By Tim Hunt
E-mail Tim Hunt
About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add...
(More)About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September.
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Great news this week from the Sunflower Hill organization that has been working to develop a community for adults with special needs. School districts provide lots of resources for developmentally delayed students and others with special needs, but there has been nothing once these people reach adulthood. The Sunflower Hill vision of a community specially designed for these people is rapidly moving ahead thanks to Mike Serpa of Concentric Development.
The plans for the old Irby diary and Zia properties on the south side of Stanley Boulevard include a 40-unit community for Sunflower Hill that is part of a larger plan. The group's goal is to provide life-long residential opportunities as well as social activities and vocational training in an atmosphere similar to senior living communities.
MidPen Housing, also the developer of the new Kottinger Gardens senior project, is the affordable housing partner with the Dahlin Group designing the project (also the designer on Kottinger Gardens).
The overall plan has been submitted to the city so it will now move through the development process.
Browsing through the Wall Street Journal's Mansion section, there was a chart accompanying a story headlined "Ritzy Zip Codes Call For Pricey Cars. (April 10 edition).
The upscale communities ranged from Manhattan to McLean, VA, to Highland Park in Dallas and Beverly Hills. The Bay Area listing was for Atherton.
There were seven zip codes listed and the manufacturers represented in the top three number of new registrations were Lexus, Mercedes Benz and BMW on most lists. The outliers were the Acura MDX from Microsoft territory in Lynwood, WA. a Land Rover Range Rover in New York City and an Audi Q5 in McLean.
Atherton had two Mercedes on the list, but there were twice as many Tesla Model S listed as the models of Mercedes combined.
Giving Atherton residents taxpayer funds for the electric car is crazy—they can afford it without the tax break from the feds and the $2,500 rebate from California. They already benefit enough from paying no gasoline tax.
