About LeeAnne Jones
Background
LeeAnne has been a word nerd since working on Pleasanton Middle School's yearbook and Valley Christian High School's newspaper. She has B.A. degrees in journalism and graphic design, and is currently the managing editor of Diablo magazine, where she attempts to keep the staff on deadline and pens the weekly Top Tickets blog. LeeAnne lives in Dublin with her husband, Paul.
Contact
Email: LeeAnne Jones
Website: http://writerleeanne.wordpress.com/
September 29, 2009 | 
1 Comment | Topics: City Hall · Profiles
When Tim Sbranti was in fifth grade, the playground rules suddenly changed, and the kids weren’t too thrilled with the new ones. “So, I filed a grievance,” he says. “I got a petition signed by the other fourth and fifth graders, and the principal sat down with me to discuss it.”
While not all the new playground rules were reversed, some details were negotiated, and Dublin’s future mayor got his first taste of making change in a community.
Sbranti has a relaxed but jovial personality. He greets several people by name as we order coffee at Peet’s on Tassajara, just a few blocks from where Sbranti lives with his wife, Stephanie. As he shares about his life growing up in Dublin, it’s easy to spot the pivotal moments and experiences that helped shape him into a leader.
Due to changes within the district, Sbranti attended three elementary schools without moving: the original Fallon (where the district offices are now located), Murray, and Frederiksen (when it transitioned from a junior high to an elementary school). By the time he reached Wells, he knew most of the students in his grade. As a student at Dublin High, Sbranti was editor of the school paper, a basketball and tennis player, and student body president—during which he helped create the student representative position on the school board that still exists today.
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September 10, 2009 | 17 Comments | Topics: Development · Local Businesses
With the Promenade moving forward, we checked in with David Grove, the director of development at Leisure Sports Inc., about plans for the new ClubSport fitness facility.
“We’re very excited about this,” he says. “It will have a different feel than other ClubSports—but in a good way.”
Envisioned as a sister club to the nearby Pleasanton facility, the smaller, yet-to-be-named Dublin club (50,000-square-feet to Pleasanton’s 180,000) aims to offer a more urban, upscale, adult-friendly vibe catered to its surrounding community. Among the ideas for the new space is a café that transforms into a wine bar in the evenings, where members can enjoy drinks and small plates on an olive tree–lined dining deck overlooking the pool.
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August 31, 2009 | 2 Comments | Topics: Things To Do
We may not have a thriving arts scene in Dublin (yet), but there are myriad opportunities to experience theater, music, and art in the surrounding communities. Here are just some of the highlights of the fall season.
Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Records
THEATER
Berkeley Repertory Theatre has sent an unprecedented five locally produced shows to Broadway and even won a Tony Award in 1997 for Best Regional Theatre. Perhaps the most anticipated East Bay performance this fall is the company’s ambitious stage adaptation of Green Day’s multiplatinum album American Idiot (Sep. 4–Oct. 11 in Berkeley).
Theater and dance lovers will enjoy On The Town, a joint effort between Diablo Theatre Company and Company C Contemporary Ballet (Sep. 11–27 in Walnut Creek). The Leonard Bernstein comedy about sailors on leave in New York City is fun for all ages.
Other fall theater highlights include Center REP’s Elvis-centric musical All Shook Up (Sep. 3–Oct. 10 in Walnut Creek); Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter at A.C.T. (Sep. 11–Oct. 4 in San Francisco); San Francisco Opera’s performance of Verdi’s Il Travatore (Sep. 11–Oct. 6); Spamalot, the Monty Python musical, by Broadway San Jose (Sep. 15–20 in San Jose); the annual Eugene O’Neill Festival featuring The Designated Mourner (Sep. 24–27 in Danville); RENT, which returns with its original stars (Oct. 6–18 in San Francisco); Contra Costa Musical Theatre’s production of Oliver! (Oct. 9–Nov. 7 in Walnut Creek); Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci by Livermore Valley Opera (Oct. 10–18 in Livermore); and La Cenerentola, aka Cinderella, by Opera San José (Nov. 14–29 in San Jose).
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August 19, 2009 | 10 Comments | Topics: Schools
Friday-evening football games are tradition at high schools around the Bay Area and the nation, but on September 4, thirty young men will take to the field in red and black to represent Valley Christian High School in its first-ever varsity football game.
It’s a dream-come-true for the small private school nestled in the hills above West Dublin, whose students and staff have been pining for a football team for years. That is until John Parrella, a 12-year NFL veteran (Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders) with three Super Bowl appearances, enrolled his kids into the school. He was hired to head up a football program for the Vikings in September 2007 and assembled a dream-team coaching staff, including fellow Raider and recent Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Rod Woodson, as well as Josh Taves (Oakland Raiders, Carolina Panthers) and longtime high school coach Craig Cook.
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