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.

A Strange New World: No More Patch, No More Job

I've never had panic attacks before, not really, even when news was coming out in the summer of 2001 about my husband having a serious mental and committing crimes at work.

But I've had several mornings, afternoons, or entire days these past few weeks of my arms shaking and feeling shortness of breath, of just generally feeling that some semblance of life as I have known it was coming to an end, and a big wide unknown was gaping before.

Panic attacks--mine at least--are truly physical phenomenon. I can't say I was having racing thoughts. No, it just seem like my body was being overtaken by something outside myself, that worked its way inside.

The attacks started in the weeks before I gave up my job as editor of Walnut Creek Patch. I officially left that job this past Wednesday. Several factors went into this decision to give up a site I launch and put my heart and soul into. It was hard to give it up but at the same time, I came to the conclusion that it was the right and sane thing to do. I do not all regret my time editing Walnut Creek Patch. I do not regret leaving. I had taken the site as far as I felt I could go.

Time for a change. Life must move on.

But rather than do what some might see as the sensible thin--get a job first and then leave--I just decided to leave and give up my future and my family's future to --I don't know--fate? Some higher power?

Yesterday, I woke up at 4 a.m. in a state. Heart pounding. Terrified about the future and one particular job I'm going for. My husband tried to distract me with a visit to San Francisco MOMA's exhibition, The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde,. That is, masterworks of Picasso, Matisse, Renoir and other artists collected by Gertrude Stein and her brothers during their time in Paris. I had to remind myself to breath as we wandered from gallery to gallery, reading about Gertrude Stein's legendary soirees on the Rue de Fleurus in Paris and thrilling at the breathtaking colors of the Matisse paintings. I did allow myself the thought that Woody Allen well timed the release of his 1920s in Paris time-travel movie, Midnight in Paris, to coincide with this exhibit.

As we left the museum and crossed Yerba Buena Center Gardens, I broke down crying. Grief? Fear? Fear that I was in a state of fear?

The unknown. As life has turned out, I get to be the breadwinner because my husband's illness limits his ability to work, if at all. I have to say, I like him not working but just volunteering. He helps out at Fresh Start, the homeless respite center. His mood has been better, and his symptoms have lessened, in the eight months he has been working.

I'm afraid to admit that I'm one of those women who would have liked to rely on the man to bring in the big bucks while I dabbled in my passion for journalism, writing. Yes, of course, journalism is not the most lucrative profession. You certainly can't support a family in the Bay Area on it. So, I have to move forward, thinking how I'll take care of myself and my family, a role I'm still getting used to. I just have to look to some role models: my single gal friends who are doing it on their own.

Indulge me for a minute but I can't help but think of "The Second Coming" by WB Yeats: Turning and turning in the widening gyre/The Falcon cannot hear the falconer;/Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.

I think I'm the falcon?

Well, one thing about leaving the Patch job is that, I hope, to have the time and mental energy to devote again to Crazy in Suburbia--whether or not anyone is still reading. As always, this work will continue to be a work in progress. I'm still a bit crazy, of course. Those panic attacks seem to be good evidence of that fact.

Locating a new In-and-Out on far North Main Street is just--goofy

For the past year, I've been following from an unusually objective distance the brouhaha over In-N-Out's proposal to open one of its drive-through burger restaurants at the far north end of North Main Street. As Walnut Creek Patch has reported, residents who live in neighborhoods just west of the site are not happy.

These northwest neighborhoods of homes and tree-lined streets happen to lie within Walnut Creek's city limits. Meanwhile, the proposed In-N-Out property sits literally just over the border in Pleasant Hill. That city, therefore, has jurisdiction over any planning decisions regarding the property, now a field of weeds and an oak tree. It also stands to enjoy the tax benefits.

Walnut Creek neighbors say they will have to deal with the fall-out. They have aired their concerns at both Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek city meetings, saying the property, between the Oak Park Hill mortuary and the big parking lot for Black Angus Steakhouse, is too small to accommodate a nearly 4,000-square-foot drive-through restaurant and the high volume of customers and motorists it is likely to attract.

Laura Milstead and other residents cited numbers from the city of Pleasant Hill that the restaurant could bring an additional 1,200 to 1,500 cars a day into their neighborhood.

