Story by Tyler Sipe

California’s unemployment numbers continue to show teenagers are among the hardest hit in the flailing economy.

The state’s Employment Development Department reported in August that teenage unemployment rate — among 16 to 19 year olds — was 21.9 percent, an increase of more than 4 percent from the same time last year.

Fremont resident Phuong Nguyen, 18, said she has been actively looking for a job since she graduated high school in June.  She said she no longer wants to depend on her parents, and needs extra income to pay for school expenses and leisure activities.

“My parents are getting on my case,” said Nguyen, who was talking with friends outside of class at Ohlone Community College in Fremont’s Mission San Jose on Monday afternoon.  “I have a lot of ‘I owe you’s’ for friends and my sisters.”

Nguyen has applied to a half-dozen jobs in the service sector, sending her resume to retailers like Target and fruit-smoothie company Jamba Juice.  Five months later, she remains jobless and has yet to receive a single callback from a perspective employer.

Overall, the state unemployment rate of 7.7 percent remained the same in August and September.  However, there was 2.2 percent gain from August 2007 to the same month this year, the largest annual rate increase since July 1991, according to EDD.

Many Fremont area teenagers say they are weathering the storm by continuing to rely on family, with future job prospects in the state looking less rosy for teenagers.

Job growth in the state is expected to stagnate in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009, according to the independent economic research group UCLA Anderson Forecast.

The forecast estimates the California labor market will not improve until the real estate industry begins to turn around.

Michael Daoudi, owner of Mr. Mikey’s Country Store, said he hasn’t hired a new employee at his downtown Niles convenient store in more than a year.  He said with the weak economy, there’s been less of a turnover.

“Teenagers are reliable employees because they have the energy and they want the paycheck,” said Daoudi, who opened the store in 2002.  “But we won’t be making any hires with the way the economy is going.”

Daoudi is not alone.

Businesses nation wide continue to cutback or institute hiring freezes, a partial reaction to a decrease in consumer spending and increased unemployment which nationally was 6.1 percent in September.

Yvonka Headley, a counselor who heads Ohlone Community College’s Student Success Center, said students should practice their interviewing skills, polish their resumes and network with people in industries of interest in order to become more marketable.

“Employers are more likely to hire teens who have a proven work ethic,” said Headley, who councils about four students a month on career building and opportunities.  “I encourage students to intern and gain valuable work experience.”

Castro Valley residents Justin Lalor, 19, and Alex Omalza, 21, spent a portion of one Monday afternoon strolling down Fremont’s busy Paseo Padre Parkway, looking for job wanted signs in area business windows.

Lalor quit his job at a local restaurant that he worked at for the past seven months.  He said in the past, he had no difficulty finding work.  However, he admits the current labor force is a lot tighter and more competitive.

“It’s scary right now,” Lalor said. “But I feel pretty confident I’ll find work.  It might just take a little longer.”

Since 1961, the mission of the all-volunteer Pacific Locomotive Association (PLA) has been to operate a working railroad museum that preserves the physical aspects and atmosphere of Pacific Coast railroading from 1910 to 1960. Starting in 1984, the organization opened the Niles Canyon Railway as a living history museum.In November 1869, four months after the driving of the “Golden Spike,” the last leg of the First Transcontinental Railroad was finally completed, connecting Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay. Cutting through Alameda County, the route took passengers through the Niles Canyon. Today, the Pacific Locomotive Association is preserving the heritage of the Niles Canyon Railway through restoration projects, museums and year-round train rides.

A 1927 steam engine pulls passengers through the Niles Canyon

Jim Evans, 61, is secretary for the PLA’s board of directors and has been involved with the organization since 1968. Evans said that all the equipment on the trains and in the train yard has been restored and saved from the scrap yard.

The organization is moving forward with plans to develop a rail museum in Niles that will be open seven days a week as well as ongoing work on the train tracks and equipment preservation. “Being all volunteers, it’s taken us a while to get everything together. The only revenue we get is from our donations,” said Evans.

Despite these hurdles, Evans said it is an appreciation for trains that keeps these volunteers committed to preserving this history and sharing it with others.

For Jennifer and Greg Kniss, it was the history that drew them to the tracks on Sunday afternoon. Visiting from Los Angeles, Jennifer Kniss, 48, read about the train rides on the Internet and decided it would be a perfect excursion on their way up to Napa. “I thought it would be a really cool thing to do because not a lot of people know that this is a piece of history in California,” she said.

