Christmas Through the Lens

A LOOK AT HOW NEWS PHOTOGRAPHERS WORK

On Wednesday, Daily Republic photographer Mike Greener posted a selection of his favorite photos from Suisun City's "Christmas at the Waterfront" on the DR Photo Department's blog entitled "Words on Pictures."

Mike was assigned to cover every community Christmas celebration in the area.

In addition to the very nice photos, he included a narrative discussing how the chose the images he did for the paper, including this candid observation:

"Suisun City's Christmas on the Waterfront was a really awesome display but my decision to not show the boat aspect in the paper was a mistake in the end."

For anyone who has ever wondered how photojournalists decide what makes the paper, this is a must-read blog post! >>Click here for the posting>>

Go Inside the Salvation Army Community Centers

SPARKLING SF CENTER SHOWS POTENTIAL FOR SUISUN CITY

Everyone knows The Salvation Army. In the least, we recognize the annual Christmas kettle drive and know they do a lot of great work all over the country and the world.

But their work in recreation community centers wasn't really on a lot of people's radars locally until The Salvation Army showed interest in reopening the local recreation center shuttered by the YMCA.

The review committees paid a visit to The Salvation Army's San Francisco center as part of the research done into selecting a new partner to operate our local center. Committee members were very impressed with what they saw, especially considering the SF Center is located in the Tenderloin District.

The San Francisco center is one of The Salvation Army's Kroc Centers, a network of community centers created through a massive $1.5 billion endowment from Ray and Joan Kroc, the founders of McDonald's. The Kroc Centers are truly impressive; definitely Cadillac examples of what recreation-based community centers can be when they are built from the ground-up on large tracts of land. The Salvation Army runs these centers at a very high service standard.

That's the important part for any future relationship here in Suisun City. The center on Pintail Avenue at East Wigeon likely will never be a full-blown Kroc Center. But that same approach, commitment and outlook would be applied here in Suisun City on a somewhat smaller scale.

Daily Republic reporter Ian Thompson and photographer Brad Zweerink toured the San Francisco center this week and filed their report in Thursday's paper. >>Check out the Daily Republic web site for a peak inside the center.>>

Planning Commission Approves 'Fresh & Easy' Facade

NEW GROCER WILL ENHANCE SUNSET SHOPPING CENTER

SUISUN CITY - The Planning Commission unanimously approved changes to the exterior facade of the proposed Fresh & Easy location to allow the grocer to begin improvements at the Sunset Shopping Center.

Fresh & Easy, a small-scale grocer focused on regionally fresh produce and easy to prepare food, has proposed to open a store in about half of floor space previously leased to Albertson's, which closed locally in 2006.

The Community Development Department worked with the applicant to break what previously was a large single space for a store sign into two pieces to accommodate two tenants. Weingarten Realty anticipates leasing the remaining 15,000-square-foot space in the anchor tenant location to another business.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is a local, neighborhood store providing fresh,
wholesome foods at affordable prices to everyone. It is a company of Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer and one of the world’s leading international retailers. Tesco is investing $2 billion dollars over 5 years in the U.S.

The company has opened a number of locations in Southern California, and has plans for a significant number of store openings in the Bay Area and Sacramento regions. >>See proposed locations on the company website>>