I mean, this was the inevitable next plot twist in this story right? Now all we need is some character to come back from the dead and we have the makings of the worst tv show ever.
It’s incredibly fucked up that they can’t even Fucking control the coronavirus outbreak in the White House and they’re telling us to open up everything now. https://t.co/98Sfkt4Z0q
— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) May 11, 2020
Welp, I guess we’ve just gone full on banana republic. It was nice while it all lasted.
Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his illicit Russian contacts.
His lies do not now become truths.
This dismissal does not exonerate him.
But it does incriminate Bill Barr.
In the worst politicization of the Justice Department in its history.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 7, 2020
And tonight another City Council meeting this time to consider the issues of A/26 and the conflict between that Charter amendment and the General Plan (as well as the small issue of State requirements). Of course, regardless if the City Council decides to move a ballot measure forward for November A/26 is going to remain hopelessly neutered by all of the State legislation with the goal to making housing people easier not harder.
There are four options for consideration:
Because we are unable to walk and chew gum at the same time the City Council is having another meeting tonight to only tackle the issue of the City Charter. At least the majority of the Council are able to do this from the comfort of their home rather than schlep to City Hall.
And apparently some letter writers urging that the City Council wait until the 2020 national election have no idea how modifications to the City Charter actually work.
Fun fact: even if the City Council approves these measures tonight the approval is to PLACE THESE MEASURES ON THE 2020 “national election” ballot.
I realize that everyone still has a bit of Corona brain fog but the the days do keep happening and we are still marching toward an election in November so maybe folks can pull themselves away from Netflix to focus up for like two seconds. Speaking of streaming television has anyone caught Upload on Amazon Prime? It’s highly entertaining. Also I’ve notice in the two shows I’ve been watching set sometime in the “future”: Upload and Westworld that inevitable you catch someone in the background wearing a mask. I guess a more “advanced” society does what most of Asia has been doing for years now: normalize the wearing of masks if you, the wearer, are feeling ill. But I digress.
The City Council has made the right move to support small businesses in Alameda through a grant program but the window to apply for the grant is closing and it’s not clear if the City has performed the necessary outreach to the businesses that are getting shut out of the larger federal PPP program which is, supposedly, designed to help keep small businesses afloat.
But first, the context: recent reports have shown that small businesses owned by people of color have been largely excluded from PPP loans. From Fast Company:
Along with hundreds of thousands of small business owners who have fewer than 20 employees (which constitute the vast majority of employers in the country), Andre did not benefit from a program that was expressly intended to help entrepreneurs like him. The $349 billion program ran out in two weeks, amid widespread accounts of large public companies and businesses that hired well-connected lobbyists, getting millions in loans.
Aha, so it’s not just me and my “feeling” that the speed are getting faster out there:
Tickets for speeding in excess of 100 mph surge nearly 90% during pandemic https://t.co/LTQOQ6MVZh pic.twitter.com/KJlxfuFIGJ
— KRON4 News (@kron4news) May 4, 2020
The other day I was driving down Central near Encinal high school right around the weird merge down to one lane and the hard right on to 3rd Street. There was a car like a whole block behind me, I was going a smooth 25 mph, as one does in Alameda, then suddenly I start hearing the sound of acceleration behind me. The car that was a whole block behind me decided that perhaps they didn’t want to be behind me any longer and cut that block distance within seconds and proceeded to pass me in that tiny merge lane as I was maybe 10 yards away from that 3rd street turn. It was pretty scary and intimidating and so unnecessary.
In response to people needing to get outside but still remain six feet away from other people also getting outside, the City of Alameda has started a Slow Streets pilot.
While the goal is to help people social distance it’s actually going to help slow down the car traffic in town. For those that have been driving around town, I don’t know if you’ve noticed that cars are definitely picking up a lot of speed and it’s definitely a bad mix considering the increase of people biking, walking, and scootering.
Here’s the map of the street which are currently closed to non-emergency or resident (of that street) car traffic.
I know we’re supposed to be supporting local restaurants during this time but with all the time on my hands I just can’t bring myself to buy prepared food when I have a perfectly good kitchen and enough supplies to make our own meals. I think during this whole shelter-in-place we’ve gotten pizza at Star once. They have a really well design pick up system by the way for anyone who is interested.
I’ve not made any bread yet and definitely none of the sourdough variety. I have made pizza though and if you’re looking for a good pan pizza type recipe, might I suggest this one? The big bonus is that it will season your cast iron pan as well. I have made cinnamon rolls as well but those I just stuck in the freezer for later.
Extroverts, I’m sorry. That’s it. I know how you all must have felt a month ago because now I, an extreme introvert, am so done with the sheltering-in-place so I know you must be going absolutely crazy at this point.
So, unless you’ve just been binging Netflix and haven’t pulled up your news feed yet, the Bay Area is sheltering-in-place until the end of May. That’s right, the end of May.
All I have to say is, I hope this is all worth it and we quash this thing. I mean, look, I know we’re not going to be anywhere near normal until there’s a vaccine, but I hope the collective sacrifice means that we’ll never see New York levels of death.
For me, I’m not really missing people, but I miss being able to do things like wander around Target or going out for soup dumplings.
If you’re looking for an overall California view on COVID-19 numbers, see this link from the state of California. Even though it feels like California has escaped the worst of the COVID-19 impacts for now, who can say what the next, projected wave will bring. I know I’ve mentioned that California’s overall positive test numbers seem low, probably because we’re not mass testing, but that’s due to change come June when Kaiser will have its lab up and running in Berkeley to process 70,000 tests per week. From Berkeleyside:
Testing will be available for Kaiser’s 4.5 million members in Northern California, which includes recipients of Medi-Cal, Covered California and free or reduced-cost community healthcare through Kaiser. The lab will have about a dozen workers and start off by testing patients who are at high risk for contracting the virus, based on guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The tests will produce results in under 24 hours, whereas others have taken anywhere from 10 to 14 days.
Kaiser will broaden the testing to other patients as local jurisdictions begin to relax shelter-in-place restrictions and identifying asymptomatic patients with contact tracing becomes more important. The system is also increasing its in-house testing from 1,000 to 1,500 a day, which includes tests with a 10-minute turnaround for those patients who are already hospitalized.
The new facility will not be processing serology/antibody tests, according to a Kaiser spokesman.
