City Park, Vallejo HSNB Birthday event!
Category Archives: Activism
Concord Pride Tabling for LGBTQMinusTobacco
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.
Speaking at City Council about Wasting Funds on Landscaping
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!
Solano Pride Picnic Speech about TRL
Group photos of attendees taken with a drone!
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.
HSNB adoption event at Glen Cove Lodge
Glen Cove Lodge Adoption Event for HSNB
Neighborhood Creek Fire
As President of Glen Cove Community Association, my Vice-President and I toured the aftermath of a fire at Newt Creek among the incendiary eucalyptus trees. We hiked the site after it had been partially cleared because soon we will meet with the City of Vallejo’s City Manager and others to mitigate the risk of a future fire in this area. The difficulty of access for the Fire Department is a challenge in this particular area, despite our association’s activism to ensure that Fire Station 26 would re-open for better response time. The depth of this ravine made it unwieldy for the firefighters to fight the fire that started at night It’s a scary thought how close residents’ homes are right up each side. The City is looking at numerous options.
2023 Gay Pride June Declaration at City of Vallejo
Video of proclamation reading:
Solano Fairgrounds Student Art Showcase
This was my first time at the Solano County Fairgrounds and I was impressed with the site. LGBTQMinusTobacco had a booth there that day. We saw lots of incredible art and enjoyed the part of the fairgrounds that we got to see.
HSNB Children’s Wonderland Event
My Monte and Polar and Drexel the foster dog with the Humane Society of the North Bay are in the video. Later in the day Monte and Polar went over to the reptile section to see the snake and turtle.
High School Health Fair
In my activism with LGBTQ Minus Tobacco, we were invited to table at the Jesse Bethel High School mental health fair as part of Mental Health Awareness Month in May.
This was a pleasant experience. The kids were receptive to us being there and asked a lot of questions, knowing in large part how harmful smoking and vaping are to our communities. As many know, the insidious tobacco industry in particular targets communities like LGBTQ and BIPOC, causing them to smoke at higher rates.
