Marin Maven

The Marinwood-Lucas Valley Blackout of 2010

The Maven — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:12:34 +0000

canlelight

Last night at approximately 6:25pm, power went out for about 4400 customers in the Lucas Valley-Marinwood area. According to PG&E this was a substation related outage.The outage lasted to 7:50 pm. Residents took the opportunity to visit each other by candlelight and kids got to see what it was like to live “in the old days.” So far there has been no explanation of what went wrong. In the midst of the outage, a neighbor reported that PG&E had crews looking for the source of the outage.

The outage was an adventure for our family. Outages at night are more fun than during the day when we have to be productive or have to blow dry our hair for work.

The outage was an adventure for our family.We took a walk to a neighbor’s house to visit, looked at the stars, and were making sandwiches when the power went back on. There is something magical living by candlelight and flashlights. It made me think that I we need to stock up on more food like tuna that we can have on hand that doesn’t require cooking and to make sure we have enough propane for the grill.

Anyone like to share how you survived the hour and a half blackout?

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Supervisor Adams’ Seat May Be A Contest

The Maven — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:34:48 +0000

After running uncontested last term, it looks like this time District 1’s Marin County Supervisor, Susan Adams will have company on the ballot this election. The MarinIJ reports that former Marin Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni has taken out papers to run and plans to file before the Friday deadline. One of the main reasons cited for running is Adams vote to approve the Marin Energy Authority as an alternative to PG&E.

Three others have taken out papers to run against Susan Adams: Carol Brandt, who ran against Adams eight years ago; Craig Yates, a disability advocate; and Robert Coleman, a leadership training consultant.

Marin Maven invites all candidates to use this forum to inform people what you plan to do as supervisor. Just email us.

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Wouldn’t You Look Smart With This Fashion Accessory!

The Maven — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:07:16 +0000

ilovemarinbookbag

Nothing shows the world how you love Marin more than this fabulous arm candy of a bookbag. This bookbag, as well as many other I [HEART] Marin items at our Cafepress shop. We even have I [HEART] Marin thongs for the ladies and boxer shorts for that special guy. Maven wears her MARIN POLITICS/MARINMAVEN.COM black long sleeved shirt all the time. A portion of the proceeds goes to keeping Marin Maven up. You can also help Marin Maven by buying a bumpersticker and putting it on your bumper. It looks great on mine.

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Spring in Blackstone Canyon

The Maven — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:48:53 +0000

Blackstone Canyon

The trees of Marinwood are erupting in blossoms, even as we are being drenched with rains that make the hillsides surreal green. Maven got a break in the weather on Sunday and a chance to have some quality time with her son. Being a full-time working mom and blogger for both Marin Maven and SFGATE’s In Marin keeps me busy. My son has Little League, Taekwondo, Spanish classes, and homework that keeps him busy. During the week my husband works at home and my father comes to take and pick up our son to various places. Still, as my son and I get busier, I want to build in a time with him so we always remain close.

On Sunday, we walked to Blackstone Canyon to have that time.

blackstone canyon3

Blackstone Canyon is a beautiful trail at the end of Blackstone Drive going west. You walk past the intersection of Las Gallinas and Blackstone Drive and keep heading left till you find the end of the road and entrance of the trail. This place is the most magical in the rainy season or full blown Spring. Often, you will find Marinwood residents walking their dogs or children. One Spring there was this huge swarm of dragonflies that just took your breath away. Blackstone Canyon’s trail is along side a creek that is overflowing at the moment. The sound of rushing water is this glorious sound. As you walk along there is a stone bench off the trail on your left where we took pictures of our children when they were younger since this trail is great for getting your little ones walking. These pictures we have are bittersweet because many of those play-date mates have moved out of Marin due to economic hard times moving them to where jobs or extended family can be found.

If you walk further you will find a smallish pond, where we found tadpoles a couple of years back. We collected the pond water, a couple of rocks, and vegetation for the tadpoles. Then we froze spinach and broke it up for the tadpoles. One morning they surprised me with little frog legs, so I had to bring them back while my son was in pre-school.

It is important to me to connect with my son as his hair bounces as he excitedly bubbles over with tips on playing Pokemon Wii. It is also important to me reinforce getting outdoors, exercise, and be present listening to frogs croaking.

The trail has been extended recently and is worth going farther. There are plenty of other hikes nearby that are more strenuous. Check out my post on Big Rock Ridge. If you ever need a hiking buddy on the weekends, let Maven know.

Do you have any thoughts or memories of Blackstone Canyon? Any favorite hikes? How do you keep connected with your children in these busy modern times?

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Privatization of Novato Waste Water on June Ballot

The Maven — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:51:02 +0000

sanitary

On June 8th, Novatoans will be asked to vote on whether the Novato Santitary District can privatize operations of a 90 million dollar water waste treatment plant. The proposal would outsource to a French company, Veolia North America. According to the California Healthy Communities Network, a project of non-profit Tides Center, the company has a history of:”costly lawsuits, conviction of Veolia officials and public officials in embezzlement of public funds, illegal bidding practices, faulty contracts riddled with important costly omissions, breach of contract issues from failure to maintain adequate staffing levels, charging improper expenses to the maintenance and repair bill covered by the public agency, serious sewage spills, failure to comply with the federal Clean Water Act, overcharging the public for services, and plant safety violations.”

The campaign against privatization also cites that Petaluma and Paris, France have recently fired Veolia for not fulfilling promises. They also claim that Veolia operates the plant in Richmond which has the no. 2 highest incidence of sewage spills in the Bay Area. To be fair, water treatment in the southern part of Marin has had spills as well.

This Friday, March 12, the movement to stop privatization will have a party to kickoff the campaign at the Old Novato City Hall at 901 Sherman Street. From 5pm to 7 pm, there will be music, food, drink, friends, and the ability to find out how you can work for local control on the water treatment. They are asking for $35.00 donation or whatever you an afford. The sponsors of this event include: Novato Democratic Club, Marin Peace and Justice Coalition, Food and Water Watch, David Schonbrunn, Frank Egger, who has been active in so many efforts to protect our environment including trying to stop the Moth Spraying (which is coming back…more on that later…)

You can RSVP for this event to Dotty E. LeMieux at 415-485-1040 or coastlaw@earthlnk.net

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