2013 05 31 paw section1 by Palo Alto Weekly

Vol. XXXIV, Number 35 N May 31, 2013

Dining Out

2 O13

FROM CASUAL TO FINE DINING ON THE MIDPENINSULA

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Dining Out restaurant guide

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

High school grads celebrate their milestone page 3

Transitions 19

Spectrum 20

Movies 26

Home 33

Puzzles 54

N News Palo Alto considers smaller council

Page 8

N Arts Quilts tell story of Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kibbutzim

Page 22

N Sports Prep track athletes on big stage

Page 28

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Upfront Local news, information and analysis

CLASS OF 2013 Paly celebrates 465 members of Class of 2013 Student speaker: ‘Never forget this feeling of exuberance, limitless possibilities’ by Chris ith shrieks, songs and a tossing of mortarboards, Palo Alto High School Wednesday celebrated the graduation of 465 members of the Class of 2013 — the 115th class in the school’s history.

Kenrick Students in gowns hugged and twirled one another, and parents, holding flowers of all hues, pressed to the front of the crowd with cameras. “This exuberance we’re experiencing on this day — this feeling

of limitless possibilities — don’t ever forget it,” Student Body President Jessica Tam told her classmates. Tam spoke of countless tests and quizzes, sneaking food into the library, enduring the noise of campus construction, getting hit by Frisbees, naked seniors in the quad and “crying over rejections, crying over acceptances and making the best friends we will ever have.” Two of the three other student speakers struck the theme of academic stress. In her speech “To the Average

Student,” Abby Bromberg said she had sensed an unwritten code at Paly that “cool kids don’t try and still get As in every class.” Comparing herself to accomplished friends, she felt she never measured up until, after some “unsubtle hints” from her parents, she realized it was pointless to compare herself to others. She came to recognize she had talents of her own, in language and speaking. “I had only seen my friends’ abilities and none of my own. ... So my challenge to you isn’t just to follow your dreams but to find

your aptitude. Don’t compare yourself to people better than you — don’t compare yourself to other people in general. “As you move on, do what you can, and be proud of what you can do.” In her speech “Stress Case,” Soo Song said she’d felt unsettled to have been voted “class stress case” at the beginning of senior year. “I knew I was stressed about tests and grades and little details — about almost everything — but it was part of me, and being the (continued on page 8)

Vivian Wong

At Gunn High School graduation Wednesday, mortarboards were gaily decorated — often showcasing the grad’s future college.

EDUCATION

Gunn High graduates 426 students Wednesday Speakers from the Class of 2013 emphasize Gunn’s individuality, community and legacy by Elena Kadvany

our hundred and twenty-six seniors wearing graduation caps proudly decorated with college names and mascots, their necks weighed down with celebratory leis, were awarded diplomas on Wednesday evening in Henry M. Gunn High School’s 48th commencement ceremony.

Principal Katya Villalobos opened the evening with a speech that hit a wide range of themes: Stephen Colbert jokes about the class of 2013’s technology-obsessed and self-absorbed generation (always “tweeting your Vines, hashtagging your Spotifies and Snapchatting your ‘YOLOs’”), Winnie the

Pooh-themed metaphors (the importance of being wise like Owl, individualistic like Tigger and a true friend like Pooh) and a line from a Jay-Z song (“Nobody built like you, you design yourself.”). But she rejected Colbert’s characterization, saying she’s had the opposite experience with the Class of 2013. “In you, I see passion. I see energy, creativity, innovation, dedication and hope. A lot of hope.” The ceremony was held on the football field, with the main stage set up over the huge Gunn “G,” emblazoned in red and white on the AstroTurf. Parents, friends and family sat on the field and in the bleachers, but many left their seats throughout the ceremony to take photographs of their graduates.