Even some local residents do not know much about the railway. Sisters Irma Bonilla and Mayda Taylor grew up in the area. Taylor, 55, now lives in Placerville and is visiting Bonilla in Hayward. “We never rode the train then [growing up]. We never really paid attention to it. But it’s a nice thing to do on a Sunday afternoon,” said Taylor.

A desire to slow down and appreciate history is why Rachel Stanton brought her husband and their three daughters out to the tracks. The family has never ridden on an historic train before. For Stanton’s two youngest daughters, 8 and 5, this would be their very first train ride.

Engineer Dave Burla

“It’s good to sightsee. When you’re driving or riding BART or Amtrak, things are whizzing by you. I like the old-time feeling best and they’re all enjoying it,” said Stanton.

Developing a sense of appreciation for trains as a child is something David Loyola understands. Now 21, Loyola said that his parents used to take him all over California visiting different places. “One of the things that always stuck was trains,” he said.

Weaver has been a volunteer with the PLA for six years now and plans on continuing his involvement with historic trains. He spent six months working on historic trains in Utah and is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering.

Loyola said he is not just focused on the equipment. “What I like best are the people. The people you meet, the people that are here. I love stepping back in time and seeing what they used to do,” he said.

It is this feeling, along with the physical equipment, that the PLA is trying to preserve. Evans said that they expect the majority of their current projects to be completed within the next five years.

While the organization receives some assistance from groups such as the Niles Historic District, the success of these projects is largely dependent upon personal donations. As the holiday season grows closer, the PLA is gearing up for its biggest fundraising event of the year, the Train of Lights, beginning November 28th. Stanton said that her family would definitely be back for the event.

Visit the Niles Canyon Railway website for more information: www.ncry.org

Ed Frakes has been painting for over 50 years. Now 71, Frakes describes his life as an artist and explains the meaning behind some of his paintings in this audio slideshow.

For information about his art, upcoming shows and sales, contact Ed Frakes at: 510-794-1368

Since the age of 14, when he first picked up a guitar, Michael McNevin knew he wanted to be a musician. During his career, this singer-songwriter has opened for artists such as Johnny Cash and Richie Havens and produced four albums. But McNevin’s music is not his only form of artistic expression. When he’s not busy writing songs, he’s drawing detailed scenes of the events he sings about on…an Etch-a-Sketch.

The Etch-a-Sketch is a toy that has delighted and confounded children, and adults for over 50 years. With a thick red frame, users twist two white knobs that move a black line up and down or side to side on the screen. What seemed like magic as a child is actually a plastic screen coated with aluminum powder that is scrapped off by moving the knobs. Drawing with the tool is difficult because there is only one line that can be used to create the image and it cannot be broken. To start over, just shake the toy and the image is erased.

As a child, McNevin said that the Etch-a-Sketch was one of his favorite toys, and he drew on it frequently. After seeing that he was able to create curves in his scribbles, McNevin began to challenge himself.

“I remember thinking, if curves can be done accidentally, they could be done on purpose if I could figure out how,” he said.

McNevin said he spent much of his free time as a child teaching himself how to draw curves and diagonals on the toy  until it came naturally to him. Despite having taught himself this unique skill, McNevin said that he did not have a strong “artistic eye” and mostly drew cartoons.

But as he grew older, his interest in the Etch-a-Sketch waned. It was not until McNevin was well into his music career that he would revisit this childhood passion.

In the mid-1990s, when McNevin was not touring, he was living alone in a cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. One afternoon, an old high school friend visited and convinced McNevin to help him look for a toy he had as a child.

While McNevin was walking through the aisles of the store, he saw the Etch-a-Sketch.

“Here he was looking for his old childhood toy that he wanted to find and I ended up going home with mine too,” said McNevin.

From that moment on, McNevin started drawing again and his sketches became increasingly complex. His long road trips on tour provided ample time to practice his art.

Even though friends would compliment his Etch-a-Sketch drawings, McNevin said, “I didn’t think anything of it.” While he was stopped in St. Louis as part of a five-week tour, he did a drawing of the Gateway Arch and a fellow songwriter took a picture of it. After the photo was developed, McNevin realized he could capture and distribute his images through prints, much like other artists do.

McNevin erased the St. Louis drawing and headed to Wisconsin for another concert. While there, he drew a scene of a local bar.

“I drove 2,000 miles with that drawing, lying flat in the bed of my truck,” he said.

