Opponents May Change, but Game Stays the Same

Political wits would say that Tom Bates and Pete Schabarum are going head-to-head in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing opposite sides of the term limits measure, Proposition 140 (Schabarum is for it, Bates against it). Once upon a time, their heads were on the same team. Both played football for the blue and gold of UC Berkeley in the 1950s--but not in the same years. As Bates put it, “[Schabarum] played much earlier--before they had helmets.”

And, in a play called from the line of scrimmage, the Republican who helped to preserve the Democrats’ edge in Sacramento after the GOP takeover in the Assembly is now in charge of San Francisco’s emergencies--in both cases, thanks to Willie Brown.

Brian Setencich, former pro basketball player and Fresno Republican Assemblyman, felt the lash of GOP wrath when he voted first for fellow Republican Doris Allen to succeed Speaker Willie Brown, and then cut a deal with Democrats to become speaker himself . . . after which voters in his district cut him.

Now Mayor Willie Brown has appointed Setencich to the job of liaison for 911 emergency services. It pays $65,000 a year, and, says Setencich, “looks like it is going to be interesting.”

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Adult Day Care

More than 500,000 Californians are estimated to be afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias, according to the Alzheimer’s Assn. The state Department of Aging helps fund 43 Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Centers, with a capacity of 2,500 clients. These cities are home to the 10 largest centers, ranked by the number of people they can serve, along with average daily attendance in April:

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LOCATION CAPACITY CLIENTS 1. San Jose 429 120 2. Encinitas 50 23 3. Costa Mesa 49 14 4. Bakersfield 45 25 5. Riverside 42 16 6. Burlinggame 40 22 7. Corte Madera 40 26 8. Downey 40 22 9. San Francisco 40 36 10. Oceanside 40 17

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For nearest center: (800) 660-1993

Source: California Department of Aging

Researched by TRACY THOMAS / Los Angeles Times

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Full plate: California, a driven state, is also an ego-driven one, and today the DMV lauds the 2 millionth and--just to be on the safe side--the 2 million and first personalized environmental license plates it has issued.

The 2 millionth is THINICE, destined to be worn by an unidentified sports car. The next, TWOLATE, goes on the vehicle belonging to a chronically tardy Marysville woman whose first and last names are the same.

The 2 million sets of “look at me” plates, now costing $41, have been racked up since Gov. Ronald Reagan issued the first--AMIGO--the day before Halloween 1970. The ego-stroking has, moreover, provided a half-billion bucks for such environmental projects as reforestation, wetlands improvement and research--in other words, the green plate specials.

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T-bone meets T . rex: This diner and dinosaur alongside a freeway outside Palm Springs is reminiscent of a similarly framed, classic New Yorker cartoon captioned, “My God, do you suppose it can read?”

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Signing off: It is retiring with perhaps more dignity than it enjoyed during its two-month public career, when it was insulted as “tacky” and pelted with TP.

The metallic “Castro Valley Welcome” sculptured sign will be going into storage after the Alameda County supervisors voted to dismantle it “as soon as possible,” after hundreds of callers who hated it tipped the balance against the fewer who advised artistic deliberation.

The $106,000 sign was commissioned from a Washington state artist who designed “Castro” as a copy of the signature of Don Guillermo Castro, the region’s original Spanish land grant owner. The word “Valley” was formed in the shape of the town itself, and the outline of a canoe commemorated the Ohlone Indians who once populated the region.

But locals agreed with Henry Ford--that history is bunk--and decided that the sign stunk.

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One-Offs: He missed and hit a pizza box instead, but the manager of a Rodeo pizza parlor was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly taking a swing with a pizza knife at a customer who complained that a pizza had made him sick. . . . In November, Pinole voters repealed the city’s transfer and utility taxes, so in December, the city is repealing holiday events, including a Christmas tree lighting, it can no longer afford. . . . A Redding man is awaiting a patent on a completely biodegradable, $375 coffin made of compressed rice straw. . . . A Walnut Creek hotel room was damaged after a guest put damp clothing in the room’s microwave to dry, and the laundry caught fire.

EXIT LINE

“It’s a Frisco-centric kind of thing.”

--Leal Charonnat, an Oakland architect pushing for Oakland and not San Francisco as the northernmost stop for a proposed high-speed rail system for California. The only thing San Francisco could hate more than losing the terminus to Oakland is being called “Frisco.”

California Dateline appears every other Friday.