Palo Alto Weekly 05.25.2012 - Section 1 by Palo Alto Weekly

Palo Alto

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Dining Out

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DINING OUT

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

FROM CASUAL TO FINE DINING ON THE MIDPENINSULA

Dining Out 2012

A PUBLICATION OF THE PALO ALTO WEEKLY, THE ALMANAC & MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE

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Beyond Tinsley From Paly High to East Palo Alto mayor

Transitions 11

Spectrum 12

Eating Out 20

Movies 22

Home 29

page 14

Puzzles 50

N News School district defends conﬁdential memos

Page 3

N Arts Reﬂecting on a life of discovery, hope and loss

Page 17

N Sports Palo Alto boys run for CCS track title

Page 24

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Upfront

Local news, information and analysis

School district defends confidential memos Study session next week on state’s open-meeting law follows allegations of possible violation by Chris Kenrick aying that “at no time has there been any attempt to keep information from the public,” Palo Alto schools Superintendent Kevin Skelly said Tuesday he does not believe weekly confidential memos he has been sending the Board of Education have led to

any violation of the law. His statement comes in response to a May 14 letter to the board from Palo Alto Weekly Publisher Bill Johnson that alleged it was “clear that the very purpose of (the confidential memos) has been to exclude the public” and that an April 20 memo, which in-

cluded Skelly’s comments about the high school counseling system at Gunn High School, “conveys the thinking and potential actions of district administrators on a subject (counseling) on which you are in the midst of formulating policy.” Johnson stated that the memos may have led to a violation of the Brown Act, which prohibits the majority of members of an elected body from using “a series of communications of any kind, directly or

through intermediaries, to discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item of business that is within the subject jurisdiction of the legislative body.” In the April 20 memo, Skelly invited board members to discuss this “sensitive” counseling issue with him further if they desired. Johnson’s letter cited the California state Attorney General’s Brown Act handbook, which strongly cautions against confidential communications.

Skelly said Tuesday the school district’s legal counsel corroborated his view that the confidential updates — which he said he has provided virtually every week in his five years as superintendent — are not a Brown Act violation. “At no time has there been any attempt to keep information from the public or prevent those who inquired about information from receiving (continued on page 10)

RECREATION

Sudden slowdown for bridge plan Facing Stanford protest, county supervisors agree to vet other ideas by Gennady Sheyner

(continued on page 9)

(continued on page 10)

Veronica Weber

stock frame. When the white paint dried, they carefully placed the stencils on top. Yerem held the paper in place, while Jeremy sprayed black paint across the numbers. The students would paint at 18 houses before they were done — with the homeowners’ permission — Tham said. Four teams each painted at approximately 25 locations. The painting project is a partnership between the students, the nonprofit Youth Community Service and the Midtown Residents Association, she said. Tham is one of a group of concerned residents who learned in March that Palo Alto youth often

anta Clara County supervisors put on the brakes Tuesday morning, May 22, on a proposal by Supervisor Liz Kniss to spend $5 million on a bike bridge over U.S. Highway 101 in Palo Alto, opting instead to delay the decision on the project until August. The proposal, which Kniss unveiled last week, calls for using funds contributed by Stanford University more than a decade ago to build a new bridge at Adobe Creek. It also calls for spending $3 million on the Dumbarton link to the Bay Trail, connecting Redwood City and Alviso. The plan was heartily embraced by Palo Alto officials, who see the new bridge as a key component of the city’s bicycle master plan, and by various environmentalist and bicyclist organizations. But it drew criticism from Stanford residents, some of whom argued that Kniss’ proposed projects don’t link strongly enough to the campus community, a requirement for use of the funds. Stanford had contributed millions — originally $8 million but now totaling $10.4 million due to interest — as a way to ease the loss of recreational opportunities resulting from its planned campus expansion. In 2001, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved a General Use Permit (GUP) that allowed Stanford to build up to 5 million square feet in new construction. Though the money was recently targeted towards a new hiking trail in San Mateo County, that project died in December when that county’s board of supervisors

Palo Alto High School ninth-graders Ben Rothblatt, left, Jeremy Revlock and Yerem Istanboulian work with stencils to paint house numbers on curbs in the Midtown neighborhood, making it easier for emergency personnel to locate houses quickly. The project was part of Paly’s Community Service Day.

YOUTH

Palo Alto residences get new curb appeal Palo Alto High School students repaint house numbers for safety, community involvement by Sue Dremann

hree teens on a Palo Alto street with spray paint during school hours might seem like a recipe for delinquency, but ninth-graders Jeremy Revlock, Ben Rothblatt and Yerem Istanboulian were tagging for the community Tuesday morning, May 22.

The Palo Alto High School students took time off from school to repaint faded Midtown neighborhood house numbers on city curbs so emergency personnel can more easily identify homes during a fire, medical response or disaster. “Or also, if you’re ordering pizza at night,” Jeremy said.

The project was part of Paly’s Community Service Day, a schoolwide effort during which students, teachers and parents work together to help others. Students volunteered with more than 25 organizations, playing music for the elderly, digging out invasive plants and more. Jeremy, Ben and Yerem joined Midtown block-preparedness coordinator Cynthia Tham for the curb-painting project. They gathered on South Court with paint tray, roller, stencils and spray can at the ready. Ben laid down a roughly 6-by-8inch stencil and deftly rolled white reflective paint across the rectangular opening. Jeremy and Yerem soon followed, taping house-number stencils together into a card-

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Upfront

PUBLISHER William S. Johnson

PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL CIVIC CENTER, 250 HAMILTON AVENUE BROADCAST LIVE ON KZSU, FM 90.1 CABLECAST LIVE ON GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL 26

***************************************** THIS IS A SUMMARY OF COUNCIL AGENDA ITEMS. THE AGENDA WITH COMPLETE TITLES INCLUDING LEGAL DOCUMENTATION CAN BE VIEWED AT THE BELOW WEBPAGE:

http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/agendas/council.asp

STANDING COMMITTEE MEETINGS The Finance Committee meeting will be held on May 29, 2012 at 6:00 PM. regarding; 1) Municipal Fees, 2) Community Services Budget (continued from 5/6/12), 3) General Fund-Non-Departmental, 4) Special Revenue Funds, 5) General Fund Revenues, 6) Budget Wrap-up, 7) Fiscal Year 2012 Retiree Medical Contribution, and 8) Parking District.

KEEP YOUR VTA YOUTH DISCOUNT Apply for a Youth Clipper card at an upcoming Walgreens event.

Starting July 1, 2012, VTA youth monthly passes will be available only on Clipper. To apply for the Youth Clipper card, bring your proof of age to an upcoming application event (a parent/guardian signature is also required).

Saturday, May 26 112 Rengstorf Ave Mountain View, 9am – 12pm Saturday, May 26 5 S. 1st St San Jose, 2pm – 5pm Wednesday, May 30 200 N. Winchester Blvd Santa Clara, 5pm – 8pm Saturday, June 2 2105 Morrill Ave San Jose, 9am – 12pm Saturday, June 2 440 Blossom Hill San Jose, 2 pm – 5pm Wednesday, June 6 780 E. Santa Clara St San Jose, 5pm - 8pm

EDITORIAL Jocelyn Dong, 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 Tom Gibboney, Spectrum Editor Sue Dremann, Chris Kenrick, Gennady Sheyner, Staff Writers Eric Van Susteren, Editorial Assistant, Internship Coordinator Veronica Weber, Staff Photographer Dale F. Bentson, Colin Becht, Peter Canavese, Kit Davey, Iris Harrell, Sheila Himmel, Chad Jones, Karla Kane, Kevin Kirby, Jack McKinnon, Jeanie K. Smith, Susan Tavernetti, Contributors Junesung Lee, Bryce Druzin, Editorial Interns DESIGN Shannon Corey, Design Director Linda Atilano, Diane Haas, Scott Peterson, Paul Llewellyn, Senior Designers Lili Cao, Designer PRODUCTION Jennifer Lindberg, Production Manager Dorothy Hassett, Samantha Mejia, Blanca Yoc, Sales & Production Coordinators ADVERTISING Tom Zahiralis, Vice President Sales & Advertising Judie Block, Adam Carter, Elaine Clark, Janice Hoogner, Brent Triantos, Display Advertising Sales Neal Fine, Carolyn Oliver, Rosemary Lewkowitz, Real Estate Advertising Sales David Cirner, Irene Schwartz, Inside Advertising Sales Cathy Norfleet, Display Advertising Sales Asst. Diane Martin, Real Estate Advertising Asst. Alicia Santillan, Classified Administrative Asst. Wendy Suzuki, Advertising Sales Intern EXPRESS, ONLINE AND VIDEO SERVICES Rachel Palmer, Online Operations Coordinator Rachel Hatch, Multimedia Product Manager BUSINESS Susie Ochoa, Payroll & Benefits Elena Dineva, Mary McDonald, Claire McGibeny, Cathy Stringari, Business Associates ADMINISTRATION Janice Covolo, Doris Taylor, Receptionists Ruben Espinoza, Courier EMBARCADERO MEDIA William S. Johnson, President Michael I. Naar, Vice President & CFO Tom Zahiralis, Vice President Sales & Advertising Frank A. Bravo, Director, Information Technology & Webmaster Connie Jo Cotton, Major Accounts Sales Manager Bob Lampkin, Director, Circulation & Mailing Services Alicia Santillan, Circulation Assistant Chris Planessi, Chip Poedjosoedarmo, Computer System Associates 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. Copyright ©2012 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. Missed delivery or start/stop your paper? Call 650 326-8210, or email circulation@paweekly. com. You may also subscribe online at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Subscriptions are $60/yr.

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City/Zip: _______________________________ Mail to: Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610. Palo Alto CA 94302

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

‘‘

450 CAMBRIDGE AVE, PALO ALTO, CA 94306 (650) 326-8210

You gotta start manning up and taking more responsibility.

— Jeremy Revlock, a ninth-grade volunteer, on the difference between middle school and high school. See story on page 3.

