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Upfront 450 CAMBRIDGE AVE, PALO ALTO, CA 94306 (650) 326-8210 PUBLISHER William S. Johnson EDITORIAL Jay Thorwaldson, Editor Jocelyn Dong, Managing Editor Carol Blitzer, Associate Editor Keith Peters, Sports Editor Tyler Hanley, Express™ and Online Editor Rebecca Wallace, Arts & Entertainment Editor Rick Eymer, Assistant Sports Editor Chris Kenrick, Gennady Sheyner, Staff Writers Sue Dremann, Staff Writer, Special Sections Editor Karla Kane, Editorial Assistant Veronica Weber, Staff Photographer Jeanne Aufmuth, Dale Bentson, Colin Becht, Peter Canavese, Kit Davey, Iris Harrell, Sheila Himmel, Kevin Kirby, Jack McKinnon, Renata Polt, Jeanie Forte Smith, Susan Tavernetti, Robert Taylor, Contributors John Squire, Editorial Intern Be’eri Moalem, Arts & Entertainment Intern DESIGN Shannon Corey, Design Director Raul Perez, Assistant Design Director Linda Atilano, Diane Haas, Scott Peterson, Paul Llewellyn, Senior Designers Laura Don, Gary Vennarucci, Designers PRODUCTION Jennifer Lindberg, Production Manager Dorothy Hassett, Blanca Yoc, Sales & Production Coordinators ADVERTISING Walter Kupiec, Vice President, Sales & Marketing Judie Block, Esmeralda Flores, Janice Hoogner, Gary Whitman, Display Advertising Sales Neil Fine, Rosemary Lewkowitz, Real Estate Advertising Sales David Cirner, Irene Schwartz, Inside Advertising Sales Cathy Norfleet, Display Advertising Sales Asst. Joan Merritt, Diane Martin, Real Estate Advertising Assistants Alicia Santillan, Classified Administrative Asst. EXPRESS, ONLINE AND VIDEO SERVICES Rachel Palmer, Online Operations Coordinator Molly Stenhouse, Online Sales Consultant BUSINESS Mona Salas, Manager of Payroll & Benefits Elena Dineva, Mary McDonald, Sana Sarfaraz, Cathy Stringari, Doris Taylor, Business Associates ADMINISTRATION Amy Renalds, Assistant to the Publisher & Promotions Director Alana VanZanten, Promotions Intern Janice Covolo, Receptionist Ruben Espinoza, Jorge Vera, Couriers EMBARCADERO PUBLISHING CO. William S. Johnson, President Michael I. Naar, Vice President & CFO Walter Kupiec, Vice President, Sales & Marketing Frank A. Bravo, Director, Information Technology & Webmaster Connie Jo Cotton, Major Accounts Sales Manager Bob Lampkin, Director, Circulation & Mailing Services Alicia Santillan, Susie Ochoa, Circulation Assistants Chris Planessi, Chip Poedjosoedarmo, Computer System Associates Lisa Trigueiro, Assistant to the Webmaster The Palo Alto Weekly (ISSN 0199-1159) is published every Friday by Embarcadero Publishing Co., 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. Copyright Š2009 by Embarcadero Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Printed by SFOP, Redwood City. The Palo Alto Weekly is available on the Internet via Palo Alto Online at: www.PaloAltoOnline.com Our e-mail addresses are: editor@paweekly.com, letters@paweekly.com, ads@paweekly.com. Missed delivery or start/stop your paper? Call 650 326-8210, or e-mail circulation@paweekly. com. You may also subscribe online at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Subscriptions are $60/yr.
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There’s both an uncertain future ahead and a window of opportunity. — Peter Drekmeier, Palo Alto mayor, on what the city council will be facing in 2010. See story on page 3.
Around Town
OF DOGS AND MEN ... Dog people, unite! Pretty please? That’s a request from Palo Alto’s recreation officials, who have been debating ways to create more play space in the city for local dogs and dog owners. Last month, about 100 people (including six who don’t own dogs) attended a meeting on the subject organized by the Parks and Recreation Commission and staff from the Community Services Department. At its Dec. 15 meeting, the commission digested the feedback from the public and agreed with a staff suggestion to explore ways in which users of local fields can share park space with dog owners. One of the challenges staff has discovered is the scattered nature of local dog owners. Unlike bicyclists and athletic groups, dog owners don’t have a coherent team or organization that the city can tap for assistance. Rob de Geus, the city’s golf and recreation manager, said the city will attempt to change that. “We’ll see what we can do to get the dog owners organized in some fashion,� he said. “We’ll reach out to them and give them some guidance and some of the history we’ve had with field users and other groups who pulled together on a particular topic to find solutions.�
PLAY NICE, PEOPLE ... Palo Alto’s tense negotiations with its largest workers’ union are set to resume on Jan. 11, when city representatives and Service Employees International Union negotiators are scheduled to meet in a closed session. The negotiations ended on an acrimonious note in November, when the City Council voted to forego mediation and impose new conditions on the union, which represents 617 city workers. Earlier this month, Greg Schultz, a lineman in the Utilities Department and a negotiator for the union, told the City Council that the imposed conditions (which create a less lucrative pension formula for new hires and force employees to contribute to their health care) have made it difficult for the department to attract new employees. “When your lights are out and we can’t get anyone to get in, hold the candle to the mirror,� Schultz said. “You guys are responsible because we
can’t hire anybody.� City officials, meanwhile, are still scrambling to cut costs in order to close a $5.4 million deficit in the current fiscal year. The tense atmosphere has promoted the city’s Human Relations Commission to put out a special memo asking the two sides to respect one another and to avoid stereotypes. “Though highly structured, collective bargaining and those involved in it exist in a context,� the memo stated. “The elements of the context that the HRC would like to emphasize in this letter to the Palo Alto community, namely, the danger of stereotypes, the essential importance of respect, the meaning of work, and the manysided significance of community deserve, we believe, careful and continuous consideration now and in the future.�
THE COLORS OF PALO ALTO ... Want to show your Palo Alto spirit? Whip out your favorite HSV 108, 52, 37 sweater, or perhaps a jacket with a hint of HSV 106, 46, 46. Both colors are among the four types of green artist Sam Yates chose as the�Color of Palo Alto.� To arrive at the choices, Yates took photos of all 17,729 parcels in the city, tallied up the average color of the parcels through four different methodologies (mode of means, mean of means, mean of modes, and mode of modes), and then had voters choose the color they like best. Mean of modes, which can be described by a non-artist as “GI Joe-green,� won. Earlier this month, Yates earned a standing ovation from the City Council and members of the public for his efforts. He also went through a list of options the city has, now that it has official colors and a photo catalogue of every parcel. City officials can now tally up the number of white picket fences and basketball hoops around town. They can also promote Palo Alto’s colors through clothing patterns and paint colors. But Yates said he struggled with the question of whether the “mean of modes� is in fact more Palo Altan than the other three “average� colors, the vote notwithstanding. “We have the people’s choice, but in the end all of these are equally valid answers,� Yates said. N