Another night of fighting in downtown Walnut Creek

This was posted early Sunday morning on the Walnut Creek Police Association's Facebook page:

It was yet another violent Saturday night downtown. Officers responded to several different disturbances around bar closing time. One subject was badly beaten in the parking garage above Lark Creek restaurant. He was transported to the emergency room and two people were arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. At almost the same time a large brawl occurred inside a nearby restaurant. Officers had to use pepper spray to break up the melee. Several people injured in the fight were treated by crews from two fire trucks and three ambulances. A third fight a block away led to another arrest after a suspect fought with officers. Three officers received minor injuries and a total of nine people were arrested for a variety of charges. For over an hour there were no officers available to respond to any calls in the city.

This latest apparent outbreak of fighting comes in the week after the Walnut Creek city council early this week discussed ways to crack down on drunken violence around the bar scene.

"I have absolutely no tolerance for violence in our downtown, I have no tolerance for narcotics dealing downtown," said Councilwoman Kristina Lawson, according to the Contra Costa Times. "I don't think any resident of Walnut Creek moved here for this thriving bar scene." 


Kish Rajan added: "We don't need that in our town ... where the parties are raucous and aggressive." He added that 99 percent of the businesses downtown are not creating problems. "That is all the more reason to cut the head off the 1 percent."

(Hmm, 1 percent/99 percent lexicon thing of the Occupy Movement also applies to Walnut Creek's downtown bar scene.)


Anyway, Walnut Creek's challenge with its thriving night life b made KTVU news. And, as the Times article details, there are a range of solutions being offered, from a new ordinance allowing the city more control over bars to hiring new police officers responsible for a downtown beat. 

Mug shot most likely to go viral: Concord woman charged with suffocating boyfriend

Dava Alizabeth-Ann Steen is likely to have some 15 minutes of fame -- or notoriety -- with the release of her booking photo following her arrest over the weekend in connection with the Nov. 25 death of her 47-year-old boyfriend.

Let's just say that Steen doesn't look her best in the photo. I mean, who does? But Steen ... .It kind of makes me wish the County Jail would offer some pre-booking photo consultation to folks -- for defense purposes -- so the defendant doesn't  come off looking like the person the prosecution wants to say they are.

Steen's mug has been on the home page for SFGate.com for the past day with the headline, Police: Concord woman suffocated boyfrien. SFGate.com doesn't usually give that kind of play to crimes committed in suburbia unless there is something remarkable about the case, or the suspect, or -- may I venture to guess in this case -- the suspect's booking photo. 

Danny Rat Bennett, 47, died at home on Concord's Wren Avenue on Nov. 25.According to a press release, posted on Claycord, Concord police and Contra Costa Consolidated fire personnel went to the home regarding a man who had stopped breathing. Attempts to get him breathing again were not successful.

The man's long-term girlfriend, Steen, told police her boyfriend had a history of significant health and medical issues which were ultimately conformed.Police investigated the case as a natural death.

But last week, detectives received word from a potential witness who alleged the death wasn't an accident or "natural." Rather, it was a homicide. Over the next few days, police obtained evidence supporting and corroborating the fact that Deen had suffocated and killed Bennett during a physical altercation, according to police.


On Wednesday, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office filed homicide changes against Steen. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Major Crimes Unit Detective Greg Pardella at (925) 603-5922. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can call the Concord Police Department Tip-line at (925) 603-5836.

With fans like these, maybe the 49s deserved to lose

Yesterday, on my Facebook page I posted a link to a story about 49ers Kyle Williams getting threats via social media following his fumbles in the NFC championship game against the New York Giants.  I said there should be a place in hell for fans who would go so far as to threaten a player and his family over mistakes he made in what is just a game.

A friend followed up my Facebook post to tell me that her son, a Giants fans, was harassed on Facebook, with one kid even threatening to cut his throat

In the week leading up to Sunday's game, New Orleans Saints fans, who traveled to San Francisco for the playoff game on January 15, wrote letters to the San Francisco Chronicle and told New Orleans media about boorish, harassing behavior by 49ers fans. One Saints fans told a New Orleans TV station: 

The menacing 49ers fans taunted her family before, during and after Saturday's game.

