Exciting developments in the East Bay's hyper-local news landscape

A new news website has emerged in the East Bay suburbs, started by veteran journalist J.D. O’Connor, who, until recently, was editor of Lamorinda Patch.  

News 24-680 covers “the crossroads of Contra Costa County”: the towns of Lamorinda, Walnut Creek and Danville.

J.D. and other creators behind News 24-680 describe themselves as a collection of “Old School” journalists, tech-savvy “Young Turks” and supporters – “all of us dedicated to bringing local news to the people in an unfiltered and unflinching new way.” That means: “deep, local coverage of news and events important to residents of the Highway 24/Interstate 680 corridor.” The site promises to adhere to traditional standards of gathering and reporting events, but bringing them to you “with the lightning-fast expediency the latest technology affords."

 This all sounds very exciting, considering that we in the 24/680 corridor will now have quite a selection of local and hyper-local news outlets: the Contra Costa Times, the Patches (Lamorinda, Walnut Creek, and Danville), and Claycord, amongst them.  They all deliver news in different ways.  

Both JD and I started our respective blogs – East Bay Daze and Crazy in Suburbia – around the same time and in response to what we saw as a need to provide our communities with alternative sources for news. At the time, The Contra Costa Times and its weeklies pretty much dominated the landscape, except for that upstart over in Concord and Clayton, Claycord.

In 2010, we both took a chance on joining AOL Patch’s growing network of news websites. Patch gave us salaries, health benefits, and the technical infrastructure to start, respectively, Walnut CreekPatch and Lamorinda Patch. In my humble opinion, JD and I were both pretty good at running our sites. We both worked hard to offer good journalism and to bring in good writers, reporters, photographers and videographers to help out. 

Both our sites were always at the top or near the top in things that matter most to Patch (UVs and sales); we both benefited from smart, engaged readerships, and it was fun building a community around which readers could participate in conversations about local issues.  

But, then I left Patch in 2011. It was a tough decision, but Patch wanted to take its empire of 800 sites nationally in certain directions.  JD continued to operate Lamorinda Patch until a few months ago, when he was asked to leave following a disagreement with Patch management over comment moderation. His supervisors apparently didn't like how he challenged people leaving scathing comments about other political candidates to identify who they represented, O’Connor told Jim Romenesko.

 “The good editors established strong ties with a dedicated readership and I was a beneficiary of that level of trust,” O’Connor told me. “I believe we need to keep things independent and transparent and the readers believing that what they were getting was as near the pure truth as we could deliver -- and I knew that model resonated with them in a big way.”

After being “jettisoned” from is job, J.D. began receiving inquiries from people around the area who said they wanted to help him build a new resource for news and information.  Those people included tech-savvy individuals who helped build the website and content management system, JD says. 

“All in all the experience has been really fun, with the usual thrill-ride pump of a start-up combined with the old magic of doing community journalism combining to keep things interesting,” he says. “Some very young people with sharper minds than mine have some ideas for how we should go about delivering the news here and we hope to bring them to market soon.”

Some say there is no market or money in hyper-local news, given the way Patch and other major media organizations have struggled to establish revenue-generating sites. But, perhaps their top-down model is wrong.  The apparent success of locally created East Bay sites like Claycord and Berkleyside may tell a different story.

Vive La Revolution, even if it makes me "too political" or there's no campaign slogan--yet

So, the Occupy movement is supposedly returning to Walnut Creek today. It is scheduled to start at 4 p.m., again in front of Bank of America at Mt. Diablo Boulevard and North Main Street, although more protesters, including members of organized labor, are expected to turn up at the BART station and hold rallies into November.

Some in Walnut Creek grumble about the some 200 protesters last week taking up space on the side walk or slowing traffic. Others dismiss them as disorganized, leftist Code Pink hippies or societal malcontents and predict this Occupy movement won't last because there is no clear message.

On one hand, Contra Costa Times columnist Tom Barnidge was correct in noting the disparate "all-you-can eat" buffet of messages espoused by protesters.

