Nolan Rian Hurd, 23, was charged last September with one count of murder in the death of 20-year-old Nikha Marcella DeGuzman. Though the charges were filed more than three months ago, Nolan was not arrested until Dec. 15, when police in Stockton took him into custody. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday.

A probable cause statement, filed by Fremont police, lays out in horrifying detail how Hurd went from being viewed as a potential witness of DeGuzman’s suicide to being wanted for murder and suspected of covering up a homicide. The shooting occurred in room #219 at a Fremont hotel, but police have not revealed the location of the shooting, nor was it initially reported by local media.

Hurd was identified as a suspect based on the angle of the bullet, gunshot residue tests, witness statements, and his own conflicting accounts of the shooting, authorities say. Despite all this, police initially recommended that Hurd be charged with a lesser count of involuntary manslaughter, not murder, though no explanation is offered for the disparity.

The shooting took place a little before 10 p.m. on Jan. 27, 2022. Police say that DeGuzman was initially shot behind the ear, but that the bullet missed her skull and she was initially conscious and alert. According to police, it was Hurd who called 911 — though investigators believe it was several minutes after the shooting — and that DeGuzman could be heard talking in the background.

Fremont police Det. Rachel Nieves wrote in court records that, “Based on the calls I believe that Hurd was trying to influence her to say she shot herself and convince the witnesses as they arrived that it was self-inflicted.”

The pistol was found underneath DeGuzman’s right leg.

Other hotel guests reported seeing Hurd banging on doors and asking for help after the shooting, while DeGuzman was seen crawling in a hotel hallway before losing consciousness, while Hurd allegedly told her not to leave and trying to get her back into their room. Some heard the couple arguing before the shot was fired, police say.

Nieves also reviewed police body-worn cameras showing Hurd’s initial interacts with the responding officers.

At one point, he can be heard saying, “I love you… what did I do… Please I did the best I can… I did the best I can,” according to police. At his initial interview at the Fremont police department, Hurd simply placed his head on the table, began crying, and ignored an investigator’s attempts to talk to him for 30 minutes, at which point he was released.

DeGuzman was hospitalized and died two days later, on Jan. 29, 2022. Her obituary describes her as a James Logan High School graduate who attended Chabot College and worked as a service representative for Apple, Tesla, and Round Table Pizza. It says she loved animals, was a talented artist, and wrote poetry, literature, and music in her spare time.

“She was a devoted worker, and often took the responsibility of working late nights. She always was self-sufficient and an independent young lady,” the obituary says.

In April, police interviewed Hurd for a second time at the Santa Rita Jail, where he was in custody for an unrelated criminal investigation. They say that this time — after initially claiming he was in the room when DeGuzman shot herself — that he was actually in the bathroom, but he denied touching the gun. Hurd’s mother allegedly told police that he had confided in her that he had, in fact, handled the pistol after DeGuzman shot herself.

Finally, police say they calculated the trajectory of the gunshot, and believed it was fired from the bed. Nieves wrote that “based on the angel of the entrance wound and trajectory of the fired round I believe that it is physically impossible” for DeGuzman to have shot herself.

Hurd is being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

Save reservoir roomfor snowmelt

Re. “Tiny fish hindering water capture,” Page A1, Jan. 14:

Your article on water capture ignores a very obvious reason for not filling the reservoirs at this point, and it has nothing to do with tiny fish. It’s called the snowpack.

If we fill our reservoirs now, and we get a warm atmospheric river in March, and the snowpack melts, then we have no capacity to hold that water back. Look back to the emergency spillway at Lake Oroville. With the volume of the current snowpack it would flood Sacramento, Stockton and the Delta region.

It’s easy to blame a little fish for our water deficit, but what about the expanding planting of almonds and vineyards at the same time we are expanding housing and population in arid regions of the state? Instead, we should be looking to capture water run-off in urban environments. There are 40 million people in the state, but let’s blame a fish.

Peter CalimerisPleasant Hill

Difference between Trump,Biden is obstruction

The big difference between Donald Trump’s documents and Joe Biden’s is the difference between cooperation and obstruction.

If Trump had turned over the documents when asked, several times, Mar-a-Lago would never have been searched.

Frank GrygusSan Ramon

A’s development willadd only empty offices

Re. “Vacancies on offices, rents rise at year end,” Page B1, Jan. 16:

The East Bay Times reports the office vacancy rate for Oakland, including Jack London Square, is 25%. One wonders how many vacant offices the A’s ownership development project will add to Oakland.

