Diablo's Week in Review October 24-31, 2009

Bay Bridge closed, horrific gang rape in Richmond draws national attention, another Bay oil spill, Alice Waters likened to Khmer Rouge dictator, and voters go to polls Tuesday.

Bay Bridge blues: As of Saturday morning,  the Bay Bridge remained closed, with repairs extending "Into the weekend." Four days earlier, a high wind caused a 5,000-pound steel beam and two steel tie rods to fail and crash onto the upper deck, damaging three cars. The parts were holding together a cracked structural support that were discovered during construction on a new portion of the bridge’s eastern span. Since the bridge’s closure, commuters have clogged other bridges across the San Francisco Bay and set record numbers for BART ridership.

Horrific gang rape once again brings national attention to East Bay: Following the discovery of long-time kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard, our region once again found itself caught in the 24-hour news cycle. News broke this week that a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted, beaten, and robbedby at least 10 males outside Richmond High’s homecoming dance, while up to 20 others watched and did nothing to stop the two-hour attack. Six suspects so far have been arrested, with three juveniles being charged as adults on a litany of charges. The prosecutor called this attack extremely vicious and brutal, especially with reports that some bystanders were taking photos with their cell phones of the girl after she had been stripped. Law enforcement and school authorities in Richmond have been inundated with phone calls and e-mails from all over the country, decrying the attack and even singling out Richmond for nurturing this sort of callous behavior.

Oil spill threatens Alameda, Yerba Buena and Treasure islands: An estimated several thousand gallons of toxic black oil leaked into San Francisco Bay early Friday as it was being pumped into a Panamanian tanker ship 2 1/2 miles south of the Bay Bridge. Ckean-up crews were working to contain the spill, and wildlife experts were concerned that the oil might reach the nearly 300,000 shore birds that are stopping around the Bay on their migration south. Also threatened are fish, sea mammals, mudflats and marshlands along the East Bay. State and federal officials are trying to figure out whether the spill, the second toxic spill in the Bay in two years, was caused by human or mechanical failure.

Alice Waters, Bay Area chefs and diners bashed by East Coast foodies: The Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain knows how to throw a verbal b****-slap. At the recent New York City Wine and Food Festival, he was heard saying that the Chez Panisse founder “annoys the living s*** out of me." He also called her, “Pol Pot in a muumuu.” Meeeeeee-ow! Two New York chefs, including Nate Applebaum, formerly of San Francisco’s A16 and SPQR, also dissed Bay Area’s chefs and diners, calling us easy to please. Could we have an East Coast/West Coast foodie feud brewing, a la the East Coast/West Coast hip hop rivalry?

Want a street named after you in Dublin? Just donate to a local nonprofit. The daughter of former Mayor and state Assemblyman Guy Houston had a street, Glynnis Rose Drive, named after her he donated $6,000 to the Kaleidoscope Activity Center in 1999. Houston introduced the charitable fundraising idea to Dublin after hearing about similar programs at the U.S. Mayor’s Conference. He credits a U.S. Mayor's Conference for the idea he brought to Dublin. The Dublin Partners in Education recently brought in close to $8,500 after auctioning off the rights to name two new roads, one in the Schaefer Ranch development in the west Dublin hills and the other at Fallon Crossing in east Dublin.

 VOTE! That's right, another election is coming Tuesday.  The big race is among five candidates vying to replace former U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher in the 10th congressional district.  The two leading candidates are Lt. Governor John Garamendi, a Democrat, and San Ramon attorney David Harmer, a Republican.  The other hotly contested race is Walnut Creek's Measure I, with fur flying over the past year over whether Broadway Plaza can bring a new 2-story, 92,000-square-foot Neiman Marcus to the city's retail scene. Other races along the Interstate 680 corridor are: Measures G and H  in the Acalanes and Walnut  Creek school district to permantly extend parcel taxes; the San Ramon mayoral and city council contests.
 

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