On the other hand, I heard the chant at last week's rally, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, corporate greed has gone to go." And, that summed things up for me--for now.

And, as Barnidge said: "Their disparate messages didn't detract from the sentiments shared: a fervent desire for a better America and exasperation at not knowing how to get there."

Some voiced surprise that Walnut Creek would become the site of such a protest--notably, members of the media covering the event. I shrugged and thought "there we go again with the stereotypes about Walnut Creek and suburbia." We have a Tiffany's and we're going to have a Neiman Marcus--in front of which the protesters knowingly or not planted themselves--so that means--right?--we in Walnut Creek all part of the greedy corporate, tax-break-hording 1 percent.

Actually, I saw people I knew at the protest, such as members of the Democrats of Rossmoor, the "largest Democratic club in Northern California." They're a feisty, politically active and socially conscientious group, and the ones with whom I'm acquainted worked hard all their lives, built a good living for their families, are civic minded, tax-paying "great Americans" -- in the words of Sean Hannity. They were not in a a Howard Beale-esque rage, shouting "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more."

They were just saying what's going on right now in America isn't right.

I saw people I knew observing the protest, more hard-working locals. I myself was one of those observers. I would say these other observers support success and the capitalist system, and probably have shopped or will shop at Tiffany and Co. or Neiman Marcus at some point in their lives. But they were privately saying: "I support what the protesters are doing." Maybe they couldn't say exactly why they supported the protesters. They just liked what they saw.

Yes, I would venture to say that most people I know in Walnut Creek are not part of the so-called 1 percent. Most have good jobs, or their spouses have decent paying jobs. They are middle class or perhaps upper middle class--though still not part of the 1 percent. They own homes but they have endured a la off or they work at companies, and are even executives at companies, that are "restructuring," downsizing, laying people off. They have dealt with or are dealing with financial setbacks. Their retirement accounts are not as healthy as they used to be. Basically, they might be doing OK, but they know others who are not. They are aware that a lot of people in our community and our country are hurting right now, and they, like the protesters, believe our economy and society is out of balance, stacked against the majority, steeped in inequity.

"I support Occupy Wall Street," they say quietly.

I wonder what they are afraid of in whispering their support. Would they prefer not to be labeled Code Pink malcontents? Members of a losing cause? People who are too "political"?

Yes, I, too, support the Occupy movement, even if there is no "clear message" yet and even if it makes me political and labels me a bleeding heart and a malcontent. I support the general idea of it, that somehow things need to change. It seems that politicians from either party are so entrenched in their ideology and saving their own political butts that they don't know how to listen. Throughout history, protests, uprisings and even the dreaded class warfare is how you get the attention of the powers that be. Democracy in action. It's a beautiful thing.

No, I'm not advocating that protests turn violent or that anyone storm Bank of America. Personally, I also hope that the Occupy movement doesn't get co-opted by the usual suspects of Bay Area protests or new groups as Anonymous (yes, there were a few people at last week's protest donning the Anonymous-esque Guy Fawkes mask) or the Fans of the Berkeley hikers (don't get me started on that Trio).

I expect that the message will become more clear over time, or someone will emerge who can articulate it. Isn't that what happens in revolutions, in times of social change? And if someone doesn't create a soundbite-friendly slogan sometime soon, well, I guess the Occupy movement will splinter and we'll fall into a state of societal inertia, a rut of disengagement and misery. You know, I've given up trying to predict or control the future.

The Occupy movement--certainly the one in Walnut Creek and communities like it--should truly come from the middle class, however you choose to define the middle class. In my definition, it is made up of people who are thoughtful, fair-minded and care about their community and this country. They believe in doing the right thing, and want leaders who believe the same thing.

Bad news but still trying to drum up subscriptions

So, the East Bay going to lose its local newspapers, including the Contra Costa Times. That was the big news in the media world Monday and Tuesday. It was interesting then on Tuesday to see that the Times had at least one person out at Walnut Creek's downtown Safeway, trying to get people to buy new subscriptions.

Yes, I know that the spin put out by the Bay Area News Group, the owner of the Times, the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune, is that the company is going through a process of "re-branding."

