Our Opinions

The Gold Medals Of Montclair

In honor of the Winter Olympics, we wanted to award a couple gold medals to native Montclarions.  Why not add to the early podium-topper count?  Some of us are deserving here.

We’ve been watching the sports for hours and now the pairs ice skating has arrived.  Everyone keeps falling on their jumps, the music is tired, and the commentators aren’t feeling the love either.  So our attention started to wander…to local awards.

With a little imagination, we can envision the Montclarion award winners.  Drumroll, please…

  • Snowboard cross – Awarded to the school-kids running out of Montclair School, at least the last time we passed by.  Queue the kids, knocking each other out of the way as they leave school for the day.
  • Freestyle, aka bumps and jumps – Awarded to the local deer, as they navigate backyards and leap across the streets at dusk.  Don’t tell me you haven’t seen them navigating the hills before.  They do look like the freestylers, a bit!
  • Luge – Awarded to hikers during the recent rains, as they slide down the narrow and muddy East Bay trails.  Okay, this is something which I awarded to myself while sliding down a really soaked trail two weeks ago – and deserve that gold.
  • Downhill – Awarded to just about any driver hitting top speeds down Shepherd Canyon.  The route enables drivers to pick up speed and hang onto various curves, so it fits.  Heck, there are many folks who surely beat Bode Miller by a tenth here.
  • Cross country – Awarded to many commuters, as they simultaneously walk in the door at night and collapse on the floor.  You know how all the skiers keel over, the second they cross the finish line?  Well, it feels like us.

Take A Number, Climb Half Dome

Starting this summer season, hiking on Half Dome will feel like visiting Merritt Bakery:  take a number.  Crowd control is an real issue on the upper cables, so Yosemite brass will now offer permits on a first-come, first-served basis.

What’s different?  You’ll need to plan in advance for ascents on busy Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays starting May 21st.  You’ll also need to shell out $1.50 for each ticket to the top – and that’s a small price to pay for improved safety.

It’s about time!  Half Dome is an iconic symbol of Yosemite, and everyone’s welcome to hike around it.  However far too many people attempt to reach the summit, topping out at 1,200 per day last season.  The U.S. Park Service will sell 400 permits per day, a volume that still seems rather high but makes good sense.

During my last Dome hike, hundreds of people waited, waited and waited some more to use the cables.  While on the sub-dome, I moved like molasses.  To my eyes, at least half the visitors appeared scared, weak or generally ill-prepared – and it was plainly risky under these conditions.

I have been fortunate to climb the Dome off season, when the approach hike was snowy and the cables were down.  This meant the stanchions were removed, and the cables hung right on the rock face.  It felt like a serious alpine ascent to me, even using the cables as a secured back-up.  On that early May day, there were few people in sight and the whole ascent seemed safer.

If you have been around Half Dome during the ‘aughts, then you know that something needed to be done.  Your National Park Service, acting in loco parentis, decided to give permitting a try the next two years – and we should all support ’em.

More info:  Half Dome’s permit sales begin on March 1st.  You may nab up to four daily permits per person, by calling (877) 444-6777 or registering online.  Read more about today’s permit news.

Montclarions Speak: Singers You Like

Montclarions are more mainstream than we expected, at least when it comes to favorite singers.

A couple weeks back, Today in Montclair conducted a survey and asked about all kinds of entertainment picks.  Now that the Grammy Awards have been doled out, we wanted to see how your singer selections fared.

Your Favorites This Past Year

For male singers, you liked Jason Mraz and Michael Buble best.  Here your tastes matched up with Grammy voters.  Lately, Mraz has stretched out a bit with his jazzier Make It Mine.  And Buble has kept crooning, though we did laugh while watching his not-so-smooth supermarket video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJmKkU5POA

You also stuck to Grammy winners when declaring favorite group and female singer, respectively.  The Black Eyed Peas have been around for some time, and their I Gotta Feeling was the “let’s party” hit last year.  Of course Taylor Swift broke from the 2009 pack, complete with her sweet and angsty country numbers like You Belong With Me.

Your Favorites Over The Years

There weren’t a lot of alternative rocker or rapper fans here.  Among male singers, you preferred John Mayer and Ben Harper this past decade.  Sting and Michael Jackson hit the radar for your favorite male artists of all time.

You were less unified when picking your favorite females, but Beyonce, Sarah McLachlan and Kelly Clarkson made the list this decade.  Earlier-era favorites included Madonna and Janis Joplin.

Finally, your top groups changed over time too.  Coldplay was the clear pick during the ‘aughts.  Before then, the Beatles and Rolling Stones were your all-timer groups.  And here I thought the Grateful Dead would emerge – no dice.

School Budget Horse In Lead

If we were calling a horse race between the Oakland’s School Board and City Council, then the school horse would be in the lead right now.  Both horses are making their way around the race track and keeping pace, yet the school steed is already thinking ahead to next year.  We do know they are both woefully underfed and would enjoy stopping for some apples or sugar cubes.

Comparing These Horses

From a budget process perspective, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is ahead; their board and administrators are already working on how to save a whopping $39 million next year.  Meanwhile, the Oakland City Council still needs to wrap up the current year’s $9 million gap, and then will address their $25 million shortfall next year.

