280.
Published news story by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, June 13, 2001, “Second Death Linked to Contaminated Medication”. This is one of those stories you needed to move fast, although it’s not new information.
Wire services remain invaluable to news organizations/communities because they can, in seconds, get urgent news out to multiple media agencies within a region or network and get the immediate attention of editors. Now, the internet does this largely, but the information on the internet is too vast, overwhelming and unfiltered. When it comes to breaking news items for immediate broadcast, wire services like Bay City News and larger services still provide a crucial service.
At the same time, though, some news providers have essentially cheapened the meaning of “breaking” news. The assassination of a prominent world or local leader is a “breaking” news item in the minutes and hours following the murder, but the arrest of a new suspect in a two-month old story about the nightclub beating of a popular fashion model is not of the same gravity. Both are interesting stories, but only the first qualifies as breaking news.
For the record, stories are categorized by news agencies according to public importance. The highest priority, according to The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, is a Flash. Those are extremely rare news items of global interest. It has to be something like, “FLASH; SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON – Man lands on the moon.”
Check out my other blogs:
bayarealurene.blogspot
fecklesspreapproved.blogspot
unbelievableanimalstories.blogspot
baghdadiproposal.blogspot
risksinreporting.blogspot
genesisoutline.blogspot
mobiloilnigeriaman.blogspot
northbeachman.blogspot
blackholeeconomics.blogspot
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
13: Fish in San Francisco's Chinatown Wants to Catch Cable Car, Swim Back to Beach
California coast in April of 2007
13.
Undated, unpublished satire, by Lurene Helzer, Probably sometime in mid 1990s, regards scene in San Francisco’s Chinatown at a small grocery. The scene involves a fish being loaded into a box. He falls to pavement. I ask where the fish thought he was going in life:
I was walking through The City a few days ago. I came into Chinatown. A couple of Chinese grocers were loading some fish from cardboard boxes into plastic containers. There must have been about 30 fish stacked up there. Fish are Fools! They have no idea they are going to be at any moment mere decoration in a Chinatown storefront, with their blue eyes staring at passing Chinese ladies with plastic shopping bags.
Anyway, two Chinese guys were slapping them from cardboard box to plastic box, cardboard box to plastic box, and so on. One of the guys had a cigarette hanging from his mouth. A fish, who had somehow managed to survive the journey from the ocean to the store, wriggled out of the man’s hand and slapped himself down to the pavement. There he was: gaFlop gaFlop gaFlop.
The merchant picked up the fish and threw him like a slimy washcloth into the plastic bin with the other fish.
The question struck me suddenly: “Where did that fish think he was going? Did he think he was going to catch a cable car back to the beach or something?”
11, 12: Opinions, Opinions.....The New York Times and C.I.A.
11.
Brief published comment I wrote for a web opinion site sometime in the 1990s, It is still published on the internet under the name Lurene Helzer
12.
New York Times letter to the editor, written by Lurene Helzer, published October 30, 1998. Regards 1998 American Central Intelligence Agency monitoring of peace agreements between Israelis and Palestinians. I say in letter that we ought to have asked another American agency to do the work because the C.I.A. is unpopular in the region.
Brief published comment I wrote for a web opinion site sometime in the 1990s, It is still published on the internet under the name Lurene Helzer
12.
New York Times letter to the editor, written by Lurene Helzer, published October 30, 1998. Regards 1998 American Central Intelligence Agency monitoring of peace agreements between Israelis and Palestinians. I say in letter that we ought to have asked another American agency to do the work because the C.I.A. is unpopular in the region.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
10: Berkeley Post Office on Tax Day, April 16, 1999
Money find in 1969 Philly.
10.