Around Town DISSED BY THE PREZ? ... President Barack Obama was expected to attend a $35,800-a-head re-election fundraiser in Palo Alto Thursday, but in the end, he was a no-show. Actually, the whole event was a no-show, since his campaign moved the event to San Jose’s Fairmont hotel. Originally, Obama was to hold a roundtable discussion with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community at Palo Alto’s Garden Court Hotel. Palo Alto was to be the last of Obama’s three fundraising events in the Bay Area. He arrived in the Bay Area Wednesday evening on a re-election tour, with events in Atherton and Redwood City. Palo Alto police Sgt. Brian Philip said Wednesday morning that the department received no explanation for the change of location, just a notice from Obama’s security group. Campaign officials said the event was moved to San Jose for “logistical purposes,” according to the Mercury News. But fans of Palo Alto shouldn’t feel dissed. Unlike San Jose, which reportedly hasn’t received a visit from the president since his re-election, Obama has favored Palo Alto, stopping by in 2010 for a Facebook Live appearance at the social-media giant’s thenheadquarters on California Avenue. On Wednesday, Obama attended a fundraising dinner at the Atherton home of philanthropists Lisa and Doug Goldman. He then attended a large rally at Redwood City’s Fox Theatre. THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT ... The City of Palo Alto already enjoys a sterling reputation for its environmental consciousness, including the nationally top-ranked PaloAltoGreen program that allows utilities customers to pay a little extra for renewable energy. This week, the City Council decided to up the ante and pursue the Holy Grail of green energy — an electricity portfolio that would be entirely carbon neutral by 2020. Under the plan, which the council approved by an 8-0 vote (with Pat Burt absent), Utilities Department staff will come back at the end of this year to come up with a plan to reach the carbon-neutral plateau. The city has already made significant strides. Under the current contracts, about a third of the city’s annual electricity needs would come from renewable energy by 2020, and about half would come from

hydroelectric sources, which are not considered renewable but which are also carbon-free. Thus, more than 80 percent of the city’s electricity would already come from carbonneutral sources by 2020. That, however, isn’t good enough, the council decided. In the coming months, the Utilities Department will refine its definition of “carbon neutrality” and survey customers’ willingness to pay a little extra to help the city meet its lofty goal. Early analysis shows that the effort could cost the average resident an extra 40 cents to $5.30 per month. City Manager James Keene called the council’s approval of the carbon-neutral-portfolio plan a “very exciting moment for the city” “It’s great to be in a position where we’re way out of the theoretical and talking about the possible,” Keene said. Councilman Larry Klein called climate change the “great moral issue of our time” and lamented the fact that only a handful of speakers showed up for the discussion of carbon neutrality. He cited a book review he recently read of “2312” by Kim Stanley Robinson, who considered what the earth might look like 300 years from now. The book refers to the first half of the 20th century as “The Dithering,” a title Klein found appealing. “That’s what our society has been doing,” Klein said. “We’ve been dithering on this issue.” Immediately after the vote, Keene offered his own suggestion. “Can I just assume that embedded in the action by the council was the addition of the Eleventh Commandment, ‘Thou Shalt Not Dither?’” No one objected. MISSING MEMORIES ... About 15 years ago a photo album highlighting the World War II experiences of Sam Webster went missing. He may have left it at one of the local schools where he spoke as a veteran — or somebody may simply have borrowed it and never returned it. The album contains photographs that his wife Kim Webster sent Sam during the war and photographs of a concentration camp that he liberated at the end of the war, along with a letter Sam wrote to Kim saying: “This is what we were fighting for.” Sarah Webster Goodwin, Palo Alto High School ‘71, would love to include the album in her parents’ 71st anniversary celebration in June. If you know of the album’s whereabouts, please email editor@paweekly.com. N

Upfront New driveway, plaza add to ‘campus’ feel

LAND USE

Palo Alto to link Main Library, Art Center

Community garden Cobblestone driveway

City Council approves new plaza, driveway despite impact on garden space by Gennady Sheyner

‘We wanted to provide a focal point for people to meet and greet.’ —Phil Bobel, assistant director of Public Works, Palo Alto and pedestrians rather than for cars. Councilman Greg Schmid and Holman both said they supported this approach, but after the rest of the council rejected the bike path, Schmid joined the majority in approving the road for cars. Council members noted that with both buildings undergoing major renovations, more people will likely use the facilities. “I really think this site and the increased capacity that we’re going to need as the facilities are renovated call for vehicular connection

TRAFFIC

Dumbarton Bridge to close May 25-29 Bridge to be closed during Memorial Day weekend seismic-retrofit work

he entire Dumbarton Bridge will be closed during Memorial Day weekend for seismic-retrofit work, bridge officials announced. Effie Milionis, a spokeswoman for the Dumbarton Bridge Seismic Safety Project, said that during the three-day closure Caltrans will replace a major expansion joint on the western side of the bridge across six lanes of traffic. The bridge will be closed from 10 p.m. Friday, May 25, to as late as 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 29, she said. During the closure, motorists are encouraged to take public transit or use alternate driving routes. Motorists should allow extra time for travel and use other bridges, including state highways 237 and 92 via the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, she said.

The closure over Memorial Day weekend will be the first time the Dumbarton Bridge will be closed for a full weekend for seismic-safety work, Milionis said. Seismic-retrofit work began in the fall of 2010 and is scheduled to be completed early next year, she said. Until now, crews have been working underneath the bridge’s deck and their work hasn’t affected traffic. The Dumbarton Bridge is 1.6 miles long and connects the cities of Menlo Park in the west and Fremont in the east. About 60,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day. The existing structure opened in 1982, replacing the bridge that was completed in 1927. Visit dumbartonbridgeinfo.org for more information. N — Bay City News Service

Parking Parking New lawn

Courtesy of City of Palo Alto

sis of paradise, and we need to keep it that way.” But others said the tradeoff is worthwhile. Carol Kenyon, a community gardener for several years who described her sweet peas at the garden as “gigantic at the moment,” advocated for the driveway. “It connects the whole campus,” Kenyon said. “It makes the focus where it should be — on the two buildings and on the idea of people getting together and participating in both buildings.” Public Works staff presented several other alternatives, including building a path for bicyclists

Art Center

alo Alto will forge ahead with a plan for a new driveway between the Main Library and the Palo Alto Art Center, despite concerns of some local gardeners that the road will mess up their turf. The plan, which the City Council approved by a 7-1 vote Monday night with Karen Holman dissenting and Pat Burt absent, calls for construction of a $1 million plaza and driveway between the two prominent facilities. The goal is to improve safety and create a “campus feel” for the adjacent buildings along Newell Road, Public Works staff told the council. “We wanted to provide a focal point for people to meet and greet in the area between the two buildings and a better configuration for the outdoor spaces,” said Phil Bobel, assistant director of Public Works. The most controversial part of the plan involves changes to the community garden, which occupies a portion of the site. The new driveway would require the relocation of up to 12 garden plots. And while some gardeners told the council Monday that the impact is reasonable and would improve the campus, others urged city officials to pursue less dramatic changes. Rita Morgin was among the latter. Morgin approached the speaker’s podium with the sign, “Please don’t pave paradise. No road through our community garden.” “We really don’t need paving,” Morgin said. “We’ve got a little oa-

Maple grove

Redwood grove

Parking

Main Library The Palo Alto City Council approved a plan to create a $1 million plaza and driveway that will unify the Main Library and Palo Alto Art Center campus on Newell Road. A key piece is a cobblestone driveway connecting existing parking lots. between these two parking lots,” Councilman Sid Espinosa said. The plan approved by the council aims to link two projects that so far have been proceeding on separate tracks. The $7.9 million renovation of the Art Center kicked off last summer and includes new classrooms and an improved exhibition area. The Main Library’s expansion is part of the $76 million bond

voters approved in 2008. The library would expand by about 4,000 square feet and will feature a new program room capable of seating 100 people. According to a report from the city’s Senior Engineer Karen Bengard, officials began to look at linking the two buildings in late 2010, as the Main Library project was being vetted by the Architectural Review

Board and at community meetings. “Because these renovations were being planned separately, under different design firms and project managers, little attention was paid to the overall integration of the campus,” Bengard wrote in a report. The project is expected to cost about $1 million, with the budget split between the bond funds and the city’s general fund. N

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Upfront

News Digest

EDUCATION

School board under pressure on Gunn counseling

HP to cut 27,000 jobs Palo Alto tech giant HP announced Thursday, May 24, that it would cut 27,000 jobs — 8 percent of its global workforce — by the end of the fiscal year of 2014. An HP spokesperson told the Weekly that the company has not announced any specific plans for Palo Alto’s HP workforce, but stated that it does “expect the workforce reduction to impact just about every business and region.” The company also announced that its second-quarter revenue was $30.7 billion, down 3 percent from last year’s $31.6 billion. Its profits are down 31 percent, dropping from $2.1 billion to $1.6 billion. The cuts, along with changes in its business operations, are part of a restructuring program that the company expects will save between $3 and $3.5 billion. HP stated that some of the reductions will come from employees who participate in an early retirement program but did not specify how many. “These initiatives build upon our recent organizational realignment, and will further streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “While some of these actions are difficult because they involve the loss of jobs, they are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long-term health of the company. We are setting HP on a path to extend our global leadership and deliver the greatest value to customers and shareholders.” N — Eric Van Susteren

Weekly wins 10 Bay Area journalism awards The Palo Alto Weekly received 10 journalism awards for its work, including third place for overall excellence, at the annual San Francisco Peninsula Press Club awards dinner in Foster City Saturday night, May 19. News organizations from throughout the greater Bay Area vied for honors, including online, print, television and radio outlets. The journalism contest covered work done in 2011. The Weekly competed against other non-daily newspapers. The Weekly’s series on the lack of purpose among youth by writer Terri Lobdell took home first place in the category of series. Reporter Sue Dremann’s cover story about companies focusing on biofuel bested other weekly publications’ work in the category of business/technology. Her reporting on the precarious future of Caltrain was chosen as best analysis. City hall reporter Gennady Sheyner’s articles on the tense relationship between the City of Palo Alto and its labor unions won for continuing coverage. The staff’s coverage of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ death in October took second place in the breaking-news category. Dremann and photographer Veronica Weber won second place in the news-story category for their article on people living in their cars. Sheyner took third place in the categories of analysis and feature story of a serious nature for his reporting on last November’s Measure E (the undedication of 10 acres in the Baylands) and murder victim Jennifer Schipsi’s final hours, respectively. Film critic Susan Tavernetti won third place in the entertainment category for her review of director Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.” The contest entries were judged by press clubs in Bakersfield, Cleveland, Florida, Milwaukee, New Orleans and San Diego. In the Press Club’s contest for high schools, Gunn High School’s Oracle took first place for general excellence. High school journalist Brian Benton of Palo Alto High was awarded a Herb Caen scholarship of $1,500. N — Palo Alto Weekly staff

Elarms back in court following stay at mental facility The man accused of murdering East Palo Alto community activist David Lewis in 2010 will be back in court on June 8, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office. Gregory Elarms, 59, was back in court May 15 following a 10-month stay in a state mental facility. He is accused of shooting Lewis in the parking lot of San Mateo’s Hillsdale Mall on June 9, 2010. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum on July 7, 2011, ordered Elarms hospitalized until he is competent to stand trial. On July 14 the court authorized the hospital to involuntarily medicate Elarms for his psychiatric condition if needed. Elarms is suspected of following Lewis from the San Mateo Medical Center to Hillsdale Mall and shooting him once in the stomach with a .44-caliber handgun. Elarms was charged with murder, discharging a gun in the course of murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and the special circumstance of lying in wait, which could make him eligible for the death penalty. Deputy District Attorney Al Giannini said last August that the district attorney’s office would seek life in prison over the death penalty. Atascadero State Hospital doctors have found Elarms is now competent to stand trial, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. N — Palo Alto Weekly staff Page 6ÊUÊ >ÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Members advocate structural reform but say it must be shaped by Gunn community by Chris Kenrick nder scrutiny over guidance counseling at Gunn High School, Palo Alto school board members this week said decision-makers at Gunn should have all the data at their fingertips but reiterated earlier statements that reforms must be shaped by the school’s own community. While a majority seemed to agree in substance with critics of Gunn’s current counseling system, they ignored a direct challenge by the critics to “restate (their) commitment” for Gunn to move toward a counseling model similar to the “teacher advisory” model used at Palo Alto High. “I think we did say (at an earlier meeting) that Gunn should consider an advisory-type program — that’s just reiterating,” board member Barbara Klausner, also a Gunn parent, said. “But it has to have the ownership and buy-in of key people in the system, and parents,” Klausner said. Board member Melissa Baten Caswell said: “I believe what we asked the staff to do was take a look at both (counseling) models and return with ideas on how to get closer in comparability and provide more touch points for students.” Board members generally have defended a district policy of site-based decision-making as long as students receive “comparable” services. Critics of Gunn’s program, mostly from the group We Can Do Better Palo Alto, have lobbied the board for more than a year to have Gunn adopt a system akin to Paly’s, which augments a small counseling staff with 40 “teacher-advisers” who meet at least monthly with groups of 25 students through their high school years. Gunn, by contrast, employs six guidance counselors who are charged with the gamut of academic advising, college and career counseling and student social-emotional health. We Can Do Better sharply criticized a recent consultant’s review of the two high school programs, which enumerated the strengths and weaknesses of each but steered clear of a direct comparison.

