Don’t miss California Heights Neighborhood Association’s “Sights of the Heights” home tours tomorrow, on Sunday, October 21, from 1p.m.
This is a great opportunity to visit some wonderful homes. I did it last year and found it wonderful.
For information, please visit www.calheights.org or call (562) 424-6727.
Come and celebrate Sheep Thrills tomorrow on the 21 of this month at 1 p.m. at the Rancho for free.
We can’t bring back the thousands of acres of Rancho grasslands that sheep grazed on in the 1870s, but we can still experience sheep and sheep herding. On this day, enjoy a demonstration of sheep herding by Ted Ondrak and his amazing dogs. Ted is a well known trainer of herding dogs from the Drummond Ranch in Acton. The Drummond Ranch has been featured on Animal Planet, frequently used as a filming location, and featured on NBC, CBS, ABC. Ted also shows and teaches throughout the West, and performs at many well known venues. If you are feeling a little sheepish ewe are welcome to join the Rancho herd for a very enlightening and enjoyable afternoon.
And don’t forget, this year’s popular Christmas Candlelight Tours will take you back to the year 1878. Offered December 7 & 8, tickets will go on sale beginning November 1. For information and ticket sales, please contact the Rancho.
If you haven’t hear about it yet, the Beachcomber has a web poll regarding the Home Depot project. They would like to know what you think and feel about this rattle.
The website can be found 
here and the poll is at the bottom of the page. It’s a good way to show what you are thinking and get active with your community. And come on, those local officials would get bored if no one would tell them how you feel about projects that impact your life plus, I am sure they are watching. 
Following my discussion with Tarin, I was surprised to see how many signatures were collected and how little we heard about it. Many people believe the ‘Tom Dean’ opposition is behind a lot of shenanigans as of late. 5,400 signatures were gathered as of August ’06 from people in the area, mostly from the 3rd District who oppose the Home Depot and a moratorium on all development until a community study can be done. That’s an impressive number 5,400 people say no yet the project moves forward, albeit slowing down. I was wondering what ever happened to all those signatures we saw in every local shops last year.
It seems Tom Dean’s team is trying to push their project and bend the facts, as expected from a promoter. Tarin told me she stood at the Farmer’s Market on many occasions and talked to person after person opposed to the Home Depot and the equally infamous Lennar project. There were petitions at The Belmont Athletic Club and Billings Hardware where about 150 people per week signed them. That’s also an impressive number clearly showing people feel it is an important issue. The petitions were on the bulletin board and counter, respectively.
Maybe The Emperor Needs New Clothes? One thing is for sure, no matter where you side, there seems to be a lot of opposition and I am afraid officials are still testing the waters. I saw Gary DeLong and Susan Frick being interviewed here at 
StraightTalkTV. Gary DeLong was much more nuanced than Suzanne. Suzanne Frick was absolutely for both projects.
As usual, local politics are not too far away from bigger politics. It’s a game of tug war where the consumer gets hurt, eventually, while promoters and friends get much in return.