New math
We've been living in Newark, CA, for a week now. There are big posters at the edges of town proclaiming that Newark has zero tolerance for illegal fireworks. And then they have big stands dotting town that sell "safe-and-sane" (though they don't advertise that part) fireworks with these same posters on them. Even at the civic center. Cognitive dissonance. Zero must be a very large number here in west Newark.
Who wants to fight crowds at organized displays? I figured we could walk a block to the corner where there's a fairly large clearing where we could see things across the bay like Shoreline in Mountain View having their show (we heard/felt the finale later). On the way, at least two private displays in the streets, and two more on our way to the south side of a schoolyard, from which we could see all manner of stuff in private displays within a few blocks, including stuff that was of professional size and quality (but not quantity). We watched that for about 45 minutes, during which we could turn in almost any direction and see something going off. Then we walked home around the block, and saw things going on closer to home, including across the street from the neighbors', in two directions... Later we realized we didn't even need to leave the house. It's still pretty noisy outside (thud, phweeeee, pop) as I type this over an hour later, but the smoke is clearing. I have beauty sleep to catch up on, too.
So, zero-tolerance types, way to engender the public trust. What there was zero of was law enforcement. So far the number of brush fires and injuries seems to be that small as well (notwithstanding the five-alarm warehouse fire yesterday afternoon in San Jose near where I had an errand to run at exactly that time of day).
Who wants to fight crowds at organized displays? I figured we could walk a block to the corner where there's a fairly large clearing where we could see things across the bay like Shoreline in Mountain View having their show (we heard/felt the finale later). On the way, at least two private displays in the streets, and two more on our way to the south side of a schoolyard, from which we could see all manner of stuff in private displays within a few blocks, including stuff that was of professional size and quality (but not quantity). We watched that for about 45 minutes, during which we could turn in almost any direction and see something going off. Then we walked home around the block, and saw things going on closer to home, including across the street from the neighbors', in two directions... Later we realized we didn't even need to leave the house. It's still pretty noisy outside (thud, phweeeee, pop) as I type this over an hour later, but the smoke is clearing. I have beauty sleep to catch up on, too.
So, zero-tolerance types, way to engender the public trust. What there was zero of was law enforcement. So far the number of brush fires and injuries seems to be that small as well (notwithstanding the five-alarm warehouse fire yesterday afternoon in San Jose near where I had an errand to run at exactly that time of day).