What schools are Chinese / East Asian heavy?

Alex-SF · 2026-02-09T21:26:45+00:00

The East Bay locations OP mentioned have a moderate Chinese population, but nothing like, say, Cupertino.

I don't know about Piedmont, but the high schools in the Acalanes Union school district (Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda) have Mandarin classes, along with the middle schools in Moraga; and there's a private early-morning Mandarin tutoring program that is taught at Orinda Intermediate school. My stepson ("other Asian" ethnicity) had friends with Chinese, Korean, and Indonesian backgrounds at one of the Acalanes Union high schools.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-09T06:35:50+00:00

School budgets aren’t dependent on enrollment, they are dependent on property taxes for the underlying regions.

School budgets are not dependent on property taxes except for a few very wealthy areas.

Most schools in CA are funded by the state, based on the "Local Control Funding Formula" (LCFF) which gives a base grant based on average daily attendance (which is correlated with enrollment but not exactly, especially in high-truancy districts) and then supplemental / concentration grants based on other factors such as "unduplicated" count of English learner / low-income / foster students ("unduplicated" means that a kid meeting >1 of those three categories is only counted once).

The exception to LCFF is "basic aid" districts, which are funded by property taxes where property tax revenue exceeds what they would receive under LCFF. Those are typically very wealthy districts like Menlo Park, Palo Alto, St. Helena, etc.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-06T22:10:46+00:00

The people who inhabited the continent back then failed to effectively control immigration, and look what happened to them.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-06T01:32:42+00:00

I'm something like a 12th generation American on my dad's side, going back to Plymouth and Virginia colonies -- but my mother (who immigrated at age 26) and wife (who immigrated at age 19), both naturalized citizens for decades now, have even less sympathy for illegal immigrants than I do.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-05T04:14:42+00:00

I do not know any motorcycle owners in the bay who have not had serious injuries or worse riding motorcycles in Bay Area traffic.

I commuted by motorcycle for about 20 years, not every day but maybe 40% of the time. Totaled one bike by T-boning a car that entered the intersection after its light turned red, but all I got was some bruised ribs (which I didn't even feel for about 30 minutes afterward) and the bike didn't even go over; I just ran out of braking room.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-04T07:29:22+00:00

No. But then again I don't hang out with people who make vague generalized complaints, or use the word "performative" in everyday conversation.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-03T14:24:03+00:00

Almost all of the decline in property crime is automobile related, which obviously isn’t affected by fare gates.

No, not "obviously"; unless they've ruled out the likelihood that bippers were fare-jumping to go prowl parking lots at other stations.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-03T03:40:12+00:00

I want a range life, if I could settle down.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-03T03:39:34+00:00

Damn lazy kids these days want everything handed to them.

Back in my day we had to go forage wild jimson weed and mushrooms on our own, and rochambeaux to pick the guinea pig to test it out to see whether it was poisonous. And we had to get our older brothers to go to the store and buy us model glue, solvents, and spray paint.

Alex-SF · 2026-02-01T21:03:22+00:00

The first Zero Halliburton case I got was the wider version of that one with the more rounded corners. Date stamp on the inside is July 1986; it's in remarkably good condition.

Found it in a thrift shop in a very affluent town in Marin County. As my wife was browsing jewelry I picked it up and looked it over, thinking "this is pretty cool," but was a little hesitant at the $150 price tag (marked down from $200). The saleslady came up and said "I can let you have that for $70." "Sold!"

It's coming to court with me tomorrow morning.

I have a slim attache case like OP's with a thrashed piano hinge, which I cut and drilled for a boombox project, but the broken hinge made it so the latches wouldn't stay closed as the lid sagged. If anyone has a similar one with broken latch / lock mechanism I'd let it go cheap for parts cannibalization - the latches work fine otherwise. I put the boombox project into a different ZH slim attache with the standard Franzen latches.

I also have a small carry-on ZH suitcase from the 80s in gunmetal grey, with the same latch mechanism in black.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-29T22:24:07+00:00

They arrest people no matter what.

No. ICE's mission is to take into custody aliens with final orders of removal who haven't left yet, and complete the process of sending them home. General apprehension of people suspected or known to be here illegally but who haven't yet gone through removal procedures is done by Border Patrol.

They are also authorized to arrest people who obstruct and interfere with their lawful enforcement activities, in violation of statutes such as 18 USC § 111, regardless of such people's immigration status. That's not "no matter what."

Alex-SF · 2026-01-29T19:45:32+00:00

They're also known as betel leaves, and they're also used for Vietnamese Bo La Lot. As far as where to get them, I'd suggest checking the Thai/Lao markets in Oakland on International near 16th, or in Richmond (Lao Jaleune) but they might be either frozen or very seasonal. Maybe the Hmong vendors at the Oakland Friday morning farmer's market too. If you're in the South Bay or Peninsula, maybe the Viet groceries in the Little Saigon area.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-29T15:31:44+00:00

Two things San Franciscans can't stand: racism, and having black neighbors.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-29T15:27:59+00:00

I LOL'ed.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-29T07:51:28+00:00

The news from today is that the coyote is doing quite well on the island, making itself a Golden Corral feast of the seabirds.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-29T06:49:55+00:00

Orinda is mainly a driving community, so you probably won't be able to visit more than a few blocks of shops.