"People were just screaming at us, getting in our face. Somebody put a paper bag over my dad's head, he had to rip it off and throw it on the ground,” she said. “When my mom went to the restroom people were cursing at her."

Apparently, the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL adopted extraordinary security measures for Sunday's NFC Championship Game after New Orleans Saints fans complained of harassment by unruly 49ers faithful last week, according to NFLnews.com.

It appears that some 49ers fans didn't get the message. I watched the game and heard loud boos erupt from the crowd when the Giants made a good play. And, now we get news of these threats against Kyle William. And far from Candlestick Park, there are 49ers fans amongst area middle schoolers making threats against kids who have a different loyalty.

I'm not a big football fan. I don't dislike it. I'm generally indifferent. I could understand the excitement of people in the Bay Ara about their local football team enjoying a winning year. And, the vast majority of 49ers fans were not being jerks about their enthusiasm.

I also don't really understand what karma is, so I don't know if I believe in it. But the sort of extreme behavior from 49ers fans, making news and coming from a distorted sense of fan loyalty, sounds a bit like people creating bad karma. Maybe the 49ers will truly deserve to have a winning team when the bad apples in their fan barrel learn to be more gracious about winning -- and losing.

Walnut Creek to tackle its night life problems: Thank goodness

Over the past few years, I've posted a number of stories about Walnut Creek's  night life, here on Crazy in Suburbia and on Walnut Creek Patch.

There have been the stories about fights breaking out, usually in front of a few well-known spots that we can pretty much refer to as The Usual Suspects.  Their names pop up often enough in the police log and in press reports. These establishments aren't getting attention for their food (although one serves some pretty good small plates and desserts and has a great wine list) or for their entertainment. They gain public attention for  the  packs of thugs they seem to attract. These thugs, fueled on testosterone, booze and probably other substances can't seem to help but start  up fights, usually over some thug's perception of being disrespected. The fights might start in the bars but often spill out onto the streets. The Walnut Creek police have to respond en masse.

The latest incident on the morning of January 8 involved a fight that got out of hand at a private party for some rapper at Shiro Restaurant and Lounge. The fight was big and rough enough that one officer was punched, one suspect was stunned with a Taser and outside assistance was called in from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol.

When I read about his fracas, I thought, this could get dangerous. Seriously.

It sounds like -- at last -- the city  wants to get down and  deal with the ongoing problems around  Walnut Creek's night life. The city will hold a special study session Tuesday at which council members will be briefed on previous city efforts to address the issue and on the history of how bars and restaurants get permits in the city to serve alcohol, the controversy over bar closing hours, restaurants' concerns about losing revenue from early closing times, fairness in how the use permits are issued, and debates about whether establishments should be required to take on more responsibility for providing security.

The city council will hold the special session from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Boundary Oak Golf Course. The morning will be taken up with discussion about the impacts to service with the sunsetting of Walnut Creek's redevelopment agency and  a study of the economic impacts of multi-family housing in downtown.

The nightlife discussion will take place after the council's noon lunch time break.

I hope the city and downtown bars can come up with some way to get a handle on the night life scene. I like Walnut Creek, I live in Walnut Creek and work in downtown. A lot of smart, talented, hard-working people strive to make Walnut Creek a great city to live in and to visit, for dining, shopping, and culture and entertainment at the library, the movie theater and the Lesher Center for the Arts.

I don't have a problem with Walnut Creek having a night life, even one that includes clubs opened after midnight. I was young and in my 20s once, and that's what my friends liked to do a weekends, go out, stay out late, and go to clubs to dance, socialize.

Back then, Walnut Creek was pretty dull, so on weekends, we would go to clubs in Berkeley, Oakland or San Francisco. Some of those spots were in not-so-savory parts of those towns. But I never remember feeling like I was going into a place with dangerous, angry, knife-toting people -- even when my friend took me into some heavy-duty South of Market gay leather bar (but then those boys were there to make love, not war)

My understanding is that there are some establishments in downtown Walnut Creek that are open to 2 a.m, serve alcohol, get good crowds, and rarely have problems.. So what are these places doing to manage their crowds? Or what kind of ambiance have they created that makes the thugs head elsewhere?

