Archive for March, 2008
by John M. Zukoski on March 30, 2008 | 
No Comments | Topics: Parks
As an example of our Parks and Community Services Commission‘s focus on providing Dublin stakeholders with an opportunity to shape our City’s future, they have advised the City of Dublin to host a Bikeways Capital Improvement Program Workshop. This workshop will be held on Thursday April 3rd from 7-8 PM in the Dublin Civic Center’s Regional Meeting Room.
As noted on Dublin’s website: “Capital Improvement Program projects are specific physical improvements that are scheduled to take place in Dublin. City staff will be present at the meeting to discuss with citizens and community members upcoming bikeways projects for the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year as well as for future years. This will be an opportunity to ask questions or provide comments about these projects and others recommended in the Bikeways Master Plan.”
Please click here for a summary version of the Bikeways Master Plan. If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please call Civil Engineer Ferd Del Rosario at (925) 833-6630.
Also of note for Dublin cyclists, a two-day Bikeways Safety Education Class is scheduled to be held in Dublin on April 17th and in Pleasanton on May 3rd. Hosted by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, the goal of the class is to educate bicyclists on how to ride safely on city streets. Please download this flyer for more details.
by John M. Zukoski on March 29, 2008 | No Comments | Topics: Things To Do
The tentative schedule for Bus Obscura has been released:
Saturday, April 19: Bray Commons Park, 11:00am–noon
Emerald Glen Park, 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Sunday, April 20: Target Parking Lot, 11am–2:00pm
Friday, April 25: Celebrating Dublin Pride Week
Dublin Library, 11:00am–noon
Saturday, April 26: Celebrating Dublin Pride Week
Ted Fairfield Park, 11am–noon
Emerald Glen Park, 12:30–2:00pm
Please check out the official schedule at http://www.dublinfinearts.com/. Also, please click here to see a slick brochure for the Bus Obscura.
by John M. Zukoski on March 28, 2008 | 5 Comments | Topics: Opinions
The sales reported for the week-ended 3/28/08 were down a bit from last week. The average sale price this week was $431,800 and 5 homes were sold in Dublin. We had two homes closed at Elan, one at The Willows, and two resale homes in the Dublin Ranch Villages. These numbers were consistent with the other Tri-Valley cities. On the whole, fundamentals in Dublin remain strong and the recent spate of liquidity provisions (e.g., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Fed intervention) will only help the real estate market. Please click here to check out these recent bullish comments on housing in the Dublin Ranch Villages.
by John M. Zukoski on March 27, 2008 | No Comments | Topics: Things To Do
One of Dublin’s treasures is our Senior Center at 7600 Amador Valley Blvd. The Dublin Senior Center offers a plethora of services, events, and resources for the residents of Dublin. An example of this is the special lunch program that the Dublin Senior Center hosts every second Thursday. These are themed lunches with delicious food, pleasant service (by Rotary Club volunteers), and a very reasonable price of $6.50/person ($7.50 for non-residents). Recent lunches had St. Patrick’s Day, Valentines Day, and Thanksgiving themes (just to name a few).
The upcoming lunch has a theme of “Sentimental Journey” where Soloist Paulette Rene will sing old favorites from the 50’s and 60’s.
- The menu for the “Sentimental Journey” luncheon will be:
- Herbed Boneless Pork Chop Lyonnaise
- Mashed Potato
- Vegetable Medley
- Fruit Crisp with Whipped Cream
Please be sure to register and pay by Monday, April 7. The Dublin Senior Center’s phone number is (925) 556-4511.
by John M. Zukoski on March 25, 2008 | No Comments | Topics: Things To Do
As announced with great fanfare last month, Camp Galileo will be coming to Dublin this summer. Camp Galileo combines art, science and outdoor programming with fun camp traditions to create a summer day camp experience pre-K through entering 5th graders love. Delivered by a highly talented staff, Camp Galileo’s curriculum is developed in partnership with The Tech Museum of Innovation, de Young Museum and Klutz.
In order to provide parents and caregivers with as much information as possible, Camp Galileo will be hosting an information night on April 2nd from 7-8pm. The info session will be held at John Green Elementary School (3300 Antone Way in Dublin) in the multi-purpose room – look for signs! This is a great opportunity for parents to meet the Dublin Camp Director (Christina Guerra, pictured below), get questions answered, and to learn more. Light refreshments will be served.
