TRASH @West: Garden Waste

Due to the blog shutdown, one week was missing, so this is a Garden Waste week on the west side again.

Del Valle

I went to the Del Valle park. It sits around a reservoir south of Livermore. The reservoir was losing water over the last several years. In 1998, it was almost at capacity, but now 1/3 of its length is gone. So, the old swimming beach and boat rentals are dead. Fishermen continue to visit. They got the EBRPD to build a launching ramp extension so they can continue to use their boats. But the overall picture is rather sad and reminds me of some kind of ecological catastrophy. Probably the wineries sucked all the water.

I also saw a weirdest ritual. Someone dumps unused christmas trees on the old lakebed, with cooperation from the part authorities. Not only that, but they arrange them in neat rows to rot. This year dump was not arranged yet, but carcasses of old trees form the rows. Rows themselves are not arranged into any kind of pattern though and look fairly strange. I cannot fathom to what purpose EBRPD allows, if not encourages this dumping. Obviously there must be a reason for it.

Handicapped Jeep

We have a nicely decked out Jeep on big off-road tires with a handicapped placard at the block 1901 of Lincoln. He's not afraid to use the placard too, I saw him parked in a handicapped stall near the mall. I wonder what his story is... Perhaps a member of the family got the privilege.

Tracy Today shutdown

I think I am going to take a break from Tracy Today. I feel like I am losing interest in it.

{Update: Oh yeah, just in time to pick the fallen banner, we have new blogs on the block, check the post at Brian's place.}

San Francisco the cultural center

According to reports I got, BART was full of children today. In one place, three families were sitting nearby, and got acquainted on the ride back. All three were from Tracy and went to San Francisco for children. They rode the cable car and did other tourist things.

Tracy is largely a cultural wasteland, truth to be told. Not that it bothers me, considering that Frisco is only an hour and ten minutes away. I like it that way.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

Garden Waste this week!

No DDR in theaters

The arcade in the theaters removed the DDR machine. It may have broken down, or perhaps they didn't want unrelated foot traffic.

This means that only Fun Factory remains, as the bowl refuses to fix their machine.

TRASH @West: Recycling

Recycling week.
N.B., the City has a calendar now as well.

I am crime victim! Woo!

While I was away at lunch, someone stole the license plate from my car, parked across from my house. This is the first time I'm a victim of any kind of crime while in America. In Russia, I'd have been robbed five times already. But still, it's a good reminder to get my concealed carry permit in order soon. Crackwhores stealing plates usually graduate to street thuggery when they need bigger crack doses.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

Garden waste at west side.

Works at Altamont

Caltrans did some massive earth-moving works around the junction of 580 and 205 for a while, and their plan is begining to be evident now. Apparently, they are gunning for making the junction smaller. If I guess correctly, the new overpass will follow the red line on this map:



The obvious benefit to it is that the land on the north side may be sold to a developer. But Caltrans does not sound like an agency driven by cost-benefit analysis, and in any case the value of the sale may not be enough to pay for the overpass.

So, I suspect that they may be preparing for making an exit to the speedway. Currently, there's no direct way. The closest path is to exit at Grant Line, go on the north side, follow until the turn off, cross the freeway again. I'm sure attendance would raise if access became more reasonable.