They also said the drive-through will open 30 feet from the home of a resident who has lived in the neighborhood for 60 years, near a family with small children and next door to the Oak Park Hills Chapel mortuary. The restaurant would bring unwelcome noise, odor, crime and late-night crowds who have been drinking and partying into the area.

As the Planning Commission prepares to release an environmental impact report, dueling Facebook pages and petitions have been posted this week to gather signatures for and against the project. As the blog Claycord has reported, "just a few days after Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce supporters created a Facebook page & petition in favor of In-N-Out Burger, a citizen stepped up and created a petition and Facebook page against the proposed restaurant.

The Limit In-N-Out Burger in Pleasant Hill Petition says that the location next door to homes is simply inappropriate for this kind of business and that the fast-food burger chain already has the greenlight to open a location three miles up the road at Contra Costa Boulevard and Concord Avenue.

Meanwhile, the petition created by chamber supporters says the North Main Street location is appropriate because the area is zoned commercial The restaurant will "bring in much needed tax revenue for Pleasant Hill and good paying jobs to area residents."

OK, let me say first that I like In-N-Out burgers--though, .for the sake of my waistline, they should remain rare indulgences. A lot of the residents who live near the proposed North Main Street location have admitted that they, too, like In-N-Out.

Even die-hard foodies have to give In-N-Out its due ever since top American chef Thomas Keller, of French Laundry fame, said the following in 2007 to Via Magazine; "I really respect a company that holds its ground when there is so much pressure to follow the 'what’s next, what’s new' trend. In-N-Out’s quality lies in the simplicity of what it promises and delivers. To be able to do something over and over with integrity and excellence, even if it is fast food, is something to be truly admired."

So, there you go. Thomas Keller says In-N-Out models integrity and excellence in the way it prepares its fast food.

I have long been in favor of the chain opening a location in Walnut Creek, as I wrote in September 2009 on my CrazyinSuburbia blog. Indeed, when the controversy over the North Main Street location first boiled up, I talked to a top representative at In-N-Out and asked if the company--please, please, please--would consider moving its sights south to my hometown. He assured me that the company was considering Walnut Creek in its future plans.

But for now we in Walnut Creek would have to settle for this North Main Street location.

Oh joy.

I'm sorry but this location makes absolutely no sense to me.

For one thing, there is what I believe to be a guiding ethos of the In-and-Out model. The company locates restaurants close to freeway entrances and exits so that its car-bound customers can enjoy easy access--they can literally drive in, get their burgers, fries and shakes, and drive out.

Yes, this proposed location sits right across North Main Street from Interstate 680. But getting there from the freeway is not as easy as it looks. To get there from either north or southbound 680 involves exiting a mile or so south or north of the location, traveling through several intersections, a U-turn on Contra Costa Boulevard, crossing the freeway or a confusing turn off Oak Park Boulevard. Residents in the neighborhood say people often miss the Oak Park turnoff to North Main Street and wind up wandering through their streets to find the thoroughfare.

I'm also going to say something that some will no doubt find objectionable about that particular stretch of North Main Street, between the mortuary and the Oak Park Boulevard overpass. But here goes: The first word that comes to mind is "armpit." It's just a remote, unappetizing, almost pointless location. And I am just talking about North Main Street, notthe pleasant residential neighborhoods to the west.

Yeah, Black Angus Steakhouse is there-. The longstanding steakhouse looks like it recently received a new paint job and landscaping. Black Angus used to be a central Contra Costa hotspot before downtown Walnut Creek's nightlife took off.

I'm sure in the years since, the durable Black Angus has evolved and maintained a legion of loyal fans.

But again, that North Main Street stretch makes me think "armpit." There is no nice way to put it.

As for the mortuary, I wonder: A happy-skippy food preparation joint next to a mortuary?

There's a disconnect here. I'm mystified that the company's corporate leaders signed off on this location. In-N-Out usually seems so spot-on in choosing desirable sites that will accomplish its goals of serving as many double-doubles to as many customers and as quickly as possible.

As a Walnut Creek resident, who is sitting here craving some In-N-Out fries as I write this, I don't see myself frequenting this North Main Street location. Despite it's apparent proximity to the freeway, the 680 entrance and exit configurations make the location not that convenient. Also, I avoid that part of North Main whenever possible. I just find driving through it a bit depressing and annoying. As you travel south, approaching Treat Boulevard, it gets clogged with cars. But that's the route I'd have to take when returning home from a North Main Street In-N-Out burger run--which I wouldn't do very often, if at all.

