Town Crier: The future of Montclair Village

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MONTCLARION: March 8, 2012

It was 1988 when my husband and I moved to Montclair. We were so smitten with the Village — with it’s little storybook library and fire station, western-themed park and baseball field.

We came here for the same reasons you did — the shopping, the nature, the small-town feel just minutes from the city. A lot has changed in 24 years, not the least of which is the shopping district. We’re seeing more banks and realtors and fewer Mom-and-Pop shops. Reader David Cloutier says it’s been a concern in his circle of friends for some time. Continue reading →

Travel with an eye towards retirement

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: March 3, 2012

Travel takes on a different purpose for those of us approaching our “golden years.” We size up a destination with retirement in mind, asking ourselves what it would be like to live somewhere other than here.

In the last several years, I’ve known neighbors who’ve moved to Nashville, Tenn., Pittsburgh and even Mexico. There is life beyond the Bay Area.

On a recent trip to the Midwest, I met Jeremy Popelka and Stephanie Trenchard, two glass sculptors who left Rockridge in 1998 to raise their family in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. — population 9,000. Continue reading →

Oakland church mourns death of two parishoners

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MONTCLARION: March 2, 2012

Sadness has settled over the Catholic community in the Oakland hills. Two Corpus Christi church parishioners died last week — one in a tragic shore-fishing accident and one at the hands of an intruder.

Joe Robertson was our darkroom manager at the Hills Newspapers for more than 40 years. He was a quiet older man who dutifully did his job up until his retirement in the late 1990s. His family and neighbors on Thackeray Drive are stunned that someone would have taken his life. It leaves us unsettled and wondering what kind of monsters live in our midst. Continue reading →

Hiker to bring life-loving message to Montclair

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OAKLAND TRIBUNE: February 24, 2012

What prompts a man to walk across the United States six times? Moreover, why would he wrap up his 12-year journey in Montclair?

When Steve Fugate, 65, enters the Montclair Village Saturday, he will have walked more than 30,000 miles with a singular theme: to love life. It’s an amazing mantra for a man who has had more than his share of tragedy. Continue reading →

Wild Saint Mary’s

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The campus is home to the College community, but also to cheeky denizens of the natural world.

SAINT MARY’S MAGAZINE: February 19, 2012

Deer

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Mention wildlife and college in the same breath and it conjures up visions of the 1970s movie Animal House. But in a setting as serene as the Moraga Valley, the wildlife most talked about at Saint Mary’s College is the four-legged or feathered kind. Consider the words of ornithologist Brother John James O’Neill, who noted 100 avian species on campus in 1981: “It is my hope that this list will give guidance to Integral Biology students and pleasure to visiting birdwatchers. May it also serve as a reminder of the beauty that surrounds us if we only take the time to look, and wonder.” Continue reading →

Happy Wanderer: Things we leave behind

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HILLS NEWSPAPERS: February 17, 2012

My husband left his pillow in the hotel room again. And he says I’m losing it.

What is it about traveling that makes us forgetful? I’ve left cold creams and pajamas, glasses and even contact lenses in hotel rooms across this great planet. But a pillow? Who even travels with a personal pillow?

It turns out a lot of people do.

“We mail pillows to people quite often,” says the desk clerk at the Best Western Treehouse Inn in Mt. Shasta. And they send them for free, something surprising in this age of hidden hotel charges. Continue reading →

Town Crier: Red Oak Realty triggers Montclair Village alarm

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MONTCLARION: February 17, 2012

Recently, I reported that Red Oak Realty was making a bid to move into the long-vacant Wachovia Bank building at 6450 Moraga Ave. in Montclair. It turns out not everyone is onboard with the plan.

Longtime merchant David Sarber sees it as going down the wrong path for the Montclair Village Association.

“I know of three real estate entities that will spread ground floor if the eventual OK is given to Red Oak,” he says. “Rents will skyrocket, and if you think that there is not enough retail now, just wait and see what will happen.” Continue reading →

Jaguar commercials make Mare Island sexy again

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CONTRACOSTATIMES.COM: February 3, 2012

Not since its heyday has Vallejo’s Mare Island seen this kind of publicity. The once-bustling naval shipyard that was shut down in 1996 is the backdrop for a major TV ad campaign touting Jaguar.

Three souped-up cars are playing “tag” on the ghostly streets of a shipyard gone silent. The Jags race past an old red brick building and a collection of giant warehouses and metal cranes. They skid to a stop inside a massive glass and steel structure that once housed thousands of ship builders.

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During World War II, Mare Island was one of the busiest ship construction and repair sites in the world. Crews repaired or overhauled a staggering 4,560 vessels and built 392 more in the five war years there. Many of the later vessels were nuclear submarines, which lends to the eerie feeling you might feel on the island today.

Continue reading →