It would be good to hear from these places about how they manage their customers and how they have been proactive in dealing with security.

I'm all for Walnut Creek having a night life, but this town doesn't need or deserve a night life where fights break out practically very month -- with the risk that a bar patron or police officer can get seriously hurt.

Guilt, shame, remorse: How do we go on when we do wrong things?

When I was in 8th grade, I went to pass a ball in a co-ed PE soccer game. I charged and kicked hard at the ball with my right leg. I don't know if my foot reached the ball but it connected with the limb of a boy on the opposing team. Down he went, screaming and rolling over in pain. The P.E. teachers saw that something very bad had happened and called the paramedics. 


That PE class was on a Friday morning. I spent the rest of the day at school hearing people say, "Did you hear what happened to Chris?" And, they  talked about "how Martha ... " and they looked at me and pointed, whispered and laughed.  I tried to ignore it, even as I imagined them thinking I was a stupid, clumsy, a bitch. Chris wasn't super popular but he was liked by enough people. But then there were the boys who thought Chris was a jerk and called out in the hall: "Way to go Ross." 


No word came throughout Friday on how Chris was doing or the nature of his injury. I went home that afternoon imagining all sorts of terrible possibilities: from a broken leg to amputation to paralysis. Yeah, my imagination was working overtime, conjuring up all the scenarios tat would confirm that I was a terrible person.




It was the first time in my life that I experienced deep shame and guilt: the kind that locks your mind and body in a state of constant rumination, fear and immobility.  My stomach was in knots, and I couldn't get my mind off the "What ifs ... " and the "If onlys."


That weekend forever instilled in me a fear of doing things or hurting other people.  Injuring Chris gave me a first serious bout of a guilty conscience. Sure it was a mistake, an accident, and I shouldn't have been so hard on my self, but the incident was so public, and I felt so stupid.


This isn't to say that I never in my life again ever did wrong hurtful tings to people. \ Indeed I have.  In some cases,  I have been able to rationalize my actions to minimize my own pain. Other times, I have had to suck it up and accept that I'm going to have to live with a few days of feeling rotten and worthless.


Ever my guilt-ridden weekend over Chris, I have become fascinated with stories of real  people and fictional characters who do much more terrible things--usually crimes--that essentially destroy their lives and cause serious harm to the people around them.  The transgressors who interest me are who who appear to have a conscience and feel remorse over the damage they have caused.


They would know guilt, shame and remorse on an incomprehensible scale. Given the remorse, I can't imagine how someone could possibly go on with life after having done something so much worse. 
 As a young reporter, I had to write a followup story on a 10-year-old boy in  Dublin who  died when his father, allegedly idrunk, lost control of their pickup truck. The father walked away from the rollover crash that killed his son. I called the family's house, and the father answered; I guess he had posted bail. 


I tried to do the usual thing reporters do when writing a news obituary. I asked  the father about his son,  what his interests were, and so on. The father's voice was sad but he answered dutifully, perhaps understanding that I wasn't just being nosy but was attempting to write a nice tribute to his son. "He was a good boy," the father said. 


And then I bulldozed my way in, in true cable TV host style, and asked the father how he was feeling.


There was a pause and then the father's voice, cracking, searching for words, said something like "Oh, I don't know, pretty terrible. I loved my son." 


The man's words did not do justice to the depth of agony I heard in his voice.  There was a profound sorrow and guilt I  couldn't begin to comprehend. If I were to believe in hell everlasting, I would say that this father was in it. How could he go on living, I wondered. What on earth would keep him going?


I bring all this up because I just read the story in the December issue of Diablo magazine about Norm Wielsch, the commander of the state-run Central Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET), who has been charged in a widespread federal case involving sales and distribution of methamphetamine, marijuana, steroids, and prescription pills. 