Published news story, Post office scene: ‘Regular mail or taxes?’ by Lurene Helzer for Berkeley Daily Planet, page one, April 16, 1999. Story is still fun to remember because Americans of all varieties come out of the closet for federal tax day, which is April 15. You just stand around a city’s main post office for a few hours and return to the newsroom with something pretty entertaining for next day’s issue. Of course, taxes are normally not described as entertaining to collect, most people the world over would agree:
By 9:15 p.m. there was a faster-moving line of people. “The rush has not even arrived,” he said. “Every year, people will wait until 11:45 and flock to the post office.”
It was a nice evening in Berkeley on the dreaded April 15, 68 degrees, light winds of 7 mph.
There were a lot of cars with couples.
“Maybe it’s a night out for them. They come in groups, too,” said Roberson.
Some seem to consider April 15 a family event. One sports utility vehicle went by. A woman with a happily panting dog was in the passenger’s seat and the kids were in the back. A man was driving. They were all laughing.
At nearly 10 p.m., one guy steps up to Roberson. He looks fatigued, slightly shaken. He asks where he can get tax forms.
Another woman wants to give postal workers her envelopes from her sunroof, and as one worker tries to take them, she snatches them back into her car. She holds them out again, the worker reaches out, and she snatches them back again. The worker throws up his hands.
Roberson shrugs his shoulders. “It’s kind of frustrating sometimes.”
There are a few people using the stream of people as a political opportunity. They were giving out flyers for an upcoming protest against the NATO airstrikes in Yugoslavia.
One man stood around on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. Tony Spaulding of Los Angeles, an engineer visiting town.
Just about every year, he stands out on April 15 at a post office. He’s performed the vigil in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. This year it is Berkeley.
“Only once a year do we all get down on our hands and knees and give royalty to the king,” he quipped.
9: Another odd essay, Dec. 27, 1994
9.
Another Weird Story from San Francisco, unpublished essay by Lurene Helzer, December 27, 1994. Story centers on old roommate Anton Loman. I can’t say he was even a close friend, but he remains a memory of true fascination even now, in 2007. I must also admit I always had sympathy for the history of Russian Jews. I think they have a hard time being truly understood in Israel today, or anywhere they try living outside Russia, actually. They are simply unique people wherever they may wander. Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky today remains a controversial and necessary figure in the history of the 20th Century, as far as I’m concerned. I keep an old news photo of him in 1984 San Francisco in my collection.
Another Weird Story from San Francisco, unpublished essay by Lurene Helzer, December 27, 1994. Story centers on old roommate Anton Loman. I can’t say he was even a close friend, but he remains a memory of true fascination even now, in 2007. I must also admit I always had sympathy for the history of Russian Jews. I think they have a hard time being truly understood in Israel today, or anywhere they try living outside Russia, actually. They are simply unique people wherever they may wander. Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky today remains a controversial and necessary figure in the history of the 20th Century, as far as I’m concerned. I keep an old news photo of him in 1984 San Francisco in my collection.
8: The Pigeon spoof, September 24, 2000
8.
Published satire, “The Pigeon,” by Lurene Helzer, San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 2000. This comedic episode is spoof of metropolitan life, most of which floats by unnoticed in its absurdity every day. It is also, on a deeper though not immediately noticeable level, a satiric comment on the dot-com revolution as it was occurring then in the San Francisco Bay area. The paper initially mistook it for a completely accurate series of events, which it was not. For example, there was no drunk on the corner, and there was no “I wonder who does her teeth” comment.
The published form can be seen in two versions, however. The original version, unedited, that ran in that Sunday’s SF Chronicle, is the one here. A second version, edited significantly, remains today on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website if you search for it by using my last name then, which was Helzer.
Published satire, “The Pigeon,” by Lurene Helzer, San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 2000. This comedic episode is spoof of metropolitan life, most of which floats by unnoticed in its absurdity every day. It is also, on a deeper though not immediately noticeable level, a satiric comment on the dot-com revolution as it was occurring then in the San Francisco Bay area. The paper initially mistook it for a completely accurate series of events, which it was not. For example, there was no drunk on the corner, and there was no “I wonder who does her teeth” comment.
