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Crosscurrents

Daily news roundup for Thursday, March 26, 2015

Sophia Germer / The Chronicle
299 Fremont (front) and 399 Fremont (right) are both waiting for the installation of glass curtain-wall systems in San Francisco.

Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:

Major S.F. construction projects stalled by late glass deliveries // SF Chronicle

"It’s impolite to stare. But take a walk through Rincon Hill these days and you can’t help but notice that some of the tallest new towers on the San Francisco skyline are looking rather bare — nothing but bones where you’d expect to see a shiny glass skin.

"The phenomenon is being driven both by the recently resolved nine-month West Coast port contract dispute, which caused long delays in the shipment of glass curtain-wall systems to San Francisco, as well as a new reliance on untested glass manufacturers in China. The lag is costing developers millions of dollars and will ultimately mean that badly needed housing — both market rate and affordable — will be delivered months behind schedule."

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Berkeley email spam mishap spawns community spirit // Berkeleyside

"Thousands of Berkeley voters got stuck in an email storm last week after a technical glitch became a viral meme that prompted around 70 residents to hold a potluck picnic Sunday. It all started late last Tuesday when Nigel Guest, president of a Berkeley community group called the Council of Neighborhood Associations, attempted to send an email to himself that mistakenly hit the inboxes of thousands of registered voters.

"The brief email, with the subject line “test,” included a single character: “x.” Instead of ignoring the message, some of the recipients responded to ask why they gotten it. And, rather than replying only to Guest, they made the fateful, likely unintentional, decision to reply all. Those replies, which also reached thousands, stirred up a range of sentiments and, from one recipient, threats of legal action. In the days that followed, hundreds of emails volleyed among those on the list."

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Supe calls for hearing on unspent $1 million grant to fight crime // SF Gate

"Eighteen months have passed since the San Francisco district attorney’s office announced it received a $1 million grant to fight crime in the eastern Bayview district. But the money still hasn’t been spent, as a long planning process and bureaucratic delays have stalled rollout of the money in the violent neighborhood.

"At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Malia Cohen, who represents the area, called for a hearing to find out where that money is as well as millions of dollars in other grant funding for violence prevention in the Bayview. 'The community needs to know where that money is going, and how it’s going to be spent, and, more importantly, when we are going to see results,' Cohen said."

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Brentwood cat activists, school district reach understanding in 'cat entombing' controversy // Contra Costa Times

"When dozens of animal activists arrived at a recent Liberty Union High School District board meeting to accuse district officials of killing feral cats by entombing them in school buildings, it sure didn't seem like a compromise was on the horizon. But, since then, cooler heads have prevailed, and the two parties were able to start a dialogue.

"And on Wednesday, animal activists and district officials said that they'd reached an agreement that will allow a limited number of feral cat activists to oversee the sealing of school buildings to ensure cats aren't being "entombed." Some activists also will be allowed to come on campus to trap and later neuter the feral cats, and the district has decided to allow feeding stations as well, provided they're designed to lure cats away from school buildings."

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Little Free Library movement begins to blossom in Richmond // Richmond Confidential

"The concept is simple: a handful of books in a wooden box, mounted in a public space. The books are free. Peruse the selection. Take a book if you’d like. Leave a book in its place if you can. Enjoy.

"Called the Little Free Library, these informal neighborhood lending libraries have popped up in front of schools, homes, parks, bike paths and cafes in all 50 states and more than 70 countries since a man named Todd Bol installed the first one in Hudson, Wisconsin, in 2009. North Richmond’s first — and so far, only — Little Free Library was established last summer in front of a community garden lot at 1643 Fred Jackson Way. Along with the library in North Richmond, Richmond is now home to at least three other Little Free Libraries. Cristal Banagan, who installed the Little Free Library at Fred Jackson Way, has big plans to keep them growing."

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The Greatest Sport in Theater: WrestleMania Comes to the Bay // SF Weekly

"… Promotor Vince McMahon created WrestleMania in 1985, and the event has since become the flagship for the WWE. The pop-culture spectacle consistently draws more than 70,000 people to its host cities along with some $140 million to dump into local economies. On March 29, WrestleMania 31 — and all that money — comes to Levi's Stadium, about an hour south of San Francisco in Santa Clara.

"WrestleMania is like the Super Bowl, except that the players have scripted characters, the game is predetermined, and the crowd knows it but couldn't care less."

Crosscurrents