The group reformatted student survey data published in connection with the consultant’s report to yield a more direct comparison. Those findings suggested significantly higher levels of student satisfaction with counseling at Paly than at Gunn. Through a request under the California Public Records Act, We Can Do Better leaders Ken and Michele Dauber also obtained previously unpublished open-ended student comments made in connection with the counseling survey, administered to students in March. Their analysis of those comments also suggests greater satisfaction at Paly than at Gunn. Board members Tuesday said Gunn decision-makers should look at the data tabulated by We Can Do Better as well as by district staff and suggested that the outside group’s reports be posted on the district’s website. “In this particular case, we’ve had examples of data that’s been put together by We Can Do Better Palo Alto that’s fairly extensive work, and work we don’t normally see, and to the extent it’s out in the public arena already I’d like to know our (school) sites are getting that same set of data to be used however they feel because the process is now up to them,” Klausner said. Several board members also implicitly criticized a district staff decision not to include the text of the nearly 1,700 open-ended student comments in the counseling report. “I felt the open-ended responses had a context to them that I didn’t get from the numerical data and want to make sure the people doing the analysis at the two sites (Gunn and Paly) will actually be reading the responses,” Caswell said. The board heard from We Can Do Better parents as well as several others, most advocating some form of teacher-advisory program for Gunn. Gunn parent Steven Tadelis, an economist at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, said it was his first time coming to a school board meeting.

“We have here an extremely clean experiment,” he said of the Dauber’s analysis of the student survey data. “The town is quite homogenous, and one of the main differences is the counseling and advising system. It was quite amazing that the overall average positive rate at Paly was 88 percent and at Gunn it was 59 percent — that’s a 50 percent difference. “Many studies in business or engineering will show that moving from 50 percent to 80 percent is much easier than moving from 80 percent to 100 percent, so let’s not allow perfect to be the enemy of good,” Tadelis said, advocating a teacher-advisory system for Gunn. Two Gunn parents pleaded for the school to be allowed time to come to its own conclusions about counseling. “For our family, the counseling process (at Gunn) was carried out with efficiency, warmth, intelligence and integrity,” said Linda Lingg, the mother of a Gunn junior and a recent graduate of the school. “Don’t lose sight of the fact that we already have a working group at Gunn, which next year will include parents and students. “I trust the Gunn leadership will conduct an effective, objective, unemotional process designed to minimize chaos and deeply understand what is needed.” Board members said they advocate “interim steps” to improve Gunn’s guidance program in the short term but nothing that would preclude a long-term restructuring. “I believe there are steps we could take while we’re going toward the perfect plan that could improve things dramatically, and I’d like to see some steps taken for next year,” Caswell said. “If we don’t take some steps in the interim, all those kids in school during that time are not going to be served properly.” The high school counseling issue is set to return to the board at its next meeting on June 12, with staff recommendations on how to proceed. N

UTILITIES

Electrical outages planned for Palo Alto Utilities Department announces planned outages through June

ork to upgrade the City of Palo Alto’s electrical system will cause intermittent power outages in south Palo Alto through June, the Utilities Department has announced. The project will convert aging 4-kilovolt electrical systems into new 12-kilovolt systems. The area bounded by Alma Street, West Charleston Road, El Camino Real and Del Medio Avenue will be affected.

Work will go on Monday through Friday, from approximately 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Residents in the area will notice PAR Electric construction crews with their line trucks, equipment and materials working on the overhead electric-distribution system. Streets could be partially blocked from time to time, but in general, traffic will be minimally impacted, officials said in a statement Thursday. No major roads or lanes will be involved

or blocked on a permanent basis. Some customers will experience one or two (some customers, possibly three) planned outages during the conversion project. Residents will receive individual notices before the outages occur, the department said. Other outage information is available through Electric Operations at 650-496-6933 or 650-496-6914. N —Sue Dremann

Upfront

COMMUNITY MEETING

CRIME

Review the proposed concept designs for the Rinconada Park Long Range Plan.

SAP Palo Alto vice president arrested for LEGO scam

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 6:30 PM – 8 PM Lucie Stern Center Community Room 1305 Middleﬁeld Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301

Man allegedly switched barcodes on products at local Target stores

he vice president of Palo Alto software firm SAP Labs has been arrested on four felony burglary charges for allegedly pasting fraudulent barcodes on LEGO toys at local Target stores. Thomas Langenbach, 47, allegedly purchased the items at greatly lowered prices scanned from the barcodes, according to a criminal complaint by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office. Loss-prevention officers initially detained Langenbach at Target, Inc., 555 Showers Drive, Mountain View, after he purchased a LEGO set that he allegedly labeled with a fraudulent barcode. Mountain View police arrested him May 8 at the store at about 3:45 p.m. Langenbach had been “ticket switching” LEGO boxes since April 20 at the Mountain View and Cupertino Target stores and another Target near his San Carlos home, said Liz Wylie, Mountain View police spokeswoman. Police found hundreds of unopened LEGO sets — many special-edition items — as well as six of the seven stolen items at his gated, multimillion-dollar home, according to court papers. Investigators also found eight Ziploc bags containing labels with fraudulent barcodes in his 2011 Toyota Sienna van and shipping boxes in the home. Police say he had an eBay account, through which he has sold 2,100 items since April 17, 2011. Under the business name Tom’s Brickyard, Langenbach has sold about $30,000 in merchandise on the eBay account, Wylie said. At the time of his arrest, 193 items were for sale. Most were LEGO sets, according to court papers. Langenbach attracted the attention of Target’s security after the first case in Cupertino, Wylie said. The popular, expensive toys are targeted for thefts, and the stores keep a close watch on the products, conducting daily inventories, she said. Target obtained surveillance footage of Langenbach, according to documents. On April 20, Langenbach allegedly entered the Cupertino store at 20745 Stevens Creek Blvd. and purchased two LEGO kits. He added a barcode sticker for $24.99 to a kit valued at $69.99 and a second sticker for $49.99 to a kit valued at $119, Wylie said. That same day he allegedly switched barcodes on two LEGO products at the Mountain View store: one for $49.99 valued at $139.99 and another for $19.99 on a $59.99 product. He allegedly switched labels on two LEGO products at the store near his home, valued at $89.99 and $279.98, on April 26. On May 1, he again went to the Mountain View store, purchasing a set valued at $59.99 for $19.99, Wylie said. By this time, Target’s loss-prevention department began circulating a photograph of Langenbach at all of its stores, taken from surveillance

by Sue Dremann footage. On May 8, a loss-prevention officer immediately recognized him and observed Langenbach putting barcodes on three items, Wylie said. Langenbach allegedly went to the customer price scanner and checked the items, then returned two to the shelves. He then purchased one LEGO toy containing the fraudulent barcode, a Razor scooter and dish liquid. Security detained him outside the store, according to court papers. He was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose and was later released on $10,000 bail. Wylie said Langenbach had many assembled LEGO sets in his home and has “drawers and drawers of LEGO bricks separated out by color.” Langenbach denied that he intended to steal the items, according to court papers. He told police that he had seen a video on Yo u T u b e about how to make fake barcodes to get cheaper toys. He said he switched the barcodes out of curi- Thomas Langenbach osity, to see if it really worked. He also wanted to see if the customer price scanner and cash-register scanner priced the items the same or cheaper, he said. But he told police he was not paying attention when he checked out the item on May 8 and that he hadn’t checked his receipt to see if the price was cheaper before leaving the store, according to the police report. He denied having switched the barcodes in the other incidents. Police have also linked a credit card he used for his eBay account to one used in one of the April 20 incidents, according to the report. Supervising Deputy District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson said the investigation is ongoing. Although the thefts for which he is charged only amount to about $1,000, the sophisticated nature of the crimes and presence of hundreds of boxes of the toys in his home — with a number of them assembled and staged for photographing — led the DA’s office to file the felony charges, she said. “It suggests that this may be part of a much larger scheme,” she said. If convicted on all current counts, he could receive a maximum 5-year sentence. Meghan Mike, spokesperson for Target, said the company could not comment specifically on the case. “Target takes incidents of this nature very seriously, and we partner closely with local law enforcement to help aid in these investigations,” she said. Langenbach’s LinkedIn profile lists him as vice president at the SAP Integration and Certification Center. He has 20 years of experi-

The City of Palo Alto seeks the community’s input on the proposed concept plans.

ence in the enterprise software industry and was educated in Mannheim, Germany. He could not be reached for comment. He appeared in Santa Clara Superior Court in Palo Alto on Tuesday, May 22, for appointment of an attorney and will return to court June 20 to enter a plea. N

Email pwecips@cityofpaloalto.org for more information.

Meeting hosted by City of Palo Alto Public Works, (650) 617-3183

L U C I L E PA C K A R D

C H I L D R E N ’ S H O S P I TA L

PROVIDED BY LUCILE PACKARD CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Your Child’s Health University Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital offers classes and seminars designed to foster good health and enhance the lives of parents and children. INFANT & CHILD CPR This 2-1/4 hour course provides an opportunity for new parents, grandparents and other childcare providers to learn the techniques of infant and child CPR and choking prevention. Infant and child manikins provide hands-on training. - Tuesday, June 5: 4:30 – 6:45 pm

GRANDPARENTS SEMINAR Designed for new and expectant grandparents, this class examines changes in labor and delivery practices, the latest recommendations for infant care and the unique role of grandparents in the life of their grandchild. - Monday, June 11: 6:00 – 8:30 pm

MULTIPLES SEMINARS Are you expecting twins, triplets or more? With the potential for early delivery, expectant parents of multiples are encouraged to learn everything there is to know about carrying and delivering multiple infants. - Preparing for Multiples: Sunday, June 17: 12:00 – 4:30 pm - Multiples Breastfeeding Seminar: Wednesday, June 20: 7:00 – 9:00 pm

BRINGING BABY HOME A two-part workshop for expectant couples and new parents in their ﬁrst postpartum trimester, this program designed by Drs. John and Julie Schwartz Gottman will assist in preserving the couple relationship and developing the relationship between parents and baby. - Two Saturdays, June 30 & July 7: 10:00 am – 3:30 pm

Call (650) 724-4601 or visit calendar.lpch.org to register or obtain more information on the times, locations and fees for these and other courses.

VI S IT LP CH.ORG TO S IG N U P FOR CLAS S E S ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊ >ÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÓÊU Page 7

REAL ESTATE TRENDS

Upfront

Multiple Offers: Price vs. Strategy

EDUCATION

by Samia Cullen

In today’s seller’s market, it’s fairly common to have more than one offer on a property. Inventory is down, demand is high and buyers are scrambling to make offers on the few listings we do have. Although the winner is usually the most qualiﬁed home buyer with the best price there are some other factors contributing to a winning bid. Besides price, the probability of closing the deal is likely the most important factor. Start doing the necessary due diligence as soon as possible in order to be comfortable writing a strong offer to buy the house in “as is” condition” and without any contingencies. Necessary steps include: 1) reading the disclosure package and making any additional inspections before the offer presentation date; 2) scheduling the appraisal in order to shorten the time to close escrow; 3) obtaining a pre-approval letter from a trusted lender; 4) asking your REALTOR® to prepare a

comparative market analysis (CMA) of the property including private sales. Make sure your agent mentions to the seller all the due diligence that you have done. Sellers also gain confidence that a deal will close if an offer includes strong financial terms, including a significant deposit and large loan down payment. Other terms that will strengthen an offer include non-price concessions, flexibility on the closing date, and volunteering to pay on the seller’s behalf some fees normally charged to the seller. Remember to appeal to the home seller’s emotional side, especially if they have lived in the house for a long time. Although price normally wins, sellers prefer a firm offer that assures them that the transaction will close and that nothing will come back to haunt them later on. A local agent with an intimate knowledge of the local market and good track record can help in writing the winning offer and closing the deal.