The published form can be seen in two versions, however. The original version, unedited, that ran in that Sunday’s SF Chronicle, is the one here. A second version, edited significantly, remains today on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website if you search for it by using my last name then, which was Helzer.
7: Engagement party poem for Lukeris' on April 26, 2003
Melissa as a teen, visiting me in San Francisco Bay area, 1990s.
7.
Unpublished engagement poem, April 26, 2003 by Lurene Helzer for sister Melissa Helzer and Gabe Lukeris’ engagement party. They are today married, raising two boys, Drasil and Ashton, in Bellingham, WA.
6: "Sleeping My Way to the Top" joke essay, Aug. 12, 1992
Sam and Me, Copy of Life Magazine that was on 1964 newsstands week I was born.
6.
Unpublished Satire by Lurene Helzer, August 12, 1992, “Sleeping My Way To The Top.” This is a joke essay I put together for old friend Victoria Hecht in college. It centers on childhood habit of using Fox Terrier “Sam” as cover to get more sleep in morning. I blame long-dead Sam, the Los Angeles Police Department, California’s earthquakes, and Russia’s communists for all my tough breaks in life:
Los Angeles. 1985. The citizens of this metropolis peacefully slept in the middle of a typical southland evening. Some were awake attending peacefully to the business of the city’s night. Driver’s drove, bakers baked, muggers mugged, cops ate donuts and beat people up. Then, it happened.
Los Angeles jolted. Earthquake.
As the horror swept the city, guests at an obscure Motel 6 awoke astounded. They saw the water in the pool swish back and forth. Sixty-seven year old Betty Hornbecker awoke in astonishment, her face pasty and white with Ponds Cold Crème, and grabbed hold of the American Flag by her bedside under the misimpression that the Russians were finally invading.
But in room number five, the stunned tourists watched in living fear of death a truly unbelievable scene. “Mom. Oh my God. Is she…could she be…?”
5: Oil Spill Bird Victims in Northern California, Dec. 9, 2001
5.
Published news story, December 9, 2001, bcn67: Oiled Birds Still Turning Up On Coast, by Lurene Helzer, Bay City News, San Francisco. This story I wrote for Bay City News around 4 that morning was picked up by most Northern California news organizations, be they radio, television or newspapers.
Those who subscribed to our news service were able to write or broadcast the news in that same day. Many others were able to write or broadcast greater stories about the oil spill’s effects on coastal birds later in the week.
But the main thing here is that I got the interviews first, wrote this story, and sent it out through BCN to Northern California’s various client news outlets. With respect to getting the story out first, I beat every news organization in Northern California with this one.
This actually happened often in my work, but usually only because I was covering metropolitan issues which had little importance for most people. In other words, I was the first reporter to write about a budget cut for El Cerrito, but mostly because reporters were not fighting for space in El Cerrito’s City Council chambers to report on the issue. But in other cases, issues would have a regional importance or sensational appeal.
This disaster story, giving visual details about the innocent birds who were by then drowning in oil, perishing from the broad and toxic sheen’s effects on their little feathers, had obvious appeal to residents of the Bay area and the greater population of California.
Published news story, December 9, 2001, bcn67: Oiled Birds Still Turning Up On Coast, by Lurene Helzer, Bay City News, San Francisco. This story I wrote for Bay City News around 4 that morning was picked up by most Northern California news organizations, be they radio, television or newspapers.
Those who subscribed to our news service were able to write or broadcast the news in that same day. Many others were able to write or broadcast greater stories about the oil spill’s effects on coastal birds later in the week.
But the main thing here is that I got the interviews first, wrote this story, and sent it out through BCN to Northern California’s various client news outlets. With respect to getting the story out first, I beat every news organization in Northern California with this one.
