Serving Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, and Woodside for 44 years.
Editor & Publisher Tom Gibboney
Editorial Managing Editor Richard Hine News Editor Renee Batti Lifestyles Editor Jane Knoerle Staff Writers Dave Boyce, Sandy Brundage Senior Correspondents Marion Softky, Marjorie Mader Contributors Barbara Wood, Kate Daly, Katie Blankenberg Special Sections Editors Carol Blitzer, Sue Dremann Photographer Michelle Le
Design & Production Design Director Raul Perez Designers Linda Atilano, Gary Vennarucci
Advertising Vice President Sales and Marketing Tom Zahiralis Display Advertising Sales Adam Carter Real Estate Manager Neal Fine Real Estate and Advertising Coordinator Diane Martin Published every Wednesday at 3525 Alameda De Las Pulgas, Menlo Park, Ca 94025 Newsroom: (650) 223-6525 Newsroom Fax: (650) 223-7525 Advertising: (650) 854-2626 Advertising Fax: (650) 854-3650 Email news and photos with captions to: Editor@AlmanacNews.com Email letters to: letters@AlmanacNews.com
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Consider a gift to the Holiday Fund
D
espite the ongoing financial challenges we all face, last year Almanac readers contributed nearly $100,000 to the Holiday Fund, making it possible for 10 local nonprofit agencies to receive grants of nearly $14,000 earlier this year. We hope all our readers and other donors keep that spirit alive as we launch this year’s annual Holiday Fund drive. Last year, 184 Almanac readers contributed to the Holiday Fund, which also received sizeable gifts from the Rotary Club of Menlo Park and the Hewlett and Packard foundations, bringing the total amount raised to $138,678. That amount was divided equally among the 10 nonprofit agencies EDITO RIA L that provide food, shelter and The opinion of The Almanac counseling to homeless, sick and hungry residents who are down on their luck. This year leaders of the nonprofit agencies see a wide range of needs that can be eased by the popular Holiday Fund grants. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation makes it possible for every dollar contributed to the Holiday Fund to be passed directly to the nonprofit agencies. No fees or other charges are taken out by the Almanac or the foundation. If you are able, we urge you to consider a donation to the Almanac’s Holiday Fund, now in its 20th year. Your contribution will help support agencies that provide a safety net to local residents who have nowhere to turn. These are our neighbors who may have been laid off unexpectedly, or had a catastrophic illness or suffer from addiction or mental health problems. They deserve our help. This year the Almanac’s Holiday Fund will support the following nonprofit agencies in the community:
CALL the Viewpoint desk at 223-6507.
Second Harvest Food Bank
The largest collector and distributor of food on the Peninsula, Second Harvest Food Bank distributes 45 million pounds of food each year. It gathers donations from individuals and businesses and distributes food to some 250,000 people each month through more than 650 agencies and distribution sites in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Project Read Menlo Park
Provides free literacy services to adults in the Menlo Park area. Trained volunteers work one to one or in small groups to help adults improve their basic reading, writing and English language skills so they can achieve their goals and function more effectively at home, at work, and in the community. Shelter Network
Provides short term-shelter and transitional housing services to more than 4,500 homeless men, women and children each year. Offers a range of housing and support programs for families and individuals to become self-sufficient and return to permanent housing. Provides educational programs for youth and adults to help teens make healthy choices that will result in lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Its “Teen Talk” program serves more than 3,500 youth at public school sites in San Mateo County. StarVista
Provides emergency food, clothing, household essentials, and sometimes financial assistance to families in need, regardless of religious preference, including Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets for more than 1,500 households.
Formerly Youth and Family Enrichment Services, StarVista provides many programs to help people who struggle with substance abuse, domestic violence, and mental health, relationship and communications issues. Helps strengthen youth, families and individuals to overcome challenges through counseling, education, and residential services.
Ravenswood Family Health Center
Fair Oaks Community Center
Provides comprehensive primary medical, dental, behavioral and preventive health care for all ages at clinics in Belle Haven and East Palo Alto. Of the more than 30,000 registered patients, over 97 percent are
Provides housing assistance, childcare programs, older adult nutrition, emergency shelter referrals, legal services for low-income tenants and low-cost exercise programs for youth and adults.
LETTERS
N WHAT’S YOUR VIEW?
MAIL or deliver to: Editor at the Almanac, 3525 Alameda de las Pulgas, Menlo Park, CA 94025.
Serves hundreds of hot meals six days a week in a social and friendly atmosphere to anyone in need. Funded entirely by voluntary contributions from the community, St. Anthony’s is the largest dining room for the needy between San Francisco and San Jose. It also offers groceries to take home and distributes clothing to families.
Teen Talk Sexuality Education
Subscriptions are $60 for one year and $100 for two years.
EMAIL your views to: letters@almanacnews.com and note this it is a letter to the editor in the subject line.
St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room
Provides after-school and academic support and activities for 1,100 youths, ages 6 to 18. Operates clubhouses in Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood, East Palo Alto, and Redwood City, and after-school programs at schools in these communities designed to extend the learning day and supplement the school’s curriculum. Ecumenical Hunger Program
TOWN SQUARE FORUM Post your views on the Town Square forum at www.TheAlmanacOnline.com
low income and uninsured from the ethnically diverse East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, and North Fair Oaks areas.
Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula
The Almanac, established in September, 1965, is delivered each week to residents of Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside and adjacent unincorporated areas of southern San Mateo County. The Almanac is qualified by decree of the Superior Court of San Mateo County to publish public notices of a governmental and legal nature, as stated in Decree No. 147530, issued November 23, 1969.
All views must include a home address and contact phone number. Published letters will also appear on the web site, www.TheAlmanacOnline.com, and occasionally on the Town Square forum.
local issues from people in our community. Edited by Tom Gibboney.
Our readers write
More expenses to come for high-speed rail Editor: The net effect of Judge Michael Kenny’s recent decision in the lawsuit filed by Atherton and Menlo Park against the California HighSpeed Rail Authority essentially means that the authority must decertify the Environmental Impact Report which covers the Bay Area to Merced, making it the second time that an adverse ruling has been issued on this EIR. The response by the Authority to this ruling is amazing. In a press release, the Authority said, “Today’s ruling is a victory for
14 N The Almanac N November 23, 2011
high-speed rail and its continuing progress” Boy does it take chuptzah to issue a press release like this. The ruling at a minimum means delay. The Authority must now spend many thousands of dollars more on studies and must pay its own court costs and legal fees, and also the expenses of the petitioners, including Atherton, Menlo Park and others. The ruling also affects the funding plan just approved for the start of the project, since the northern option of that plan includes the area covered by this EIR. Proposition 1A, passed in 2008, requires that all environmental work be completed before funding can be obtained from the bonds See LETTERS, next page
Menlo Park Historical Association
Our Regional Heritage Several boarding houses served Menlo Park when the city was incorporated on March 23, 1874, after residents complained about drainage problems and the condition of the town’s streets. The boundaries included most of present-day Atherton and east to the Bay, absorbing all of what was then called Ravenswood.