The Stanford Historical Society Presents Eighth Annual House & Garden Tour Eclectic Houses of Lower San Juan Neighborhood Sunday, April 22, 2012, 1 to 4 p.m.
Upfront
Cubberley
(continued from page 3)
Tour Spanish eclectic and Tudor style houses from new book, Historic Houses VI: Lower San Juan Neighborhood, Continued.
Architects include Birge Clark, Henry C. Collins, Theodore W. Lenzen, and Charles K. Sumner. Ticket $25; book and ticket $40/set (before April 6) Ticket $30; book $25 (after April 6 and on the day of the tour) Refreshments & shuttle service included http://histsoc.stanford.edu; 650-324-1653 or 650-725-3332 This space donated as community service by the Palo Alto Weekly
Inspirations a guide to the spiritual community FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UCC £ nxÊ Õ ÃÊ, >`]Ê*> Ê Ì ÊUÊÈxä®ÊnxÈ ÈÈÈÓÊUÊÜÜÜ°vVV«>° À}Ê -Õ `>ÞÊ7 Àà «Ê>ÌÊ£ä\ääÊ>° °Ê> `Êx\ääÊ«° °
ÕÀV Ê-V Ê>ÌÊ£ä\ääÊ>° °
10:00 a.m. This Sunday: A Story With No Ending Rev. David Howell preaching
Coming Soon: Danger Dan, Adventure Man April 27, 28 & 29 at 7:00 pm Featuring over 80 children and youth
Inspirations is a resource for ongoing religious services and special events. To inquire about or to reserve space in Inspirations, please contact Blanca Yoc at 223-6596 or email byoc@paweekly.com
Good for Business. Good for You. Good for the Community. Page 14ÊUÊ «À ÊÓä]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V
in the southern part of town. A San Francisco architect drew several conceptual plans for a future Cubberley, several of them showing shared use between the schools and community groups. Officials stressed those sketches are nothing more than informal concepts to see whether multiple interests could be accommodated. Nonetheless, council members couldn’t resist commenting on them. Karen Holman said she didn’t understand why none of the conceptual plans included the kind of green quad typical on many campuses. After the recent closure of Palo Alto Bowl, planners should consider adding a bowling alley, she said. Council member Greg Schmid said the site maps are “very exciting because they do give the true notion of a joint use. “Another striking factor is that everything’s new. It’s hard to think of that campus without the existing buildings, and this shows us we’re completely open and free to do what we could do. I like the notion of exploring shared uses of that site,” Schmid said. Resident Bob Moss cautioned that shared use is problematic because schools generally don’t permit unknown adults to enter their grounds during school hours. He suggested adding an additional principle to the effect that, whatever
Dogwood
(continued from page 3)
Florists use the branches as filler in bouquets and as decoration. But there is a short season, which lasts just a few weeks in spring. Palo Alto police said the treebranch thefts come in waves. Sgt. Ken Kratt recalled many dogwoodbranch thefts in 2000 and 2001 but said he had not heard of that type of pilfering again until now. Sgt. Sal Madrigal said the thefts of flowering cherry and dogwood pop up from time to time. The demand for dogwood isn’t new. Fifty years ago, there were never enough blooms to meet demand, Zappettini said. In the 1970s, as the market flourished, professional gardeners asked if they could prune dogwoods in people’s yards. “They became very popular, and then they started to ship all over the place,” he said. The market took off in the 1980s. To meet demand, growers started putting in dogwood farms in places such as Petaluma and in Oregon, Zappettini said. But apparently some people prefer making some quick bucks hacking trees in the middle of the night. Palo Altan John Hanna said the problem was so bad at one point that he and his neighbors added motionsensor lights. One person added trip wires. Hanna and his neighbors even hired a security guard to patrol their blocks for a week, he said. “The people who do this are ruthless,” he said, noting he had a beau-
city facilities are located on the site, they should be publicly accessible at all hours, regardless of school activities. “I don’t want to see a joint use of Cubberley that, over time, significantly reduces public access to the city’s land,” Moss said.