This actually happened often in my work, but usually only because I was covering metropolitan issues which had little importance for most people. In other words, I was the first reporter to write about a budget cut for El Cerrito, but mostly because reporters were not fighting for space in El Cerrito’s City Council chambers to report on the issue. But in other cases, issues would have a regional importance or sensational appeal.
This disaster story, giving visual details about the innocent birds who were by then drowning in oil, perishing from the broad and toxic sheen’s effects on their little feathers, had obvious appeal to residents of the Bay area and the greater population of California.
4: ...his career as an oil company executive, Palm Springs interview, April 24, 2005
4.
Unpublished interview by Lurene Helzer April 24, 2005 in Palm Springs, CA with Marten Plante. The interview regards his career as oil company executive in Africa, and his life in Europe. See blog in this group: mobiloilnigeriaman.blogspot
Unpublished interview by Lurene Helzer April 24, 2005 in Palm Springs, CA with Marten Plante. The interview regards his career as oil company executive in Africa, and his life in Europe. See blog in this group: mobiloilnigeriaman.blogspot
3: "Ecohouse Momentum Growing..." April 9, 1999, Berkeley Daily Planet
3.
Published news story, Berkeley Daily Planet, Friday, April 9, 1999, Ecohouse Momentum Growing, Escrow Should Close Thursday, by Lurene Helzer, then with The Daily Planet staff. Story is about an abandoned house that was transformed using ecologically friendly materials. It was difficult to use as a realistic example for other homeowners and builders, though, because the cost of using all-natural building materials was and remains comparatively prohibitive.
Published news story, Berkeley Daily Planet, Friday, April 9, 1999, Ecohouse Momentum Growing, Escrow Should Close Thursday, by Lurene Helzer, then with The Daily Planet staff. Story is about an abandoned house that was transformed using ecologically friendly materials. It was difficult to use as a realistic example for other homeowners and builders, though, because the cost of using all-natural building materials was and remains comparatively prohibitive.
2: Revolutionary Ideologies, May 29, 1992, SF State course
2.
Unpublished examination essay by Lurene Helzer for SF State course taught by Prof. Dwight Simpson, Revolutionary Ideologies, May 29, 1992. I earned grade of A-minus. This slightly edited reproduction of the handwritten text should be perceived by reader as my early ideas, not necessarily my opinions of 2006 and on. Still, it’s interesting to read now just because I am so much different in my opinions.
I later changed many of my views because of academic studies, and what I like to think is common sense. I also changed because I had talks with people of diverse national backgrounds – former residents of Eastern Europe, Russia and Iran. After talking with people from dictatorial states, I increasingly recognized my early, far-left views as childish. Needless to say, the majority of American apologists for Cold War Russia of those years vanished after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Few, if any, have since stepped forward to admit they had been deliberately blind, and wrong.
I do not have the original test questions, unfortunately.
Unpublished examination essay by Lurene Helzer for SF State course taught by Prof. Dwight Simpson, Revolutionary Ideologies, May 29, 1992. I earned grade of A-minus. This slightly edited reproduction of the handwritten text should be perceived by reader as my early ideas, not necessarily my opinions of 2006 and on. Still, it’s interesting to read now just because I am so much different in my opinions.
I later changed many of my views because of academic studies, and what I like to think is common sense. I also changed because I had talks with people of diverse national backgrounds – former residents of Eastern Europe, Russia and Iran. After talking with people from dictatorial states, I increasingly recognized my early, far-left views as childish. Needless to say, the majority of American apologists for Cold War Russia of those years vanished after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Few, if any, have since stepped forward to admit they had been deliberately blind, and wrong.
I do not have the original test questions, unfortunately.
1: Council Upholds Condo Project in Spite of Residents' Petition" in El Cerrito, Dec. 21, 1986
Photo above of San Francisco soup kitchen line, 1985, by Photographer Lloyd Francis.
1.
Published news story by Lurene Kathleen Helzer for El Cerrito Journal, December 21, 1986, “Council Upholds Condo Project In Spite Of Residents’ Petition”.
