THE LEDE
Fifty-One Years of the Same Downtown Stretch
Same route, same lawn chairs staked out the night before. This year the whole country’s 250th birthday is riding along for the ride.
Saturday morning, Hartz Avenue fills up the way it always does. Families claim curb space with blankets and folding chairs, someone’s kid is already sticky with popsicle, and by 9 a.m. the Kiwanis-Danville 4th of July Parade is rolling from San Ramon Valley High School down to Town and Country Drive. This year is the 51st time the Kiwanis Club of San Ramon Valley has put the whole thing together, a streak that started in 1975 and has not skipped a summer since, including the year it went virtual during COVID rather than skip it entirely.
Two things make this year’s parade different from the fifty before it. The country turns 250 in October, and Danville is folding that anniversary into the celebration early, with America 250 magnets on the Town’s parade vehicles and a proclamation ceremony the day before. On Friday at 10 a.m., the Town is honoring local Veterans Service Organizations at the Veterans Memorial Building downtown, a quieter moment ahead of Saturday’s noise. The other change is who is leading the parade. This year’s Grand Marshal is San Ramon Valley Unified School District itself, not a person but the whole district, under the banner “great schools plus great students equals great community.”
If you are going, plan around the street closures. From 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, the Town is closing Danville Boulevard between El Cerro and Railroad, Railroad Avenue between Hartz and Love Lane, La Gonda Way between El Cerro and Danville Boulevard, Prospect Avenue between Hartz and Front Street, East Linda Mesa between Hartz and the Rose Street lot, Hartz Avenue between Railroad and Hartz Way, San Ramon Valley Boulevard between Hartz Way and Town and Country, and Town and Country Drive itself near its parking lot entrance. Every municipal lot downtown stays open except the Rose Street lot. If you would rather not fight for parking, the Town is steering people toward the Sycamore Park and Ride, with the Iron Horse Trail as the walk-in route. There is accessible parking at Crossroads Shopping Center with a golf cart shuttle to the viewing area, and accessible seating at the grandstand near Oak Court.
None of this is new mechanics for a parade this old. What is worth noticing is that it is still an all-volunteer Kiwanis production, fifty-one summers in, in a town where plenty of institutions that age have not made it this far without a corporate sponsor or a rebrand. The route has not moved. The start time has not moved. The only thing that changes most years is who is riding in front and what the T-shirts say.
THE RUNDOWN
The E-Bike Ordinance Gets Its Second Vote
Tuesday, the Town Council takes up the e-bike ordinance for what is supposed to be the final vote, not another round of debate. The rules on the table would require motorized bikes and scooters to be walked, not ridden, inside park grounds, ban them from unpaved trails entirely, and cap speeds at 15 miles per hour on trails outside park grounds for every kind of vehicle, e-bikes and regular bicycles alike. The first reading passed after more than two hours of public comment in June, much of it from parents and a few residents, including the mayor, who described being hit by one.
What Tuesday’s vote will not settle is the bigger fight. Council members have already said the tougher conversation, about underage riders and behavior more broadly, is being pushed to a second hearing after school starts in the fall, specifically so parents are in the room. This week is about finalizing the mechanics. The fall hearing is about everything else.
Nomination Papers Open in Two Weeks
Starting Monday, July 13, anyone who wants to run for Town Council this November can pick up nomination papers from the Town Clerk. The window runs through Friday, August 7, and stretches to August 12 if a sitting council member waits until the last minute to file. Two seats are up: the one Karen Stepper is vacating after deciding not to seek another term, and the one currently held by Vice Mayor Robert Storer.
If you are thinking about running, the Town’s election page has the paperwork sequence laid out. Before you can take a single dollar, even your own, you need to file a Form 501 candidate intention statement with the City Clerk and open a dedicated campaign bank account.
Blackhawk Plaza: Still Waiting on the CRO
Nothing new to report here this week, which is itself worth noting. The county’s Blackhawk Plaza FAQ page, the one this newsletter has been checking every issue, still describes the Chief Restructuring Officer appointment as pending, not finalized. JLL remains the property manager either way, and the county is still saying no redevelopment application has been filed. We’ll flag it the moment that changes.
Two Weeks Until Lucky California Closes
The Lucky California at 660 San Ramon Valley Boulevard closes for good on Friday, July 17. That date has held steady since it was first confirmed last month. Nothing yet on what, if anything, takes its place.
FAMILY AND KIDS
A Danville Educator Gets a Bigger Office, Just Not in SRVUSD
If your kid is at Charlotte Wood, you may already know Adria Ibarra as an assistant principal there. Starting next school year, she is running her own school, Pleasant Hill Elementary, in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District next door. Ibarra is a Danville resident who started her career teaching kindergarten and first grade near Boston before moving west and working her way up through classroom teaching to a middle school assistant principal role. Mt. Diablo Unified announced her as one of nine new principal hires for the coming year. It is not an SRVUSD promotion, since MDUSD is a separate district, but it is a Danville parent’s name showing up on another school’s letterhead, and Charlotte Wood families should expect news on her replacement as the summer goes on.
