Big tip: There’s power in your gratuity,
By Rocky Slaughter

Recall the last time you had horrible service at a restaurant.  You probably found yourself wondering how the waitstaff could sustain themselves by treating their customers so poorly.  Didn’t they want future business?  Didn’t they want a big tip?  Didn’t…

Get growing!
By Mitsy Krzywicki

Note from Doni: Please join me in welcoming Mitsy Kyzywicki and her first gardening column, Get Up and Grow! Mitsy, a top-notch graphic artist and illustrator, is also is a wealth of information about plants and gardening. I trust you’ll…

Don’t tarry - plant Coffeeberry
By Marc Soares

The native coffeeberry shrub is like a starting offensive lineman: not fancy or a showman, but an important team player who gets the job done without fanfare. It seems the only time you hear a lineman’s name mentioned is when he’s…

Lara Wells Osborn, Realtor
City vs. Country

Someone recently asked me whether Realtors specialize in country versus city and/or locales. When this person visited the area some years ago, she said Realtors tended to steer her east of Redding rather than west.

And when her country home was for sale in 2006, she was told seller’s Realtors don’t show the homes they’ve listed.

Andrea Charroin, Food Goddess:
Favorite cookbook, anyone?

Hey good lookin’ - what’s cookin’?

OK, that is the most corn-ball greeting. But I find it truly endearing. Much to our teenage horror, our Uncle Randy used to greet us girls (there are three in my family) with, “Hey good lookin’, what’s…

Goodbye and good riddance

Soon we won’t have the roof on The Mall in downtown Redding to complain about any more. We won’t have its mold to ridicule, nor its rainy leaks, captured in City of Redding trash cans, to criticize.

Before long, no roof will exist to blame for making The Mall seem so dark and creepy.
Sunday we gave a heads up regarding Monday’s decision before the Redding Redevelopment Agency. At issue was whether the agency would approve Redding city staff recommendations .

Posh-Mama goes from cyberspace to boutique space

On Monday Kendra Schubert held her 15-month-old daughter, Emma, on one hip as Schubert stood inside the vacant space of her new business, Posh-Mama Boutique, in Sherven Square at 1354 Market St. in downtown Redding.

The shop’s ceilings were a robin’s-egg blue. The back walls were a lovely chocolate brown. The dark plank floors awaited racks and merchandise.

And her store will open tomorrow. No matter what.

Guest speaker, Tom O’Mara
Love your parks

Tues., April 22, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors will consider a recommendation to implement impact fees on new development. They have contracted with and will be discussing a 78-page report prepared by the Oakland consulting firm MuniFinancial. If enacted, the proposed fees will fund nine essential functions of county government

Take it off, take it all off

This Fourth of July might be especially significant for The Mall in downtown Redding if it gains independence from its skanky, leaky, moldy roof.

More specifically, the demolition of The Mall’s roof could begin lift-off as early as late June or early July, said Larry Morgon, the city’s go-to guy regarding downtown-related projects. Yanking the decayed roof from The Mall seems a slam-dunk decision, since it would cost more than $1 million to repair it. (But with recent Redding politics, even slam dunks are up for grabs when clowns foul the ball.)

Oh baby, let’s go to the hop
By Doni Greenberg

About a year ago, when Troy Hawkins and Adam Mankoski moved from Sacramento to Redding - Hawkin’s childhood hometown - they immediately acquainted themselves with the north state’s art scene. The partners, who own and operate HawkMan Studios in Redding, specialize in art and creativity classes, original art, artist representations and after-school art for kids.

Fortunately for Redding, these energetic, entrepreneurial-minded guys are optimistic idea machines.