A story on Fremont Olympic Gymnast Kevin Tan isn’t on our homepage for some reason. To read it, click here.

Look familiar? It should to my predecessor Chris De Benedetti. He wrote a lot about Jim Hardwick’s eyesore at the corner of Thornton Avenue and Cabrillo Drive. Hardwick finally filled in a huge hole last year and agreed to turn the derelict former Shell Station into a mini-mart by this October.

But will he? Cabrillo residents say nothing much has happened at the site for months. Leonard Powell with the city says Hardwick has made progress and that is expected to meet his city-imposed deadline of Oct. 26. Hardwick, who owns numerous properties in Fremont and elsewhere, won’t return my phone calls.

Deadline to file nominating papers is 5 p.m. We’ll have a full list then as long as our internet doesn’t crash We’ve been having some major technical difficulties here.

Here’s the people who have filed:
Mayor
Gus Morrison
Bob Wasserman

Council:
Bob Wieckowski
Vinnie Bacon
Hou Leong
Linda Susoev
Larry Montgomery

Four people have appointments today to file at the city clerk’s office: They are Suzanne Chan, Charles Bartlett, Paul Reeder and Fazlur Khan.

Hey Tahmasbi and Cho. Tick Tock, Tick Tock.

UPDATE: Turns out the parade was cancelled two weeks ago (I’m a bad beat writer) due to financial constraints. Organizers raised less money and parade costs increased. We’ll have a preview of this year’s festival on Sunday or Monday.

Now I find out that my seventh sixth favorite Tri-City area event also won’t be happening this year. There will still be a Festival of India on Aug. 16 and 17, but no big parade. Bummer.

My second favorite Tri-City area event of the summer isn’t happening. Civil War Days won’t be coming to Ardenwood Park or Fremont this year. I don’t know why, but I know it stinks.

The development planned for the old Navlet’s site in Warm Springs will be called, “Fremont Times Square,” according to the city’s event calendar. The ground-breaking is scheduled for Sept. 9.

Considering that it’s going to be an Asian-themed shopping center, I would have gone with “Fremont Tiananmen Square,” but maybe it’s safer to go with a name associated with peep shows and fake ID pushers over one associated with tanks mowing over people.

Another perspective:A woman who says she was at Drigon before and during the attack said that the Pit bull was playing well with the other dogs in the park before the incident. She thought it was a nice dog.

Draco, a 10-pound Miniature Pinscher was attacked and nearly killed by a Pit Bull Sunday afternoon at Drigon Dog Park in Union City. 

The dog had been in the park for only a few minutes when three larger dogs, including the Pit Bull approached, said Draco’s owner Zendy Aguirre. When Draco ran away from the dogs, the Pit Bull attacked, shattering one of Draco’s ribs.

“I went to pick up (Draco) and the Pitt Bull bit me and ripped off my thumb nail, Aquirre said. The Pit Bull then sunk its teeth back into Draco until Aguirre’s boyfriend gave it a good kick.

The Pit Bull’s owner later took his dog and ran away. Aguirre doesn’t have a picture of the offending dog or the identity of its owner.

What she does have is a veterinary bill for nearly $7,000. Draco has been hospitalized for the past three nights. He has three broken ribs and doctors had to remove a fourth rib that was too badly damaged to heal. He also has numerous puncture wounds.

The Pitt Bull is described as a dark gray American Pit Bull Terrier with cropped ears and white fur on his chest. It wears a regular collar and a choke collar.

Chief Steckler dispenses advise on burglar alarms on my favorite Niles chat group:

Hi Everyone:I don’t want to get into the debate of alarm systems and the Police Department response policy, other than to say they generally act as a deterrent and most burglars would rather attempt a burglary at a residential structure that is not alarmed.

With that said, I would strongly suggest that any alarm company you choose should be one that will respond to an alarm activation with private security to determine if the alarm is a malfunction or a real attempt at a burglary.  National statistics for the past 30 years, and what held true in Fremont since I have been here is that 99.3% of all alarms are a malfunction.  The three primary casual factors for malfunctioning alarms are human error (the homeowner forgets to reset), substandard alarm equipment, and substandard installation and training for the alarm owner. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been looking at campaign finance filings for the first half of this year. Here are the leaders for Mayor in terms of how much money they have on hand.

Bob Wasserman  $78,396
Steve Cho           $50,302
Gus Morrison     $15,108

Some quick observations: It pays to have the support of Fremont’s biggest sugardaddy, Former Assemblyman John Dutra. Wasserman has Dutra’s endorsement and received a total of $3,000 from people named Dutra.

Wasserman received the most donations (208) of which exactly 50 percent came from Fremont people or businesses. A lot of people with Indian surnames gave him money. No sign of anyone with direct ties to the A’s contributing.

Among those giving to Wasserman were:
Suzanne Chan, who Wasserman is endorsing for Council
Richard Frisbie, who is the planner behind Patterson Ranch project
NUMMI
Ray Tong, a developer who wants to build a Berkeley Bowl-style supermarket (He gave money to Cho too)
Kaenyama Sushi - The sushi restaurant/night club that has had some trouble with the cops.

Cho received donations from 174 people, of whom 126 were based in Fremont. A lot of his financial support seems to be coming from Asians.  His list of contributors included three Changs, Lees and Lins. He also received money from four Lius and six Shihs, two whom live at the same address.

As for Morrison, all 32 of his donors are based in Fremont, and 24 of them are retired.

More to come in the print edition

Michael A. Jones has taken out nomination papers to run for Fremont City Council. He is the third minuteman  to take out nomination papers and the 13th person in all. I hope we have time to do profiles of all these people. We’ll try to start next week after we know exactly who’s in the race.