Men in Speedos? Depends. Teen-age boys? At a suburban public intersection? Many questions to ponder

UPDATE: Principal John McMorris got back to me. Maybe he wishes these students would just keep their clothes on and not get all us cranky grown-ups (envious of their free-spirited youth, no doubt) all upset anymore about their car washes! Anyway he said:

"Thank you for this information. We met with the cheer team and discussed this, it is now obvious we need to meet with all coaches. We will get the message out."


BACK TO THE ORIGINAL STORY: Those Northgate kids apparently were at it again (right in a photo by Radar, posted on Claycord.com). A few of them were out this past weekend, at a major intersection in Walnut Creek, donning nothing but tiny swim suits to show off their trim, athletic bods, and to presumably entice motorists to buy their, uh--carwash--services.

It's been all over Claycord and Mister Writer the past few days, how some Northgate students were once again, flashing some flesh while holding a car wash to raise money for their extra-curricular organization. This time, according to the Mayor of Claycord, it was a fundraiser for the boys' water polo team. But once again, some members of an organization were trying to lure motorists in to their car wash by standing on the street corner, holding up signs while dressed in--not much at all.

In some ways, these boys were even more stripped down than a few of the cheerleaders apparently were during the last controversial car wash, put on by Northgate students.

So, I'm mulling some vexing questions over what is proving to be the latest suburban scandale--a controversy of such civic import that it might soon be coming to a TV news broadcast near you!

1. Okay, back in early September, Northgate's principal, John McMorris told me that students at school fundraisers must adhere to a dress code. He said the previous controversial car wash-- involving, according to Mister Writer, teen girls in bikini tops and short shorts holding signs and calling out to motorists--had prompted discussion regarding "appropriate behavior with all programs." He said "the discussion is that all students will adhere to the dress code for these things, shorts, shirt, etc."

2. So, why wasn't this supposed new policy enforced, either by adult supervisors at the car wash or by the students themselves. Were the students, shown above in this photo, perhaps pissed off by their perception of adults going all moral and judgmental on them?

3. Were these kids, with this display, giving us cranky, puritanical bloggers and other grownups a figurative finger?

4. Meanwhile, the future of after-school sports programs in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District are in deep, deep trouble, according to a report on this blog, other news reports, and an e-mail I received by Walnut Creek City Councilman Kish Rajan. He says that "winter and spring sports are at risk of being canceled if the schools and the United Mt. Diablo Athletic Foundation are unable to raise enough money by October 27." Rajan urges people in the community to donate money to the foundation, created specifically to keep after-schools alive at the district's six high schools, including at Northgate.

5. Does this concern with the future of sports in the Mt. Diablo high schools at all play into this latest attention-getting effort by students to raise money for their sports program?

6. In this instance, can the students involved and those parents who condone this Speedo showcase use the excuse that it was a "really hot day" and that the kids just just wanted to strip down so they could stay cool and comfortable while they washed cars? That was one major explanation given by defenders of the Northgate cheerleaders in bikini tops--that it was a hot Saturday. Well, that is true, in that situation, back in early September. The cheerleaders were working on a weekend that fell during a heat wave. But this past weekend? Sorry, it was pretty mild, early autumn weather.

7. Finally, and, perhaps most importantly, what do you think about men in Speedos?

Okay, I'm superficial. But, I'm asking. I'm posing this question to ladies. But gents (of whatever gender identification and orientation) are free to weigh in.

Oh! But by even asking this question, I am perhaps trying to sexualize underaged males! I am such a perv, right?

As it happens, I have absolutely no "cougar" tendencies, and these boys pictured above are just a bit older than my own son. Please!

7. Let's get back to men in Speedos... I think there is an American aversion to men in Speedos, which I must admit I share. Tiny swim suits on men: it's more of a European male fashion statement, right? And it is one shared, unfortunately, by big German men at Greek and Southeast Asian beaches.