During those 2,000 miles, McNevin stopped to play concerts in half a dozen other states and continued to draw and take pictures of his sketches. In Hastings, Nebraska, a local gallery owner saw McNevin’s sketches and put pictures of them up in his gallery. At his next concert in Salt Lake City, McNevin said, “People offered to buy the drawings, the matted photos. I thought, wow. Ok.”

When McNevin returned home from the road trip, he wrote the songs that would become his “Sketch” album and decided to illustrate the lyrics with sketches. “At that point, the concept for a record that had art going with it had kind of surfaced,” he said.

Inside McNevin’s small and cluttered music shop, The Mudpuddle, over a dozen Etch-a-Sketch drawings are mounted on the wall. Next to a rack of his CDs are full-sized glossy prints of his sketches that he sells.

McNevin’s artwork has extended beyond the music scene. A photo of one of his sketches, an image of a little league baseball game, hung in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. for one year. The song he wrote that accompanies the sketch is now in the Hall of Fame’s baseball song collection and he had the opportunity to play several concerts there.

McNevin is moving forward on recording a new music album and plans to start touring again. While he said that the days of five-week road trips are over, he still plans to continue using the Etch-a-Sketch to document his adventures and hopes to add more images to his collection.

To learn more about McNevin and hear some of his music visit his website: www.michaelmcnevin.com

Copper metal has become the new gold standard in the underground economy.

Fremont and other East Bay cities have seen a dramatic increase in copper theft, especially since the commodity has risen above $3 a pound.

Fremont Police Detective Bill Veteran said the theft of copper and other metals has reached epidemic proportions, and said he believes most of the offenders in the Tri-City area are drug addicts.

“With any dope abuser, they need money and they need it quick,” said Veteran, who’s been an officer for 23 years. “It’s really a crime of opportunity and the reason I think they’re stealing is because the chance of confrontation with somebody is pretty remote.”

The Fremont Police Department does not keep official records documenting the number of thefts involving stolen metals, or the number of arrests made in association with stolen metals. But Veteran said the department gets several calls a week from people reporting stolen copper, aluminum and brass objects.

Miguel Belasquez, a foreman with MCON Construction, removes partially destroyed copper wires from the Niles Square housing development. Belasquez said thieves have targeted the site on numerous occasions, targeting higher priced metals like copper.

“(They) can steal 20-pound brass fittings and it’s a lot more profitable than picking up aluminum cans and recycling them,” Veteran said. “So (copper and brass) is unfortunately becoming a commodity of choice.”

Veteran said locals have reported sewer covers, metal plaques, sculptures and even a copper urn stolen from area properties.

According to Veteran, the most popular target for metal thieves are construction sites.

Todd Jegglie, a superintendent with Standard Pacific Homes, has been laboring on the 40-unit Niles Square housing development in Fremont for more than two years.

In that time, Jegglie said Niles Square, featuring $500,000 three-bedroom homes, has been hit by thieves on six different occasions, the last theft occurring two weeks ago.

Thieves are attracted to Niles Square because each residential unit contains about $4,000 in copper wire and plumbing.

“It’s incredibly frustrating for us,” Jegglie said. “(Thieves) will rip the whole house apart, even when families (are) ready to close in on a housing deal in two weeks.”

Jegglie said the problem of metal theft has forced construction workers and developers to think creatively in hiding expensive construction material, including burying metal products a foot underground. Some developers have also installed cameras on site or hired security guards.

However, Jegglie said security officers cost more than $8,000 a month and would not be economical for smaller developments like Niles Square.

“It’s going to continue regardless,” Jegglie said. “(Thieves) know there’s money (in stealing metal) and there’s no way of stopping them.”

Nationwide, theft of copper and other metals is estimated to cost $1 billion a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Despite the growing problem, few have solutions in curtailing metal theft.

Officer Veteran said despite the epidemic, police departments can’t devote time and resources to a crime that is hard to solve since material often doesn’t have tracking numbers.

“It’s not an extremely high priority for us,” Veteran said. “We don’t have five or 6 detectives chasing down copper wire.

“If something is unique enough, we’ll go investigate it. But it’s tough, because you can’t tell what’s stolen.”

It costs approximately $300 for 100-feet of copper wire. The Niles Square development has about $4,000 of copper in each residential unit, making it and similar sites, popular for metal bandits.

Veteran and Jegglie agree recycling facilities need to be more cautious in purchasing stolen metals from thieves.

Richard Valle, president of Tri-CED community recycling in Union City, decided the only way to avoid purchasing metal which may have been stolen.