If you have a real estate question or would like a free market analysis for your home, please call me at 650-384-5392, Alain Pinel Realtors, or email me at scullen@apr.com. For the latest news, follow my blog at www.samiacullen.com.

District aims to put limits on homework Rules on amounts of time kids should be studying set for Palo Alto school board vote new homework policy for Palo Alto students — with rules outlining specific amounts of time kids should be spending studying — is likely to be adopted by the Board of Education next month. The school board discussed a draft of the policy and accompanying regulations at length Tuesday. Under the suggested rules, high school students should devote about seven to 10 hours per week to homework, long-term projects and test review. Students in AP classes should expect higher workloads. Middle school students should spend 60 to 80 minutes per night, and elementary students should spend up to 10 minutes in first grade and up to 50 minutes in fifth grade, the proposed regulations say. Weekend homework for high school students should not exceed a

by Chris Kenrick regular day’s worth, and both winter and spring breaks should be homework-free, the rules state. The policy is the product of a 28-member advisory committee composed largely of teachers and parents, along with school administrators and two high school students. The committee held 39 focus-group sessions with parents and staff at every school site and with students at all middle and high schools. The focus groups yielded consensus on what constitutes “effective homework practices” and, con-

‘We can let the (school) sites work on it, give them an opportunity to see what they look and feel like — put it out there and test it.’ — Charles Young, associate superintendent, Palo Alto Unified School District versely, characteristics of ineffective homework practices. For example, a high priority among those polled was for homework to be “relevant” and “meaningful,” at the right degree of difficulty. Board members said the proposed policy, crafted by committee members with a wide range of views, exceeded their expectations. The proposal will come back to the board June 12 for a final vote. School officials said several issues remain to be ironed out with principals, including a no-homework policy over spring break, group projects that require students to meet outside of class and the suggested time spent on homework. “I had an opportunity to float it out at the school sites, and I don’t

feel like we got a lot of pushback on it, but I would have liked a little more time to talk about it,” Associate Superintendent Charles Young said of the amounts of time. Young said the policy and regulations, once approved, “will guide the work at school sites” but added that “this could look different at each school site.” The recommended timeframes should be seen as “guidelines or averages,” he said. “We can let the (school) sites work on it, give them an opportunity to see what they look and feel like — put it out there and test it.” It will be up to principals to implement the policy. Board members quizzed Young on how success of the new policy would be measured and student feedback gathered. “How are we going to take this policy and turn it into a practice that’s going to make a difference — not just be a one-time deal but be systemic?” board member Barbara Klausner asked. Several members asked for a clear policy for partial credit on late homework, noting that an automatic “zero” on late work provides no incentives for students to make it up. A “no-credit” policy tends to hurt the very students who need the most help, they noted. Board members also focused on problems surrounding group projects that must be done outside school hours and the ability of a student to get a homework assignment outside of school, in case he or she missed it in class. “Let us work on this, and we’ll come back with suggestions,” Superintendent Kevin Skelly said. The proposed new policy and regulations replace a shorter existing policy and list of rules that leave homework policy decisions up to the principal and staff of each school. N

Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week COUNCIL FINANCE COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the city’s municipal fees for fiscal year 2013 and to hold a wrap-up session on the 2013 budget. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ... The commission plans to discuss the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit service and consider the Rail Corridor Task Force study. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). BOARD OF EDUCATION ... The board will hold a study session on California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, with legal advisers on hand to answer questions. The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 31, in Conference Room A of school district headquarters (25 Churchill Ave.). HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION ... The commission plans to discuss the Human Services Needs Assessment. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 31, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

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Upfront

Curb

(continued from page 3)

feel unwelcome in their own neighborhoods. According to the city’s 2010 “developmental assets” survey, only 35 percent of Palo Alto high school students felt valued by their neighbors, and only 22 percent felt valued by their community, Palo Alto Board of Education member Melissa Baten Caswell told Midtown residents in March. She urged residents to develop projects with neighborhood youth. Annette Glanckopf, Midtown Residents Association vice-chair, conceived of curb painting in the neighborhood, Tham said. The strategy seemed to be working Tuesday. As the boys prepared to paint house number, they reflected on how public service has helped improve their sense of self. For many young people making the transition from middle school to high school, a sense of accomplishment and responsibility are important, Jeremy said. In middle school, kids still feel as though people expect them to be dependent, but high school poses new challenges. “You gotta start manning up and taking more responsibility,” he said. Community service has made him feel he is respected by his community, he said. Yerem said that service has improved his value of the community. “It makes me notice the unity of Palo Alto; it improves my perception of it,” he said. Ben has recently become involved in volunteerism. Last fall he was cochair of the Duveneck Elementary School Harvest Carnival. “It feels amazing,” he said. Tham said the neighborhood association is considering other projects to bring together youth and adults — a mentor directory would pair people in the same neighborhood based on their careers or career aspirations. Through potlucks, kids and families who have similar interests could connect. A neighborhood jobs program could link residents with youth providing babysitting and other services for which many residents often hire professionals, she said. Block-sponsored projects also help young people trust their neighbors in times of trouble, the boys said. As Yerem and Jeremy smoothed the edges of their handiwork, Tham said all of these activities are great for building a sense of purpose in youth. At the end of the project, someone will check the house numbers to make sure each one is correct. “It’s kind of a quality control,” Tham said. But Jeremy didn’t need anyone’s validation. The white rectangle with its black numbers jumped out boldly from the curb. Nearby, a faded, flaking marking done by the city years ago looked pale by comparison. “This is quality,” Jeremy said, pointing to the trio’s finished product. “This is quality work.” N Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.

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 or click on “News” in the left, green column.

President Obama dines with supporters in Atherton President Obama thanked his supporters Wednesday night, May 23, at a $35,800-a-head dinner at the Atherton home of Doug and Lisa Goldman. (Posted May 24 at 8:44 a.m.)

Driver crashes minutes before motorcade passes Minutes before President Barack Obama’s motorcade headed down El Camino Real on Wednesday night, May 23, an apparent drunken driver being chased by local police sped south on El Camino and crashed near the Pacific Inn, nearly striking a police cadet who was assigned as part of the presidential motorcade security detail. (Posted

CITY OF PALO ALTO NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Article XIIID, section 6 of the California Constitution, that the City Council of the City of Palo Alto will hold a Public Hearing at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 7:00 p.m., or as soon thereafter as possible, in the Council Chambers, City Hall, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. The Public Hearing will be held to consider changes to Water, Wastewater and Refuse Utilities Rate Schedules to be effective July 1, 2012. Copies of the proposed water, wastewater and refuse rate schedules are available on the City’s website at www.cityofpaloalto.org and in the Utilities Department, 3rd Floor, City Hall, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. There is a $3.00 per copy charge for this publication. DONNA J. GRIDER, MMC City Clerk

May 24 at 8:41 a.m.)

Firefighters battle morning blaze at Paly An early-morning fire that erupted at Palo Alto High School Thursday, May 24, will likely delay construction of new classrooms, a Palo Alto fire official said. The fire, which was near the bicycle path, ignited insulated construction pipes, causing $100,000 in damages. (Posted May 24 at 8:35 a.m.)

Ravenswood Health receives $7.3 million Ravenswood Health receives $7.3 million award Ravenswood Health Center in East Palo Alto has received a $7.3 million Health Care Innovation Award, officials announced at a Tuesday, May 22, press conference. (Posted May 22 at 5:34 p.m.)

SC County third highest for exonerated convicts A new national study has found that Santa Clara County ranks third statewide in the number of people exonerated for committing major crimes. (Posted May 22 at 4:58 p.m.)

Palo Alto eyes 2014 for infrastructure repairs Palo Alto’s quest toward a 2014 ballot measure officially kicked off Monday night, May 21, when the City Council approved a process for determining which infrastructure projects the measure should pay for. (Posted May 22 at 12:10 p.m.)

Team places first in LEGO robotics competition A team of eighth-grade Palo Alto girls placed first among 65 teams Sunday, May 20, in the First LEGO League robotics competition at Legoland in Carlsbad. The girls are students at JLS and Jordan middle schools as well as Girls Middle School. (Posted May

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETING of the City of Palo Alto Architectural Review Board (ARB) 8:30 A.M., Thursday, June 7, 2012 Palo Alto Council Chambers, 1st Floor, Civic Center, 250 Hamilton Avenue. Go to the Development Center at 285 Hamilton Avenue to review ﬁled documents; contact Diana Tamale for information regarding business hours at 650.329.2144. 1845 El Camino Real 12PLN-00124: Request by The Hayes Group, on behalf of Yeh Jen Fu, for Preliminary Architectural Review of a new three-story mixed use condominium building (2,663 sf commercial and one residential unit). Zone District: Neighborhood Commercial (CN). Environmental Assessment: As a Preliminary Review, where no recommendation is requested, the application is not a project and is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). 180 Hamilton Avenue [12PLN-00147]: Request by Steinberg Architects, on behalf of Casa Olga and Joie de Vivre Hospitality, for Architectural Review of an existing eight story building and conversion to an 86 room hotel use and ground ﬂoor restaurant with a Design Enhancement Exception (DEE) for a roof extension and new entrance canopy and Sign Exceptions for one canopy sign and a projecting sign. Zone: CD-C (P). Environmental Assessment: A Negative Declaration has been prepared for the project in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

21 at 2:31 p.m.)

Palo Alto fundraisers support DISCLOSE Act Dozens of Palo Altans turned out to a fundraiser Saturday, May 19, to support a bill that would increase funding disclosure requirements for political ads in California. (Posted May 21 at 9:54 a.m.)

Zuckerberg weds longtime girlfriend Trading his hoodie for a dark suit and tie, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg married his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, at their Palo Alto home on Saturday, May 19. (Posted May 20 at 9:23 a.m.)

Behind the scenes of Facebook’s IPO When Tom Wirth graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in 1975, not many people outside California had heard of Menlo Park. That all changed Friday, May 18, in part thanks to the man who organized the Facebook event that helped put Menlo Park on the map around the world. (Posted May 19 at 12:03 p.m.)

Man suffers head wound in East Palo Alto stabbing A 39-year-old man who was stabbed in the head early Saturday morning, May 19, in East Palo Alto is expected to survive, according to East Palo Alto police. (Posted May 19 at 11:58 a.m.)

Facebook goes public Instead of chatting on Facebook, a lot of people were talking about Facebook Friday, May 18. The social-networking giant debuted its public stock offering on Friday, with initial shares trading at $38 on NASDAQ. (Posted May 18 at 9:09 a.m.) Want to get news briefs emailed to you every weekday? Sign up for Express, our new daily e-edition. Go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com to sign up.