On the other hand, I admit what I'll call an aesthetic admiration for the form of a healthy, red-blooded, Olympic swim champion in a tiny swim suit. I will also admit both an aesthetic--and even a carnal--admiration for that famous--or infamous--shot of actor David Duchovny in a red Speedo, emerging from a swimming pool, when starring as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder in the TV show The X-Files.

I got into watching The X-Files in reruns when I was pregnant with Soccer Son, and I developed a major crush on David Duchovny as Fox Mulder (the so-called "thinking woman's sex symbol.")

Anyway, I'll end this contemplation about men and boys in Speedos with this link recently sent to me by one of my degenerate friends. It shows the famous Duchovny-in-a-red-Speedo scene. You can even watch it in slow motion!!! Ladies (and Gentlemen) enjoy.

"White trash" worries: Do you find this term offensive?

Sometime back, at a former workplace, some co-workers and I were joking around and using the term "white trash." Another co-worker admonished us and told us she found the term offensive, on par, she said with the N-word.

This question came up because of a recent thread of comments, where some readers were calling another reader "white trash." I wondered, should I allow this term on my blog? I don't know what I think about it. It's a term that's pretty widely used in popular American culture, but that's not necessarily a justification.

Just wanted to see what others think...

Guest Commentary on the Neiman Marcus debate: Al Abrams of RAMPART explains the No on Measure I position

Dear Readers:

I've invited representatives on both sides of the Measure I debate to share guest commentaries on CrazyinSuburbia. Measure I essentially asks Walnut Creek voters to say yes or no to allowing a new 92,000-square-foot Neiman Marcus--or another department store--to come to Broadway Plaza.

With these guest commentaries, I wanted to let both sides make their pitches. There's no doubt that what either side says will provoke comments, questions, and a strong desire to rebut. In part, that is what the message board is for, to comment, question, raise points for or against. But your comments can inspire follow-up questions, and we'll definitely want those answers before we go to the polls on this issue November 3. (Actually, I live in unincorporated Walnut Creek, so--boo-hoo--I don't get to vote

Anyway, here is what Al Abrams, a political consultant, working with the No on I group, RAMPARTWC, has to say:

Actually, most of the No on Measure I action is being done by the citizens in Walnut Creek who have been opposed to this project from the beginning, starting in 2008. They include three former Mayors, a former City Councilperson, a Planning Commissioner and others. They helped write the three referenda (all of which were successful having collected over 15,000 signatures of Walnut Creek registered voters) and they work every day making phone calls and distributing yard signs and bumper stickers.

The first referendum in 2008 led to the recission of the City Council's approvals of the project. The final two referenda, which were successful this past summer, were not placed on the November ballot by the City Council as they were supposed to be. The City Council was then sued by the members of RAMPART on behalf of the citizens of Walnut Creek. Superior Court

Judge David Flinn ruled that by ignoring the referenda, the Walnut Creek City Council had violated State laws in order to affect the outcome of an election. Their actions were described by the judge as "arbitrary and capricious". He said that the City Council had stomped on the fundamental democratic rights of the citizens of Walnut Creek. They were willing to sell their city down the creek and violate the rights of their own citizens, all for a developer of a retail store.

The City Council was then forced to repeal all of their approvals of the Neiman Marcus project, which they did in early September. But they had successfully delayed the situation enough to make it impossible for the referenda to be decided by the voters of Walnut Creek on the ballot. The County Registrar said it was too late. So the voters must send a message to City Council and see through this attempt to take away their democratic rights by rejecting Measure I.

According to Time Magazine (Sept. 18th edition), Neiman Marcus is in serious financial shape, laying off hundreds of employees and suffering hundreds of millions in losses. Their debt is in the billions. One recent writer to the Contra Costa Times pondered in a letter whether Neiman's would secretly like Measure I to fail so that they could nullify their 20-year lease with Macerich, the owner/developer of Broadway Plaza, and get out of town as soon as possible.

They're in no shape to build any new stores anywhere, especially in Walnut Creek. The phony Yes on Measure I promises of $400,000 in new sales tax revenue, 150 new jobs and 172 new parking spaces are pure fiction. Baloney might be a better word. Measure I would make permanent changes to the city's General Plan that not even the City Council could reverse.

