PaloAltoOnline.com
Palo Alto
Vol. XL, Number 23 Q March 8, 2019
Mayor challenges Sacramento on housing Page 5
A parent’s
grief Daughter's death leads to quest to share her artwork with Oprah Page 19
Spring Class Guide 30
Spectrum 16 Eating Out 27 Shop Talk 28 Movies 29 Puzzles 46 Q A&E Pianist Larry Vuckovich keeps jazz legacy going Q Home For novice rose growers, start in miniature Q Sports Pinewood, Menlo look to finish as state’s best
Page 22 Page 33 Page 44
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FREE COMMUNITY TALK Saturday, March 23, 2019 9:30am – 11:30am Mitchell Community Center 3700 Middlefield Road Palo Alto, CA 94303
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Speakers Sigurdis Haraldsdottir, MD Medical Oncology
Uri Ladabaum, MD Gastroenterology
Courtney Rowe-Teeter, MS, LCGC Cancer Genetics
Page 2 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
#CheckYourColon
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 3
PENINSUL A
PHOTO CONTEST
“Beautiful Chaos” by Dan Fenstermacher
ADULT & YOUTH DIVISIONS
2018 Best In Show and Travel Winner
SIX CATEGORIES
Nocturnal | Portraits | Moments Travel | Abstract | The Natural World
ENTRY DEADLINE peninsulacontest2019.artcall.org MAR. 25 Information & Registration:
PRESENTED BY Page 4 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Upfront
Daylight Saving Time begins Set your clocks ahead one hour at 2 a.m. this Sunday.
Local news, information and analysis
Mayor challenges Sacramento on housing
Eric Filseth uses ‘State of the City’ speech to criticize Senate Bill 50, explain pension problem by Gennady Sheyner alo Alto Mayor Eric Filseth used his “State of the City” address on Tuesday to launch a scathing critique of Sacramento lawmakers’ efforts to address California’s housing crisis and to make a case for
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requiring Silicon Valley’s hightech titans to help fill the gap. In an hourlong speech that was part recap of the City Council’s recent accomplishments, part preview of its 2019 plans and part economics seminar, Filseth
used charts, graphs, statistics and renderings of hypothetical multistory developments to build a case against Senate Bill 50 (SB 50), a proposal by state Sen. Scott Wiener to encourage more housing construction by restricting cities’ power to reject residential developments near jobs and transit. He contrasted Sacramento’s legislative approach, which curbs local zoning powers, with his
own vision, which leans on companies like Google, Apple and Facebook to build housing (or contribute housing-impact fees) in conjunction with new office developments. For an example of success, Filseth pointed to Mountain View’s recently adopted (and not yet implemented) North Bayshore Precise Plan, which includes 3.5 million square feet of office space
and 9,850 units of housing. Filseth lauded the plan, which was negotiated between the City Council and Google, as a rare project that creates jobs without making the housing shortage worse. He contrasted that with Cupertino’s development at the Vallco Mall site, which includes 1.5 million square feet of office (continued on page 12)
LAND USE
New homes, parks eyed for Ventura City Council prepares to tackle new ‘coordinated area plan’ for central neighborhood by Gennady Sheyner
literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free,” the company’s website states. Tesla will be winding down many of its showrooms over the next few months, with a small number of those in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers, according to the company’s website. A Tesla spokeswoman could not comment on whether the
or Palo Alto’s elected leaders, the eclectic Ventura neighborhood doesn’t just represent a prime opportunity to add hundreds of apartments, condominiums and other much needed housing. It also represents a new way to plan — one that involves more dialogue between residents and property owners, more public meetings, greater city staff involvement and less fealty to established zoning patterns. If successful, the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan could transform a 60-acre section of Ventura, creating residential complexes, park space and retail as well as improving transportation. It could also serve as a blueprint for reinvigorating other neighborhoods, including downtown Palo Alto, where the City Council plans to roll out a similar exercise in the coming months. The Ventura effort, which has been quietly advancing since last fall, will seize the spotlight on Monday night, when the council holds a special Town Hall session to discuss the plan. The meeting at Ventura Community Center will also give residents a chance to review recent progress and weigh in on what they’d like to see in the plan — and in the neighborhood. While area plans, often known as “specific plans” and “precise plans,” are fairly common in the
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F
Veronica Weber
The mic and the woofer
Sheela Pai introduces her dog Milo during the opening ceremony for the new Pets in Need shelter in Palo Alto. Milo, who was abandoned by his previous owner and expected to live just one more month due to his skin disease, eye disorder and oral cancer, was rescued by the no-kill shelter and cared for by Pai. That was four years ago, and today Milo is doing well.
BUSINESS
Tesla pulls the plug on showrooms
Palo Alto-based automaker to focus on online sales by Linda Taaffe hose looking to test drive a brand new Tesla may have to buy the car first. The Palo Alto-based electric automaker announced last week that it
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plans to shut down its showrooms and shift sales to online only as part of the company’s strategy to cut costs so it can offer its newly launched mid-range Model 3
version for $35,000. Tesla currently has 378 showrooms worldwide, including two in Palo Alto, where potential buyers can test drive the company’s electric cars or at least get an up-close look at new models. After the showrooms close, potential car owners will likely have to purchase a vehicle online before they can take one for a drive, according to the company’s website. “A test drive prior to purchase isn’t needed. You can now return a car within seven days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Quite
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 5
Upfront 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 326-8210
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Circulation Assistant Alicia Santillan Computer System Associate Chris Planessi The Palo Alto Weekly (ISSN 0199-1159) is published every Friday by Embarcadero Media, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306, (650) 326-8210. Periodicals postage paid at Palo Alto, CA and additional mailing offices. Adjudicated a newspaper of general circulation for Santa Clara County. The Palo Alto Weekly is delivered free to homes in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, East Palo Alto, to faculty and staff households on the Stanford campus and to portions of Los Altos Hills. If you are not currently receiving the paper, you may request free delivery by calling 326-8210. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302. ©2018 by Embarcadero Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. The Palo Alto Weekly is available on the Internet via Palo Alto Online at: www.PaloAltoOnline.com Our email addresses are: editor@paweekly.com, letters@paweekly.com, digitalads@paweekly.com, ads@paweekly.com Missed delivery or start/stop your paper? Call (650) 223-6557, or email circulation@paweekly.com. You may also subscribe online at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Subscriptions are $60/yr.
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It’s very hard to find examples of industry in the West where titans were brought down by city councils in suburbs. — Eric Filseth, Palo Alto Mayor, on his opposition to SB 50. See story page 5.
Around Town
STANDING TALL ... Palo Alto resident Christine Blasey Ford, who has become known for going public with her sexualassault allegations against nowSupreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has been selected as the 24th Assembly District’s Woman of the Year, state Assemblyman Marc Berman’s office announced on Monday. Ford, 52, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University, was picked for her “remarkable act of courage” in testifying about her claims before the Senate Judiciary Committee in late September. “Dr. Ford exhibited strength and dignity under the most extraordinary conditions, and in telling her truth, she paved the way for countless other survivors to tell their own,” Berman said in a statement. Ford is currently not teaching classes at the university, but is continuing to conduct biostatistics research and work with doctoral students. “I’m very grateful to Assemblymember Berman for this recognition, particularly his understanding that fulfilling my civic duty came at a personal cost to my family,” Ford said in a statement provided by Berman’s office. She will receive the award at a private event later this month, according to the assemblyman. CONSULTATIONS ... It’s no secret that Palo Alto is struggling to fill the gaping holes in its leadership ranks, with the current list of vacancies including fire chief, chief financial officer, assistant city manager and chief transportation official. Some of these positions are now filled on an interim basis; others aren’t filled at all. This week, the City Council took a step to address the leadership challenges at City Hall when it approved $450,000 in contracts with four different consulting firms: BluePoint Planning, BovoTighe, Management Partners and Municipal Resource Group (MRG). Under the three-year contracts, the consultants will be charged with helping the city implement organizational change, provide leadership training and help develop a performance-management
system at City Hall. A report from the Utilities Department cites retiring baby boomers and a “highly competitive job market” as reasons for the multitude of vacancies, both in Palo Alto and in other cities. The City Council approved the contracts on its consent calendar, with no discussion or dissent. But Councilman Greg Tanaka, who was absent, registered his concerns in a letter to City Manager Ed Shikada, in which he questioned the need for the consultants. In his response, Shikada wrote that the city’s 18 departments “are in need of organizational development professional services to maintain and enhance service deliveries, implement continuous improvement programs and operate effective work teams.” In addition to these four contracts, the council approved adding $100,000 to the city’s separate $300,000 contract with MRG to help Human Resources manage “highly sensitive and complex personnel matters.” And the March 4 approvals came just one week after the City Council agreed to hand over management of the Office of the City Auditor to the consulting firm, Management Partners, while the city weighs long-term organizational changes to the small office. BORN TO SAIL ... Stan Honey of Palo Alto has gained recognition for his accomplished journeys as the Cruising Club of America’s 2018 Far Horizons Award recipient. The prize is given to a member or members of the organization for “a particularly meritorious voyage or series of voyages that exemplify the objectives of the Club,” the organization announced on Wednesday. Honey has 22 sailing records under his belt as either a navigator or singlehanded skipper. In 2010, he was a navigator on the trimaran Groupama 3 that set a record for the world’s fastest global circumnavigation at 48 days, seven days and 45 minutes. Honey holds 30 patents in navigation and graphics and has won an Emmy for techology that was in the 2013 America’s Cup. Q
Upfront CITY FINANCES
Even with higher revenues, Palo Alto plans for budget cuts
City Council prepares to trim costs in order to fund pension obligations by Gennady Sheyner picture for the next decade. And if the document is to be believed, the picture is mostly rosy, thanks in large part to healthy gains in property- and sales-tax revenues. But in approving the document by a 6-0 vote on Monday night, with Councilman Greg Tanaka absent, the City Council cautiously endorsed the report’s conclusions even as it questioned some of its assumptions. The council will revisit some of these assumptions in the coming months, as it begins to put together the budget for fiscal year 2020, which begins on July 1. The new forecast is intended to be the first step in the budgetsetting process, Interim Chief Financial Officer Kylie Nose told the
Ventura
of the city and a major employer (Google) coming together to craft a proposal that includes a significant amount of housing (9,000 units) along with 3.5 million square feet of commercial space. Councilman Tom DuBois went as far as to propose last month that the council make Ventura one of its top priorities for 2019, though the council stopped short of adopting his proposal. Palo Alto’s recently adopted Comprehensive Plan also includes a policy urging coordinated area plans for parts of the city where “significant change is foreseeable.” Comprehensive Plan programs call for use of this planning tool to create a new vision for downtown as well as North Ventura. The Ventura plan is focusing on a 60-acre area bounded by Page Mill Road, El Camino Real, Lambert Avenue and the Caltrain tracks. A new report from the Department of Planning and Community Environment calls the site “a rare opportunity within the City to plan proactively.” Housing will also be a major focus, with the site of Fry’s Electronics as the most likely location for new residential complexes. The report calls the Fry’s area “one of the city’s largest housing opportunity sites.” While the broader community has yet to truly get involved in the exercise, area stakeholders and members of the 14-member North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan Working Group have already indicated what they’d like to see in the new Ventura. Housing is a popular proposition, though participants at the most recent meeting on Feb. 5 said they would like to see the city focus on affordable housing or, at the very least, to have a mix of market- and below-market-rate units. More than 70 percent of the participants at the meeting also said they would support ignoring the city’s 50-foot height limit in order
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(continued from page 5)
region (Mountain View’s recently adopted North Bayshore Precise Plan is a prominent example), Palo Alto’s record with this zoning tool is at best mixed. The city used area planning in the early 2000s to reimagine a nine-block section south of downtown, adopting the “South of Forest Area (SOFA)” Coordinated Area Plan in two phases. Spurred by the relocation of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, the plan resulted in the creation of 160 housing units, about 30,000 square feet of retail and office space and the creation of Heritage Park. Other efforts to adopt new visions for “underdeveloped” areas have fizzled. The council approved in 2012 a “concept area plan” for the East Meadow Circle and Fabian Way area, which aimed to encourage commercial development (that plan, much like the goal it strove for, largely has been abandoned by the council). City planners also spent several years developing a concept area plan for the California Avenue area, which called for (among other things) the creation of a “technology corridor overlay” zone on Park Avenue to attract more tech firms, policies to encourage more mixed-use developments and the addition of a new hotel. The council ultimately agreed in 2012 not to adopt that plan. Now, the council is hoping for a better result in Ventura. Several current council members have lauded area plans as a great tool for both addressing the regional housing shortage and for enhancing local neighborhoods. Vice Mayor Adrian Fine has been a major supporter of such plans and Mayor Eric Filseth highlighted the North Bayshore plan in Mountain View in his “State of the City” speech as a rare and great example
council during the Monday discussion. The document, she told the council, provides the city “with a very high-level overview of where we’re at and where we’re going” to help inform the council’s future policy decisions. Yet the document also reflects the decisions that the council has already made. For the first time, the forecast assumes a lower rate of return (or “discount rate”) for pension investments than the rate used by CalPERS, the giant statewide fund that administers Palo Alto’s pensions. The forecast assumes a 6.2 percent discount rate for CalPERS, a rate that was recommended by a CalPERS consultant in 2016 but that is lower than
The council’s task of budgeting for a smaller discount rate is made somewhat easier by strong revenue figures. The new forecast shows property taxes rising every year between now and 2029, generally by 5 to 6 percent. This revenue source has nearly doubled in the past decade, increasing from $18.7 million in 2010 to a projected $36.1 million in 2019. Sales-tax revenues are also coming in at levels greater than anticipated. Staff from the Administrative Services Department projects that sales-tax revenues will reach $32.4 million this year, about $1.2 million more than the city had budgeted, and that they will grow to $34.3 million in fiscal year 2020. Thanks in large part to these factors, staff is projecting tax growth of 7.2 percent in 2020, $9.1 million above the current year. City officials are also buoyed by the fact that Bay Area unemployment remains low (2.5 percent) and its job growth remains high (2.1 percent in the last quarter). (continued on page 10)
Weekly file photo/Veronica Weber
espite growing employee salaries, rising pension costs and general uncertainty over the broader economy, Palo Alto leaders are feeling increasingly chipper when it comes to the city’s financial health, thanks in part to a new forecast that shows strong growth in taxes. The city’s budget team is predicting years of steady and comfortable growth, with small budget gaps in the next few years gradually giving way to healthy revenue surpluses thereafter. That, at least, is the projection in the city’s Long-Range Financial Forecast, a document that aims to achieve an admittedly impossible goal: predicting the city’s budget
the 7 percent used by CalPERS. The lower discount rate in the forecast is part of a broader effort by the council to brace for growing pension obligations. The council has also been contributing money to an irrevocable pension trust and directing staff to cut $4 million from the budget, changes that will likely spark difficult decisions before the council’s budget adoption in June. Mayor Eric Filseth, who has long championed the more conservative assumptions on pensions, argued on Monday that while the council’s new position creates some tricky short-term budget challenges, it is necessary to ensure long-term stability for employees. “People shouldn’t lose sight of the fact of what we’re buying by doing this,” Filseth said. “What this means is that going forward, our future employee pensions in the city will be fully funded. ... If you’re not at 6.2 percent, you’re not fully funding future pensions and you’re still piling on big debt. But our pensions will be fully funded, and that’s why we’re doing this.”
Fry’s Electronics is located on a major property in the Ventura neighborhood of Palo Alto, which is undergoing a coordinated, city-led planning process. to encourage housing construction, though 21 percent said they would not. Attracting new housing construction will have to overcome steep economic barriers, however. City consultants Perkins+Will, in meetings with Ventura property owners, residents and housing advocates, found that the owners of the Fry’s site are looking for “significantly denser” housing to be in the plan — which would make residential development economically more on par with office space, which fetches higher rates. Staff for the landowner, The Sobrato Organization, also discussed with the city’s consultants a scenario in which “stack parking” would be introduced just north of Fry’s, opening up the southern parking lot for residents. In this case, Portage Avenue would separate the residential and office buildings. Residents, for their part, have been calling for more green space, retail shops and pedestrian amenities. The idea of refurbishing the concrete Matadero Creek to create a new walking trail and
enhance the natural habitat also proved popular, both at stakeholder meetings and at the Feb. 5 community meeting, where it emerged as the most popular recreational amenity. Some residents have also proposed widening sidewalks on Park Boulevard and prohibiting cars from the neighborhood streets within the area. The idea of restricting car access came out of the consultants’ January meeting with Ventura residents David Adams, DiHuyen Ho, Linnea Wickstrom and Waldeck Kaczmarski, who argued that access to new developments should be “limited to emergency access and commercial delivery.” Otherwise, they argued, cars should only enter and exit the neighborhood from El Camino Real and Oregon Expressway. Most of the 35 people who attended the Feb. 5 meeting on the Ventura plan shared those sentiments, with just 12 percent saying they would like to see improvements that create “more connections for pedestrians, bikes and
cars.” By contrast, 69 percent supported improvements that create “more connections for pedestrians and bikes, but not cars,” according to real-time polls conducted at the meeting. Adams and Ho, who reside on Olive Avenue, also urged the city to make sure that greenspace on what is now the Fry’s property is accessible to both those future occupants and to nearby residents. “We would hate to see a ‘fortress’ type development with buildings around the outside and community greenspace in the middle making it uninviting to the general public,” Adams and Ho wrote in a letter to the city. After Monday’s council meeting, staff and consultants will hold two more Working Group meetings before putting together the draft plan over the summer and fall months. If things go as planned, the council would adopt the new document at the end of this year or in early 2020. Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 7
Upfront EDUCATION
Mayor suggests Sequoia Union absorb Ravenswood school district Menlo council to study idea for K-12 district in June
he mayor of Menlo Park has floated an idea with major implications for the Ravenswood City School District: that the Sequoia Union High School District could absorb the struggling K-8 district and create a K-12 system. Ravenswood is in the midst of leadership upheaval, with the school board placing a controversial superintendent on paid leave last week, and is facing difficult questions about declining enrollment, fiscal stability and the expansion of a district charter school. Ravenswood serves about 2,390 primarily low-income and minority students in East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park. Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller made his suggestion during a discussion of upcoming City Council study sessions on Tuesday night. The council agreed to dedicate a June 18 session to discussing equity in local education more broadly, including this suggestion and other topics. “It seems that for years the success rate of (Ravenswood
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by Elena Kadvany students) going into high school and also graduation rates ... has been an issue, and it may be that perhaps a K-12 district with Sequoia’s resources might be able to address that and also provide some stability” to Ravenswood, Mueller said. Tamara Sobomehin, president of the Ravenswood Board of Education, was unaware of the Suggestion that Sequoia absorb Ravenswood until Mueller stated it publicly. “It’s unfortunate that we have to hear from a public announcement that a proposal of this magnitude has been made without inclusion and consideration of current leadership representatives from our board and district,” Sobomehin said Wednesday afternoon. Sequoia Union Superintendent Mary Streshly also said she was not in a position to comment because “our district has not been contacted by the city of Menlo Park.” By Wednesday evening, Mueller had connected with Sobomehin and invited her and Sequoia
representatives to participate in the June study session, he said. He is also setting up a meeting with Ravenswood’s acting superintendent, Gina Sudaria. This is not Mueller’s first proposal related to the Ravenswood school district. During his time on the council, he has suggested installing electronic billboards on public land to generate revenue for the district (this did not move forward) and pursued working with other local jurisdictions to create a joint powers authority that could increase funding for the district. The latter proposal is not off the table and will be considered at the council’s June study session, Mueller said. Some residents of Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood have pressed officials in recent years to transfer their two neighborhood schools, Belle Haven Elementary and Willow Oaks Elementary, from Ravenswood to the Menlo Park City School District (MPCSD). Ravenswood Superintendent Gloria Hernandez-Goff, who is
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currently on administrative leave, did not mince words about this at the time, calling any attempt to remove Menlo Park schools from the Ravenswood district a “power grab” with the “sole purpose of increasing Menlo Park property values.” Given that Ravenswood feeds into Sequoia Union’s high schools, Mueller said it is more equitable and sensible for Sequoia — even as a high school district — to absorb all of Ravenswood’s elementary and middle schools, rather than for the Menlo Park district to do so. Menlo Park serves just under 3,000 students at four schools. Sequoia serves nearly 10,000 students at four comprehensive high schools (Carlmont, MenloAtherton, Sequoia and Woodside), one charter school (East Palo Alto Academy), one continuation high school (Redwood High School) and other programs. The district is also the sponsoring agency for two independent charter high schools in Redwood City. Parke Treadway, public information officer for the Menlo Park school district, said that no current district staff or board members have been involved in any discussions with the city regarding Ravenswood, though district affiliates may have been in the past. “MPCSD does remain open to participating in any and all conversations regarding the future of
education in our area, including the potential value of district consolidation,” Treadway wrote in an email. “At this time, we are not actively working with our peer districts to make that happen, yet remain open to participation in the discussion.” Menlo Park Vice Mayor Cecilia Taylor said Tuesday that the city should involve in any discussions representatives from Belle Haven and Willow Oaks schools as well stakeholders from LifeMoves, a Menlo Park nonprofit that provides services to Ravenswood families facing homelessness. Between now and June, city staff will be reaching out to stakeholders and gathering information for the City Council to consider at the study session, Mueller said. Sobomehin said that “any decisions about Ravenswood’s future will be a community conversation that we drive. I encourage others to join our efforts and help support the definitive steps we are taking to ensure our students’ success.” Q Staff Writer Elena Kadvany can be emailed at ekadvany@ paweekly.com.
TALK ABOUT IT
www.PaloAltoOnline.com Give your opinion on Mueller’s idea, and read others’, on Town Square, the community discussion forum at PaloAltoOnline.com/square.