In addition to Villalobos, three students and NBC Bay Area News Anchor Raj Mathai spoke to the class. The ceremony also included presentations of the class gift — a new speaker set for the football field — by senior class president Nitika Johri and of two major awards. The ceremony in south Palo Alto culminated in the calling of each graduating senior to the stage to receive his or her diploma. The graduates began the evening by filing in to “Pomp and Circumstance,” tassels on the right-hand side, waiting to be ceremoniously moved to the left. Some wore graduation caps with simple felt acronyms of their college destinations — USC, BU, CP — and others were more decorated, such

as with a miniature tree. One cap simply read “LIFE.” Student Jonah Kaye spoke about sometimes-meaningless yearbook declarations and “both unhealthy and galvanizing stress” about school, grades, thin college-admissions envelopes and what students think they’re supposed to do and be. “Keep pushing,” he urged. “We are ready to move on. We have so much to push forward to that we can’t waste time perseverating over every moment, every frame, every yearbook line. “You know what? We made it. We’re here,” he said, as cheers rose up from the crowd. Emma Schectman, her graduation cap fully covered in sequins (continued on page 7)

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Upfront QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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We think we’ve got an issue here. — Kevin Skelly, Palo Alto Unified School District superintendent, on a recent state warning against charging fees for summer school. See story on page 16.

Around Town DUCKS AND DONUTS ... Most Bay Area cities have laws against feeding wildlife. Palo Alto does not. This presents a nest of concerns for local wild animals, particularly birds in the Palo Alto Duck Pond, Daren Anderson told the Parks and Recreation Commission on Tuesday night. Anderson, the city’s manager of open space, parks and golf, called the tradition of feeding birds at duck ponds “a hangover from the 1930s.” He said the crowded conditions caused by bird feeding spread avian diseases. What’s more, the birds can’t stomach the “truckloads” of processed foods like jelly donuts. Educating the public by using materials such as grisly pictures of birds with avian pox isn’t having a significant effect, Anderson said. Thus, the city is now considering outlawing the feeding of critters. The commission was receptive to the idea, but Commissioner Pat Markevitch suggested a change of message. “You could try something like ‘If you feed the ducks, it’ll cost you some bucks.’ They’ll start thinking about it. It’s funny, but it draws them in.” Animals becoming too familiar with humans may be affecting city government in another small way. Rob de Geus, the city’s division manager for recreation and golf services, said there’s a squirrel who regularly visits the Lucie Stern Community Center, where his department is located. “He comes in the building and goes down the corridor to get food. We call him Stan,” said de Geus, who said they regularly have to chase the furry bandit out. “It’s the same guy; he’s got that look.” A HEARTFELT THANKS ... A Palo Alto woman’s campaign to equip local schools with automated external defibrillators (AEDS) is already paying off. Stephanie Martinson, founder of a nonprofit “Racing Hearts,” which raises funds for the machines, thanked the Palo Alto school board on Tuesday for helping to fund 21 of the portable machines to be placed on school campuses to be used in case of sudden cardiac arrest. Six have already been placed at Palo Alto’s two high schools. Monthly maintenance will be provided by the Palo Alto Fire Department. “Stephanie has been a trailblazer in our community

about the importance of AEDs,” Superintendent Kevin Skelly said Tuesday. Schools are just the beginning. In April, the City Council supported a recommendation from Martinson to install 37 defibrillators at public facilities throughout the city. RONALD’S HOUSE ... For the Ronald McDonald House, which occupies a tree-lined site at the intersection near El Camino Real and Sand Hill Road, change has been a constant ever since it went up in 1979. The facility, which provides temporary shelter to children with life-threatening diseases and to their families, initially had 13 rooms. Since then, it has expanded to 24 (in 1989) and 47 (in 2002) rooms. On Monday night, it’s slated to get the City Council’s green light for the biggest expansion yet — a three-story addition that would add 69 rooms to the facility next to the Stanford Shopping Center. The reason for the expansion is heavy and increasing demand. According to a new report from the city’s planning department, the facility typically turns away 40 families a day. WAR ON DAWDLING ... Palo Alto voters might have some decisions to make in the coming November. The council is considering changing the City Charter (which requires a vote) so that newly elected council members can assume office almost immediately after the vote is certified. Under the city’s longstanding practice, new council members are sworn in during the council’s first regular Monday night meeting in January. The idea of swearing in members earlier was first proposed by Councilmen Larry Klein and Greg Schmid, who argued in a February memo that delaying the swearing-in until possibly as late as Jan. 8 puts the city at a “risk of not having sufficient council members on hand if an emergency should arise.” At the same time, the change would allow the council to get to business sooner, the memo states. “At the very time when enthusiasm is high — particularly in years when new people are joining the council — we are in effect dawdling.” The council will consider the proposed changes, and the potential November election, on Monday night. N

Upfront

GRADUATION 2013 Thinking back and looking ahead A few 2013 graduates ponder their schools and the world

BY CHRIS KENRICK

few days before their high school graduation Wednesday, a handful of prospective grads from Gunn and Palo Alto high

schools spoke with the Weekly about their high school recollections and plans for the future.