The story, written by my former colleague Peter Crooks, asks what anyone "with even a passing interest in the case would ask: Why would a career cop with a stack of accolades for his police work and a high-paying, prestigious position in narcotics enforcement pull off some marginally profitable drug crimes and, in so doing, risk absolutely everything?" 


The story goes on to describe, in Wielsch's words, his years-long descent into depression, stress and suicidal thinking related to police work, a daughter's life-threatening health issues, and his own struggles with a degenerative, painful and potentially career-ending neurological condition.  Wielsch's alleged partner in crime was the enigmatic and scamming Concord private investigator Chris Butler, the star of so many TV features about him and his beautiful, female assistants -- his "P.I. Moms." As Wielsch tells it, Butler brought Wielsch into a world full of glamor, possibilities and the excitement of bending rules. 

In the article, Wielsch expresses remorse. As Crooks points out to Wielsch in their interview, some would say that Wielsch is sorry just because he got caught. 


Sure, there is probably some of that sucking up in Wielsch's apology, a hope the judge won't go so hard on him when it comes to sentencing, but I also believe that his remorse is genuine.


Wielsch's apology reads, according to Diablo: “I want to sincerely apologize to: All past and current CNET agents and commanders. All agencies participating in CNET. The California Department of Justice. All law enforcement officers. All citizens that trusted me with my position. I violated their trust. I’m sorry.” Later in the article, it explains that when Wielsch " thinks about the arrogant and dirty cop he had become at the end of his law enforcement days, he 'wants to throw up.' ”


The apology and Wielsch's queasy stomach are just glimpses of what he might feel day by day, even moment by moment. He's facing more than 25 years in prison, which means he'll probably be leaving behind home and family. With all the legal bills, he's probably ruined himself and his family financially. Everything he worked for all his life is gone. 


Like the father who killed his son, Norm Wielsch is, I imagine, in a kind of hell. Guilt over pain you cause yourself and other people is pretty hellish. 


I can't argue with those who believe that the drunk father who killed his son and Norm Wielsch deserve to be in hell. Chris Butler gave a statement to investigators in which he described Wielsch as "a wicked, frightening criminal and a relentlessly dirty cop."


That view of Wielsch may have some truth to it. 


Still, I'm sympathetic. I attended one of Wielsch and Butler's court hearings, and Wielsch looked broken, demoralized. I remember the grieving father's voice on the phone. He, too, sounded broken. He son had just been dead a few days; his torment was just beginning.


Personally, I don't get much satisfaction seeing people in pain, even a supposedly dirty cop or a father who did something incredibly selfish and student that wound up killing his child.


Because of their transgressions, Wielsch and that father have been condemned to forever live at a certain edge of human experience. I can't help but wonder about people who live at that edge. I wonder how and why they endure.


I recently came across a review of a documentary called "Serving Life," about Louisiana prison inmates serving life terms for murder and who work with dying patients in the Angola State Prison's hospice. The reviewer, Erik Mink, writes that at the core of every horrific crime "lie questions that transcend the particulars: Are people fundamentally good or fundamentally evil?"


Mink says the documentary, which aired on the OWN cable and satellite network, "holds out hope that humanity may be defined by something pure and bright within us. And it finds hope in the most improbable of settings." The setting to which Mink refers is the Angola State Prison hospice, where the inmate volunteers, all hardened criminals, find they have the capacity to help others and show tenderness and caring attention.


Maybe it's that pure thing,"bright within us," that keeps us going after we transgress and are struck by guilt, shame and remorse.


After my transgression on the PE soccer field, I returned to school the following Monday, wanting to find out what happened to Cris. Rounding a hall, I almost walked right into him. He was on crutches and his left leg was in a cast.  He was with some buddies and girls, an entourage, really, of students wanting to be around the kid who last Friday got driven away in an ambulance.


"Oh, Chris!" I babbled. "How are you? I am so, so sorry." I kept on saying, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.


He gave me this insolent smirk. He had dirty blond hair with streaks of red, freckles and teeth filled with braces. He was in no mood to accept my apology. Father in an arrogant, sarcastic way, he said: "Yeah, you're sorry. My knee is broken and I'll be on crutches for six weeks."