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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 9
Upfront HIGHER EDUCATION
Report: Heavy drinking persists at Stanford, despite university efforts by Elena Kadvany or most of the last decade, at least one Stanford University student on average has gone to the emergency room every week due to alcohol poisoning, an alcohol-related injury or both. This statistic, sparking concern among administrators about the impact of drinking “at levels well beyond normal recreational use,” was released last week as part of what will become an annual report on undergraduate alcohol use. The report “shows that despite numerous efforts to reduce the harmful impact of alcohol in our community, the problem has persisted,” Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole wrote in a message to students. Her message followed an announcement in January about a new focus on the issue at Stanford. The report draws on six years of anonymous survey data, administered to freshmen at Stanford before they started classes in August and again between September and December. (Data from the 2014-15 school year is missing, however, because a “different educational platform” was used that year, according to the report.) In addition to the emergencyroom statistic, the survey also found an alarming rise in what Stanford describes as “high-risk drinking behaviors” among freshmen, including pre-gaming and choosing a drink with more alcohol, both of which went up by more than 10 percent since 201112. Students also reported taking shots and chugging alcohol. In her message to students, Brubaker-Cole also highlighted a concern about binge drinking,
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defined in the survey as five or more drinks in a row within a twohour period for men and four or more drinks for women. Binge drinking increased slightly in recent years, from 27 percent in 2011-12 to 30 percent in 2016-17 and 31 percent in 2017-18. At the same time, however, the proportion of students who had engaged in binge drinking multiple times, as opposed to once, decreased from 17 percent in 2016-17 to 15 percent last year, according to the report. Brubaker-Cole told students that what feels like an accepted norm in college could actually be harmful for their cognitive abilities. “On one hand, we know this occurs in college. On the other hand, all of you are working so hard to grow as individuals and prepare for your future. Consuming four drinks in a sitting for women, and five for men, on a regular basis compromises those efforts and could have long-term impacts,” she wrote. Overall, student alcohol use has gone up slightly since 2011 — 54 percent of freshmen last year who responded to the survey said that they had consumed alcohol in the prior two weeks, compared to 51 percent in 2011. This peaked at 57 percent in the 2013-14 school year. Female students reported drinking at slightly higher rates than male students over the last three years — in the two weeks prior to taking the survey, 53 percent of women reported drinking compared to 46 percent of men in 2017-18, according to the report. Unsurprisingly, most students’ alcohol use takes place in campus residences, according to the survey results. The second most
CityView A round-up
of Palo Alto government action this week
Board of Education (Feb. 28)
Budget: The board discussed the district budget in a special study session. Action: None
City Council (March 4)
Finances: The council discussed and approved the 2019-2030 long-term financial forecast. Yes: Cormack, DuBois, Filseth, Fine, Kniss, Kou Absent: Tanaka
Utilities Advisory Commission (March 6) Underground Conversion: The commission discussed the effort to relocate electric lines from overhead to underground. Action: None Portal: The commission discussed the proposal for a new online customer portal. Action: None
Architectural Review Board (March 7)
233 University Ave.: The board discussed a proposal to seismically rehabilitate an existing one-story building and to add a second story for office use and a rooftop terrace. The board continued its discussion to a later date. Action: None 375 University Ave.: The board held a preliminary review on a proposal to modify and create façade improvements to the former Cheesecake Factory building. Action: None
LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com
Page 10 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Survey: More Stanford frosh are ‘pregaming’*
‘Pregaming’ is drinking or getting drunk prior to going out and socializing 80 70 60 Percent
Survey shows most ‘high risk’ behaviors among frosh increased since 2011-12
60
62
2011-12 (n=801)
2012-13 (n=750)
72
70
2013-14 (n=457)
2014-15 (n=697)
74
74
2015-16 (n=765)
2016-17 (n=703)
68
50 40 30 20 10 0
2017-18 (n=4175)
*Percentage pertains only to the pool of freshmen who also stated they drank in the two weeks prior taking the Stanford alcohol survey. Source: Stanford University common place where students reported drinking was fraternities and sororities — which peaked at 25 percent in 2015-16 — followed by athletic events and off-campus residences (which also peaked in 2015-16, at 11 percent). Students were also asked about their reasons for consuming alcohol. The top four reasons, according to the survey results, are to have a good time with friends, to celebrate, to feel connected to the people and to get drunk. Students were also asked about whether they had been sexually assaulted or had sexually assaulted another person while drinking in the past two weeks. The report notes that this data is included to provide transparency but “it is critical that alcohol use and sexual violence are not conflated in ways that blame victims.” The number of students who said they had been taken advantage of
Budget (continued from page 7)
And even though the city’s expenditures are expected to increase by about 9.1 percent, from $210.7 million in the current fiscal year to $229.9 million in fiscal year 2020, some of this increase is attributable as much to the council’s conservative assumptions as to the city’s economy or the council’s spending priorities. Several council members noted that the budget picture is somewhat counter-intuitive: By trying to be more responsible and realistic in its pension assumptions, the council is creating a budget gap that is making the city’s financial picture look worse than it is. “We are taking on some new assumptions, which in a funny way increase costs going forward,”
sexually has remained relatively steady the last two years, following a two peak years of 14 percent from 2012 to 2014. Just over 9 percent of respondents (711 students) reported they had been taken advantage of sexually in conjunction with alcohol last year. About 3 percent of respondents said they took advantage of another person sexually while drinking the last two years. That percentage peaked in 2012-13, when almost 10 percent of respondents said that. Brubaker-Cole said that reinvigorating Stanford’s “limited” on-campus social scene, which could be contributing to higher levels of alcohol consumption, is a priority for her office. She has engaged with more than 20 students to discuss ideas for this, including a proposal to create a student-run space designated for social gatherings and events, such as trivia nights. Students have also
proposed bringing new social options to the Row (Stanford’s fraternity and sorority houses), including using Mayfield Avenue at night for block parties or to host food trucks. Cardinal Nights, which provides alcohol-free social programming at Stanford, has seen a 24 percent increase in participation over the last three years, according to the report. Perhaps commensurate with increases in students’ drinking habits, use of Stanford’s free, safe rides service has shot up by more than 100 percent over the last three years, according to the report. A working group composed of students, faculty and staff is also studying student alcohol use and will soon seek input from students, Brubaker-Cole said. Q Staff Writer Elena Kadvany can be emailed at ekadvany@ paweekly.com.
Vice Mayor Adrian Fine said. “That’s because we’re being more realistic about it.” For Councilman Tom DuBois, the new document in some ways isn’t realistic enough, particularly when it comes to labor costs. He pointed to the forecast’s assumption that the city’s expenditures will go up only slightly (between 1 percent and 2.5 percent) every year between 2022 and 2029. That, he noted, clashes with the city’s recent history and near future, which is based on recently adopted employee contracts (the projected 9.1 percent growth in expenses in 2020 is largely thanks to growing labor costs). DuBois recommended basing growth in the future years on recent trends (which show significant increases to employee compensations), rather than an expectation of slow and steady growth. Others, however, argued that the forecast is
inherently imprecise, particularly when it comes to the distant years, and that its predictions don’t need to be as specific as DuBois had hoped they would be. Councilwoman Liz Kniss recalled the global recession that began in September 2008 and that surprised just about every elected leader (she was a Santa Clara County supervisor at the time). An event like that, she said, can quickly upend all city, county and state assumptions about the economy. “It’s really hard to predict,” Kniss said. “We’ve been in a very long bull market and one has to wonder how long will this go on and have we become sort of comfortable with what we’re currently dealing with? Are we going to be ready when something hits?” Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.
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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 11
Upfront
News Digest Simitian to hold Town Hall on Stanford growth
Stanford removes Lagunita dam
Water is now flowing freely along a 480-foot stretch of San Francisquito Creek after Stanford University removed the aged Lagunita Diversion Dam. The 120-year-old dam was located near Alpine Road and the Stanford Weekend Acres neighborhood. The latter is in unincorporated Menlo Park. Removing the 8-foot-high structure now allows water to flow freely downstream to support endangered-fish-species habitat in the creek. San Francisquito is home to a population of the Central California Coast Distinct Population Segment of steelhead. Removal of the concrete structure began in June 2018 and took five months to complete, according to the university. This section of the creek has been restored to include large rock boulders, logs and crib walls to create pools and riffles (rocky shallows) similar to other parts of the creek favored by the steelhead. The dam was part of a decades-old controversy regarding Searsville and Lagunita dams. Two environmental groups, Our Children’s Earth Foundation and Ecological Rights Foundation, sued Stanford in 2014 claiming that the university had violated the Endangered Species and Clean Water acts by continuing to keep the Lagunita Dam in place. The university and plaintiffs reached a temporary settlement to halt the lawsuit and a separate legal action regarding Searsville Dam until Stanford could obtain regulatory approvals to change water flow at the Jasper Ridge Road Crossing and remove Lagunita Dam. Stanford has completed the so-called low-flow crossing at Jasper Ridge Road. Q —Sue Dremann
Stanford employee denies charges in stabbing
A Stanford University employee arrested Sunday in San Francisco has been charged with attempted homicide for allegedly stabbing his girlfriend while under the influence of LSD, San Francisco prosecutors said. During his arraignment Wednesday, James Shirvell, 26, pleaded not guilty to the attempted homicide charge, as well as charges of domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury. According to court documents, Shirvell stabbed his girlfriend numerous times with a kitchen knife at a home in the 500 block of Kansas Street early Sunday morning around 12:25 a.m. Both had taken LSD, a hallucinogen, together at some point before the stabbing. In court, while arguing for his release, Shirvell’s attorney Eric Safire recognized that the victim’s injuries were severe but called the stabbing an “isolated incident and really an anomaly.” Several of Shirvell’s family and friends showed up to court and Judge Rita Lin allowed some of them to give statements on his behalf. One statement was in a letter from the victim, Shirvell’s girlfriend, who remains hospitalized for stab wounds and lacerations to her shoulder, arm, back, face and head. She also suffered a collapsed lung, according to court documents. In the letter, which was read by the victim’s mother, the victim said Shirvell had “pure intentions” but that night he was “possessed by another force.” She also called the incident a “horrific accident.” Shirvell is employed as an assistant director of admission at Stanford and has been placed on leave, university officials said. Shirvell is set to appear in court again on March 13. Q —Bay City News/Palo Alto Weekly LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com
Page 12 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Veronica Weber
The latest on Stanford University’s proposed expansion plans will be the subject of a Town Hall meeting March 14 at Palo Alto City Hall hosted by Joe Simitian, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, and the Palo Alto Weekly. The university has applied for permission from the county to grow its campus by 2.275 million square feet of academic space, 550 units of housing and 2,600 student beds. Its application and the analysis of its potential impact on housing, traffic, the environment and more are now under review by the county. In addition, Simitian and Supervisor Cindy Chavez are in negotiations with Stanford over a possible development agreement that could address a range of community needs and the university’s contributions to meet those needs. Simitian — whose public service includes tenures as Palo Alto mayor, California state senator and California state assemblyman, and other roles — will be joined in a discussion by Palo Alto Weekly Editor Jocelyn Dong and city hall reporter Gennady Sheyner. Questions from the audience will also be taken. The Town Hall will be held in the City Council chambers from 6:30-8 p.m. Q —Palo Alto Weekly staff Palo Alto Mayor Eric Filseth outlines various issues the city will need to tackle in 2019 during his State of the City address at Mitchell Park Community Center on March 5.
State of the City (continued from page 5)
space, 485,000 square feet of retail and 2,923 units of housing. That development, he noted, was approved despite the council’s initial opposition — thanks to Senate Bill 35, a Wiener-authored bill that creates a streamlining process for multifamily housing developments. Filseth argued that amount of housing in the Vallco development is insufficient to meet the job growth, worsening the area’s housing shortage by 2,000 to 3,000 units. It’s hard to argue, he said, that such a project is good for Cupertino. “If you are a person who believes that the right way to solve the region’s housing crisis is to turn control over to Sacramento, then this case provides a counterexample,” Filseth said. The speech, which Filseth delivered to more than 100 residents and city employees packed into the Mitchell Park Community Center, was a remarkable departure from typical “State of the City” addresses, which tend to be high on ceremony, platitudes and anecdotes and low on pie charts, bar graphs and economic theories. As per custom, Filseth recapped the council’s 2018 accomplishments — including new contracts for the animal shelter and Rinconada Pool, progress on a new public-safety building and approval of Palo Alto’s first affordable-housing development in seven years — and briefly touched on the council’s four priorities for 2019: transportation, grade separation, climate change and long-term financial sustainability. He cited the city’s programs to reduce traffic congestion, including the progress of the Palo Alto Transportation Management Association (a nonprofit charged
with reducing traffic); mentioned recent efforts to encourage electric vehicle use; and, in talking about separating the roads from the rail corridor, acknowledged that a citywide tunnel for the Caltrain tracks is probably not going to happen. “It’s still conceivable to do a citywide tunnel, but the problem is it’s very expensive and it’s not clear where the money would come from,” Filseth said. As the council’s leading proponent of pension reform, Filseth also delved into the council’s recent decision to change its assumptions about CalPERS investment returns. The shift from an anticipated rate of return of 7 percent to 6.2 percent, which is embedded in the city’s new budget, is requiring the city to budget more for pensions in the short term. But Filseth noted that it is also making the city’s pension system more stable. Palo Alto, he said, is the only city in the state that is using the lower rate, which is based on an estimate from CalPERS consultants. “What this means is that you as an employee, if you come to work for us in Palo Alto ... your pension will be fully funded. Your pension will be fully secure. You go to any other city in the state? I don’t know,” Filseth said, shrugging. he bulk of his speech, however, was devoted to housing, which is no longer an official council priority but which remains a topic of widespread community concern (the most recent National Citizen Survey showed only 23 percent of the residents giving the city a high grade when it comes to “housing”; only “traffic” scored worse on the list of problem areas). He framed the state’s housing crisis in terms of economics: Building housing is expensive, he said. Building affordable housing even more so. Sacramento efforts like SB 50,
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which override local zoning powers, don’t address the economics of building affordable housing and “don’t really fix the process,” which encourages development of commercial space (and its more lucrative rents) over residential, Filseth said. Though he highlighted the council’s recent approval of the 59-unit Wilton Court development on El Camino Real, which consists entirely of belowmarket-rate housing, he noted that the project required a $10 million contribution from the city and effectively depleted the city’s affordable-housing fund. The best that efforts like SB 50 can do, Filseth argued, is “extend the existing process for a few more turns” by creating a small amount of market-rate housing. A better approach, he argued, is to require tech companies like Google and Apple to build housing in conjunction with office growth. This could mean requiring companies to build a unit of housing for every job (or two jobs) and to build a school for every 1,000 jobs. Filseth also advocated raising the affordablehousing impact fee from the current level of $30 for every square foot of commercial development — a proposal that has in the past divided the council. Filseth noted that in the past year, the top 150 companies in Silicon Valley have reaped $934 billion in sales and suggested that they can do far more to assist to the communities that they depend on to house their workers. He framed the difference between his view and that espoused by proponents of SB 50 as a clash of two hypotheses: One that sees “local zoning in the suburbs” as the biggest culprit in the housing shortage and another one that places blame in the region’s “underinvestment in core infrastructure.” He said he leans toward the latter. “It’s very hard to find examples of industry in the West where
Upfront titans were brought down by city councils in suburbs,� Filseth said. “However, it is replete with titans who are brought down by the distraction on short-term results on slowness to invest in the core infrastructure that supports the foundation of their business.� Even as he bashed SB 50, Filseth lauded Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed “Marshall Plan� for affordable housing, which calls for investment in housing by both the state and by large corporations. Newsom also supports penalties (in the form of withheld transportation funding) for cities that fail to meet their housing obligations. ot everyone agreed with Filseth’s critique of SB50 and other Sacramento efforts to curb local zoning powers. Vice Chair Adrian Fine, who supports the Wiener bill, said it’s perfectly possible to believe in both hypotheses: that companies can contribute more and that cities can do more to support housing. “Until cities can prove that they are willing to invest, whether monetarily or with policies, into the housing side, the state will keep on coming at us,� Fine told the Weekly after the speech. This was the second year in a row in which housing was the central issue in a “State of the City� speech. Last year, thenMayor Liz Kniss focused her speech on the importance of affordable housing in preserving community diversity. Since Kniss made her speech, the council has made some progress on the housing front. This includes approving the Wilton Court development; creating a new affordable-housing overlay district; revising the zoning code to, among other things, eliminate the “maximum units� stipulation in multifamily residential zones; and creating “housing incentive programs� that allow new residential buildings to be more dense in downtown, around California Avenue or along El Camino Real. The incentive programs, which Filseth supported, were designed to give developers an alternative to SB 35. Filseth, a retired tech executive who is one of the council’s most moderate and pragmatic members, didn’t propose any flashy new initiatives in his speech. Rather, he said 2019 will be a “nuts-and-bolts year.� “This year, we’re going to focus on good government, focus on high-quality and efficient services to the residents and being a good neighbor to the region,� Filseth said. “There are some times (when) you’ve got to be a rock star. Other times you’ve got to be rock solid. This is the year for the government in Palo Alto to be rock solid.� Filseth’s full speech is posted on the city of Palo Alto Facebook page at https://bit.ly/2qzinj6. Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.
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Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to hold a Town Hall meeting with the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan Working Group to discuss next steps on the area plan. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 11, at Ventura Community Center, 3990 Ventura Court. BOARD OF EDUCATION ... The board will vote on the district’s second interim budget report and discuss the parts of the district-wide “PAUSD Promise� plan and the appointment of independent auditors. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12, at the district office, 25 Churchill Ave. PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ... The commission plans to hold a study session to discuss Municipal Code conflicts with the voluntary installation of electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle lockers, and state-mandated compliance with the American with Disabilities Act, within existing parking facilities. The commission will also consider approving a vesting tentative map to allow four residential condominium units and two office units on a parcel at 190 Channing Ave. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13, in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave. HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD ... The board plans to hold a retreat at 8 a.m. on Thursday, March 14, in the Community Meeting Room at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave. HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION ... The commission plans to meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 14, in the Community Meeting Room at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave. The agenda was not available by press time.
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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 13
Upfront
Tesla (continued from page 5)
Palo Alto showrooms at Stanford Shopping Center and on El Camino Real, near West Charleston Road, are among those that will remain open or how many employees will be impacted. According to California’s Employment Development Department, the company filed a notice in January that it would be permanently laying off 78 workers in Palo Alto before the end of this month. The company spokeswoman told the Weekly that those staff reductions are
not related to the closing of its showrooms. Tesla announced the layoffs in January, she said, as part of its goal to shrink its full-time employee head count by 7 percent globally. With the cost savings, the company plans to focus on increasing production of its mid-range Model 3, which has a range of 264 miles, according to the Tesla website. The Stanford showroom, in particular, has provided local Tesla car owners, as well as the curious, a sneak peek at the company’s electric cars. It was here where the company officially unveiled its Model 3 for the first time in January 2018, attracting
a crowd outside its doors waiting to get a hands-on look at the sedan. Many, like Stanford University employee Jean Nguyen, had been waiting for months for the opportunity to check out the Model 3 in person since putting down deposits on the car nearly two years earlier when the company began taking reservations. After the January 2018 unveiling, Tesla planned to bring Model 3 display and test-drive vehicles to showrooms across the country. The release of the Telsa Model 3 mid-range version has been long anticipated. The company started limited production of the Model 3 in 2017 but only made high-end
versions of the vehicle with an average asking price of $55,000 when the first batch rolled off the production line. Last week, the company announced that the Model 3 is now available starting at $35,000. On the heels of that announcement, Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted this week that the new Model Y, a crossover based on
the Model 3, will be unveiled on March 14. “Model Y, being an SUV, is about 10 percent bigger than Model 3, so will cost about 10 percent more and have slightly less range for same battery,” he wrote on March 3. Q Associate Editor Linda Taaffe can be emailed at ltaaffe@ paweekly.com.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION DATE: March 14, 2019, Special Meeting TIME: 1:30 PM PLACE: Isaac Newton Senter Auditorium, County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, 1st Floor, San Jose, CA 95110
Notice to the Public The Planning Commission may take other actions relating to the issues as may be determined following consideration of the matter and discussion of the recommended actions. Opening
1. Call to Order/Roll Call. 2. Pledge of Allegiance. 3. Public Comment. This item is reserved for persons desiring to address the Commission on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Commission that is not on this agenda. Members of the public who wish to address the Commission on any item not listed on the agenda should complete a Request to Speak Form and place it in the tray near the podium. The Chairperson will call individuals to the podium in turn. :WLHRLYZ HYL SPTP[LK [V [OL MVSSV^PUN! [OYLL TPU\[LZ PM [OL *OHPYWLYZVU VY KLZPNULL KL[LYTPULZ [OH[ Ä]L VY ML^LY ZWLHRLYZ ^PZO to address the Commission; two minutes if the Chairperson or designee determines that between six and fourteen persons wish [V HKKYLZZ [OL *VTTPZZPVU" HUK VUL TPU\[L PM [OL *OHPYWLYZVU VY KLZPNULL KL[LYTPULZ [OH[ ÄM[LLU VY TVYL WLYZVUZ ^PZO [V address the Commission. The law does not permit Commission action or extended discussion of any item not on the agenda except under special circumstances. If Commission action or response is requested, the Commission may place the matter on a future agenda. Statements [OH[ YLX\PYL H YLZWVUZL TH` IL YLMLYYLK [V Z[Hќ MVY YLWS` PU ^YP[PUN
Time Certain - To Be Heard No Earlier Than 1:30 p.m. 4. Study session relating to 2018 Stanford General Use Permit (GUP) Application, Stanford GUP Environmental Impact Report, Stanford University Community Plan Updates, County of Santa Clara/Stanford Development Agreement, and rezoning requests. Location: Stanford University Community Plan Area. Supervisorial District: 5. File Nos. PLN98-7165 (7165-98P-99GP99EIR) and PLN16-7165 (7165-16P-16GP-16Z-16EIR). Other Business
5. Receive report from Chairperson. 6. Receive reports from Commissioners. 7. Receive report relating to San Martin Planning Advisory Committee. 8. Receive report from County Counsel. 9. Receive report from Planning Commission Secretary and Planning Manager, Department of Planning and Development. 10. Receive report relating to 2018 Stanford General Use Permit and Development Agreement. 11. Receive report from Director, Department of Planning and Development.