Chandler Gardiner: ‘Do your best, but don’t stress out’

he peer pressure prevalent at Gunn High School is “not your typical peer pressure” to go out and get drunk or break curfew, said Chandler Gardiner, who graduated Wednesday. Instead, it’s a pressure to get good grades — a feeling Gardiner believes emanates not primarily from parents or teachers, but from students themselves. On one hand, she has appreciated it, saying, “At another high school I might not have pushed myself as hard.” On the other hand, “The pressure can be overwhelming sometimes, which you don’t really need, especially in high school.” As she heads to Spain and France this summer to perform with the Gunn choir and, this fall, to the University of Minnesota, Gardiner said what she’ll most miss about Gunn is its sense of community. “It’s very welcoming,” she said.

“It’s a pretty big school, so basically anybody can find a place here — it doesn’t matter who you are, what your interests are.” Besides four years of singing in Gunn’s choir program, Gardiner’s interests have included school and club volleyball as well as leadership in Gunn’s ROCK (Reach Out, Care and Know), a peer support network initiated by students after a series of suicides in 2009 and 2010. ROCK has “moved past just suicide prevention and on to community building, making sure we can reach our arms out to any freshman in a random social group,” Gardiner said. ROCK members have joined forces with a national program, Sources of Strength, with a strategy of using high school social groups to boost teen mental health. Gardiner said she appreciates “so many good teachers at Gunn” as well as her parents, who “never put pressure on me and just asked me

to do the best I can.” She’s particularly grateful that her mother, who works at a school, was able to be at home with her and her siblings after school and during summers. “I’ve had my ups and downs, but my parents have done so well for us.” She hopes — at least in family matters — that her life will be much like that of the family she grew up with. But “I don’t know if I want to raise my kids in Palo Alto,” she said. “Part of me does because I want them to do the best they can, but part of me doesn’t want them to have to deal with the stress.” Her advice to future Gunn students is: “Do your best, but don’t stress out. “Your best is all you can do. You don’t need to go crazy if something goes wrong because in a few days it will pass and it’s going to be all right.” N

Veronica Weber

Josh Stabinsky, Palo Alto High School

Josh Stabinsky: Putting more in to get more out

I was able to succeed and found school a lot more interesting my junior year than I had previously.” Committing to school activities — he was Paly’s sports commissioner his junior year and senior class vice-president — also allowed him to get to know teachers and fellow students better. In the fall Stabinsky plans to study business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which combines the factors he was seeking in a college: big school, sports program and strong business program. A huge sports fan, he’s interested in pursuing a career in sports marketing. What he’ll miss most about Paly are the teachers, friends and the hard-earned sense of familiarity. What he’ll miss least, he said, is “having only 35 minutes for lunch. “I really like the block scheduling but do wish we had a little longer for lunch.” Stabinsky will spend the summer working at the Gap, his first official employer. After just a few days on the job he said he’s seen many familiar faces at the Stanford Shopping Center store and has “become a lot better at folding than I was before.” N

Veronica Weber

major lesson of high school for Josh Stabinsky can be boiled down to the adage, “What you give is what you get.” After feeling hesitant and uncomfortable in his first two years at Paly, Stabinsky made a fuller commitment to classes and activities his junior year and found he enjoyed school much more. “The harder I worked, the more I put in, the more I got out of it,” he said. “I wish I’d learned that a little earlier, but I’m glad I eventually did. “Not everybody’s going to be up for a challenge in high school — that’s totally understandable — but the more you challenge yourself, the more you’re going to get out of Paly.” Stabinksky also found Paly more engaging when he realized that the college-prep curriculum is not as fixed as some might think. For example, he said, you can take biology and chemistry — and then marine biology instead of physics — while still fulfilling entrance requirements for the University of California. “Marine biology was fascinating,” he said. “By taking the classes I really wanted to be in as opposed to what everybody else was taking