Measure I is basically a sweetheart deal for a Southern California developer that gets it off the hook to provide new customer parking as the law now requires. Instead, they will be allowed to get around the law and use a variety of stacked up valet parking schemes and double-decker parking lifts in place of the new customer parking they are supposed to build. Measure I is a bogus initiative, written and financed by a developer whose only interest is self-interest. That's why they're willing to spend over $1 million so far to get what they want. Those are public numbers.

They've spent over $500,000 just for their initiative, Measure I. You don't do that as charity. It's all about profit. In truth, Neiman Marcus isn't even specified in Measure I. The developer can put in any retailer it wants and no one will have the ability to stop it if Measure I passes. Unless the voters get the facts, they will create permanent law for the benefit of a single developer.

It's public record that Neiman Marcus has stated that they need tens of thousands of customers to come from a 50-mile wide radius in order for the store to succeed. That will bring in long parades of cars into the already congested downtown area taking up space on the streets.

Measure I is a recipe for parking and traffic nightmares downtown -- and the developer refuses to build any new parking spaces. No matter how you feel about having a Neiman Marcus store, and the odds are slight it will ever be built here, Measure I deserves to be defeated strictly on the basis that developer influence has warped the judgment of the City Council to the point where they had to be chastised by a Superior Court Judge for showing favoritism to affect an election.

It's shameful at the least, and should be worrisome to any person with a sense of fairness and decency. In my 30 years of providing public affairs counsel to companies and citizens, I have never seen a situation where a City Council, and a former Mayor, think that they know better than their own citizens about the future of their city. It's outrageous and dangerous. The people need to reclaim their voice, and show their strength with their votes and reject Measure I.

--Al Abrams, political consultant, RAMPARTWC, Residents and Advocates for More Parking and Reduced Traffic

Chili's in downtown Walnut Creek closes suddenly. Oh well.

A reader e-mailed a few days ago with the news that Chili's on Locust is closed. Indeed, a sign posted in the door says as much, advising any Chili's fans out there to check out their locations in Concord and San Ramon.

That's okay. I never went to Chili's. Other places in downtown that have always appealed to us, as a family, more. Besides, I never forgave Chili's for taking over the property that was once occupied by this locally run, old-style Italian restaurant. Does anyone remember the name? I don't remember the food, but I remember the bar, with red-leather booths and bar stools.

It felt like it could have been in a Sinatra/Martin/Davis, Jr. Rat Pack movie, and that's why my newspaper friends and I liked to get drinks there.

I'm sure others are eyeing that property pretty closely, especially restaurateurs. Across the street from Crogan's Bar and Grill, and Pyramid Brewery--but also next door to Spin Ultra Lounge.

Hot pursuit of the "No on Measure I" billboard truck as it cruises around the Creek, spreading its anti-Neiman Marcus message

As some of you have suspected, I don't have much of a life and don't have better ways to spend my time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been so easily distracted Sunday afternoon on my way to Safeway to pick up groceries for dinner.

I was going east on Newell Avenue, and up ahead (!)I see one of these billboard trucks that I heard that the RAMPARTWC backers were going to hire to visually broadcast to Walnut Creek voters the message that they should vote "no" on Measure I November 3.

Measure I would allow Broadway Plaza to build a new 92,000-square-foot department store--a Neiman Marcus, we have been told--on the site of the former David M. Brian store.

RAMPARTWC opposes Measure I because they believe the design of the new department store violates the city's General Plan and would bring unneeded traffic and parking congestion to downtown. RAMPART stands for "We Need Less Traffic and More Parking in downtown Walnut Creek." RAMPART supporters also point out that there is no guarantee that Neiman Marcus, which is facing financial woes in the recession, would come to Walnut Creek.

Anyway, I see the truck and decide I'm going to follow it and see where it goes. It makes a left onto South Broadway, and continues north, past Safeway, where I was going to shop, and on through Mt. Diablo Boulevard. It continues past the new library under construction and Civic Park.