Announcements 12. Announcements and correspondence: a. Reminder: Annual Form 700 Statements of Economic Interests are due April 2, 2019. b. There are currently no vacancies on the Commission. c. The County of Santa Clara provides reimbursement to appointed Commissioners for family care expenses incurred K\YPUN [OL [PTL ZWLU[ WLYMVYTPUN [OLPY VѝJPHS *V\U[` K\[PLZ -VY HKKP[PVUHS PUMVYTH[PVU WSLHZL JVU[HJ[ [OL 6ѝJL VM the Clerk of the Board at (408) 299-5001. d. Receive correspondence. Adjourn 13. Adjourn to the next regular meeting on Thursday, March 28, 2019, at 1:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors’ Chambers, County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose. 3/8/19 CNS-3227550# PALO ALTO WEEKLY
Page 14 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Veronica Weber
Agenda In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Brown Act, those requiring accommodations in this meeting should notify the Clerk of the Planning Commission no less than 24 hours prior to the meeting at (408) 299-6714, or TDD (408) 993-8272. Please note: To contact the Commission and/or to inspect any disclosable public records related to an open session item on a regular meeting agenda and distributed by the County to all or a majority of the Board of Supervisors (or any other commission, or board or committee) less than 72 hours prior to that meeting, visit our website at http://www.sccgov.org or contact the Clerk at (408) 299-6714 or 70 W. Hedding Street, San Jose, CA 95110, during normal business hours. Persons wishing to address the Commission on a regularly scheduled item on the agenda are requested to complete a request to speak form and give it to the Deputy Clerk. (Government Code Section 54953.3.) Individual speakers will be called by the *OHPYWLYZVU HUK HYL YLX\LZ[LK [V SPTP[ [OLPY JVTTLU[Z [V [^V TPU\[LZ .YV\WZ VM ZWLHRLYZ VU H ZWLJPÄJ P[LT HYL HZRLK [V SPTP[ their total presentation to a maximum of twenty minutes for each side of the issue. COMMUTE ALTERNATIVES: The Board of Supervisors encourages the use of commute alternatives including public transit, bicycles, carpooling, and hybrid vehicles. For public transit trip planning information, contact the VTA Customer Service Department at (408) 321-2300 Monday through Friday between the hours of 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and on Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Schedule information is also available on the web at www.vta.org. Bicycle parking racks are available in the James McEntee, Sr., Plaza in front of the County Government Center building. If this Board or Commission does not meet in the County Government Center, please contact VTA for related routes.
Kazuki Nakane, right, and Tokuma Kagami, sitting in the driver’s seat, take a close look at the new Tesla Model 3 in 2018 inside the Tesla showroom at Stanford Shopping Center, where prospective buyers and reservation holders got a chance to view it up close for the first time.
Online This Week
These and other news stories were posted on Palo Alto Online throughout the week. For longer versions, go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news.
Man who set fires sentenced
A man found responsible for torching the former Compadres Mexican Bar & Grill and a car nearly four months ago in Palo Alto was sentenced Tuesday to two years in state prison, according to a Santa Clara County prosecutor. (Posted March 7, 9:48 a.m.)
Cousins arrested for SAP burglary
Two cousins who allegedly burglarized two buildings within software company SAP’s Palo Alto campus and attempted to flee early Sunday morning were quickly taken into custody, police said Monday. (Posted March 4, 3:15 p.m.)
School official advises ‘judicious’ spending
Jim Novak, chief business officer of Palo Alto Unified, provided a clear breakdown of inefficiencies that are costing the district unnecessarily and looming financial pressures. (Posted March 4,
2:33 p.m.)
Suit alleges city overcharged solar company
Komuna Capital is seeking more than $500,000 from the city to compensate it for the cost of delays in connection with solar installation projects at two garages on Cambridge Avenue and at a south Palo Alto church. (Posted March 4, 9:47 a.m.) Want to get news briefs emailed to you every weekday? Sign up for Express, our daily e-edition. Go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com to sign up.
LET’S DISCUSS Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com
Pulse A weekly compendium of vital statistics
Palo Alto
Feb. 28-March 6
Violence related Child abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Financial elder abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Vehicle related Auto burglary attempt. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Driving w/ suspended license. . . . . . . . 9 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Lost/stolen plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . 7 Vehicle accident/prop damage. . . . . . . 3 Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Alcohol or drug related Drinking in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Driving under influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Possession of paraphernalia . . . . . . . . 3 Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Miscellaneous Casualty/fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Indecent exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Misc. penal code violation . . . . . . . . . . 5 Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Psychiatric subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . 3 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Menlo Park
Feb. 28-March 5
Theft related Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Theft undefined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
We’re Hiring Full-Time News Reporter The Almanac, an award-winning community newspaper and online news source that covers the towns of Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside, is looking for an enterprising full-time news reporter with a passion for local journalism. The ideal candidate will have experience covering local government and community news, and the skills to dig up and write engaging news and feature stories for print and online. Our reporters produce monthly cover stories that highlight issues and people in our community. We’re seeking someone who is motivated, eager to learn, able to quickly turn out finished copy, and who lives in or near the Almanac coverage area. Social media skills are a plus. This is a fully benefited position with paid vacations, health and dental benefits, profit sharing and a 401(k) plan. To apply, send a cover letter, resume, and three samples of your journalism work to Editor Renee Batti at editor@ AlmanacNews.com.
SACRAMENTO has its eye on your neighborhood. Senate Bill 50 would override local planning near major transit stops – or in any housing area deemed "job-rich" based on "proximity to jobs, high area median income and high-quality public schools."
Vehicle related Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Driving w/ suspended license. . . . . . . . 6 Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . 2 Vehicle accident/no injury. . . . . . . . . . . 2 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Alcohol or drug related Driving under influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Miscellaneous Animal call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Domestic disturbance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Juvenile problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Psychiatric subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . 1 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
VIOLENT CRIMES Palo Alto
Tennyson Ave., 2/27, 3 p.m.; domestic violence/misc. Alma St., 2/28, 12:49 a.m.; domestic violence/battery. Middlefield Road, 3/1, 12:06 a.m.; child abuse/physical. Lytton Ave., 3/2, 10:58 a.m.; domestic violence/battery. El Camino Real/Maybell Ave., 3/4, 8:47 p.m.; domestic violence/viol. court order. Lincoln Ave., 3/5, 7:17 p.m.; child abuse/ physical.
Erika Nord Richards April 7, 1916 – February 13, 2019 Erika Nord Richards never seemed to age. She died Feb. 13, 2019, seven weeks shy of her 103rd birthday, still young in mind, spirit, and body. The word most used to describe Erika is “amazing.” Until December, Erika took twice-daily walks, swam on Sundays, played bridge five times a week, completed Sudoku puzzles every morning, and enjoyed social and cultural events. If someone suggested an activity, she enthusiastically answered, “Yes, why not?” She was a model of how to live – with zest, optimism, integrity, and a kind heart. Erika was born April 7, 1916 in Berlin, Germany, to Walter and Herta Nord and raised in Hamburg. She enjoyed field hockey, sailing, and gymnastics. After studying two years in Sweden, Erika came to America in 1936 with $10 in her pocket and settled in Chicago (thanks to a young doctor she had met in Germany, who eventually became her husband). Erika earned a physical therapy certificate from Northwestern University. Soon after becoming a citizen, she joined the U.S. Army in 1944. As a PT, she treated wounded soldiers while assigned to the 155th General Hospital in England. She married Dr. Richard K. Richards in 1946, and they settled in Waukegan, Illinois, where they raised their daughter, Evelyn. While Erika worked as a PT, Richard started the pharmacology department at Abbott Laboratories and rose up the research ranks and also served as a professor at Northwestern’s Medical School. Erika became deeply involved in the community, from being a Girl Scout leader to helping improve school curriculum to being a founding member of the League of Women Voters there. She eventually became a lifetime League member after 50 years. In 1966, the family moved to Los Altos. As part of the LWV, Erika initiated offering voter registration to newly naturalized citizens in Santa Clara County. She worked part-time as a PT in Los Altos and Mountain View convalescent hospitals. The couple enjoyed many travels, with Erika often adding to her collections of spoons, pendant necklaces, artwork of water scenes, and rocks. Sadly, Richard died in early 1983. Erika continued traveling, reaching all continents but Antarctica, and enjoyed attending symphony concerts and theatre; gardening (especially orchids); reading; participating in Great Decisions groups; and playing bridge. She volunteered at El Camino Hospital for 20 years, and at the Palo Alto Cultural Center. She was a member of the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto In 2005, Erika became an inaugural resident of the Vi Palo Alto retirement community. Erika played bridge four days a week there, weekly at Little House in Menlo Park, and monthly at the Menlo Circus Club, forming friendships she cherished. “I don’t know what I would do without bridge,” Erika often said. She was the oldest resident of Vi Independent Living and navigated the large building with only a cane. Erika loved the frequent contact with her brother Helmut of Pennsylvania, who survives her, and with her brother Achim before his death. She is survived by her close Palo Alto family of her daughter, Evelyn; son-in-law, Greg Pickrell; and granddaughter, Liana. A celebration of life will be held at 2 p.m. March 21 at the Vi, 620 Sand Hill Road, Palo Alto. To honor Erika’s memory, please consider donating to the League of Women Voters or the American Red Cross. PAID
Learn more about the state’s threat to local control. Sunday, March 17th 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Lucie Stern Community Center Ballroom 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301 Featuring Susan Kirsch, Founder, Livable California
Get the facts. Stop the attack on our neighborhoods and our democracy! Paid for by Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning sensiblezoning.org
FPPC #1359196
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#PressOn www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 15
Editorial Using his bully pulpit
Filseth blasts state housing proposal and urges focus on growing tech firms
alo Alto Mayor Eric Filseth this week chose to use his biggest bully pulpit opportunity — his “State of the City” address — to sound a loud public warning over pending state legislation that seeks to pre-empt local zoning laws and reshape current single-family neighborhoods by allowing the development of high-density housing. He also proposed that local cities condition new commercial development on the building or funding of housing that, at a minimum, would offset the housing needs created by the new development. Unlike most past mayors, who have steered clear of policy advocacy in favor of dispassionate reviews of accomplishments and outlines of broad goals, Filseth jumped into the middle of what is probably the most controversial and divisive political issue to face state and local lawmakers in decades. Filseth’s immediate target is Senate Bill 50, sponsored by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener. In its current form, SB 50 would force cities to permit high density housing — up to fivestory apartments complexes and townhouses — within a halfmile of major public-transit stops. In almost every Peninsula city, that radius would encompass large areas of single-family home neighborhoods. In California and most states, zoning and land use is the prerogative of local government. With a few exceptions, such as along the coastline, cities and counties have had sole authority to create zoning that they determine is best for their communities. It’s led to both good and bad outcomes depending on the quality of local officials and their visions for their communities. And often, zoning decisions have been made based on the revenue expected to be generated by the type development to be allowed. The importance of this local control to residents and their elected city council members can’t be overstated. But the current statewide housing crisis has led a powerful coalition of businesses, developers, unions and housing advocates to push for state pre-emption in order to smooth the way for the creation of what Gov. Gavin Newsom estimates to be 3.5 million needed new housing units. With most state legislators having come from the ranks of city councils, SB 50 and similar legislative proposals will put them smack in the middle of conflicting constituencies and even their own political supporters. SB 50 would dramatically change communities like Palo Alto that are located along the Caltrain or other major publictransit corridors. By establishing a radius around train stations where the state would usurp local zoning, current parcels with single-family homes would be allowed to be transformed into multi-story, high-density apartment buildings with no limits on the number of units or parking requirements. In Palo Alto, the affected areas within a half-mile radius include all of Evergreen Park, half of Southgate, most of Old Palo Alto and downtown Palo Alto east to Cowper Street, and most of Greenmeadow. Its potential effects here demonstrate why such sweeping state pre-emption is far too blunt an instrument for addressing the housing problem. Filseth delivered a data-rich seminar on how these proposals threaten Palo Alto and thoughtfully laid out his alternative vision. He challenged Sacramento legislators to focus instead on how to get cities, growing companies and commercial office developers to recognize that we lose ground with every new office development approved without corresponding housing. Companies like Google and Facebook have been allowed to expand with insufficient housing mitigation or parallel housing development, and state and local government need to focus on curtailing this unsustainable approach. These companies should not be allowed to expand without fully addressing and paying for the housing and transportation impacts of their growth. Filseth’s challenge as mayor is to build enough public awareness and support to win over one or two of his colleagues so that a clear majority is focused on reversing the strong economic incentives that currently favor commercial development over residential development in Palo Alto. And, as he pointed out, to build the affordable and subsidized housing that is our highest priority the city will need to find sources of funding, including much higher housing-mitigation fees for new commercial development, in order to acquire land for housing. New marketrate housing affordable only for high-earning working couples will not produce what our community needs to sustain those who work in lower-paying service jobs. And neither will poorly thought out zoning requirements imposed from Sacramento. Q
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Page 16 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Spectrum Editorials, letters and opinions
This week on Town Square
Town Square is an online discussion forum at PaloAltoOnline.com/square In response to ‘Palo Alto to bid for site near Boulware Park’
Posted Feb. 27 at 4:20 p.m. by Becky Sanders, a resident of Ventura: The only fly in the ointment is the real threat that a speculative buyer will offer a price well beyond what the current public-facility zoning would command. There exists precedent for council rezoning such a property without any due compensation to the city for loss of a public facility zoned site (2755 El Camino). If council will hold fast and keep the zoning as it is then that property will continue to be used in perpetuity for a public facility. Let’s hold the line here and keep this a public serving property, and then what better way to serve the public than to add park space in a community that is badly in need of open space? Thanks, Gennady, for covering this. Thank you, council, for your unanimous support. We’re counting on you and we will help any way we can!
In response to ‘Midtown Starbucks store shutters without explanation’
Posted March 1 at 6:08 a.m. by James Thurber, a resident of Mountain View: I, for one, will miss it. I used to stop there for coffee and a cookie while bicycling to Walter Hays Elementary in the morning. Parking was never a problem, especially at 7:30 a.m. I found the folks working there pleasant, always greeting me in the morning with a smile and a “good morning.” The coffee was hot, the cookies were delicious and again, I never had a problem with parking. Thanks for listening. Starbucks, best of luck. PS: If you want to avoid parking issues, ride a bicycle.
In response to ‘Stanford VP: University will offer ‘additional support’ for Palo Alto schools’
Posted March 2 at 11:30 a.m. by Stephen Levy, a resident of University South neighborhood : Stanford University has committed to making a contribution to the schools. What is a fair amount does not have an obvious answer. Schools are paid for by all of us. Virtually no one pays the full cost for their students. Most funding comes from sources that do not have children — older
residents, younger families without children, families whose children go to private schools and non-residential property owners. That is how our system of school finance works. We have shared public financing, not user-pays-full-cost financing. So, asking Stanford to pay much more than anyone else pays per student seems unfair to me. It should
be possible to document what the assessed value of the 550 rental units would be and see what revenues would be generated as a starting point. But, it is also true that Stanford as a university is tax-exempt for many activities, and the final result will come from a negotiation where Stanford is being asked to do a lot of other commitments re the GUP.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.
What’s your opinion of state Senate Bill 50? Submit letters to the editor of up to 300 words to letters@paweekly.com. Submit guest opinions of 1,000 words to editor@paweekly.com. Include your name, address and daytime phone number so we can reach you. We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, objectionable content, libel and factual errors known to us. Anonymous letters will generally not be accepted. Submitting a letter to the editor or guest opinion constitutes a granting of permission to the Palo Alto Weekly and Embarcadero Media to also publish it online, including in our online archives and as a post on Town Square. For more information, contact Editorial Assistant Cierra Bailey at cbailey@ paweekly.com or 650-223-6526 or Editor Jocelyn Dong at editor@paweekly.com.
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Guest Opinion
Local solutions for traffic and congestion by Nancy Shepherd few years after Joni M it chell wrote “Pave paradise and put up a parking lot” (1969), the San Jose freeway expa nsion interchange was halted by then Governor Jerry Brown at highways 680 and 101, which created the iconic “Monument to Nowhere” structure. Who could forget the picture of three isolated, independent freeway ramps hanging stoically in the sky over the farmlands of San Jose, ready for traffic yet to be generated. This structure struck chords in me, a young college student born and raised in the Bay Area, who experienced the first Earth Day at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. Nobody knew what to do, so students flooded the Miller Avenue intersection yelling at drivers to get out of cars. It was unfocused and idealistic, not even aspirational — for environmental causes, this was yet to come. So, the halted freeway project, in my idealist world view, was a testament to the Bay Area was saying “no” to building a Los Angeles car-culture future. In those days, northern Californians were proud to solve transit issues with ferries, buses, and rail to get workers from home to work. We thumbed our noses at southern California with its gridlocked traffic,
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Letters Is council committed to ‘regaining trust?’
Editor, In February, Palo Alto City Council member Lydia Kou lobbied her colleagues to make “regaining public trust” a 2019 priority. Perhaps, she had the 2018 National Citizens Survey in mind. It showed just 45 percent of residents appraised Palo Alto government favorably for acting in the best interest of the community. Alas, Ms. Kou’s colleagues declined her proposal. Acting in the community’s best interest would require listening to residents. The survey showed only 5 percent rated affordable quality housing positively, only 28 percent rated traffic flow positively and only 34 percent rated public parking positively. Our council frequently proclaims its intent to address housing, traffic and parking. Nevertheless, every year, the survey ratings for these measures decline. Even
smog and overpopulation sprawled deep into the dessert. This was not good civic planning. Saying “no” to building a car-culture future was short lived. By the mid-1970s, “Silicon Valley” was officially coined, and the Palo AltoSunnyvale-Santa Clara economy began to compete with San Francisco’s and Oakland’s. Indeed, the Stanford experiment of building an innovation center to attract the brightest around the globe was firmly launched. Today, the then-stalled intersection structure is operational with double the lane capacity and filled with gridlock traffic every workday. Silicon Valley has a love-affair with cars — just like Los Angeles. Everyday my driving experience becomes more aggravating. I’ve concluded that either I need to learn to be happy sitting in traffic and stuck longer in my neighborhood during commute hours, or support city efforts that re-think mobility to reduce congestion. Sadly, technology alone cannot solve the problem of physically getting people from home to work — especially workers in the service and retail professions. The “Beam me up, Scotty” app has yet to be invented. So in 2013, I along with other Palo Alto City Council members introduced the idea of establishing a transportationmanagement association (TMA) for the job centers of Palo Alto (downtown, California Avenue, Stanford Research Park) as part of a long-term effort to relieve neighborhoods from overflow worker
so, a council majority (Alison Cormack, Adrian Fine, Liz Kniss and Greg Tanaka) consistently vote to benefit office developers, not residents. Recently, these four council members overturned the downtown commercial development cap knowing that more workers would negatively affect the jobsto-homes ratio, housing costs, traffic flow and parking availability. During the recent election campaign, Cormack said she “didn’t see any reason to remove” the cap, then voted to do so. Kniss claimed that maintaining the cap would “freeze downtown,” although the cap could be modified to allow exceptions. Fine argued that offices should be built downtown because it is “transit rich,” even though the survey showed just 22 percent of residents judged public transportation approvingly. It’s no wonder the developerfirst majority dismissed regaining community trust. They would need to reform their listening, legislating and truth-telling habits. Jaclyn Schrier Alma Street, Palo Alto
parking and reduce solo-vehicle trips. We learned from the Contra Costa Centre Transit Village — a TMA established in the 1980s along the Pleasanton/Walnut Creek BART station — that using commuter subsidies like Clipper Card funding, gas cards, van pools, shuttles, taxis, flex (shared) cars and more, did reduce solo-vehicle trips by more than 30 percent. For over 25 years the Contra Costa TMA has delivered personalized counseling to workers on public-transit routes and a guaranteed ride home in emergencies. Last fall I had a conversation with a California Avenue worker as she helped me update my passport at the copy shop. I learned that she commuted from Los Banos every day, three-hours each way on a good day. Another retail worker at Town & Country Village lived San Francisco. Connecting these commuters to publictransit pipelines — Samtrans, VTA, Caltrain, BART, ACE Train — needs to be more convenient and affordable. TMAs fill this gap. Just like in Contra Costa, we can do this too. In an era where the state threatens removing local control from cities, a TMA can show us the benefits of working thoughtfully to create nuanced local programs and solutions that respond to conditions on the ground and in our neighborhoods. TMAs increase quality of life for everyone, one worker at a time by offering transit subsidies, commute routes, incentives and more to reduce solo-occupancy trips into job center areas. It solves the “first and last mile”
Castilleja expansion debate
Editor, A while back, I attended a City Council meeting during which the Castilleja expansion was discussed. Several students discussed the benefits of women’s education. I got the feeling that the students had been deceived by the school’s administration into believing that women’s education, rather than the effect of the school’s expansion on a residential neighborhood, was the issue at hand. High school students are unlikely to have independently developed an opinion on an issue like this. I would have been more impressed by a student who chastised the school administration for requesting her to make a presentation that misrepresented the issue. The student might have gone on to praise her education that gave her the skill to detect the deception and the self-confidence to present her contrary point of view in a public meeting. William Macy Melville Avenue, Palo Alto
commute conundrum and fills the gap between regional and county public transit, as we navigate not just how to get to work but how to move around our own cities. Today, Palo Alto Transit Management Association (PATMA) is deployed and considering expanding into the California Avenue business district by piloting donor-funded transit passes with a determination to succeed. We need to support this effort. If done well, employers of all sizes that are struggling to recruit and retain employees will find relief as the TMA aids them with tailored programs and services instead of individual employers scrambling to come up with incentives on their own. If the TMA leadership is thinking long term, it will build relationships with other TMAs in the subregion like Mountain View, or emerging TMAs in Menlo Park and Redwood City, as solutions cross city and county lines. Let’s stop the temptation to do nothing, hoping someone else can figure this out because, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” and take this moment to exercise local control and build a “Monument to Somewhere” instead. We need this for Palo Alto, our region and the Bay Area. Q A resident of Palo Alto since 1984, former Palo Alto Mayor Nancy Shepherd served on the City Council between 2010 and 2014. She is a retired operations officer, controller and accountant in commercial real estate and can be reached at nlshep@pacbell.net.
