Richmond city councilwoman Gayle McGlaughlin racked up points with me with her Contra Costa Times op-ed piece on the city's state of emergency.
Then she lost a point with her ugly website. No doubt a redesign is in the works.
I liked the Baltic, sort of. The bar was fun, the music was OK, Chuck seemed like a pleasant guy, and I lusted for his wife Melanie.
All that--minus Chuck and Melanie--will be coming back soon, says yet another Man Who Should Know. Word is that the landlord--Tom Butt's Baltic Development Associates--has finished evicting the unlucky duo and that a new partnership will reopen the place in August or September.
There's yet more good news: better food. The Hotel Mac chef is one of the new partners.
You may not like Hotel Mac food--it's OK with me--but it's sure better than the old Baltic creations. Chuck should have spent more time on menu planning.
I say give the new guys a chance. Hey, the new chef might find inspiration on a longer leash. And the two former Baltic waiters might know how to run things out front.
Let's hope for the best.
A man around the Point who should know thinks the Subway near-miss will probably happen again and again.
Rentals in the Point have always ridden a roller-coaster, he says. But in his long time here he's never seen so many spaces open for so long.
Landlords could have invited in franchises. But they didn't out of patience. Now that mood is now wearing thin. Building owners have been refinancing mortgages, he says, and they've got an extra payment each month.
Would-be Subway landlord Mark Howe held that chain off as long as he could. Miraculously, a more suitable tenant appeared just in time to occupy his Bank of Richmond Building.
But that was just one building, one landlord, one stroke of luck.
I saw Berkeley Rep's "Honour" last night, one of my infrequent visits to that theater. Thirty years ago, I hated Berkeley Rep because of its presumptuous indoctrination and self-conscious acting style. These days, the acting is great, but it still presumes to indoctrinate.
The crowd, affluent and gray-haired, sat tensely in the lobby as if in wait of a court hearing. Many of them eyed those around them as if wondering whether each new ticketholder was with the plaintiff or the defendant.
They are the faded remnants of the Berkeley I knew 30 years ago, when in their youthful idealism they sat over coffee and proudly disdained classism.
Now they like their affluence and, for some, their tenure. They're stuck and stuck up.
At the signal, they file into the theater. There the trial is already over. The playwright, the director and the institution itself have have come to a verdict: the audience needs further re-education.
"Honour" is about the foulness of men, especially middle-aged men. It's a recurring theme in Berkeley, so I wasn't surprised. I lived there for 20 years and heard all the lectures that begin with "You men…"
The characters are played well, especially Kathleen Chalfant as Honor herself. The David Mamet-like dialog is crisp. The set is smart but icy. The cookies sold in the lobby were first rate.
Author Joanna Murray-Smith says in the program notes,"I strenously wanted to avoid painting Honor as the only victim and Gus [the husband] as a facile, vain bastard."
Someone failed, either Murray-Smith or director Tony Taccone or both.
Gus never explains himself well enough to convince any of the women or the audience of his decision's morality. But I'm sure that's fine with most Berkeley audiences. Who needs to hear the "other" side when you've already made up your mind?
This is all so familiar—not just because of my 20 years in Berkeley among the Hard Left. I also grew up in Alamo and Danville among the true-believing Hard Right. The Hard Right and the Hard Left might as well be bosom buddies because they're certainly twins.
I've heard rumors lately expressed with absolute confidence that Hydrangea, the Point's flowers-and-gifts shop, is closing. It's not true. I have heard it now from the owner: she's staying put.
The proposal to declare a state of emergency in Richmond reminds of that movie “The Russians are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” The Soviet sub's landing party is prepared to avert suspicion by crying in heavy accents, "Emergency! Everybody to get from street! Emergency!"
They get to do it just once. A little kid listens to them and runs into the house yelling, "Mom! The Russians are here!"
Welcome to Richmond.