Chandler Gardiner, Gunn High School

Boot Bullwinkle: Multitasking and the 24-hour day

taying home for the summer to serve Pinkberry yogurt will give new Gunn graduate Richard (Boot) Bullwinkle a chance to earn college money and spend a little more time with what he’ll miss most about high school — his friends. This fall he heads to American University, where he’ll work in a Washington, D.C.-area internship

and take classes at the same time. Bullwinkle played varsity soccer all four years at Gunn and also fell in love with journalism, ending up senior year as managing editor of the student newspaper The Oracle. “Journalism is kind of a dying art, at least in print, but we had 50 kids on staff, and they’re all really interested in it,” he said. “It was fun to work with that many kids

interested in the exact same thing — to create a quality publication.” The experience resulted in a close bond with Oracle adviser and English teacher Kristy Blackburn, one of three or four Gunn teachers he considers mentors and friends. “They’ve really been there to teach me things that (continued on page 6)

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Upfront

Soo Song: Taking things personally

Veronica Weber

Richard “Boot” Bullwinkle, Gunn High School

Bullwinkle

(continued from page 5)

Sergey Smirnov, Palo Alto High School

Soo Song, Palo Alto High School

Sergey Smirnov: High school with a difference

Veronica Weber

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The Korean-born Song — she moved to the United States at age 2 — speaks Korean with her grandparents, a mixture of English and Korean with her parents, and also has studied Japanese and Chinese. She expects her life to be quite different from those of the older generations, in many respects because of social media. “We have this need to feel connected all the time,” Song said. “Sometimes social media lessens the personal connection, but it widens the general connection of people. “And instead of focusing on one thing, our generation focuses on a lot of things ... and that’s different from past generations. “It’s actually scientifically proven that multitasking isn’t very good for you, and you can’t do all these great things at once. But we still do it because it’s kind of addicting.” Song said her Paly activities gave her a chance to get to know many teachers outside the classroom, “to learn more about what they really love to do other than teach and to get to know them personally. “I really want to be personal with people, be personal with what I learn and what I do, and I hope to take that to wherever I go in the future,” she said. N

Veronica Weber

school doesn’t usually teach,” he said. What Bullwinkle will miss least about Gunn is what he views as an unwarranted self-satisfaction among school leaders that interferes with critical thinking and positive change. “They toot their own horn a little. They think they’re very good at acceptance, including all types of people, and they miss a lot of problems they have,” he said. “There’s still a lot of bullying, still racism and sexism — this is high school.” Similar resistance to change has hobbled Gunn’s guidance-counseling program, which he feels did not provide good quality service to him and probably will not serve his younger sister very well. “I’m not sure the steps we’ve taken have helped that much,” he said. “There hasn’t been a lot of change.” Bullwinkle plans to double major in economics and political science in college, while maintaining his interest in journalism. He expects his life will be considerably

different from that of his parents. They both grew up overseas — his mother evacuated at age 3 from war-torn Vietnam to Saudi Arabia — while he considers himself “fortunate to have been born and raised in Palo Alto with all the opportunity in the world.” Technology is another reason he thinks life will be different for his generation. “I think we have much more opportunity than previous generations, and we’re much better at multitasking,” Bullwinkle said. “The older generation sees us using all this technology and thinks we’re lazy, but I can be on my phone looking at the news, reading texts and chatting on Facebook while having a live conversation with someone. “This is a unique talent that most people can’t understand but is necessary in a world where we’re moving faster and faster, and it’s more of a 24-hour day instead of a 10hour day.” The flip side, he said, is that his generation tends to be politically apathetic, though he himself reads the news every day. “Significant events are happening around us, and we’re kind of stuck in our own little worlds,” he said. N

oo Song said what she’ll miss most about Paly is the people because “when you get to know people on such a personal level, you can’t help but love them and miss them. “You learn the most about people when you go through a lot with them, and at Paly you go through a lot, academically and socially,” said Song, who graduated Wednesday. What she’ll miss least is the prescribed curriculum, and she looks forward to having more freedom to choose classes when she heads to the University of California at Berkeley this fall with the goal of preparing for a career in business or law. Active in Paly’s student government, Song said she “tried to pour my heart” into all her activities, which also included Youth Community Service and Paly’s Christian Club. She credits Student Activities Director and Japanese teacher Matt Hall with “inspiring me to work harder than I ever could and showing me it’s fine to be me even if ‘me’ doesn’t translate to perfect.” The unifying characteristic of good teachers — and there are many at Paly, she said — is “a passion for their subject, and that’s not something you can learn or teach, but something you have.”