I still have high hopes for In-N-Out someday coming to Walnut Creek. In the meantime, I'll stick to The Habit, The Counter and even Burger King closer to downtown if I have a burger and fries craving.

Martha Ross is the editor of Walnut Creek Patch and the publisher of the Walnut Creek-based blog, Crazyinsuburbia.blogspot.com.

Living with Crazy: Surviving Stigma

Another blogger once chided me for using the probably politically incorrect term "crazy" in the title of my blog, CrazyinSuburbia. He said the term might offend some people with mental illness.

I told him I could see his point, but that my husband, who is also mentally ill, likes to toss the word around, usually in a joking way. Maybe by using the word--in the same way as gay men use the word "queer"-- my husband is hoping to break down the stigma associated with mental illness.

But now I wonder: PC-wise, perhaps the only people who can use the word crazy are those who are mentally ill, in the same way that only gay men can use the word "queer" and only African-Americans can use that you-kn0w-what word.

But wait! I'm not so sane myself. Seriously, I've probably lived with a mild level of depression and a high dose of self-hatred much of my life. My husband's diagnosis 10 years ago of schizoaffective disorder only added to my depression, anxiety and self-hatred. It also made me ashamed. You know, the stigma can extend to family members.

I try to get by. My husband and I together try to get by, and he is of course much sicker than me. In simple terms, his illness combines schizophrenia and bipolar illness. Before medication, he was psychotic, in and out of touch with reality. He heard voices, he saw things, he would wake up not knowing where he was or how he had spent the previous week. He also had to deal with the mood swings associated with bipolar disorder. He was not very nice to people he worked with--but more on that long, unsavory chapter of our lives at another time.

Actually, even with the meds, he still hears those terrifying voices sometimes, he'll become disoriented about time, and he'll sink into depression.

Before I go on--and speaking of stigma and mental illness--a friend and I are attending a talk Thursday evening, "Sheding the Stigma of the Psycho Straightjacket," sponsored by the Contra Costa chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.The speaker is Los Angeles Times award-winning writer, Robert Jaffee, who will share his personal journey with mental ilness.

"As a writer on mental health issues and as someone who has experienced psychotic breaks and hospitalizations, Robert aims to offer insight, hope and the opportunity to overcome stigma," the NAMI announcement reads.

The talk will be part of the chapter's regular general meeting, which starts at 6:30 p..m. and takes place at the John Muir Medical Center-Concord Campus.

My friend is going through something somewhat similar to what I went through 10 years ago: suddenly learning that her bright, successful, professional, seemingly wonderful, mentally healthy husband may have a mental illness. I imagine that, like my husband, hers did a great job of hiding his symptoms from other people for years, and probably denied the illness to himself.

Even as a child, my husband was terrified of what the voices and a diagnosis would mean. He feared being ostracized by society and of being locked up the rest of his life. After we got married, he was terrified of losing me, so he never told me about the voices. He only told me that sometimes he would get depressed. He covered his illness very well, being a loving husband and father, until a crisis forced it out into the open.

In the first year or two after my husband's diagnosis, I attended support family suppport groups sponsored by NAMI Contra Costa. I also took NAMI's excellent 12-week Family to Family course, to help me better understand all aspects of mental illness, including symptoms, medications, legal issues, and, very important, what it's like to be ill and to hear voices.

But as I recently told my friend, many of the family members I met through NAMI were parents dealing with a mentally ill child. I rarely met spouses trying to cope with their husband's or wife's mental illness--either by staying together or breaking up. Having a spouse diagnosed with one of these chronic illnesses involves a different set of challenges than having a child who is ill.

It's been 10 years since my husband's diagnosis, and this is the year that I finally started to face what it all means. As you can tell, I can cling to denial pretty well and for a long time.

Just a few examples of what I'm learning it all means.

1) My husband takes a buttload of medication to keep him stable, but some of it, mainly the anti-psychotic zyprexa, has serious side effects. This drug made my formerly skinny husband gain weight and it may one day compromise his liver, cutting his life span by 10 years. He's dedicated to taking medication. He likes being sane and never wants to go back to how he felt, thought before.