A few things stand out while revisiting this news work I did twenty-two years ago. The El Cerrito Journal ran not only this story below about the proposed residential development, but alongside it my two related stories. The first was about a proposed retail development, the other about 1986-87 revenues for El Cerrito. The budget story was one of three I did on the subject that year for the paper.
Councilmembers openly say they are encouraging commercial and residential development which ultimately attract younger, more prosperous residents:
“Councilwoman Anna Howe, commenting during the meeting to residents involved in the appeal, said the condominiums would encourage younger families to move to El Cerrito and that apartment owners as compared to renters are ‘better additions to the community.’”
This is, in 2008, for an elected person, politically difficult to say in a major urban or suburban zone. Politicians today, to keep their jobs, have to literally contradict themselves.
They have to say to the city’s newspaper that they ‘deeply regret’ the loss of affordable housing in the city. They must be seen working to implement effective local programs to assist the poor.
As they say this to voters and to the media, however, they must simultaneously and far more strenuously work toward a slow, quiet reduction of the lower-cost residential or commercial buildings/neighborhoods they are pledging to protect or expand.
Why is this? Is it because they enjoy double-dealing this way? In some cases, perhaps so.
More likely, most of them would prefer to be plain about the embedded costs of affordable housing, but can not. Whether he/she enjoys lying or spinning campaign exaggerations is beside the point, anyway. If the leader wants the job, he’s got to talk out both sides of his/her mouth. Complete truth is for the political activist but not the elected city official.
But why is lower-cost housing nearly impossible for a city to construct and maintain? Because cheap housing is, when bunched up into neighborhoods, a financial liability for a city. The struggling neighborhood is not an asset from which the municipality can collect taxes, and, in turn, repair roads and pay police. This is what the 1986 member of the city’s council was admitting, in effect, with her statement.
That’s a meaningful fact regarding this story because next to my stories on this 1986 front page is a story about charity organizations for the homeless. That story, written by Jim Zelinski, focuses on the conditions of local homeless people. The story runs with an informational sidebar and two photographs.
One photo depicts a man quoted as saying he’s been homeless for 15 years. The second photo shows a demonstration in Oakland’s Martin Luther King Park. A tent city is standing which is dubbed “Reaganville.”
Ronald Reagan was then the U.S. president. He was unpopular with liberal activists, needless to say. We were used to derogatory slogans targeting Ronald Reagan. The point is, some political figures can withstand such pressures, and others can not.
Those sincerely supporting affordable housing, assistance for the homeless, will rarely be prominent figures. They will be charity figures, activists, like the ones shown in this 1986 newspaper.
In early August of 2008, The San Francisco Chronicle ran a few stories about the slow exodus of the city’s less prosperous residents. The mayor and San Francisco’s other city leaders were pledging to form action groups to keep the less-prosperous populations intact.
Today, the city’s elected officials surely will form such groups. But mainly for show. Will those leaders truly work to expand housing for the poor in San Francisco? Expand low-cost housing for residents of the Bayview/Hunter’s Point region? Continue to direct city resources toward fighting the high homicide rates within those districts?
I won’t even answer my own foolish inquiry. We well know what a large city – its residents -- can and cannot, will and will not, pay for in 2008. As for the question of where we place, as a society, struggling populations, I honestly have never had a great answer to this.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
281: UC Berkeley in 2001 releases study showing AIDS prevention efforts falling short
281.
Published news story by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, July 13, 2001, “Research Shows AIDS Prevention Efforts Fall Short”. This story, coming from information sent to us through a UC Berkeley Haas School of Business press release, discussed HIV prevention campaigns, how they were no longer reaching the target populations.
In other words, when AIDS first began to spread in the Bay area in the 1980s, it was affecting gay men. We remember actor Rock Hudson and Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury. Thus, ads were written for gay populations. Sure, you had others getting AIDS, but the epidemic had not yet taken a distinctive demographic shape.