Please, do not approve this plan.

Mike TracyOakland

State should not importnon-native animals

California annually imports some 2 million American bullfrogs (commercially raised) and 300,000 freshwater turtles (taken from the wild) for human consumption, non-natives all. All are diseased and/or parasitized, though it is illegal to sell such products. Released into local waters, the non-natives prey upon and displace our native species.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife should cease issuing import permits. The powers-that-be seem more concerned about politics as usual, profits and cultural/racial matters than the real issues here — environmental protection, public health, unacceptable animal cruelty and law enforcement.

The deadline for the introduction of new bills is Jan. 20. Let your representatives hear from you.

Eric MillsOakland

(Mercury News & East Bay Times)

No. 1 PIEDMONT (15-0)

Previous ranking: 1

Update: Beat Castro Valley 85-22, Alameda 73-14, Cathedral Catholic-San Diego 80-37, Salesian 69-63.

Up next: Wednesday at Bishop O’Dowd, 5:30 p.m.

No. 2 ARCHBISHOP MITTY (14-2)

Previous ranking: 2

Update: Beat Sacred Heart Cathedral 65-45, St. Francis 79-30, Oakland Tech 68-60, Bishop O’Dowd 61-31.

Up next: Friday vs. Valley Vista-Surprise, Arizona, 7 p.m.

No. 3 SALESIAN (15-3)

Previous ranking: 3

Update: Beat St. Mary’s-Berkeley 74-40, St. Patrick-St. Vincent 52-39, Moreau Catholic 57-43. Lost to Piedmont 69-63.

Up next: Wednesday vs. Swett, 5 p.m.

No. 4 SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL (14-2)

Previous ranking: 4

Update: Lost to Archbishop Mitty 65-45. Beat Valley Christian 57-50, Menlo School 66-44.

Up next: Jan. 25 at St. Ignatius, 7:30 p.m.

No. 5 CARONDELET (17-3)

Previous ranking: 5

Update: Beat Bethel-Spanaway, Wash., 67-29, Lakeside-Seattle 56-40.

Up next: Today at San Ramon Valley, 7:30 p.m.

No. 6 OAKLAND TECH (13-5)

Previous ranking: 6

Update: Lost to St. Mary’s-Stockton 65-52. Beat Castlemont 72-16, Skyline 85-7. Lost to Archbishop Mitty 68-60. Beat Pinewood 69-59.

Up next: Friday vs. Oakland, 5:30 p.m.

No. 7 ACALANES (10-5)

Previous ranking: 7

Update: Beat Clayton Valley 95-19.

Up next: Wednesday at Northgate, 7 p.m.

No. 8 SAN RAMON VALLEY (15-3)

Previous ranking: 9

Update: Beat Dougherty Valley 67-35, California 68-39, Dougherty Valley 80-30.

Up next: Today vs. Carondelet, 7:30 p.m.

No. 9 BISHOP O’DOWD (10-5)

Previous ranking: 8

Update: Beat Castro Valley 67-41, St. Patrick-St. Vincent 59-53. Lost to Archbishop Mitty 61-31.

Up next: Wednesday vs. Piedmont, 5:30 p.m.

No. 10 PINEWOOD (5-5)

Previous ranking: 10

Update: Beat Priory 69-36, Moreau Catholic 58-56. Lost to Oakland Tech 69-59.

Up next: Today vs. Harker, 5 p.m.

No. 11 HERITAGE (13-3)

Previous ranking: 12

Update: Beat Freedom 68-49, Antioch 72-33.

Up next: Wednesday at Deer Valley, 5:30 p.m.

No. 12 MONTE VISTA (13-4)

Previous ranking: 15

Update: Beat Hayward 55-19, Dublin 76-39, California 66-46.

Up next: Today vs. Granada, 7 p.m.

No. 13 MIRAMONTE (16-2)

Previous ranking: 16

Update: Beat Las Lomas 58-18, Alhambra 63-38, Northgate 53-26.

Up next: Friday vs. Acalanes, 7 p.m.

No. 14 ST. PATRICK-ST. VINCENT (13-3)

Previous ranking: 18

Update: Beat Swett 77-28. Lost to Salesian 52-39, Bishop O’Dowd 59-53.

