Alameda is a special place, as was clear soon after I joined the City’s Public Works Department back in 2012. Eight years later, as I transition to a neighboring city, the specialness of Alameda is all the more clear. 

“I never thought I’d need so many people.” — David Bowie

As a result of the COVID-19 health crisis, six counties in the Bay Area implemented Shelter in Place on March 16 with most other counties following suit soon thereafter. With the Shelter in Place came skyrocketing unemployment along with disruption to human connection and routine.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the country to a crawl. Lawmakers and consumers alike are rightly worried about the economic security of shuttered bars, restaurants and retail locations. But many have largely ignored the nation’s charities.

You may have driven past or even stopped to view the Black Lives Matter memorial and Healing Art Garden in the parking lot at the corner of Taylor in Webster.

You may be aware that the suicide rate is currently higher than the homicide rate in this country. I am aware that I have written about the increase in depression. Now this.

While writing this piece, U.S. COVID-19 deaths surpassed 100,000, with nearly 1.7 million of our fellow countrymen infected.

Not to catapult an unsolicited opinion onto an unsuspecting public but, let it suffice to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has situated us at a fork — not a pothole — in the road. As Yogi Berra tried to warn us, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

The Everyone Belongs Here Poem and Poster Contest theme this year was how everyone still belongs here and belongs together, but how everyone needs to adapt to show unity. The winning poem and poster appear here. 

Thirteen in Quarantine

The mass protests in Alameda and in cities across the nation in the wake of the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis has made one thing crystal clear in this time of pandemic: contrary to the universal mantra “we’re all in this together,” we are actually not “all in this together.”