Then, at Civic, it makes a left. I'm now right behind the truck, and will stay behind it for the next 45 minutes.

We take a right on North California Boulevard, and go north, along to where California merges with North Main.

Now, we're on North Main, and we stay on North Main for a while. I think the driver has figured out that I'm tailing him, especially when I signal left, just after he signals left, then I suddenly signal right, after he suddenly signals right, to turn onto Treat Boulevard.

Going east on Treat, the truck, even though it is not the most agile of vehicles, moves in and out of lanes. Maybe so the driver can see if he is being pursued by some Crazy woman in a busted up old Camry.

I wonder why we don't make that right at Bancroft, but instead go up Treat, past De La Salle and Ygnacio Valley high schools. We've crossed into Concord, right? Then, he makes the right onto Oak Grove Road, and goes northeast. I follow until we hit Ygnacio Valley Road.

Right turn. We go all the way west on Ygnacio Valley Road, past Shadelands, Heather Farm, John Muir Medical Center, and back into downtown. The truck continues on Ygnacio Valley Road past the BART station, then makes a sudden left, just before the Interstate 680 overpass, onto Oakland Boulevard.

We continue onto Oakland Boulevard, then left onto Trinity Avenue, then back to North California, where we make a right. It's at this point that I lose the truck temporarily. My car gets stuck at a stoplight as the truck makes its way south on California Boulevard.

At no point does the truck turn and move in to cruise closer to Broadway Plaza, the eye of the storm in this epic battle over allowing a new luxury retail department store to come to Walnut Creek's retail heart. Rather, the truck driver seems determined to keep his vehicle skirting the outskirts of downtown and of Broadway Plaza.

I catch up with the truck again, after it has turned left onto Newell, and then left again on South Broadway, where, just shy of Vic Stewart's, the truck pulls over to the side of the road. Th driver just hangs there for a bit, sitting in the cab of truck.

Maybe that's it? He's done for the afternoon? Or, he's just taking a break. Or he's calling into RAMPARTWC headquarters to report that he's being followed--maybe, he thinks, by one of those "Yes on Measure I" folks.

I continue on my way to grocery shop, and I think that about about one the mhe messages plastered on the billboard and touted by No on I residents. They say they worry about a new Broadway Plaza development because they think, perhaps correctly, that a new department store will add more traffic and congestion to Walnut Creek's streets and parking garage.

Yet, the No on I folks hire this truck to ride what are possibly multiple circuits around dowtown--adding to downtown's congestion.

Downtown Walnut Creek salon patrons shocked! Nice parking enforcement officer tries to give motorist a break

Was in one of those Locust Street nail salons, getting a pedicure, a necessary ritual, these days, of feminine maintenance.

I parked in the garage next to the Lesher Center, having learned hard lessons in the past about parking on the street when I'm not sure how long I'll be in a certain business.

But another motorist didn't know better, or forgot to feed his meter enough coins. Anyway, one of those usually dreaded city parking enforcement officers popped in to the salon and asked if any of the customers, enjoying foot soaks in massage chairs, had an Acura SUV. The officer was wearing a smile and cocked his head in the direction of the offending vehicle parked right outside the salon window. Basically, he was letting us know that if any of us were the owner, he'd be happy to let us run outside and feed some more coins in the meter.

Alas, none of the four or five customers was the Acura owner. The officer backed out of the door and popped his head into the business across the way, to ask if the Acura owner was in there.

There was a stunned moment of silence, and then the woman in the massage chair next to me said: "That was nice of him."

"Yeah," said a gentleman on the other side of me, getting his manly no-polish pedicure. "You don't see that very often."

We all shook our heads some more at what felt like an amazing event in downtown Walnut Creek: a parking enforcement officer giving motorists a break. By the way, the officer pictured above is not, I don't believe, the officer who came into the salon today. Not to say that the guy pictured above isn't equally as friendly...

However, I think the officer we encountered today is the same one who, yes, gave me a ticket a while back, but in an apolegetic way. Yes, it was one of those situations where I just made it back to my car, a minute or two late. He said he had already begun writing up the ticket; if he hadn't, he said he would have let it slide.

