[ Metro | News Index | Metroactive Central | Archives ]

Metropolis

News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods Strawberry Fields Forever A 'new and improved' union has divided strawberry pickers in Watsonville, and some say the funding for it has come straight from agribusiness. Penny Pincher Palo Alto--Another Way, a nonprofit organization that has placed "Spare Change" canisters in area stores--urging shoppers to contribute to homeless programs instead of panhandlers--is now urging merchants to check the identification of anyone claiming to be a volunteer. Police, meanwhile, are searching for a man suspected of posing as an Another Way volunteer, and absconding with cans containing perhaps hundreds of dollars in coins destined for the homeless. Capital 'G' That Rhymes With 'B' Willow Glen--This Friday the 13th, John Karamanos has good reason to feel lucky. Not only has his newly renamed establishment, The Glen, passed the one-year mark, but he's also gained something he has long sought--a permit to pour drinks until 2am. One key to his success: getting away from the negative associations of the word "Billiards." Small Town's Hope Alviso--Just before last week's County Planning Commission meeting, Ruben Orozco gloomily predicted that the Alviso Master Plan would probably "sail right through," inundating this bayside town under a deluge of development. Following the meeting, he said he was "crossing all [his] fingers" and hoping for the best. The commission appears poised to make changes in the plan, to give some concessions to area residents and environmental activists. Pryor Convictions Santa Cruz--The old adage proves true: once a wife-beating Satanist, always a wife-beating Satanist. Eric Pryor--the subject of an article in last week's Metro, in which he claimed to have flitted from Satanism to evangelical Christianity to New Age shamanism--has stepped out of his trademark black and into Santa Cruz County Detention Center orange. Soon after spinning the press, Pryor indulged in an old habit: threatening to kill people. [ Metro | Metroactive Central | Archives ]