By July of 2001, we were seeing heterosexual or bisexual drug addicts spreading the virus. In California’s cities, many of the new carriers of HIV were black men who used dirty needles to inject heroin. Middle class empathy/sympathy was vanishing at this point.
Published news story by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, July 13, 2001, “Research Shows AIDS Prevention Efforts Fall Short”. This story, coming from information sent to us through a UC Berkeley Haas School of Business press release, discussed HIV prevention campaigns, how they were no longer reaching the target populations.
In other words, when AIDS first began to spread in the Bay area in the 1980s, it was affecting gay men. We remember actor Rock Hudson and Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury. Thus, ads were written for gay populations. Sure, you had others getting AIDS, but the epidemic had not yet taken a distinctive demographic shape.
By July of 2001, we were seeing heterosexual or bisexual drug addicts spreading the virus. In California’s cities, many of the new carriers of HIV were black men who used dirty needles to inject heroin. Middle class empathy/sympathy was vanishing at this point.
282: "Would you like a San Francisco Bay View or a College Education for Billy?" The otherworldly economics of housing in 1987 El Cerrito, CA
282.
Published news story for El Cerrito Journal by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, April 16, 1987, “Houses to rise on Madera despite concerned view loss”. This was a routine story about residential development, but points to what is a recurring issue in San Francisco East Bay development and redevelopment: views.
All one needs to do is pick up any month’s issue of Architectural Digest to see how dramatically views add or subtract to the price and status of a home or commercial building. The price of a home with a sweeping view of Malibu, California’s coast is going to fetch a very high price in 2008 or any other year. That same building, but instead facing a home across a suburban street in, say, Stockton, California, will be advertised for far, far less. In this 1987 case, you had a view of the San Francisco Bay to protect, probably, so the discussion of the proposed height of new developments was an slightly serious one. City council members are voted in and out of power because of issues just like this one.
Published news story for El Cerrito Journal by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, April 16, 1987, “Houses to rise on Madera despite concerned view loss”. This was a routine story about residential development, but points to what is a recurring issue in San Francisco East Bay development and redevelopment: views.
All one needs to do is pick up any month’s issue of Architectural Digest to see how dramatically views add or subtract to the price and status of a home or commercial building. The price of a home with a sweeping view of Malibu, California’s coast is going to fetch a very high price in 2008 or any other year. That same building, but instead facing a home across a suburban street in, say, Stockton, California, will be advertised for far, far less. In this 1987 case, you had a view of the San Francisco Bay to protect, probably, so the discussion of the proposed height of new developments was an slightly serious one. City council members are voted in and out of power because of issues just like this one.
283: El Cerrito's revenue whale on San Pablo, 1987
283.
Published news story for El Cerrito Journal by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, April 30, 1987, “Plaza Developers Receive Extension To Find Key Development Tenants”. This was about redevelopment of the unroofed El Cerrito Plaza, viewed as commercially outdated by 1987.
The city’s redevelopment agency viewed the shopping plaza as El Cerrito’s revenue leech on San Pablo Avenue. It was not producing adequate tax revenue, but required the same city services that any other major commercial property would require.
San Pablo is the city’s main drag. The plot of land was a story in itself. It was a dog racing track from 1932-1939. It was a trailer park housing defense workers during World War II. Then, a drive-in movie theater between 1948 and 1957.
When it became a shopping center in 1958, it was an important change of tone in a city more known in decades past for its casinos, bars and dog racing tracks. It could now attract reliable commerce.
After all, the guy who staggers into town with a few hundred dollars in 1938 is there for only one reason: to lose it at the casino, saloon or races. He’s not there to blow it on fine home furnishings.
So, the town’s redevelopment staff in 1987 was trying to make the city more appealing for the modern shopper. Let’s face it: dog tracks don’t attract middle-class crowds with kids on Saturday nights.
