PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190
IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
July 27, 2007
925.672.0500
Clayton teens sing for Olympic crowd BILL WALCUTT
MAYOR’S CORNER
We knew it first: Our town is great It is now official. Clayton is one of the best places in the United States to live. Money magazine ranked Clayton as the 57th best place to live in their top 100 survey. This year, they focused on cities with populations from 7,500 to 50,000. Nationwide, 2,876 cities were reviewed based on a combination of economic opportunity, good schools, safe streets, things to do and a real sense of community. There were only nine cities in California to make it on this distinguished list. Three cheers for Clayton. Even though intuitively we already knew Clayton is a great place to live, it is still nice to be recognized by such a prestigious organization. Our best-kept secret is now very public. One of the things that makes our little town so great is that we have not stretched our infrastructure beyond its capacity, because we do not have a lot of high-density housing. What’s ironic is that Sacramento is working very hard to change this by putting more pressure on cities to increase their housing density by taking away more local land use control. Every five years, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determines how many new housing units the state will need to accommodate projected population growth. Then, this number is broken down by region and assigned to a regional planning agency for allocation to each city. For Clayton, the Association
See Mayor, page A10
Photos courtesy of the DeFazio family
Contra Costa Community Chorus warms up during a sound check for their performance at the Olympic Cultural Festival Opening Ceremony for the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. The performance was an unexpected honor during their recent tour of China. JUSTIN BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
Only internationally revered athletes and groups participate in such prodigious events as the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies, yet the quaint city of Clayton produced three members of the Contra Costa Children’s Chorus who are now part of this select group. They boldly and proudly sang with 24 of their choral colleagues in the Olympic Cultural Festival opening ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Few will forget Muhammad Ali lighting the cauldron at the ’96 Atlanta games or the 202 nations entering Athens
SECTION A Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . .A2 Old Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A4 Classified Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . .A5 Directory of Advertisers . . . .A5 Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A6 Letters to the Editor . . . . . . .A7 Senior Moments . . . . . . . . . .A7 CVHS Student Reporter . . . .A7 Look Good, Feel Good . . . . .A8 Travel Tales . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A9 Food for Thought . . . . . . . .A10 Your Health . . . . . . . . . . . . .A11 At the Movies . . . . . . . . . . .A12 SECTION B Garden Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . .B1 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B2 Financial Sense . . . . . . . . . . .B5 Tax Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B5 Theatre Review . . . . . . . . . . .B6 Church News . . . . . . . . . . . .B6 Paws and Claws . . . . . . . . . .B7 ARF Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .B7 Community Calendar . . . . . .B8 Crossword Puzzle . . . . . . . . .B9
uled performances at music halls, schools and academies, and occasional spontaneous performances at monumental locations such as the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. After a couple days touring Beijing, Lamana, the 20-year choral conductor, got a surprising call for the chorus to audition for the Olympic Cultural Festival opening ceremonies. “It was so unexpected. Everyone was so excited,” says Parin, 15, a junior at Clayton Valley High School. The group jumped on a bus to audition for the role, rehearsing songs in both English and
See Chorus, page A3
CLAYTON CHORUS MEMBERS, Parin Gallagher, Cassandra Cox and Zackary DeFazio took along a Pioneer when they visited the Terracotta warriors site near Xi'an, Shaanxi.
Clayton achieves national ranking on ‘Best Places’ list TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
What’s Inside
Olympic Stadium to celebrate the return of the Summer Olympics to Greece in 2004. Although not quite of that magnitude, the teen’s accomplishments are noteworthy. They represented our town and country with their voices and decorum and lit up China with a stunning performance. Contra Costa Children’s Choir conductor Iris Lamana, tour director Joan Lucchese and several chaperones led Clayton residents Zackary DeFazio, Parin Gallagher and Cassandra Cox when they embarked on their China tour June 18, unaware of what was in store for them. They were set to visit Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an, with sched-
With its nearly perfect weather, two schools on the California Distinguished Schools list, a first class golf course, low crime rate, The Grove park nearing completion, Mt. Diablo in the backyard and the downtown enjoying unprecedented revitalization,
Clayton’s a great place to live. We Claytonians have always known that. Now, the rest of the country does as well. Clayton has ranked 57th in Money Magazine’s recent survey of the country’s 100 Best Places to Live. Clayton was the only Bay Area city listed. We ranked highest of the three Northern California cities listed, beating out Granite
City of Clayton
Clayton’s City Hall is in this restored winery. The building has a long and colorful history.
Bay at 74th and El Dorado Hills, 77th. Only nine California cities made the list at all. So, what does hitting the Best Places list mean for Clayton? “Expect to see increased home values,” says Realtor Mike Williams. Other than that, Clayton won’t change much. The city is already nearly 100 percent built out, says Mayor Bill Walcutt. There isn’t any room for more housing. In this year’s survey, Money was looking for smaller cities with good schools, affordability, low crime rate and plenty of activities. A high cost of living kept Clayton from ranking higher on the list. For more on the Money magazine survey, see Mayor Bill Walcutt’s column. Here is Clayton’s entry in the Money magazine survey of the Best Places to Live:
Population: 11,400 Median home price (2006): $729,765
Average property taxes (2006): $3,747 A hiker’s paradise, this Bay Area enclave sits adjacent to Mount Diablo State Park and boasts miles and miles of its own walking trails.
Many of those trails start in the tiny historic downtown, which is getting a facelift with The Grove, a community park scheduled to open in the fall. In fact, much of the town is under construction - but it’s something residents are excited to see.
Parolee charged in Mitchell Canyon burglary BEV BRITTON Clayton Pioneer
Sgt. Shelly Crain credits attentive neighbors and good record keeping with enabling the arrest of a Concord man for a home burglary on North Mitchell Canyon Road. On July 11, Jonathan Geyer, 30, was charged with burglary and attempted burglary, with prior criminal enhancements. Geyer was out on parole on a previous theft conviction. He is
currently in jail without bail. The charges are the result of a month-long investigation, which began after a neighbor discovered that David Skidmore’s home had been burglarized on June 5 while he was on vacation. “We spoke with several neighbors, and one was able to give us a suspicious vehicle description, a very good description, but without a license plate,”
See Burglary, page A8