Forever and a Day

Life's been interesting in all my months away from The SL Patch. I'm writing for a video game news website called Nintendojo.com (and drawing, too!). My personal blog, Retro(spective), languishes in obscurity but keeps me busy, nonetheless, and I'm back to school full-time for the first time in years. Still, none of that has been an excuse to neglect commenting on what's happening around town, and boy, there's a lot to comment on.

The BART beautification continues unabated, and it's looking great. I'm still not the biggest fan of the oddball way the city went about putting in the new cutouts for the crosswalks, but there's no denying that the prettier San Leandro is, the better. I do think that SL BART itself could stand more attentive attendants and regular visits by BPD; I'm pretty sick of the people loitering around trying to sell either drugs or suspect BART tickets. You want the big bucks, BART employees, keep a better eye on the station beyond your booth!

Downtown is getting Chipotle, and I'm all for it. Not that Chipotle is a restaurant chain I find very enjoyable (neutered Mexican food), but it's a respectable chain and will surely bring more people downtown to check it out. Despite what the extremists out there have to say, San Leandro is a city that can and should embrace both big and small businesses in order to thrive. So go eat burritos with steamed rice and get that tax revenue flowing!

Mayor Cassidy made me very happy when he announced the city's intentions to get more upscale housing built in San Leandro. Good! Despite what people like to pretend is reality, there's plenty of low income housing in the city and, guess what? There's no way to help subsidize low income residents if there's no revenue coming in from mid and upscale ones! Don't get cold feet, Cassidy, because all the crying and posturing in the world isn't going to make that reality any less true.

Finally, the issue of aggressive panhandlers continues to be unresolved (in fairness, the whole Bay Area has a problem with it). A big part of helping curb the issue rests in the hands of business owners. I was walking past McDonalds downtown the other day, and a panhandler was yelling at a woman for not giving him change, saying she "just wants to be white" and that she was "high yellow". No one should have to be verbally accosted by someone hovering around the entrance of a store, begging for change.

The SLPD non-emergency number operators say that the only way to keep panhandlers from going to the same spots over and over is to file official complaints against them with the city. The problem is that the people who should be doing that, business owners, aren't. We can debate homeless rights, shelters, and rehabilitation all day, but there's no skirting the fact that you can't run a business or city when panhandlers have inundated every shopping center and storefront. SL is far from being an encampment, but it's a situation that will become more and more unmanageable as time goes by.

At any rate, those are my impressions of SL at the moment, with more to come in the future. No do yourself a favor and go watch Captain America this weekend, because it's AWESOME.