Serving Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, and Woodside for 49 years.
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EDITOR & PUBLISHER Tom Gibboney (223-6507) NEWSROOM Managing Editor Richard Hine (223-6525) News Editor Renee Batti (223-6582) Lifestyles Editor Jane Knoerle (223-6531) Staff Writers Dave Boyce (223-6527), Sandy Brundage (223-6529) Contributors Marjorie Mader, Barbara Wood, Kate Daly Special Sections Editor Carol Blitzer Photographer Michelle Le (223-6530) DESIGN & PRODUCTION Design Director Shannon Corey (223-6560) Assistant Design Director Lili Cao Designers Linda Atilano, Rosanna Leung, Colleen Hench, Paul Llewellyn, Peter Sorin ADVERTISING Vice President Sales and Marketing Tom Zahiralis (223-6570) Display Advertising Sales Wendy Suzuki (223-6569) Real Estate Manager Neal Fine (223-6583) Real Estate & Advertising Coordinator Diane Martin (223-6584) Legal Advertising Alicia Santillan (223-6578)
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) 223-7570 Email news and photos with captions to: Editor@AlmanacNews.com Email letters to: letters@AlmanacNews.com The Almanac, established in October 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 December 21, 1969. ©2014 by Embarcadero Media Company. All rights reserved. Subscriptions are $60 for one year and $100 for two years.
■ WHAT’S YOUR VIEW? 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.
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Guiding the Almanac: a rewarding adventure
A
s I retire from the Almanac after more than 20 years as No recollection of the mid-90s at the Almanac is complete publisher, it is rewarding to look back at what a fascinat- without mentioning a host of reporters who knew the 1965 founding job it has been and how warmly I was received by the ers — Hedy Boissevain, Jean Heflin and Betty Fry — and had staff and the communities we serve. stayed on to carry the torch with the Levines. Staff writers Marion When I arrived in September 1993, the Almanac was running Softky, Marjorie Mader, and Jane Knoerle, who remains on a smoothly on the course set by publishers Mort and Elaine Levine reduced schedule, became fixtures in the community through and editor Richard Hine. The paper deftly covered Atherton, their insightful and consistent reporting. Editor and reporter Menlo Park, Portola Valley and Woodside, and Renee Deal (now Renee Batti) is another key in large part managed to connect in a personal writer who has always given the Almanac an FAREWELL way with each community. With Richard at the edge in arts reporting and predates me at the By Tom Gibboney helm of the newsroom I was left to write editoriAlmanac. She will inherit the job of writing edials and balance the sometimes conflicting needs torials for the Almanac. And Woodside resident of the editorial, production and advertising departments. Barbara Wood was well on her way to becoming the go-to All of this was done in a tiny office on Oak Grove Avenue reporter in her community when I arrived and later began in Menlo Park, where on occasion nearly 30 staff mema long stint as a columnist. Now she has come full circle bers managed to squeeze into less than 2,000 square feet. and will return to the Almanac as a staff writer this week. It was a miracle that no one was trampled on production No look back would be complete without recognizing the days. fine work of photographer Carol Ivie, who was a presence As a relatively new homeowner in Menlo Park and at all the significant occasions covered by the Almanac. editor of the Palo Alto Weekly for more than a year, I For me, the 20-plus years flew by, as have the issues was no stranger to the forces that moved Midpeninsula Photo by Michelle Le/ that sometimes roiled local residents over the years. In The Almanac residents. In what we call Almanac country, there was no Tom Gibboney Menlo Park there was a longstanding difference of opinion mistaking the difference between what was important in has been editor between “residentialists” or environmentalists, and resiAtherton vs. Menlo Park, and the same went for Portola and publisher dents who were more inclined to give developers the edge. Valley, which treasured open space, and Woodside, where of the Almanac These forces remain in play today as debate continues on open space was a given so the horses had a place to roam. since 1993. the initiative to revise the downtown specific plan. Luckily we had reporters who not only knew their way The future of Douglass Hall on the Menlo School campus around — most lived in one of “our” communities, and were was among the stories covered in the Sept. 8, 1993, Almanac. The eager to share their knowledge with me if I needed an angle for school wanted to knock down the historic 52-room mansion, but an an editorial. I could also rely on Bill Johnson, CEO of our com- Atherton Planning Commission vote to deny a demolition permit pany, who grew up in Portola Valley and attended Woodside High was overruled by the City Council. Sometime later the building School. His insights into the flow of life in the communities that we covered was invaluable and continues today. Continued on next page
L ET TERS Our readers write
Specific plan initiative is a poison pill Editor: The proponents of the illconceived Lanza/Fry initiative claim that only “modest changes” are being proposed to Menlo Park’s downtown specific plan. That is patently false. Aside from turning the specific plan on its head, the Lanza/Fry initiative states that without a (costly) citywide vote of Menlo Park residents, the City Council cannot make changes, no matter how small, in the definitions and development standards contained in the initiative. It further states that no new “inconsistent” zoning can be introduced or passed and prescribes exactly how voter approval for change can occur ... for 30 years. The requirement calling for a citywide election is the initiative’s ultimate poison pill and it
18 N The Almanac N TheAlmanacOnline.com N July 2, 2014
is not insignificant or modest. No matter what you think of the downtown specific plan, it allows for citizen input and revision by the City Council, and requires review on a timely basis, adjusting to Menlo Park’s needs. The initiative’s voter requirement emasculates the Planning Commission and the City Council, freezes unintended consequences, some of which have been reported, and freezes the definitions of banking and office and medical in a rapidly changing world. Finally, this initiative freezes unvetted zoning rules, which most assuredly contain mistakes. Imagine the time, the money and the energy required to overturn those high barriers to change. We hope that our city’s leaders will denounce the initiative and warn their constituents not to swallow this poison pill. John A. O’Malley, former Menlo Park planning commissioner Katherine A. Strehl, current Menlo Park planning commissioner
Courtesy Menlo Park Historical Association
Our Regional Heritage In 1931 a chauffeur enjoys a moment with a small dog, seen on the running board of this elegant coupe.
Initiative would kill ‘winning agreement’ Editor: Heyward Robinson did not understand the potential housing impact of the Fry/Lanza initiative (letter June 25) on Menlo Park. Many don’t. The question is not whether housing is allowed in the specific plan —
that doesn’t change — but what kind of housing might be built. Zoning is partly about restrictions on, and partly economic encouragement to, development. The specific plan went through many iterations to balance likely uses of private lands up and down El Camino Real, and a balContinued on next page