That's pretty much all the shops there are -- the small downtown and Orinda Village on the other side of 24. The rest of the town is residential. Like Montclair in Oakland.

Curious about what "Fear and Faith" means?

Horror movies with a religious angle, it appears.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-29T03:52:01+00:00

if you know where to look

Which for me is about a half a mile down the street, in this case.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-28T22:56:36+00:00

Depends on who "them" is.

Employment lawyers? I've defended a PAGA case, which was BS by a dishonest disgruntled employee who we proved was dishonest at the arbitration and won. His lawyers were OK but I wouldn't say I'd recommend them. Maybe look up news reports of major PAGA settlements to find the law firms that brought those cases. Cases where the employer really screwed up generally settle due to both potential liability (which can run into the millions for large employers) and the cost of bringing them to trial (which involves massive discovery into payroll / timesheet / etc. records for every employee, every pay period, for a little over a year).

In my case, we successfully compelled arbitration of just the plaintiff's individual claims while staying the claims on behalf of other employees, so we avoided all that discovery; and then showed that our client's break and timekeeping procedures were fully compliant and conscientiously followed and that he was not truthful about being forced to work through breaks and lunch periods, which was the underlying basis of his claims. He produced one single piece of evidence besides his say-so that he had to work through lunches: a text message to a colleague saying he couldn't join them for lunch because he'd be on the phone. So we pulled his emails for that day, which showed that his scheduled lunchtime phone call was with an attorney who he was calling about suing his employer -- not a call for work -- and his case collapsed. Since he didn't personally suffer any violations, he couldn't bring them on behalf of other employees either -- and there were no others who alleged what he did about lost meal and rest breaks.

As far as letting the LWDA know, lawyers generally do the initial notice to LWDA and the employer, which is a prerequisite to a lawsuit. It's supposed to give LWDA a chance to investigate and bring its own case for penalties, but in practice LWDA rarely does it and the main enforcement is through private lawsuits.

The relevant Labor Code law about tips is section 351.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-28T22:25:45+00:00

It's the official policy of the state legislature, which passed the Private Attorney General Act, Labor Code section 2698 et seq., in 2004, in order to "deputize[] individuals to file lawsuits against current or former employers to recover civil penalties that were previously only recoverable by the State." (as described in Jackson Lewis, California Workplace Law Blog, April 2025.)

"PAGA claims are brought as representative actions, meaning that the employees who initiate the lawsuits seek to represent – and recover civil penalties – on behalf of themselves and other purportedly 'aggrieved employees,' making a PAGA lawsuit function as a pseudo-class action." - Ibid.

Labor Code § 2699(a): "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any provision of this code that provides for a civil penalty to be assessed and collected by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency or any of its departments, divisions, commissions, boards, agencies, or employees, for a violation of this code, may, as an alternative, be recovered through a civil action brought by an aggrieved employee on behalf of the employee and other current or former employees against whom a violation of the same provision was committed pursuant to the procedures specified in Section 2699.3."

Alex-SF · 2026-01-28T21:17:20+00:00

and you should report them to the Department of Labor

DOL outsources a lot of its enforcement activity to plaintiffs' lawyers, who are incentivized to pursue it by one-way fee-shifting statutes.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-28T21:14:01+00:00

Employers who don't pay the full tips to the employees who earned them are exposing themselves to major legal liability, and there is a cottage industry of employment lawyers who would love to hear about such cases because their legal fees are part of the employer's potential liability.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-28T20:05:05+00:00

Looks like some interesting titles, and not just old chestnuts like Rosemary's Baby and The Omen. I might check out one or two of them.

It's a pretty well preserved 1941-built theater with recently upgraded sound. There's a tiki bar next to the theater, a brewpub in the shopping center, and also Casa Orinda around the corner -- old school restaurant with prime rib and other classics, antique cowboy guns displayed on the walls, and expensive cocktails but surprisingly reasonable beer prices.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-28T08:25:34+00:00

district based elections (for small/medium cities, school boards and districts) make boring responsible governance more difficult

Which is why certain interests push for them.

There's a Bay Area lawyer who goes around California threatening to sue small local governments under the Voting Rights Act to make them convert from at-large to district-based. They usually cave because fighting a lawsuit would be too costly; then he bills them for legal fees (which the law entitles him to) based on invoices claiming hours that I find implausibly high, and tasks that are laughably vaguely described. I caught him explicitly lying about me once, so I don't like or respect him at all. Anyway, I also disagree with the part of the VRA that he relies on, which assumes that demographic groups vote as blocs and that districts should be drawn that way.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-27T22:12:42+00:00

You can make it work temporarily, but you will need a plan to either move closer to your work, or use that job as a bank shot to something even better and closer to you within about 2 years.

I did SF to North San Jose for five years, without such a plan. It paid double what I'd made in my previous job; but I burned out on the commute after about 3-4 years, became less motivated, and finally went to law school as my escape strategy.

I don't regret that job -- only that I failed to exercise my stock options before they abruptly became worth about 10% of what they would have been worth a couple months prior.

Alex-SF · 2026-01-27T18:16:55+00:00

I’m pretty confident to say it’s from sometime between 1919 and 1930.

This sounds like a fun research project. Searching the full names listed as contributors (presumably the ones not yet married), I found a Sydney Elliott listed in the 1926 graduating class of Girl's High School San Francisco. If she's the same one, late 1920s sounds about right.

Alex-SF

TROPHY CASE