Cat sleep

When I awoke this morning at 4, the temperature outside was in the 30s. The cold air was slanting in through the window open a few inches above our bed. The room was dark. When I wake up, especially at such an early hour, I tend to let my head fill up with whatever thoughts come along.. For some months, those  early morning thoughts have not been pleasant. Dread, fear regret, sadness. All the ways life could have been better. All the ways  I imagine others’ lives are better.

But I was warm under our comforter, topped by a crocheted black and white afghan that an old family friend had given to my husband when he went off to college. And, I am learning more and more  that it is pointless to indulge in a line of thinking that leads to self pity and worry. Where do they lead me expect to a bad mood, fearful of putting one foot in front of the other?

Our tabby kitten likes to sleep with my husband and me. Sometimes he curls up way down under the covers by our feet. When I woke up this morning, Pippin was sleeping on my pillow, right next to my head. The pillow felt soft beneath my cheek, so was his small warm weight against the back of my head. When I adjusted my position, he crawled over my head, and nestled himself against my chest. He stretched his lean furry body up so that his head was resting on my cheek. He purred.

A friend told me how she wrote in her journal before going to bed each night, listing all the things in her day she was grateful for. This gratitude list, she said, helped shift her thinking before sleep, so that she’d wake up feel much less overwhelmed by the coming day. 

I might be too lazy to make a nightly gratitude journal. But this morning, with the kitten's cheek against mine, I felt grateful. For him. For this time in bed, quiet in my thoughts, even if they were not necessarily easy to manage. For having my husband next to me, and my son sleeping in the next room. For being warm.

The kitten kept purring until he fell back in a silent sleep, happy and safe in his own cat dreams.

Walnut Creek or Danville? If you live in Alamo, which is your cultural and retail mecca?

Danville Patch's David Mills asks a very intriguing question of people who live in Alamo: where do they do their serious shopping? Do these Alamo-ites, many with nice disposable incomes, head south to Danville or north to Walnut Creek?

I mean, let's face it: Alamo is a bit limited. It has the basics: a CVS, a Safeway and a hardware store. But beyond that?

Walnut Creek is a major shopping destination--for people throughout the Bay Area. It has Broadway Plaza and a variety of favorite chain stores: Nordstrom, Macy's, Tiffany & Co., Ross and Target. It also has smaller specialty stores, including locally owned clothing boutiques. 

I can see, though, the pleasures of shopping in Danville. Parking wouldn't be such a chore, and the downtown also has its share of specialty stores, including the venerable Rakestraw Books. 

Oh, and Danville does have Blackhawk Plaza. But does anyone really shop at Blackhawk Plaza? Even Draeger's, the Andronico's-esque high-end grocery store, usually seems pretty dead, the few times I've stopped in there in the middle of the day.

A bigger question, beyond that dealing with shopping, is which town, Walnut Creek or Danville, serves as a cultural beacon to people from Alamo. If they want to get out of the tranquil environment of their wooded, upscale hometown, and get some big city action, do they look to Walnut Creek or Danville? Do they eat at Prima Ristorante and Va de Vi or Bridges and Amber? Are they patrons of shows at the Lesher Center for the Arts or the Village Theatre? Whose holiday tree lighting do they attend?

Good Samaritans save the day from holiday season shoplifters

 Five people were arrested Saturday night in connection with two separate "grab and run" thefts from Broadway Plaza department stores, with two customers in the second case helping to tackle a suspect trying to steal high-end purses from Nordstrom.

The first theft occurred at about 6:30 p.m. at H&M department store, Walnut Creek police said. A Walnut Creek police officer driving on Broadway near Mt. Diablo Boulevard noticed three people running from H&M with a large amount of clothing in their arms. The officer saw the three get into a car. As the officer pulled up behind the car, one person got out and ran away on Duncan Street toward North Main Street.

The officer saw various items of clothing--valued at about $1,000--strewn throughout the car with security sensors still attached. An H&M employee identified the suspects as having been in the store, and the clothing as belong to H&M.

Police arrested four Oakland residents who were in the car, including a 16-year-old girl, on suspicion of burglary, possession of stolen property, conspiracy and parole violations. They are Jomal Lavell Reed, 29; Nequasha Tanaya Potts, 34; Marcus Dwayne Reed, 31; and the unidentified teen girl.

Officers searched the area for the man who ran. He is described as a black male in his 20s or 30s, wearing a cap and a blue striped shirt. The man had some type of piercing between his cheekbone and his eye.


Two hours later, Nordstrom customers helped catch a man who was trying to run out of the store carrying $10,000 worth of high-end purses.

Witnesses told police that the suspect, identified as Bryan Charles Black, 42, of Oakland, and a woman entered Nordstrom, selected armloads of purses, and tried to run out. When they set off the security sensor alarm, they tried to push past customers, but one customer tried to grab Black's arm. Black pepper-sprayed the customer in the face, police said.

A second passerby tackled Black as he ran to a waiting car. Black pepper-sprayed this man as well, police said, but  the man hit him back. The two fought for several moments before other customers and a Nordstrom security guard arrived to help get control over Black.

Black's alleged accomplice got away by jumping into a waiting car, described as a Beige Ford Fushion with paper plate.

Black was transported to county hospital to be treated for minor injuries before being booked into county jail in Martinez on suspicion of robbery, burglary and assault. The two good samaritans were treated at the scene for minor injuries and released.