435 Portage Avenue 12PLN-00148: Request by Fergus Garber Young Architects on behalf of Silva Properties for Minor Board Level Architectural Review to raise the existing single story building up to provide new at grade parking underneath the existing building and the addition of new site landscaping. Zone District: Service Commercial (CS). Environmental Assessment: Exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per CEQA Guidelines Section 15301. 180 El Camino Real [12PLN-00121]: Request by Burnham Nationwide Inc. for L’Occitane En Provence on behalf of the Board of Trustees to the Leland Stanford Junior University for Architectural Review of new façade improvements and two new reverse channel illuminated wall signs, two blade signs, two window vinyl signs and an exception for two internally illuminated cabinet signs to exceed the maximum signage of 70 square feet by approximately 40 square feet at the Stanford Shopping Center. Zone District CC. Environmental Assessment: Exempt from the provisions of CEQA, 15301 (Existing Facilities). 180 El Camino Real [12PLN-00132]: Request by Kathy Shields of Simon Property Group on behalf of The Board of Trustees to the Leland Stanford Junior University for Architectural Review of renovations on a portion of Stanford Shopping Center, including demolition of 246,118 square feet, construction of a new freestanding one-story 7,063 square foot restaurant, and site plan locations for 239,055 square feet in ﬁve (5) retail buildings, along with associated site improvements. Environmental Assessment: Exempt per Section 15302(b). Zone District: CC (Community Commercial). Amy French Acting Assistant Director ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊ >ÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÓÊU Page 9

Upfront CITY OF PALO ALTO NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Bike bridge (continued from page 3)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN That The Palo Alto City Council Will Hold A Public Hearing At The Regularly Scheduled Meeting On Monday, June 11, 2012 At 7:00 P.M. Or As Near Thereafter As Possible, In The Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, To Consider Approval Of A Tentative Map And Record Of Land Use Action To Create Six Residential Condominium Units At 382 And 384 Curtner Avenue. DONNA J. GRIDER, MMC City Clerk COMMUNITY MEETING Review the proposed design for the Magical Bridge Playground at Mitchell Park. Wednesday June 6, 2012, 6:30 PM– 8 PM

voted 3-2 to abandon it. The contract between Stanford and the county states the funds can only be used to ease “the adverse effect on recreational opportunities for existing or new campus residents and facilities users that will be caused by the housing and academic development approved by the GUP.” Santa Clara County board President George Shirakawa had initially proposed delaying a decision on Kniss’ proposal to an unspecified future date to give staff time to fully vet the idea and consider others. His colleagues agreed Tuesday, but they also accepted Kniss’ suggestion to create a clear timeline for a decision. The board unanimously agreed to resume its discussion of Stanford funds in June and make a decision in August. Board members also agreed other recreation projects should

be considered. These will likely include an alternate proposal by campus residents to improve trails along Stanford Avenue and near the Stanford Dish. James Sweeney, board president of Stanford Campus Residential Leaseholders, told the board that campus residents fully support delaying the decision on how to spend the Stanford funds. The projects, he said, should benefit the Stanford community along with the general public. He had told the Weekly that his board doesn’t believe many people at Stanford would use the amenities included in Kniss’ plan. “We believe we’re a major portion of the people who this mitigation was intended to benefit,” Sweeney told the supervisors Tuesday morning. Others disagreed and urged the board to make a decision. Alice Kaufman, legislative advocate for Committee for Green Foothills, told the supervisors that the projects in Kniss’ proposal are an appropriate use of Stanford’s recreation funds.

Former Menlo Park Mayor Steve Schmidt also urged the board to fund the new bridge and the trail improvements. “This has been a process that’s been going on for 12 years,” Schmidt said. “I think it’s time to move forward.” Kniss said Tuesday she supports using the funds on more than one project and that it should benefit various residents and commuters in and around the Stanford campus. She characterized the board’s position as a “difficult one” but also a “fortunate one,” noting that the county rarely gets an opportunity to spend money allocated for recreation in a specific geographical area. “I think the money needs to be parceled out in such a way that it’s fair and is given in some part to the different communities that are in this narrow geographical area,” Kniss said. N Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

ity of these weekly communications are public records and, as such, are fully open to public scrutiny should they be requested,” he said. To further address the issue with the school board, the district has scheduled a study session Thursday, May 31, on the open-meeting law. A legal adviser will be on hand to answer questions. Skelly’s view of the memos was

disputed by several parent speakers at Tuesday’s board meeting, who said an April 6 memo and the subsequent April 20 memo “made it clear the superintendent was going in a different direction” on the counseling issue than had been instructed by the board in a March 27 public meeting. Parent Ken Dauber called on board members to “restate your commitment” for Gunn to move toward a counseling model similar to the “teacher advisory” model used at Palo Alto High — a commitment Dauber said had been reflected in board comments at the March 27 meeting. Dauber is cofounder of a parent group We Can Do Better Palo Alto, which has lobbied the board for more than a year to implement at Gunn a teacher-advisory system. “We have a broken process in which the private process has diverged from the public process,” Dauber told the board Tuesday. Skelly said his staff is working to fulfill nine Public Records Act requests received since April 23 on issues related to confidential memos and high school guidance counseling. Seven of the requests have come from Dauber or Dauber’s wife, Michele Dauber. One came from Johnson and another from Jen Nowell of the Palo Alto Daily Post. “These documents and the requests are of interest to the larger community,” Skelly said, adding that the district has posted them on its website. The May 31 meeting on the Brown Act, which will be recorded, begins at 1 p.m. in Conference Room A of school district headquarters, 25 Churchill Ave. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

Cubberly Community Center, Room H-1 4000 Middleﬁeld Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303 The City of Palo Alto Seeks community input on this new universally-accessible playground.

Email pwecips@cityofpaloalto.org for more information.

Meeting hosted by City of Palo Alto Public Works, (650) 617-3183

City of Palo Alto ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Draft Negative Declaration has been prepared by the Palo Alto Department of Planning and Community Environment for the project listed below. In accordance with A.B. 886, this document will be available for review and comment during a minimum 20-day inspection period beginning May 25th, 2012 through June 13th, 2012 during the hours of 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. at the Development Center, 285 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. Fabian Way Enhanced Bike Lane Improvements project: This project consists of providing enhanced bike lanes on Fabian Way between East Meadow Drive and Charleston Road through restriping of the street. The restriping will include a lane reduction from 4-lanes to 3-lanes resulting in one travel lane per direction of Fabian Way, a dedicated two-way left turn lane for access to parcels along the corridor, widened bike lanes/parking lanes, and enhanced crosswalk treatments. Green bike lane treatments will be provided at key intersection conﬂict points. There are ﬁve midblock crosswalks that are used extensively by many employees of Loral space systems located on both sides of the street; each of the crosswalks will be improved as part of the project. The proposed project would include enhancements to make this popular corridor more attractive and safe for cyclists and pedestrians. City is requesting grant funds from Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Transportation Development Act (TDA) funds for construction of this project. Curtis Williams, Director of Planning and Community Environment In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, listening assistive devices are available in the Council Chambers and Council Conference Room. Sign language interpreters will be provided upon request with 72 hours advance notice. Page 10ÊUÊ >ÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Brown

(continued from page 3)

it,” Skelly said in a statement read aloud at the board meeting. “While I believe that there are solid, appropriate reasons for this type of communication, the board, district staff members and I have always known that the great major-

CityView A round-up of

Palo Alto government action this week

City Council (May 21)

Gardens: The council approved building a new plaza and a driveway between the Main Library and the Palo Alto Art Center. Yes: Espinosa, Klein, Price, Scharff, Schmid, Shepherd, Yeh No: Holman Absent: Burt Infrastructure: The council directed staff to begin planning for a 2014 ballot measure that would help fund infrastructure repairs. Yes: Espinosa, Holman, Klein, Price, Scharff, Schmid, Shepherd, Yeh Absent: Burt Electricity: The council directed staff to come up with a plan for a carbon-neutral electric portfolio. Yes: Espinosa, Holman, Klein, Price, Scharff, Schmid, Shepherd, Yeh Absent: Burt

Board of Education (May 22)

Graduation requirements: The board voted to stiffen high school graduation requirements to align with entrance criteria for California’s public, four-year universities starting with the Class of 2016, with a provision for customized “alternative graduation requirements” for students who cannot or prefer not to complete the four-year college-prep curriculum. Yes: Unanimous Property lease: The board approved a plan to lease district property at 525 San Antonio Road for two years to Athena Academy, a startup school for dyslexic learners, which plans to sublease part of the space to Champion Kinder International School. Yes: Caswell, Klausner, Mitchell, Tom Absent: Townsend

Council Finance Committee (May 22)

Public Works: The council approved the proposed budget for the Public Works Department. Yes: Price, Scharff, Shepherd Absent: Burt

Parks and Recreation Commission (May 22)

Budget: The commission discussed the proposed budget for the Community Services Department and recommended fewer cuts and more modest fee increases for community gardens, artists at Cubberley Community Center and lawn bowling. Yes: Ashlund, Crommie, Hetterly, Lauing, Markevitch, Walsh Absent: Losch

Council Rail Committee (May 24)

High-speed rail: The committee heard an update on Caltrain electrification and on the proposed state budget, as it relates to high-speed rail. Action: None

Architectural Review Board (May 24)

711 El Camino Real: The board discussed a proposal by Clement Chen for a new four-story 23-room hotel with one level of partially below-grade parking at 711 El Camino Real. Action: None

READ MORE ONLINE

www.PaloAltoOnline.com Share your opinion about Kevin Skelly’s weekly confidential memos to the Board of Education. Go to Town Square, the community discussion forum on Palo Alto Online.

Transitions Jeanne Pomeroy

Robert John Stewart

Jeanne (Dorman) Pomeroy died in her home in Palo Alto on May 12, 2012. The lifelong Palo Alto resident was 79 years old. She was born at Stanford Hospital on Dec. 6, 1932. Her parents, Richard (Dick) and Vivian Dorman, raised two daughters, Jeanne and Marilyn. Jeanne attended Walter Hays Elementary, Jordan Middle School and graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1950. Following high school, she attended San Jose State University. She married William Dutton Pomeroy on May 6, 1966, in Palo Alto. They spent 46 years together. Together they pursued their hobbies of traveling, bridge, gardening, opera and ballet. They raised their children, Lacey, Lon, Elizabeth, Max and Susan. She enjoyed reading, gourmet cooking, horticulture, interior design and had an eclectic taste in music. Sewing and knitting were also her hobbies, making many of her grandchildren sweaters, argyle socks and outfits, with her personalized nametag â&#x20AC;&#x153;Knitley McDuff.â&#x20AC;? She is survived by her husband, Bill; sister, Marilyn; grandchildren, Hunter, Leslie Jeanne, Edin, Galen, Lon Jr., Rachel and Cameron; great grandchildren, Ainsley and Killian; as well as nieces and nephews.

Robert John Stewart, 84, died May 16, 2012, of complications from metastatic prostate cancer. Preceded in death by his wife, Verna, and eldest daughter, Nancy, he is survived by his daughter, Ellen Stewart Moore, son-in-law, Warren Moore, two granddaughters, Hathaway and Katherine Moore, and brother, Don Stewart of Merced, Calif. He earned an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1953. As business executive, he worked at West

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Coast Life Insurance Company and Acacia V Storage in Merced. An Atherton resident for more than 47 years, he was a member of the Menlo Circus Club and the Metropolitan Club in San Francisco. Memorial services are at Valley Presbyterian Church, 945 Portola Road, Portola Valley, on Friday, July 27, at 4 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to Filoli, 86 CaĂąada Road, Woodside, CA 94062 (www.filoli.org). Please include â&#x20AC;&#x153;In memory of Bob Stewartâ&#x20AC;? on donation.

