From the category archives:

Home & Community

The best-est year

December 23, 2011

Behold 300 pounds of calendars ready to send to 1000+ Oakland residents…! Every November, I transform my corner of the office into a gigantic jumble. I spend a good week unboxing, piling, printing and stuffing…then sorting, then bagging…before delivering the mass to the USPS main branch in West Oakland around Thanksgiving. This annual ritual is [...]

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Househunting: helpful smartphone apps

December 5, 2011

Here are three nifty apps I recently ran across that I’d to share: CrumbTracks—Store, organize, annotate, and share photos and videos you take during you home search, FREE. MagicPlan—Measure, draw, and publish an interactive floor plan on the web by just taking pictures, FREE. My Measure & Dimensions [iPhone] [Android]—Allows you to track dimensions of [...]

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Seismic hazards and the East Bay

November 3, 2011

In the wake of last week’s series of local quakes, questions arise as to how closely a home is located to an active fault. In our area, the Hayward Fault is a major fault running through Oakland and Berkeley. At one point, it roughly runs “under” CA-13 through Montclair. USGS has a nice Google Earth [...]

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Electrical safety and energy conservation

September 27, 2011

Zalman Sher, owner and president of American Electrical, gave a talk entitled, “Residential Electrical Wiring Safety and Energy Conservation”…at our regular Monday Marketing Meeting at the Oakland Association of REALTORS. Mr. Sher spoke on topics including: child-proofing electrical outlets arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI) knob-and-tube wiring lighting, high-efficacy lighting, etc. American Electrical is based in [...]

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East Bay to Silicon Valley commute

September 20, 2011

What’s the morning commute like to Silicon Valley? I found that out while attending a weeklong workshop in San Jose. With the wealth of South Bay employers, many commute daily from East Bay, SF, and even from North Bay. I shot this video of the Thursday morning (non-carpooled) commute from Oakland-Piedmont. Except the opening and [...]

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Shopping local

August 24, 2011

I’ve posted a few videos on my fledgling YouTube channel. One fun side project has been shooting Oakland-Berkeley-Alameda’s many commercial districts, like the sample above—Rockridge. For Oakland, I’ve already shot: Piedmont Avenue Grand Lake (will post soon) Temescal (ditto) Montclair Village (may re-shoot this one…if only I can replicate the parallel parking R8!) I’ve still [...]

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Online open house resource

August 15, 2011

Open.apr.com features: Map Search allows users to search for open houses within Google Maps, even down to the street level view. Route Planning makes plotting open house visits easy by allowing visitors to chart open house tours and print corresponding driving directions. Community Information provides school information, area descriptions and photo slideshows of local landmarks, [...]

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Private sewer lateral program update

August 10, 2011

Implementation dates for the Private Sewer Lateral Program have been announced, finally: City of Emeryville: August 22, 2011 City of Piedmont: August 22, 2011 City of Oakland: January 16, 2012 Similar to Berkeley’s sewer lateral ordinance, the sale of a residence in these markets will trigger a mandatory sewer lateral inspection…and subsequent repair, if necessary. [...]

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First Thursdays in Montclair Village

August 3, 2011

Tomorrow is Montclair Village’s inaugural First Thursday. Every first Thursday of the month hereon, Village merchants will stay open until 8pm or later. To promote the events there will be refreshments, entertainment, and special offers. Plus, the Village Garage at the top of La Salle Avenue—adjacent to my office—will offer free parking after 6:00pm for [...]

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New law on CO detectors

July 6, 2011

Effective July 1st, SB 183 (aka the Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act) requires CO detectors to be installed in California residences with an attached garage or fossil fuel source—gas stove or furnace, etc. Carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless gas, is a toxic indoor pollutant. Exposure to it in enclosed spaces can lead to mild [...]

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