And that this streamlining process will lead to many "positives" and "efficiencies," BANG's president Mac Tully said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.

Maybe this is true: that this will be a good thing, a necessary thing, in this economy and in the news and publishing industry. It doesn't seem like much of a good thing to Walnut Creek residents, who hunger for local news, and for people who work at the Times and in journalism.

Current and former Times staffers have written on Facebook, expressing feelings of shock and sadness about the closure of the Times' Shadelands office. Current staffers also spoke of the fear of being among the 120 employees that will be laid off in the consolidation. I'm afraid that people I know and respect will lose their jobs.

East Bay suburbanites will have Walnut Creek Patch and other Patches, and Claycord and other blogs, to provide local news. Of course, I was in the local news business myself with this blog, then as editor for Walnut Creek Patch. In doing this blog and running Walnut Creek Patch, it became pretty clear to me how much people wanted to read about their communities.

I don't have anything really profound to say about what is happening at the Times, or about the state of journalism in general. I, too, am in shock and feel sad about it all. For all of my professional life, the Times was an unquestionable presence in town, operating out of that big office building in the Shadelands business park.

I worked for Times satellites, the Valley Times and the West County Times--which will soon be no more. I'd only go work in the mother ship on special occasions, when lowly me was afforded such a privilege.

I understand people's views that the Times could be arrogant and tone deaf to local concerns. Maybe all big news organizations are like that. This attitude drove me crazy enough that I started this blog.

At the same time, I believed then and still believe that the work of Times' very talented reporters, photographers and editors pushed me to do better work. That competition is healthy. It keeps journalists on their game, and makes them more responsive to readers.

And, actually, I do think the Times had become more interesting and readable recently. Since I left Walnut Creek Patch and wasn't online all the time, I've been revisiting my morning ritual of drinking coffee and scanning the actual hard copies of the Times and the Chronicle. On an almost daily basis, the front page of the Times has been winning out over the Chronicle in terms of headlines, stories, story placement and presentation, that made me think, "I have to read that."

OK, so the Times will continue to publish "local" sections, according to Tully. We'll see how local these local sections will be.

And, no, I didn't stop and talk to the guy in the Giants cap about buying a subscription to the Times. As I suggested above, I already have one.

The "Bernie Madoff Auction" draws about four dozen to Concord Hilton Sunday

The auction of items advertised as associated--somehow--with convicted swindler Bernie Madoff went off as scheduled at the Concord Hilton Sunday.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Tom Abate attended, and writes that auctioneer, Gary Getz of East Coast Auctions based in Georgia, displayed "six watches, a gold Buglari bracelet and necklace, and a mink coat that he said were once owned by Bernard Madoff," who is serving a 150-year prison sentence for perpetrating what many say was one of Wall Street’s most brazen investment scams.

No one bought any of those items, Abate reports. He adds to what I reported on Saturday, that these Bernie Madoff auctions have been taking place all over the country, with auctioneers claiming that the items come from either Madoff himself or from some of his victims.

A sticker advertising this auction appeared on the front page of Saturday's print edition of the Contra Costa Times. In fine print, though, the sticker said that the items up for sale did not come from the Madoff estate but came from his victims, and were being sold to "recoup their losses."

The U.S. Marshals Service is looking into the legitmacy of these auctions, as are other law enforcement agencies. The Marshals Service already held its own auction in November to sell off jewelry, furs, and other items seized from Madoff and his wife. Money earned from that auction was to help compensate Madoff's victims.

Abate observed some people winning bids for items, but none that appeared to have any connection to Madoff, or, possibly--it's not clear--to any Madoff' victims. A Martinez woman bought a silk rug with a bid of $2,350. A Lafayette woman, meanwhile, spent $13,000 on an original oil painting by Austrian-born painter Itzchak Tarkay who survived internment in a Nazi concentration camp. 

"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.

Publicizing a suicide attempt at an area high school?

The Mayor of Claycord yesterday reported on a student's suicide attempt at Clayton Valley School and included a recording of the voice message that Principal Gary Swanson left at the homes of students.

