City of Lafayette, CA
05/12/2022 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/12/2022 12:12
Almost Daily Briefing, May 12, 2022
The Almost Daily Briefing
Published news articles from local, regional, and national media on topics of interest to the #LoveLafayette Community
LOCAL NEWS
Diablo Dish: Dinner and a Movie? - Rêve Bistro hosts a fundraising dinner to reopen Lafayette's Park Theater (DiabloMagazine.com)
Contra Costa Supervisors Increase Immigrant Healthcare Funds, Delay Other Decisions - The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors tackled part of the 2022-23 budget Tuesday, unanimously approving $5.4 million more than staff initially recommended for Contra Costa CARES, but delaying decisions on how to use $59 million in leftover federal pandemic funds. Contra Costa CARES connects uninsured and undocumented residents to healthcare services. (Claycord)
Berkeley City Council meetings now in-person, online - Hybrid meetings began Tuesday and are the new standard going forward. (East Bay Times)
How Fremont's bid to 'protect pedestrians with paint and plastic' has played out - Since Fremont adopted its Vision Zero policy in 2015, it has had a 40 percent reduction in fatal and severe injury crashes. (East Bay Times)
HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAMORINDA WEEKLY
Sowing the seeds of hope, cooperation at Lafayette Community Garden - When Janet Thomas and the gardening team began planning for the Lafayette Community Garden nearly a decade and a half ago, they were planting the seeds to something much larger than a growing ground. "It's a cooperative garden. We work as teams and collaborate," Thomas says. "We love to see anyone in the community come any time that we're open and we'd love for this to be a resource."
EBMUD announces Stage 2 drought mandates - The East Bay Municipal Utility District announced strategies to this year's drought emergency following its April 26 board of directors meeting. The decisions should come as no surprise to customers who have been expecting mandates to take affect once the insufficient rainy season had ended. In a 6-1 vote, the board chose to elevate its drought response by issuing a mandatory 10% district-wide water reduction target.
Beloved music director, Bob Athayde, to retire in June - Walk almost anywhere in Lamorinda or stretch your arms wide at nearly every Bay Area location where jazz music is studied or performed, you're likely to bump into a person whose life bears the imprint of Bob Athayde. The Stanley Middle School music director and teacher for more than 30 years - with 45 years teaching in public schools in the Bay Area - will retire at the end of the 2021-22 school year in June.
Newly renovated Las Trampas facility reopens - After over two long years of construction, Las Trampas, the developmental care facility in Lafayette set alongside the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail was abuzz with excitement April 23 as dignitaries, donors, participants and their families returned for the campus' grand reopening.
Town Council gives staff direction regarding Five-Year Capital Improvement Program Budget - The Moraga Town Council reviewed a report for a one-year budget authorization and a four-year forecast of dedicated revenues for specific projects regarding the Capital Improvement Program during its April 27 meeting. The purpose was for council to provide input to staff on what it considered high priority projects.
Future use of Moraga's Measure K Funds - Measure K appeared on Moraga's ballot in November 2012 and won with 70.5% of the vote. It is a 1% local sales tax that became effective on April 1, 2013, and was approved for general use purposes with a sunset duration of 20 years. Revenue collected from the tax is meant to be used for the town's most crucial infrastructural needs.
2022 Moraga Citizen of the Year, Karen Reed, honored at banquet - After a two-year, COVID-mandated hiatus, the town had once again taken to honoring its latest Citizen of the Year, Karen Reed, at a May 6 banquet in the Soda Center at Saint Mary's College. The 42nd annual event was sponsored by SMC, Kiwanis Club of Moraga Valley, Lamorinda Weekly, and Moraga Chamber of Commerce.
Capital Improvements and a new Director of Public Works for Orinda - Orinda's Department of Public Works and Engineering Services submitted to the city council its annual update of the Capital Improvement Plan on May 3. The council took the opportunity to welcome Senior Engineer Scott Christie as Public Works Director. Annually, the CIP comes before the council on three occasions. At the first meeting, staff seeks the council's feedback and guidance.
Orinda bans sale of vaping and flavored tobacco products, no exception for hookah use - The Orinda City Council moved to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products within the city, as well as all vaping products, at its May 3 meeting. The ordinance will not affect the use of such products, as it is limited to sales only.
Overhill Road closed through December for EBMUD pipeline work - Overhill Road in Orinda will be completely closed between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. through Dec. 30 weekdays to allow the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) to construct a pipeline replacement project that will upgrade 6,000 linear feet of existing pipeline to improve residential service in the area, fire flows, and service reliability and redundancy during outages.
Two pieces of art to be purchased for Orinda - Based on the recommendations of the Art in Public Places Committee, the Orinda City Council has agreed to the purchase of two pieces of art that have been on loan to the city for some years.
Canyon Emergency Drill goes better than expected - The recorded call came from official fire department authorities at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning: "This is a warning. Evacuate immediately." It would have been a call to cause most people in Lamorinda to freeze. An impending fire, this time, very close. We gotta go.
GCCP's 'A Cultural Crossroads' features acclaimed flutist R. Carlos Nakai - Past, present and future unite in Gold Coast Chamber Players upcoming performance of "A Cultural Crossroads, Black and Indigenous influences on Dvorak in America." Led by Artistic Director Pamela Freund-Striplen, the May 14 concert in Don Tatzin Community Hall at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center ...