“In previous years, we got material from homeowners or contractors in small quantities,” said Valle, who has owned Tri-CED since 1980. “Then about five years ago, people began bringing in huge quantities and their stories didn’t make sense.

Valle said people often turned in spools of unused copper, and to him, it was a sign that the metal was stolen.

“We got out (of buying metals) because we didn’t want to be in the business of buying stolen goods.”

But, for some East Bay residents, selling metals legally is how they put food on the table or fill their gas tanks.

Fremont resident Charlie Miller, 60, scavenges the city for aluminum products, looking for cans, chairs, hub caps and other material.

Miller, who is disabled, said he uses the money to fill up his gas tank, which costs about $30.

“I don’t make nothing,” said Miller, of recycling aluminum. “Just enough to pay for my gas.”

But even in the underground world of metal scavenging, Miller knows the value of copper.

“Copper is like gold.”

Listen to the radio story

In the heart of Fremont’s historic Niles District, the Essanay Café is a go-to place for fine dining and good wine. But on the first Tuesday of each month, the café swaps out its china with paper plates, for what owner Bruce Cates has themed, the “Recession Dinner.”

Cates said that the idea for the dinner came about when he was talking to some friends about how the economic crisis is affecting their spending habits. While Cates said he prides himself in the high quality food and atmosphere at the café, the slowing economy was putting a strain on customer’s discretionary income making them less likely to come in. He said the “Recession Dinner” was a way for him to give back to the community.

“Basically it’s just to offer good quality, fresh, home cooking style food, good comfort food, at a reasonable price. Basically a break-even price, should I get enough people in here toe warrant the thing,” said Cates. He then chucked and said he would be subsidizing October’s meal because attendance was lower than usual.

October’s dinner also fell on the same day as the second presidential debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. As with the two previous debates, the café was a place for local residents to gather, eat and watch.

During the previous vice-presidential debate, Cates said the turnout was high. “I had boo hiss signs made up to keep people civil, but nobody even used them. Everybody was completely quiet like they are tonight,” he said.

Cates did not make up any signs for the debate on October 8th, and people stared at the large projector screen in silence, with the occasional snicker or sigh.

Local artist Ed Frakes said he felt the debate did not address anything new. “It seemed like a rerun. It doesn’t seem to have changed from the last debate,” he said.

There were others, such as Lydia Azvedo, who said the debate was not boring at all. Azvedo remembers a time before reruns and before television. She had already voted in four presidential elections when the first televised presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy was aired.

Azvedo said that the Obama McCain debate was more like a reality television show. “I kind of wish that McCain had lost his cool because I was waiting for him to blow his stack,” said Azvedo.

Beyond just televised theatrics, several diners at the Essanay Café said that the problems in the U.S. are a rerun of the past and they are worried about the future.

Cates, a veteran of the Vietnam War, said the country needs to shift away from a policy of aggression towards one of mediation. He said that the mentality of being either “with us or against us” has never helped anybody and has only made things worse.

Cates compared these divisive tactics to schoolyard fights: “I remember as a kid, kids would get in a fight and they’d draw a line in the sand and say, ‘Cross that line and I’ll knock your head off.’ Instead of going up and saying, ‘What’s going on here? What can’t we work this out?’”

While the war in Iraq has been compared to the one in Vietnam, Azvedo looked back even further. She has lived through several wars in her 79 years. As a child, Azvedo said her father would tell her stories about his time in the Marines and sailing around the world as part of the “Great White Fleet,” which was supposed to end all wars.

“Before, we didn’t have things like atom bombs. So I’m getting worried,” said Azvedo, “And the thing they’re talking about – 10 years – A war that has no end. I mean for god sakes. That’s what’s bothering me.”

Cates said he believes that the war in Iraq that is the primary cause of the current economic crisis that has him struggling to stay in business. Cates said that he is looking at backup plans, should he be unable to keep the restaurant open, but he is not willing to give up. “I put a lot of money, a lot of effort and heart into this place,” he said.

Despite his economic hardships, Cates said he will continue to provide the “Recession Dinners” during these difficult times, but is changing the name to the “Depression Dinner.”

He said that this election is an important turning point for the nation and he is trying to stay positive: “I always have hope that common sense will prevail. Who knows though?”

Visit the Essanay Cafe website: www.essanaycafe.com

Fremont’s Niles community — a historic, quaint and close-knit neighborhood — proved once again that it is not afraid to show some flare, after residents held the 10th annual Pink Flamingo Pee-Wee Golf Classic. The “wacky and tacky” event raised over $2,000 for the Niles Main Street non-profit association.

