Have You Talked to Your Kids? Years ago, after a big quake, a couple, fearing aftershocks, sent their young son to stay with his uncle in another town. A day later, they received this telegram: “Am returning your boy. Send earthquake.” Seriously, though, we should do what we can to prepare our kids for a serious quake. Here’s a few suggestions: 1. Install bumper pads in cribs to protect babies during shaking 2. Show older kids the safest places to be in each room 3. Teach children what to do wherever they are during a quake (at school, in a tall building, outdoors) Reach Larry Guillot, owner of QuakePrepare, a Bay area earthquake consulting, securing, and gas valve installation service, at 707-965-3299; visit QuakePrepare.com to receive QuakeTip e-mails and safety reports.

I made it to the MDUSD District office before they closed. I had a great conversation with Lori Amenta the Assistant to the District General Council. Lori is working hard to bring donations in for these kids and explained she is happy to work longer hours and through lunch breaks to get things done for HOPE. I dropped off my donation which they were thankful for and I got to hear some more stories about kids in Concord and surounding cities that are less fortunate than us. Trust me, if you are reading this blog then there is a good chance you have more than most of these kids. The story in the Contra Costa Times really pulled my heart strings. Maybe that's melodramatic but the article did touch me enough to do something about it. I wasn't always the Mayor of Concord, I remember growing up with financial problems and I have made every effort to make sure my family and I don't have to worry about food on the table or a roof over our heads. As I mentioned in the previous post about homeless students, kids should not be going without food and from the stories I heard ...

Visited Your Shut-offs Lately? It’s time to get acquainted with your gas, electric, and water shut-offs. I’m finding in my earthquake consults that, even though most folks know where the cut-offs are, many aren’t sure how to operate one or more of them. Even worse: in more than half of my consults I discover that the gas valve is “frozen.” So, here’s the deal: 1. know where gas, electric, and water shut-offs are 2. make sure every capable person in the house knows how to operate them 3. test the gas & water valves (slight movement to make sure they aren’t inoperable) If valves are frozen, call PG&E (gas) or EBMud (water) and ask that the valve be replaced or repaired: they will take care of the problem with no charge. Reach Larry Guillot, owner of QuakePrepare, a Bay area earthquake consulting, securing, and gas valve installation service, at 707-965-3299; visit QuakePrepare.com to receive QuakeTip e-mails and safety reports.

We are all accountable to someone. Some are accountable to just about anyone with an internet connection that wants to give their feedback. One of the great things about the internet is that services can be set up wher your performance can be rated by the people around you. Some people have performance reports given by their jobs, Rate My Teachers lets parents and students give their feedback online for everyone to see. I went through the schools in Concord and saw that some ratings go back to 2005. I can see where something like could be unpopular with some teachers. Here are all the schools Rate My Teachers has listed for Concord. Go to your school and add or rate your teachers. School City State AYERS ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA CAMBRIDGE ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA CARONDELET HIGH SCHOOL CONCORD CA CLAYTON VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL CONCORD CA CONCORD HIGH SCHOOL CONCORD CA CROSSROADS HIGH (CONT.) CONCORD CA DE LA SALLE HIGH SCHOOL CONCORD CA EL DORADO MIDDLE SCHOOL CONCORD CA EL MONTE ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA GLENBROOK MIDDLE SCHOOL CONCORD CA HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA HOLBROOK ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA MARCHUS SCHOOL CONCORD CA MEADOW HOMES ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA MONTE GARDENS ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA MOUNTAIN VIEW ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA MT. DIABLO HIGH SCHOOL CONCORD CA NUEVA VISTA HIGH (CONT.) CONCORD CA OLYMPIC CONTINUATION HIGH SCHOOL CONCORD CA PINE HOLLOW MIDDLE SCHOOL CONCORD CA SILVERWOOD ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA SUMMIT HIGH (CONT.) CONCORD CA SUN TERRACE ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA SUNRISE (SPECIAL EDUCATION) CONCORD CA WESTWOOD ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA WOODSIDE ELEMENTARY CONCORD CA ...

All of this talk about crime in Concord got me wondering. I started looking into police fire and emergency scanners and wondering if I would ever use one. actually, I think I would become addicted to it and no more blogging. But after reading about police scanners and their 1000 channel memory and digital triple trunking functions I started to wonder if I would even be able to figure one out. by Thomas Hawk All the scanner does is cycle through a set frequency settings for radio traffic. Which made me wonder how I would ever go about finding the right frequencies to plug in for my area and listen to the Concord PD, Fire and CoCo Sheriff. It took a bit of looking but I think I found the right police, fire and emergency services for Concord. I am sure there are a bunch of people in the City of Concord listening to the everyday lives of Police and Firemen in the area. I would think there must be books of these things but I started looking online and found more than I was expecting. Not only did I find Concord Police Fire and Emergency but I found DVC Police and ...

Concord does not come across as a high crime city and for the most part, Concord is not. It was surprising to me when I started looking into the crime statistics of the City of Concord. This was pulled from the 2003 FBI UCR and the data is a bit out of date, I think the general numbers are relatively the same. There are a few resources available to the public that outline the crime statistics in Concord California and I wanted to highlight one of them and explain some of the data. The FBI Uniform Crime Report The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) contain official data on crime that is reported to law enforcement agencies across the country who then provide the data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). UCR focuses on index crimes, which include murder and non-negligent manslaughter, robbery, forcible rape, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. UCR is a summary-based reporting system, with data aggregated to the city, county, state, and other geographic levels. Crime statistics are compiled from UCR data and published annually by the FBI in the Crime in the United States series. To address limitations of UCR, the FBI has developed the ...

Straight from the headlines and collected for the site, I am going to highlight some bank robberies from around Concord. In the past few months Concord has been hit with 4 bank robberies. From 6/27/08 to the most recent robbery on 8/25. 4 bank robberies within 2 months is a lot even by Concord standards. Thankfully there were only minor injuries in one of the robberies when the criminals decided to pistol whip a security guard and a bank teller. You can read more about these robberies at the end of this post.

Sex offenders, pedophiles, child molesters, whatever you call them, they are vile human beings. Harming people for your personal sexual gratification is morbid and disgusting. I wanted to spend some time on the sex offenders in our city and highlight some of the ones identified as 'In Violation" of the registration. This all came about because I was looking for crime data on the city (which is mostly outdated) and thought the people of the City of Concord would want to see some of this information as well.