2) The medications slow him down. Some mornings, it's tough for him to get out of bed. Sometimes, it's tough for him to get through the day. Perhaps the combination of the meds and the illness affect his memory and concentration, such that he will probably be limited in whatever work he does, if he is able to work at all.

This is all sad, because he is a very smart, gifted man, and he has so much to offer, not just to his family but to the community. Currently he's offering his gifts to Fresh Start, the Walnut Creek-based homeless service agency. He's very good at talking with the clients, listening to their fears and helping them solve the immediate problems facing them.

3) Life is not what I expected it to be when we married 20 years ago. For the last 10 years, I've been living with a combination of denial and terror. I was in survival mode. The denial may be lifting but the terror never goes away. And with my husband's illness and this economy we're all dealing with, I'm back more than ever to survival mode.

I wish I could go through the rest of my life, saying the right things, doing the right things, and looking really lovely and noble--like Jennifer Connelly, who won a Supporting Actress Academy Award playing the wife of schizophrenic Nobel Prize-winning mathemetician John Nash in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind.

Yeah, I agree that the film, though it won Best Picture, Hollywood-ized the real story of John and Alicia Nash. In the book by Sylvia Nassar, on which the film is based, both characters come out as much more complex, flawed, and therefore more human than their movie counterparts.

Still, I'd love to be able to occasionally pull out a line--brimming with love, support and hope-- like the one Jennifer Connelly says to Russell Crowe at a key moment in the film:

"I need to believe... that something extraordinary is possible."

Are You or Someone You Know Among the 2 million Set to Lose Jobless Benefits this month?

You hear the recession over, I read on Walnut Creek Patch, of which I’m editor, that Black Friday retail sales, for example, showed signs that the U.S. economy is in recovery

I talked last week with Walnut Creek’s retiring city manager, Gary Pokorny, who acknowledged the 10-plus-percent unemployment rate nationally and in California but said locally, “there are some signs the economy is coming back.” He mentioned some new development coming to town, some interest in investing in the rental housing market.

But he also said “Obviously, the economy is still pretty awful.”

Yeah, no kidding.

I’m sorry, but I’m in the glass-half-empty camp mode now. I'm kind of a gloomy gal that way.

I know people who have been laid off, been jobless for months, and seen savings and their hopes for their kids’ and their own futures’ slip away.

We all know people who have been laid off, whether we’re talking about neighbors or co-workers. Or, you’re the manager or business owner who had the job of telling someone his or her services are no longer required.

I've been hearing about high-earning male breadwinners of households being laid off. What’s up with that?

And, I hear about highly skilled workers staying unemployed for months…. A contrasting image to claims by some Republicans that some of those long-term unemployed want to continue to coast along on their unemployment benefits.

Personally, I don’t know anyone who fits into this category. Everyone I know who is jobless or “underemployed” is desperately seeking that elusive goal—which wasn’t so elusive, once upon a time--the full-time job.

I’ve been through a layoff, although this was back in the dot-com bust. The recovery from that seems like a breeze compared with what we’re dealing with now.

The only upside—if you want to call it that—to being laid off in an economic downturn is that you don’t have to take it personally. You’re not getting laid off because you can’t perform. You’re losing your job because the company or the organization you work for can’t perform. Or because of larger macro-economic conditions beyond anyone’s control. That's it: The economy is slacking off and failing to uphold its responsibility as a productive worker and team player.

When I was laid off in 2003, I was the family breadwinner. It was scary. I did qualify for unemployment benefits, which helped us pay for our health care and other basic costs. I believed I earned those unemployment benefits, which I collected for about three months before I found another job. I had been paying into the system since I first started working fulltime at age 22.

Congress has deadocked on extending jobless benefits, which average about $310 per week and have been helping millions of families make ends meet.

More partisan wrangling is rearing it’s ugly head on this issue, which is too bad. Without an extension, 454,000 jobless Californians will see an end to their benefit checks this month, according to Labor Department figures.

The Walnut Creek Library: It's Coming Soon ... And other news I've been covering on that other site

You can read on Walnut Creek Patch, that other site I edit, a timeline and overview of the construction of the new downtown library, which is set to open on July 17. Check out: "Patch Primer: The New Downtown Library is Coming Soon, and It's Been A Long, Interesting Journey."

The author is Robert Taylor, formerly of the Contra Costa Times.

