New hope for the Globe? Fremont’s Epcot Center of Stevenson and I-880 could be getting a major new banquet hall. Actually Royal Palace would include two banquet halls and a restaurant/bar.

The palace would take up three store fronts in the same spot where The Globe wanted to open Sutra Ultra Lounge, a hot club that ran into a lot of city opposition and never opened.

The banquet hall idea heads to the Planning Commission this week.

An administrative law judge ruled against the owners of the Besaro Mobile Home Park, who had applied for a major rent increase for park residents. The judge wrote that the owners failed to show the rent increase was needed.

She said the owners were receiving fair rent and hadn’t faced any major new expenses.

The residents aren’t out of the woods yet. The owners could appeal, forcing the residents to shell out more money in attorneys fees, or they could make good on their word to close the park.

Remember me? I used to be a blogger. Sorry for the paucity of posts and lame attempt at alliteration.  I’ve been busy with other stuff and had to cut out something. I’ll be blogging more regularly again in a few weeks.

I tried to do a live council blog last night, but had some technical difficulties. Too bad. It was a mildly amusing meeting. The only news is that the council passed the first draft of an ordinance to ban restaurants from allowing outdoor smoking. Restaurants had been able to designate half of their outdoor seating for smoking, but that’ll change for good in early December when the new law goes into effect.

I tried to find some angry smokers today, but only landed one guy with an opinion but no name, and a lass with no opinion. Oh well.

Yankee manager Joe Girardi is an idiot. He should be chained to the dugout railing to avoid making imbecilic pitching changes. Second time this season he took out a reliever with the bases empty and two outs only to have the new pitcher give up the game-losing run.

I’m not the only P-O’ed person in Fremont. Several folks who live near the Sikh Temple around Mission Boulevard and Gurdwara Drive are upset about a Temple event this weekend. There were lots of emails between residents and city officials. Residents wrote of parking, traffic and fire cracker nuisances. They also wrote that the Temple folks didn’t let them know about the shindig.

I missed this, but some on the Niles Chat group didn’t. The Postal Service issued an updated list of post offices threatened with closure. Niles and Mission San Jose are still on the chopping block.

The list of threatened post offices is now down to 371. It will be whittled down some more before it’s final.

That was the word from the head of the older-55 mobile home park, whose residents are facing a major rent increase. If the hearing officer sides with the residents, the owners can still appeal, and the residents would have to pony up for more lawyer bills.

It’s Elevator/Escalator Safety Week in Fremont. Is there an escaltor in town outside of Target? And can one truly celebrate Elevator/Escalator Safety Awareness?

Fremont celebrates National Elevator Escalator Safety Awareness Week

October 19, 2009 – FREMONT, Calif. – Mayor Bob Wasserman of Fremont signed a proclamation declaring November 8 – 14, 2009 as National Elevator Escalator Safety Awareness Week. Safety Week is a promotion of public safety awareness for the elevator and escalator industry’s equipment. The Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation (EESF) sponsors Safety Week annually during the second full week of November.

The Tri-City Ecology Center is reporting that the only Tri-City Business to accept block Styrofoam for recycling is no longer accepting the stuff. It seems that people were leaving bags of the all sorts of Styrofoam projects without permission.

Congratulations to Fremont Councilmember Anu Natarajan. Not only did she land a job, but she escaped the tedium of her chosen field, urban planning. No more Environmental Impact Reports and Mitigated Negative Declarations for Anu.

Instead, she’s been named program manager for the “Realizing the California Dream,” whose goal is to promote government and fiscal reforms.

The position is funded jointly by The American Leadership Forum-Silicon Valley and Joint Venture: Silicon Valley.

Fremont Superintendent Milt Werner shocked some in the audience at tonight’s school board meeting by announcing that he is stepping down at the end of June to spend more time with his family. (Click here for news story.) He said his recent performance review and the stress of dealing with budget cuts did not play a part in his decision.

School board President Larry Sweeney confirmed that Werner received a positive evaluation and was surprised by the decision. A district press release said the board “reluctantly” accepted Werner’s resignation.

Werner will retire with two years left on his contract.

The last superintendent for FUSD, Doug Gephart, also retired early. His decision came as a shock to some as well, since he had recently signed a multi-year contract with the district.

Likewise, Pat Jaurequi stunned the community in July 2008 when she stepped down as schools chief of the New Haven school district to head another district.