ergey Smirnov’s plans to tour Europe with a youth orchestra this summer and head east to college this fall sound similar to those of many other Paly students. But Smirnov, who planned to walk in Paly’s graduation Wednesday night, did high school with a big difference. For the past two years he’s spent his school days at Foothill College where, as a student in Foothill’s Middle College, he took college courses while also completing state requirements for high school graduation. While officially graduating from Paly, Smirnov also will be eligible to apply to transfer his Foothill credits to New York University’s Polytechnic Institute, where he’ll enroll this fall to study computer science. Smirnov, who went through Addison Elementary School and Jordan Middle School, found himself bored and uninterested in his classes when

he got to Paly four years ago. “They just didn’t spark in me,” he said. As a sophomore he read an article in a Paly student publication about Middle College and decided to give it a try. “At Foothill the sciences and math were just a lot more interesting and much more into detail and really a lot more challenging in terms of the ideas and concepts they introduced,” Smirnov said. “The labs were more like a realworld setting, more experiencebased and thinking-based rather than at Paly, where you have to memorize this and memorize that, and just know what this or that is.” He also was able to take multivariable calculus during normal hours rather than at 7 a.m. at Paly, where it’s offered as a “zero period” class through Canada College for students who have completed BC Calculus. During his two years at Middle College Smirnov returned to Paly

at least weekly to participate in the robotics team, where he’s stayed in touch with friends. He also continued playing percussion with the El Camino Youth Symphony, with whom he’ll tour this summer to Prague, Salzburg, Budapest and Bratislava. Among the 50 or 60 other students in his Middle College cohort he met other kids from Paly and Gunn as well as students from Los Altos and Mountain View. As a Middle College student, Smirnov won’t officially graduate until he completes Foothill’s spring quarter later in June. He said he’ll most miss his Foothill professors and friends and Foothill’s campus, including the new science center. Asked what he’ll miss the least, Smirnov barely hesitates: “Paly,” he said. Except for his friends and the robotics team, “I’ll definitely not miss that place at all.” N

Upfront

Gunn

(continued from page 3)

Nitika Johri: Breaking the stereotype of a high school

stress because I took a lot of AP classes and was involved in a lot of activities — but I kind of accepted it, to be honest,” Johri said. “I thought, ‘This is what I want to do to get where I want to go.’ It’s very hard and tedious at times, but I think it turned out for the better, and I think there are a lot of people who can attest to that.” The stress comes from “having such a high-achieving and successful community,” she said. “Because we have parents like that backing their kids, it kind of fosters that mentality among the kids” in spite of the school’s many programs to offer support and relief. She cited several teachers at Gunn who “do an incredible job of reaching out to students and opening the class to different opinions.” Johri thrived at Gunn by choosing activities and classes that she loved, and she advises others to do the same. “Happiness has been my key motivator through high school,” she said. “I took classes or got involved in activities that I loved doing. “Of course there are periods where I’m very stressed and things seem like they’re never going to work out, but I always keep doing what makes me happy, and it has worked out for the better.” N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

SEE MORE ONLINE

www.PaloAltoOnline.com More photographs of graduation and the lists of graduates from local high schools have been posted on www. PaloAltoOnline.com.

A new Gunn graduate screams in excitement as she and fellow classmates rise to receive their diplomas on May 29. “There are tragedies and there are miracles. But every change and everything unchanged is beautiful,” Steinberg said. “As I stand here tonight in 2013, I know that our lives will take turns that we would be foolish even to guess.” But the one thing that’s for sure, Steinberg said, is that the Gunn community will always be with them. Thirty years down the line, the same group of students will gather again as 40-somethingyear-olds in the same place, still connected by their high school. Guest speaker Mathai, who graduated from Los Altos High School in 1989 and had many family members who attended Gunn, gave three pieces of advice to the graduates: Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your lives, so seize it; appreciate your parents or whoever raised you; and live in the moment. “To the Class of 2013: Go get it!” he ended emphatically. The two awards given on Wednesday night, the Faculty Cup and Principal’s Cup, recognized exemplary students and faculty. The Faculty Cup, established in 1966, is awarded each year to one male and one female student who exemplify certain traits. “Since its formation, Gunn has viewed education as richer and a

lot more complex than test scores and percentile rankings, and our mission statement lists traits having to do with confidence, creative thinking, adaptability, resilience, respect for one’s self and others and social and ethical responsibility,” said Carole Stroud, a Spanish teacher retiring this year who has worked at Gunn since 1988. Stroud presented silver cups to Andrew Duffy — described by staff as “the calm within the storm” — and Jennifer Mota Melville, a distinguished leader who is also Henry M. Gunn’s granddaughter. The Principal’s Cup, presented by Villalobos, was given to Kristy Blackburn, an English teacher who also advises the school newspaper, The Oracle. After the tassels were moved to the left and caps thrown into the air, Schectman reflected. “It’s about time,” she said with a laugh. She said she plans to study marine science at Boston University next year. “It’s bittersweet,” said Schectman’s father, Hal, in between snapping photos of his daughter. “This is what you work for, and then you don’t want it to happen.” N Staff Writer Elena Kadvany can be emailed at ekadvany@ paweekly.com.

