Upfront
Neighborhoods
A roundup of neighborhood news edited by Sue Dremann
AROUND THE BLOCK
NEIGHBORHOOD VALENTINE ... The trees at Bryant Street and Lowell Avenue in Palo Alto are blooming with hearts of love to the Stanford University football team this Valentine’s Day. The hearts each contain a player’s name and jersey number, in a tribute to the team’s Rose Bowl win. “They deserve a parade,” said resident Catherine Debs, who has made decorating the trees for holidays an ongoing project for the past year. The decorations usually stay up for a month. LOCK UP! ... A Crescent Park resident recently became the target of a residential burglary while he was at home. Two burglars claimed to be checking on a water problem behind the property on the 1800 block of Pitman Avenue near Newell Road. As the homeowner accompanied one of the men to the backyard, the second man entered through the open door and stole jewelry, according to an email the resident sent to neighbors. BURGLARIES REDUX ... At least eight residential burglaries occurred in a four-day period from Feb. 8 to 11, according to the Palo Alto Police Department. Three occurred in the Midtown neighborhood, with one each in Crescent Park, College Terrace, Triple El, Old Palo Alto and Charleston Gardens. Police suspect the crimes could be related.
Send announcements of neighborhood events, meetings and news to Sue Dremann, Neighborhoods editor, at sdremann@paweekly.com. Or talk about your neighborhood news on Town Square at www. PaloAltoOnline.com.
Andre Zandona
CELEBRATING PRESIDENTS DAY ... Palo Alto resident Joseph Baldwin will display his collection of original letters, documents and signatures of all 44 U.S. presidents on Feb. 17 and 18, in the parish hall at All Saints Episcopal Church, 555 Waverley St., Palo Alto. Starting with President Barack Obama, visitors can “step back in time” all the way to George Washington as they peruse original autographs, hand-written letters, notes and other assorted manuscripts on display between noon and 4 p.m. on both days. The exhibition will include a 1799 letter from George Washington (complete with writing errors and crossed-out lines), a letter James Madison wrote during his last days, a note from Ronald Reagan, and a 1969 Gerald Ford letter from his time as House minority leader.
Michele Moore gets a good-luck kiss from a Chinese lion on Feb. 9 at Barron Park Elementary School during the neighborhood celebration of the Lunar New Year.
BARRON PARK
Celebrating cultural diversity Palo Alto neighborhood seeks to get residents involved through Lunar New Year, other events by Sue Dremann
W
hen colorful lion dancers appeared at the Barron Park Association Lunar New Year celebration on Feb. 9, the gathering drew about 160 residents for food and entertainment. But the event had a deeper purpose, organizer Lydia Kou said. Barron Park is creating a series of “Celebrate Cultural Diversity” events to attract new membership and leadership from its ethnically diverse neighborhood. Lunar New Year was the kickoff for the new project, with a celebration of the Indian Holi festival to follow this spring, Kou said. The events are a way for neighborhood organizers to cultivate the next generation of neighborhood leaders. Associations are the watchdogs and advocates for residents, addressing issues with city leaders ranging from parking and traffic to flood control and crime. But Kou said the same people are serving in the roles over and over, and some want to step down. There just isn’t anyone willing to fill their shoes. “For a lot of organizations, the board is finding it harder and harder to replace themselves,” she said.
Hopefully, if people take part in their culture’s celebration, they will see a place for themselves in the organization, she said. The idea to celebrate diversity builds on former Palo Alto Mayor Yiaway Yeh’s efforts last year to help neighbors get to know one another. Yeh, who grew up in Palo Alto, hosted a series of recreational events known as the Mayor’s Challenge and launched a grant program that funds community-building projects in the neighborhoods. Kou said the cultural celebrations springboard off that idea. Many Barron Park residents are from China and India, she said — and more than 27 percent of Palo Alto residents are Asian, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But often new immigrants don’t participate in community events or take on leadership roles. Kou said she hopes people will find common ground through the events. Everyone can relate to a New Year’s celebration, for example. She hopes residents will embrace the colorful Holi celebration, in which powdered pigment is thrown at participants. It’s a common theme to celebrate rites of
spring in many cultures, she added. At last Sunday’s event, which launched the Year of the Snake, residents shared traditional foods, such as pot stickers, which look like gold ingots used in long-ago China and signify wealth. The “tray of togetherness” holds special snacks signifying close family relationships. It includes foods representing happiness, longevity, health, unity and friendship, prosperity and fertility — lychee nuts, red melon seeds, peanuts, candied melon, coconut, kumquat and lotus seeds. Shopping for the many items meant residents went where perhaps they had not gone before, venturing into Chinese grocery stores that are a world away from Safeway. Kou provided a list of stores. But she worried when few people signed up to bring food. On the day of the event, however, there was an overabundance, she said: dumplings, pot stickers, tangerines, oranges and trays of togetherness. “There were many trays of togetherness,” she said. The event did bring people together, forging special connections
that could prove lasting, she said. One woman had planned to make fried noodles, but her next-door neighbor, who is Asian, instead invited her to come over and learn how to make dumplings. “And it was a really good dumpling, too,” she added. A mix of people from all ethnicities attended the event, including many Asian residents whom Kou said she had never seen before. A wide range of ages also attended, from the very young to elderly. “It was nice to get a whole new group of people,” she said. Now she is turning her attention to the Holi festival, which tentatively could take place March 23 or 24. Kou also plans to consult with the association board about adding a pet parade to the annual neighborhood May Fete celebration. The goal of bringing more people into the association won’t be achieved with one or even a few events, Kou acknowledged. Building momentum will be key, and she hopes people who want the celebrations to continue will get involved in the association. For the Holi festival, Kou doesn’t want to be the only one brainstorming. “I’m hoping to get together a committee,” she said. N
SEE MORE ONLINE
www.PaloAltoOnline.com Watch a video and see more photos of Barron Park’s Lunar New Year on Palo Alto Online by searching for “Celebrating the new year.”
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