Piedmont in 2011: Top Stories, August-October

'Tis the season when virtually every media outlet does some type of "year in review" feature. Why should Piedmont Patch be different? So, a look back at Piedmont 2011, week by week. We hope you'll find it a snapshot of the year's local news and, perhaps, a reminder of some events you'd forgotten.

We've listed the most popular news article each week, as indicated by our readers through a combination of clicks, tweets, comments and Facebook recommends, except for the first few weeks of 2011 (before the weekly "top stories" feature began to appear). For January and February, we've selected what appeared to be one of the top stories of the week.

To keep the list from seeming endless, we've broken it down into 10-week chunks, with a new batch appearing each day from Dec. 27 through Dec. 31. Today: Aug. 1-Oct. 16.

Aug. 1-6: : On Monday, Piedmont's Congressional representative, Rep. Barbara Lee, voted against the bill to raise the federal debt ceiling, which was subsequently passed by the Senate and signed by the president. Lee opposed the bill because of its provisions to cut trillions from the federal budget without guarantees for revenue enhancements.

Aug. 7-13: : Trains were brought to a near standstill for about two and a half hours starting around 7:30 p.m. Monday evening. Computers displaying train movement had frozen—on BART officials were still unsure why.

Aug. 14-20: : The Piedmont community was saddened by the unexpected death of Alexander Thomas Glenn, a 2005 Piedmont High School graduate, in San Diego Aug. 13. He was remembered at a .  

Aug. 21-27: : Less than six hours after a 5.8-magnitude tumbler surprised the East Coast, the East Bay got a little shake of its own Tuesday. The 3.6-magnitude earthquake felt by hundreds in the zipcodes Piedmont shares with Oakland, was followed by half a dozen smaller aftershocks.  

Aug. 28-Sept. 4: Fentons to Open Replica Soda Fountain: Excitement is building around the ice cream institution's plans to bring old-time soda jerkers back to life at a new place called Myrtle's Lodge later this month.

Sept. 5-11: : The proponent group, PRFO, promised to put up hundreds of thousands of dollars for additional studies of its proposal for sports fields and to indemnify the city from any lawsuits should the project be approved.

Sept. 12-18: : After it when a new landlord hiked the rent, it looks like the branch library will be saved by a move up the street to Piedmont Avenue Elementary School's parking lot.

Sept. 18-25: Scarecrows Stuffed and Staked: Elementary school students and parents line up Buzz Lightyear, The Cat in the Hat, Dracula, and a very tall clown in Scarecrow Alley ahead of Sunday's Harvest Festival.

Sept. 26-Oct. 2: : An uptick in robberies and burglaries in the Montclair Village business district has prompted residents of the Oakland neighborhood just north of Piedmont to take public safety into their own hands.

Oct. 3-9: : A program designed to get teenagers thinking about the consequences of driving drunk had Piedmont High School students watching their classmates play out a fatal accident Monday and attending a . A is planned for this Tuesday.  

Oct. 10-16: : A suggestion that protestors should invade Piedmont touched off lively debate about whether Piedmonters are responsible for any of the economic injustice that have inspired demonstrations from Oakland to New York.