The big questions facing us are: Was the officer acting on his own initiative--and will he get in big trouble, now that I've possibly outed him as being nice? Or has a message come from up in the parking department hierarchy that Walnut Creek needs to be a little less stringent in its parking policies?

As some of you know, I've had my own gripes in the past about the city's seemingly mercenary parking policies. And, of course, a city task force is currently studying the vexing issue of downtown parking.

Oh, and by the way, I don't know if the parking officer found the Acura owner or ended up having to issue the ticket. After recovering from my shock, I returned to reading People's article about the latest Jon Gosselin escapade.

Cattle attacks in some Walnut Creek open spaces may mean no more grazing

If you're heading out to hike, jog or walk your dog in the the Acalanes or Sugarloaf open spaces this weekend, watch out for those animals that go "moo." Okay, I'm sensationalizing things a tad, but the city is concerned about interactions between cattle allowed to graze in these open spaces and the increasing number of humans visiting them.

"The city may be in an awkward position of inviting the public into recreation areas to enjoy the natural environment while introducing cattle into those same areas which can present a threat to personal safety."

City Staff are asking the Parks and Recreation Commission, at its meeting 7 p.m. Monday, to eliminate grazing in these open spaces after the 2010 grazing season.

Just some background, which you can read about on the agenda for the commission's meeting:

Cattle grazed the lands of all four city open spaces before the city acquired them. Besides Acalanes and Sugarloaf, the city also operates Lime Ridge and Shell Ridge open spaces. The city decided that, as part of its management strategy to protect these natural resources, it would allow cattle grazing to continue. Two ranchers pay the city around $5,000 to allow their cattle to graze each season in Acalanes and Sugarloaf.

"While this has helped to retain an active reminder of our local history and is a strategy for weed abatement, this activity may no longer be appropriate in the face of increasing public use of the
Open Space."

The city, however, has received an increasing number of public service calls regarding the cattle from users in the last several years; this includes users with dogs. Investigations by ranger found that off-leash dogs have played a role in the aggressive behavior exhibited by some cattle.

Until recently, confrontations between hikers, dogs, and cattle had not resulted in visitor injuries. But that changed in 2006:

--A visitor jogging along a trail in Lime Ridge North was attacked from behind by a steer. His injuries required surgery and physical therapy. In this instance, the steer was ill and died the following day.

--In late 2007, two reports of attacks by cattle were received from the Acalanes Open Space. One of these attacks resulted in injuries which required extensive hospitalization. It is not clear why such attacks have increased in recent years.

Despite the fact that one of these attacks occurred in Lime Ridge, the city is not considering eliminating grazing there--just in the Acalanes and Sugarloaf Open Spaces, because each are less than 180 acres. "Areas where cattle can move away from visitors are limited at these two smaller preserves. Shell Ridge and Lime Ridge Open Space areas are much larger and under most circumstances, humans and cattle have the ability to avoid contact on the trails."

The city is also concerned that the grazing inteferes with other efforts at natural resource protection, notably a project to restore oak trees in these areas.

Is a Japanese suicide fad coming to the East Bay suburbs?

As the Mayor of Claycord notes in his report on the likely suicide of an 18-year-old Pleasant Hill man Thursday, the manner in which he took his own life—by mixing together chemicals and exposing himself to the toxic fumes—is becoming increasingly common.

According to the Contra Costa Times, Marcus Dominic Flamiano mixed toilet boil cleaner and lime sulfer, a commonly used insecticide, and shut himself in the bathroom of a Golf Club Road apartment. Those chemicals combined produced hydrogen sulfide. That was the odor that emergency responders detected and that prompted a shelter-in-place and the response of hazardous materials specialists.

