By Harry Stoll

Wine, dine, and unwind where the river flows, food arrives, glasses clink and everything clicks. Humphrey’s on the Delta is a haven from screeching brakes, honking and sirens, as you hear the sirens sing, “Take me to the river.”

For that first date, charm her or him, arrive here, with the light bouncing off the river in daylight or darkness, singing, “Night and day, you are the one”— ocean-going ships going to and from the ocean, their prows sending a vee shoreward — massed masts of the sailboats in the neighboring marina — the islands always greener on the other side. The wood tables and paneled walls gleam with a heavenly ebony hue, and the table settings are first rate.

Many first dates here result in a marriage, often right here. The banquet room holds 300 guests in its capaciousness.

Or it could be with your steady date, old friends or new acquaintances. Or a family reunion. Or a corporate event, or a glass of wine at the full bar while you avoid thinking about what it all means, and enjoy the momentousness of the venue with the river at your door and the sun saying goodbye in the silky evening air enveloping you.

This grandly-appointed place, was built by William Pelusi, who is fond of cetaceans. He owns San Leandro’s Blue Dolphin and named Humphrey’s after the humpback whale that got lost from his pod and went up river, passing Antioch in 1985 and 1991. See a wood carving of Humphrey as you approach the door and other water creature sculptures on an interior wall.

Eva Romero and her family bought the restaurant in 1995. They leased it out with an option to buy in 2009, but are now back in the swim, only recently re-opening. Eva, son Beto and daughter Cindy run things, and they are ecstatic about their return.

Jesse Zuniga, center, and family enjoy Mother's Day Brunch at Humphrey's.

To herald their return, the Romeros guarantee you only mouth-watering dishes, treats, and specials to leave you craving more. The menu includes plenty of beef — prime rib, filet mignon, New York cuts — and you can cry fowl with a variety of seafood.

Hours: Monday through Thursdays from 11 a.m to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The parking is free in the generous-size lot. Humphrey’s on the Delta is at the Antioch Marina, 1 Marina Plaza, off of West Second Street near the scenic downtown. For lunch and dinner reservations call 925-778-5800. The Catering/Wedding Coordinator can be reached at 925-777-2065. The fax is 925-778-8304. E-mail humphreys.delta@yahoo.com or visit www.humphreys-antioch.com.

Local artist Evaline Webb, a former art teacher for the Antioch recreation department, who was well-known for her artworks depicting Antioch and surrounding areas in the 1970s-90s, will be honored in memoriam with an exhibit at the Lynn House Gallery, June 4th – 25th. A reception will be held on June 4th, from 2-4 PM. Both the exhibit and the reception are free.

Evaline had a great love for art and was well known for her watercolors. She was active in her community; she co-founded the Delta Art Association in Antioch and was an honorary life member of the PTA. Many of her works of art can be found in Antioch homes and businesses. Her distinctive style and her ability to capture local scenery made her artwork popular. She also created the Antioch Historical Society logo, which is still used today.

Included in the exhibit will be artworks from former Delta Art Association members, Shirley Smith Diethelm, Nordyn Anderson, Kirby, Celia Huddleston, Kathleen Henderson, and Frances Rodriquez.

The Lynn House Gallery, 809 West First Street, is located in the Rivertown District (downtown Antioch) and is open Wednesdays and Saturdays, 1-4 PM. For more information visit http://art4antioch.org/Evaline_Webb_2011.asp, email Diane@Art4Antioch.org or call (925) 325-9897.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) are widening Highway 4 through Pittsburg and Antioch. As part of this construction work, the contractor for the Loveridge Road project needs to close all lanes on eastbound State Route 4 at Loveridge Road for several hours in the early morning for approximately four more weeks.

The work began Monday, May 2, 2011 and was expected to continue through May 20, 2011. After completing two weeks of the work, it has been determined that the contractor will not be able to complete the work until mid-June. This work is to ensure public and crew safety while crews are working to install rebar cages for the bridge structure at Loveridge Road.

The highway closure is taking place Monday through Friday beginning at 12:30 a.m. and continuing to 5:30 a.m. Eastbound Highway 4 at the Loveridge Road undercrossing will be closed to all traffic. The detour will be as follows: motorists will be directed off the highway at Loveridge Road and immediately back on the highway at the eastbound on ramp from Loveridge Road. Work may be rescheduled if there is inclement weather.

During the same time, the loop on ramp to eastbound Highway 4 from southbound Loveridge Road will be closed as well. The detour for this closure will be as follows: motorists will drive south on Loveridge Road, turn left on Leland Road, continue on to Delta Fair Boulevard, turn left on Somersville Road, then right on to Highway 4 east.