Read more opinions online Palo Alto Online’s bloggers are writing about everything from innovation and politics to the environment and family. Here are the latest posts from a few of our bloggers. Discuss these and other topics with them at PaloAltoOnline.com/blogs. A New Shade of Green by Sherry Listgarten
Hey! Leggo My Beef! Posted March 3
Thinking About College
by John Raftrey and Lori McCormick
Harvard changes Advanced Standing program
Couple’s Net by Chandrama Anderson
I smile, I laugh, and pretend I’m okay Posted March 1
Toddling Through the Silicon Valley by Cheryl Bac
Indoor Fun, Part 4 Posted Feb. 28
Posted March 1
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 17
John Savides
January 8, 1929 – March 1, 2019 Resident of Los Altos Hills John Savides passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 1, 2019 in Palo Alto at the age of 90. His spirit held strong until his final breath. John was born in New York City on January 8, 1929. His parents Michael and Susanna Savides immigrated to the U.S. from Greece for a better life. John lived with his parents and his older brother Chris in the Bronx until 1931 when his family returned to Greece due to the Great Depression. John’s family lived comfortably just outside of Athens in Piraeus where his father owned a small candy factory. During World War II, German Nazi officers occupied the first floor of the family home. John’s family survived World War II unscathed, but then civil war broke out in Greece and the communists tried to take over which caused further challenges for the family. In 1946 John left Greece alone and joined his brother in America. Despite speaking only limited English and having little money, he completed his senior year of high school in NYC, then went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering from the City College of New York and his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University. While in college, John was an avid soccer player and he worked his way up from busboy to waiter at the famed New York Athletic Club. John’s first engineering position was with Bell Aircraft in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1951, followed by a 1955 position with Sperry Gryoscope in NYC. In 1959 he moved to Philadelphia to become the technical director for General Electric’s NIMBUS program, the first experimental weather satellite. In 1962, he joined Philco Company’s Western Development Lab, later to become Ford Aerospace and then Space Systems Loral in Palo Alto. John spent much of his career designing meteorological satellites, especially those for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system (GOES) which supports weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorology research. The early weather report images people watched on the evening news came from the GOES satellites. He also was involved in the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) program and in 1981 was the mission director in India for the launch of INSAT-1A, as well as INSAT 1-B which was launched on the Space Shuttle STS 8. During his aerospace career he was given the honorary titles of “Mr. NIMBUS” and “Mr. GOES” for recognition as the leader of two major space programs, which according to his peers is “like winning two academy awards for best director!” John met his wife Anita in 1957 at a Greek social in NYC. After marrying in 1959 they moved to Philadelphia and then to Los Altos in 1964. John enjoyed volunteering as an Indian Guides dad and coaching youth soccer. He and Anita played much social tennis and
later became active members of Fremont Hills Country Club where they still belong. They moved right up the hill from the Club in 1972 and lived in Los Altos Hills for over 40 years. John continued playing tennis three times per week up until age 86. When John’s children were young, he and Anita brought them to the courts to entertain themselves nearby while they played tennis. In the process, his children picked up a passion for the sport and became competitive tennis players themselves. The main emphasis in the Savides household, in addition to strong work ethic, was always on academics, and most evenings John would help one of the kids with their math or science homework. John was very proud of his Greek American heritage. He had a wonderful voice and sang in several Greek choirs over the years, including at Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose. John loved Greek dancing and food. He also enjoyed cooking, especially roasting whole lambs on Greek Easter. His annual Christmas Eve party became a ritual for over 30 years for a generation of families and connected a variety of friends around his infamous “fish house punch”. A perfect day for John would be making scrambled eggs for breakfast, playing “family doubles” tennis at Fremont Hills CC, followed by cheering (or yelling) for the 49ers, and then dinner of fried tilapia, Greek salad and cold beer. There would always be lots of noise and likely an “Opa!” shouted during the meal. John and Anita also enjoyed feasting with friends at dinner parties, and John remained active as leader of a Loral alumni group, enjoying their meetings and weekly walks in the hills. John is fondly remembered as a true gentleman by his colleagues, friends and family. He was kind, caring and considerate to everyone, viewed as gentle and even tempered. He was known for working hard and playing hard, and he expected the same from his children. He had an infectious zest for life, for connecting with others, and for having a good time. John is survived by his wife of 59 years, Anita Savides, his three children: Tom Savides of Del Mar, Stacy Savides Sullivan of Los Altos, and Stephanie Savides of Menlo Park, and his five grandchildren: Jack Sullivan, Samantha Andrew, Max Sullivan, Michael Savides, and Jake Andrew, who all loved him dearly. Family and friends are invited to attend a Funeral Service Thursday, March 7 at 10:30 A.M. at Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose, California. The family will be holding a celebration of his life later in March where friends and family can gather to celebrate and remember John, as he touched so many people in the community. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donating on John’s behalf toward Alzheimer’s research or to the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose. PAID
Page 18 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
OBITUARY
Transitions Births, marriages and deaths
Betty Mann
Betty Iverson Mann died Feb. 24 in Roseville. She was born in Spencer, Iowa, in 1931. After she married Richard Mann in 1953, the couple lived briefly on the East Coast before moving to Palo Alto where they enjoyed years of tailgating at Stanford University football games. Mann taught kindergarten, assisted with special-education programs and supported school leadership within the Palo Alto Unified School District. She was most proud of her work as a resident with the school district to establish Herbert Hoover Elementary School. She also volunteered with the Junior League of Palo Alto. Upon retirement, Mann moved to the senior-living community Sun City Roseville with her husband to be closer to their children and grandchildren. She remained engaged in the local community, volunteering with the Sun City Roseville Ambassadors and Sutter Roseville Medical Center Auxiliary. She particularly loved working with the Junior Auxiliary’s high school volunteers and supporting the hospital’s pediatrics unit. She is survived by her husband of 65 years; brother, Tom Iverson; sister, Jeanne Reimers; children, Martha Mann Sedgley and David Mann; four grandchildren, a great-granddaughter and numerous nieces and nephews. Memorial donations may be made to the Sutter Roseville Medical Center Auxiliary, 1 Medical Plaza Drive, Roseville. (sutterhealth.org/ ways-to-give/volunteering/srmc)
discharge in 1961. He later attended Purdue University, where he was president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. In 1966, he graduated with honors from the Indiana University School of Law. He was named by United States Attorney General Robert Kennedy an assistant United States attorney in Los Angeles, where he served from 1969 to 1974. In 1974, he became attorneyin-charge of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Office in San Francisco. In these positions, he prosecuted many cases involving organized crime figures. He opened a private law practice in Palo Alto in 1979, specializing in civil rights and environmental damage lawsuits. He and his wife, Karen, co-founded Amistad International, a nonprofit charity that supports programs for orphans and impoverished families in several countries. He was a passionate wood-carver, an avid volunteer gardener on Tuesdays at Palo Alto’s Gamble Garden and a participant and leader of current event seminars in Palo Alto’s Avenidas senior center and Menlo Park’s Little House. He is survived by his wife of 46 years; brothers, Jerome, Brian and David Kotoske; and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held June 8 in Auburn, California. Memorial donations may be made to Amistad International, P.O. Box 455, Palo Alto, 94301.
Thomas Kotoske
Thomas Eldon Kotoske died Feb. 5 in Palo Alto of complications from a stroke. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1938. After graduating from St. Joseph High School, he went on to serve in the United States Marine Corps, earning an honorable
BIRTHS Ehsan Dehghan and Maryam Toufani of Palo Alto, a daughter, Feb. 3. Zhiwen Teh and Sonya Gorski of East Palo Alto, a daughter, Feb. 18.
WEDDINGS
Rider-Schiff
Elizabeth Winn Rider and David G. Schiff were married on Dec. 15, 2018, in Greenwich, Connecticut. The bride is the daughter of Palo Alto native Katherine Winn Rider and granddaughter of Palo Alto resident Gladys Liddicoat Winn, 97, and the late A.J.P. Winn. She is an executive with American Express Co. and a graduate of the University of Southern California and Harvard Business School. The groom is a partner with the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. Following their wedding and honeymoon in Bali and Java, Indonesia, the couple now lives in Hong Kong.
Cover Story
Grieving Palo Alto parents hope to share late daughter’s artwork with her inspiration: Oprah by Sue Dremann
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regret. At times, their eyes shine at her memory. Just as quickly, their voices break and there are tears. Ebrahim Rashidpour is a retired therapist, Fulbright scholar and researcher who worked in the Bay Area. Decades ago, at the University of Tehran, he was a noted psychotherapist and professor. Among his many publications is a book containing 82 short papers about psychotherapy with immigrant populations. He called it “Reconcile with Life,” the title he also used for a program in the late 1950s he wrote, produced and hosted at a Tehran radio station. But he has found it painfully difficult to reconcile the loss of his precious only child, who came into the world prematurely, with multiple medical problems. Though she miraculously survived her birth, a series of accidents in her youth left her disabled. Rashidpour dedicated himself to his daughter’s care, even accompanying her to classes where he stayed nearby to catch her in the event of a seizure, so she wouldn’t fall and injure herself, he said. Every waking hour was
Courtesy Rashidpour family
ive years after Ebrahim and Mehri Rashidpour’s beloved daughter Ashi died, one image still lives vividly in their minds: It is 4 p.m., and Ashi takes her place before the television in their two-bedroom apartment. The family turns the channel to The Oprah Winfrey Show, her favorite. When the opening music begins, Ashi, who is paraplegic, begins to dance in her wheelchair. She raises her arms, swaying to the music as best as she can. An artist, Ashi paints every day while watching Oprah, a woman who has opened a window into a world she can admire but in which she cannot take part. Ashi Rashidpour died on Feb. 22, 2014, when she was 52 years old. She suffered a blood clot one month after breast-cancer surgery. For Ebrahim and Mehri, the loss of their daughter, to whom they had provided constant care, left a hole in their lives so huge that they still struggle not to get swallowed up in it. Their love, yearning and joy for her is now inextricably mixed with feelings of loss, sadness, guilt and
From left, Mehri, Ashi and Ebrahim Rashidpour lived mostly in Tehran and traveled around the world for his work until the Iranian Revolution forced them to flee to the United States. devoted to Ashi’s well-being. “We tried to keep her safe and happy,” Mehri Rashipour said. When Ashi died, Mehri wept. But try as he might, Ebrahim could not cry. He became deeply depressed. He sent letters pouring out his anger and frustration to Ashi’s neurologist, the surgeon who operated on her and her primary doctor. He tried to express his darkest feelings about how they had treated her — lacking the compassion and understanding she deserved, he thought. “Medication, grief counseling, exercise, prayer and meditation, with all their benefits, did not help me to have any hope and purpose in my life,” he told the Weekly. Seven months after Ashi’s death, a therapist friend suggested he write letters to his daughter. He wrote to her in English and his native Farsi whenever he felt confused, numb, depressed, angry, full of regret and lonely. “I felt I had lost the meaning of my life, which was Ashi for 52 years,” he said. So far, he has written more than 400 letters. ounselors say that the grief of parents takes many forms. The death of a child is a profound, life-changing experience, said Shelly Gillan, a marriage and family therapist and client services and programs director at Kara, a Palo Alto-based grief-support-services nonprofit for children, teens, adults and families. Unless people have been through it, they can’t understand, she said. “It’s not weeks or months (of grieving). It’s years of trying to process or interpret this experience,” Gillan said. A child’s death falls outside of people’s usual expectations. The old are supposed to die before the young. “We have this concept of a natural order of death, but death
doesn’t follow those rules,” she said. Parents are wired to keep watch over their children throughout their lives, and the death of a child defies that natural instinct to protect, she added. It’s even harder when parents, such as the Rashidpours, have a child with special needs. “The intimacy and intensity of protecting that child certainly increases,” she said, adding that a parent’s whole purpose revolves around caring for and protecting the child, even as an adult. And when their child dies? “You have no compass. Every waking hour and even in your sleep you have been taking care
of that child,” she said. For parents who have survived their child, Gillan said, “The truth is they never get over it.” But, she added, “The intensity of the loss definitely lessens. There is a point at which people can again take that deep breath and find a reason for living.” Such has been the Rashidpours’ experience. Ashi was born prematurely near Bloomington, Indiana in 1961. Her full first name, Rashideh, means “brave girl,” her mother said. Doctors put her in an incubator for a month, and they were not sure if she was going to survive. But she (continued on page 20)
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Courtesy Rashidpour family
Courtesy Rashidpour family
Ashi Rashidpour was born prematurely and with multiple medical problems, but she survived and lived a normal childhood until an accident at the age of 13.
Ashi Rashidpour loved to paint and continued doing so even after her left hand, which was her dominant hand, was amputated. www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 19
Cover Story
Dear Ashi (continued from page 19)
Courtesy Rashidpour family
Ashi Rashidpour with her father, Ebrahim, who was a professor at the University of Tehran and later became a licensed marriage and family therapist. Creek Apartments, setting up a new life. He enrolled at Santa Clara University to earn degrees so he could open a licensed marriage and family therapy practice. Ashi, by then 18, still experienced uncontrolled seizures. Family friends suggested that maybe it would help if she took a husband. When she was 25, Ashi married, but she was unhappy, and the union only lasted a year, her mother said. Rashidpour said that Ashi’s condition made her feel angry and helpless, but it didn’t stop her from pursuing her dreams. She was a dancer; she attended De Anza College and studied art. As always, Ebrahim Rashidpour accompanied her to keep her safe. Then a second tragedy befell the family. On Sept. 11, 2001, when the family was out shopping, Ashi had a seizure and fell on the hard pavement. “She said, ‘Mommy, why can’t I move?’” Mehri recalled. Ashi had broken two vertebrae in her neck, leaving her paraplegic. Rashidpour left his job, closing his office. “It was every day. Every hour. Then at night,” Mehri said of caring for Ashi. “In the middle of the night, the seizures came. Nobody could sleep. For hours, I was comforting her. It was full time. A hard time. “Feeding her, changing her, exercising her, washing her, taking her to the doctors. I don’t know how we survived, but we did. We had to,” Mehri said. Ashi’s left hand had to be amputated — the dominant one she used to paint with. But she persevered: She took up her brushes and colored pencils, painting as best as she could with her right hand, her mother said. Ashi colored pictures of butterflies and birds; she painted freeform abstract images in vivid hues of reds and greens, electric blues and splashes of black. There were chickens, a brilliant blue peacock with its fanned tail, and a map of
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Iran with a heart painted where her family had lived in Tehran. Ashi gave hundreds of pictures to friends and admirers. The artwork “gave her relief from mental and physical pain and helped her to say in color and shape what was going on in her mind,” Rashidpour said. People who didn’t know Ashi might see in her paintings only a simple collection of colorful sheets of paper. “But for me, (it was) to see every day how difficult and almost impossible it was for her to move her
right hand on the paper,” he said. shi found inspiration wherever she could — in the music of Mozart and Vivaldi and in the writings of the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi. And in the example of Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey motivated Ashi to live her life to the fullest despite profound disability, Rashidpour said. Ashi admired her because she had traveled the world and helped people every day through her show. The TV personality and
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Veronica Weber
survived beautifully, her father said. And she was not disabled. “She was our miracle child,” Mehri said. “She was a ballerina. From the beginning, she was always taking pictures. She was very artistic.” In 1974, Rashidpour, who taught in Tehran, was on sabbatical at Stanford University at the Institute of Communication Research. At the time, Ashi was petite, with short, dark hair and warm, kind eyes. She smiled and waved in one picture taken outside Macy’s at Stanford Shopping Center, where she and Mehri often rode bicycles together. But the family’s idyll was soon torn apart: Exactly how Ashi, then 13, ended up in a water-filled ditch, her parents still don’t know. The family had dressed up to attend a wedding in Escondido Village, where they lived. Ashi had asked if she could play ball with other children at the apartments’ playground. A lid covering an underground ditch filled with water in the children’s area was supposed to have a lock. But when her parents found her, the cover was cast aside and Ashi was head first in the water. Though she regained consciousness, Ashi began having uncontrollable seizures. No one knew whether the seizures caused her accident — or resulted from it. Another fall down the stairs later at their apartment injured her head and plunged Ashi into a coma, Mehri said. The family took her from one specialist to another and tried multiple treatments, but the seizures continued. Back in Tehran, Ashi fell down in school because of her epilepsy. The school asked her parents to take her home and not bring her back, according to the Rashidpours. The Iranian Revolution also was stirring. There was violence in the streets, and the family did not know if they could stay in the country. Their first thoughts, always, were for Ashi and her safety. In 1978, Ebrahim Rashidpour was part of a five-nation research group studying global interdependencies through a Fulbright scholarship. The family joined him in Hawaii while he conducted his research. By February 1979, the Iranian Revolution, fomenting for a year, finally erupted. His colleagues were being executed, he learned during phone calls back home. His name was posted on walls at the university accusing him of working with the CIA, his sister told him, because he had traveled out of the country for research so frequently. By later that fall, the family chanced returning to Tehran. But their stay lasted just 23 days. It was just too dangerous, Mehri recalled. “On Sept. 26, 1979, we left. We lost everything,” she said. The Rashidpours returned to Palo Alto and moved to the Oak
Mehri Rashidpour holds a photo of her daughter, Ashi, which was taken shortly before Ashi’s death in 2014.
philanthropist opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa to help lift up underprivileged children. Winfrey’s work in Africa inspired Ashi to continue her own education. She told her parents that she wanted to return to De Anza College to complete her degree when she got better, they said. Winfrey validated something innate in Ashi: resilience, her father said. And that willingness to adapt and live to the fullest despite great adversity in turn inspired her parents. People would see the family together and ask how they were living with such troubles, Mehri said. “They told us, ‘We don’t get it. With what you have gone through, how come you are happy?’” she recalled. “We said, ‘We are happy we are alive and together, regardless of what happened in our life — losing the country, family, job position and possessions — and then she with the wheelchair. Here we are, thank you. “What we thought would break us actually made us better and stronger,” she said. But when Ashi died in 2014, all of the color drained out of her parents’ lives. Since then, they have struggled every day to reclaim it. Mehri practices yoga, tai chi and qi gong, and she meditates each morning. Ashi is in her thoughts, always. When the pain is too great or when she wants to send Ashi love, she steps out onto a big rock outside her apartment and raises her arms, reaching out and throwing her thoughts and feelings to the wind. “I send it off to the universe,” she recently told the Weekly. Mehri began to cry. “I’m happy she’s not here to suffer, but I miss her. I do set her free.” Rashidpour has coped in a different way. He wears an amulet around his neck containing some of Ashi’s ashes. He cherishes not only his memories but also feels the living spirit of his daughter: She continues to guide him, he said. He doesn’t care that people see him talking out loud to Ashi and don’t see anyone there. “I would like to tell them: ‘Yes, Ashi, my daughter, is alive. You know why? Because people you love don’t really die,’” he said in one of his letters. “Dear Ashi, We talk to each other in my dreams. You hear my thoughts and emotions and I hear your beautiful voice in my head. I say: Thank you for all the memories we have shared together and we are grateful for having had you in our lives for an unforgettable fifty-two years. You are listening to me and I am telling you again and again, ‘You are part of our lives, dear one.
Cover Story We are missing you desperately.’ I carry you in my heart every moment of the day and night. I am missing your laughter. I am missing the way you were talking and asking questions. I tell you I regret very much not doing enough for you, and... You tell me: ‘Daddy, I know you are having a difficult time to let go, but I am here in heaven and I am all right. ... Forgive yourself.’ I believe you. ... I close my eyes and I see you in my mind dancing as an angel. I kiss you before I wake up and I hear you saying: ‘We will see each other again one day, my dear Daddy.’” Rashidpour reflected last month on his visions of Ashi — including the one that set him on a quest to reach out to Oprah Winfrey. In a dream, he saw the word “gratitude” on the cover of a small book in Ashi’s hand. She handed him the book and disappeared. “I opened the book and saw one of her art works, a colorful shiny red painting in the shape of a butterfly. I woke up happy and excited. I saw the dream as a sign from her spirit telling me, ‘Find a way to keep my memory alive,’” he said. That message became the impetus for compiling a book of 52 of his letters and Ashi’s colorings and paintings. He is trying to
reach Winfrey to give her a copy of the book because she so helped his daughter, he said. Rashidpour said the gift to Winfrey would make Ashi happy, but he also hopes to receive some advice on how to keep Ashi’s legacy alive. Mehri reads Winfrey’s magazine every month. She recalled one profound statement in an article that summed up how she sees Ashi: The poet Maya Angelou asked Winfrey what she thought her legacy was. “My legacy is the school,” Winfrey had replied, Mehri said. “No. Your legacy is every life you touch! It’s every person who ever watched your show and felt something,” Angelou had said. The Rashidpours reached out to Winfrey’s company seeking to get the book into her hands, but the family was unsuccessful, they said. Following an email from the Weekly to Winfrey’s communications team asking for comment, a spokeswoman asked for the couple’s contact information so that they might communicate directly. As of this week, the Rashidpours have not heard from Winfrey, they said. With or without contact from Winfrey, the couple is pressing on to preserve Ashi’s legacy. Rashidpour told the Weekly Ashi appeared in one of his reveries: “Daddy Joon,” she said,
using the affectionate term for her father in Farsi, “as I see it, you have done your work, and it helped you to write about what happened to us. ... You could send the book to anybody who is interested to know how you as a father got over your depression and how my ever-present spirit came out to be your guardian angel.” Rashidpour said he is seeking a sponsor to help get the book published so that other parents who have lost children can perhaps find solace. The couple also is hoping to find someone who would help set up a website where they can post family photos and Rashidpour’s letters, and where other parents can share their own experiences and support each other. rief such as the Rashidpours’ is common and lifelong, Gillan said, and there is no “best” way to cope with it. “You can’t therapize grief. It is something that people find unique ways to process. No one size fits all,” she said. Kara helps many parents whose children have died. For some, joining a support group allows them to be witnessed and heard. The nonprofit offers peer-group counseling in which people are linked by similar experiences: parents of special-needs children; others who have lost a loved one to suicide, or cancer, or homicide.
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If grief, often linked with other underlying conditions, leads to self-harm, alcoholism and substance abuse or other behaviors, then that’s another level of concern requiring additional help, Gillan said. Cultural upbringings can also influence how one processes grief. Rashidpour, who was raised in Iran, recalled the story of the “patience stone”: “In Old Persia, the patience stone was used as a kind of psychological cure for the people with severe depression and mental problems of life. They advised the depressed person to find a stone and sit in front of it. They asked him or her to tell the stone all his or her problems and whatever bothered (the person). They advised him or her to talk as long as it takes and then wait what would happen. “The belief was that, after the patient finished his story, suddenly the stone would explode and the patient would be cured. “And this is what happened to me,” he said. On Feb. 3, 2018, as he was finishing writing the last pages of the “Dear Ashi” book, Rashidpour was getting up from the table and — although he can’t remember why — he suddenly fell down so hard that he injured himself and could not move his left foot. Paramedics came to his aid. “They took me to (the) emergency (room), and the next day a
good surgeon operated on my leg. When I was in the ambulance I remembered the ‘patience stone’ and told to myself maybe I, too, told my pain to Ashi — and I exploded too,” he said. Q Anyone who is grieving and in need of someone to talk to can contact the grief nonprofit Kara at 457 Kingsley Ave., Palo Alto; 650-321-5272; or kara-grief.org. Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@ paweekly.com. About the cover: Ebrahim and Mehri Rashidpour sit in their Oak Creek apartment with a copy of Ebrahim’s book, “Dear Ashi,” which contains 52 letters he wrote to his late daughter to help him cope with grief after she died in 2014. Ebrahim is trying to give the singlecopy book, which also includes copies of Ashi’s artwork and family photos, to his daughter’s inspiration, Oprah Winfrey. Photo by Veronica Weber.