Creative writing contest winners announced - The Campolindo Poetry And Creative Writing (PAC) Club's creative writing contest received 39 entries and the judges had a wonderful time reading them and picking three winners and three runners-up in the categories. The PAC also hosted an open mic April 12 where the contest winners and club members excitedly shared their work.
LPIE honors two dynamic individuals with new award - The Lafayette Partners in Education board of directors, at a special fundraising gala held April 23 in San Francisco, announced the creation of the Tom Mulvaney Legacy Award as a way in which to honor those individuals, families, or businesses who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the LPIE mission. The award's first recipient is Myrna Kimmelman.
Police Blotters: Lafayette Police Blotter Moraga Police BlotterOrinda Police Blotter
COVID NEWS
'We've got a lot of virus circulating now,' Santa Clara County health officer warns (Mercury News)
As testing plunges, tracking COVID gets much more difficult (Mercury News)
OTHER NEWS
California's new plan for carbon neutrality will make our lives radically different - More organic farming. Less driving. No more natural gas in new buildings. Electric off-road vehicles. For the first time in five years, California regulators have released an ambitious plan for tackling climate change. The 228-page document seeks to achieve carbon neutrality for California by 2045 and considers various scenarios to do this. Many of the improvements revolve around cleaning up the transportation sector (which accounts for 40% of California's greenhouse gas emissions) and honing land-use methods that keep carbon in the ground. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Water Use Up Statewide Despite Ongoing Drought - As California endures its third year of a historic drought, a recent record dry stretch has led to residents increasing water use despite a call from Gov. Gavin Newsom for additional conservation. In March, water consumption increased statewide by almost 19 percent compared to March 2020, said Marielle Rhoderio, a research data specialist with the State Water Resources Control Board. It was the highest statewide increase the state has seen, Rhoderio said during a news briefing Tuesday. (Claycord)
California unveils climate change blueprint tackling fossil fuels - California's clean-air regulators on Tuesday unveiled a highly anticipated roadmap packed with strategies for tackling the climate crisis. But it falls short on a key component: the role that its signature environmental policy - cap and trade - will have in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of the plan is to fulfill state mandates that require reducing carbon dioxide and other climate-warming emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. (Cal Matters)
LOCAL HAPPENINGS
Building Electrification Survey - survey closes May 15
Transportation & Circulation Commission
Planning's Virtual Counter via Zoom: Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. You now can also schedule an appointment to meet in-person with a planner at the counter.
Lafayette Planning Applications Received
City of Lafayette Major Development Projects Map
Current Lafayette Construction Projects
Lafayette Community Information & Emergency Radio AM 1670
HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION AND CITY PLANNING
Electrical homes are the future. The grid isn't ready. PALO ALTO - One out of every six homes in this leafy birthplace of Silicon Valley has a plug-in car, with more to come. Other homes have heat pumps, induction cook tops and arrays of glistening solar panels that help reduce climate change. Yet yesterday's electrical grid can't keep up with tomorrow's carbon-free ambitions. "We're in a 'ramp up' mode. We won't hit our goals unless we accelerate," said Mayor Pat Burt, who drives a plug-in hybrid Mitsubishi Outlander. "But we really don't have the capacity to do it faster than we've been doing it. That's the crunch." It is a harbinger of what is to come in other California cities. As Berkeley, San Jose and a growing number of other communities commit to an all-electric future, their transformers and distribution lines are being sorely challenged by the need to deliver much more power. Los Angeles is also proposing to study what is needed to modernize its power grid infrastructure. (Mercury News)
Residents seek street closures in San Carlos - Residents of San Carlos' Greater East Side Neighborhood are lobbying the city for a series of street closures meant to combat cut-through traffic expected to get worse once millions of square feet of office is built in the near future - but staff and council support is mixed. (San Mateo Daily Journal)
To Fight 'Range Anxiety,' Oregon To Invest $100 Million in Electric Vehicle Charging - The Oregon Department of Transportation plans to install EV chargers along crucial transportation corridors and expand charging options around the state to encourage more Oregonians to buy electric vehicles. (Planetizen)
MIXTAPE
San Jose officials tighten water restrictions for new developments
Average Price For A Gallon Of Gas Inches Closer To $6 A Gallon In California, Contra Costa County
Economic shocks yet to strike Bay Area home prices
Bay Area consumer prices skyrocket and remain at 21-year highs
US inflation might have dipped last month from 40-year high
Powering electric cars: the race to mine lithium in America's backyard
MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER LAFAYETTE
Lafayette to participate in Boulder County utility assistance program to help relieve renters of financial burden in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
AND FINALLY…
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The Almost Daily Briefing (ADB) is an aggregation of links to news articles from local and regional newspapers, magazines, websites, and other news sources. Its purpose is to alert readers to current issues and affairs that may impact Lafayette. The ADB does not promote, favor, disfavor, support, reject, or endorse any position, candidate, campaign, or proposition, and nothing about the ADB, including the selection, presentation, arrangement, or content of the links presented should be construed as an advocacy position.
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