Up next: Today at De Anza, 7 p.m.

No. 15 PINOLE VALLEY (13-5)

Previous ranking: Not ranked

Update: Beat De Anza (forfeit), Swett 66-37, Priory 50-37.

Up next: Today at St. Mary’s-Berkeley, 7 p.m.

No. 16 LOS GATOS (12-3)

Previous ranking: Not ranked

Update: Beat Lynbrook 50-43, Palo Alto 55-44, Los Altos 47-29, Evergreen Valley 48-39.

Up next: Today vs. Saratoga, 7 p.m.

No. 17 PALO ALTO (10-4)

Previous ranking: 11

Update: Beat Saratoga 56-36. Lost to Los Gatos 55-44. Beat Monta Vista 54-45.

Up next: Thursday vs. Homestead, 7 p.m.

No. 18 MONTA VISTA (13-1)

Previous ranking: 13

Update: Lost to Palo Alto 54-45. Beat Leland 69-42.

Up next: Today at Homestead, 7 p.m.

No. 19 MOREAU CATHOLIC (9-7)

Previous ranking: Not ranked

Update: Beat Mission San Jose 33-21. Lost to Pinewood 58-56. Beat Washington-Fremont 64-25. Lost to Salesian 57-43.

Up next: Today at American, 7 p.m.

No. 20 SAN LEANDRO (13-3)

Previous ranking: 20

Update: Beat Berkeley 52-49. Lost to Francis Parker-San Diego 42-41.

Up next: Thursday vs. Bishop O’Dowd, 6:30 p.m.

Teams eligible for the Bay Area News Group rankings come from leagues based predominantly in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. For updated records, please email highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com.

New rainfall totals show that no person alive has experienced a three-week period in the Bay Area as wet as these past 21 days. The last time it happened, Abraham Lincoln was president.

From Dec. 26 to Jan. 15, 17 inches of rain fell in downtown San Francisco. That’s the second-wettest three-week period at any time in San Francisco’s recorded history since daily records began in 1849 during the Gold Rush. And it’s more than five times the city’s historical average of 3.1 inches over the same time.

The only three-week period that was wetter in San Francisco — often used as the benchmark for Bay Area weather because it has the oldest records — came during the Civil War when a drowning 23.01 inches fell from Jan. 5 to Jan. 25, 1862, during a landmark winter that became known as “The Great Flood of 1862.”

“The rainfall numbers over the past three weeks just kept adding up. They became a blur,” said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services in Half Moon Bay, who compiled the totals. “We had a strong jet stream that was bringing in storms, one after another. It was hard along the way to separate the individual storms.”

So much rain fell since Christmas in Northern California that some cities, including Oakland, Stockton, Modesto and Livermore, already have reached their yearly average rainfall totals. In other words, if it didn’t rain another drop until October, they would still have a normal precipitation year.

The parade of soaking storms, which have caused flooding in the Central Valley, Salinas Valley and Santa Cruz Mountains, along with power outages, mudslides and at least 20 deaths statewide, left the Sierra Nevada with a statewide snowpack 251% of normal on Tuesday.

Light rain is expected Wednesday night, but otherwise forecasts call for dry conditions for much of the rest of January. River levels now are dropping.

“We’ve gotten so much water and so much snow,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. “It’s going to help us dry out and dig out heading into late January. It’s really good news because it takes off the trajectory toward worsening flooding.”

For a sense of how much worse it has been, consider the winter of 1861-62.

Between November 1861 and January 1862, it rained so much that the Central Valley became a vast inland sea, 30 feet deep, for 300 miles. Leland Stanford, who had been elected governor, took a rowboat through the streets of Sacramento to reach his inauguration.

Warm storms on a massive snowpack that winter caused immense flooding, wiping farms, mills, bridges and in some case whole towns off the map. An estimated 4,000 people died, roughly 1% of California’s population at the time, and more than the death toll in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

Now, California has large dams and reservoirs that limit flooding in wet years. There also are thousands of miles of levees and pumps, weirs and other flood control projects that were not in place in the 1860s.

And despite the recent wet weeks, Northern California is nowhere near the final yearly rainfall total of 1861-62. San Francisco on Tuesday had 21.75 inches of rain since Oct. 1. That total would have to more than double in the coming months to reach the 49.27 inches that fell in 1861-62, or the 47.19 inches that fell in the second-wettest year in history, 1997-98.