Motorists are advised to expect delays and allow extra time for their commute. Please drive cautiously through the detour and leave a safe traveling distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you. Caltrans and CCTA appreciate your patience as we work to improve the highways.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) are widening State Route 4 (SR-4) through Pittsburg and Antioch. As part of this construction work, the contractor will be closing a portion of Century Boulevard in Pittsburg and Antioch where it crosses under SR-4 for approximately two months.

This closure will allow for widening of the bridge to accommodate the highway widening as well as eBART in the median.

The closure is expected to begin the week of May 23, 2011. During this phase of construction the undercrossing will be closed to all vehicular, bike, and pedestrian traffic. Detours will be in place with signs to direct traffic around the work site. Please see attached map for detours. The work is estimated to be completed by the end of July, 2011.

Life should always have such ‘problems.’ After the dust was settled on the recent Antioch Community Center build out at Prewett Park, 1.7 million dollars is left in the kitty. For that, thank the competitive bidding process in a moribund construction climate. $26 million was allocated but only $24 million spent. Next step, then, what to do with the windfall? For sure, we will work diligently to try and leverage the remainder with grants and matching corporate funds.

Count Antioch, by the way, as historically having hit bingo twice on Mello Roos construction. The bond payoff was originally projected to end by roughly 2026, but the first phase, the completion of Deer Valley High, Dallas Ranch and Black Diamond Middle, and five elementary schools met with both better than expected interest rates and likewise favorable state matching funds. Dallas Ranch, for example, a $29 million construction project, received 9.2 million dollars back from the state.

I am proud to say that I and the Board majority stuck to our fiscally prudent guns. It voted to use that manna from heaven returned for the schools not to do additional city projects at Prewett but, instead, to pay down the debt early, leaving a 2016 date. The question, with some, then arises as to why we don’t use this latest boon to even further accelerate the Bond payoff. Legalities and voter commitments step into the picture, though, and inhibit our overriding a mandate.

In 1989 the voters agreed to tax themselves on this special property tax.The commitment was to build the eight schools and to spend 50 million dollars on city capital improvement at Prewett. The City had a Master Plan that envisioned a water park, library, hiking trails, community center and so forth. It is the City Council decision what to build; the Mello-Roos Citizen Advisory Board merely has oversight over the allocated budget expenditures.

So where do we now sit? Unarguably, we’ve got 8 gorgeous schools, a water park and now the recent amphitheatre, city hall kiosk, community room, gymnasium, library annex, preschool classrooms, technology center, police substation, and burrowing owl habitat.

For perspective, let me share last week’s tour of a film crew from CBS-Channel 5. I am pleased to say the reception was enthusiastic. The reporter remarked on the natural beauty of the facility, which sublimely blends into the hills, and a liveliness which she expressed that she rarely sees at other community centers.

Indeed, Prewett was abuzz with activity that day and is already proving itself a valued community hub. As the real estate market starts to rebound, it is our hope that this civic touchstone will attract buyers to the area and positively affect prices.

Fact is, we have most of what was originally schemed. Granted, there is no lake or garden walking trails; nor is there, yet, the grand 30,000 square-foot library we hoped for. That, though, may be a blessing as staffing such a facility would have been a pickle given current times. As offset, we have built the facility so that potential add-on will be easy. When the state gets back on its feet they will invariably restart long deferred library construction, which, historically, they pay 2/3 costs of. Remember, we lost sponsoring by a hair’s breadth and should be next in line for funding come future go around.

Though we can’t dictate what to do with the money, the Mello-Roos Board eagerly wants to share citizen input with the City Fathers. To date, some ideas circulated include athletic turf fields, a BMX Park, doggie park, expanded library extension, electronic marquee, lazy river pool feature, and nature trails.

We intend to structure varied public feedback opportunities and welcome you to our next meeting July 11th, 7 p.m., at 510 G Street. You can also drop a note by City Hall or the Community Center or e-mail me at walter.ruehlig@gmail.com.

The Community Center adds another crown jewel to Antioch, alongside the likes of the Black Diamond Mines, San Joaquin River, El Campanil Theatre, and the Antioch Historical Museum. The next jewel in the tiara will be an occasion to further rejoice.

Walter Ruehlig
President, Antioch Mello Roos Citizen’s Advisory Board

I just read a column written by Samuel Walton and Michelle Romero, dated February 15, 2011 and published in an independent, Southern California newspaper, the Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley Journal, regarding this year’s redistricting process and felt it necessary to respond to the vitriolic diatribe.

The commentary contained some seriously egregious, fallacious allegations, full of fear tactics. For example, one statement made is: “State legislatures in many states have used redistricting to minimize and/or deny racial and ethnic minorities their right to representation. They do this by drawing lines through a given community to disable that group’s collective voting power, or by packing them into as few districts as possible to ensure their voice is small in Sacramento and Washington. In these cases, we end up not much better off than when we didn’t have the right to vote at all.”

