Lenore Wilkas

Upon hearing the news that Tom Lantos had died this week a blanket of great sadness engulfed San Mateo County. Congressman Lantos represented our district in Washington, DC for almost 28 years and he was a really important figure to all of us. He will be greatly missed by his constituents and by his colleagues in Congress. His courage, his outspokenness, and his deep caring of those without a voice will be lost forever from the halls of Congress. He leaves very big shoes to fill.

Even prior to the news that Lantos was suffering from cancer, there was a lot of movement about a serious challenge for his seat in Congress. Many people felt it was time for a new voice and when Jackie Spier starting showing interest in running against Lantos, many felt it would be a good thing to have a strong challenger run against him in June. In January, when Lantos announced that he had cancer, Jackie Spier came forward and said she was going to run for his seat with Tom's blessings.

Now, with the death of our beloved Congressman, we anticipate seeing former State Senator Jackie Spier, a very courageous woman who too has known suffering, will stand where Lantos once did and represent San Mateo County in Congress. The formality of a special election is needed but once it has been set and taken place, we will see the next phase of representation for our County by a strong advocate for our rights and freedoms. Although her feet are smaller than Tom's, we hope to see her fill his shoes one day.

San Mateo County has been especially blessed with some amazing Congressional representatives during the past three decades. From Congressman Leo Ryan, who was tragically murdered while on a fact-finding trip for Congress to Congressman Tom Lantos we were well served by strong and intelligent representatives and now we're on to the next chapter. His voice may have been silenced but his memory and hard work for those disenfranchised in the world had not ended.

May his memory be inscribed in The Book of Life.

I had coffee the other day with Mike Lanza, a fellow who has developed a website specifically looking for neighborhoods around North America that still have children playing outside in front of their homes. His website is called Playborhood. Mike has had a hard time finding any neighborhoods in the town he lives in, Palo Alto, and it got me to thinking. How often do we see kids playing outside any more?

I posed a question to some of my friends with school aged children on whether they allowed their kids to play outside and they said yes, with some supervison. They told me about a couple of areas in San Mateo that regularly have kids out after school and on weekends. I see this in many areas of Foster City, too, but Foster City is designed to have kids play in the many parks that sit behind homes. Kind of a private park for the neighborhood with access from all of the backyards lining the park. Very cool.

When my sons were around 7 or 8 they were out on their bikes with groups of other boys, roaming around the neighborhood. We don't see much of this anymore on the Peninsula and I think the kids are losing out on a significant way for them to grow and mature. Why is everyone so afraid of giving their children a little freedom? Is it the times or are parents over protective today? Does news media and their constant blasting of negative news get reflected in this?

If you have kids, do you let them run around the neighborhood playing with their friends? If not, why not? I'll pass your comments on to Mike because I know he's very invested in finding those hidden neighborhoods with lots of kids outside. But, better yet, you can go directly to his website, Playborhood, and tell him yourself. He's holding informational meetings around the area discussing this very thing.

If you live in a neighborhood that has lots of kids running around in play, please let us know about it. While you're at it, tell me the ages of the kids playing outside. It's helpful information for all of us to know great family neighborhoods. It appears that these are becoming endangered species around here. What a loss for all of us!

It happens every year. Parents lining up, sleeping bags in hand, wine and food being passed, a jolly good time be had by all, except this is for a coveted space in the 2008 Kindergarten class at San Mateo's Baywood School. Registration doesn't even begin until February 1st, which is this Friday. The line up began last night and parents are desperate to get their children into the local school with too few places for new kindergarteners.

It has become such a spectacle that the local television stations come down from San Francisco to shoot the story and air it. I do not think there is another public school in the US that has this happen. People spend a lot of money to buy a home near Baywood School. Baywood, Baywood Knolls, and Aragon are among the most expensive areas in San Mateo. Baywood Elementary School is the best school, by scores, inthe city of San Mateo, so people want to live near it. But is it worth all of this?

Baywood School was remodeled several years ago but the one thing the San Mateo/Foster City School District did not do was project ahead for the need for additional classroom space by adding a second story to the school. Therefore, this line up of parents takes place annually! Crazy but true.

The district has done one nice thing for this group of parents, due to the cold and wet weather, they have allowed them to record the number they are sitting in line and will hold their place, allowing them to go home to a nice warm bed tonight and tomorrow night. They can then resume their line up on Friday morning, at the crack of dawn.

Two parents thought ahead on this. They came with rental campers, ready to sleep in comfort while taking turns with others to hold their spot. Lucky that they didn't need to use this technique. My bet is we will see more than two campers sitting in front of Baywood a year from now if the school district doesn't come up with another way to do this.

I saw my first blossoms out today while driving up Truesdale Blvd. in Burlingame. I always get excited when I see them, and today it was the Tulip Magnolia popping out in flower. Wow, it's the middle of January and spring flowers are beginning to come out and it's one of my very favorite trees in blossom first, too.

For those of you living in other parts of the country, this is not unusual. It is not because of Global Warming. It is quite normal for our part of the world. In fact, I expect to see more blossoms on trees within the next couple of weeks, and then the first of the bulbs will sprout.

I think those of us who are native to California, and the San Francisco area, don't realize how unusual this is to the rest of the world. Our temperate climate allows us green grass 12 months a year. Snow falling on the ground is rare, in fact, it hasn't snowed here since 1976. Sure, the hills get dustings annually, but on the ground around here? Nah, that's rare.

If you're looking out your window and seeing a lot of snow, and dealing with below zero weather, think of us. While we shiver in 48 degree weather, you'd think that was balmy. We complain of cold weather because it's not what the temperature tells us, it's the fact that we have a damp bone penetrating cold, that is felt deep inside of us and we shiver. So, stop laughing, okay?

Remember, we see spring flowers months before the rest of the country. Add this to one of the reasons the Peninsula is one of the best places on earth to live.