Teen job fair in Walnut Creek Thursday; and the downtown library connection to my beloved summer job

I can't wait for my 11-year-old to get old enough to go out and get a job, and start bringing in some money to help keep me in living in the style to which I'd like to become accustomed! Oh, wait, a part-time, minimum-wage job won't do that for me? Especially in an expensive place like the Bay Area. Sigh. Another of my dreams dashed!

Anyway, many of us probably had our after-school or summer jobs as teen-agers, where we earned money to help buy clothes, pay for movie tickets, even to put away and save for college.

To help local teens from being bored or going broke this summer, the City of Walnut Creek is holding a Teen Job Fair Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. There, the city will fill teens in about volunteer and summer jobs offered by the city. It is for teens 13 and up. This is a drop-in event--reservations are not required. The job fair will take place at the Civic Park Community Center.

OK, what was your after-school or summer job?

My first one was a disaster. I was hired to work as a cashier at the former Woolworth's in the Broadway Plaza. I always loved that Woolworth's, going in there to buy pet supplies, little trinkets. I thought it was cool to be able to work there. But, I was a horrible, terrible cashier. I was always mistyping the figures and causing over-rings, which would prompt the big, barrel-chested manager, who was carrying on a flirtation with a cute blond and more talented-cashier co-worker, to come barreling out to deal with my error. I lasted in the job about three weekends.

My next job was far more successful and fun. And, "Damn Library" fans, do you know what job that was? Shelving books at the old, now-torn-down library in Civic Park. Hmm. Would you call that the original "Damn Library"?

That was a great job. For one thing, it paid better than minimum-wage. I got to work with fun people--yes, those librarians are fun people. And, I got to be around books. Let's just say, I'd head out into the stacks with my cart of books, and sometime spend a little more time shelving than I needed.

Small town? Big town? What's your view of Walnut Creek?

One of the key tensions among Walnut Creek residents is whether this community of 63,000 people should hold onto its quiet, small town roots--or it should become more urban, and less suburban. This tension shows up all the time in comments on this blog. Most recently I’ve seen this tension in reaction to posts I’ve done on the new library and about the City Council’s approval of a nine-unit housing project on the fringe of the historic Almond-Shuey neighborhood.

Contributing to this tension, it seems, is frustration--on one side and justified or not--with city leaders for not doing a good enough job listening to residents. On the other side are residents and business leaders who tend to be pro-development, whether the development involves a new high-end department store, a new library, new high-density "infill" housing projects in certain neighborhoods, or a new BART transit village. 

The following comments, to some degree, express different aspects of the tension. I thought I'd share a few and ask: Where do you fall on this small town/big town debate?

Here are views expressed by readers:

Regarding a post that referred to the new library (due to open this summer), a reader said:

Why is it so close to the street like every other newish building in Walnut Creek. Do we not value any set-backs anymore? ... I've noticed the same thing. I think the WC city council wants to make WC look like a true city (like NY city or SF) where the buildings are right on the sidewalk. I don't like it at all.

Regarding the City Council's decision on the Almond Lofts project, on a half-acre lot fronting Oakland Boulevard, many readers, who participated in this debate, offered different viewpoints on the small town/big town question:

It's only a matter of time before Walnut Creek is nothing but a shopping district surrounded by apartments. I get the distinct feeling that the City Council would love that.

But Steve Reiser, a realtor (and former president of the Contra Costa Board of Realtors), and Almond/Shuey resident and publisher of the Almond/Shuey Blog wrote:

Guess what? If you buy, rent or live in a downtown neighborhood, you have to deal with the consequences of downtown living. Disclosure laws are such that if you buy here today, you would need to sign a document acknowledging items such as BART, freeway, traffic and potential development. It cracks me up when someone moves to or lives in downtown Walnut Creek, then complains about traffic and noise. It goes with the territory.

[Reiser says he put together a petition drive, prior to the Almond Lofts decision, asking Almond/Shuey neighbors to voice their approval of the project.]

He explains that he put it together because “I personally believe that this is a smart project and ideal for that lot. … Oakland Blvd has unfortunately taken on somewhat of a hodge-podge element of urban blight; empty offices, run-down homes and apartment buildings, a new pot club, weekly abortion picketers, and of course the big (eyesore) empty lot in question which is often used to park trucks and trailers.”

Finally, another reader, commenting on the Almond Lofts project, took a bigger-picture view of the basic pro- or anti-development, small town/big town question:  

Of course we can't go back to the good old days, and quite honestly there is alot about the good old days that we would not find amusing or convenient.

But.......we must be better stewards of what is left of the older parts of town that add so much to our community.

The "tear it down and fill it up with multiples" attitude has got to come to an end, now!


For the council members who don't live in or any where near the older parts of town, seem to feel that their neighborhoods are the only ones worth preserving. Wrong.


Wake up people! It is only going to get worse and pretty soon we will have a totally "plastic" downtown created because our council is "infill" mad. No matter, it doesn't affect their way of life in the end.

Making it through? Highlights of Walnut Creek’s budget reflects economic challenges, successes

The City Council is expected to adopt its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the 2009 fiscal year (which ended June 30) at itsTuesday night meeting.

The 188-page document highlights the challenges the city faced last year, and will continue to face this year. It also notes ideas for tackling those challenges, as well as some successes that might surprise some residents, particularly on the question of that “damn library” and whether investing in arts and recreation is good for the city.