Weather experts have become increasingly concerned that if another massive winter like 1861-62 hit — and tree rings and other historical records show they have occurred roughly every 100 to 200 years — millions of people could be trapped by floods, freeways could be shut for weeks, and the damage could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

A study last summer by scientists at UCLA found that the chances of such a series of huge storms, while still remote, have roughly doubled due to climate change. Climate change has warmed ocean waters, allowing more moisture to be absorbed in atmospheric river storms.

Swain, a co-author of that study, said that climate change is already increasing the amount of moisture in such storms by about 5%, and that will climb as temperatures continue to warm.

Very wet winters are nothing new in California. Since July 1, San Francisco has had the fifth most rainfall on record. But all four of the wetter periods were in the 1800s.

“California has always had big storms like this,” said Park Williams, an associate professor of geography at UCLA, whose research has shown that droughts and wildfires are becoming more severe due to warming. “Climate change can make them more intense. But we might have had a year this wet whether or not we had climate change. And 1862 proves that.”

(Mercury News & East Bay Times)

No. 1 DOUGHERTY VALLEY (17-1)

Previous ranking: 1

Update: Beat San Ramon Valley 64-48, Granada 53-46.

Up next: Today vs. Foothill, 7:30 p.m.

No. 2 DE LA SALLE (15-4)

Previous ranking: 3

Update: Lost to Monte Vista 57-50. Beat Amador Valley 46-35, West Linn (Oregon) 63-53.

Up next: Wednesday vs. San Ramon Valley, 7:30 p.m.

No. 3 ARCHBISHOP MITTY (12-2)

Previous ranking: 4

Update: Beat St. Francis 68-60, Sacred Heart Cathedral 85-48.

Up next: Today at Archbishop Riordan, 7:30 p.m.

No. 4 CLAYTON VALLEY CHARTER (16-2)

Previous ranking: 6

Update: Beat Campolindo 74-66, Acalanes 62-58, Monte Vista 60-57.

Up next: Wednesday at Las Lomas, 7:30 p.m.

No. 5 SALESIAN (13-6)

Previous ranking: 9

Update: Beat St. Mary’s-Berkeley 80-36, St. Patrick-St. Vincent 63-43, Capital Christian-Sacramento 67-56.

Up next: Wednesday at De Anza, 7 p.m.

No. 6 SAN RAMON VALLEY (16-3)

Previous ranking: 2

Update: Lost to Dougherty Valley 64-48, California 62-58. Beat Menlo-Atherton 59-51.

Up next: Wednesday at De La Salle, 7:30 p.m.

No. 7 ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN (11-3)

Previous ranking: 5

Update: Beat Serra 44-42, Valley Christian 55-34. Lost to Jesuit-Carmichael 63-52.

Up next: Today vs. Archbishop Mitty, 7:30 p.m.

No. 8 GRANADA (14-4)

Previous ranking: 8

Update: Beat Foothill 56-32. Lost to Dougherty Valley 53-46.

Up next: Today vs. Monte Vista, 7:30 p.m.

No. 9 CALIFORNIA (14-5)

Previous ranking: 7

Update: Beat Amador Valley 77-44, San Ramon Valley 62-58. Lost to Berkeley 52-34.

Up next: Today at Dublin, 7:30 p.m.

No. 10 DUBLIN (13-6)

Previous ranking: 11

Update: Beat Livermore 89-34, Monte Vista 63-46.

Up next: Today vs. California, 7:30 p.m.

No. 11 CAMPOLINDO (12-5)

Previous ranking: 10

Update: Lost to Clayton Valley 74-66. Beat Las Lomas 85-64, Oakland Tech 56-47.

Up next: Wednesday vs. College Park, 7:30 p.m.

No. 12 OAKLAND (15-5)

Previous ranking: 13

Update: Beat Skyline 81-43, Fremont-Oakland 56-48, Piedmont 73-57.

Up next: Wednesday at Castlemont, 6:30 p.m.

No. 13 PINOLE VALLEY (17-3)

Previous ranking: 16

Update: Beat Vallejo 70-48, De Anza 96-79, Miramonte 63-44.

Up next: Today vs. St. Mary’s-Berkeley, 7:30 p.m.

No. 14 THE KING’S ACADEMY (14-0)

Previous ranking: 14

Update: Beat Menlo School 64-60.

Up next: Today at Harker, 6:30 p.m.