Vivian Wong

devastating string of student suicides in 2009 and 2010 has made Gunn a different kind of high school, said Nitika Johri, who graduated Wednesday. “Our school has gone through a lot together, and therefore we approach situations in certain ways and try to create a community that breaks the stereotype of a high school community,” said Johri, a volleyball player and yearbook editor, senior class president and co-president of Youth Community Service. “My class wasn’t there for the majority (of the suicides) — it didn’t affect us personally as much — but I think it affects the community and makes us more aware and more kind.” Teachers and staff, she said, “go out of their way to make students feel at home. Instead of being kind of exclusive, everyone is brought together, and there aren’t that many separate friend groups that can’t talk to each other.” It’s that sense of community that Johri said she’ll miss the most when she heads to the University of Southern California this fall, planning to major in psychology with an eye toward a business career. She’ll spend the summer traveling and reading things she just didn’t have time for during the academic year. “I definitely felt the academic

Vivian Wong

Veronica Weber

Nitika Johri, Gunn High School

colored for her chosen college, Boston University, spoke second. She said after months of questions about what college she would attend and uncertainty about graduation, the one question that remains is, “What am I leaving behind?” She said Gunn is set apart from other schools in the area not only by its programs and special events — birthday-grams, Spring Fling, the “Not In Our School” campaign — but also by the individuals who make up the Gunn community. “Gunn is made up of pieces. There’s a piece for every person, every individual. There’s a piece for every friendship made and every lesson taught. When you put these pieces together, they create a picture of the Class of 2013. So I guess the real questions is not ‘What are we leaving behind?’ but ‘What are we taking with us?’” She ended with the sentiment that each student will take a piece of his or her personal and academic experiences at Gunn with them, wherever they go. The third and final student speaker, Benjy Steinberg, chose to fast-forward to the year 2043 instead of reflect on the last four years. The focus of his speech: the class of 2013’s 30th high school reunion, where the “middle-aged counterparts” of his classmates would surely have gained weight, been married and divorced three times, served in the Peace Corps, found God, lost a leg in a car accident or dropped out of Harvard University to become an artisan cheesemaker.

Dana Tom, president of the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, presents Gunn graduate Spencer Miner with his high school diploma. ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊ >ÞÊÎ£]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 7