Some might question whether the Mayor should have reported this... I'll get to that question in a minute.

Regarding the incident: According to Principal Swanson and comments left by eyewitnesses on Claycord.com's message board, the student cut her wrists, and this occurred during lunch time.

Swanson said the student "hurt herself," and "friends were close by and were able to render immediate first aid and get additional help." Swanson added that the girl is doing OK, but advised parents to be prepared to talk to their kids about the incident and that crisis counselors would be available at the school today to meet with students. Some of those comments on Claycord.com came from parents who either knew the girl herself or had kids who witnessed the incident, and at least one parent said her own child was traumatized by it.

First of all, I think those girl's friends deserve some kind of public commendation. They acted quickly and with the presence of mind, in a very upsetting, frightening situation, to provide first aid and to get immediate help. Meanwhile, as a parent, I think Principal Swanson set a good example for communicating with his school community about a traumatic incident. He immediately alerted the school community about this incident. No doubt, it was something all the kids, teachers, and parents would be talking about yesterday, and will probably be talking about today.

As for whether the Mayor should have publicized this incident? Will that bring further shame and stigma to this student and her family? Some people I told about this post thought so.

At the same time, I'm pretty sure that most kids at Clayton Valley know who she is, as do their parents. For one thing, the comments on his message board overwhelmingly express support for her and her family.

The Mayor's blog, and now mine, does introduce the topic to people outside of Clayton Valley High community, but is that a bad thing? I think the Mayor provided an important public service about a situation that often gets buried. I didn't see any mention of it in the print or online edition of the Contra Costa Times. Maybe their reporters didn't get the word, though it was on Claycord yesterday afternoon. Maybe it's tucked far in some back page, or somewhere deep one the website.

But if mention of this incident is not in the Times, it could be due to that rule we always had in mainstream media world--that you don't report on suicides, unless it occurs in a very public manner--say, by walking into traffic on the freeway, or shooting yourself in the plaza in front of Nordstrom in Walnut Creek's Broadway Plaza.

The thinking behind not publicizing suicide is that this manner of death should be private because it is shameful. This thinking reflects larger cultural and religious attitudes about suicide, as well as the depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses that lead people to attempt it.

Another concern about publicizing suicides, especially when you're dealing with young people, is that doing so will somehow glamorize it and lead to copycat attempts.

Maybe. But is hiding it, not talking about it, treating it as something shameful a preferable way to go? Ultimately, I don't think so.

The fact is, mental illness and suicide are serious public health issues. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 600,000 people in one year (2006) went to the emergency rooms of hospitals for self-inflicted injuries, and 33,000 people died by suicide. In 2007, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death for all ages, and the third leading cause of death of 15- to 24-year-olds.

Also in 2007:

• Suicide accounted for 12 percent of all deaths among among 15- to 24-year olds.

• 14.5 percent of students in grades 9-12 seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months (18.7 percent of females and 10.3 percent of males).

• Nearly 7 percent of students reported making at least one suicide attempt in the previous 12 months

• 2 percent students had made a suicide attempt that resulted in an injury, poisoning, or an overdose that required medical attention

As for mental illness, the National Institute of Mental Health says that around 26 percent of Americans 18 or older suffer from a diagnosable mental illness in a given year, and about 6 percent suffer from what could be called a serious disorder. As for youth, only about half of kids and teens who have certain mental disorders, including depression and anxiety, receive treatment. And, 13 percent of youth participating in a national study met the criteria for having these disorders.

In the end, the Mayor focused attention, not just on this one student's emergency, but on general community concerns about youth mental health and suicide, judging by the comments on his blog. People got to vent, and even share their own stories about people they knew who took their own lives, and how it affected them.

Meanwhile, one of the Mayor's readers provided useful information, especially for people this time of year, when stress and anxiety can be particularly high. It is the contact information for the Contra Costa Crisis Center. Here are tips on identifying someone who is suicidal and how to get help. And, here is the number for the suicide prevention hotline: (800) 273-TALK (8255) and crisis hotline (800) 833-2900.