MONTCLARION NEWSPAPER – May 15, 2009

IT’S 4 P.M. DO you know where your kids are? If they’re meeting friends in Montclair, they may be part of an ongoing problem with loitering.

As the school year winds down and the weather gets warm, kids find it cool to hang out. And with the library closed, (mold removal) even more teens are taking to the streets.

The bigger the group, the more potential for trouble, as witnessed by a shopper who saw several youths tossed out of Rite Aid the other day. Continue reading →

MONTCLARION NEWSPAPER – May 8, 2009 (Photos by Jane Fuerch)

HIGH IN THE HILLS, with upscale amenities and yoga sensibilities, is a rather unusual retreat house. Dubbed the “Skyhouse,” it’s available for business meetings, mixers, movies and anything else one might do in a house, as long as they pay the rent.

“Humorously,” says owner Bennett Hall, “this place could be the “Pimps ultra-pad” — restaged, of course —— for the set of the infamous “Gentlemen of Leisure” HBO deal that stirred up the hills and certain vocal minorities”…” Continue reading →

MONTCLARION NEWSPAPER – May 1, 2009

MONTCLAIR MAY NOT BE MAYBERRY, but it sure can be sweet. Take the Lion’s Club Restaurant Walk last week. On a balmy spring evening, the town turned out for its first-ever progressive dinner. Continue reading →

MONTCLARION NEWSPAPER – April 23, 2009

I LIKE ANIMALS as much as the next person. Heck, I probably like them more, because I’ll stop and talk to a dog or a deer or just about any four-legged creature (sans skunks) I see on my street.

But when it comes to dangerous off-leash dogs, I have zero tolerance. I’ve been bitten before and it’s left more than a scar on my finger. It’s left one on my psyche. Continue reading →

MONTCLARION NEWSPAPER – April 16, 2009

LIKE TAX collectors, attorneys and even journalists these days, parking enforcement officers aren’t really feeling the love. Yet you have to give them their props. Somehow, they manage to be there at the exact moment your meter expires. That’s impressive, considering there are only 53 of them circling the streets of Oakland.

Circling like sharks? That’s probably not a fair statement, but it’s how they’re perceived by some. So I thought I’d go straight to the source, the new head of parking enforcement, Noel Pinto, to find out how tickets are issued and processed in Oakland. Continue reading →

MONTCLARION NEWSPAPER – April 10, 2009

THEY SAY TWO HEADS are better than one. So it’s no surprise that a mother-daughter combo is opening the first eco-friendly salon in Montclair this week.

Longtime stylist Mary Ryan is teaming up with her daughter, Sophie, in a sunny second floor space above “coffee corners.” Continue reading →

MONTCLARION NEWSPAPER – April 2,  2009

FARMS IN OAKLAND? Not exactly, but a new farm in Fairfield has a drop site in Oakland, where members can pick up a weekly basket of fresh produce. The Shootingstar Farm is the closest Community Supported Agriculture Project to the East Bay, and it’s run by the family that founded Lafayette’s Orchard Nursery. Continue reading →