While that may have happened in the past in other states, and perhaps might still, unfortunately be happening this year, can the writers cite when the last time it was done in California?

The writers then stated “In California, Propositions 11 and 20 recognized the abuses by the California Legislature and reassigned the responsibility for legislative and congressional redistricting to an independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.”

That was not the reason those propositions were written. It was because of the gaming by the Democrat majority over the Republican minority and all other minor parties in this state, to gerrymander districts to pack as many Republicans into as few districts as possible to ensure their voice is small in Sacramento and Washington.

For example, the 1981 redistricting process, Bruce Cain, the U.C. Berkeley professor and co-owner of Q2, the contractor that the Commission hired this year, (although he was specifically required to be separated from his partner, Karin MacDonald, and prevented from being involved in their company’s work during the process), was brought in by the Democrat leadership to draw lines to minimize the number of Republicans in the State Legislature.

It was only in 1991 that we had a fair redistricting, in the time I’ve been voting. That was because Governor Wilson, whether you like him or not, vetoed the Democrats’ gerrymandered redistricting plan and the responsibility to redraw the new district lines was handed off to three retired judges know as “the Three Masters”.

But, then the Democrats in the legislature drew some seriously gerrymandered districts again, in 2001 and Governor Grey Davis signed it into law. Just look at the current map of State Assembly, State Senate and Congressional districts. They’re ridiculous in their shapes, with one that looks like a seahorse and others like a Rorschach test.

Prop’s 11 and 20 are all about letting the people choose their representatives, not the other way around and the Commission agrees. They all nodded their heads in agreement when I made that statement at their hearing on February 26 in Sacramento. Yes, the criteria in Prop 11 contains the criteria that the new districts “Comply with Federal Voting Rights Act” , which ranks second in order, that’s only one of six criteria, which also includes (in rank order): 1. Equal Population, 3. District Contiguity, 4. Keep cities, communities and neighborhoods intact as much as possible, 5. Compactness, 6. Nesting (applies to State Assembly inside Senate Districts).

The column then made an even more outlandish, fear-based statement: “Think about what might happen to our communities if we were to be silenced again. If low and moderate income voters were silenced, politicians could stop funding public education, affordable housing, or social services altogether.”

In California? Does anyone seriously believe that?

Then the icing on the cake was the writers’ statement: “Or imagine what could happen to Latinos if their communities were divided and their votes no longer counted. We could have an Arizona-style ‘papers please’ law in a heartbeat, turning anyone who looks ‘foreign’ into second-class citizens. Or perhaps politicians’ pandering to public fear would have them all put into concentration camps. That may sound far-fetched, but it actually happened to Japanese Americans during World War II.”

Like they say during the “Weekend Update” segment of Saturday Night Live – Really? I mean really? In California, where no racial group has a majority?

As a member of my local NAACP branch, I recognize there are still challenges facing both the black community and other racial minorities, today that need watchdogs and vigilance. But what was written in that column is not the kind of baseless argument that’s needed to rally those of us concerned about fair representation, and equal rights and opportunity. Providing people with the facts, not false fear, is the way to responsibly get people involved.

So, be involved in the redistricting process, this year, to ensure the number one voting principle of our democratic republic is respected, and that is “one person, one vote” which is why equal population is the top criteria in the process. But, let’s also ensure the VRA is respected as well as the rest of the criteria from the propositions that we the people passed.

For more information, please read the RedistrictingCA Pocket Guide which can be downloaded from their site at http://www.redistrictingca.org/more-info/ It’s published by an Alliance of non-profit organizations funded by The James Irvine Foundation to ensure the 2011 redistricting is fair and inclusive. The 12 organizations are: Asian Pacific American Legal Center, California Common Cause, California NAACP, Center for Governmental Studies, Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, League of Women Voters of California, Los Angeles Urban League, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, Rose Institute of State and Local Government, Statewide Database at Berkeley, and the Greenlining Institute.

To read the entire column, click here.

For more information on the state redistricting process visit www.wedrawthelines.com.

Allen Payton, Publisher

Chairman, Contra Costa Citizens Redistricting Task Force

Come Sunday, May 29th to 3351 Contra Loma Blvd., Antioch and join the St. Ignatius Antioch Church Fil-Am Society in celebrating the colorful Santacruzan. This most famous of Filipino festivals honors the Blessed Mother Mary and re-enacts the finding of the Holy Cross by St. Helena.

Celebrate a splendid Mass at 3 p.m., a grand procession at 4:15, followed by free and delicious cultural food and spirited entertainment. For information contact Clarita Perez at (925) 759-4488.