WATCH IT ONLINE
www.PaloAltoOnline.com Hear Ebrahim and Mehri Rashidpour tell their story in a video produced by Videographer Veronica Weber, posted at YouTube.com/paweekly/ videos.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY SUPERVISOR Come learn about the proposed conditions of approval and final environmental impact report IRU Stanford University’s application to grow LWV campus development by 2,275,000 square feet plus 550 units of housing and 2,600 student beds.
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SANTA CLARA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 70 W Hedding St, 10th Floor, East Wing San Jose, CA 95110 (408) 299-5050 (650) 965-8737 www.sccgov.org
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To see more about the General Use Permit Application, please visit: www.sccgov.org/sites/dpd/Programs/Stanford/Pages/Stanford.aspx www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 21
Arts & Entertainment A weekly guide to music, theater, art, culture, books and more, edited by Karla Kane
Pianist Larry Vuckovich performs in Mountain View Courtesy Larry Vuckovich
by Yoshi Kato
Jazz pianist Larry Vuckovich will perform in Mountain View on March 10. Jeff Chambers. Vuckovich recently spoke about the program and his storied career to the Weekly.
Q: Courtesy Larry Vuckovich
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azz is a world that’s rich with connections and history that’s nurtured on the bandstand. Pianist and bandleader Larry Vuckovich knows, loves and is part of this history.
The 82-year-old Calistoga resident has performed with the likes of saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Dexter Gordon, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Philly Joe Jones. His reputation among vocalists whom he’s accompanied — Tony Bennett, Anita O’Day, Bobby McFerrin, Mary Stallings, Joe Williams and others — is sterling. Vuckovich’s family emigrated from communist Yugoslavia to San Francisco as refugees in 1951. The recorded and live jazz he was able to hear stateside fully captured his imagination. “What an exciting thing for a 14-year-old,” he said. “At first I listened to big bands — Basie, Ellington, Dizzy’s bebop band, Woody Herman. And then I’m going to clubs,” he continued. “I’m standing in front of Harry
James with Buddy Rich. I heard the original MJQ (Modern Jazz Quartet) with Kenny Clarke. Oscar Peterson. I also heard Miles (Davis) and Trane (John Coltrane) with (their) first band.” One of Vuckovich’s brands has been themed projects, whether it’s the music of tenor saxophonist Lester Young, Miles Davis’ seminal “Kind of Blue” album (which just celebrated its 60th anniversary) or the mighty history of Blue Note Records. “I’m keeping the jazz legacy going to pay back the masters we learned from,” he said. On the afternoon of Sunday, March 10, he’ll present a curated program at Wunderman House, the colorful former speakeasy and bordello in Mountain View. The concert will feature vocalist Jackie Ryan and double bassist
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You’ve played in nearly every venue in the Bay Area over the years. How has it been doing concerts at the Wunderman House recently?
A:
The response has been really good. It’s got nice acoustics, and people really like the atmosphere. And there are some beautiful ladies on the wall — the pictures on the wall, you know? (Chuckles.) The first concert I did there was solo piano. I’d tell stories and do different composers and people really liked it. And then I said, “Let me start with some small groups.” So we had a trio with piano, bass and guitar. The modern trio is piano, bass and drums. But the original trio is piano, guitar and bass — the Nat King Cole style. And now we have Sunday’s concert with Jackie.
Q:
And what’s your approach to playing with a vocalist?
A:
In the ‘50s, I started going to the Black Hawk (nightclub in San Francisco) when I was in high school. I met (pianist) Vince Guaraldi, who was playing with (vibraphonist) Cal Tjader. Eventually, I became Vince’s only student. He turned everybody away. Somehow he liked me, my playing, whatever. I would go to his house and we would listen to records. What he
taught me was that basically to accompany singers, the idea is not to noodle, not to be too busy, not to get in the way but to lay a nice comfortable harmonic platform. It’s like a string section.
Q: A:
Was that initially easier said than done?
One of my first gigs was with Irene Kral, and I obviously didn’t have any experience with singers back then. She tells me, “You learn fast. You know that the idea is not to get in the way.” When I played with Mel (Tormé) the first time, it was in San Francisco in ‘63. On Kearney Street, there was a supper club called Off Broadway. It took me a while to learn the music, because I’m not a great reader. I can read, but I’m just not that fast. But once I learned the music, it was fine. Mel comes back to town, this time to San José, and calls me to work with him again. In those days you had jazz everywhere! There was a very comfortable place called Safari Room that featured vocalists like him. On the break he’s sitting down with (Monterey Jazz Festival founder) Jimmy Lyons. And he said, “Jimmy, I had a lot of big name accompanists. But this guy, Vuckovich, is like radar. So for the next Monterey Festival, I want him and (drummer) Mel Lewis to play with me.”
Q:
So when accompanying instrumentalists, it’s more about prodding the soloist as opposed to hanging back for a vocalist?
A:
Yeah, you lay back. At the same time on the swing tunes (with a vocalist) you do have to offer some ... punching so it moves the rhythm section.
Q:
How would you describe Jackie’s musical concept?
A:
She’s one of the most versatile musicians I know. She does traditional swinging stuff like Billie Holiday. She does some great Brazilian music with phenomenal pronunciation. Jackie also sings in Italian, like “Estate,” the Italian tune that became a bossa nova standard. She can do vocalese, and she can do authentic blues.
Q: nicely.
Jackie’s wide range in styles mirrors yours
A:
It’s like, why do I want to be limited eating hamburgers every day? Why can’t I have Indian food, too? Or Mexican? So that’s what the music is about, you know? Q Freelance writer Yoshi Kato can be emailed at yoshiyoungblood@earthlink.net.
What: Larry Vuckovich Trio with Jeff Chambers and Jackie Ryan. Where: Wunderman House, 655 Eunice Ave., Mountain View. When: Sunday, March 10, at 3 p.m. Cost: $25 suggested donation. Info: Email konailona@gmail.com.
‘Bullets’ over Foothill Woody Allen musical is Roaring ’20s fun by Karla Kane ased on the 1994 Woody Allen dark comedy, “Bullets Over Broadway The Musical� takes a story about mobsters mixing with the cast of a Broadway show and weaves in classic songs from the Jazz Age, creating an amusing, frisky musical that had the opening-night audience at Foothill College hooting and hollering. Fans of “Guys and Dolls,� “Singin’ in the Rain� and “The Producers� will find common ground in “Bullets Over Broadway,� which takes place in 1929 New York City. Struggling playwright David Shayne (Adam Cotugno) lives the life of a starving artist with his long-suffering girlfriend Ellen (Allie Townsend) and thinks his big break might finally be near. He’s sure his new play is a masterpiece and Broadway producer Julian Marx (Aaron Hurley) has secured a financial backer in big-shot gangster Nick (Steve Repetti). Nick has one condition before forking over the cash: His wannabe-actress paramour Olive (Jocelyn Pickett) needs to be given a significant role. Desperate to have his work on the Great White Way, David agrees, despite Olive being utterly, aggressively untalented. Part of the bargain also involves Nick’s goon Cheech (Nick Mandracchia) tagging along to keep tabs on Olive. David thinks the deal may be worth it, especially when the production scores glamorous diva Helen Sinclair (Carla Befera) to play the starring role and dashing Warner Purcell (Andrew Ross) as her leading man. Of course, these stars have issues of their own. Helen is an egotistical alcoholic and Warner is a ladies man with a compulsive eating problem and a waistline prone to expansion. Another quirky cast member, Eden Brent (Caitlin Papp), tends to speak in Pig Latin and dote obsessively on her tiny dog, Mister Woofles (played by the adorable, adoptable Pets in Need rescue pup Cardi). Once his cast is assembled, David has another, bigger problem. While he is convinced that his work is brilliant, everyone else agrees it’s a bit of a stinker: dull, cerebral and full of overwrought, clunky dialogue. Unexpected help comes from the seemingly oafish Cheech, who turns out to have a natural talent for playwriting. With Cheech’s changes, the script becomes a winner, but David has a hard time accepting any ghost writer, much less a murderous mobster,
B
THEATER REVIEW especially one who seems to be growing more and more invested in the production. He also finds himself torn between patient Ellen and seductive Helen (yes, it’s funny that their names rhyme). As opening day approaches, David spirals into a morality crisis: Does ending up with great art justify nefarious means? And can one separate the art from the artist (an especially interesting question from a work by Woody Allen, whose own personal life is rife with icky accusations)? “Bullets Over Broadway,� directed at Foothill by Milissa Carey, is successful in large part due to the delightfulness of its music: glorious period songs including “Let’s Misbehave,� “I’ve Found a New Baby� and “Tiger Rag.� Some have lyrics adapted by Glen Kelly to better suit the plot while others are used in clever ways, such as Cheech crooning the beautiful “Up A Lazy River� whenever he’s en route to dump a body into the Gowanus Canal, or threatening Warner to stay away from Olive in “There’ll Be Some Changes Made.� Sure, a few of the numerous songs are superfluous (I’m looking at you, “Yes! We Have No Bananas�) but it’s all toe-tapping fun, led with aplomb by Louis Lagalante and the rest of the small but punchy orchestra. I’m always excited to see Jocelyn Pickett’s name in a program. With exquisite vocals and incredible comic timing, she absolutely dominates any scene she’s in, and the Lohman Theatre is intimate enough for the audience to see all of her hilarious facial reactions. The character of obnoxious Olive could easily be unbearable but Pickett is a joy to watch. Mandracchia, as her nemesis, is similarly excellent, charming even as his dirty deeds pile up and bearing a lovely voice. Pretentious David is not a particularly likeable character and as an audience member I What: “Bullets Over Broadway The Musical� Where: Lohman Theatre, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. When: Through March 17, Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Cost: $12-$36. Info: Go to foothill.edu/theatre/ productions.
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was not very concerned with his fate. I loved watching Cotugno, though, who’s very funny as the nerdy, anxiety-ridden playwright. Repetti is endearing as the ruthless mob boss with a tender heart (and sweet singing voice), while Befera and Ross are also effectively endearing. The role of Ellen is a rather thankless and dull one for much of the show but the character becomes more lively toward the end. Townsend is very good throughout, delivering her songs with spirit. The jazzy numbers naturally lend themselves to splashy dance routines (tap especially) and while the ensemble does its best, the dance sequences are the-least polished aspect. Still great fun to watch, though, especially in the ridiculous “I Want a Hot Dog for My Roll.� The 1920s show-biz setting means costume designer Sharon Peng can have a ball with wardrobe and hairstyles and the rotating set is put to great use when depicting the cast members in various train cars.
David Allen
Arts & Entertainment
Olive (Jocelyn Pickett) and Warner (Andrew Ross) sing “Let’s Misbehave� in “Bullets Over Broadway The Musical,� presented by Foothill Music Theatre. Not every joke lands (and Helen’s “Don’t speak!� catch phrase grows tired quickly), but with zippy pacing, strong principals and a great selection of vintage
tunes, “Bullets Over Broadway� hits the target. Q Arts & Entertainment Editor Karla Kane can be emailed at kkane@paweekly.com.
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Learn more and register: continuingstudies.stanford.edu www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 23
Page 24 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 25
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Choice of three workshops • Assessing Your Retirement Readiness • The ABCs of IRAs • Managing your Finances as you Age • All About Medicare • Smart Tax Moves • Managing Investments and Cash Flow • Planning for Long Term Care • Social Security Claiming Strategies • Living Your Legacy and Making a Difference
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Call (650) 289-5445 for more information or sign up at www.avenidas.org
Eating Out
Ramen Nagi’s red “king” ramen starts with a base of chili oil, tonkotsu and noodles. It’s topped with a ball of minced pork infused with red chili and miso.
Creative ramen is worth the wait at Palo Alto’s Ramen Nagi Story by Monica Schreiber | Photos by Magali Gauthier fter several visits to Ramen Nagi in downtown Palo Alto — the first U.S. location for the Japan-based chain — I vow to never again stand in line to get into a restaurant. I won’t get back those hours of my life, and yes, it is all a little over-hyped, but I came away a fan. Ramen Nagi, which manages to be both trendy and traditional, is a case study in what can go right when a chef channels all his culinary energies into a single, beloved comfort dish. We are talking about steaming, deeply flavorful bowls of noodleand-broth goodness, prepared with assembly-line efficiency and brought to your table by friendly young servers. The pork-centric selections, all dubbed “kings,” are sizable and prices are fairly reasonable, at least if you don’t populate your bowl with too many extra ingredients. The original king is $13.50. The other four are $14.50: black (squid ink), red (spicy), green
A
(basil) and veggie. Customization is the defining feature of Ramen Nagi. Diners choose the strength of flavor, amount of oil, level of garlic and even the desired cook time for the noodles. You write your selections on the “omotenashi sheet,” a reference to a distinctive form of Japanese hospitality that mandates hosts devote themselves wholeheartedly to their guests. The forms streamline the ordering process and you’ll usually be happily slurping within about 10 minutes. Founded by chef Satoshi Ikuta in 2004, Ramen Nagi now has more than 40 outposts across Asia, but just one other shop (so far) in the United States, at San Jose’s Westfield Valley Fair mall. It opened in December, six months after Palo Alto. Nagi means “calm” or “tranquil,” and the 60-seat restaurant indeed manages to stay composed and orderly despite the constant rotation of diners. There is an ani-
mated buzz in the sunny, red-andblack dining room. You won’t feel rushed to turn over your table even if ramen is supposed to be eaten fairly quickly. With the exception of the veggie king, each bowl starts with a slow-simmered tonkotsu broth as its base. The pork bone broth is said to be cooked for more than 20 hours, resulting in a robust and earthy flavor. I went for a red king on my first visit, selecting normal levels of oil, salt, garlic and spiciness, along with thin, firm noodles. Now I know to go up a level on the spiciness, as “normal” had very little kick. The savory broth turns a deep, velvety red with the addition of red chili oil and red miso. Long, eggy noodles, flashboiled in purified water for less than a minute, shared the bowl with several intensely flavorful ingredients, including a salty ball (continued on next page)
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 27
Eating Out
Ramen Nagi (continued from previous page)
Ramen Nagi manager Daniel Tsow tosses cooked noodles before placing them in a bowl of ramen at the Palo Alto restaurant.
Public Notices 995 Fictitious Name Statement DisasterAWARE Enterprise FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN650960 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: DisasterAWARE Enterprise, located at 2107 North 1st Street, Suite 660, San Jose, CA 95131, Santa Clara County. This business is owned by: A Corporation. The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): KAAZING CORPORATION 2107 North 1st Street, Suite 660 San Jose, CA 95131 Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above. This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on February 1, 2019. (PAW Feb. 15, 22; Mar. 1, 8, 2019) KATALYST COACHING KATALYST CONSULTING FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN651240 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: (1) Katalyst Coaching, (2) Katalyst Consulting, located at 580 W. Crescent Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94301310, Santa Clara County. This business is owned by: An Individual. The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): KATHERINE LATIMER WOLF 580 W. Crescent Drive Palo Alto, CA 94301310 Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above. This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on February 8, 2019. (PAW Feb. 15, 22; Mar. 1, 8, 2019) MACWEB.COM HUCKLEBERRY FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN650944 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: 1.) MacWeb.com, 2.) Huckleberry, located at 2635 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306, Santa Clara County. This business is owned by: A Corporation. The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): WEB BROADCASTING CORP. 2635 Park Blvd. Palo Alto, CA 94306 Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above. This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on February 1, 2019. (PAW Feb. 15, 22; Mar. 1, 8, 2019) ASSOCIATED STUDENTS OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY ASSU AD AGENCY STANFORD DIRECTORY STANFORD STORE STANFORD STUDENT STORE
STANFORD STUDENT ENTERPRISES SSE SSE DEVELOPMENT SSE MARKETING CARDINAL VENTURES CARDINAL FUND CAPITAL GROUP CAPGROUP SSE CAPGROUP FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN651596 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: 1.) Associated Students of Stanford University, 2.) ASSU, 3.) Ad Agency, 4.) Stanford Directory, 5.) Stanford Store, 6.) Stanford Student Store, 7.) Stanford Student Enterprises, 8.) SSE, 9.) SSE Development, 10.) SSE Marketing, 11.) Cardinal Ventures, 12) Cardinal Fund, 13.) Capital Group, 14.) CapGroup, 15.) SSE CapGroup, located at 520 Lasuen Mall, Ste. 103, Stanford, CA 94305, Santa Clara County. This business is owned by: An Unincorporated Association other than a Partnership. The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): SHANTA KATIPAMULA 520 Lasuen Mall, Ste. 103 Stanford, CA 94305 CHERYL R. NELSON 520 Lasuen Mall, Ste. 103 Stanford, CA 94305 Registrant began transacting business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above on 01/01/1975. This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on February 21, 2019. (PAW Mar. 1, 8, 15, 22, 2019) KATALYST FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN652019 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: Katalyst, located at 580 W. Crescent Dr., Palo Alto, CA 94301, Santa Clara County. This business is owned by: An Individual. The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): KATHERINE LATIMER WOLF 580 W. Crescent Dr. Palo Alto, CA 94301 Registrant began transacting business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above on 03/01/2019. This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on March 1, 2019. (PAW Mar. 8, 15, 22, 29, 2019) VICKY & MARIA CLEANING FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN651350 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: Vicky & Maria Cleaning, located at 324 Camille Ct. #4, Mountain View, CA 94040, Santa Clara County. This business is owned by: A General partnership. The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): VIRGINIA BAUTISTA 324 Camille Ct. #4 Mountain View, CA 94040 MARIA SOTO-AMEZCUA 2737 Georgetown St. E. Palo Alto, CA 94303 Registrant began transacting business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above on 02/12/2019. This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on February 12, 2019. (PAW Mar. 8, 15, 22, 29, 2019)
Page 28 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
of miso-infused minced pork, tree mushrooms and tender pork belly. I would have expected a marinated, Japanese-style soft-boiled egg to come as a standard ingredient, but rather annoyingly, the egg (so critical to the ramen experience!) is an add-on ($1.75). The vegetarian king was created specifically for meat-eschewing Californians and is found only at Ramen Nagi’s Palo Alto and San Jose locations. The cauliflower- and onion-based broth was a little on the salty side (I selected the normal level of flavor). The accompanying hash brown patties — a creative stand-in for meat — had to be plucked quickly
from the broth, where they were rapidly turning into a goopy mess, but otherwise this was a deeply satisfying, nourishing bowl of hard-to-find vegetarian ramen. Squid ink and black miso turn the black king the color of tar. I could only eat half a bowl, punctuated with green onions, tree mushrooms and a salty, minced pork, before giving up in the face of its sheer ugliness and slightly sweet, fish-forward flavor. The black king is an intense, rather intimidating experience and was not for me, though I did make sure none of the divine noodles remained in the dark depths of the broth. Ramen Nagi goes full-on fusion with the green king. This Japanese-Italian culinary mashup was delicious, if also a little salty
(again, I selected the “normal” level of flavor). The vibrant green broth worked well with thick, firm noodles. A sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and chunks of thick bacon made for a bold, creative expression of ramen and spoke to Ramen Nagi’s tagline: “Universal Noodle Creators.” One of my favorite offerings was the complimentary and addictive black pepper bean sprouts. They are among an array of condiments and seasonings, including seaweed vinegar, picked vegetables and fish powder, conveniently placed on each table to further enhance the customization options. Also on each table: a box of tissues in lieu of napkins, in keeping with how things are often done in Japan. To avoid the longest lines, try going on a Monday. Otherwise, make sure your phone is charged or have a good book with you. Q Freelance writer Monica Schreiber can be emailed at monicahayde@yahoo.com. Ramen Nagi, 541 Bryant St., Palo Alto; 650-391-9958 ramennagiusa.com Hours: Open daily 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30-9:30 p.m.
Credit cards
Parking: Street
Catering
Bathroom: Excellent
Takeout
There is often a wait at Ramen Nagi, including on a recent morning before the restaurant opened for lunch at 11 a.m.
ShopTalk
Local food & retail happenings
MIDTOWN STARBUCKS CLOSES ... After nearly two decades in Palo Alto’s Midtown neighborhood, the Starbucks store on Middlefield Road closed its doors for good on Jan. 25, a representative for the store’s landlord confirmed. The Starbucks at 2775 Middlefield Road had been in the community for 18 to 19 years, according to real-estate broker Tim Foy of Midtown Realty. He did not know why the store left the neighborhood, but said there were no changes to the lease agreement prior to the closure. The Midtown location is likely one of 150 underperforming stores in “densely penetrated markets” Starbucks planned to close in fiscal year 2019, according to a June press release. A Starbucks shop at 863 El Camino Real in Menlo Park was reportedly closed on Feb. 1, according to a poster on Yelp. com. Employees who worked at both stores have been transferred to neighboring locations. The owner of the building at the Middlefield site is in talks with potential tenants, according to Foy. Under city zoning laws, the space
prominently situated at the corner of Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue has to be occupied by either a retail store or a restaurant. According to a store locator map on the Starbucks website, there are still 10 stores in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Stanford University and Stanford Shopping Center. — J.P. NEW OREN’S HUMMUS COMING ... Fans of Oren’s Hummus will soon have another local outpost where they can rip, scoop and eat: Town & Country Village in Palo Alto.” Coming soon” signs for the popular Israeli eatery were recently put up at the former location of Fast Tony’s Chicken, toward the back of the 855 El Camino Real shopping center. According to a press release, this will be the first of several “express” versions of Oren’s that will focus on quick, grab-and-go service. They plan to open more Oren’s Hummus Express locations in downtown San Francisco and the East Bay by the end of the year and “anticipate carrying the brand out of the Bay Area with an expansion in 2020,” the
Alcohol
Reservations
Outdoor seating
Noise level: Energetic, but not overly loud
release states.The 855-squarefoot space at Town & Country will be open seven days a week with a counter where customers can order hot items made for pick up as well as to-go orders. The menu will feature Oren’s “greatest hits with a few new items,” the release states. Namesake Oren Dobronsky, an Israeli-born technology entrepreneur, opened the first Oren’s in downtown Palo Alto in 2011. With an eye toward expansion, Dobronsky and his wife, Nancy, partnered with restaurant consultant Mistie Cohen and her husband and Oren’s executive chef, David. Together, the co-owners went on to open locations in Mountain View, Cupertino and last summer, San Francisco (the only location that serves breakfast to date). The restaurant’s menu is full of Israeli staples, from hummus and falafels to kebabs and shakshuka to baba ganoush and bourekas. Oren’s also makes whole wheat and gluten-free pita. The first Oren’s Hummus Express will open in April. — E.K. Compiled by the Weekly staff; this week written by Elena Kadvany and Jamey Padojino. Got leads on interesting and news-worthy retail developments? The Weekly will check them out. Email shoptalk@paweekly.com.