Camp Galileo was voted “Best Camp for Kids” in Bay Area Parent and “Best of the Bay” in San Francisco Magazine. To enroll and learn more, visit http://www.campgalileo.com/index.html or call (800) 854-3684.
by John M. Zukoski on March 22, 2008 | 2 Comments | Topics: Development
One of the hottest topics of conversation in Dublin right now involves the Blake Hunt Ventures project The Green on Park Place and the land that was recently purchased right next to “The Green”. Here’s what we know so far regarding “The Green”:
- It will be a 27 acre 300,000 sq. ft. “lifestyle center” filled with medium to high-end retail shops and restaurants.
- Whole Foods will provide the anchor for the new center backing up to Hacienda Drive.
- There will be pedestrian-friendly walkways and a main street.
- It is located next to the East Dublin BART station and transit village.
- The project should begin in 2008 and is expected to be completed by 2010.
Blake Hunt just recently announced that they will forge ahead with this ambitious project even though the local and national economy has hit a bit of a rough patch. This is a sure sign that there has been a great deal of interest in “The Green” by prospective retailers and restaurateurs.
As a measure of Blake Hunt’s optimism in Dublin and this particular location, they also just recently purchased 35.7 of additional acreage between Dublin Boulevard and Interstate 580 stretching from Hacienda Drive west to Iron Horse Parkway. The total cost for this swath of land and the related infrastructure improvements will be roughly $90M. This project is expected to be comprised of mostly campus office space with some limited retail and residential sprinkled in.
Please keep checking back for more details.
by John M. Zukoski on March 21, 2008 | No Comments | Topics: Opinions
Weekly home sales in Dublin, CA more than doubled in the week-ended 3/21/08. The average sale price also increased 16% this week to $570K. This represents a 55% increase over the average sale price for the week-ended 2/29/08. Not bad for less than a month!
There could be more good news on the horizon for home owners and future home buyers because regulators have cleared the way for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to purchase $200 billion of additional mortgages – thereby pumping $200 billion of additional funding for loans into the national marketplace.
by John M. Zukoski on March 18, 2008 | No Comments | Topics: Things To Do
Dublin has developed a well-deserved reputation for embracing fine art. Examples of this include art in Dublin’s parks, schools, public buildings, shopping centers, etc. The residents, organizations, and businesses of Dublin have made a commitment to distinguish Dublin from other Bay Area cities by showcasing distinctive works of art. A recent example is the $580K “Eternal Ribbon” that the City of Dublin will be installing (paid for by part of a Federal grant).
The latest example of Dublin’s commitment to providing art in public places is the Bus Obscura that has been all over the world (e.g., London, Miami, New York City, Kampala) and will now be visiting Dublin on April 19th and staying until the end of the month. What is the Bus Obscura? Well, it’s a bus…and it’s probably the most progressive art medium that we’ve had in the Tri-Valley.
Here’s a great article summarizing the Bus Obscura experience from the perspective of college students at Colgate University.
The artist (Simon Lee) summarizes Bus Obscura on his website “…as a passenger bus converted to a multiple aperture camera obscura using a rear projection technique that allows the individual images to flow into one another. As the bus moves down the street a 360 degree animated panorama is created inside.
Passengers sit in the seats as usual but instead of looking out on the real scene as it passes by, they see a real time projection of the same scene. The exterior view from the bus is projected onto the interior of the bus and the individual apertures create images that merge into each other and create a real time animated projection of the world outside. The bus becomes the camera and the projector and the audience sits inside.
Bus Obscura’s soundtrack reinforces the cinematic quality of the piece. Sound artists Colleen Burke and Walter Sipser have made soundtracks for each city the bus has visited. Because the bus is being realized in different cities and environments with different images, light, ambience and history, a new soundtrack is made for each venue.”
Check out the Bus Obscura experience and art dedication at Bray Commons Park on April 19th at 10:30am. If you can’t make this date, the Bus Obscura will also be in Dublin for Dublin Pride Week 2008.
by John M. Zukoski on March 15, 2008 | 3 Comments | Topics: Development
Fallon Village is the next frontier of Dublin’s growth phase. Fallon Village (area pictured above) will be a community in East Dublin comprised of a wide swath of housing options, commercial/industrial opportunities, and retail locations. One Fallon Village developer – Braddock & Logan – has begun grading on the first phase their 1,043 unit single-family community in Fallon Village. However, Fallon Village will be much, much more at build-out. Here are some of the highlights from the Fallon Village development plan:
- 1,120 acres
- 3,108 residential units
- 3.5M sq. ft. of commercial, industrial, and retail
- 50 acres of parks
- 20 acres for future schools
- 211 acres of open space
It’s exciting to think about all of the new park/open space that we’ll have in East Dublin once Fallon Village is built-out. Some additional good news is that the impact fees from the development at Fallon Village can be used to complete subsequent phases of Fallon Sports Park (since Phase I is the only funded phase at this point).
Please keep checking back for updates on Fallon Village.