This method of “detergent suicide” has become the subject of worldwide news reports, and according to this 2008 Wired report, this suicide fad—if you can call it that—apparently originated in Japan. This photo shows Japanese police officers in protective gear entering an apartment in southern Japan in April 2008. A Japanese girl had gassed herself to death by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser, creating fumes that sickened 90 people in her apartment house. As Wired said:

A suicide technique that mixes household chemicals to produce a deadly hydrogen sulfide gas became a grisly fad in Japan last year. Now it’s slowly seeping into the United States over the internet, according to emergency workers, who are alarmed at the potential for innocent causalities.


At least 500 Japanese men, women and children took their lives in the first half of 2008 by following instructions posted on Japanese websites, which describe how to mix bath sulfur with toilet bowl cleaner to create a poisonous gas. One site includes an application to calculate the correct portions of each ingredient based on room volume, along with a PDF download of a ready-made warning sign to alert neighbors and emergency workers
to the deadly hazard.

This report notes instances of "detergent suicides" in the United States in the past year:

--In August 2008, a 23-year-old California man was found dead in his car behind a Pasadena shopping center. The VW Beetle’s doors were locked, the windows rolled up and a warning sign had been posted in one of the windows. Police and firefighters evacuated the shopping crew before a hazmat crew in chemical suits extracted the body and began cleaning up the grisly scene.

--In December 2008, emergency workers in Bartow County, Georgia, found a similar scene: inside a car—along with a body—were two buckets containing a yellow substance. A note on the window said "Caution" and identified the chemical compound by name.

Now, do we add Marcus Dominic Flamiano and his death in Pleasant Hill's Briarwoods Apartments to this list?

Possible swine flu outbreak in Walnut Creek schools

UPDATE: Walnut Creek School District Superintendent Patricia Wool sent out an advisory Friday afternoon to parents. She noted that "flu is in our community" without mentioning the words "swine flu" or "H1N1" as being involved in recent illnesses cropping up in the district's elementaries or middle school.

Some Murwood parents have contacted me and said it has been "confirmed" that two kids at their school were diagnosed with the dreaded H1N1. Okay, maybe it's not so "dreaded," at least in these and other cases so far. The readers and Wool say that whatever flu-like illness is hitting students right now--H1N1 or not--is "mild to moderate." Wool specifically describes it as "similar to seasonal flu."

Wool goes on to say: Our schools are following Contra Costa County Public Health Department's flu prevention recommendations by:

--Sending children with fever home and enforcing a 24-hour fever-free policy before returning
--Encouraging everyone to cover coughs and sneezes
--Providing soap, paper towels, tissues, and alcohol hand sanitizer
--Cleaning the school as recommended by CCPH
--Sharing attendance information with CCPH

EARLIER FRIDAY: A reader alerted me to the fact the doctors of two families whose children attend Murwood Elementary had diagnosed their children as having swine flu, based on symptoms these kids presented.

She added that an unusually high number of students at the school have been out sick, and that some Walnut Creek Intermediate School students, who have siblings at Murwood, might also have been hit with H1N1. Fortunately, the reader said, all the cases have been mild and not required any special treatment.

That's why those two kids with H1N1 didn't have their diagnoses confirmed by blood tests. Those tests are only performed on people who are hospitalized.

What she says about students at WCI sounds right. My son and his friend were talking about a lot of kids in their classes coughing and sniffling.

I'll check with the school district, and see if they have received word of H1N1 cases circulating. Claycord.com says that there was a reported case of H1N1 at Mt. Diablo Elementary.

In accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Contra Costa County Health Department won't close any schools due to an outbreak. Both the CDC and the Health Department say that people with influenza-like illness should stay at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever of 100 degrees or above, or signs of a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications. But my reader said that one doctor's office said if your child or you has a fever for more than 72 hours or a bad cough for longer than four or five days, you should call the doctor back.

It sounds like H1N1 didn't want to give some people a chance to get their vaccines. Based on a Health Department recommendation, the school district is strongly encouraging parents to have their children vaccinated, once it becomes available.