He continued to talk about how much his knee hurt, and how stupid I was to kick him.


He wanted to make me feel like crap, and I did for the remaining moments I stood there listening to him complain. Then I walked away and felt better. He was a jerk. I had suffered all weekend over my perceived damage to his life. I came back to school and made a pubic apology. He wanted to rub in it, and I had judged that I had paid my price, made my amends.


So I got over that guilt trip over Chris. I guess that's another important lesson to learn, to know for yourself when enough is enough. I was able to forgive myself about Chris and move on.


But there are other things I've done over the course of my life for which I have not forgiven myself.. No, I haven't done anything criminal but there are people I've hurt or things I've done that are acts of arrogance and self-centeredness. For those things I still haven't been able to say, enough is enough.


And,  I continue wonder about those, like Wielsch or the drunken father, whose transgressions were devastating, public and irreversible. Their penance is lifelong and they may never be able to say, enough is enough. 

Wolves in the fold: School employees implicated in Bay Area sex abuse cases

Every once in a while, police in some local town will announce that they have arrested someone for sexual abuse who also worked in a position of trust in the community: the priest, the youth sports coach. These stories don't happen too often, but the allegations are horrifying enough that they cause a lot of upset in their local communities and make headlines.

 

With disturbing frequency over the past month, Bay Area police have uncovered wolves in the fold in local schools and school districts. These suspects have been teachers or other school employees, some using their workplace to gain access to victims.  Already

Walnut Creek police were involved in investigating three of these cases; two of these suspects in these cases are Walnut Creek residents.

The administrator

In Early November Walnut Creek police arrested a 43-year-old Clayton man, who was the assistant superintendent of the Vacaville Unified School District, on suspicion of possessing child pornography, Patch reported. 

Walnut Creek police was the lead agency investigating Steven Shields, who was arrested after a search of his Clayton home, Concord Patch reported.

The middle school teacher

A math and science teacher at Clayton’s Diablo Middle School faces 19 felony counts involving unlawful sexual intercourse with a former student, Walnut Creek Patch reported. Andrew Bruce Cottrell, 41, was arrested at the school in mid-December. Walnut Creek police say the Walnut Creek man provided a “full confession” of his relationship with the student

The custodian

Following Andrew Cotroll, a second Mt. Diablo Unified School District employee was arrested in late December  in connection with child sex abuse. John Astor, 44, was arrested at his Walnut Creek home on Dec. 22, according to Concord Patch. He was charged with 10 counts involving lewd acts with children under 14. Neither child attended any of the Mt. Diablo Unified schools where Astor worked as a custodian. He is being held at County Jail in Martinez on $2 million bail. Astor was known as "Super Dad" in the Walnut Creek neighborhood where he lives with his family, KRON-TV reported.

The elementary school teacher
San Jose police arrested a 35-year-old man who teaches a combined second and third-grade class on suspicion of abusing a student on school grounds. Police said Craig Chandler had worked at O.B. Whaley Elementary  

Notes on a Scandal 
Remember the 2006 British film, Notes on a Scandal, starring Cate Blanchett as an art teacher who has an affair with her 15-year-old student? Truth is just as strange as fiction in Livermore, where a 43-year-old math teacher was arrested in connection with her alleged six-month sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.  

Among all these sex abuse suspects, Marie Johnson, a 13-year-old veteran of Granada High School’s Math program, is most likely to wind up in the pages of People magazine, or on the home page of the HuffingtonPost. Police arrested her last week after they said they learned about the relationship from the student himself.  Johnson and the boy met each other through social media, texting, Facebook and through the Words with Friends chatting option. Their encounters allegedly took place in Johnson’s car. Johnson is now in custody on $1.8 million bail and charged with 24 counts, including sexual intercourse with a minor.   

No connection to the school district  
The 32-year-old man arrested in connection with three violent rapes in San Francisco’s Mission District had worked as a part-time nutrition services worker for the San Francisco Unified School District, according to the Bay Citizen.  Police received a tip that linked Frederick Dozier to three rapes on June 17, Nov. 18 and Dec. 8 He is facing charges of rape, attempted murder and robbery. Dozier was hired by the district in February 2008. A school district spokesman said the criminal assaults with which Dozier is charged have no connection to his duties with the school district.

