Oakley hopes for business growth in '04Oakley hopes for business growth in '04January 2, 2004
While some might say that 2003 has been like every year before it, there are some things I'll bet we never thought we would see happen in 2003. There will always be things that we never would want to hear about in the news, like the war efforts in Iraq and the idea that Mad Cow disease could touch us in the United States. Most of us never thought that we would be saying "hasta la vista, Davis" and voting for the Terminator to take his place as our governor.
Then there are the things that only the tacky tabloids would predict to happen, like Michael Jackson's arrest and the fact that the year has come to an end and Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck still haven't made it to the altar and many predict they never will, and of course, poor Oprah is still having a problem with her diet.
On a more local front, the news may not be as exciting, but it is ours and while we won't often make the national news it seems like a good time to reflect on some things that happened this year and see what we can learn from them and make 2004 better for Oakley.
The talk of the year has got to be the opening of Slatten Ranch. Although it is located in Antioch, Oakley is very much affected by the opening of the new shopping center. Whether the talk is about the various openings of Target, Barnes & Noble or Mervyn's and how they are going to affect local business or the traffic on Empire Avenue, and the possibilities of congestion and accidents because of the added cars on the road, it has to be the hot issue of the year. This coming year the hope is to bring some of Brentwood's good luck to Oakley and bring in more business to our town to help it prosper and grow as Brentwood seems to be doing.
While we are a small community we still have faced some very large issues in the past year. Some that will affect the future of our community and some that will have no interest at all to anyone except those affected.
For several months one main story seemed to be coming back again and again. Even the Bay Area stations picked up the news when a local teen at Freedom High School accused the principal of the school of racial bias. Although principal Eric Volta had yet to decide whether to allow a Caucasian Club, a European-American advocacy group, he was accused of discrimination. While the issue seems to have died down now, there still seem to be quite a bit of hurt feelings over the incident, and the matter of whether the club should start or not was no longer the issue. The issue caused quite a bit of racial division at the school that hopefully will be clearing itself up over the next year.
In September, the City Council made more plans to build more home in Oakley. At that time they were planning on annexing 2,631 acres in the city's sphere of influence. This is just a small part of the decisions by the council this year to build more houses in Oakley. At one report the city officials spoke of bringing at least another 4,000 houses into Oakley over the next few years. The houses have been reported to be built near Delta Vista Middle School, Freedom High School and Gehringer Elementary School.
And while schools have been in the news repeatedly over the year, one issue just being discussed in the past few months has been a bond issue that will help build a new elementary school next to Delta Vista Middle School. While this is relatively a new issue, many question the idea of a new bond since there was an assumption that when the last Oakley school bond was passed the new school was suppose to be built as well. Others remember it differently, saying that only the property was purchased. This is sure to be an issue in 2004.
As for the stupid and possibly deadly news of the year, in October police were called to a shots fired alarm at Laurel Fields in October when a group of youths reportedly started shooting guns at each other after a fight that started in Bryon and carried over to Oakley. No one was killed in the incident, but perhaps a New Year's resolution for parents should be to talk to their children about what can happen when guns get in the wrong hands.
And for some good news, in 2003 Oakley residents saw the opening of the city's first community pool at Freedom High School. The city offered swimming classes and fun pool time during the summer. The pool will open again this spring for everyone's enjoyment.
Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.
Distributed by the Contra Costa Times