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Michael Fitzgerald
Mike Fitzgerald is The Record’s award-winning metro columnist. His column runs in the paper three times a week. Born in San Francisco, he was raised in Stockton. His column covers diverse beats including, sometimes, the offbeat. Read FullCategories
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Latest Tweets
- Just passed a low-rider pickup on the Crosstown Freeway, custom painted and pinstriped. A rear-window decal read, "Praise the Lowered." 2009-11-11
- Moving to a new address on the blogosphere: http://bit.ly/1Sft50. See you there. 2009-10-22
- Recession Chronicles: Maxim's restaurant, which beat City Hall in court over dancing, closed today. More on my blog at recordnet.com/blogs. 2009-10-12
- Prison hospital scoop, inside info on the Stocktoberfest cross-up and giant tunnel-boring machines on my blog, recordnet.com/blogs. 2009-10-12
- A state assemblyman says the Peripheral Canal will be big enough for cruise ships. My light bulb moment in Friday's column at recordnet.com. 2009-10-01
- More updates...
Posting tweet...
Monthly Archives: June 2008
A new site for the Asparagus Festival?
Friday’s news quoted NASA officials, who have analyzed Martian soil data, saying Mars’ soil could grow asparagus.
The Phoenix spacecraft disgorged a lander with an 8-foot robotic arm. The arm scooped a teensy cube of soil and found it to be more alkaline than was believed.
“You might be able to grow asparagus very well,” said a [...]
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New watering hole opens on California Street
“I can’t dance,” confesses Donnie Melendez (at right in the photo, below). “I have no rhythm. So when my wife and I go out, this is the kind of place we look for.”
Donnie and his wife Tara recently opened The Elbow Room, a hip, classy bar at, 511 N. California Street. That is the [...]
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Mystery food caught on film!
When I expressed bewilderment in today’s column about the mystery food in senior meals, this is what I was talking about.
To quote the column: “A beef patty, unless it is pork. Orange potato cubes, unless they are yams, unless they are carrots.” Anybody care to guess?
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Light at the end of the tunnel?
A California investment company has bought up 160 acres of north Stockton residential land. Now, that’s what they call “patient money.”
“We made this investment with the intent to be patient,” a company exec says. “When demand for new single family housing in the area returns, the property will be positioned to capture that demand.” [...]
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Thoughts on a new schools chief
The selection of Kansas City school chief Anthony Amato to head Stockton Unified reminds me of the time I interviewed two Franklin High seniors at my work station.
At the end of the interview, I asked one of the young men to spell his name. He balked. We sat through an awkward pause. Then the other [...]
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Buy your own damn coffee mugs
The 2007-8 grand jury spanked San Joaquin Regional Transit for wasting tax dollars. Like transit chief Donna Kelsay’s purchase of 40 lidded coffee mugs.
Kelsay gave the mugs to employees so no klutzes would spill coffee on her pretty new transit center. The cost was “under $500.”
Other therapeutic shopping included $8,790 worth of movie tickets, [...]
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Ways to save the trees abound
While Stockton lets its trees die, Sacramento does this.
It’s frustrating. It’s not like Stockton tree officials need to trek to Katmandu to find effective programs that allow a city’s urban forest to flourish. Such soltions have been found by cities up and down the Valley. These programs could be adopted here. But city tree officials can’t seem look [...]
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Man goes public about arrest at fair
A Stockton African-American man has written a moment-by-moment account of his arrest at the San Joaquin County Fair and given it to an online watchdog. He contends that police who asked him for I.D. while he was drinking beer infringed on his constitutionally guaranteed “pursuit of happiness.”
Reading this petty dispute, which naturally escalated to an arrest, makes me despair [...]
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That’s how we roll