No. 15 MONTE VISTA (14-5)

Previous ranking: 15

Update: Beat De La Salle 57-50. Lost to Dublin 63-46, Clayton Valley Charter 60-57.

Up next: Today at Granada, 7:30 p.m.

No. 16 BENICIA (14-2)

Previous ranking: 17

Update: Beat Mt. Diablo 90-58, Ygnacio Valley 77-63. Lost to Cosumnes Oaks 75-68.

Up next: Wednesday at Concord, 7 p.m.

No. 17 MOREAU CATHOLIC (9-5)

Previous ranking: 12

Update: Beat Mission San Jose 86-43, Washington-Fremont 75-53. Lost to San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno 79-55.

Up next: Today vs. American, 7 p.m.

No. 18 ST. FRANCIS (9-4)

Previous ranking: 18

Update: Lost to Archbishop Mitty 68-60. Beat St. Ignatius 74-69 (OT).

Up next: Today vs. Serra, 7:30 p.m.

No. 19 ALAMEDA (13-3)

Previous ranking: 20

Update: Beat San Lorenzo 89-54. Lost to Piedmont 59-57. Beat Berkeley 60-58.

Up next: Wednesday at Castro Valley, 7 p.m.

No. 20 BERKELEY (12-5)

Previous ranking: Not ranked

Update: Beat San Leandro 54-42. Lost to Alameda 60-58. Beat California 52-54.

Up next: Wednesday at St. Joseph Notre Dame, 7 p.m.

Teams eligible for the Bay Area News Group rankings come from leagues based predominantly in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. For updated records, please email highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Parche, a modern Colombian restaurant, has just opened in Oakland’s buzzy Uptown District, showcasing traditional Colombian ingredients with contemporary flair. Colombian co-owner Paul Iglesias, formerly of Canela Bistro & Wine Bar in San Francisco, opened Parche on Jan. 13, celebrating South American cuisine and culture with a menu and cocktail program not typically seen in the area. Parche is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and until 10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 2295 Broadway in Oakland.

Parche, roughly translated, means “a familial-style gathering place for a group of people to come together.” As such, the restaurant’s menu is small plate-centric, with dishes like Arepa de Anis, a corn cake with anise and barranquilla-style ají made with roasted veggies and tahini; Posta Negra, slow-cooked short rib in a Cartagena-style sauce made of cola and panela; and Ceviche de Chicharron with charred mandarin, sriracha, lime juice and pickled red onions.

Look for a thoughtful, Colombian-inspired beverage program, too, including house sodas made with Colombian fruits, boozy coffee drinks and a “Trans-Atlantic tonica” section featuring Spanish and Colombian spirits. Pay extra attention to the distinctive interior design, which features bold colors, custom balays and murals depicting Colombian spirit animals, the condor and jaguar.

Details: www.parcheoak.com.

Alkhem Session, 30, and Armond Hamilton, 35, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the 2016 killing of 22-year-old Damien Traylor. They were both transferred to the state prison system on Nov. 16 from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, records show.

Session and Hamilton were identified as two of the three people who attacked and shot Traylor outside an apartment on the 800 block of East 24th Street in Oakland on Nov. 4, 2016. One of Traylor’s friends told police that she, Traylor, and another man had travelled from Las Vegas to Oakland that day, and at about 9 a.m. the third friend stopped in that location and burglarized an apartment while she and Traylor slept in their Mercedes.

She told police they were awakened when three angry men confronted her and Traylor about the burglary. During this confrontation Traylor was beaten and shot. She later identified Session and Hamilton from police photo lineups, according to police testimony at the 2017 preliminary hearing. They were arrested about six weeks after the shooting.

The third suspect has not been charged, according to court records. Session and Hamilton will receive credit for the roughly six years they spent behind bars while the case was pending, and will be eligible for parole sometime in 2028.

Both Session and Hamilton are incarcerated at Wasco State Prison, roughly 250 miles from the Bay Area, records show.

Darrin “Mississippi” Lynch, 55, was transferred Dec. 23 to North Kern State Prison to begin serving his sentence. Last August, a Contra Costa jury convicted Lynch of murdering 47-year-old Andrew McCoy.

McCoy was shot and killed on the evening of May 6, 2019, on Shoreline Drive in Pittsburg. Prosecutors argued Lynch hid in a bush for two minutes waiting for McCoy to pass by, then yelled out, “Hey bro,” and shot him when he turned. Because of that, Lynch was convicted of a special circumstances enhancement of lying in wait, which made him eligible for life without parole.