Catharine Weis

January 13th, 1920-April 21st, 2012 Catharine Amy Weis, recently of Palo Alto, passed away on April 21st, 2012. She was born on January 13th, 1920, to Amy Hendricks Shafer and Luman J. Shafer in Nagasaki, Japan, and lived a long and adventurous life. She is survived by her son, George Weis and his wife, Colleen, her daughter, Barbara Weis, and her husband, Mark Stiles, and her grandchildren, Daniel Stiles, Christina Stiles, Harper Weis and Skyler Weis. A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University where she received a BA and a Masters in Social Work, she married Warren Weis on February 11th, 1956, and lived in Palo Alto, California until 2000, when she moved to Gaithersburg, MD, to be near her daughter. Memorial contributions to the â&#x20AC;&#x153; California Music Centerâ&#x20AC;? are preferred : http://californiamusiccenter.org PA I D

April 8, 1934 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 3, 2012

the Pomona College Administration Building, and restoration of the Stanford Theater on University Avenue in Palo Alto. She also served for some years as a member and chair of the City of Palo Alto Architectural Review Board, and on a similar board at the Chinquapin condominium community at Lake Tahoe. Beyond her love for her family and architecture, Mrs. Maser relished traveling with her husband, always curious to learn something new or see an interesting structure. She indulged her family and her many friends with her generosity and hospitality, and loved to share her delicious gourmet meals, some homemade jam, exquisitely wrapped gifts and good conversation. Julie is survived by her husband Dick; her brother Michael Scott of Herndon, Virginia; and three sons â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Scott of Cupertino, Ben of Palo Alto, and Mike of San Francisco. She had two daughters-in-law, Carrie and Diep, and four grandchildren â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Maggie, Ian, Katie and Eric. A family memorial service was held at Lake Tahoe on May 12. Those wishing to make contributions in Julieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memory should send them either to the American Cancer Society or the College of Architecture, Art and Design at Cornell University. PA I D

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OBITUARY

Julia Scott Maser Julia Scott Maser, a prominent architect affiliated for many years with Hoover Associates Architects of Palo Alto, died peacefully in her sleep on May 3 after a nearly two year battle with lung cancer. Julie was raised in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, a suburb of New York City. She attended the Hastings public schools, and in her final year was president of the student body. Following in the footsteps of both her parents, she entered the College of Architecture at Cornell University, graduating in 1956. Upon her graduation, she was awarded a Fulbright grant to study in Paris, France. On her return, Julie was employed by Walter Gropiusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; noted firm, The Architects Collaborative firm, in Boston. In 1959, she married Dr. Morton Richard (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dickâ&#x20AC;?) Maser. The Masers then moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, where Dr. Maser was serving as a physician at the U.S. Air Force Hospital. Julie worked for a German architectural firm in Wiesbaden. Upon the Masersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; return to New York, she worked successively for the architecture firms of Perkins & Will in White Plains, NY and Moore & Hutchins in New York City. Julie and Dick moved to Palo Alto in 1966, when he joined the staff at the Palo Alto Medical Clinic as a plastic surgeon. Soon thereafter, Julie joined Hoover Associates Architects, and was a designer at that firm until shortly before her death. Among her many design projects are several buildings at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, the Packard Foundation Building in Los Altos,

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City of Palo Alto ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Draft Negative Declaration has been prepared by the Palo Alto Department of Planning and Community Environment for the project listed below. This document will be available for review and comment during a minimum 30-day inspection period beginning May 25 through June 25, 2012 during the hours of 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. at the Development Center, 285 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. This item is scheduled to be considered at a public hearing by the City Council, Monday, June 25 at 7:00 PM, or as soon thereafter as possible, in the Palo Alto City Council Chambers on the ďŹ rst ďŹ&#x201A;oor of the Civic Center, located at 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. Written comments on the Negative Declaration should be provided to Elena Lee, Department of Planning and Community Environment, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, or via email at Elena. lee@cityofpaloalto.org , by 5:00 PM on June 25, 2012. Palo Alto Rail Corridor Study: Adoption of a Resolution Amending the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan To Incorporate Certain Findings of the Palo Alto Rail Corridor Study and Approval of a Negative Declaration. ***

Curtis Williams, Director of Planning and Community Environment In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, listening assistive devices are available in the Council Chambers and Council Conference Room. Sign language interpreters will be provided upon request with 72 hours advance notice.

OBITUARY

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Editorial

Election re-cap: our recommendations

alifornia voters will participate in a different kind of primary when they vote on June 5, less than two weeks from now. The new “open primary” allows voters to select any candidate, regardless of party, for state and congressional office. The top two vote-getters advance to the general election in November, regardless of party. Interestingly, neither redistricting nor the new primary system has resulted in more competitive races in our region. Democratic legislative incumbents, led by longtime Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo, face relatively weak and minimally-funded opponents. The only race that comes close to offering voters a choice between two qualified candidates is for the state Senate seat being vacated by Joe Simitian, where Assemblyman Jerry Hill faces former Assemblywoman Sally Leiber, both Democrats. Given the mess in both Washington and Sacramento, it is ironic that Republicans have not put forth credible candidates, although our local districts are so heavily Democratic as to make Republican chances almost nil. Previously published editorials can be found at www.PaloAltoOnline. com. Here is a summary of our recommendations:

Jerry Hill for state Senate In a race that will almost certainly be repeated in the fall, Assembly member Jerry Hill, who has been representing the northern portion of San Mateo County, is our pick to replace Joe Simitian. Hill and Leiber are both solid, smart Democrats with independent streaks. The two have similar positions on most issues and either would provide outstanding representation for our area, but we prefer Hill’s background as a business person and his track record as a collaborative legislator willing and able to reach across the aisle and try to find compromise.

Rich Gordon for state Assembly Three inexperienced contenders are challenging incumbent Rich Gordon in this race, and in our view, none is qualified to sit in the state legislature. Gordon brings long experience to his quest for a second term, after serving 13 years on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and one term in the Assembly. In his freshman term, Gordon has seen 15 of the 19 bills he sponsored signed into law, an enviable record for any legislator, regardless of experience.

Joe Simitian for Board of Supervisors After serving in virtually every public office available short of statewide office, termed-out state Senator Joe Simitian is running to regain the seat on the Board of Supervisors that he gave up years ago. In Simitian’s perfect world, he would be sliding into the Congressional seat held by Anna Eshoo, but she has given no indication that she is in any hurry to retire, blocking Simitian’s ambitions for now. In the meantime, he will put his lengthy legislative experience to work, saying he is ready to work on health care reform and helping the county as it takes on more responsibility for housing adult and juvenile offenders due to state budget cuts.

Colin, Pogue for Superior Court Paul Colin, Chris Cobey and Alex Cerul are vying for the seat held by retiring Judge Jerome E. Brock, while Cynthia A. Sevely and Steven R. Pogue are seeking to replace Neal A. Cabrinha, who is also retiring. For Judge Brock’s seat, we find Paul Colin and Chris Cobey equally qualified but believe Colin’s solid experience and reputation as a deputy district attorney edges out Cobey’s many years at a large business firm. Colin has prosecuted a wide range of criminal cases, including sexual assault, sexual predators, drug dealing, and many others. Law is Colin’s third career, after stints in bookkeeping and high-tech before graduating from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston in 1992. In the race for the second judgeship, our choice is Steve Pogue, a general-practice attorney who graduated from San Jose State and Lincoln University Law School in San Jose. Many of Pogue’s clients are immigrants, and we believe Pogue would bring a unique background to the court as well as a sensitivity to the average citizen that we find refreshing. His opponent, Cynthia Sevely, is a deputy district attorney and an experienced prosecutor, but we were less impressed with her judicial temperament during our interview.

Yes on county Measure A When the Board of Supervisors decided in 2010 to give the Sheriff control over most of the county’s jails some, including Supervisor Liz Kniss, believed the move violated the county charter and needed a public vote. So after two years of operating the jails without voter approval, a lawsuit has forced the Supervisors to put the issue to the voters May 5. If approved, as expected, Measure A will reaffirm the 2010 restructuring and give supervisors the ability to change oversight of the jails in the future. Supervisors say with the Sheriff in charge, the county is saving $7 million a year. We don’t see a downside here and urge voters to vote yes on Measure A. Page 12ÊUÊ >ÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Spectrum Editorials, letters and opinions

Adopt parking permits Editor, Parking has been an escalating neighborhood issue in recent years, talked to death by committees and City Council alike. Now, there is a safety factor in addition to the inconvenience having to park blocks from one’s own home should one have the audacity to go out in the morning and return at midday. Each morning eager Millennials arrive in our Professorville neighborhood, park their cars and head for their jobs downtown. The cars stay all day. The streets are narrow. With cars parked up and down either side of the street and visibility blocked by the cars parked too close to the corners, it is very dangerous to make a safe passage. Today I practically had a head-on collision with a truck driver speeding his way down the middle of a narrow street to a remodel site in the neighborhood. We need parking relief, and we need it now. Our homes are more than a century old and do not have garages; if they do, they are generally one-car ports. And it’s the rare 21st-century family that has fewer than two cars. I urge the council to adopt the residential parking permit program, or come up with a better solution. But please, I’m begging you to act now. Our college kids are soon to be home for the summer. They have been away for nine months and are not anticipating speeding truckers barreling down the narrow streets of their childhood. None of us wants a tragedy. We just want our safe neighborhood back. Susan Wolfe Ramona Street Palo Alto

Teachable moments Editor, May all the saints bless our dedicated, hard-working school board, but I wish that in their Tuesday deliberations on a district homework policy, they had shown more skepticism about directing high school teachers to post homework assignments online. If, as an English teacher at Gunn, I post my assignments online, the students will no longer pay attention in class when I announce the assignments. (My students are not dumb.) If they don’t pay attention when I announce the assignments, I lose the benefit of their reactions: faces or body language that tell me that the assignment is too complicated, too easy, too long, or too confusing; or raised hands seeking clarifications. And thus the Board’s larger purposes — of opening communication between teachers and students about homework, and of making sure homework is appropriate and sensible — are defeated. Giving assignments during class is invariably a “teachable moment,” useful in reminding my kids of the

importance of paying attention, writing things down and taking responsibility for their lives. Moreover, posting homework assignments online enables many kids’ parents to monitor their child’s school life in a suffocating way. Some parents even believe that missing a single high school homework assignment will ruin their child’s future. Parents shouldn’t be encouraged in this kind of mentally unhealthy thinking. The school board’s efforts in the matter of homework — especially Ms. Townsend’s caveats at this week’s meeting — are praiseworthy. Marc Vincenti Gunn High School Palo Alto

El Camino Elysées? Editor, Heard of the “Grand Boulevard”? Though the phrase conjures up images of Paris’ Champs Elysées, it refers to a local plan to, among other things, commandeer two lanes of El Camino for busses. Something gets lost in translation. Our serviceable, workaday thoroughfare, lined with Walmarts, gas stations, banks, Starbucks and Safeways, is a far cry from “Grand.” No Place de la Concorde

or Arc de Triomphe here. But it does serve our purposes as a transportation artery — that is, it has up to now. However, eliminating two lanes would surely create unbearable traffic congestion and gridlock. But perhaps that is the intention. After all, the so-called sustainability agenda that is inflicting high-density, mixeduse urban squalor on our downtowns in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and surrounding cities, also calls for “transit corridors” to replace our “unsustainable” use of cars. It is time for Peninsula residents to connect the dots. Sustainable Development, the U.S. version of an international agenda, is using the environment as an excuse to enact a “wrenching transformation” of America into a beaten-down, sovietized, state-controlled society. If that sounds good to you, and/or if sitting in your car in gridlock inhaling bus fumes is your cup of tea, you’re in luck. Otherwise, take action to stop the Grand Boulevard from further reducing our quality of life. Cherie Zaslawsky Oak Lane Menlo Park

YOUR TURN The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.

What do you think? What do you think of the school district’s change in graduation requirements? Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to letters@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. You can also participate in our popular interactive online forum, Town Square, at our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Read blogs, discuss issues, ask questions or express opinions with you neighbors any time, day or night. 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 Editor Jocelyn Dong or Online Editor Tyler Hanley at editor@paweekly.com or 650-326-8210.

