January 2013

Photo by Flickr user Toban B.

A reader writes:

I want to know what the police officers are getting paid for…basically why they’re taking a cut in my tax when I don’t feel like their doing their job? I was at a local bar this evening in over a years since I last went out. Towards the end of the evening my husband and I noticed a fight starting to take place. My husband and I had a mission to leave out the front door and not the opposite way because of all the action that could be going on and we just wanted to get home to our 19 month old son safe, sound and alive. I luckily was able to go out the front door without realizing the other people in my group got stopped even after they said they were with me and I was already outside and instructed them to go the opposite that was towards the chaos. As I walked out I told the bouncers that I thought a fight was occurring but they knew and were securing the front doors from anymore entrance and when I got outside there was three WC officer which I repeated the same thing and they said that’s what the bouncers are for. I was shocked. Like seriously, are you kidding me. You get paid way more than these guys to handle situations like this and for a citizen to be concerned I def expected a different reaction. Seriously, they were just hanging out like this was a date night for them, I was disturbed. I didn’t stick around to watch after I saw the rest of my party and jumped in a cab and headed back home but I did notice the trouble making party coming out from the front entrance all mad and still running their mouths. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I’m sorry I’m not trying to cause problems but needed to vent. I love this town but if you’re an officers and a citizen is concerned about a situation, that response is not appropriate and needs to be addressed..my Saturday night isn’t your Saturday night.

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Spotted in downtown Walnut Creek, the sign says:

Weekly Champs
Unit Response
to 1953
Welfare Appeal

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Peaches and Herb 2 Hot!, spotted at Rainbow’s End thrift store in downtown Walnut Creek. From 1978; Who else remembers these songs?

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Last month the City of Walnut Creek introduced a new feature to its website call the Open Town Hall:

Open Town Hall is an online forum for civic engagement. Check out what others are saying about important Walnut Creek topics, and join the conversation by posting your own thoughts. City officials will read the statements to learn more about what people are thinking.

While Open Town Hall is sponsored by the City of Walnut Creek, it is run by Peak Democracy, a non-partisan company whose mission is to broaden civic engagement and enhance public trust in government.

So far there has been one question posted by the city, “What should Walnut Creek’s new wayfinding system look like? Check out these designs and tell us what you like!” which received 24 replies and 132 views.

Is this a sign of things to come in terms of open civic engagement with local residents or is this a fad that will fall by the wayside? Would it be better if the city used Facebook to garner feedback on city issues? Should Lafayette and nearby cities use Walnut Creek as an example and implement this as well?

Is anyone planning to sign up? To register you need to enter your home address which I imagine they do to weed out spam but of course that introduces privacy issues.

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