Prosecutors didn’t spell out a clear motive, but a relative of McCoy testified she saw him arguing with Lynch a month before the shooting.

Lynch’s attorney argued during trial that prosecution witnesses were liars who were “spoon fed” testimony as part of a lazy police investigation. Lynch is appealing his conviction and sentence, a process that typically takes years.

“The holiday shopping, dining and self-care season is a critical time for the viability of small businesses. It was wonderful to work with (former) Mayor Schaaf and the Oakland Police Department in receiving a grant to fund the full-time, on-street safety ambassadors,” Swafford said. “The hope is that the public saw the broad effort to make commercial districts, and in this case the Montclair Village shopping area, places we can come to with a sense of safety.”

Safety ambassadors during the 30-day trial period that ended Saturday were on the streets eight hours a day, seven days a week except for Christmas and New Year’s days. Direct mobile phone numbers were made available to the public for requesting assistance, and flyers explaining safety ambassador services were delivered to merchants. Kevin Gilmore, of Oakland, served as one of the ambassadors. In an interview Jan. 13, the second-to-last-day of the program, he reflected on the experience.

“I come from the inner city, so coming up here was entering a different walk of life,” Gilmore said. “At first, it was touch-and-go if I was going to do it. But once I was up here and felt welcome, it made me want to do it and to live up to their expectations.”

Gilmore downplays his skills when asked what he brought to the position, mentioning only that he has experience in security work.

“To be honest, it was just me being me. It’s not one set skill; I just take my job seriously,” he said. “I know not to judge but to observe and not act on impulse. Like with certain style cars, a person can be judgmental. But coming from the inner-city, I can feel a person out, and 95% of the time, I can use instinct.”

Gilmore’s interactions ran a gamut, from escorting people to vehicles and reminding shoppers to place purchases in trunks instead of on car seats to providing directions to parking locations to reporting suspicious or actual criminal action to Swafford, who then communicated the information to Oakland police.

“I approached one circumstance in a way so the police could get there,” he said. “I can’t say the specifics, but let’s just say security isn’t about putting your hands on people. If you talk to people, if you tell them you don’t have to do this or that, once you make them feel you’re not judging them, it makes a situation way better. There’s no violence.”

Asked if he will participate if the program receives more funding and continues, Gilmore responded in the affirmative.

“Yes, hands down. Why? Because not only from the good business perspective but in the way the community and Dan have welcomed me, I feel comfortable. People in the community say they see a difference. Merchants thank me, and there are even people who come check on me and bring me coffee when I’m working. Just making a little difference along the line, we might make a bigger difference to keep people from hitting on the elderly or other people or doing crimes.”

Swafford said Gilmore was an ideal candidate for a position that required people who are outgoing, able to communicate effectively and quick to establish and reliably maintain relationships with local merchants.

“We leaned on Bay Alarm Company supervisors who knew the people best suited for these posts. We had to move quickly, and so we relied on their partnerships for referrals.”

Montclair Village regularly engages with Bay Alarm for safety patrols in the district. Limor Margalit, Bay Alarm’s director of sales and security agent services, said that in setting up safety ambassador service for Montclair, one of three districts covered by the company, his role centered on working closely with merchants. By addressing their concerns with the on-street presence of a uniformed ambassador during the holiday season, Gilmore said residents and visitors also benefited.

“Long-term merchants told us having a guard trained to help in different situations was important,” Gilmore said. “For people shopping, the guards made them feel safe by walking with them. Escorting someone to a car is just one example of something they did that the police cannot do.”

Swafford walked the shopping district;s streets during the holidays, introducing the ambassadors to owners and staff at key businesses. He held briefings and relied on digital reporting from the ambassadors to receive updates and provide feedback.

“There was an auto burglary and we advised (that) they connect with a neighboring business and relay that to me so I could get any camera images to pull and relay that to OPD,” Swafford said. “That happened on multiple occasions, unfortunately. We also saw shoplifting and theft that spills beyond store security.

“In one case our ambassador provided information that led to an arrest. Proactively, we consulted on casing the neighborhood. Kevin just being present on the street led to deterring crimes and also he reminded people to put items in secure places out of sight.”

Swafford hopes the program will continue.

