Archive for February, 2009
Alameda pastor plays role in Anti-8 suit
When the suit seeking to overturn Proposition 8 heads into oral arguments before the California Supreme Court on March 5, the judge handling the case will have the words of local pastor the Rev. Laura Rose to consider.
Rose, senior pastor of the First Congregational Church on Central Avenue, is part of a group of clergy [...]
Alameda Snapshot: Todd’s Shipyard Crane
An old Crane from the former Todd Ship Yard in Alameda. Now Bay Ship.
Busy Times in the Victim’s Graveyard
With much bemusement I read the regular rants against Comcast. First we complained about the old AP&T service, now we have a new whipping boy to rail on. Relax, Islanders, take a breath. We DO have options.
First I will tell my little Comcast story.
I don’t use Comcast at home, but a small organization for whom I do some volunteer work had AP&T broadband set up for Internet. One day not too long ago, we got that Comcast screen of death. I called them up, they confirmed our account was current, we went through the router/modem reset exercise. There was a little confusion at first about the AP&T/Comcast transition, but not enough to get my blood boiling. It took about 30 minutes and while I didn’t need to be on the phone, the technician was INSISTENT that he stay on the line until service was re-established. I would categorize that as pretty decent. Once we were up surfing, he let us go after confirming everything kosher. Haven’t had a problem since.
Snooze story, right? Well at home I didn’t sign up for AP&T. When I was ready to buy cable service, AP&T wasn’t ready. I bought a dish and DirecTV service, which at the time they were practically giving away equipment through various rebate programs. I think I originally paid $25 for a dish and two receivers installed. I buy my broadband from AT&T. Not especially excited about that, but, you know, they’ve kept the phones working pretty well for the past couple of years or so. When my DVR junked out on me, DirecTV offered to replace it at no charge – but it was MY decision to upgrade to DirecTV HD service. Again – after rebates, etc. the entire thing cost me about $100 for a new dish, new DVR installed.
So? You don’t like Comcast? Stop complaining to the paper and make a statement with your customer loyalty!
- You’ve got TV viewing alternatives: DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-Verse, one of those silly boxes and an aerial still work last I heard.
- You’ve got broadband alternatives: AT&T, Verizon, Earthlink
- You’ve got phone alternatives too: Vonage, Skype, drop your land lines altogether and go mobile
Complaining to the paper gets you….a headstone in the Victim’s Graveyard ???
UPDATED City Manager Kurita resigns
Updated 2:15 p.m.
In case you missed it yesterday, City Manager Debra Kurita has resigned.
Kurita, who came to the job in August 2005, handed in her resignation Thursday afternoon after a series of closed-door sessions on her performance that ended with a four-hour meeting Tuesday night.
“The City Council members and I have met to discuss my [...]
What can the Brown Act do for you?
Considering that Don Roberts is such a stickler for the following the Brown Act to the letter, I’m shocked that he is not all over this. Yesterday, the Action Alameda “News” Blog posted this tidbit:
The other night there was a Special City Council meeting with an agenda item to discuss in closed session:
Adjournment to Closed Session [...]
Green Living by Janet Marchant: Clean Coal!
We here in Alameda are lucky that our local power company, The Bureau of Alameda Telecom and Green Electrical Municipal Power (BATGEMP), provides us with 100% “green” electricity. They are able to do this is by using Clean Coal, an energy technology that is backed by everybody—Environmentalists, the Coal industry who creates it, and of course President Obama. Well, it’s opposed by a few “reality-based” nut-cases but we won’t worry about them.
Now, we all know about the benefits of burning coal, and of course Clean Coal is even better! Here’s a great video about Clean Coal. (There seems to be some kind of typo in the text right at the end, so I would just ignore that part if I were you.)
One of the great things about Clean Coal is that it allows us to burn coal, which some short-sighted people over the years have argued is not particularly good for the environment, in a clean fashion. It’s so clean, you can take a bath in it, in fact. Ever since I learned that our electricity comes from such clean sources, my family has boosted our electrical consumption in order to “vote with our pocketbooks” for this kind of technology. We hope that you will too.
Here are some ideas on how to consume extra electricity so that you can encourage more production of Clean Coal:
- Wash your clothes, but take them out before the final spin cycle. Carefully put your dripping clothes into your dryer (it is all-electric, isn’t it?) and start it up. Be sure to check on your clothes every few hours to make sure that you have not over-dried your clothes.
- Put a humidifier and a dehumidifier into the same room and let them “fight it out.”
- If you have an air conditioner—a necessity in Alameda, really—you can also do the same by using it at the same time as your electric heaters. If you don’t have an air conditioner, just open a window for a similar effect, but do try to get an air conditioner installed as soon as possible.
- In case you haven’t removed those dangerous compact fluorescent bulbs from your light fixtures, replace them immediately…with Halogen bulbs, if at all possible, so that your rooms feel sunnier.
- Give your fireplace a break and heat your home with your hair dryers. (But be sure to do it safely—remember that we have been asked to have fewer fires.)
- Buy rechargeable batteries! Yes, I know this is counterintuitive, but here’s the twist—charge them up using Alameda electricity, and then send them as presents to your out-of-town friends. Just be sure to tell them to send them back to you for further recharging after they run out, or just dispose of them if that is not convenient.
- Turn your electric water heater up to the highest possible setting. Not only will this encourage BATGEMP to send more Clean Coal power your way, it will keep your water safe and disinfected. Can’t get much greener than that!
- Leave your refrigerator and freezer doors propped open. You will probably need to adjust their thermostats slightly to compensate.
- Do not turn appliances off, ever. You may need to think “outside the box” for this, because some appliances were not meant to be left on for long periods of time. We all know that turning electrical appliances on and off shortens their lifespan, so figuring out a way to keep your appliances on will reduce wear and tear as well as encouraging the production of more Clean Coal. For example, use duct tape to hold down the handle on your toaster so that the toast doesn’t pop up (thereby turning off the toaster and breaking the flow of electricity). Just keep a fork handy to pull the toast out manually while the heating coils stay cookin’.
If we all set a goal to increase our electricity usage by 200% here in Alameda, just think how much more Clean Coal will be produced—and by doing so, we’ll be greener and cleaner than ever!
Hello, Comcast! In Alameda, you disappoint
Today, I was emailing with a friend while she was on the phone with Comcast, trying to re-establish internet connectivity. She wrote, “51 minutes and 46 seconds and still on.” Later, I asked her how it had been resolved and she wrote, “After over an hour I got an appointment with a tech to come [...]
Alameda City Manger Debra Kurita out
So the rumors have been bubbling up for weeks, but today—after a closed-door city council session earlier in the week–Alameda’s City Manager Debra Kurita, who has served the city for more than three years, tendered her resignation.
The Alameda Journal has this story. Michele Ellson at The Island has this. A while back I did [...]
UPDATED: CITY MANAGER KURITA RESIGNS
City Manager Debra Kurita has resigned, Mayor Beverly Johnson said today.
Kurita submitted her resignation at around a quarter after four today, Johnson said.
“It’s always regrettable to lose someone on your senior management team,” Johnson said. “I wish her the best. She has a lot to be proud of here in Alameda.”
The Island has not yet [...]
APD’s internal affairs chief arrested on controlled substance charge
A 26-year veteran of the Alameda Police Department has been arrested on preliminary charges he illegally obtained prescription medications, Alameda police reported today.
Officers with the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement arrested Ronald R. Jones, who reportedly led APD’s internal affairs section, on two probable cause felony counts of fraud, deceit and misrepresentation to obtain a [...]