Movies NOW SHOWING A Madea Family Funeral (PG-13) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Alita: Battle Angel (PG-13) ++1/2 Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Apollo 11 (Not Rated) Palo Alto Square: Fri. - Sun. Arctic (PG-13) ++1/2 Aquarius Theatre: Fri. - Sun. Bohemian Rhapsody (PG-13) Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Captain Marvel (PG-13) +++ Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Cold War (R) +++1/2 Aquarius Theatre: Fri. - Sun. Everybody Knows (English subtitles) (R) Palo Alto Square: Fri. - Sun. Fighting With My Family (PG-13) Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Green Book (PG-13) ++1/2 Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Greta (R) Aquarius Theatre: Fri. Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Gully Boy (English subtitles) (Not Rated) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Happy Death Day 2U (PG-13) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (PG) +++ Century 16: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Isn’t it Romantic (PG-13) Century 20: Fri. - Sun. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (PG) +++ Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. North by Northwest (1959) (Not Rated) Stanford Theatre: Fri. - Sun. Spider-man:Into the Spider-Verse (PG) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. They Shall Not Grow Old (R) Century 20: Fri. - Sun. To Catch a Thief (1955) (Not Rated) Stanford Theatre: Fri. - Sun. Total Dhamaal (Hindi with English subtitles) (Not Rated) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Vice (R) +++1/2 Century 16: Fri. - Sun. The Wedding Guest (R) Guild Theatre: Fri. - Sun. What Men Want (R) Century 16: Fri. - Sun.
+ Skip it ++ Some redeeming qualities +++ A good bet ++++ Outstanding Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (For recorded listings: 327-3241) tinyurl.com/Aquariuspa
Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View tinyurl.com/Century16 Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City tinyurl.com/Century20
OPENINGS
High-flying heroine
Meet Brie Larson’s ‘Captain Marvel’ 000 (Century 16 & 20, Icon) “Captain Marvel” introduces Marvel Studios’ first headlining female hero with an origin story that will leave viewers marveling at Marvel once again. Brie Larson (“Room,” “Short Term 12”) stars as Vers, a superpowered amnesiac inhabitant of the planet Hala and member of an elite military unit one might as well call Seal Team Kree. The Kree people are at war with the shape-shifting Skrulls, and when Vers literally falls to Earth, her visions of once being an Air Force test pilot there intensify. Is she Vers, or is she Carol Danvers? Or could she somehow be both? The identity crisis storyline crafted by directors, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and co-screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet follows our hero as she discovers who she is and what she can do. Because the story unfolds largely on 1995 Earth (a.k.a. “Planet C-53”), Boden and Fleck pepper the film with cheeky references (Vers lands in a Blockbuster Video, where she promptly photon-blasts the head off of an Arnold Schwarzenegger display
and peruses a VHS copy of “The Right Stuff”). With top directors and a cast that includes Ben Mendelsohn, Oscar-winner Larson, Oscarnominee Samuel L. Jackson and multiple Oscar-nominees Annette Bening, Jude Law and Djimon Hounsou, one wonders when Marvel will run out of prestige talent to throw at comic-book movies. “Captain Marvel” also qualifies as an anti-war story that blurs the line between good guys and bad, while also slipping in a feminist smackdown here, a sly Trump rebuke there. At times, the formula can make the picture feel a little bland, and the humor tips over into cutesy when it comes to hero cat “Goose” (maybe Jude Law’s Kree commander Yon-Rogg is right when he insists, “Humor is a distraction”). But the not-sosecret recipe still satisfies, while providing a sturdy origin launchpad for a new hero. Rated PG for adventure action and some mild rude humor. Two hours, 4 minutes. — Peter Canavese
Answers to this week’s puzzles, which can be found on page 46.
TheatreWorks S I L I C O N V A L L E Y
ROOF-RAISING GOSPEL OF ROCK!
Marie and Rosetta BY GEORGE BRANT
Directed by Robert Kelley
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Now thru March 31 Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto theatreworks.org 650.463.1960
CineArts at Palo Alto Square: 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (For information: 493-0128) tinyurl.com/Pasquare Guild: 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park (For recorded listings: 5668367) tinyurl.com/Guildmp Stanford Theatre: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (For recorded listings: 324-3700) Stanfordtheatre.org Find trailers, star ratings and reviews on the web at PaloAltoOnline.com/ movies
MARISSA RUDD & MICHELLE E. JORDAN / PHOTO KEVIN BERNE
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 29
Business & Tech CareerGenerations
2225 E. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto / 650-320-1639 / info@careergenerations.com / careergenerations.com Group workshops and programs to meet the career needs of college students looking for internships, graduates looking for employment and those re-entering the market.
Dance Brazivedas
53 Shorebreeze Court, East Palo Alto / 650-644-7343 / brazivedas.com Brazilian dance, music and martial arts for all ages and experience levels.
Dance Connection
4000 Middlefield Road, L-5, Palo Alto / 650-322-7032 / info@danceconnectionpaloalto.com / danceconnectionpaloalto.com
Offers a combination class for preschool-age children (beginning at age 3), graded classes for youth and adults and other programs to meet dancers’ needs. Ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, lyrical, Pilates and other instruction is available for students at various levels of ability. See 2019 schedule online. Zohar School of Dance & Company
4000 Middlefield Road, L-4, Palo Alto / 650-494-8221 / zohardance@ gmail.com / zohardancecompany. org Adult dance classes in jazz, contemporary, modern, ballet, musical theater and tap. View class schedules and 2019 events online.
Sports & Outdoors Baylands Golf Links
1875 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto / 650-856-0881 /
baylandsgolflinks.com Private lessons are available at any level of experience.
Health & Fitness Equinox
440 Portage Ave., Palo Alto / 650-319-1700 / equinox.com/clubs/ northern-california/paloalto Offers a variety of fitness and wellness activities.
Kim Grant Tennis Academy
3005 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto / 650-752-8061 / admin@kimgranttennis.com / kimgranttennis.com Tennis classes and programs for adults and children, including those with special needs. Spring break camp is open.
SoulCycle
600 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto / 650-784-7510 / soulpaloalto@soul-cycle.com / soul-cycle.com/studios/palo/28 Combines inspirational coaching, high-energy music, indoor cycling and choreography to create a fullbody workout. Riders of all fitness levels and as young as age 12 can participate in a variety of classes.
United States Youth Volleyball League
Mitchell Park, 600 E. Meadow Drive, Palo Alto / 310-212-7008 / info@usyvl.org / usyvl.org/ locations/palo-alto Run by the league and volunteers, the youth volleyball program allows boys and girls of all skill levels from ages 7 to 15 to play and learn the sport. Youth volleyball starts April 9, and registration is currently open online.
Studio Kicks
796 San Antonio Road A, Palo Alto / 650-855-9868 / info@studiokickspaloalto.com / studiokickspaloalto.com Family fitness center offering
WHEN YOU COMBINE COLLABORATION WITH INDIVIDUALITY
THE EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENS At Stratford, students accomplish extraordinary things. Our advanced yet balanced curriculum propels our students to excel both inside and outside the classroom. Discover a school that inspires children to become creative problem-solvers, imaginative innovators, and confident leaders.
Palo Alto Campus
870 N. California Ave. (650) 493-1151
Now Enrolling Preschool THROUGH
We deliver the extraordinary.
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8th Grade
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cardio kickboxing classes and training in martial arts for children and adults. Taijiquan Tutelage of Palo Alto
4000 Middlefield Road, M-4, Palo Alto / 650-327-9350 / mjchan@ttopa.com / ttopa.com. Offers classical Yang Style Taijiquan Slow Form tai chi. Beginning classes start monthly.
Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA
3391 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto / 600 Colorado Ave., Palo Alto / 600 E. Meadow Drive, Palo Alto / 650-396-9244 / taoist.org/usa/ locations/palo-alto Holds classes designed to improve balance, strength, flexibility, relaxation and health. Beginner classes are held a few days each week.
Uforia Studios
819 Ramona St., Palo Alto / 650329-8794 / uforiastudios.com Offers exercise classes that
incorporate dance (Pop and Hip Hop), cycle classes (Revolutions and Revolutions: Road) and strength and cardio (Grit). View available classes and reserve online. YogaWorks Palo Alto
440 Kipling St., Palo Alto / 650-468-2929 / yogaworks.com/ location/palo-alto Offers classes on yin and yang, Vinyasa flow, Iyengar, power and restorative yoga, as well as TRX, a circuit workout and circuit training.
Special needs Bay Area Friendship Circle
3921 Fabian Way, Suite A023, Palo Alto / 650-858-6990 / bayareafc.org / info@BayAreaFC.org Programs for children, teens and young adults with special needs ages 2 to 22 year-round as well as winter and summer camps.
Language courses Berlitz Palo Alto Language Center
159 Homer Ave., Palo Alto / 650617-0720 / berlitz.us/paloalto Language instruction in Spanish, German, French, English and other languages. Private lessons, tutoring, testing services and cultural agility training for businesses also are available.
Arts Art Works Studio
668 Ramona St., Palo Alto / 650796-1614 / artworkspaloalto@ gmail.com / artworkspaloalto.net Fine-art classes for youth. Summer classes began July 2.
Art & Soul
Webster Street Studio, 2326 Webster St., Palo Alto / 650-2690423 / artandsoulpa.com Programs allow children to explore drawing, painting and sculpture techniques, as well as develop their observational skills. Summer registration is open.
New Mozart School of Music
2100 El Camino Real Suite C, Palo Alto / 650-324-2373 / newmozartschool.com / info@ NewMozartSchool.com Offers music lessons and classes year-round to students of all ages and abilities.
The Midpen Media Center
900 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto / 650-494-8686 / info@midpenmedia. org / midpenmedia.org Offers workshops for a range of media arts, including video production, photo enhancement, studio work and more.
Pacific Art League
668 Ramona St., Palo Alto / 650321-3891 / info@pacificartleague. org / pacificartleague.org Instructors teach drawing, painting, watercolor, printmaking, digital art and more. Registration for the Summer Camp Art Academy is open.
Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto / 650-329-2366 / cityofpaloalto.org/ gov/depts/csd/artcenter
Offers classes and workshops for all ages covering ceramics, painting, drawing, jewelry, sculpture, Adobe PhotoShop and more. Silicon Valley Boychoir
600 Homer Ave., Palo Alto / svboychoir.org / info@svboychoir. org. Offers rehearsals, musicianship classes and performance opportunities to boys ages 7 to 17. Auditions by appointment are available.
School days Amigos de Palo Alto
1611 Stanford Ave., Palo Alto / 650493-4300 / info@amigosdepaloalto. com / amigosdepaloalto.com A Spanish-immersion preschool for children 2 1/2 and older.
Emerson School
2800 W. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto / 650-424-1267 / emersonschool@ headsup.org / headsup.org/ emerson-school Full-day, year-round program for grades one to eight, teaching a personalized, Montessori curriculum. Apply online.
Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School
450 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto / 650-494-8200 / hausner.com Provides strong academics, instruction in Jewish studies and the Hebrew language, enrichment opportunities and after-school programs for children in K-8.
HeadsUp! Child Development Center
2800 W. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto / 650-424-1221 / pacdc@ headsup.org, headsup.org/headsup Serves infants, toddlers and preschoolers (to age 6) with a full-day program, year-round. The Montessori curriculum focuses on building thinking skills and personal values. A bilingual Chinese-English preschool classroom is also available.
International School of the Peninsula
151 Laura Lane, Palo Alto / 650251-8500 / istp@istp.org / istp.org Bilingual immersion day school with two nursery-to-fifth-grade programs in French and Mandarin Chinese, as well as an international middle school program.
Kehillah Jewish High School
3900 Fabian Way, Palo Alto / 650-213-9600 / kehillah.org College-preparatory high school (grades 9-12) that features modern science and computer labs, art and music studios, a drama program, a full range of academic courses with small class sizes, sports teams and more.
Oshman Family JCC Leslie Family Preschool
3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto / 650-223-8788 / earlychildhood@ paloaltojcc.org / paloaltojcc.org/ preschool Preschool program provides one- to five-days-per-week options for children 18 months to 5 years old (ages 2 to 4 at Congregation Beth Am), with an emphasis placed on experiential learning, family involvement and play. Parent/ caregiver participation programs are available for children 12 to 23 months old.
Living Wisdom High School of Palo Alto
Cubberley Communit y Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. / 650-646-1066 / LivingWisdomHighSchool.org Serves ninth through 12th grade, and offers a strong emphasis on personalized learning as well as project-based, experiential, in-depth study rooted in creativity, inner development, compassion, critical thinking and problem-solving. The school opened Fall 2017.
Living Wisdom School of Palo Alto
456 College Ave., Palo Alto / 650-462-8150 / info@ livingwisdomschool. org / LivingWisdomSchool.org Offers daily yoga, meditation and experiential, project-based learning for students in transitional kindergarten through grade 8.
Palo Alto / 650-494-0550 / preschool@abilitiesunited.org / milestonespreschool.org Offers a year-round, projectbased program that fosters the social, emotional, cognitive and physical development of children ages 2 to 5. Mustard Seed Learning Center
2585 E. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto / 650-494-7389 / info@ mustardseedlearningcenter.org / mustardseedlearningcenter.org After-school tutoring and care program that teaches local youth to speak Mandarin Chinese. Registration for summer camp is open.
Sand Hill School
650 Clark Way, Palo Alto / 650688-3605 / info@sandhillschool. org / sandhillschool.org Teaches children in K-8 with language-based learning differences, and assists with the attention and social difficulties that go along with them. Apply online.
Sora International Preschool of Palo Alto
701 E. Meadow Drive, Palo Alto / 650-493-7672 / info@sorapreschool. com / sorapreschool.com An English-Japanese bilingual preschool for children 3 to 6 years old. Class Guides are published quarterly in the Palo Alto Weekly, Mountain View Voice and the Almanac. Descriptions of classes offered in Palo Alto, Stanford, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Atherton, East Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley and Woodside are provided. Listings are free and subject to editing. Due to space constraints, classes held in the above cities are given priority. To inquire about submitting a listing for the next Class Guide, email Editorial Assistant Cierra Bailey at cbailey@paweekly.com or call 650-223-6526. To place a paid advertisement in the Class Guide, call the display advertising department at 650-326-8210.
EDUCATION IS for LIFE
Meira Academy
3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto / 650485-3589 / office@meiraacademy. org / meiraacademy.org A traditional, all-girls Jewish high school devoted to academic excellence in general and Jewish studies, preparing its students for college, as well as seminaries in Israel.
Milestones Preschool
3864
Middlefield
Road,
WRITE NOW!
SUMMER WRITING CAMPS
REGISTER NOW!
PAAdultschool.org (650) 329-3752
for Grades 2-8
July 8 - August 2 Expository Writing Creative Writing Presentation Skills
PALO ALTO, (650) 424-1267 PLEASANTON, (925) 485-5750
writenow@headsup.org www.headsup.org
PALO ALTO ADULT SCHOOL
offers new classes each fall, winter, spring, and summer Art / Birding / Cooking ESL / Healthcare Training / Music Upholstery / World Languages / Woodworking 10% discount available at PAAdultSchool.org/coupon www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 31
G U I D E TO 2019 S U M M E R C A M P S FO R K I D S
n n o e C c tion p m a C
For more information about these camps visit paloaltoonline.com/camp_connection. To advertise in this weekly directory, call (650) 326-8210.
ACADEMICS Harker Summer Programs
San Jose
The Harker School’s summer programs for children K - grade 12 offer the perfect balance of learning and fun! Programs are led by dedicated faculty and staff who are experts at combining summer fun and learning. Strong academics and inspiring enrichment programs are offered in full day, partial and morning only sessions.
www.harker.org/summer
(408) 553-5737
i2 Camp at Castilleja School
Palo Alto
i2 Camp offers week-long immersion programs that engage middle school girls in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The fun and intimate hands-on activities of the courses strive to excite and inspire participants about STEM, creating enthusiasm that will hopefully spill over to their schoolwork and school choices in future years.
www.castilleja.org/i2camp
(650) 470-7833
iD Tech Camps Campbell
Stanford/Bay Area
The world’s #1 summer STEM program held at Stanford, Palo Alto High School, and 150+ locations nationwide. With innovative courses in coding, game development, robotics, and design, our programs instill in-demand skills that embolden students to shape the future. iD Tech Camps (weeklong, 7-17), Alexa Café (weeklong, all-girls, 10-15), iD Tech Academies (2-week, 13-18).
iDTechCamps.com
(844) 788-1858
STANFORD EXPLORE: A Lecture Series on Biomedical Research Stanford EXPLORE biomedical science at Stanford. Stanford EXPLORE offers high school students the unique opportunity to learn from Stanford professors and graduate students about diverse topics in biomedical science, including bioengineering, neurobiology, immunology and many others.
explore.stanford.edu explore-series@stanford.edu
Summer at Sand Hill School
Palo Alto
June 26 to July 23. If you’re looking for a great summer learning plus fun option for your child and you want them to be ready for fall, please join us at Sand Hill. The morning Literacy Program (8:30 to noon) provides structured, systematic instruction for students with learning challenges entering grades 1-8 in the fall. The afternoon Enrichment Camp (Noon to 4) focuses on performing arts, social skills and fun. Choose morning, afternoon or full day.
www.sandhillschool.org/summer
Write Now! Summer Writing Camps
(650) 688-3605
Palo Alto Pleasanton
Improve your student’s writing skills this summer at Emerson School of Palo Alto and Hacienda School of Pleasanton. Courses this year are Expository Writing, Creative Writing and Presentation Skills. Visit our website for more information.
www.headsup.org
Emerson: (650) 424-1267 Hacienda: (925) 485-5750
ARTS, CULTURE, OTHER CAMPS Art and Soul Camp
Palo Alto
Art, cooking, tinkering, yoga and mindfulness. We celebrate multiple perspectives and recognize the many ways for our children to interpret their world. Summer Unplugged! is appropriate for ages 6-11 years. Located at Walter Hays School.
www.artandsoulpa.com
Castilleja Summer Camp for Girls Palo Alto
(650) 269-0423
Palo Alto
Casti Camp offers girls entering gr. 2-6 a range of age-appropriate activities including athletics, art, science, computers, writing, crafts, cooking, drama and music classes each day along with weekly field trips. Leadership program available for girls entering gr. 7-9.
www.castilleja.org/summercamp
(650) 470-7833
City of Mountain View Recreation
Mountain View
Come have a blast with us this summer! We have something for everyone – Recreation Camps, Specialty Camps, Sports Camps, Swim Lessons, and more! Programs begin June 4 – register early!
www.mountainview.gov/register
City of Palo Alto Summer Camps
(650) 903-6331
Palo Alto
Kim Grant Tennis Summer Camps
Fun and specialized Junior Camps for Mini (3-5), Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, High Performance and Elite tennis levels. Weekly programs designed by Kim Grant to improve player technique, fitness, agility, mental toughness and all around game. Weekly camps in Palo Alto and Sleep-Away Camps in Monterey Bay. SO MUCH FUN!