‘I have no problem with sharing, as long as it’s thoughtful — a fence or something would be OK.’ —Bob Moss, resident, Palo Alto “I have no problem with sharing, as long as it’s thoughtful — a fence or something would be OK.” The guiding principles and concept plans were scheduled to be discussed Friday, April 20, in a meeting of the Cubberley policy advisory committee, consisting of three council members and two school board members. The Cubberley discussion also will be augmented by a community advisory committee consisting of representatives of more than 20 community groups. In other business Monday, the council voted to revise some of the assumptions used to calculate the city’s health-care obligations to retired employees, thereby somewhat reducing the projected liability. The 7-1 approval came over the objections of Schmid, who said the
tiful dogwood that was attacked at his former home in the 1400 block of Hamilton Avenue. “People need to be vigilant when their dogwood is blooming. It really needs some kind of neighborhood watch.” Hanna said his azaleas have been routinely targeted, and some thieves
‘People need to be vigilant when their dogwood is blooming. It really needs some kind of neighborhood watch.’ —John Hanna, resident, Palo Alto also go after hydrangeas, which have large, beautiful blooms. One resident suggested painting the branches in a way that could identify them if they are stolen, he said. Zappettini said most residents probably don’t realize there is a value to many materials routinely pruned from their gardens. Most probably would just take the cuttings to the dump. But dried manzanita, acacia, tree of heaven and mock orange are popular for fillers among flower bouquets and are often shipped to the East Coast, he said. Jesus Palafox, owner of JP Evergreen at the flower mart, said variegated pittosporum and eucalyptus are two other favored fillers among florists. He sells dogwood bundles for $10 wholesale, depending on the
revised estimates amounted to a postponement of “dealing with the structural problem we have.” Other council members said the new assumptions are within allowable practices and always can be altered to reflect new data. The council voted to revise three of seven actuarial assumptions, resulting in an annual set-aside for retiree medical benefits that will be $12.5 million instead of $13.4 million. Also Monday, the council voted to appoint civil engineer Garth Hall to an unexpired term on the Utilities Advisory Commission. Hall, a Palo Alto resident, works as a senior civil engineer with the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Council members also chose three of six applicants for vacancies on Palo Alto’s Public Art Commission, including re-appointment of Richard Ambrose, director of the Pacific Art League and a resident of El Cerrito. The other two applicants appointed were arts journalist Vikki Tobak, who lives in Redwood City, and Palo Alto resident Patricia Walsh, who has worked in public art in Massachusetts and, more recently, in San Jose. For three spots on the Human Relations Commission, the council reappointed incumbents Ray Bacchetti and Theresa Chen and also appointed a new member, lawyer and mediator Diane Morin, who was raised in Italy and came to the United States at the age of 18 for college. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.
size, he said. Many branch sellers who approach him often don’t know what they are doing, he said. “People have to know how to cut it. It’s too late when the flowers are already open for a florist to use it,” he said. Zappettini said cutting back a dogwood to make $150 is highly damaging. “The tree’s gone, it’s cut to nothing,” he said. City Arborist Dave Dockter said pruning trees in the spring is not generally a good idea. Springtime is when most trees are putting out new growth, flowering and setting fruit. Every cut causes the tree to expend energy to seal over the wound. Some thin-barked trees such as fruitless mulberry have difficulty controlling sap bleeding, he said. Cherry trees, another popular flowering tree for thieves, is a worse bleeder than dogwood, he said. But dogwood is a slower grower and is slower to respond to wounds and to callus over. The cuts leave a tree vulnerable to fungus and disease, he said. O’Sullivan has set up a motiondetecting camera to protect his property. “I look at this as similar to copper theft. It’s kind of the same thing. They are stealing valuable landscaping. It really needs to be addressed. “I was surprised at how brazen they were. They looked like landscapers and wouldn’t be questioned,” he said. N Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.