On Deadline

No more ‘dithering’ — Palo Alto pushes ‘carbon-free’ electricity by Jay Thorwaldson alo Alto must “quit dithering” and expedite its carbon-reduction efforts significantly, starting with its electrical utility, City Council members unanimously and enthusiastically agreed this week (Monday, May 21). “Dithering” and its take-action opposite became the virtual theme as City Council members discussed a plan to get the city’s electrical utility to be “carbon neutral” by January 2015 — years ahead of state or federal targets. Some wanted to move even more quickly. “Dithering” was raised early in the discussion by Councilman Larry Klein, who recounted his recent reading a review of the book “2312,” which purports to look back at 20 years of degrading conditions. It includes a section entitled simply, “The Dithering” that describes what is happening, or not happening, in the early decades of this century. Other council members repeatedly used “dithering” as they stated their personal sense of urgency. Even City Manager James Keene picked it up following the council’s official vote, which “seems to have added an 11th Commandment: ‘Thou Shalt Not Dither!’” He pledged to keep the council and public informed of progress on an expedited schedule that includes completing an initial staff investigation by December. The goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in the city’s electrical supply, through its city-owned electric utility, by January 2015. Palo Alto and other cities, and the state itself, have been moving in that direction for several years. In Palo Alto, strong community interest followed completion of a Green Ribbon Task Force report several years back. But active vocal support waned in the face of economic concerns and other community priorities. The new energy behind the “carbon-free”

plan is largely the doing of Bruce Hodge, a relative newcomer to Palo Alto civic affairs but a long-time environmentalist who first tuned into climate change concerns at a Sierra Club “Cool Cities” event in 1985. He was involved in a critique of the city’s Climate Action Plan. In his day job, he is a computer scientist for Adobe Systems. His wife, Elizabeth Weal, is a former Apple employee. Their two daughters also have environmental interests: Chelsea, 24, works for a clean-tech firm in Oakland, and Caroline, 21, is a Stanford junior interested in psychological and social aspects involved in motivating people to become more environmentally involved. “My vision for Palo Alto is to go the last 15 percent on electric power — the focus of the current campaign,” Hodge said. “If we’re successful on electricity we’ll move on to bigger fish.” Vehicles, for one. Buildings, for another. Manufacturing processes. Hodge teamed up with local environmentalists, most specifically Walt Hays, who chaired the Green Ribbon Task Force. “Unfortunately the enthusiastic momentum dissipated” after the task force finished its report, Hodge said. He formed the “Carbon Free Palo Alto” organization in 2011. He and Hays met with individual council members. They found a receptive Utilities Department under Director Valerie Fong and Assistant Director Jane Ratchye. They brought the concept to the city’s Utilities Advisory Commission (UAC) last November, with detailed reports attached to the new city manager’s report. The UAC unanimously endorsed the plan in December. One council member Monday night asked why it has taken five months to get to the City Council. “It got bumped” due to heavy agendas, a staff member replied. Not likely again after Monday’s meeting. Monday, Mayor Yiaway Yeh led off by noting the city’s “Palo Alto Green” program in which about 25 percent of residents pay extra to obtain clean green energy. A “Palo Alto Clean” effort is about to be launched to complement the “green” program. “There’s a lot of community interest in this area,” Yeh said. Councilwoman Gail Price said she sup-

The goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in the city’s electrical supply, through its city-owned electric utility, by January 2015.

ported the plan but cited staff concerns about “significant uncertainties” in future state and other regulations, and potential rate increases to cover added costs. She asked for examples of other communities moving toward carbonfree power. But Klein stated his support powerfully: “There’s hardly anything we’re going to be considering that is more important than this item tonight,” he said. He said he had just read a book review of “2312,” which describes “the first half of the 21st Century as ‘The Dithering.’ “That’s what our society has been doing. We’ve been dithering.” He said global warming “will have irremediable impacts on Earth.” Yet he worried that “talking about degrees of uncertainty. There is one certainty: If we do nothing we will pay far more in dollars than any here.” “To me this is the great moral issue of our time,” Klein later added. He expressed disappointment that only 25 percent of residents participate in Palo Alto Green. He noted that some local neighborhood issues jam the council chambers while only four speakers showed up for the carbon-free item. He said it’s nice to be a leader community but he’d like to see Palo Alto “tied with thousands of others” pushing for carbon freedom. Councilman Greg Schmid said he is excited

that Palo Alto is close to carbon neutrality, but cautioned about reliability of hydro power during parts of each year or even between dry and wet years. “This is very exciting,” Councilman Greg Scharff said, adding that he’d like to see it done in two phases. Councilwoman Nancy Shepherd said the topic is “a very serious consideration,” but cautioned about future rate increases. But “I feel this is a great privilege that we get to have this conversation tonight.” Councilwoman Karen Holman called the action “a prime component” of the city’s “sustainability goal.” The subject “is the most important issue facing our planet, Councilman Sid Espinosa said. When he was mayor last year, a member of the council of “a city to the south” contacted him and asked how he could generate support for climate-change actions, as neither the mayor or any other council members believed in global warming. One speaker was Hays, who called the plan “an aggressive stance. You couldn’t take a better step than adopting this plan.” He complimented the city staff, and supported moving even faster than January 2015. Michael Clossen, executive director of the environmental group Acterra, called the plan “an idea whose time has come. “We have an urgent, unprecedented threat in global climate change,” he said. Yet there still is dithering, much of it at the federal level — meaning that effective action must “come up from the bottom” in a way that a local action could become a catalyst for other communities and levels of government. “We have to step up and find ways to reduce our personal footprints as well,” he added. No time for dithering along the path, either. N Former Weekly Editor Jay Thorwaldson can be emailed at jthorwaldson@paweekly. com with a copy to jaythor@well.com. See his blogs at www.PaloAltoOnline.com (below Town Square).

Streetwise

What are your Memorial Day weekend plans? Asked on Middlefield Road and Cambridge Avenue, Palo Alto. Interviews and photographs by Junesung Lee.

Irene Galindo

School district employee California Avenue area “We’re going to San Francisco for the Memorial Day carnival. We’ll also have a birthday party and barbecue with friends and family.”

Tatyana Ventura

Stay-at-home mom California Avenue area “Picnic in the foothills and a barbecue at home.”

Jonathan Fabio

Wine division manager Newell Road “Go to San Francisco for the Bay event. From Pier 79 to the bridge, there will be speeches and music to celebrate the 75th birthday of the (Golden Gate) bridge.”

Hilton Obenzinger

Teacher Ventura Avenue “I’m probably going to stay at home and relax. Don’t have to deal with all the traffic.”

Marie Williams

Retired East Palo Alto “Definitely going to barbecue with friends and family.”

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Cover Story by Chris Kenrick | photographs by Veronica Weber

aised in East Palo Alto, Laura Martinez spent her childhood crossing the freeway each weekday to go to school. As a student in the Palo Alto Unified School District through the Tinsley Voluntary Transfer Program (VTP), she understands better than most how to navigate the divergent worlds on either side of U.S. Highway 101. The 2002 graduate of Palo Alto High School — now Mayor of East Palo Alto — talked about the Tinsley program in a recent interview in East Palo Alto City Hall. “I felt welcomed and wellserved,” Martinez said, noting that she is speaking only for herself. “I was one of the students who had a support system.” But she knows other Tinsley students aren’t always as successful. “I don’t remember seeing a lot of the VTP kids going to college, or at least four-year college,” Martinez said. Crafted by lawyers as part of the 1986 settlement of a desegregation lawsuit, the Tinsley Voluntary Transfer Program permits up to 1,000 students of color from East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood school district to enroll in seven nearby districts: Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Las Lomitas, Woodside, San Carlos and Belmont-Redwood Shores. Palo Alto — the only K-12 district of the seven — educates the lion’s share of Tinsley students, with 560 currently enrolled in the district. Under program rules, students may not enter after the second grade — and if they leave the program are not permitted to return. Martinez got in under the wire, entering Duveneck Elementary School in 1991 as a second-grader after completing kindergarten and first grade at St. Elizabeth Seton School, a private school in Palo Alto. Martinez credits her parents,

and an array of other support systems, for her success as a Tinsley student. “I went through the Palo Alto school system. I was a pretty good student. I had family support — two parents who made education and college a priority. “I knew I was going to graduate from high school and go on to college, and that’s exactly what I did.” As the first in her family to go to college, Martinez sought guidance from Paly’s counseling department, particularly now-retired college counselor Nancy Elliott. “Mrs. Elliott told me about Whittier College and she hooked me up with another Paly graduate (who) was going to school down there,” said Martinez, who majored in sociology and minored in Spanish at the fouryear, liberal-arts college in Los Angeles County. All of Martinez’s jobs since her Whittier graduation in 2006 have involved speaking Spanish, which she learned from her maternal grandparents who lived down the street from her while she was growing up. Her mother was born in California and raised in East Palo Alto. Her Mexican-born father immigrated to California at a young age and grew up in Redwood City. After college, Martinez worked at the East Palo Alto Family YMCA, and currently is after-school program coordinator for the East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy, a charter high school operated by Aspire Public Schools. Martinez says she supports as much educational choice as possible, particularly for lowincome students. “Any way we can provide more opportunities, with the Tinsley program or charter schools, I’m in support of providing families with those options,” she said. As for East Palo Alto’s own public schools, Martinez said,

‘I’ve grown over the years, and I love East Palo Alto now. I’ve always loved it, but I was not always proud of it.’

—RACHEL KNOWLES, OFFICE COORDINATOR, STANFORD UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

Rachel Knowles, a graduate of Palo Alto High School, grew up in East Palo Alto but attended school in Palo Alto as a part of the Tinsley Volunteer Transfer Program. She now works as office coordinator of the Stanford Humanities Center.

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BE YOND

“I don’t know what the Ravenswood district experience is like because I didn’t go through the Ravenswood schools.” “But my mother grew up here in East Palo Alto and she went through the Ravenswood district. I think she just thought, ‘Let’s try out the VTP program — that sounds like a good opportunity for you.’” Martinez’s mother now works for the Ravenswood district as a parent coordinator. Her father continues his longtime job with a Newark engineering company. Martinez’s brother and sister followed her most of the way through the Tinsley program, completing Duveneck and Jordan Middle School. But when their parents felt they needed a smaller environment, they left Paly and transferred to East Palo Alto Academy, a charter high school operated by the Stanford University School of

Education, from which they graduated. “We’re all grown now — in our 20s — and my mother is able to work full-time and not have to worry about us,” Martinez said. Unlike most Tinsley kids, who ride a school bus across the freeway each morning, Martinez typically was driven to and from school by her parents. Her mother didn’t work during after-school hours, allowing Martinez and her siblings to play AYSO soccer and participate in activities such as Girl Scouts and, for Laura Martinez, Paly badminton. She also worked as a volunteer at the East Palo Alto library. She got extra support from nonprofit organizations that aim to boost opportunities for low-income kids: the East Palo

a guide to the spiritual community FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UCC £ nxÊ Õ ÃÊ, >`]Ê*> Ê Ì ÊUÊÈxä®ÊnxÈ ÈÈÈÓÊUÊÜÜÜ°vVV«>° À}Ê -Õ `>ÞÊ7 ÀÃ «Ê>ÌÊ£ä\ääÊ>° °Ê> `Êx\ääÊ«° °Ê ÕÀV Ê-V Ê>ÌÊ£ä\ääÊ>° °

10:00 a.m. This Sunday Best Meeting Ever Pentecost Rev. David Howell preaching

An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ

(continued on page 16)

‘Any way we can provide more opportunities, with the Tinsley program or charter schools, I’m in support of providing families with those options.’

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

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Tinsley

Former students Laura Martinez and Rachel Knowles look back on transfer program

WE S

—LAURA MARTINEZ, MAYOR, EAST PALO ALTO

Inspirations

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Top: East Palo Alto Mayor Laura Martinez, middle, listens to public comments during a City Council meeting along with council members Ruben Abrica, left, and Carlos Romero, right. Martinez, an East Palo Alto native, is also a Palo Alto High School graduate through the Tinsley program. Left: Martinez checks in with students and teachers during a brainstorming exercise at the afterschool program of the East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy.