Contra Costa’s Phillip Garrido: The possible specter undermining even French support for Roman Polanski

Try to put yourself in the difficult position of being Roman Polanski’s PR guy. You have to carry the message to the international community that some kind of violation of justice and human rights has taken place in his case with the arrest last weekend of the 76-year-old Academy Award-winning director. Sure, you have statements of support from cinema and arts luminaries, including Martin Scorsese, Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodovar, and—rather difficult from a PR point of view—Woody Allen.

By the way, I admire all the works of all these filmmakers, just as I have very much liked some of Polanski’s works, notably Chinatown.

But, my goodness, Polanski’s famous supporters are really bumping up against the Zeitgest, especially in the new post-Phillip Garrido world.

Of course, even before child kidnap and rape victim Jaycee Dugard was discovered in August, after being held captive for 18 years, allegedly by Garrido, attitudes about crimes against children had been evolving since 1977.

That’s the year when Polanski brought a 13-year-old girl to movie buddy Jack Nicholson’s house. Polanski fed the girl alcohol and a quaalude and raped her, vaginally and anally. Polanski didn’t contest the allegations, and in fact pled guilty, although not to the more serious charges of rape and sodomy. He was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor. Can you imagine any prosecutor agreeing to such a deal these days. Polanski expected to be given a jail sentence that would give him credit for the time he served undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. When he heard that a judge—a notably publicity-seeking judge—didn’t want to abide by the terms of the plea agreement and throw him into prison for a very long time, Polanski left the United States and never came back.

He settled in Paris, where French officials long rejected U.S. requests to extradite him. He also traveled fairly widely around the world where he made films and showed up at film festivals and awards ceremonies. He also went back and forth to Switzerland, where he was finally arrested.

During the three decades since Polanski's crime, public awareness has grown exponentially about the devastating long-term consequences child sex abuse has for its victims. Certainly in the United States, we’ve been hit with some nasty, high-profile cases of child abduction, sexual assault and murder, and we’ve seen the creation of laws that create public databases of registered sex offenders.

Still, outrage against Polanski continued to be muted. A consensus was even growing that America should forgive him for what he did in 1977. The argument was: So much time has passed, and Polanski, in his personal life, had suffered so much, as a Holocaust survivor and the widower of Charles Manson victim, Sharon Tate.

When he won an Academy Award for Best Director for 2002’s The Pianist, Polanski, not present at the Oscar ceremonies, nonetheless received a standing ovation . Then in 2008, an Emmy-winning documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, reignited debate about his case by uncovering new information about possible misconduct by the sentencing judge. Polanski’s victim, now in her 40s, also stated that she forgives him and didn’t think he should be put in jail.

Who knows what would have happened if Polanski had returned to Los Angeles County to press his case that, because of judicial misconduct, his case should be dismissed? That is, if he returned before August, before Dugard was discovered in Contra Costa County.

The recovery of Dugard, now 29, as well as the imagined horrors she endured during those 18 years in Garrido's captivity, has been a top story, not just in the United States but around the world. What Dugard lived through reached, in my opinion, concentration camp-level atrocities.

Like us in Contra Costa County and in the United States, people in France and Switzerland, where Polanski long enjoyed a safe haven, also had the chance to learn about some of the most disturbing details of Dugard’s ordeal.

How she was kidnapped at 11 from her home in South Lake Tahoe, and allegedly raped by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. How she twice became pregnant by Garrido, the first time when she was a young teenager, around the age of Polanski’s victim.

After Polanski’s arrest last weekend, the French government initially stated its dismay over this turn of events. But, as the New York Times says, “the mood was shifting among French politicians Tuesday about whether the government should have rushed to rally around Polanski around the Oscar-winning director.

The mood among the French public is hostile to Polanski’s cause. “Of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by the French daily Le Figaro, more than 70 percent said Mr. Polanski should face justice. And in the magazine Le Point, more than 400 letter writers were almost universal in their disdain for Mr. Polanski.”

On Thursday, the French government backtracked on its support for Polanski, with spokesman Luc Chatel saying Polanski should face justice because he “is neither above nor beneath the law.” A backlash has also been growing against the free-Polanski petition being circulated by show business luminaries.

