joyous moments

REFRESH

A family takes a dip in a fountain at the Golden Gate Park music concourse on March 31.

CHRIS AND THE BEER VENDING MACHINE

Christopher Natividad rejoices when a vending machine accepts his dollar at a music venue in Oakland. The vending machine at Sugar Mountain was modified to dispense beer for 75 cents.

SPLASH

Brian Goett enjoys a temporary water slide at the flooded Anna Jean Cummings park in Santa Cruz on March 26. The park was flooded after torrential rains.

CHEERY

A group of boys holler at parade goers during the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown on April 17.

SOAKED

A group of friends cool off on a hot day in Venice Beach on April 1.
Joy can be quite elusive. It shows up unexpectedly and disappears just as fast. I wanted to capture genuine moments of happiness to remind ya’ll that it’s out there if you want it to be. If your looking for a great place to hike in Santa Cruz, Anna Jean Cummings Park is awesome. Oh, and check out My flickr if you get a chance!

When will California’s drought end?

How much precipitation has California recieved?

In 2008, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought after two years of below average water precipitation.  As a result of this, many water conservation efforts were enacted, affecting farmers, residents, and consumers.  According to USA Today, the state government launched a water conservation ad campaign and invested in water management projects. Residents’ water consumption was limited, restricting how often and when they can utilize water for lawns or washing their cars.  Farmers’ water supply that was provided by the government through the Bureau of Reclamation was reduced, deterring new crops from being planted.

To this date the government considers California to still be in a drought. But data collected from the National Weather service shows that although the precipitation levels in 2007, 2008, and 2009 were below average, 2010 faired above average, and this year has already surpassed the average. So the question is, when will the state declare that it is no longer in a drought? How much precipitation is needed for the drought to end?

This is relevant to San Francisco because the it lies in the state of California, so it is obviously affected by the drought and the water conservation efforts.

A great follow up story would be when the governor declares we are no longer in a state of drought. A better follow up story would be what efforts, if any, are being continued by environmentally conscious cities like San Francisco.