Behind my home is a court, and behind that court is a eucalyptus forest of sorts, as one enters the ravine, which leads to the Benicia State Park adjacent to our Vallejo neighborhood. It’s a quick trip into the depths of the wild and a place I would have loved to venture into when I was a teen.
The purpose for going back was to make sure there was defensible space and clearance of brush up against some of the neighbors, which the City of Vallejo is responsible for clearing, especially since eucalyptus is incendiary and could cause major damage or tragedy if the trees die and collapse on a home.
This was a trigger to make sure the City of Vallejo did not neglect this part of its responsibility. Being President of Glen Cove Community Association this is something I am glad to be able to do on a volunteer basis.
The United Democrats of Southern Solano had a great chat with Jackie Elward. Among other things, this was a very personal dialog where I shared a very personal story of my own that Jackie and I have dealt with — namely our biracial children being teased.
She starts talking about her son’s ideation from being bullied around 9:20 into the video and I get to respond to a few things that she said around the 30 minute mark.
Had a wonderful evening with the Vallejo Seaweed Baseball team at Wilson Park for “Glen Cove Day.” More pictures to come eventually on the galleries at Glencovevallejo.com. Many of the Glen Cove Community Association board members and other Vallejoans we know were there to support our local team against the team from Monterey (my dad’s hometown). Our VP Ralph Mariscal threw the first pitch.
Attended with fellow Board members of GCCA and HSNB.
I wish I would have gotten pictures of Marina, Andrea, Neal, and Slater, but it was a great time as usual visiting this location down the hill where many seniors get memory care as residents. A lot of community outreach happens every month. Here are pictures of the entire crowd and one of Carlene, Shando, and me.
This popular dog-friendly restaurant in downtown Benicia was gracious enough to host us in their beer garden, giving 15% of all proceeds for the afternoon to Humane Society of the North Bay, the shelter where I volunteer as Treasurer with so many wonderful folks. Our President, Brenda Mooney, is at the microphone. We had a 50-50 raffle and an auction while taking donations also.
This is Ronaldo nka Rico when he was HSNB’s Pet of the Week! I love that he has ear-flop!
William and Carlos live right near us and found out that we were fostering a dog from the HSNB.org shelter that Shando and I volunteer with. We are so happy that Rico found a permanent home with them, especially since we’ll periodically get to watch young Rico grow with their family. This is what we call a foster success (because a foster “fail” is when we end up adopting a dog ourselves)!
Rico is an extra special case. The shelter was told after having a hard time reaching Rico’s guardians to remind them that he was due for a vaccine, that he had been struck and killed by a car. Then we got a call from the shelter in Sacramento when his microchip showed up! He came back to our shelter and I found out about it and asked to be an emergency foster.
Happy to help where I can with this cause! Brian Davis of LGBTQ Minus Tobacco and I tabled in Concord where they had a nice pride event. It’s nice that I was recognized by a few folks despite this being over the water from where I live and still pretty far from where I lived when I was in the East Bay all those years. I did work nearby in Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill area for six years, but this is an important cause and there is momentum with the Tobacco Retail License here that the City of Concord has in the works. I hope I was able to bring some awareness to the locals.
As President of the Glen Cove Community Association, I spoke on behalf of the organization of volunteers for 3,000 households in Glen Cove, Vallejo. Residents pay about $1,000,000 a year for our Landscape Maintenance District (LMD) and City of Vallejo resources to inspect the contractor’s work. That’s $30,000 a MONTH, but for many months there is no work done! GCCA was told that sometimes the contractor doesn’t find enough people to work for some months. However, THEY STILL GET PAID.
You can hear the audible gasps from the audience!
[Sarcasm on] Great work if you can get it! [Sarcasm off]
That is absurd. I asked for accountability and it sounded like the Mayor and City Council listened. Hopefully, these comments will not only help foster more accountability for our neighborhood but also for the rest of the LMD’s throughout Vallejo. Enjoy!
My friend Tom Bilbo gave me a chance to talk about the activism I’m doing with LGBTQ Minus Tobacco and a coalition of other organizations at today’s picnic. The microphone was faulty, but it was a great opportunity to also talk about the Tobacco Retail License we’re working on with the City Council in Vallejo and our accomplishment last year with the Smokefree Multi-Unit Housing ordinance that passed unanimously with City Council.
UPDATE: There was an article that mentioned us in the Vallejo Times Herald on Monday, June 13. Check it out here.
