The Lamorinda Patch Comment Stream Becomes a Pyroclastic Flow

Where'd all you Newbies come from? A sudden surge in new readers helps turn the Lamorinda Patch comment stream into a torrent this week — and you all seem to know how to state your case. Welcome!

Let's start with latest piece on a into an "moveable feast" for her tenants, who do have to invest a little sweat equity to reap the harvest:

"Great idea and I wish more people did it. Think of the people we could feed." —Sue Haas

"We have been having a blast getting the garden up this year. The tenants have been really excited and have been helping quite a bit. Learning more every day!" — Shelley Digiovanna (the landlord behind the idea)

On our link to excellent opinion piece on high-school athletes who, for whatever reason, feel compelled to "play through" injuries, we heard from the mother of an athlete quoted in the piece:

"...I fully agree that the primary problem is pressure, but want to point out that it's not always from the parents. I was surprised to see my son quoted in this article if only because we spent HOURS talking with him about the importance of following the doctor's orders to a "t," the UNimportance that one season or one game has when compared to long-term health, mobility, etc. Sometimes kids do what they want regardless of parenting or coaching to the contrary. In our community and society in general there is a big emphasis on athleticism and a lot of fanfare for "great athletes." I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that parents are far from the only and not always the primary source of "pressure" that young athletes feel to play while injured." — Lisa Henson

On our story on a week's worth of protests by teachers upset by a proposed $20 billion cut in state funding for California schools, there were a number of comments on what has come to be called our "."

"What do the superintendents make? Will their salaries be cut accordingly? What are their retirement benefits?" — Hope Savage

"Whatever may have been the case in the 1980s, enough with the Moraga put-downs. Moraga and Orinda each approved parcel taxes in 1999, with Moraga's percentage at 77.3 and Orinda's at 79.4. Lafayette approved its 1999 parcel tax by, I believe, 74.9%. Orinda approved a parcel tax in 2003 (75%) and Moraga approved one in 2004 (66.8%). Moraga also approved a bond in 1995. Live in the now.

And before any of us start believing our own greatness too much, consider the middle school that I went to in San Bernardino, a city that has been stuck in a ditch for 20 years, where a student population that is 75% "socio-economically disadvantaged" posted a higher score than all three Lamorinda middle schools."— Tony Rodriguez

"A system that uses many factors to determine lay-offs but ignores the most basic ...how good the teacher is....must go. As for higher salaries  — no chance while we have a budget crisis and when you only work for 2/3 of the year. If you want to be paid more, go get a full time job with 2 weeks vacation!" — BV

"As a 20 year teaching veteran I find some of these comments very depressing. Teacher tenure is often misunderstood. Teachers are evaluated regularly and can be fired if failing to meet expectations. Before earning tenure, teachers have 2 to 3 years being probationary, meaning they can be fired without any due process. As to health benefits, Martinez USD teachers have forgone pay raises time and again in order to hold on to our medical and dental coverage, and still we yearly have had to struggle to hold on to these. For the last few years we find ourselves being hit by the budget crisis with more and more crippling blows. Yet we struggle to have consistent growth for our students. We have lost many teachers due to lay offs, class size reductions, program cuts, and teachers choosing to leave for more stable professions financially. Yet every year what we are expected to do is increased. The government puts more hoops out for us to jump through,  giving few if any ideas on how to get through these hoops. So, from administration on down we try to problem solve." — Kayleen Parks

On our story about an investigation into alleged financial improprieties by a past member of the board, there was this:

"Whew — the article's title had me worried that the OMPA (Orinda Moraga Pool Association) had done something wrong. (If I had to identify a Lamorinda swim association, I'd say the OMPA has the most solely Lamorinda teams.) I'm glad that the OMPA is not under criminal investigation, am sad that any organization serving kids and families is shoddy enough in its integrity to even attract investigation, and am glad that if the allegations are true, our community is attempting accountability as a message to not partake in con games. The ripple effect of the lack of integrity is insidious and the ripple effect of accountability measures, even though they are difficult and expensive, is immeasurable." —Deborah

On our story about the , and unmentionable materials (just kidding) on BART trains, we heard from a number of dedicated commuters:

"bart has been a generally reliable, if expensive, service in the 10 or so years i have been a daily rider when not traveling away from home. they have the same problems that afflict other public sector services—bloated payrolls and ridiculous work rules, benefits and pensions, but if the economy stays solid in the bay area those things tend to get glossed over, at least for a period of time. it costs $10 a day to commute from lafayette to embarcadero, with no monthly passes or other commuter discounts you often see in mass transit...that is a high price to pay imo but the service does work." - c5

"The round trip Lafayette-to-Embarcadero is $8.90. Our commute would be chaos without it, and crowding is minimal compared to a lot of places. The negatives are that it doesn't go around the Bay and over to Marin. Then we'd have a truly regional transit system, and that would be a plus economically for the entire Bay Area." — Rob

"BART is reliable and much cleaner than other regional transit systems in other major metro areas throughout the country and the world. But it's also more expensive. The show-stopper, however, is the parking. If you're a parent that drops your child off at school, then goes to work, you're out of luck trying to find a parking space. I have driven from BART station to BART station to find parking, to no avail." — The Merry One