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Cover Story

Beyond Tinsley (continued from page 15)

Alto-based Foundation for a College Education, which took her on a college tour through southern California and EPATT (East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring), which taught her to play tennis. EPATT — which now runs after-school tennis and tutoring at Stanford University’s Taube Tennis Center — taught tennis at East Palo Alto’s Cesar Chavez Academy at the time Martinez participated. “It was just down the street from my house, and I played tennis every summer,” she recalls. After college, Martinez returned home, met former mayors Ruben Abrica and Pat Foster, and got involved in politics. She worked to bring a grocery store to the city, has advocated for an improved parole re-entry program and a skate park for youth. She’s currently on a committee seeking to establish a “friends” group for the East Palo Alto library.

In 2008, she was the secondhighest vote-getter in a field of nine candidates vying for three seats on the City Council. A decade after her Paly graduation, Martinez says she’s stayed in touch with some friends from both inside and outside the Tinsley VTP program. One is Rachel Knowles, a VTP student who started kindergarten at Walter Hays in 1989. “I was fortunate enough to go to a very good school district, but at the time I didn’t always see it that way,” said Knowles, a Menlo College graduate now working as office coordinator at Stanford University’s Humanities Center. Acutely feeling the geographic and social divide, there were times she wanted to leave the Tinsley program but didn’t even ask because she knew her mother wouldn’t have it. “A lot of my friends (from elementary school) weren’t even allowed to come to East Palo Alto,” she recalled. “I’d want to go to their house and I’d want them to come to my house

as well, but their families wouldn’t allow them to, even if it was my mom driving to pick us up. So a lot of times I just stayed at their house.” More than anything, Knowles, the only child of a white mother and a black father, didn’t want to get labeled. That became more difficult in high school, where VTP students tended to congregate in a certain area for lunch. “Freshman year, it was an issue — where should I hang out? I didn’t want to hang out with just friends from East Palo Alto or get the stereotype of just hanging out with Palo Alto kids,” said Knowles, who had a mix of friends from both groups. “Me being biracial, I was used to dealing with that anyway.” Aside from a season of Paly badminton with Martinez, dance and cheerleading were Knowles’ major extracurricular activity throughout her K-12 years. The freeway divide eased somewhat when Knowles got to high school and friends could drive.

“I’d be able to go to a friend’s house or even have them drive me home, and that was better,” she said. But she recalls many times feeling unfairly pigeonholed because of her identity as a VTP student. “I remember several incidents — even in meetings with my mom — where the teachers would bring up that I was from East Palo Alto,” she said. “I might have been misbehaving just because I was having a bad day, but the teachers would assume it was because I was from East Palo Alto. “A lot of my friends that were VTP students were in special ed classes and, at the time I remember thinking, ‘Oh really? They seem fine to me.’” During one elementary school writing assignment about home life, she recalls a teacher commenting, “‘This isn’t a really good area you’re growing up in.’” Over time, Knowles’ conflicted feelings about her hometown have eased, and now she feels pride about it.

“I guess I understand the world better, and myself better, and realize it’s a privilege to come from where I come from and to be where I’m at,” she said. “I’ve grown over the years, and I love East Palo Alto now. I’ve always loved it, but I was not always proud of it.” As for her participation in the Tinsley program, she said: “My mother used to tell me, ‘Someday you’ll thank me for this.’ “I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I definitely do.” N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

About the cover: Former Tinsley student and East Palo Alto Mayor Laura Martinez helps tenth-grader Stephanie Gonzalez with homework at the East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy, where Martinez runs an afterschool program. Photograph by Veronica Weber.

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Arts & Entertainment A weekly guide to music, theater, art, movies and more, edited by Rebecca Wallace

>[XXUZS

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through

Paul Bendix reflects on a life of discovery, loss and hope in a new collection of personal essays by Renee Batti | photos by Michelle Le

ach of us must find the right dance to move us through life with as much grace and satisfaction as we can hope to attain. Will we waltz or swing? Pirouette or prance? Will we tango with a torrid gaze or cut a rug with a rumba? Paul Bendix of Menlo Park doesn’t have a pat and pithy response when asked in a recent interview to elaborate on the title of his newly published book of personal essays, “Dance Without Steps.” One might assume that, for him, the word “dance” is merely a metaphor for life, given that he’s been paralyzed since 1968 after being shot and left for dead during a street robbery when he was on the cusp of graduation from U.C. Berkeley. And yes, he says after pondering the question for a few moments, dance is a metaphor, but as far as its precise meaning in his life, “I’m kind of working that one out.” Then: “I’ve been through an awful lot of changes,” he offers, citing the long-ago shooting, the partial recovery of some movement that allowed him to live independently in London for a few years, the decline in neurological function in his 40s and the subsequent developments that have made mobility increasingly difficult. And of course, there’s the pain of loss that has marked his life. “It all adds up to a kind of dance,” he concludes, and to amplify he recalls old cowboy movies where the gunslinger shoots at the ground near his nemesis’ feet, barking, “Dance!” With the difficulties of life as a partial quadriplegic mostly confined to a wheelchair, Bendix says, “I often felt that way: ‘Dance!’” And yet, the book’s title “also glances in part on the essay about dancing with Marlou on the Queen Mary,” he adds, referring to his late wife, Marlou Imes. In the poignant 2007 essay, “Queenly,” Bendix describes the evening on the ship when he realized that to dance — to dance

Paul Bendix at a Menlo Park Peet’s Coffee & Tea, one of his regular hangouts. with his wife just then, in a ballroom on the Queen Mary 2, with a live band — was something that mattered to their lives. “Just that we were here, alive and together,” he wrote. “And it had taken sixty years for me to get here, and something similar could be said of everyone else. “Marlou didn’t need a gentleman escort right now, for I could stand up from my wheelchair, hold her in my arms and dance the dance of the paralyzed.” Although the publisher chose to

Bendix at his Menlo Park home.

call “Dance Without Steps” a memoir, Bendix says it might be better labeled “scenes from a disabled life.” Written between early 2005 and December 2010 and dedicated to Marlou, who died in 2009, the book includes: sketches of his life growing up in Southern California desert country; living in Berkeley during his college days; “on a roll” in recent years as he navigated life in Menlo Park, the wider Bay Area, and traveling the world; and pursuing his passion for “keeping things alive” by toiling in the garden.

The most dramatic essay, titled “A June Night,” tells of the horrific event that changed his life in a way unimaginable to anyone, let alone a young student on the threshold of adult life. He was walking home from campus that night after studying for finals when he was approached by three young men asking for money. The response to his negative reply was a clip to his chin, then a bullet to his spinal cord. “With the bang, which was not terribly loud, my step ceased,” he wrote. “My puppet body slipped downward, strings cut. The head bounced, then settled in a field of black rocks, the view of an eye resting on pavement.” Bendix moved to Menlo Park in 1981. Now 65, he is a familiar presence downtown, traversing the sidewalks on Santa Cruz Avenue and nearby streets, stopping by Peet’s for coffee, and rolling through the Sunday Farmers’ Market. He has worked as a writer for decades, including stints as a science writer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a copywriter for a Silicon Valley firm. Bendix has also done outreach work for Menlo-Atherton High School, and, a frequent train rider, he currently chairs the Caltrain Advisory Committee. He met Marlou in 1997, and together they were a lively presence in the Menlo Park Community Chorus. He continues to sing in the chorus and has done publicity for

concerts. “Mostly I enjoy singing ... though I cannot read a note of music,” he says in an email. “In earlier generations, singing was much more commonplace and taken for granted. For me, this is an essential community activity. ... Singing is an absolutely joyous group activity, one that links me to the community in all the best ways.” The chorus director, April McNeely, performed a solo from Fauré’s Requiem at Marlou’s funeral, which was attended by many chorus members. “For more than a year after her death, the chorus dedicated performances to her memory,” Bendix says. In addition to his new book, Bendix writes a blog, “Range of Motion,” at paulbendix.com. He says that the blog was “a great liberation for me,” when he began it years ago. Even though he had always thought about writing a book, he says, “I wanted it to be perfect” — a well-known recipe for not doing anything at all. “But with a blog, it didn’t have to be perfect,” he continues. “It was more like daily journalism ... and it got me moving” in the direction of a writing life. When Marlou became ill, writing kept him sane, he says. In the face of death, one can feel alone and cut off from the rest of the world. “In writing, I was able to tune into my reflections, insights and discoveries — all of which came to me quite naturally at the time,” he explains. (continued on page 19)

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Arts & Entertainment

Rhythms and ragas Famed sarod player educates about the life of an Indian classical musician by Rebecca Wallace

oral tradition, sharing stories from his life in an established creative family. His sons are the seventh generation of musicians, and Khan’s own guru was his father, Haafiz Ali Khan. His main instrument is the sarod, a fretless stringed instrument well suited to the sliding and gliding characteristic of Indian classical music. But Khan is not at Stanford to teach sarod lessons. “Sarod I will only teach to those who will give their lives to it,” he says after class. Rather, his students are clapping rhythms and singing ragas, lilting series of notes. They’re learning to appreciate the music’s emotions as well as its structures. At the close of the class, the students will sing what they’ve learned in a public performance on June 4. Khan also has a concert planned at Stanford, on June 1. The next day, the Stanford Philharmonia Orchestra will perform a portion of his sarod concerto, “Samaagam,” which was premiered in 2008 by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Khan takes great pleasure in cross-cultural collaborations. Samaagam, he says, is Hindi for “confluence of two cultures.” Khan encourages even people who are unfamiliar with Indian music to attend. At a live concert, listeners have a fuller appreciation for the music’s

Veronica Weber

lass ended half an hour ago, but students still gather in hopeful clusters in Stanford’s Braun Music Center. When they get their moments with the teacher, the famed Indian classical musician Amjad Ali Khan, they all look thrilled, respectful, maybe even a bit star-struck. Khan makes time for all of them. “Please practice that,” he advises two students in response to a musical question. “This is a lifetime experience of rhythm.” The young men nod and nod, backing away and beaming. Khan smiles his gentle smile at the approach of another student. “He’s from Lebanon. He plays the oud.” “I love Indian music,” the student says earnestly. The 20-some people in the class bring diverse backgrounds with them. Besides the Lebanese student with his pear-shaped stringed instrument, there’s also an opera singer, a cellist and many other types of musicians. Some are music majors, some not; some are Indian, some not. All have signed on for an unusual spring-quarter class that is less about memorizing points of music theory and more about having a musical soul. In “Indian Classical Music: A Way of Life,” Khan teaches through the

Indian classical musician Amjad Ali Khan, left, teaches a class at Stanford University. Student Vikas Yendluri joins him on the tabla drums. wealth of improvisation, its complicated rhythms, and the “slide and glide” that can produce nuanced emotion and find the notes between the notes. Khan plays the sarod sitting cross-legged, using his nails instead of fingertips, his face a study in concentration. Though he doesn’t describe himself as a singer, Khan often vocalizes as he plays. In conversation, he slips easily into song. His many recordings include traditional ragas, love ballads, Christmas carols and hymns, and a tribute to Gandhi. Khan is an enduringly popular performer, as much at home at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts (which he played last year) as he is in concert

halls in New Delhi and New York, the two places he lives in. Classrooms are another home. He makes time every year to teach in a university, from York University in England to the University of New Mexico. Khan’s father always encouraged him to pass on his music to the younger generation, and Khan believes it is important to also spread a message of peace. “I’m Muslim, and my wife is Hindu. In our family, we feel connected with every soul, every religion and every song of the world,” he says. Khan certainly grew up immersed in Indian music — he is said to have given his first sarod recital at age

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