Published news story for El Cerrito Journal by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, April 30, 1987, “Plaza Developers Receive Extension To Find Key Development Tenants”. This was about redevelopment of the unroofed El Cerrito Plaza, viewed as commercially outdated by 1987.
The city’s redevelopment agency viewed the shopping plaza as El Cerrito’s revenue leech on San Pablo Avenue. It was not producing adequate tax revenue, but required the same city services that any other major commercial property would require.
San Pablo is the city’s main drag. The plot of land was a story in itself. It was a dog racing track from 1932-1939. It was a trailer park housing defense workers during World War II. Then, a drive-in movie theater between 1948 and 1957.
When it became a shopping center in 1958, it was an important change of tone in a city more known in decades past for its casinos, bars and dog racing tracks. It could now attract reliable commerce.
After all, the guy who staggers into town with a few hundred dollars in 1938 is there for only one reason: to lose it at the casino, saloon or races. He’s not there to blow it on fine home furnishings.
So, the town’s redevelopment staff in 1987 was trying to make the city more appealing for the modern shopper. Let’s face it: dog tracks don’t attract middle-class crowds with kids on Saturday nights.
284: Same old fog and dance....2001
284.
Published weather forecasts by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, 2001. I held on to about twenty of them for no reason. They’re all short and predictable, written mainly for radio broadcasters. I would write one and quickly send it out in the dead of night or in early morning.
In San Francisco, the forecasts exist to confirm life is the same as it was last week.
I’m no meteorologist, though. I was only circulating forecasts from the professional forecasters at the NWS Monterey/Santa Cruz bureau.
The forecasts’ serious followers were those in certain jobs, like maybe the crews in the region’s different ferry terminals. Some cab drivers might eagerly listen to forecasts hoping for word of an approaching rainstorm, which can turn the city’s walkers to near-beggars at 4:30 p.m. I presume it increases business instantly. But other professional drivers might hate rain because of the confusion and misery it brings to other drivers. The point is, there are reasons to listen to weather reports you might not consider at first. Outside this, writing weather is pretty boring.
Published weather forecasts by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, 2001. I held on to about twenty of them for no reason. They’re all short and predictable, written mainly for radio broadcasters. I would write one and quickly send it out in the dead of night or in early morning.
In San Francisco, the forecasts exist to confirm life is the same as it was last week.
I’m no meteorologist, though. I was only circulating forecasts from the professional forecasters at the NWS Monterey/Santa Cruz bureau.
The forecasts’ serious followers were those in certain jobs, like maybe the crews in the region’s different ferry terminals. Some cab drivers might eagerly listen to forecasts hoping for word of an approaching rainstorm, which can turn the city’s walkers to near-beggars at 4:30 p.m. I presume it increases business instantly. But other professional drivers might hate rain because of the confusion and misery it brings to other drivers. The point is, there are reasons to listen to weather reports you might not consider at first. Outside this, writing weather is pretty boring.
No. 285: The wealth and vigor of Silicon Valley of 2001 run alongside East Palo Alto
285.
Published news advisory by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, August 11, 2001, “Two Shot in East Palo Alto Saturday Morning”. Three paragraphs reporting two drivers shot after midnight by suspects on street. There were fewer of these small crime advisories by mid-2001 when we reported it.
East Palo Alto has/had it all if you want to read the history of race relations in the San Francisco Bay Area – extremely high crime, low-income minorities, discrimination in real estate and finance, municipal unincorporation, poorly-performing schools, and, by 2000, slow gentrification, commercial redevelopment and demographic change.
When I refer to low-income minority communities, I am discussing African-Americans, Hispanics or Pacific Islanders. Greater numbers in the latter two groups lived in East Palo Alto by the 1990s, and it’s still largely true in 2008, if the statistics I read are accurate.
Gentrification/commercial redevelopment was triggered by the rise of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County, or, more specifically, the Dot-Com Revolution. That is, the increasing economic influence and residence of highly-educated, prosperous groups. Gentrification is too often misunderstood for meaning an increasing number of white Americans in an urban area, but in reality, that definition is off in Silicon Valley.
