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Amazing tribute to DFC
I am a 31-year veteran journalist in the Bay Area (Oakland Tribune, Associated Press, KTVU, San Jose Mercury News), but I got my start in 1993 at the Concord Transcript alongside a woman named Dolores Fox Ciardelli. We were hired as reporters the same month, but Dolores quickly became an editor.
Although I was a single woman in my 20s at the time and Dolores was a 40-something married mother of two young children, we became fast friends in addition to colleagues.
Dolores regaled me with stories about living in Saudi Arabia and Thailand, shared the ups and downs of raising kids, was always available for a sushi lunch and was a firm but encouraging editor to me, fresh out of J school.
Dolores and I worked at the Transcript together for three years, but our friendship remained and grew strong over the decades.
When I last saw Dolores at her sister’s home in San Jose last year, she was a shadow of her former self but her dry wit, positive outlook and amazing intellect were still right on point.
Your story about her life, her career, her accomplishments and her unwavering commitment to journalism was excellent. You captured it all, but most of all you captured the kindness, compassion and humanity that Dolores brought to the world. For this, I thank you.
Jeremy, although our paths have never crossed in the journalism world, it is obvious to me that you excel at the craft and bring to the profession many important traits of a good scribe.
— Kristin Bender
Elf Café for a good cause
My daughter and a group of her third grade friends from Walnut Grove Elementary wanted to raise money to donate to Walnut Grove to purchase new gym equipment for the PE department.
The girls dreamed up the idea of “The Elf Café” where they could sell homemade cookies, scones, brownies and hot chocolate somewhere in Pleasanton. Nick Valenziano of Porky’s Pizza Palace was nice enough to offer them a spot and a few tables to use in front of the store.
As soon as school let out for Christmas break the girls met at Porky’s with the homemade goodies they made the night before and spent five hours selling the treats to Porky’s customers. In total, they raised $424 to donate to Walnut Gove for new PE equipment.
I thought this would be a short but “sweet” story to share about a group of Pleasanton third graders spending a portion of their spring break to give back to the Pleasanton community: Kayla Moshell, Reiss Steinle, Anika Mohanty, Taryn Hamblin, Brooke Steinle, Cameron Vu, Serena Han and Claire Yoon.
— Brad Steinle
How will our cities enforce new state parking rules?
Hi, this is a local Tri-Valley story suggestion: A 2024 state law restricts parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk. Only a warning could be issued in 2024; in 2025 parking tickets can be issued.
It goes further in referencing marked and “unmarked” crosswalks, which means it applies to any street corner too. It also has a section that allows local jurisdictions to override the distance with some level of safety review and marking it with paint or signage.
Downtown Livermore and Pleasanton have many marked parking spaces that don’t comply to the law. That is unless those cities have reviewed and approved the spaces as allowed variances. How am I or anyone in the general public to know?
So here is a key point of the article. Will local cities quickly change these marked spaces and abstain from ticketing until the changes are made or is the public expected to know better and not use those spaces under risk of ticketing? I have seen articles and video interviews of traffic officials from around the state and there does not appear to be a consensus on what local jurisdictions are responsible for.
San Diego is one major city taking action and responsibility. Livermore has had a year to act, but I don’t see much evidence that they have. I’m no expert but you could research this and interview local officials. Thanks.
— Damon Genetti
Protecting trees in Barone’s redevelopment
The Pleasanton Weekly has been reporting on the proposed design for the Barone development, but have left out a lot of interesting facts.
The proposed development includes 14 “single-family homes”, homes that are no more than one-foot apart, and being advertised as bringing “affordable” downtown homes — $2.5 million and above, if that’s affordable.
Additionally, a topic that I’m very passionate about (as I live next-door to the property) is that the developer is proposing to remove 39 out of 51 trees on the entire two parcels of land; 34 of these trees are classified as heritage, including a few Valley oak trees. Many residents in the area are absolutely devastated at the removal of the trees and asking the city to reconsider. For more info, please visit https://savepleasantontrees.com.
I hope we can get this story published as almost everyone I have spoken to is very supportive of a redesign of the proposal to include keeping more of the beautiful trees.
— Melissa Morgan