I know this library project been a hot topic on this blog. As I've said before, I was neutral on the new library project, and, as a resident of the unincorporated area, I didn't vote in any of the elections--and didn't pay all that much attention to them. So Robert's overview was useful to me.

I know a lot of you are experts on this topic. Feel free to go Walnut Creek Patch and share what you know and what you think. You don't have to use your real name when you register to post comments.

Also on Walnut Creek Patch this morning:

--A Special Memorial Day Service in Walnut Creek Honors Those Who Fought in America’s “Forgotten War”: Walnut Creek's Memorial Day service Monday paid tribute to America's fallen soldiers while helping some of us remember what many regard as 20th century America's "forgotten" war.

--Talking Broadway and "Into the Woods" with Northgate High Drama Alum Broadway didn’t say no to Ryan Weible. He said no to it. Now, the Northgate High alum and San Ramon Valley High teacher is doing the kind of theater he loves, including a new take on Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods" opening June 4 at the Lesher Center.

--Class Sizes at Walnut Creek School District Campuses Won't Get Bigger, But Other Cuts Coming Despite budget cuts, class sizes in the Walnut Creek School District to remain the same.

--Summer Fun in the City There may still be two weeks of school, but we say summer fun starts today. Want something to do in the Creek besides take in latest blockbuster at the Century 14? Check out these top picks for fun, cultural, outdoorsy or family events June-August.

Getting Iced: Son resorts to a drastic measure to keep me awake the night before Walnut Creek Patch launch and during American Idol finale

Wednesday night, I was pretty tired. I have been working days and nights straight to get ready for the launch of Walnut Creek Patch, for which I'm the news editor. On the eve of the launch, Wednesday night, my son told me I should take a break and watch American Idol with him.

During the previous two seasons, we got hooked, to the extent that we voted for our

favorites after the shows: David Cook in 2008 and Adam Lambert in 2009.

This year, during Hollywood week, we started to lose interest. No, we didn't miss the loopy diversions of Paula Abdul. We thought the judging panel, with the addition of Ellen Degeneres, brought a new level of professionalism to the process. It was the contestants that bored us. No one really stood out--as a musician or as a personality.

So, we didn't watch the Idol showdown on Tuesday night (I couldn't; I was at the City Council meeting). But we decided to catch the end of Wednesday night's show. Pretty lackluster and even embarassing at times. The Pants on the Ground guy, singing with a vocal and dance backup? Sucked all the charm out what was probably the singular performance of the whole season.

The tribute to Simon Cowell was okay, but I was started to nod off over my laptop when eventual winner Lee Dewyze performed a medly of songs with the band Chicago.

"I have an idea to keep you awake," my son said. He knew that after the show I'd have to stay up much later to get everything ready for Thursday's launch.

And that idea had me leaning over the sink, and him pouring something very bracing over my head: He water. He did it, and we haven't laughed so hard, since, well, Sunday night's Family Guy parody of The Empire Strikes Back. Watch me getting iced here. Click on the image twice, then hit play.

It's Alive: Walnut Creek Patch has launched

It's been a long night of finalizing some stories and attempting some quick fixes, but Walnut Creek Patch, the new daily local news site I'm editing is live.

Today, you can check out: My film debut in which I talk about Walnut Creek Patch, and why I'm excited to be doing this new job. Many thanks to a talented local auteur for helping me to not look like an idiot. 


But more interestingly: 

• How Northgate High's music director got a last-minute reprieve from losing his job due to Mt. Diablo Unified School District budget cuts.But music education is still threatened. 
• The new wave in Walnut Creek's downtown dining scene. Maybe these restaurateurs are not fools for opening up stylish new spots. 

• How the City Council is hashing out proposed cuts and fee increases to make up for a $20 million shortfall in the 2010-12 city budget. And how they want to hold onto certain programs, including crossing guards and the downtown trolley. 

• How Rossmoor residents are getting medical marijuana delivered to their homes, getting around bans and moratoriums in Walnut Creek and other cities on pot clubs.

• How a 7-year-old girl's handling of an emergency shows why all kids need to learn 911 basics. 
• What it's like to have your dad as your high school principal. The sons of Las Lomas High principal Pat Lickiss 'fess up. 

Also, there's sports! No, not written by me. Heaven forbid. But here's a story about Las Lomas HIgh women exiting the women's softball playoffs.