In 1998, Laurie Manuel and Julianne Pagan were drinking coffee and discussing new fundraising activities for Niles Main St.

“One of my clients told me about a charity event he went to where someone set up a game of putt putt golf in their house,” said Manuel, who runs a mortgage company and is a life-long resident of Niles.

After a little bit of brainstorming, the two women decided to run with the idea. “We thought, gee, maybe we can do that in Niles and instead use people’s yards and businesses,” said Pagan, who works in special education in the Fremont Unified School District and was also born and raised in Niles.

The two “Nilegians” (a name bestowed upon long term Niles residents) rounded up volunteers and decided to call the event the Pink Flamingo Pee-Wee Golf Classic.

“It started out as a joke. I thought pink flamingos were tacky. People put them on their lawns and you just think, how cheesy. But now I really like them,” said Pagan, as she adjusted her giant purple beehive wig, adorned with curlers and a “nesting” stuffed pink flamingo.

But Nancy Haylock, who serves on the Niles Main St. board and co-chairs the event with Pagan, said that pink flamingos are no longer seen as tacky in Niles.

“The merchants have pink flamingo themes in their windows. So it permeates not just the neighborhood but also the downtown area,” said Haylock, who wore a black button-down shirt covered with images of pink flamingos and palm trees.

Pink flamingos even made their way into Main St. art. Across from where the new plaza is being built, a mural of Charlie Chaplin (who filmed his first movie in Niles) sitting on a park bench covers the brick wall. Behind Chaplin are three pink flamingos.

Beyond flamingos, the golf classic serves as a way for neighbors to get to know each other better.

“We do eight holes of golf and the ninth hole is the ‘Watering Hole,’ where there’s food and refreshment and we give out awards. We like to spread the holes out over several blocks so it doesn’t wrap up really fast,” said Haylock.

Each of the eight holes has a different theme; residents construct these theme-holes on their front yards. The themes for this year’s holes ranged from the Halloween inspired “Un-Hole-y” to the Niles elementary school’s “Physic-Hole Education” and the Mexican flavored “The Hole Enchilada.”

In attempt to make use of some old car parts he had lying around, Bruce Frisbey and his two children came up with their “Gas-Hole-ine” hole.

“We’re trying to teach a bit about the environment as well. So each ball represents used oil and you have to put it in the proper ‘dispos-Hole’,” said Frisbey, dressed in a blue mechanic’s uniform, leaning against a 1951 Gilbarco gas pump.

The strong sense of community is one reason residents are attracted to Niles.

“It’s not exactly Norman Rockwell but it has that feel. It’s just so neighborly. That’s the feel we have in Niles and that’s what I think most people like about it,” said Haylock.

This “feel” is what drew Oonagh Lanigan and her husband to Fremont when they left Ireland 17 years ago.

“I love the quaintness of Niles. One of the things that drew me to this area is that it reminds me of where I come from. I love the fact that everybody knows everyone,” said Lanigan, as she putted through the “Hole-aween” course with her daughter Molly.

The designers of the “Hole-aween” course, Lori and Lowell Thomas, decided to construct a hole this year at the urging of their seven-year-old daughter Caroline.

“The last couple of years we’ve been walking around with the kids playing golf and they enjoy it. We try to do different community activities and this is something that’s a community minded activity that supports the community and the people here,” said Lori Thomas, dressed as an angel in a long white dress with silver wings and a silver halo.

Aside from just community strengthening, the event also raises money for the Niles Main St. non-profit organization. Al Cunha, president of the organization and a local business owner, said events like the golf classic are important for helping Niles Main St.

“The organization is really focused on taking care of historic preservation in town and pulling the community together. Anything we can possibly do to help out the community we do,” said Cunha.

While Niles is focused on community building, it does not isolate itself from the rest of Fremont.

“We welcome everyone to Niles,” said Cunha. This was evident at the golf classic: Fremont City Councilwoman Anu Natarajan golfed her way through the eight holes with her two young daughters. Mayor Bob Wasserman, a sponsor of the event, showed up at the “Watering Hole” and briefly talked to residents.

An image of Niles as quintessential Normal Rockwell or quirky Charlie Chaplin is not mutually exclusive. As Manuel said, “We’re just a little odd and we like it that way.”

For more information about Niles and upcoming events visit their website: www.niles.org

]]> http://510report.org/2008/10/05/niles-pee-wee-golf-tournament/feed/ 0