A Backyard Camp That Outgrew the Backyard
Five years ago, a then-sophomore at San Ramon Valley High School started a one-week camp at Sycamore Valley Park for a dozen or so K-5 kids. This summer, the All You Can Do Sports Camp is running nine weeks with roughly 400 campers across three locations, including Los Cerros Middle School and Athan Downs in San Ramon, with a new girls’ session added this year. The camp is run entirely by San Ramon Valley High graduates. If you are still looking for something to fill a week of summer, it is worth a look before sessions fill up.
MEANWHILE, ON NEXTDOOR…
A weekly, lightly anonymized tour of what Danville-area neighbors are arguing about this week.
BRING BACK THE CLAMPERS A post asking whether the town’s historic black-powder marching group would be part of this year’s 250th anniversary parade turned into the week’s most passionate thread by far. Dozens of neighbors reminisced about decades of parade history, including a beloved lawn mower brigade and a group nicknamed for its ceremonial gunfire, while others groused that the parade has become mostly real estate agents waving from convertibles. A local ordinance banning bubbles at the parade, for the record, was also relitigated at length.
THE "EASY BAY" SWIMMING HOLE HUNT One neighbor’s search for a nearby, not-too-crowded swimming spot produced two dozen suggestions and a lengthy dispute over whether a popular lake is 48 minutes away or 90, depending on which landmark you plug into the map. A useful public service buried in the thread: at least one popular lake is currently dealing with a toxic algae bloom.
THE RIVIAN DEBATE A neighbor weighing an EV purchase got a flood of opinions on the new Rivian R2, ranging from enthusiastic owners who call it the best vehicle they have owned to skeptics citing Consumer Reports reliability rankings and the company’s financial health. One commenter was gently accused of "sounding like a car salesman" after an unusually detailed pitch for a competing luxury SUV.
THE HIGH SCHOOL SORTING HAT A parent of a rising freshman asked neighbors to compare Monte Vista, Cal High, San Ramon Valley, and Dougherty Valley, and the thread turned into a genuinely useful, if sprawling, guide covering everything from AP course access to basketball roster odds to the realities of a 90-minute daily carpool.
GLOATING ABOUT THE WEATHER, AGAIN A post celebrating the Bay Area’s mild stretch while the rest of the country swelters drew the usual mix of smugness, gratitude, and one very specific complaint from a backyard tomato grower who insists the plants prefer it hotter.
ONLY IN DANVILLE
Two Pianos, No Sheet Music Required
Right now there are two pianos sitting outside in Danville, decorated by local student artists and free for anyone walking by to sit down and play. One is outside the Danville Community Center on Front Street, the other outside the Danville Senior Center on East Prospect Avenue. It is part of the Town’s summer arts push, alongside a student film festival with an August screening at the Village Theatre. No velvet rope, no recital nerves, just a piano on the sidewalk and whoever happens to wander over. Some of the results are reportedly better than you would expect from an unsupervised public piano. Most are exactly what you would expect.
ON THE CALENDAR
More Than a Line: Opening Reception | Friday, July 10, 5:30–7:30 p.m. | Village Theatre Art Gallery
A group show built entirely around the pencil, of all things. Worth the free glass of wine and twenty minutes to see what a dozen artists can do with the most basic tool in the room.
Music in the Park: Mercy and the Heartbeats | Saturday, July 11, 6 p.m. | Danville Town Green
A pop cover band running the decades from the ’70s to now. Bring a blanket, bring the kids, and get there early if you want real grass real estate.
Senior Variety Show Auditions | Friday, July 10, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | Village Theatre
Open to any Danville resident 50 or older with a three-minute act, singing, dancing, comedy, or otherwise. The actual show is not until September, but the audition slots will go fast.
THE NUMBER
51
Years the all-volunteer Kiwanis Club of San Ramon Valley has organized Danville’s 4th of July parade without a break, including a virtual version during the 2020 shutdown rather than skip it.
FINAL THOUGHT
Fifty-one years running, and the only thing anyone can agree needs to change is bringing back the guys who used to march in boxer shorts. Some traditions in this town have outlasted actual shopping centers. Happy 4th.
THE SIDELINE
The Sideline remains on its summer hiatus. Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley fall practices don’t begin until August, so we’ll pick this section back up once there is actual game action to report on. See you on the sidelines in a few weeks.
The Danville Dispatch is an independent local newsletter. Published weekly. To subscribe, visit thedanvilledispatch.com.
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