Just The News

The Day After: How Alameda County Voted

For now, we can see exactly how Alameda County residents voted, and wanted to share the highlights with you.  Here are the county-level results for Montclarions, in the no-spin zone.

Barack State Flags

Some 56% of registered citizens cast ballots, representing 448,597 voters yesterday.  Nearly 60% of county voters came to the polling places, while the rest used absentee ballots.  How did we vote?

For President: Barack Obama garnered 78.5% and John McCain received 19.3% of our votes. We are the bluest-blue voters around here.

Other Contests: In District 9, Barbara Lee was re-elected by a landslide of 85.7% so she stays in D.C.  Loni Hancock received 76.6% of the votes, which puts her back in State Senate.  And Dennis Hayashi received 61.4% for the Superior Court.

In the State Assembly, Nancy Skinner ran uncontested in the 14th district (north of Thornhill) and Sandre Swanson won 87.1% of the votes in the 16th district (south of Thornhill).  Finally in Oakland, Rebecca Kaplan won the at-large City Council seat with 62.0% votes.

Local Measures: Defeated measures include the ones for Teachers Pay (Measure N) and Police Expansion (Measure NN).  Approved measures include Kids First (Measure OO), Mass Transit (Measure VV) and East Bay Open Space (Measure WW).

State Propositions: The Alameda Registrar hasn’t made our county results available yet, but you can click here for state-wide results.  Of course, the national press focused on two bellwethers:  Prop-8, which eliminates marriage rights for same-sex couples (passed with 51.2% votes); and Prop-4, which requires parental notification for abortions (rejected with 47.7% votes).

Enough saturated coverage for now.

Voting Day 94611: Where To Vote, See Results

Did you vote yet?  Assuming you are a good citizen and have already registered, then stop by your local polling place and pick your president, representatives, state propositions and local measures.

Polling places are open between 7:00am – 8:00pm, and you can find them by clicking here and entering your address.  I’m betting your precincts will be jammed, so bring something to read and eat while you wait.

For procrastinators, at least click through the California propositions and local measures before you show up.  Those automated calls and TV ads hardly present clear pictures of everything on the ballot!

Gracie Montclair Mayor

According to unconfirmed rumors, Montclair’s Mayor Condon will be making guest appearances at various polling places.  Since the mayoral race was last spring, our Gracie isn’t looking for votes but will gladly accept treats today.

After the polls have closed, my favorite spot for local results will be the Alameda County Registrar’s web site.  You can see the full list or drill down for election outcomes there.  A close second will be TV stations and web sites, although it’s not clear how quickly they will post the local results.

Anyway, it may be a long night…or not.

Local Public Works Almost Done

We’re racing to the finish, to complete several road and park construction projects before the official rainy season.  Oakland Public Works has been doing surprisingly well, finishing work at Shepherd Canyon Park, Montclair Park and Skyline Boulevard.

At Shepherd Canyon Park, the parking lot has been completed already.  This lot should improve safety for everyone driving by the park.  It’s built with water-permeable materials, since the canyon has flooding issues.  There will be a dedication sometime soon.

On the other hand, the Shepherd Canyon Road sink holes may re-appear this season.  Nearly $1 million had been approved to replace the ancient storm drainage pipes that cause the problem.  However the fixes have not been funded or scheduled yet, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed about future floods.

Down the hill, the improvements to Montclair Park paths will be done this month.  The remaining tasks include pouring concrete as well as installing fencing, drainage and handrails.  Montclair SIC plans several beautification efforts ahead, including daffodil plantings on November 15th.

Since late September, Skyline Boulevard has been shuttered to make permanent repairs caused by last winter’s storms.  We’ve been blocked from Berkeley, the parks and tunnel detour since then, waiting for Oakland Public Works to re-open the road by early December.

It turns out Public Works has made rapid progress on Skyline.  This weekend, local realtor Laurel Strand declared “whoopee!” in the Montclair Yahoo group, sharing that “Skyline Blvd at Snake to Grizzly Peak Road repair is finished!  We can now travel over the tunnel to Orinda.”

Even with the city’s budget crunch, we seem to be plowing through the projects scheduled before the winter storms.  That’s important because Oakland Public Works will undoubtedly be responding to the storms, floods and other winter travails soon.

Why Not Vote Early, This Weekend?

Here’s something to do while the storms rage outside:  vote early.

Alameda County Registrar Dave Macdonald announced new weekend hours today, due to the increasing demand over the past week.  When early voting opened last weekend, the registrar reported about 1,000 citizens showed up each day.  This increased to 1,400 on Thursday and 5,000 by Friday afternoon.

The Alameda County Registrar enables Oaklanders to vote early and avoid the Election Day throngs.  The Registrar will stay open every day through November 4th.  As noted above, you can vote on Saturday or Sunday, between 10:00am – 5:00pm.  The office will also be open on Monday from 8:30am – 5:00pm.

On Election Day, you may also drive down to their office between 7:00am – 8:00pm but it will be easier to stop by your local polling place instead.  If you want to confirm where to vote, then click here and enter your address.  I’m sure every neighborhood place will be jammed, so plan ahead to wait in line on the big day.

The Registrar has reported some impressive voter stats, and it will interesting to see how many residents ultimately cast their ballots next week.  For this election, there were 803,009 registered voters in Alameda County.  Some 370,000 vote-by-mail ballots have been distributed and 185,000 were returned as of today.

More info:   The Registrar’s Office is located at 1225 Fallon Street (map).  If you have questions, then please call (510) 272-6973.  Read more about California propositions and local measures here.

Fire Near Grizzly Peak, Just Reported

A fire near Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas was reported and snuffed out on Thursday.

Despite the clouds and  rain, the fire blackened over 10 acres beyond Tilden Regional Park.  Park workers were doing a prescribed burn to clear brush near the steam trains, and the fire spread too far.  Check out KTVU’s video of our smoking hills.

The Contra Costa Times shared that “firefighters from East Bay Regional Parks, Cal Fire, Orinda, Berkeley and Oakland responded to the scene, as well as one helicopter and two air tankers.”  In the photo below, you can see the ‘copter in action – dropping water on the hills.

Here’s the initial news blogged on Thursday afternoon, only an hour after the report was called into authorities.  The power of online news sharing in all its glory!

A fire near Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas was just reported.  We’re not able to check this out, can anyone confirm?  Of course, the rainstorms have arrived, so Mother Nature may be taking care of the matter soon.

Firefighters responding to controlled burn near Tilden Park
By Robert Salonga, Contra Costa Times – 10/30/2008 01:30:33 PM PDT

ORINDA — Firefighters are responding to reports this afternoon that a controlled burn near Tilden Park may have jumped fire lines, the East Bay Regional Parks District said.

The report was called in about 12:30 p.m. near Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas just outside the southeastern corner of the park. Further details were not immediately available.