GLOW
THE LIGHTS COME ON THIS FRIDAY
CASTRO VALLEY FORUM PAGES 8 - 9
A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CASTRO VALLEY SINCE 1989
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021
YEAR 33
PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT
INSIDE YOUR
Addressing Our Aging Population
FORUM
NEWS
Theft Crack Down
Local law enforcement cracking down on hoards of retail store thieves
By Michael Singer
CASTRO VALLEY FORUM
Page 2
SENIORS
Nurses Stage Strikes
PHOTO BY MIKE MCGUIRE
Tax Savvy Gifts
This holiday season, consider tax-savvy year end gifts to the family
Page 10 NEWS
New Park Visitors Weather changes bring newts, ladybugs to East Bay Regional Parks
Page 14
INDEX Calendar .................. 14 Classified Ads .......... 12 Crosswords ............. 13 Holidays ..................... 8 Homes ....................... 4 Horoscope ................. 2 Legal Notices ........... 14 Obituaries ................ 15 Opinions .................. 15 Weather ....................... 2 PHONE: (510) 614-1560
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Nurses, members of the California Nurses Association, picket outside the Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center on Friday, Nov. 19. They staged a one-day sympathy strike supporting members of Operating Engineers Local 39 who have been on strike against Kaiser throughout Northern California for two months.
SEE FULL STORY ON PAGE 3
How should Alameda County address the ongoing needs of an aging population in the next 10 years? An online forum scheduled for December 3 aims to explore that question, and its organizers are asking for honest input from the community. “We want to hear from the public. We want to hear what we as a coalition of leaders need to be doing about an issue. To do that, we need to hear what is important to people over 60,” said Senior Services Coalition of Alameda County director, Wendy Peterson. “It’s a huge undertaking with a wide-ranging set of initiatives that tries to be practical, and action-orientated.” According to state population data, 27.7 percent of the population (8.2 million persons) are 60 years or older. In Alameda County, 16.59 percent of the population is 65 years and older (279,196 persons). That number is expected to grow over the next 10 years as the 55 to 64-year-old see AGING on page 10
CV Women Create Holiday Shopping Pop-up By Mike McGuire
to meet her customers in-person. She had started her business, which sells nail polish strips in a variety of designs, just before the A group of Castro Valley initial pandemic lockdown, forcing women are doing their best to encourage holiday shoppers to skip her to go online-only. Her online customers could have come from supply-chain problems and delivery hassles by shopping locally this anywhere in the world, but in practice many of them lived down year, perhaps even in person. the block or a few miles away. Some 100 people enjoyed a sunny Sunday on November 21 in “It was nice to see everybody a local backyard to chat with each outside, chatting, meeting new peoother and look over mostly handple, talking to local women about made, mostly locally made, mostly possible gifts,” Olson said. “And I customizable gift items from about really liked how supportive of each a dozen local entrepreneurs. other these women were.” For some people, the pop-up Aarthi Natarajan, whose was their first chance to reconnect Terracil makes zero-waste paper PHOTO BY KRISTEN MALIK with neighbors since the pandemic pencils, said that unlike shopping hit and lockdowns ensued. For online or in a large chain store, SHOP LOCAL: Two makers of handmade greetings cards, Susan Melodi Olson, owner of Dainty El- people were able to talk to and ask Dickstein (A Lovely Letter), left, and Sarah Murphy (Sending Sunshine), ephant, it was her first real chance see POPUP on page 2 share a table at the Castro Valley Holiday Shopping Popup on Nov. 21. CASTRO VALLEY FORUM
11/30/21 6:40 PM