Officers punched, multiple arrests in another downtown fight

In the fourth outbreak of fighting in and around downtown bars in little over a month, a private party reportedly taking place at the Shiro Restaurant and Lounge early Sunday morning got out of hand. Someone was robbed, sparking a fight big and rough enough to prompt Walnut Creek police to call for backup from the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol.

During the melee, a Walnut Creek police officer was punched in the face, allegedly by a 27-year-old Richmond man who tried to resist arrest. Other officers were pushed and shoved by other combatants trying to stop them from taking people into custody.

Six people from San Francisco, Pittsburg, Concord, Oakland, in addition to Richmond, were arrested in connection with the brawl that spawned other fights in front of the lounge at 1523 Giammona Drive. Those arrested are between the ages of 19 and 27.

Since Thanksgiving weekend, police also have broken up fights outside Vice Ultra Lounge and 1515 Restaurant and Lounge on November 26; again outside Vice Ultra Lounge, on New Year's Eve, according to Walnut Creek Patch; and on Locust Street early on New Year's Day, Patch said. Shiro Restaurant and Lounge also was the scene of a notorious series of brawls outside downtown bars in October 2010, with the fight outside Shiro being captured on a video that went viral.

Here is what Walnut Creek police said about the fight early Sunday morning:

At approximately 1:10 a.m., officers patrolling the downtown area came upon a large fight in front of Shiro Lounge at 1523 Giammona Drive. As they arrived, officers saw approximately fifteen people fighting in the street with a large crowd watching. Officers observed one subject assaulting another person who was on the ground. When they attempted to break up the fight the suspect, later identified as Davon Kelly, punched an officer in the face. Officers attempted to take Kelly into custody and had to use a Taser to subdue him. Several other bystanders pushed officers away from Kelly in an attempt to prevent him from being arrested. Two of those subjects, Donte Lewis and Davonte Lewis, were arrested for obstructing an officer. Other small fights started breaking out and many in the crowd refused repeated orders from officers to disperse and leave the area. Another subject, Desirae Chapple, was arrested for resisting/obstructing officers and assault on a police officer after she refused repeated commands to leave the area and attempted to punch an officer.

The remaining suspects were arrested for fighting in public or resisting/obstructing officers.

The original fight was reported to have started after a man was robbed of a gold chain inside of Shiro Lounge. The victim of the strongarm robbery was uncooperative with police and refused to provide information about the suspects.

Those arrested were:

Gia Thompson, 23 year old resident of San Francisco
Donte Lewis, 25 year old resident of Pittsburg
Davonte Lewis, 19 year old resident of Pittsburg
Desirae Chapple, 21 year old resident of Concord
Devon Edwards, 21 year old resident of Oakland
Davon Kelly, 27 year old resident of Richmond

Police also reported: 

Kelly was transported to county hospital for a medical evaluation which is standard procedure when a Taser is used. Chapple was also taken to the hospital for pepper spray exposure. After both subjects were medically cleared they were booked into Martinez County Jail. Thompson, Lewis, Lewis and Edwards were taken directly to Martinez County Jail.

Walnut Creek Man's Death Points to Another Traffic Hazard

Maybe like a lot of people, I read with surprise and alarm the initial details about how, early on New Year's Day, a 21-year-old Walnut Creek man died after being hit by a California Highway Patrol officer while walking in South Lake Tahoe. 

Getting hit by a CHP vehicle while he was just out walking?  How unlikely is that?

Well, in reading past the first paragraph of the various news stories, I learned that this fatal accident possibly reveals a very real public safety hazard that doesn't get a lot of attention. 

We all know from years of public safety campaigns and news stories that drinking and driving are a dangerous combination. But drinking and walking can also be deadly. 

Alex M. Moore appeared to have alcohol in his system when he was struck and killed, according to news reports quoting the Nevada Highway Patrol.  He also was walking in the middle of the night in an area that doesn't sound very pedestrian friendly.