Introducing a new Walnut Creek blog!

It's called Beyond the Creek, and its publisher, Adam Silverman, is someone like a lot of us who spends time in downtown, takes note of what's new and what's changing and thinks it is all pretty interesting. Silverman wants to share those observations--and photos--and get a dialogue going.

According to the site's About page, "Beyond the Creek covers the latest news and happenings in Walnut Creek, Lafayette and surrounding neighborhoods, with a focus on restaurants, shopping, real estate and general daily life observations."

Already, he's got some fun scoops: like how CU Sushi on Locust, my son's favorite dining spot, is becoming one hip downtown place to go; or how Target is cracking down on people who park in its lot on Sundays, just to head to the nearby Farmers Market.

A fundamental showdown: When a church group wants to expand its house of worship in a residential neighborhood

"Previously friendly neighbors become hostile enemies  …"

Sound familiar? 

This situation has been happening all over the country, in communities where churches have decided they want to expand their once modest centers in residential neighborhoods to accommodate a growing number of congregants and services. When non-member neighbors object, the land-use battles that erupt can become pretty nasty and drawn-out. Difficult legal and cultural issues fuel the fight, including questions about church-state separation and cherished ideals about religious freedom and the American dream of home ownership. 

The quote and the ideas paraphrased above are from Marci Hamilton's book God versus the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law. Hamilton, the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, is one the United States' leading constitutional scholars specializing in church-state relations. 

In a chapter on land-use wars between expansion-minded churches and their beleaguered neighbors, Hamilton describes the process of growing tensions in neighborhoods in Los Angeles and New York state. 

Things have also gotten tense in once tranquil  Saranap, an unincorporated neighborhood between Walnut Creek and Lafayette.  Sufism Reoriented, a Saranap-based religious group, has spent the past few years urging Contra Costa County officals to let it build a new 66,000-square-foot worship center in a neighborhood made up mostly of mid-century ranch homes. 

The county planning commission in early November said OK to the white, multi-domed facility, two-thirds of which would be built underground. A few weeks later, neighborhood opponents filed an appeal with the county Board of Supervisors, repeating many of the complaints they voiced in three planning commission meetings. 

The neighbors said the project lacked adequate parking, violates fire codes, creates flooding concerns and is part of a "secret Sufi agenda," reported the Contra Costa Times. Neighbors' biggest complaint has to do with the size of the sanctuary. It would be built on three acres that combine seven lots previously occupied by single-family homes.

"When size and intense use combine to affect those who reside nearby, previously friendly neighbors can become hostile enemies," Hamilton writes. 

The changing role of American churches plays into these battles, Hamilton says.  Churches are no longer just busy one or two days a week providing religious services. Hamilton says we live in the era of the mega-church, in which churches have become multiple-use service centers. 

"The final factor in this house-of-worship expansion is that many congregations have come to think of themselves as ministers to all, not just their own members,' Hamilton said. 

In these neighborhood battles, you have a religious entity "experiencing a heady and exciting period of expansion," Hamilton says. In this mindset, the church leaders "may well see earthly hurdles as contrary to its divinely inspired religious movement."

On the other side are neighbors who, as with many Saranap sanctuary opponents, have typically, lived in the neighborhood for a long time, or they chose the neighborhood for its residential qualities, "so the new building project is a serious threat to their quality of life," Hamilton says. 

She continues: "To make matters worse for everyone concerned, a home is often a family’s largest financial and emotional, investment; thus when the character of the neighborhood and, therefore property values are threatened, homeowners understandably object."

These disputes become laced with some pretty nasty charges from both sides. The religious group will say that neighborhood opponents are being anti-religious or are discriminating against their religious faith. The neighbors might envision some conspiracy or secret agenda, as is the case with the Sufism sanctuary opponents who question why the group needs such a big facility for only 350 members as in: Is the construction of this center part of some Sufism grab for power? Is it part of a plan to become a national center for the faith, attracting many more visitors than they are revealing in their project proposal?

Just so you know, Hamilton supports religious freedom, but wants reasonable limits for the good of everyone. "Religion's force can be just another iteration of the drive to power," she writes, saying that Americans should get over an unrealistic and hazardous belief "that religion is always for the good." She says that "some religious conduct deserves freedom and some requires limitation."

Hamilton's chapter on land-use wars focuses on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a 2000 federal law which bars government entities from imposing land use regulations that create a "substantial burden" on a group's right to religious assembly.  Hamilton's book documents the many legal battles over RLUIPA that have taken place over the years and in communities around the country. 

Hamilton has serious concerns about RLUIPA, saying it shifts the balance of power in residential neighborhoods to religious landowners." The residential quality of a neighborhood takes a back seat to the interests of the church group," she said. "The untoward result is that homeowners become second-class citizens to their religious neighbors."

RLUPIA has not yet publicly become an issue in the Sufism sanctuary debate, and it's not known if the legal battle will go that far.

In the meantime, the dispute has left little love between either side, and religious faith among people on both sides could be one source of hard feelings. 

Hamilton notes that Americans tend to be pretty religious. "Both sides are made up of people who are religious, so any implied condescension from the leader of the project can really hit a nerve, and even of whiff of holier-than-thou attitude from the members can lead to a conflagration of bad feelings," Hamilton said.