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Category: Volume 2 – Number 3

Orinda’s Public Schools Face Challenges; Can Education Stay Excellent?

Orinda’s Public Schools Face Challenges; Can Education Stay Excellent?

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Orinda’s public schools continue to maintain a tradition of excellence, but serious challenges exist to keeping quality high. Inadequate financial support from the State of California is hampering progress, Orinda school officials said recently. According to Dr. Carolyn Seaton, superintendent of the Orinda Union School District (OUSD) and Mr. Jason Kaune, president of OUSD’s Board of Trustees, 87 percent of the district’s pupils met or exceeded 2016 state test scores in the area of English/language arts.  In mathematics, the figure…

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Is Suburbia Under Attack? Living Near Transit Stations May Not Be Safe

Is Suburbia Under Attack? Living Near Transit Stations May Not Be Safe

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Whether it’s Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue or a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, there are several things city residents — compared with residents of single, detached suburban homes — generally do not have:  lawns, gardens, more space, and possibly swimming pools. After World War II, millions of Americans decided to abandon such places as Manhattan, Chicago, and San Francisco for suburbia. Suburbia generally offered better schools and lower crime rates.  One could own a car and…

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Lafayette Residents Are Concerned About Traffic Congestion

Lafayette Residents Are Concerned About Traffic Congestion

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In a strong showing of civic involvement, more than 150 residents of Lafayette, California, attended a special symposium in May to learn about plans to reduce the city’s traffic congestion. One Lafayette resident said attendance at the event would have been higher if there had not been, at the same time, an open-house at a local intermediate school. Leading the symposium was Mike Iswalt of ARUP, a San Francisco-based firm that does consulting work in the areas of transportation planning…

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More Sugar Please

More Sugar Please

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Love sugar?  This innate desire for sweets can be traced to an ancient part of the brain — the reward circuit.  The sweet, sensory experience is recorded as a rewarding one as endorphin molecules (natural opioids) bathe the brain.  A long-lasting memory of the tasty experience is stored deep inside the brain.  There is purpose to the “feel good” experience resulting from sweetness.  You will search for, and continue to consume, the ideal fuel for your mind — the simple…

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