course there is also the acknowledgement that there is no perfect site, which is the reason why — some experts suggest — that it’s taking LBL so long to actually make a decision.  The report throws in a little about the rising sea level and storms potentially being a problem for all the sites because of the low elevation and proximity to the water.

Filling the board

Tonight the City Council meeting is sort of boring, lots of consent calendar items, not so much red meat true agenda-y type items.

What is interesting is the listing of all the outstanding debts owed by the Community Improvement Commission (aka Redevelopment Agency).   Because of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Redevelopment agencies across the state, one of the components of the upheld legislation is to provide a listing of all the enforceable obligations owed by the CIC.   This list is super important because only the obligation itemized on the list can be repaid, and this list has been created to provide a buffer between the time that the successor agency itemized obligation list, the Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule (ROPS) needs to be created.

Happy MLK, Jr Day

Nothing for today, playing with the kiddos, back tomorrow.