I tried to pick through all its pages, but since I’m not a budget and finance person I may have missed some interesting little details. Feel free to pore through this document yourself and add or dispute what I found to be highlights. Basically:

THE BOTTOM LINE:
The reports says:

Almost all City revenues have declined substantially since the adoption of the 2008-10 operating Budget in June 2008. Sales tax revenue in fiscal year 2008-2009 was $18.5 million, a decrease of 8 percent over the amount received in the prior year primarily due to the slowdown in auto and retail markets. Together with declines in property tax revenue and fees and charges collected by the city for services, total revenues were approximately $4 million below initial projections for 2008-09 and are expected to finish $9 million below initial projections for 2009-10.

Total Revenues: "$82 million, of which $27 million were derived from Governmental Activities, $2 million were derived from Business-type Activities and $53 million from General Revenues Existing reserves were used to cover an additional $1 million of expenditures."

Total Expenses: "$83 million, of which Governmental Activities incurred $81 million and Business-type Activities incurred $2 million (see tables 2 and 5 for additional information)."

SOME SURPRISING, OR NOT SO SURPRISING, HIGHLIGHTS

That “Damn Library.” Sorry, library supporters, I’m not taking any position on the library when I refer to it this way. I’m just honoring readers, for whom referring to it this way, has become something of a Crazy inside joke.

Anyway, the news about this budgeted $42 million project. Despite concerns, controversies, etc., the city expects to complete its new library on time and within budget. The city has so far spent around $23 million, and has $17 million left to spend.

Surprise No. 2: Arts and recreation are good, very good, for Walnut Creek: In a year when revenues declined in most areas (sales, property tax, state revenues, including vehicle license fees, and city license and permit fees), one sector proved to be a money-maker: Arts and recreation.

Sure, the city’s spending on arts and recreation increased $324,000, or 2 percent, from the previous year. This was due to increased salaries and benefit and other costs. And the city had to pour money into arts and recreation because more people were taking Civic Arts and recreation classes and going to see shows at the Lesher Center.

Notably, ticket sales at the Lesher Center, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, continued strong, bucking the trend of other performing arts organizations hurting in tough economic Times. Charges for tickets and fees for classes and other programs increased $249,000 from the prior year.

Not such a surprise: The other money maker. Increased parking rates at meters also helped bring in an additional $233,000 (5%) from the previous year.

GOING FORWARD

In 2010 and beyond, the goals include:

• Continuing to enhance the vitality of downtown
• Oversee a comprehensive cost allocation, fees and charges study
• Adopt the Locust Street / Mount Diablo Boulevard Area Specific Plan
• Complete review of the BART Transit Center Village and Neiman Marcus projects
•  Implement parking pay stations in the downtown
• Finishing that new library and parking garage.
• Do reconstruction on Geary Road.
• Work on a retaining wall for Rudgear Road Retaining Wall
• Conduct a needs assessment for Heather Farm Swim Center

"Damn library" will open probably under budget but with fewer hours

The "damn library" in this headline is a tribute to a good-humoured reader who leaves--in jest, I imagine--this two-word comment on many articles related to Walnut Creek civic spats and controversies.

That's right, this reader seems to be saying--or is poking fun as those who do adhere to this view--that if something is messed up in town, it just has to be the fault of the "damn library." That "damn library" is sucking away money, time, energy from other, perhaps more worthy causes.

The Contra Costa Times's Elisabeth Nardi reports today that the 42,000-square-foot library, long a source of controversy, will open in late spring or early summer. Some good news? The library, and its 123-space underground parking garage, appear to be coming in under the $41.5 million budget, but just how much no one is saying. Not yet.

The bad news? Well, just as the library opens, Measure Q, a $22-per parcel tax passed in 2002, will run out. Measure Q helped Walnut Creek libraries beef up the number of hours that their staff, employees with the Contra Costa County Library system, worked. Instead of the county only being able to staff the library 35 hours a week, Measure Q helped the county to pay workers to keep the Walnut Creek libraries to be open 56 hours.

The city, right now, seems reluctant to go back to Walnut Creek voters and ask them to extend the parcel tax. "It's not the time right now to ask the taxpayers and residents for more funding," Lorie Tinfow, assistant city manager told the Times.

Sigh.

I know that the library has long been a red-hot issue, long before the Neiman Marcus bomb dropped into town. I have friends who emphatically support the new library. I have friends who believe construction of the library has been a huge waste of resources.

I confess I was not paying much mind to the proposed new library when the idea first hit the fan: working, raising a small child.

I always had a sentimental attachment to the old library, because, as a teen-ager, I worked there after school and in the summers. What a great job. I helped check out books and would push those carts around into the stacks to shelve books. I confess I tended to disappear in those stacks if a book on the cart happened to catch my fancy.

Best part-time job for a teen-ager and college student ever!

I do believe civic ego drove some Walnut Creek city and community leaders to believe that they needed a grand new monument in town. Hey, Danville got it's swanky new library. So did other towns up and down the I-680 corridor, from Livermore to Dublin to San Ramon. I like Orinda's library plaza and fountain and the little cafe below.

And then....

Lafayette got its new, somewhat pretentiously titled, "Lafayette Library and Learning Center." Well, I can imagine some Walnut Creek city and community leaders could not abide being shown up by, hmph, Lafayette!

So, a series of political battles and elections later, we are going to soon have a new downtown library. I suppose some of us could continue to grumble about the waste, the folly, the ego.

Or, we could just accept that it's going to open soon, and maybe it will be kind of cool and worth all the fuss in the long term. Hey, it's going to have a cafe!

Maybe, just maybe, it will exceed any of our low expections. How about that? I know when I pass along North Broadway and see that street-facing facade take shape, I think, hey, the library might turn out looking pretty good! Design-wise, it might just turn out to be a credit to our--uh--notable Walnut Creek skyline.