Empress finally poised to reign again
George, it actually does have an orchestra pit. It's pretty neat the way they designed the stage. The front half is removable and will expose the pit. The front rows of seats are also removable so you can have a nice dance floor if needed. (Feb 17, 2008 | post #23)
Education's a right, black students told
I have to admit, when I read the article this morning and saw where the message of this forum was “Education is a civil right” my heart sank. As I sit here and think it over, however, I’m thinking there may be a new angle to explore. When my child was in Hogan, she would come home and tell stories that were almost unbelievable. Dope smoking in the halls, kids in class physically threatening teachers, absolute chaos in the classrooms. Some of this was probably a little exaggerated but its likely not too far off base. If we accept the premise that education is indeed a civil right, then we have many civil rights violations occurring daily in our schools. The chronic violators should be held to account. The difficulty is these violators are the students themselves. If we’re going to pursue this civil rights path then it should be pursued vigorously IMO. Violators should be punished and an awareness program instituted that educates the children about how unruly students are violating everyone else’s civil rights. (Feb 17, 2008 | post #3)
Fire and police retirement papers flooding in
Absolutley unbelievable! This changes my entire perspective on what has happened. Thanks Gina. (Feb 16, 2008 | post #35)
Martin, the beauty of public access TV like VCAT is the equipment and training is all provided to the public. Public access is set up specifically to give the ordinary citizen a voice along side the powerful commercial media outlets. There’s a very small membership fee they charge to pay for upkeep but for students and some other groups the fee is even waived. I hope you check it out someday if you have time. Anyone in Vallejo that wants to put the power of mass media behind their message is welcome too. VCAT needs you to keep the service going! (Feb 15, 2008 | post #13)
Forum to address black success gap
Erika, this will be a good event. I attended a Life Skills 411 presentation last year at Hogan and the thing that impressed me most were the black men that were there. So many of these guy's are straight up gentlemen and you could tell how well respected they were among the black community that was there. I just can't figure out where the disconnect is happening with the kids when they get to school. Somehow if Vallejo schools can tap into the strength in the black community, they would have a good partnership. I hope Dr. Bull and her team can put something together. (Feb 14, 2008 | post #8)
Council to decide Wal-Mart's fate Tuesday
Erika, here’s something that should be noted: The concept of a “one stop shop” or supercenter is good for the environment. It has nothing to do with Wally world per se but having all or a larger percentage of your shopping list items at one central location saves carbon. Consider the stores we’ve been shopping at in Vallejo for the last couple decades. A typical shopping spree might include a drive over to Safeway, hop in the car and go to Payless, back in the car and over to a gas station etc. For each of these additional driving legs you expend more carbon. If you can save x miles and your transportation creates c amount of carbon/mile, the carbon emissions are reduced by xc when a supercenter can supply you with a variety of items. Supercenters are global warming fighters. (Feb 11, 2008 | post #8)
I really don’t know what it takes to make a theater a financially self sustaining entity but I did have the opportunity to do a video production in the empress last year. I would like to see us bring in authors and lecturers so we could video tape the presentations in a c-span like format. The skills and equipment are present in the community to produce the video product but it will take some leadership from someone or group to pull it all together. I don’t know what kind of revenues we could directly generate from this activity but I’ve heard people talk about the side benefit of pulling patrons in and spending their money for local services. We’ve got this very expensive asset now so we should try and capitalize on it as best we can. (Feb 10, 2008 | post #5)
If it keeps the kids interested and engaged in science and math I'm all for it. In fact, paint it over every 2 months and let them reconstruct it. The pleasure and pride the kids get is likely in the doing part. (Feb 10, 2008 | post #8)
Vallejo council pegs budget crisis as city's top priority
I agree with you Vali, we have been very poor business managers. hopefully we have learned from our mistakes. (Feb 9, 2008 | post #11)
"positive activism of Intintoli, Pearsall and Cloutier" Alun, these are the guy's who kicked the can down the road on the fire contracts. The can fell into a pot hole down on Tennessee Street but it's still there nonetheless. (Feb 8, 2008 | post #5)
Willig, the social justice Democrats I speak to in Vallejo tell it this way: We have a homeless problem, we have a shortage of jobs, we have a shortage of tax revenues, lots of challenges. We also have a curious group of people in town now that one would think would be in favor of helping the people at the bottom; people that have no chance of becoming a cancer researcher and Touro. Blue collar type jobs are really the only viable option for them on their climb up into the middle class. The curious group seems to talk a good social justice game but where the rubber meets the road they fall miserably short. There must be other agendas at work and good old fashioned greed is likely at the root. (Feb 8, 2008 | post #3)
I liked your article Martin and I the more I read what you have to say the more impressed I am. Have you ever considered film making. We have a great public access TV station here in town (www.vcat.tv) and if you’re at all interested I know they would love to talk to you. You seem like a young man with something to say and there are people at VCAT that could help you say it in a video over the air waves. Their number is six four two-8228 (Feb 6, 2008 | post #8)
I agree with you Joseph, lots of hard working people had the opportunity to get their foot in the door and buy a home of their own. That’s great. The thing that really troubles me is the way bankers in this country took these risky loans, bundled them into financial packages and pawned them off all around the world. These bad investments have caused a world wide financial crisis and soiled America’s reputation around the globe. I’d like to see some of the bankers do jail time for what they’ve done. (Feb 6, 2008 | post #5)
Where can we find the report? Thanks (Feb 5, 2008 | post #9)
Fee hikes spur some contractors to action
I checked with the building division today and got a permit fee schedule. The article left me thinking that when my water heater goes out in my residence, I'm in for a $700 permit. Thankfully that's not correct. The way I read the permit fee schedule it will cost me $150 for a typical contractor to come in and do a $1200 parts and labor job for me. I don't like having to pay $150 but it's certainly better than $700! (Feb 4, 2008 | post #8)
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