In the various articles I’ve read about the Polanski saga, I haven’t seen Phillip Garrido’s name mentioned. But I wonder if what Garrido allegedly did to Jaycee Lee Dugard is fresh in the minds of even the French public, whom we have always been given to believe were so laissez faire about Polanski’s indiscretions.

I wonder whether Phillip Garrido is the unnamed co-conspirator derailing the public relations effort to win the director sympathy, and whether this convicted rapist and registered sex offender will be the reason that Polanski will most certainly wind up back in the United States facing serious jail time.

Walnut Creek's mayor is right: There were better ways to use $1 million than to spend on the Neiman Marcus battle

One million dollars: That's what rival developers, on both sides of the Neiman Marcus battle, have spent since January in their fight over bringing this upscale retailer to Walnut Creek.

There is little over a month left to go before Walnut Creek voters go to the polls to decide on Measure I, which says "yes" or "no" to the 92,000-square-foot retailer coming to Broadway Plaza.

The anti-Neiman-in-Walnut Creek force, Taubman Centers, has spent $571,042 since January trying to defeat the measure, according to campaign finance documents filed September 24 and reported today by the Contra Costa Times. Taubman Centers had been hoping to defeat Walnut Creek's chances of winning the Neiman Marcus so that the Texas-based retailer would build a store in San Ramon's long-awaited new city center.

Meanwhile, the yes-on-Neiman-in-Walnut Creek force, Macerich Co., which owns Broadway Plaza, has spent $536,272 in support of Measure I. Macerich authored the Measure I initiative, one of the many controversial matters in this big, messy controversy.

Most of the money on both sides has been spent on lawyers, consultants, pollsters and mailings, the Times says.

Mayor Gary Skrel, who supports Measure I, says the amount spent on this battle is "staggering, especially when there are many causes in need of funding," the Times says.

No kidding. I'm sure each side will blame the other for how heated and expensive this battle has become. I just hope that Taubman and its local citizen representatives won't get in the way, via another lawsuit, with this election taking place November 3.

And I hope that each side will accept the results of the election.

I hope Taubman especially gets this message--if the results of the election don't go its way. We need to get this question of whether or not Neiman Marcus is coming to town resolved as soon as possible.

Taubman probably won't get the message. Sigh. Or Grr. The Michigan-based company has a long, nasty history of pouring lots of money into fighting rival retail developments.

Family, friends asking for help in finding missing Northgate alum

A reader alerted me to a Walnut Creek mom's search for her missing son, Justin Clark, a 1997 graduate of Northgate High, who was seen on July 9 in San Francisco. The reader went to school with him at Northgate and remembers him as incredibly sweet, funny, and kind.

The family has set up a website, findjustin.org. It says his last known whereabouts is a cafe, Royal Ground Coffee, on Polk at Sacramento streets, in San Francisco. That's the last place he told someone he was going.

Here is a message from Justin's mother, who says that he is the youngest of her three sons and was living with her while recovering from a broken leg. He also worked in San Francisco as a nurse.

My name is Carilyne, and I am looking for my son. He’s been missing since July 9, 2009, and I’ve been incredibly worried about him since. He usually gives me a call every few days and when he didn’t, I tried to contact him, but I never got a response.

I don’t know what to do – I’ve talked with his co-workers, his friends, and I have been going to homeless shelters, hoping that I can find some information on anyone who’s seen him since.

The last place I was told he went to was at Royal Ground Coffee on Polk at Sacramento Street. I’ve been there, and I haven’t had any luck from the employees. My co-workers, Justin’s friends and colleagues, are all trying to help out by passing out and posting missing person's flyers, helping me by building this website to get more exposure and information, and
we’re trying to use social networks to get the message out there that my son is missing.

I just hope that I am doing everything I can to find my son. It's so hard not knowing what’s happening to a loved one. Is he okay? Is he hurt? Did he lose his memory? I just don’t want to find out by getting a call saying that he’s not with us anymore.

Anyone with information, or who wants to help in the search can contact (415) 637-4739
Missing.Justin@yahoo.com.