A wide array of camps, from theater and tennis to ceramics and coding. Kids in kindergarten through high school can participate in camps during week-long sessions from June 3 to Aug 9.
www.KimGrantTennis.com
www.cityofpaloalto.org/summercamps (650) 463-4949
Nike Tennis Camps
Community School of Music
Mountain View
Community School of Mountain View Music and Arts (CSMA) Mountain View 50+ creative camps for Gr. K-8! Drawing, Painting, Ceramics, Sculpture, Musical Theater, Summer Music Workshops, more! One and two-week sessions; full and half-day enrollment. Extended care from 8:30am-5:30pm. Financial aid offered.
www.arts4all.org
Text: 650-690-0678 Call: 650-752-8061
Bay Area
Junior overnight and day tennis camps for boys and girls, ages 9-18 offered throughout June, July and August. Adult weekend clinics available June and August. Camps directed by head men’s coach, Paul Goldstein, head women’s coach, Lele Forood, and associate men’s and women’s coaches, Brandon Coupe and Frankie Brennan. Join the fun and get better at tennis this summer.
www.ussportscamps.com
(800) NIKE-CAMP (800) 645-3226
(650) 917-6800 ext. 0
Oshman Family JCC Camps
Palo Alto
Camps at the OFJCC introduce your child to new experiences while creating friendships in a fun and safe environment. We work to build confidence, stretch imaginations and teach new skills.
www.paloaltojcc.org/Camps
Palo Alto Community Child Care (PACCC)
(650) 223-8622
Palo Alto
PACCC summer camps offer campers, grades 1st to 6th, a wide variety of engaging opportunities. We are excited to announce all of your returning favorites: Leaders in Training (L.I.T.), PACCC Special Interest Units (S.I.U.), F.A.M.E. (Fine Arts, Music and Entertainment), J.V. Sports and Operation: Chef! Periodic field trips, special visitors and many engaging camp activities, songs and skits round out the variety of offerings at PACCC Summer Camps. Open to campers from all communities. Register online.
www.paccc.org
(650) 493-2361
Stanford Jazz Workshop
Stanford
World-renowned jazz camps at Stanford. Week-long jazz immersion programs for middle school musicians (July 8-12), high school (July 14-19 and and July 21-26), and adults (July 28Aug. 2). All instruments and vocals. No jazz experience necessary!
www.stanfordjazz.org
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
(650) 736-0324
Palo Alto Menlo Park
April 1 - 5, June 3 - August 2. Kids have fun, create a character, and learn lifelong performance skills at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s Theatre Camps. TheatreWorks offers camps during spring break (offered in Palo and Menlo Park, April 1 - 5) and summer camps (six sessions offered in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Los Altos between June 3 - August 2) for children and youth in grades K-6. Professional teaching artists lead students in activities including acting, dance, play writing, and stagecraft skills. Sibling discounts and extended care available.
www.theatreworks.org/education
(650) 463-7146
ATHLETICS Dance Connection Palo Alto
Palo Alto
Share the joy of dance with us! Our studio is an extended family and a “home away from home” for our community of children and teens. At Dance Connection, we value the positive energy and atmosphere that we continuously strive to provide. Summer Dance Camps include all styles of dance for ages 4 and up and features our new “This is Me!” Empowerment Camp along with Teen Jazz and Hip Hop Camps. A Summer Session for ages 3 to adults will be offered from June 3-August 2.
www.danceconnectionpaloalto.com/danceconnection-event-calendar/summer-dance-camps (650) 852-0418 or (650) 322-7032
Page 32 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Palo Alto Monterey Bay
Run for Fun Camps
Bay Area
Run for Fun’s mission is to provide creative and engaging play for all youth by getting kids active in an inclusive community centered around outdoor fun! We pride ourselves on hiring an enthusiastic, highly trained staff who love what they do. Summer 2019 features four weeks of Adventure Day Camp and two weeks of Overnight Camp High Five. Adventure Day Camp is a new discovery every day filled with sports, crafts and nature, including explorations to Camp Jones Gulch, Capitola Beach, Foothills Park, Shoreline Lake and Great America. Camp High Five is six days and five nights of traditional overnight camp mixed with challenge-by-choice activities, campfires, friendships and lots of laughter.
www.runforfuncamps.com/summer-camps-andschool-holiday-camps/camp-overview (650) 823-5167
Stanford Athletics & Youth
Stanford
Stanford Youth Programs brings you Camp Cardinal! Week-long day camp programs on campus for kids (grades K – 10) from June 3 – August 9. Space is limited so register online now.
campcardinal.org
(650) 736-5436
Stanford Baseball Camps
Stanford
At Sunken Diamond on the campus of Stanford University. A variety of camps are offered to benefit a wide range of age groups and skill sets. Campers will gain instruction in several baseball skills, fundamentals, team concepts, and game play.
www.stanfordbaseballcamp.com
Stanford Water Polo Camps
(650) 725-2054
Stanford
New to water polo or have experience, we have a camp for you. Half day or full day options for boys and girls ages 7 and up. All camps provide fundamental skills, scrimmages and games.
www.stanfordwaterpolocamps.com (650) 725-9016
Wheel Kids Bike Camps
Addison Elementary, Palo Alto
Adventure Riding Camp for rising 1st - 8th gr, Two Wheelers Club for rising K - 3rd gr. Week-long programs from 8:30 - 4, starting June 3rd. Join us as we embark on bicycling adventures for the more experienced rider or help those just learning to ride.
www.wheelkids.com/palo-alto
(650) 646-5435
YMCA of Silicon Valley Summer Camps
Silicon Valley
At the Y, children and teens of all abilities acquire new skills, make friends, and feel that they belong. With hundreds of Summer Day Camps plus Overnight Camps, you will find a camp that’s right for your family. Sign up today, camps are filling up! Financial assistance is available.
www.ymcasv.org/summercamp
(408) 351-6473
Home&Real Estate
OPEN HOME GUIDE 43 Also online at PaloAltoOnline.com
A weekly guide to home, garden and real estate news, edited by Elizabeth Lorenz
LUNCH IN THE GARDEN ... Gamble Garden is scheduled to host its next Garden Fresh Luncheon on Wednesday, March 13, from noon to 1:30 p.m. The luncheon will be followed by a complimentary docent-led tour through the garden. The lunch menu includes: ham, broccoli and cheddar frittata; green salad; roll; and strawberry-lemon angel roll. Reservations are required. Call 650-329-1356 to reserve a seat. The cost is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers. Gamble Garden is located at 1431 Waverley St., Palo Alto. CHOCOLATE CLASS ... Local herbalist and acupuncturist Anya Tyutyunik will lead students through a medicinal chocolate-making class at Hidden Villa on Saturday, March 16, from 1-4 p.m. Tyutyunik will teach about the magical power of cacao, the herbs that pair best with it and their medicinal properties to create a healing and delicious treat. Individuals will have the opportunity to work in groups to create flavors to taste and bring home. The cost is $45 and includes all materials. For adults and students 16 years and up. To register, go to hiddenvilla. org. Hidden Villa is located at 26870 Moody Road, Los Altos Hills. COLORFUL CREATIONS ... Learn how to put together a focal point for your garden or front door using the season’s best color. In this informative and free demonstration on Sunday, March 17, garden design experts will walk you through the creation of a colorful custom-planted arrangement. The 30-minute class starts at 9 a.m. at Summerwinds Nursery, 725 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto. For more information, go to summerwindsnursery.com. Send notices of news and events related to real estate, interior design, home improvement and gardening to Home Front, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302, or email elorenz@ paweekly.com. Deadline is one week before publication.
READ MORE ONLINE
PaloAltoOnline.com
There are more real estate features online. Go to PaloAltoOnline.com/ real_estate.
Roses in miniature
Local society celebrates tiny versions of showy flowers
Courtesy of Jolene Adams
Home Front
I
by Elizabeth Lorenz
f you’ve always wanted to grow roses but were too timid, rose expert Jolene Adams of the Peninsula Rose Society says you can start with miniature ones. “They’re just as complicated as their big sisters,” Adams said, but they are easy to grow. Whether you buy them from the grocery store or from a specialty online retailer, Adams said anyone can grow them. She warns that even mini roses are “real roses, they’re not houseplants, so they’re not meant to be grown indoors.” That means after they have been used as a table decoration, they need to be moved outside. They are easy to grow in containers, but can also be used as “color spots” throughout a garden or used as borders for English gardens or even to fill in larger rose gardens. Adams said miniature roses are also nice for long containers or long walled-in sections of a garden. They are also great for apartments and even for places without direct sunlight. Adams has a row of miniature roses on a bench that gets only reflected light from her white garage wall and they grow beautifully. Just like regular-sized roses, miniature ones need to be pruned back in winter. If mini roses are planted in a container with other plants, make sure there is enough air circulation. Regular potting mix works just fine for mini roses. If you decide to cut the blooms for vases, cut them down
to a five-leaf stem as you would larger roses. Rose Gilardi will give a talk on growing miniature roses at the next Peninsula Rose Society meeting. “Just because they’re small doesn’t mean you have to baby them,” she said. Like Adams, she prefers growing miniature roses in containers so they can be moved around and provide garden color. Miniature roses most likely originated in China, Adams said, but were officially “discovered” by westerners in the 1700s. The American Rose Society began promoting them after World War II, pushing the idea of smaller gardens for people living in apartments and small dwellings. While miniature roses come in all the colors of the rainbow and are usually disease-resistant, Gilardi said, rose experts have had a much harder time finding a way to breed in fragrance, so most miniature roses don’t have a smell. She plants miniature roses with perennials as well as with larger roses in her garden, often replacing ones that aren’t blooming with ones that are, to create color spots. Q The Peninsula Rose Society will host a talk by Rose Gilardi on miniature roses on Tuesday March 19 from 7:30-9 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Ave. in Redwood City. For more information, go to peninsularosesociety.org.
Miniature roses come in a rainbow of colors, including medium yellow. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Miniature roses by color and name, recommended by the Peninsula Rose Society Yellow: Bees Knees; Behold; Hot Tamale (yellow blend); My Sunshine (medium yellow)
Mauve: Diamond Eyes, Ruby Pendant, Sweet Chariot
Red: Starina (orange red); Black Jade (dark red); Glowing Amber, Kristin, Little Artist, Why Not (red blend)
Orange: Gizmo, Millie Walters, Pierrine, Rainbow’s End (orange blend); Jean Kenneally, Loving Touch (apricot blend)
Pink: Child’s Play, Soroptimist International, X-Rated (pink blend); Marriotta (deep pink)
White: Figurine, Gourmet Popcorn, Irresistible
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 33
101 and 103 Melville, Palo Alto
Open Sat 3/9 & Sun 3/10 1:30-4:30
Stunning New Construction/Side by side single family homes • Steps from Palo Alto High School • Old Palo Alto location Geraldine Asmus Real Estate Advisor Intero Real Estate (650) 387-0006 g.asmus@att.net
• Impeccable craftmanship • Worth a Peek!
Offered @ $2,750,000 www101melville.com Offered @ $2,850,000 www103melville.com
CALDRE #01328160
Page 34 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Shawnna Sullivan Coldwell Banker Residental Brokerage, Palo Alto CALDRE #00856563
655 GILBERT AVENUE MENLO PARK
STACEY WOODS 650.793.4583 swoods@apr.com swoods.apr.com License #02002137
RAY HOGUE 650.964.3722 rhogue@apr.com rhogue.apr.com License #01980343
OPEN SUNDAY 2-4PM THIS IS IT! New custom single-story construction from the foundation up. Impressive mahogany front door welcomes you to your own private retreat in beautiful Vintage Oaks. 4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths | 2776+/-sf of Living Space | 8925+/-sf Lot Stylish, modern, open-concept floorplan with 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Built with precision and care with high-end materials and appliances. Designer light fixtures, skylights, and windows highlight the dramatic vaulted ceilings. Accent walls hand painted by local artist create intrigue and depth to this masterpiece of modern architecture. Spacious chef’s kitchen with gleaming quartz countertops and expansive center island perfect for entertaining. Relax on the backyard patio enjoying peace and tranquility. Award-winning local schools and proximity to downtown Palo Alto and Menlo Park. This home is truly a trifecta: modern sanctuary, gathering place, and personal headquarters. Truly a collector’s item for the discerning buyer. 655Gilbert.com | Offered at $4,188,000
APR.COM Square footage, acreage, and other information herein, has been received from one or more of a variety of different sources. Such information has www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 35 not been verified by Alain Pinel Realtors®. If important to buyers, buyers should conduct their own investigation.
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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 37
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735 COAST ND DRIVE OPEN PALO ALTO HOUSE
FRIDAY 10:30AM-1PM TWILIGHT TOUR 5-7PM SAT. & SUN. 1:30-4:30PM
A Masterpiece of Interior Design and Well-Executed Craftsmanship 3bd | 2ba | +/- 2075 SF Living space | Plus Attached 2-Car Garage (+/- 421 SF) and Studio (+/- 120 SF) | +/- 6605 SF Lot
• Newly rebuilt in 2016 • One level with 3 spacious bedrooms and 2 gorgeous baths • Open-concept design begins in the living room with gas-log fireplace on coffered wall plus formal dining area with linear chandelier and French doors to a private al fresco patio • Dyed smooth finish stucco exterior, engineered hardwood floors throughout, most with radiant heating • Family/media room with wine bar opens to the rear yard; Surround sound wiring
• Designer kitchen has honed limestone countertops from Turkey (mocha gray and pistachio fossil) and backsplashes with subway set square tiles; a picture window flanked by operable windows spans one counter; dovetailed maple cabinetry; apron front farmhouse sink • Master bedroom with French door to the rear yard and customized walk-in closet; the en suite bath has a dual-sink limestone vanity, designer tile floor • Kohler faucets and Restoration Hardware lighting collections throughout the home
OFFERED AT $3,198,000
• Bathrooms feature wall-mounted faucets, undermounted sinks, frameless plate glass bath screen and shower enclosure • Smart home features include: keyless home and studio entry; heat and air conditioning with Ecobee thermostat; Nest fire alarm; app-controlled lighting; Rachio Smart Irrigation System, monitors the weather for water conservation • Convenient Midtown location just blocks to shopping, cafes, and dining • Excellent schools: El Carmelo Elementary; Stanford Middle; Palo Alto High (buyer to confirm)
www.735Coastland.com
SUPRIYA GAVANDE Cell: 650.556.3890 www.SupriyaGavande.com
License #01856590 Square footage, acreage, and other information herein, has been received from one or more of a variety of different sources. www.PaloAltoOnline.com Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 39 Such information has not been verified by Alain Pinel Realtors. If important to buyers, buyers should conduct their• Palo own Alto investigation.
THE ADDRESS IS THE PENINSU THE EXPERIENCE IS A IN PINEL
LOS ALTOS HILLS $6,380,000
MENLO PARK $5,998,000
PALO ALTO $4,499,000
PALO ALTO $4,250,000
25620 Frampton Court | 5bd/5ba Rick & Suzanne Bell | 650.209.1513 License # 01051633 | 014220275 BY APPOINTMENT
130 Royal Oaks Court | 5bd/4.5ba Michael Johnston | 650.533.5102 License # 01131203 OPEN SUNDAY 2:00-4:00
2239 Wellesley Street | 2bd/1ba M. Lockwood/R. Flores | 650.400.2528 License # 01017519 | 02027985 BY APPOINTMENT
2121 Byron Street | 4bd/3.5ba Sherry Bucolo | 650.207.9909 License # 00613242 OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1:30-4:30
MENLO PARK $3,698,000
PALO ALTO $3,198,000
MENLO PARK $3,198,000
SAN CARLOS $2,499,000
2240 Avy Avenue | 4bd/2ba Brad Verma | 650.665.0894 License # 02033592 BY APPOINTMENT
735 Coastland Drive | 3bd/2ba Supriya Gavande | 650.556.3890 License # 01856590 OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1:30-4:30
1081 Sierra Drive | 3bd/2.5ba Maggie Meilman | 650.888.9315 License # 01206292 BY APPOINTMENT
10 Shratton Avenue | 3bd/3ba Steve & Julie Quattrone | 650.505.4900 License # 01463726 | 01519860 OPEN SAT & SUN 1:00-5:00
MENLO PARK $2,199,000
MOUNTAIN VIEW $1,998,000
SUNNYVALE $1,985,000
SAN MATEO $1,850,000
2021 Santa Cruz Avenue | 3bd/1.5ba Suneeta Chilukuri | 650.787.4498 License # 01963120 OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1:00-4:00
3383 Lubich Drive | 3bd/2ba Monsour Moussavian | 650.209.1625 License # 01783065 BY APPOINTMENT
612 Hines Terrace | 4bd/2.5ba Ellen Zhang/Irene Yang | 408.480.4255 License # 01923510 | 01724993 OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1:30-4:30
430 26th Avenue | 3bd/2ba M. Pappalardo/N. Boyle | 650.670.7888 License # 01970137 | 02029042 BY APPOINTMENT
MOUNTAIN VIEW $1,799,000
MENLO PARK $1,399,000
SAN MATEO $1,125,000
MENLO PARK PRICE UPON REQUEST
2405 Benjamin Drive | 3bd/2ba Erika Ameri | 650.269.8211 License # 01727613 OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1:00-5:00
387 6th Avenue | 4bd/2ba Joseph Bentley | 650.867.0199 License # 01082626 BY APPOINTMENT
27 N. Rochester Street | 2bd/1ba Francis Hunter | 650.619.6121 License # 01040918 OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1:00-4:00
1326 Hoover Street | Unit 3 & 5 Liz Daschbach | 650.207.0781 License # 00969220 BY APPOINTMENT
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Page 40 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly www.PaloAltoOnline.com Square •footage, acreage, and other information herein, has been received from one or more of a variety of different sources. Such information has not been verified by Alain Pinel Realtors®. If important to buyers, buyers should conduct their own investigation.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 41
LET DELEON REALTY
WRITE THE CHECKS
DeLeon will pay for all staging and advance up to 3% of the anticipated sale price for seller’s repairs and improvements.
Please contact Michael Repka for details on how to unlock hidden value of your home with this program.* *Applies only to listings signed after March 1st, 2019.
Michael Repka, Esq. CEO & General Counsel 650.900.7000 michael@deleonrealty.com www.deleonrealty.com DRE #01854880
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Page 42 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
OPEN HOMES
LEGEND: CONDO (C), TOWNHOME (T)
ATHERTON
90 Macbain Av Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Coldwell Banker 61 Faxon Rd Sun 2-4 Keller Williams Palo Alto
FOSTER CITY 887 Balboa Ln (C) Sat/Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker 827 Phoenix Ln (T) Sat/Sun 1-4 Parc Agency
LA HONDA
137 Shelden Rd Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$6,188,888 5 BD/3.5 BA 465-6210 $26,500,000 7 BD/4.5 BA 804-6673 $1,249,000 2 BD/2 BA 868-1356 $998,000 2 BD/1.5 BA 464-3896 $789,000 3 BD/2 BA 888-6930
LOS ALTOS
1469 Brookmill Rd $2,698,000 Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 3 BD/3 BA Alain Pinel Realtors 823-8057 1260 Payne Dr $2,695,000 Sat/Sun 2-4 3 BD/2 BA Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty 766-9429 1623 Ben Roe Dr $2,698,000 Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 4 BD/3 BA Alain Pinel Realtors 209-1562 808 Amber Ln $3,998,000 Sat/Sun 1-4 5 BD/3 BA Sereno Group 947-2944 106 N. Springer Rd $3,788,000 Sun 1:30-4:30 5 BD/5 BA Deleon Realty 900-7000 675 Jay St $6,750,000 Sun 2-4 6 BD/4.5 BA Alain Pinel Realtors 868-7677 27827 Via Feliz $4,695,000 Sat/Sun 2-4 4 BD/4 BA Alain Pinel Realtors 269-1609 12501 Zappettini Ct $8,888,000 Sun 1-4 6 BD/7.5 BA Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty 889-0889 1326 Hoover St #3 Sat/Sun 1-4 Alain Pinel Realtors 1326 Hoover St #5 Sat/Sun 1-4 Alain Pinel Realtors 101 Laurel Av Sat/Sun 1-5 Deleon Realty 238 McKendry Dr Sun 2-4 COMPASS 1081 Sierra Dr Sat/Sun 1-4 Alain Pinel Realtors 2325 Tioga Dr Sun 1:30-4 Coldwell Banker
$1,488,000 3 BD/2 BA 900-7000
387 6th Av Sat 1-4 Alain Pinel Realtors
$1,399,000 4 BD/2 BA 543-1162
931 Cloud Av $3,988,000 Sat/Sun 2-4 4 BD/3.5 BA Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty 440-1731 1065 Deanna Dr Sun 1:30-4:30 Sereno Group
$3,500,000 4 BD/2.5 BA 269-7266
3617 Oak Dr Sun 1-4 COMPASS
$4,998,000 4 BD/4.5 BA 269-8556
925 Valparaiso Av Sat/Sun 1-5 Deleon Realty
$2,488,000 4 BD/2 BA 900-7000
3488 Alameda de Las Pulgas Sun 1:30-4:30 Deleon Realty
$3,488,000 5 BD/4 BA 900-7000
130 Royal Oaks Ct Sun 2-4 Michael Johnston
$5,998,000 5 BD/4.5 BA 533-5102
180 Stanford Av Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Coldwell Banker
$2,950,000 5 BD/2 BA 855-9700
1210 Bay Laurel Dr Sat/Sun 1-5 Deleon Realty
$6,488,000 6 BD/5+2 H BA 900-7000
1824 Doris Dr Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 COMPASS
$7,895,000 6 BD/5+ BA 868-1577
1130 Westfield Dr Sat 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$4,500,000 6 BD/3 BA 851-2666
773 & 775 Partridge Av Sat 1:30-4:30 Deleon Realty
$4,288,000 8 BD/4.5 BA 900-7000
MILPITAS
920 Smith Ln Sun 1:30-4:30 Alain Pinel Realtors
$1,280,000 4 BD/2.5 BA 489-6251
MOUNTAIN VIEW
LOS ALTOS HILLS
MENLO PARK
150 Alma St #101 (C) Sat/Sun 1-5 Deleon Realty
$1,598,000 2 BD/2 BA 207-0781 $2,198,000 3 BD/2.5 BA 207-0781 $1,788,000 3 BD/3 BA 900-7000 $1,995,000 3 BD/1 BA 400-5855 $3,198,000 3 BD/2.5 BA 888-9315 $4,495,000 3 BD/3 BA 619-3621
280 Easy St #310 (C) Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Alain Pinel Realtors
$650,000 1 BD/1 BA 906-0162
128 Ada Av #2 Sat/Sun 1-4 Sereno Group
$1,275,000 2 BD/2.5 BA 947-2929
394 Farley St Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$1,499,000 2 BD/1 BA 851-2666
1919 Milano Way Sat/Sun 1-4 Sereno Group
$1,680,000 2 BD/2.5 BA 279-6333
1915 Mount Vernon Ct #8B3 Sat 2-4 Sereno Group
$798,000 2 BD/1 BA 947-2955
1147 Nilda Av $2,389,000 Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 3 BD/2 BA Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty 690-1379 441 Yosemite Av Sat/Sun 1:30-4 Coldwell Banker
$1,995,000 3 BD/1 BA 851-2666
910 San Marcos Cir Sat/Sun 1-4 Alain Pinel Realtors
$2,099,000 4 BD/2 BA 743-7895
NEWARK
36211 Indian Wells Dr Sat/Sun 1-4 COMPASS
$949,000 4 BD/2 BA 269-6984
PALO ALTO
320 Palo Alto Av #B3 (C) Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Deleon Realty
$1,138,000 1 BD/1.5 BA 900-7000
4250 El Camino Real #A305 Sun 1:30-4:30 Sereno Group
$1,325,000 2 BD/2 BA 400-2718
2121 Byron St Sat/Sun 1:30-4:40 Alain Pinel Realtors
$4,250,000 3 BD/3.5 BA 207-9909
101 Melville Av Sat 1:30-4:30 Intero
$2,750,000 3 BD/3 BA 543-7740
103 Melville Av Sun 1:30-4:30 Intero
$2,850,000 3 BD/3 BA 543-7740
$3,198,000 5 BD/4 BA 823-3855
SAN CARLOS
1866 San Carlos Av Sat/Sun 1-4 COMPASS
$1,950,000 3 BD/2 BA 722-3395
10 Shratton Av Sat/Sun 1-5 Alain Pinel Realtors
$2,499,000 3 BD/3 BA 505-4900
1811 Eaton Av Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Alain Pinel/Emely Weissman
$2,400,000 4 BD/2.5 BA 814-0374
195 Exeter Av Sat/Sun 2-5 COMPASS
SAN FRANCISCO 468 Tehama #10 (C) Sun 2-4 Coldwell Banker
SAN JOSE
335 Avenida Pinos Sat/Sun 1-4 COMPASS
135 Coleridge Av Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Keller Williams Palo Alto
$3,880,000 4 BD/2.5 BA 269-7538
SAN MATEO
1040 McGregor Way Sat/Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$3,325,000 4 BD/3 BA 566-5343
123 Tennyson Av Sun 1:30-4:30 Deleon Realty
$8,788,000 5 BD/5.5 BA 900-7000
1554 Walnut Dr Sat/Sun 1:30-4 Coldwell Banker
$4,998,000 5 BD/5 BA 644-7708
PESCADERO
501 Bean Hollow Rd Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$3,600,000 3 BD/2.5 BA 207-8444
PORTOLA VALLEY 5 Coal Mine Vw Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$4,195,000 3 BD/3 BA 619-6461
167 Ramoso Rd Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$5,495,000 6 BD/5 BA 619-6461
REDWOOD CITY
$1,298,000 2 BD/1 BA 543-7740
395 Sequoia Av Sat 11-5/Sun 1-4 COMPASS
$999,000 2 BD/1 BA 752-0749
2405 Benjamin Dr Sat/Sun 1-5 Alain Pinel Realtors
$1,799,000 3 BD/2 BA 269-8211
132 Rutherford Av Sat 1-4 Coldwell Banker
2319 Carol Av Sat/Sun 1-5 Deleon Realty
$1,988,000 3 BD/2 BA 900-7000
1888 Cordilleras Rd Sat/Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
221 N. Rengstorff Av #2 (T) Sat/Sun 1-4 Intero
239 Upland Rd Sun 1-4 COMPASS
5065 Kingston Way Fri 9:30-1, Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Alain Pinel Realtors
$1,495,000 2 BD/2 BA 543-7740
$1,200,000 2 BD/2 BA 380-5989
$1,749,000 4 BD/3 BA 575-7782
735 Coastland Dr (C) $3,198,000 Fri 5-7, Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 3 BD/2 BA Alain Pinel Realtors/Supriya Gavande 556-3890
112 Myrtle St Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Intero
379 Hope St (C) Sat/Sun 1:30-4:40 Alain Pinel Realtors
455 Jackson Av Sat/Sun 1-4 COMPASS
$1,699,000 3 BD/2 BA 851-2666 $2,625,000 4 BD/3.5 BA 851-2666
$4,298,000 5 BD/5+ BA 415-830-1184
$959,000 1 BD/1 BA 888-6930
$845,000 3 BD/2 BA 833-9442 $1,588,000 3 BD/2 BA 415-830-7179
27 N. Rochester St Sat/Sun 1-4 Alain Pinel Realtors
$1,125,000 2 BD/1 BA 619-6121
1353 Mefferd Av Sat/Sun 2-4 Alain Pinel Realtors
$1,095,000 3 BD/1 BA 796-4902
5 Weepingridge Ct (T) Sun 1:30-4:30 Intero 3155 Los Prados St Sat/Sun 1-4 COMPASS
SANTA CLARA 1661 Triton Ct Sat/Sun 1-4 Alain Pinel Realtors
SARATOGA
18000 Rodeo Creek Hollow Sat 1:30-4:30 Deleon Realty
SUNNYVALE 1119 Plymouth Dr Sat/Sun 1-4 Intero
WOODSIDE
Call for price 3 BD/2.5 BA 543-7740 $1,749,000 4 BD/3 BA 455-1528
$1,300,000 3 BD/3 BA 279-7074
$3,988,000 5 BD/4.5 BA 900-7000
$1,850,000 3 BD/2 BA 947-4700
2083 Portola Rd Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$3,695,000 4 BD/3.5 BA 851-2666
214 Raymundo Dr Sun 1-4 Coldwell Banker
$5,495,000 5 BD/4 BA 851-2666
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The DeLeon Difference® 650.543.8500 www.deleonrealty.com 650.543.8500 | www.deleonrealty.com | DeLeon Realty CalBRE #01903224
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 43
Sports Shorts OF LOCAL NOTE ... Palo Alto High junior Chloe Japic, who played soccer for the school in her freshman year, officially committed to attend and play for Baylor. She confirmed the KLJPZPVU VU ;^P[[LY 1HWPDž SLK [OL Vikings with 14 goals (in the 11 games reported) and three assists in 2016, her only high school season. Palo Alto finished 14-1-4 and lost in the first round of the Central Coast Section Open Division, as the No. 4 seed, to 5V 4LUSV ([OLY[VU 1HWPDž J\YYLU[S` plays with the California Thorns, a professional development team based in the Bay Area ... Menlo-Atherton’s run through the postseason came to an end Tuesday with a 59-46 loss to visiting Oakland Tech in the Northern California girls Division IV championship game. Menlo-Atherton (19-12) won 14 of its previous 16 games to reach the NorCal finals after opening the season 5-8. “I love this program,” said M-A senior Oron Estes, who scored 11 points. “I’m proud of our team. I had a great time. The team spirit only got better and better. I love my team.” Senior Erica Fischer scored 10 of her team-high 17 points in the final 5:03.