Oakland Schools have asked citizens to take this survey about budget priorities, and reported 500 responses a full week ago.  The City Council didn’t conduct a survey, but Make Oakland Better Now! volunteers took that mantle and 140 responses were received last week.

When it comes to meetings, the school and city council horses are neck and neck.  There are many school outreach meetings, with a few about next year’s budget.  The council members communicated about shortfalls during earlier rounds, but didn’t hold meetings about closing this fiscal year.

Caring About Oakland Schools

Anyway, we would like to focus on the schools here and now.  As you may know, there are serious financially-related questions and no good answers:  What are the ideal class sizes?  How do we balance the empty and full schools?  What personnel cuts could be made?  And what’s happening with teacher pay?

Montclarions manage around the problems at their well-performing elementary and middle schools.  Parents are quite involved locally, starting with tight teacher-principal communications.  They try to make noise about the poorly-maintained schools and grounds.  To improve or offer programs, parents are active fundraisers.  All in all, the kids learn, grow and prosper.

Then many parents speak loudly through their actions:  moving their children into private middle and high schools.  If these students stayed in the public system, then they would likely go to Oakland Tech or Skyline High.  (Skyline keeps churning principals annually, apply now.)  If we’re not there, then interest naturally wanes.

Getting On The Soapbox

Yet we all should be considering the greater good of public education.  Regardless of dysfunction, our school budget horse needs enough sustenance to keep trotting along – and that means “weighing in” on what we value in free schooling.

Oakland’s schools are infamous (!) for their budget travails before the recession.  We had the special situation of state-controlled schools due to our problems.  It’s good to be in control locally once again, and installing our new superintendent was a critical step forward.  However Tony Smith has to rely on a functioning school board and energized citizens.

On the board, Montclarions are represented by Director Gary Yee.  He was also elected vice president of the board, back in May.  As a quick introduction, Yee’s a long-time educator and administrator who most recently served as vice chancellor of Peralta Community Colleges.  (Read Yee’s biographies on LinkedIn and OUSD site.)

City-wide school administration just isn’t top-of-mind for most Montclarions.  It’s easier to tune into the schools which are located nearby.  But some locals must be concerned about Oakland’s school budget, and maybe we’re trotting (sorry) with the wrong herd.  What are your priorities related to the schools?

More info:  Please read The Education Report by Tribune reporter Katy Murphy, which covers the beat regularly.  Comments following Murphy’s posts are often insightful.  Link to Great Oakland Public Schools, to keep up with the school board and more.  Also check out the Oakland Unified School District, including their recent survey.  For the latest school news, visit the OUSD’s twitter account.

That Volunteerism Thing

In Montclair, it impresses me how people want to volunteer these days – by helping others learn, improving our surroundings, and even contributing their own sweat equity.  There have always been good works, but there’s also an increased willingness to show up.

As a boomer, I was a babe when President John F. Kennedy delivered his inaugural address asking Americans to “do for your country.”  Looking back at the ’60s and ’70s, we know that many citizens took his declarations to heart and contributed to the common good.  Then Americans shifted their priorities, with “me generations” ruling the roosts for a while.

During the ’10s, we might be experiencing a new groundswell of altruism.  Every time we look around, there seems to be another Oakland group catching this wave.  Here are only a few examples:

  • Sweat equity – Beaconsfield Canyon is an open space owned by the City of Oakland.  Clean-ups began with a few neighbors pruning monthly.  There are so many volunteers expected this weekend that Friends of Sausal Creek has put out an all-points call for leaders.
  • People power – Walk Oakland Bike Oakland is an advocacy group that seeks to improve walking and biking around the city.  They embrace volunteers, and have many campaigns underway.  And now they’ve hired their very-first executive director to keep things moving along.
  • Local trails – Trail conditions were a problem this year, especially as park rangers were cut from the Oakland budget.  The Friends of Montclair Railroad Trail was created between neighbors and the city – and it has begun working on the trail, vandalism, bike use and even dogs-on-leash issues there.
  • Citizen advocacy – Make Oakland Better Now! is composed of volunteers who decided to tackle and learn about Oakland budgeting travails, and has engaged with the police chief and budget director to share the difficulties.  Their immediate aim is to “be heard” by City Hall.
  • Greening homes – Greening Oakland Homes has just come together to help homeowners reduce their carbon footprints.  They are surveying neighbors about green priorities.  And they’re organizing their first fair in Montclair, where hand-picked suppliers will share what to do and how to finance it.
  • Volunteer action – After Obama’s election, a group of local supporters decided to harness their energy into local volunteerism:  the Montclair Community Action Group.  They ran a successful Oakland-wide school volunteer fair, and other important energy and health initiatives are in the works.

We should mention the two safety groups which have been around longer, like Montclair Safety & Improvement Council and North Hills Neighborhood Council.  And more hyper-local groups also get out there and make Montclair a better place to live.

In our more modest times, it’s nice to see volunteerism growing slowly but surely.  There’s no reason (excuse) not to carve out a little time – and share your expertise and energy to improve our city.