“I’d love to take the feedback and report what the ambassadors were able to do to the mayor,” he said. “We had boots on the ground, investment in crime reduction and a good partnership with OPD that allowed them to be more efficient. These are the obvious gains. We don’t have the budget for it, so we’ll look to funding from the city of Oakland and put whatever resources we have in the (Montclair) Village toward continuing it.

“Merchants in the area are still struggling, and, to be honest, some might not make it, so we don’t want to see people taking their money out of the area because they don’t feel safe. An investment in this type of program in Oakland’s General Fund will pay for itself with increased economic activity throughout the city. If given the opportunity, that’s how I will present it to city officials.”

Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Contact her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.

It’s been a season of discovery for the great American mezzo-soprano, and she says that’s just how she likes it.

DiDonato, who earned international acclaim in opera roles such as Rosina in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” — a role she has sung many times, around the world, to perfection — has just finished singing the role of Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.” The new opera by composer Kevin Puts, which also featured singers Renee Fleming and Kelli O’Hara, made its staged world premiere to rave reviews in November at the Metropolitan Opera.

Now DiDonato’s returning to the Bay Area with a new program, “Eden,” a semi-staged concert focusing on climate, the natural world, and our place in it. Directed by Marie Lambert-Le Bihan and conducted by Zefira Valova, it features DiDonato and the Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro in a program spanning early music to a new work by English composer Rachel Portman. Performances are scheduled at Stanford University and UC Berkeley.

In a recent phone conversation, it was easy to hear DiDonato’s excitement about the project, which she said is both a reflection on the beauties of the natural world and a call to action to preserve them.

“We launched this work in the spring, in Brussels, and we did a handful of festival performances at the end of the summer,” she said. “It’s been the most special project of my career. It feels so timely to be talking about our connection to each other, and to the world around us.”

DiDonato says the project was inspired in part by an earlier program, “In War and Peace: Harmony through Music,” which she performed with Il Pomo d’Oro at Stanford in 2016.

This program is “an extension, if not quite a sequel” to “War and Peace,” she said. “But it’s certainly connected. There was a quote by Jonathan Larson that said ‘the opposite of war is not peace, it’s creation.’ I don’t think it was conscious, when I came up with the title ‘Eden.’ But it’s directly related — that this is about creation, about asking ‘What are we participating in, in the creation from day to day life that we’re living now?’”

The music for the program opens with Ives’s “The Unanswered Question” and closes with Mahler’s autumnal “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen.” In between are works by Cavalli, Handel, Copland and others — along with Portman’s newly composed “Eden.” DiDonato said she’s thrilled with the results.

“When we were setting up the repertoire for this concert, we all wanted to get outside of the Baroque world and go in whatever direction we felt the music would take us,” she said. “I don’t think anyone thought it would take us to Ives, but there we are.”

Portman’s new work, created specifically for this project, exceeded expectations, DiDonato added. “It’s been a joy to work with her,” she said.

“I wanted to commission a piece primarily because the idea of Eden is really all about creation, coming back to creative power in the natural world. And I really wanted to tap into the feminine power — again, Eden being very much about the garden, about Mother Nature, about that idea of nourishment and bringing new life into the world.”

“Rachel created this beautiful soundscape of something that is emerging,” DiDonato added. “We knew that we wanted it to follow the Ives, and she had that composition in mind as well. So we end up with this beautiful seamless start to the concert that really lets people know we’re going to take them on a kind of narrative journey. Every time the music starts, I get so excited, because I know the audience is going to be hearing something so nurturing and beautiful.”

As part of “Eden”’s development, DiDonato has been leading workshops with students — seeking to re-build connections to “nature in its extraordinary balance.”

“You know, I had intended to be a teacher, before I got sidetracked in opera,” she said. “So to have this opportunity to merge that idea of working with kids, elevating them in their lives, has been extraordinary. And to bring this project, which I think in terms of repertoire really shows where I am after twenty-some years in my career, spanning four centuries and loving all the nooks and crannies of this repertoire I’ve been able to do over my career, just feels like such a full-circle moment in every element of what I love about the possibilities of singing.”

Contact Georgia Rowe at growe@pacbell.net.

‘EDEN’

Featuring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato

When & where: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University (presented by Stanford Live); $15-$48; livestanford.edu; 8 p.m. Jan. 21at  Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley (presented by Cal Performances); $18-$86; calperformances.org.