The area is a minimally lighted, 45-mph stretch of four-lane highway Highway 50, about two miles east of the state border. The Nevada Highway patrol said Moore, dressed in denim jeans and a black jacket, was actually walking in an eastbound travel lane when a CHP Ford Expedition in the same lane tried to avoid him, according to Walnut Creek Patch and the KOLO TV website. 

Injuries to pedestrians struck by motor vehicles represent a significant public health hazard, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.  In the United States, 4,092 pedestrians were killed in the United States, and alcohol was a major factor in those deaths. Thirty-seven percent  of fatally injured pedestrians 16 and older had blood alcohol concentrations at or above 0.08 percent.

The percentage rose to 53 percent for crashes occurring between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. 

The accident involving Moore occurred at about 12:40 a.m. The officer who struck him was returning to the Truckee station from New Year's Eve duties at a group of casinos in Stateline, Walnut Creek Patch reported.

A toxicology analysis is being conducted to determine whether Moore was under the influence. That report should take four to six weeks. 

It turns out that Moore also was killed on what happens to be the deadliest day of the year for pedestrians, according to the journal Injury Prevention, cited in an article Drunk Walking as Lethal as Drunk Driving. In 2005, the journal reported that 410 pedestrians were killed on New Year's Day between 1986 and 2002. Fifty-eight percent of those people had high blood-alcohol levels.

So, just as alcohol impairs someone's ability to drive, it also impairs the person's ability to move safely, either while walking in public or just around the house. 

Traffic safety experts say that people going out to drink have to take precautions, even if they are not going to drive.  If they are going to walk at night, they should not wear dark clothing. They should also stay on sidewalks, cross at designated crosswalks, and not walk alone. That's right: just as people will now appoint someone in the group to be a designated driver, they should walk with at least one person who has not been drinking. 

Hanging on to Christmas

Maybe there are a number of people around town who celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelfth Night and the Epiphany. These are concepts of which I was largely ignorant until looking them up a few hours ago.

Driving home from work last night and tonight I saw every fifth or sixth house on streets in and around my neighborhood still displaying Christmas light and reindeer and Santa figures. Downtown, Tiffany & Co still had its Christmas decorations up on Tuesday morning (they've since been taken down).

Meanwhile, the rest of us who celebrate Christmas had removed the lights and decorations from their trees over the past week and set the trees out on the curb for recycling.  Since the holidays were so blue-sy for me this year, a part of me is relieved they are over. But another part of me feels that pang of nostalgia over the sight of our tree deposited near our driveway and a quiet pleasure in seeing that some people, in these dark winter nights, are hanging onto Christmas.

Grief Relief

Got emotional baggage? Don't we all? Feel sad sometimes, lost, disappointed, full of regrets?

Yeah, I do. Sorry, to keep going on in this vein. But hey, that's the way it is.

I have an assignment to work on mine. It's an exercise my therapist has given me. It is, as he explains, a way to help me say good bye to and moved past the unfinished emotional issues surrounding relationships or situations in my life that cause pain. He follows an exercise laid out in  The Grief Recovery Handbook. I'm not looking forward to it, but it could be helpful and illuminating.

Basically, I choose a person with whom I have a relationship or a situation over which I have baggage.

Then I, first, list all the resentments I have towards that relationship or situation; everything I am angry about or have been hurt by.

Next, I list regrets over that relationship or situation. Third, I list all the significant emotional statements I have around the resentments and regrets: "I felt hurt when you . . . I love you for . . .I appreciate you for . . . I hate you for not ..."

Then I have to write a letter to that person, which I will never give to them; it's just for my own purposes, my own personal cleaning up. In that letter, I list the resentments, regrets and emotions around them, but I also turn each resentment into a forgiveness and each regret into an apology. So, in a sense, I take responsibility for my part in causing my own pain and I let go of any anger I'm still holding onto.

I have to read this letter aloud to someone I trust.

The idea of writing out all these icky, uncomfortable, painful thoughts is to get them out of my head, out of the rumination and the imaginary conversations I'm having over this person or situation.  And, I hope, once I get them out of my head, I'll be able to let go of the feelings and put them off in a place where I can see everything else more clearly. 

