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A Cal Poly in Vallejo's Downtown?
By Vallejo Councilmember, Marti Brown
8/1/10
Imagine 6,000 to 8,000 college students living in our Downtown, rushing to and from classes, filling the restaurants and shops, and along with them bringing more businesses to the Downtown, Waterfront, Mare Island and the rest of the City. Well, it could just happen!
The Cal Maritime Academy and the California State University system are very interested in exploring the development of a Downtown Cal Poly campus—not an extension of Cal Maritime, a significant expansion. What a wonderful, once in a life time opportunity for the City of Vallejo.
It’s unfortunate, however, the City terminated it’s agreement with Triad, because with a $10 million investment that includes an award winning Downtown Specific Plan, Design Guidelines, an environmental impact report and investing in the renovation of the beautiful Empress Theatre, Triad was already invested in the future and success of our city. Has Triad made mistakes and miscalculations? Absolutely! But then, so have most developers I know and work with in Sacramento—Triad is not an anomaly and they have the development expertise to help “straighten the road” to a future Downtown college campus. Working with the CSU system and the city, Triad could provide both financial and technical assistance to raise more funds, coordinate the project, develop a downtown campus plan, and amend the Downtown Specific Plan and Design Guidelines. They’re here, invested and we need a developer to move this project forward. Let’s use them.
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 Ethicalego Speaks
Ethicalego (Kenneth Brooks) discusses current events from a critical thinking perspective rarely expressed elsewhere
The public should hold Shirley Sherrod’s accusers accountable.
By Kenneth Brooks
July 29, 2010
Shirley Sherrod made a speech against racial hatred at an event sponsored by a Georgia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). However, a conservative blogger posted an internet video of her speech edited to show her admitting racist hated. Political analysts accepted the video as authentic and criticized Sherrod harshly for racism. The Obama Administration reacted to this criticism by forcing Sherrod to resign her position as Georgia State Director Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Even NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous supported her forced resignation. Sherrod's attackers allowed opportunism to supplant professional ethics if they had any.
Sherrod placed her accusers on the defensive when she protested their unfair attacks and complete videos of her speech confirmed her innocence. President Obama apologized for his administration officials' rush to judgment and offered her job back. Political analysts retracted their accusations. Bill O'Reilly said on his Fox Network show, "I owe Ms. Sherrod an apology for not doing my homework, for not putting her remarks into the proper context." However, National NAACP President Jealous shifted the blame to other people. He said, "We have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias."
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Your City Council Report
For July 27, 2010
By Katy (ADQ) Miessner
 Last night’s council meeting had a theme: DOWNTOWN!
DOWNTOWN PART I
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares and go
Downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown, don't wait a minute more
Downtown, everything's waiting for you.
Council approved unanimously a loan agreement of $1.16 million to Domus Development, to support their proposal to convert the historic Masonic Temple (built in 1917) and the old (1872) Vallejo Municipal building, next to each other on Marin between Virginia and Jeffry Alley into affordable artists’ lofts (“Temple Art Lofts”). Yes, yes people are already saying: how can a bankrupt city be giving loans to developers? These complainants obviously have not read Paul Norberg’s excellent article “Fund Accounting for Dummies” here on VIB. It’s our General Fund that’s bankrupt, not the Housing and Redevelopment Funds to be used for this project. Why there are so many pots of money that have so many restrictions is a different story—that’s another discussion which requires a white paper. In the meantime, the City of Vallejo has very stringent legal obligations on how they can spend these funds which are clearly designated for affordable housing. But, since these funds are considered “local matching”, using them could bring in the State and Federal dollars that require local matching funds, increasing what we already have.
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Tired of the negative publicity
By Cathy Jensen
7/28/10
This past weekend I had the unpleasant opportunity to see KPIX Channel 5 broadcast yet another negative story about Vallejo, specifically citing the fact that at some times during the weekend – the city has only 6 police officers on duty (and no canine teams...and no SWAT teams – yadda-yadda-yadda). The story ran at least twice on Saturday and again on Sunday morning.
While I was crafting my angry response to the Program Editor at Channel 5 – including links to many of the positive Facebook websites about Vallejo; I realized that those websites are really just “preaching to the choir”...and perhaps it is time to take another approach to all of this negative publicity.
Consider the following:
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Vallejo Sanitary Flood Control District drops investments in Septic Tank
7/27/10
By Paul Norberg--retired CFO
July 27, 2010--VSFCD Meeting--6 PM
Consent Item 6c
I am concerned about the investment losses experienced by the district and the impact they will have on future operations.
It appears that you have lost at least $6.5 million on your investments. $1.2 million on CIT Group, $310,000 on AIG, $3.6 million on Lehman Bros and $1.5 million on Washington Mutual. The Washington Mutual was not listed on the Investment Activity report included with this package but it was disclosed back in October 08. I wonder if there are any more losses that I haven’t noted. During this same time the City of Vallejo with a cash and investment portfolio much larger than the Sanitation District had no investment losses to the best of my knowledge.
All of these losses raise several questions:
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More police does not equal less crime, criminals never think that they will get caught (that is w...
http://www.policepayjournal.net/ Pop quiz from the org. that is disappointed in Vallejo PS and i...
Captain, thanks for the links to those amazing articles. Oakland citizens and taxpayers should b...
The men in black story was real. As real as the one about the Russians shutting down VIB.
Marc, are you still there? Or was this "server down" thing really the Men in Black kidnap...