The Silicon Valley today is an area that has a considerable number of smart, rich, and cosmopolitan computer geeks from Asia. They probably do not, or may not, automatically, emotionally relate to the battles for black civil rights of 1962.
Published news advisory by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, August 11, 2001, “Two Shot in East Palo Alto Saturday Morning”. Three paragraphs reporting two drivers shot after midnight by suspects on street. There were fewer of these small crime advisories by mid-2001 when we reported it.
East Palo Alto has/had it all if you want to read the history of race relations in the San Francisco Bay Area – extremely high crime, low-income minorities, discrimination in real estate and finance, municipal unincorporation, poorly-performing schools, and, by 2000, slow gentrification, commercial redevelopment and demographic change.
When I refer to low-income minority communities, I am discussing African-Americans, Hispanics or Pacific Islanders. Greater numbers in the latter two groups lived in East Palo Alto by the 1990s, and it’s still largely true in 2008, if the statistics I read are accurate.
Gentrification/commercial redevelopment was triggered by the rise of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County, or, more specifically, the Dot-Com Revolution. That is, the increasing economic influence and residence of highly-educated, prosperous groups. Gentrification is too often misunderstood for meaning an increasing number of white Americans in an urban area, but in reality, that definition is off in Silicon Valley.
The Silicon Valley today is an area that has a considerable number of smart, rich, and cosmopolitan computer geeks from Asia. They probably do not, or may not, automatically, emotionally relate to the battles for black civil rights of 1962.
No. 286: Summer of 2001. Fires, fatal crashes, stabbings, pipe bombs from San Francisco newsroom....
286.
Twenty-to-thirty brief news items by Lurene Helzer, summer of 2001, for San Francisco-based Bay City News during the night shift reporting fires, alleged domestic violence incidents, fatal motorcycle crashes, stabbings, alleged murders, unidentified dead bodies found at shore, pipe bombs, vehicle collisions with utility poles; transportation interruptions; shootings; drag races; power outages; hit-and-run accidents, fierce dog attacks, robberies, and a variety of assaults.
I do not include them in this library except with this reference, but I keep them on hand with my collection. A grievously high percentage of the murder victims in San Francisco or Oakland are defined by police as unidentified black males with these first reports. The idea that black men are overwhelmingly defeated by racism is not even close to the real story because you’re not considering the nightly, relentless murders of black, American teens by American black, American teens.
Media laws limit or prohibit giving or publishing the names of juvenile suspects.
The other things you report over and over in the graveyard shift are fire calls. Nearly all late-night fires in San Francisco are put out quickly by its fire department because they must be; the houses stand just inches apart.
287.
GO TO: http://bayarealureneb.blogspot.com
Twenty-to-thirty brief news items by Lurene Helzer, summer of 2001, for San Francisco-based Bay City News during the night shift reporting fires, alleged domestic violence incidents, fatal motorcycle crashes, stabbings, alleged murders, unidentified dead bodies found at shore, pipe bombs, vehicle collisions with utility poles; transportation interruptions; shootings; drag races; power outages; hit-and-run accidents, fierce dog attacks, robberies, and a variety of assaults.
I do not include them in this library except with this reference, but I keep them on hand with my collection. A grievously high percentage of the murder victims in San Francisco or Oakland are defined by police as unidentified black males with these first reports. The idea that black men are overwhelmingly defeated by racism is not even close to the real story because you’re not considering the nightly, relentless murders of black, American teens by American black, American teens.
Media laws limit or prohibit giving or publishing the names of juvenile suspects.
The other things you report over and over in the graveyard shift are fire calls. Nearly all late-night fires in San Francisco are put out quickly by its fire department because they must be; the houses stand just inches apart.
287.
GO TO: http://bayarealureneb.blogspot.com
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