As I said, I'm not looking forward to this exercise, but it has to be done.

Easter is Coming

Peet's Coffee and Tea was no longer selling pumpkin, eggnog and gingerbread flavored lattes when I stopped in Wednesday evening. So, I guess the Christmas season 2011 is over. 

Further evidence that we're swiftly moving in 2012?

At the downtown Walnut Creek Safeway Thursday, I spotted a cardboard shelf holding bins of Easter-themed Cadbury creme eggs, in their distinctive blue and gold foil wrappers, and yellow-wrapped packages of Reese's peanut butter eggs.

The Holiday Nostagia Blues

'Tis the season, truly, to deal with all the ghosts of Christmas and of life. Who knew? While I have always loved the holiday season, I've had the blues this year. They've been coming with waves of nostalgia, memories, reflection and regrets.

Anything and everything triggers the nostalgia, that bittersweet yearning for the past.
All the Christmas songs extolling this most beautiful time of the year, the sparkling lights, the smell of our tree, the taste of ginger in a Starbucks latte.

For a post for Danville Patch, where I've been guest editing, I pondered the reasons I've been so overwhelmed with thoughts about the past. It turns out, according to a "nostalgia expert" I talked to, that this kind of reminiscing and reflecting might be a good thing. Nostalgia, she says, is a way of taking stock of life. It can offer "a vision for the future."

Walnut Creek custodian arrested

Police arrested a 44-year-old custodian with the Mt. Diablo Unifed School District on charges he molested a child, according to a news release. 

John A. Astor was arrested at his home 7 p.m. Thursday at his home in the 500 block of Jones Place. Walnut Creek police had gone there to serve a search warrant and to investigate a complaint that he had engaged in lewd acts with a child under 14.

Astor was booked into County Jail on $1.4 million bail.Walnut Creek police said he had worked at a variety of schools in the district and would have come into contact with students. Police didn't specify which schools.
Hill said anyone with additional information about Astor or who suspects a child may be a victim should contact Walnut Creek police at 925-943-5844.

New development could replace one of Walnut Creek's first foodie temples

It's now a dusky  looking building that appears empty, except for a shelf of file folders visible through one of the darkened windows. But back in the day, the late '80s and early '90s, California Cafe on North California Boulevard was the hip place in town to dine. It showcased what was becoming known as "California cuisine," the informally haute style of food preparation and presentation popularized by Alice Waters and Chez Panisse.

The term now seems rather quaint and commonplace, as does the cuisine, which is characterized by fresh, seasonal ingredients, Mediterranean or Mexican-style combinations and stylish presentations. There was a time before this foodie revolution when Americans didn't eat what was in season, all past was "spaghetti" and tacos were as "ethnic" as most people would get.

I remember being taken out to dinner on dates to California Cafe. I don't remember the interior but I'm sure the restaurant was trying to achieve a look that would pass for sleek and sophisticated in the late 1980s. I was living in Walnut Creek and think of a place like California Cafe as trying to give the suburbs a taste of what it would be like to dine at Stars in San Francisco or Santa Fe Bar and Grill in Berkeley.  Also operating at the time was Spiedini's, spanning the ground floor of an office building on Oakland Boulevard. It had white table cloths and open kitchen, announcing that it was trying to achieve the look of a hip  new South of Market eateries -- when South of Market was undergoing its gentrification -- and bring to the suburbs a new urban feel to dining.

A developer hopes to knock down that dark and dusky former temple of fine dining at 1540 North California Boulevard. On this lot next to the Lesher Center for the Arts, and on an adjacent lot that holds the Scotts Valley Bank and a surface parking lot along Bonanza and Locust streets, the developer wants to construct a five-story mixed-use residential and retail project.

The City Council is conducting a preliminary review tonight of the project that would require several land use approvals, including a General Plan Amendment to increase the building height limit from 50 feet to 70 feet and a conditional use permit to allow a multi-family residential development in an area zoned for pedestrian retail.