It appears that San Ramon's new City Center will not be completed as soon as expected - yet another vistim of the current financial crisis.

Plans for the office building property on the south side of Bollinger Canyon Road are underway and site preparation will begin next year.  Alex Mehran, President of Sunset Development, said recently that the Civic Center portion of the project is waiting for credit markets to settle down before applying for public financing.

This news will certainly be viewed with mixed feelings by San Ramon residents, many of whom opposed the development in the first place although a majority (including me) appear to support it.

Hopefully plans can get back on track some time next year when the financial crisis starts to ease.

A few months ago I wrote a Restaurant Review on Mudd's Restaurant in San Ramon. Mudd's has been a San Ramon landmark for 27 years but I was sorry to note that it closed for business last month.

As sad as that is for owner, John Ebert, I, and no doubt many other people, assumed that the retaurant would be acquired by some other restaurateur but alas this was not to be. I read in yesterdays San Ramon Valley Times that the 2.2 acre parcel on which the restaurant stands is to be bought by the San Ramon Redevelopment Agency at a cost of $2 million.

Saddest of all, they don't even know what they are going to do with the restaurant. The parcel was bought so that they could expand the nighboring Crow Canyon Gardens, the city's community garden.

Now I have no problem with expanding the gardens. In fact I think it is great to see the produce that is grown there. My big gripe is that here we have an exceptionally characterful building with a unique ambience that will in all probability never see the light of day again as restaurant premises. Sure, restaurants come and go but Mudd's was different. Certainly it had its ups and downs and, particularly in recent years, John Ebert had difficulty in keeping chefs so the food (and the support by locals) definitely suffered. Nevertheless it seems a shame that such premises wil go to waste.

One suggestion is that the restaurant can be turned into a Nature Center. Yes, it would probably make a very good Nature Center but not as good as it was a restaurant.

County Supervisors in Contra Costa County are considering a proposal on Tuesday to introduce a measure that would give people over the age of 55 a potentially significant tax break when moving into Contra Costa County.

Proposition 90 is already in place in seven California Counties including Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara. The way it works is that if you are over 55 and you are moving in to a County that supports Proposition 90, you can keep your existing Property Tax base. There are conditions of course. First of all, you can only do this one time, so you had better be sure you don't plan to move again. Also, the home you are moving to needs to be of equal or lesser value than your present one.

Since one of the frequently cited reasons for people staying in their present home rather than moving is the fact that they can't afford the new property taxes, it seems reasonable to think that this could stimulate the housing market, something that everybody agrees is desirable. Critics say that it will cost the county considerable income in potential lost property tax revenues but of course this is only a reality once a given home has been sold.

The reality, in my opinion, is that such a move s unlikely to be a major stimulus to our market, although undoubtedly, every little helps. On a more positive note, anything that can be done to help people nearing retirement have improved benefits should be considered a positive. It will be interesting to see if this proposal goes anywhere.

In these rather tough times it is good to see that Alain Pinel Realtors, the company with which I am affiliated, won the Structures' Real Estate Firm of The Year award for 2007. Alain Pinel Realtors is based in Silicon Valley and this is an award given by the San Jose Business Journal although it relates to the firm as whole.

It is also good to see that the Danville office of Alain Pinel Realtors (that's my office) was ranked as the #2 office by volume for all sales in Contra Costa County for the 12 months ending August 2007. #1 was Village Associates.

Way to go Alain Pinel!

Bernard G

Yes it's open! The new Plaza at Gale Ranch shopping center at the corner of Bollinger Canyon Road and Dougherty is now open to the public.

Anchored by the most impressive, and certainly the largest, Safeway I have ever seen, this shopping center provides residents of Gale Ranch and Windemere with support that they have been crying out for.

Right now (early September) only Safeway is open, including the Safeway discount gas station. Many of the other units have tenants already though including a Peet's coffee shop and Cactus Jack's Bar and Grill. The Safeway store has a Starbuck's in an annex of to one side and also a sit down Sushi Bar as well as numerous food stations of varying kinds, both hot and cold. The success of this sh oping center is assured and the residents of Windemere and Gale Ranch are undoubtedly well pleased.