Menlo exceeding expectations A day for Knights in Saturday’s D-2 final
Local sports sport sp rts ts news n ws ws and schedules, sch schedu dules, dule less, eedited edi d ted dit ted by Rick R k Eymer Eym
by Glenn Reeves xpectations weren’t particularly high for the Menlo School girls basketball team heading into this season. Six seniors had graduated off last year’s team, leaving the Knights with a very young roster. Yet here they are playing for a state championship. Talk about exceeding expectations. “I was unsure how we’d play,’’ Menlo coach John Paye said. “Now I’m excited for the future.’’ Sophomore point guard and team captain Avery Lee leads the team in scoring (17.0 points per game), followed by freshman Sharon Nejad (12.2 points, 9.7 rebounds), sophomore CoCo Layton (9.7 points) and junior Maiea Makoni (9.4). So it’s understandable how excited Paye must be about this group’s ultimate potential. But before looking too far down the road there’s a pretty important game to focus on this week. Menlo (25-5), which won the NorCal Division II championship with a 53-38 victory over Enterprise of Redding, now plays Rolling Hills Prep of San Pedro for the state Division II championship on Saturday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento at 2 p.m. Rolling Hills won the SoCal title with a 54-53 win over Mark Keppel of Anaheim in double overtime. “They remind me a lot of Priory,’’ Paye said. “They have a 6-4 center, they shoot well and do a lot of things on defense.’’ Rolling Hills beat Priory for the state Division IV championship last year after losing to Eastside Prep in the 2017 Division V title game. “They’ve been on center stage already, played in an NBA arena before,’’ Paye said. “I hope we shoot well and get off to a good start.’’ Clarice Akunwafo, a 6-4 sophomore, averages 18.8 points and 12.2 rebounds to lead Rolling Hills. So Nejad, Menlo’s 5-10 post player, will have her work cut out for her. Lee has led Menlo in scoring in all four NorCal games and has scored in double figures in all 30 games this season. “Joe Montana was a champion because he made other players around him better,’’ said Paye, who had first-hand experience with Montana as a quarterback with the 49ers in the 1980s. “Avery does the same thing with our team.’’ And as for Nejad, who’s had a double-double in all four NorCal games, Paye noted that she’s the only CCS athlete he knows of to have played in the state Open Division playoffs in both basketball and volleyball. And to do it as a freshman is even more special.
E
Jenna Hickey
AND THE AWARD GOES TO ... MenloAtherton High School student-athlete Lauren McDonnell was selected as the recipient of the prestigious “20182019 Winter California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Spirit of Sport Award.” For each of the three sport seasons, the CIF chooses one female and one male from over 1,600 California high schools for its annual Spirit of Sport Award. This award recognizes studentathletes who have demonstrated the 16 principles of “Pursuing Victory with Honor” and exemplary sportsmanship, school and community service, and leadership. McDonnell is a co-founder and three-year team captain of MenloAtherton High School’s first girls wrestling team, growing the team from its inception into a team of 25 girls who recently placed second at the California State Wrestling Tournament and earned its third consecutive Central Coast Section title. Individually, McDonnell has placed 1st in the CCS twice and placed 5th in California in 2018. Outside of wrestling, McDonnell is the two-year M-A Chapter President of buildOn, a global non-profit which builds primary schools in developing countries around the world. Over the past three years, McDonnell and the M-A buildOn team have collectively raised over $100K to fund and travel to build three schools in Senegal and Haiti. In addition, she participates in local volunteer service activities ... Five Cardinal women’s basketball players received recognition from the leagueís coaches when the All-Pac-12, All-Defensive and All-Freshman teams were announced. DiJonai Carrington, Alanna Smith and Kiana Williams were voted to the 15-person AllPac-12 squad and Smith was also named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive team. Lacie Hull earned a spot on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team along with Pac-12 All-Defensive honorable mention accolades and Lexie Hull was selected Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention.
Sports
PREP BASKETBALL
Annika Decker (driving to the basket) has played an important role for Pinewood this season as the fulltime point guard.
PREP STATE BASKETBALL
One last chance for Pinewood seniors Panthers ready to play for school’s first Open Division title
by Glenn Reeves he Pinewood girls basketball team got a taste last year of what playing for a state Open Division championship is all about. Now the Panthers are back, seeing if they can take it one step further, looking to consume the entire main course. After beating Salesian 64-49 on Tuesday for the Northern California Open Division championship, Pinewood (27-3) will play SoCal titlist Sierra Canyon on Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento for the state Open Division championship. Last year Pinewood stunned the girls basketball world with a tripleovertime win in the NorCal final over undefeated Mitty, the topranked team in the nation, only to lose to Windward in the state championship game. “Getting beat last year adds a little extra fire,’’ Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler said. “For this senior-laden team this is the last dance, the last rodeo, the last chance to go out as Open Division champions. An amazing accomplishment and opportunity for a
T
Page 44 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
school of 200 kids. We play a style of basketball that’s very pleasurable to watch, and that’s a testament to how hard these kids have worked.’’ Sierra Canyon (32-1) of Chatsworth defeated Clovis West 75-70 in the SoCal Open final after beating defending state champion Windward, the only team it lost to this season, in the semifinals. The Trailblazers rallied from a 20-point deficit against Clovis West. “They play three guards and they like to shoot,’’ Scheppler said. “They are very skilled and don’t rely on inside scoring.’’ Sounds a lot like Pinewood. “We share the same mindset,’’ Scheppler said. Vanessa DeJesus, Angela Bacoulis and Ashley Chevalier constitute Sierra Canyon’s guard trip. Chevalier, a junior, scored a teamhigh18 points in the win in the SoCal final. She has already committed to Texas. Pinewood, which won six state Division V championships under Scheppler before being elevated to the Open Division, lost to Sierra Canyon in the 2013 state Division V final.
Klara Astrom, a senior headed to Yale, was Pinewood’s go-to offensive player against Salesian, hitting seven 3-pointers and scoring 27 points. She averages 16.2 points per game and a team-best 7.0 rebounds. Hannah Jump, a senior headed to Stanford and the team’s leading scorer on the season at 17.0 points per game, focused on defense against Salesian, but made five free throws in the final minute to finish with 10 points. Those two players were big contributors as freshmen when Pinewood first raised eyebrows and served notice of being an elite program with a win in Stockton over nationally No. 1-ranked St. Mary’s in the NorCal semifinals. They combined for eight of Pinewood’s 16 3-pointers in that game. They were juniors on last year’s state final team. Now they’re going back to the state Open Division finals as seniors with a chance to make history, to win a championship on high school girls basketball’s greatest stage, at its highest level. “It feels amazing,’’ Jump said. “All the hard work in the offseason is paying off. Now we have to get a win on Saturday. We’re ready.’’Q
(continued on page 45)
PREP BASEBALL
Palo Alto opens league play with a no-hitter SHP pitchers also on target but run into tough luck by Rick Eymer wo games. Two days. Two no-hitters. Palo Alto is six games into its basebeall season and a pattern is already emerging. The Vikings can pitch. Palo Alto dropped its first two games by a combined score of 9-3. Over their past four games, the Vikings have allowed a total of three. Dean Casey threw a
T
complete-game no-hitter at Sacred Heart Prep on Tuesday. He got the victory only after Paly scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning. It was a little easier Wednesday when Josh Kasevich and Ritter Amsbaugh combined on a no-hitter in an 11-0 victory over visiting Cupertino in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De
(continued on page 46)
Palo Alto junior Dean Casey threw a complete-game nohitter on Tuesday.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Basketball
Coco Layton
(continued from page 44)
Menlo will be out to win its first state girls basketball title since 1991, which was the third of three consecutive Division V titles coached by a young John Paye with sister Kate Paye, now the associate head coach with the Stanford women’s team, his star player. So the Paye’s are in the unique position of being able to evaluate the state of high school girls basketball, then and now. “Kate came with three of her teammates from that 1991 team to the Enterprise game,’’ John Paye said. “Her teammates told me, ‘they are so much better than we were.’ But Kate didn’t agree.’’Q
Anza Division opener. Palo Alto headed into Thursday’s game at Menlo School with an 18-inning scoreless streak intact. The Vikings own a 1.83 ERA on the season, 0.75 over the past four games. Amsbaugh added two hits and Zander Darby drove in two runs for the Vikings (4-2, 1-0), who are scheduled to play at Cupertino (4-3,
0-1) at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Paly also has a game scheduled Saturday against Sacred Heart Cathedral at Westborough Park in South San Francisco at 2 p.m. “That’s why having these guys go deep into games is so huge for us,” Paly coach Pete Fukuhara said. Casey started last year on the junior varsity but was quickly promoted to varsity and was a revelation, connecting almost immediately with Paly pitching coach Ryan Degregorio, a St. Francis grad who pitched for Missouri Western State. “He’s matured a lot and hits his
Rick Eymer
Sports
Andrei Volgin
MENLO BASKETBALL
MENLO TENNIS
Layton scored 28 points and had 10 rebounds in two NorCal playoff games last week and sparked a rally in the semifinals with her 3-pointers.
The senior won all five matches he played last week, including a sweep at No. 1 singles through the Bay Area Classic, in which Menlo placed third.
Honorable mention Klara Astrom*
Pinewood basketball
Erica Fischer*
Menlo-Atherton basketball
Zion Gabriel
Eastside Prep basketball
Ila Lane*
Priory basketball
Avery Lee*
Menlo basketball
Sara Osterberg
Menlo-Atherton track and field
Justin Chiao
Gunn track and field
Jackson Chryst*
Palo Alto basketball
Jared Freeman
Gunn track and field
Watch video interviews of the Athletes of the Week, go to PASportsOnline.com
Yianni Gardner
Sacred Heart Prep baseball
Will Mustain
Eastside Prep basketball
Wes Walters
Palo Alto basketball *Previous winner
THE 33RD ANNUAL PALO ALTO WEEKLY
Short Story Contest
Prizes for First, Second and Third place winners in each category: Adult, Young Adult (15-17) and Teen (12-14)
FOR OFFICIAL RULES & ENTRY FORM, VISIT:
www.paloaltoonline.com/short_story ALL stories must be 2,500 words or less
ENTRY DEADLINE: March 29, 2019 at 5pm
Sponsored by:
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 45
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Sports
Baseball (continued from page 45)
spots,” Fukuhara said of Casey. “When Ryan calls something, Dean throws it right where he wants. They have developed a good rapport.” Degregorio grew up in Woodside and played in the Menlo-Atherton Little League program, where he was known as a power hitter. Kasevich, who is headed to Oregon in the fall, is on a strict pitch count. The Vikings were comfortably ahead after five innings anyway. “Josh throws harder than Dean and we have to be responsible,”
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Across 1 Biblical fratricide victim 5 Ragged peak 9 Passing lines 13 “3 Feet High and Rising” group ___ Soul 14 Pick up 16 Controversial director Riefenstahl 17 Current U.S. Secretary of Transportation 19 Cheap bar 20 Calico pony 21 Vaccination 23 Patch of grass 24 Holiday in Hanoi 25 Suffix for novel 28 In a genial manner 30 1992 song by The Cure that goes through the week 33 Airline from Stockholm 34 Likely 35 Fanning of “Maleficent” 36 Magazine for teens since 1965 40 “___ Is Us” 42 Charged-up particle 43 Settings for med. dramas 46 Thought experiment featured in an episode of “The Good Place” 50 Meat dish with a filling 51 Mop & ___ (floor cleaner brand) 52 French possessive meaning “your” 54 Contribute 55 Thailand, formerly 57 “Inconceivable!” 59 “Cool, man” 61 TV host with a “Neighborhood of MakeBelieve” (where the starts of the theme answers were found) 64 Letterman rival, once 65 Meditation teachers 66 “Language” of “haxored” and “pwn’d” 67 Agitated state 68 Word before or after break
Fukuhara said. Kasevich walked two, both in the second inning. He responded by striking out the next four consecutive hitters and retired the final 11 he faced. Amsbaugh retired all six batters he faced. “A guy asked me if I thought Josh was more advanced on the mound or in the field,” Fukuhara said. “I couldn’t answer. He’s so advanced on both the mound and field.” Furuhara has a deep, though young, pitching staff, which he thinks will only get better. “I like our pitching staff,” he said. “I love Callum Olsen and we’ve got Sam Cleasby too. We have a closer, Ben Estrada, and Hyunwoo Roh is doing fantastic at the plate and on the mound.”
Reece Lindquist doubled twice, drove in a run and pitched six strong innings for the Gators (3-21) but Riordan scored two unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning and the nonleague game ended 4-4, a day after senior Parker Isaacson did not allow an earned run against Palo Alto in 6 1/3 innings. Isaacson has yet to allow an earned run in 13 1/3 innings. He threw a one-hitter at Woodside and gave up four hits to the Vikings. Senior Yianni Gardner is the Gators leading hitter, toting a .429 batting average with three doubles and six RBIs. Q
“In the Neighborhood” — along with the owl and the pussycat. Matt Jones
This week’s SUDOKU
Answers on page 29.
Answers on page 29.
69 Airport data, for short Down 1 Not so klutzy 2 Philosophy 3 2019 Hyundai model 4 CafÈ au ___ 5 A.L. Central team, on a scoreboard 6 Tape deck button 7 Oohs’ followers 8 S’mores flavor component 9 Antiquarian 10 Diamond game, in Santo Domingo 11 Make use of 12 Create a colorful T-shirt
Page 46 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
15 Swedish actress Rapace of the “Millennium” series 18 Domino’s ad character, once 22 ___ pedis (athlete’s foot) 26 ___ paneer (Indian spinach dish) 27 Do some keyboarding 29 2008 Verizon acquisition that once had naming rights to Jacksonville’s stadium 31 “And ___ don’t know what’s going on!” 32 “Let ___!” (“Go ahead”) 37 Cuba y Puerto Rico, por ejemplo 38 “Star Trek” collective 39 Compound with a double bond 40 Walked on 41 Harry who died on Halloween
ON THE AIR Friday
College women’s basketball: Stanford at Pac-12 Championships, 6 p.m., Pac-12 Networks College men’s swimming: Stanford at Pac-12 Championships, 6:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks
Saturday
High School girls basketball: Menlo vs. Rolling Hills, CIF D-2 championship, 2 p.m., NBCSBA High School girls basketball: Pinewood vs. Sierra Canyon, CIF Open championship, 6 p.m., NBCSBA College women’s basketball: Stanford at Pac-12 Championships, 8:30 p.m. Pac-12 Networks College wrestling: Stanford at Pac12 Championships, 6 p.m., Pac-12 Networks College men’s swimming: Stanford at Pac-12 Championships, 6:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks College men’s volleyball: Stanford at UC San Diego, 7 p.m., ESPN3
Sunday
College women’s gymnastics: Stanford at UCLA, 1 p.m., Pac-12 Networks College beach volleyball: St. Mary’s at Stanford, 1:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks College beach volleyball: San Jose State at Stanford, 3 p.m., Pac-12 Networks College Indoor Track and Field: Stanford at D-1 Championships, 4 p.m., ESPN College women’s basketball: Stanford at Pac-12 tournament, 5 p.m., ESPN2
READ MORE ONLINE
www.PASportsOnline.com For expanded daily coverage of college and prep sports, visit www.PASportsOnline.com
www.sudoku.name
44 Amplify a certain message 45 Spoke ill of 46 Hiker’s routes 47 Inform 48 ___ the Pig (2019) 49 “With or Without You” singer 53 Complex orgs. 56 Prefix with byte or hertz 58 Stare at in a gross manner 60 “I ___ You Babe” 62 Talk smack about 63 Q-U filler ©2019 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)
COLDWELL BANKER
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Menlo Park | &OKPZ TPQIJTUJDBUFE FBTZ MJWJOH JO UIJT CS CB VOJU JO TPVHIU BGUFS .FOMP $PNNPOT
Tory Fratt tory.fratt@cbnorcal.com CalRE #01441654
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COLDWELLBANKERHOMES.COM The property information herein is derived from various sources that may include, but not be limited to, county records and the Multiple Listing Service, and it may include approximations. Although the information is believed to be accurate, it is not warranted and you should not rely upon it without personal verification. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage are independent contractor agents and are not employees of the Company. Š2019 Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. 414911SFSV_07/18 CalRE #01908304. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • March 8, 2019 • Page 47
COLDWELL BANKER
Palo Alto | $4,298,000 Presenting a modern interpretation of a stately English Tudor situated on a celebrated street of many estate-like homes. This house is approx. 3,350 sqft. on an approx. 8,800 sqft. lot. Impressive living room, open GBNJMZ SPPN LJUDIFO BOE SPNBOUJD NBTUFS TVJUF XJUI BO BEKPJOJOH QSJWBUF TJUUJOH SPPN &YQBOTJWF CBDLZBSE XJUI mSFQMBDF BOE ##2 7JTJU 5BMJTNBO DPN GPS NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO Julie Lau jlau@cbnorcal.com CalRE #01052924
Palo Alto | $2,850,000 6OJRVF UXP IPNFTþ /FXFS DPOTUSVDUJPO 4UVOOJOH CS CB JO 0ME 1BMP "MUP :PV XJMM MPWF UIF XBMOVU nPPSJOH MJWJOH SPPN XJUI B mSFQMBDF LJUDIFO GFBUVSJOH 5IFSNBEPS BQQMJBODFT BOE BO JTMBOE GPS DBTVBM EJOJOH as well as a formal dining area. Located close to top-rated Palo Alto schools, downtown Palo Alto, Stanford and Caltrain. Shawnna Sullivan shawnna.sullivan@cbnorcal.com CalRE #856563
Menlo Park | $2,695,000 Remodeled 3br/2ba home in an ideal Fair Oaks location. Enjoy a relaxed California indoor/outdoor lifestyle on approx. 0.3 acres.
Menlo Park | $1,498,000 #SJHIU GSFTIMZ QBJOUFE CS CB 'MPPE 1BSL IPNF .FOMP 1BSL TDIPPMT &BTZ BDDFTT UP Caltrain and commute to tech campuses.
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Douglas Andrew Gonzalez 650.566.5324 dgonzalez@cbnorcal.com CalRE #00895924
COLDWELLBANKERHOMES.COM The property information herein is derived from various sources that may include, but not be limited to, county records and the Multiple Listing Service, and it may include approximations. Although the information is believed to be accurate, it is not warranted and you should not rely upon it without personal verification. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage are independent contractor agents and are not employees of the Company. ©2019 Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. 414911SFSV_07/18 CalRE #01908304.
Page 48 • March 8, 2019 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com