"My recent experience says that if you are lucky enough to get a seat, all too often you're not going to want to wear those pants again...hand sanitizer, you're gonna want some of that after hanging on for the stop/start ride. And, some kind of ear protection...those tracks and the wheels just aren't getting along. How many decibels does one get on a typical ride? Too many! Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, that time they cut the catalytic converter out of the car, that cost a pretty penny...and then...well, it goes on and on. But, I sure do enjoy seeing all those really nice BART employee cars parked right in front in the taxi zone at West Oakland, their employee handbooks prominently placed on the dash, as their "free pass" to park, while the customers pay $5 for the privilege..." — Scott Bowhay

On Thursday's story about a number of parents critical of practices and the culture at , significant interest was expressed by our readers:

"I just watched the video and the only "community leader" I saw making "vicious attacks" was that ex-school board lady. Really, who says mean things to a 10 year old ???- on camera! Sounds to me like these poor parents have tried going through the appropriate process and got nowhere, which is not surprising if this is any indication of the school board's response." — Zach Gaines

"There are several things in the article that raised my concerns. If the principal video tapes children, encourages them to change their stories and follows them home, then this should at LEAST be checked out. People who support this principal should understand these types of issues should not be swept under the carpet. Years ago, when my son was at Wagner, she called me to report my son was fighting. Some kid jumped on my son's back and started punching him. My son used an elbow to get this kid off him. Arnerich said my son should have "talked to the other child and asked why he was hitting him." I don't know about you, but if someone jumped on my back and started punching me, I would not engage that person in polite conversation. To expect an 8 year old boy to do that indicated a serious lack of understanding of children, which means school principal may not be the best fit for her, careerwise. My thoughts." — Louise Benvenue

"Those self righteous few who are criticizing all the parents and children that have been abused by principal Arnerich are blaming the victims. Last year Wagner Ranch had almost 8 times the number of student suspensions as all the other Orinda schools COMBINED. Statistically this could not happen by chance, so either there is something terribly wrong with the children and parents at Wagner or the descriptions of an insensitive and abusive administration are accurate." — Neil Gilbert

"Those who say it is the parents' fault for not disciplining their children properly, seem to lack some pertinent facts. Principal Arnerich suspended far more children than the rest of the district schools combined. Would you then assert that bad parents live only in the Wagner attendance area? Or might this have something to do with the principal's beliefs about discipline?

Some also assert that this should be kept confidential and allow the school board to handle it. But those people—a former school board member among them—seem not to remember or know that concerned parents for years HAVE gone through the proper channels only to be ignored. It seems that the only avenue left is to put public pressure on the board to stop ignoring the complaints and to thoroughly investigate them.

Finally, some say complaining publicly is creating a divisive environment. I believe the concerned parents actually celebrate the majority of families who have had a positive experience at Wagner. I wish my own family were among them. But it's not enough for the schools to satisfy the majority when the situation is as bad as it is for a significant number of students. I love living in Orinda, and I'd like to see it made better for ALL the students. What's divisive about that?" — Carol Brown

"What choice do these parents have but to go public? Repeated complaints to Dr. Jaconette, the OUSD superintendent, have yielded nothing but rejection and denial that there is any problem all. He has told several people that he's "'never heard of any problems with Ms. Arnerich." After years of complaints, this is clearly dissembling." — Tom Spalding

Semi-surprisingly, there was something of a dust-up over our story on the arrival of the store in Lafayette, which pleased some folks hoping for more choice in the grocery department but riled others less pleased by parking problems and traffic:

"Whole Paycheck? No thanks—if I'm going to buy expensive organic groceries, I prefer to do it at local stores like Diablo Foods and Berkeley Bowl." — Edna

"This is gonna be a mess. One recent weekend, I counted the number of empty parking places in the lot, and got: 24. As long as there's fewer than 30 or so customers in the Whole Foods, things will be fine. Somehow, I don't see that being reasonable. When downtown Lafayette gets gridlocked, and trying to get anywhere through the middle of town becomes a nightmare, the shame of the people who approved this without a viable parking and traffic plan will be obvious to everyone." — Becky

"Becky, I'm surprised you only counted 24 empty spaces; since the Bruzzones don't monitor their parking lot employees from Safeway, McCaulou's, Metro and have used the lot along with shoppers. Whole Foods will have a parking attendant on site just like La Fiesta Square does. Yes, parking will be a challenge, but not any more of a problem than at Diablo Foods, La Fiesta Square or Trader Joes. At least most of the Plaza tenants are short term parked businesses like Noah's, Yogurt Shack, Jamba Juice, soon to open Chipolte and Peets, allowing for more parking turnover. Metro lunch customers will add to parking demand, but not more than Chow's customers at the Square. Enjoy it, Lafayette has arrived." — Spencer

"wouldn't it be a pleasant result if more locals walked or biked to downtown Lafayette because of a perceived parking problem? I realize it's not feasible for every Lafayette resident to walk or ride to downtown but it's certainly possible for many of the SUVs to stay at home while their owners stroll. Just look out for the Moragans speeding to the freeway :-)" — bcrane1

That's it for this week. Nice to see some new swimmers in our comment stream and thanks to all for keeping it civil and sane.

Thanks for writing!