Upfront CITY HALL

Palo Alto to consider smaller City Council Three council members say it’s time to consider fewer seats, more years of service by Gennady Sheyner hen the Palo Alto City whether the benefits outweigh Council meets for its reg- the fact that having a nine-memular meeting on Monday ber council means we can spread night, it will find itself grappling out and serve in all the different with a question with existential liaison roles (with local commisovertones: Is a nine-member sions),” Shepherd said. council really necessary? Because a seven-person counThe question is one of two cil would mean more work for being served up in a colleagues each member, Shepherd, Kniss memo by Vice Mayor Nancy and Price propose increasing the Shepherd and councilwomen Liz council stipend by $600. This Kniss and Gail Price. The three suggestion would be taken up by propose both shrinking the coun- the council’s Finance Commitcil to seven seats and extending tee if the council and the voters the limit of council service from were to decide to move forward two to three consecutive terms. with the change. The idea of reducing the numAt the same time, Shepherd ber of seats on the council is said, she feels strongly that the hardly new, though it’s been a long city should consider extending time since the council has consid- the term limit for council memered the issue. Rather, it’s popped bers from two to three, a change up periodically at that Santa Clara candidate forums County voters reduring election ‘The size of the cently undertook seasons, only to Palo Alto City with respect to the quickly die down county’s Board once the new coun- Council body of Supervisors. cil is sworn in. of nine members Palo Alto counShepherd, Kniss cil members have and Price are hop- is unusual been restricted ing to change that. for municipal to two four-year The memo recom- government for terms since 1992. mends the council More consecudirect the Office a city of our tive years on the of City Attorney population.’ council, Shepto draft a measure herd said, would —City Council enhance the abilfor the November colleagues memo ity of Palo Alto’s 2013 ballot that would reduce the elected leaders number of open council seats to represent the city on various from five to three in the 2018 regional boards, including ones election. dealing with public transit, housThe memo notes that other ing mandates, the rail corridor cities of Palo Alto’s population and utility regulations. (about 65,000) have smaller “To effectively represent Palo councils. Menlo Park, for exam- Alto’s interests, the city’s represenple, has a council of five. Moun- tatives need time to gain expertise tain View’s has seven members. and build seniority on these bod“The size of the Palo Alto City ies,” the memo states. “Term limCouncil body of nine members its interrupt this process. Under is unusual for municipal govern- the current charter, members can ment for a city of our popula- sit out an election cycle and re-run tion,” the memo states. “Although for two more terms, but we conreduced in 1971 from 15 to nine sider this disruptive and not in the members, we believe that coun- city’s interest. We think Palo Alto cil should discuss the merits of will be better served by extending reducing the body of government consecutive terms.” further from nine to seven memThe city, Shepherd said, is bers. It is typical for municipali- currently facing many “exterties to have a smaller council.” nal forces,” including a housing Shepherd, who was elected mandate from the Association of to the council in 2009, told the Bay Area Governments, a conWeekly Wednesday that the idea troversial high-speed-rail system of a smaller council has been planned for the Caltrain corridor floating around for so many and various issues relating to years that she felt it time for transportation and utilities. Lonthe council to have a “substan- ger terms would make it easier tive discussion” on the topic. A for city leaders to represent Palo nine-member council, she said, Alto on these regional issues. requires a lot of work by staff. “If we do make seniority (on It means longer meetings, more the regional boards) that would comments and more questions be fantastic because we can for staff to answer. then be representing Palo Alto’s “We should consider what the interests on a greater level,” benefit might be to reduce it and Shepherd said. N

Palo Alto High School graduates give each other a high-five as they make their way onto the field before the commencement ceremony on May 29.

(continued from page 3)

class stress case forced me to look at myself a little harder. “Was there something wrong with me? Did I care about the right things? Does living life to the fullest mean giving everything your best shot, or not taking things so seriously?” Song was disappointed by rejections from some colleges she’d set her heart on but felt better after seeing the raft of rejections posted on Paly’s “Rejection Wall” in the quad. At Paly it’s easy to “get caught up in things” and forget what matters and what doesn’t, Song said. “It all comes down to you. You must measure yourself not by what others think you achieve but what you know about yourself. What we About the cover: Palo Alto High School graduates throw their mortarboards in the air in front of the Campanile on Wednesday, May 29. Photo by Veronica Weber.

SEE MORE ONLINE

www.PaloAltoOnline.com More photographs of graduation and the lists of graduates from local high schools have been posted on www. PaloAltoOnline.com.

know about ourselves may be tiny now, but it’s a start.” In his speech “Lessons from Gatsby,” Justin Zhang spoke of arriving and adjusting to Palo Alto seven years ago after having lived in Oakland, New Jersey and China. “If there’s one lesson I took from Kirk Hinton’s American Classics course it’s that Jay Gatsby died because he tried to live in the past. Instead we must live in the future,” Zhang said. “Let us fear not the change that will come with the new day but instead seize the opportunity and add a new twist to our own personal stories. “Tonight all of us will be writing the final pages of Chapter 1, our childhood. Let us cheer for the end of our beginning.” Music was provided by the Paly Band, as well as separate singing performances by graduating senior Julian Hornik and the trio of Hel-

Veronica Weber

Paly

Veronica Weber

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Veronica Weber

en Cane, Yoko Kanai and Annie Vainshtein. Faculty members presented the Viking Award for exemplary students to graduates Jessica Tam and Ethan Cohen. Paly Principal Phil Winston recognized teacher Ron Williamson, who is retiring after more than 20 years at the school. Diplomas were presented by Palo Alto school board members Melissa Baten Caswell and Camille Townsend as well as by Superintendent Kevin Skelly and district business officer Cathy Mak. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com. Above: Sierra Parker pumps her arms in the air, celebrating receiving her diploma during Palo Alto High School commencement ceremony. Left: Palo Alto High School graduates Emma Beckstrom, center, and Olivia Maggi point to friends in the crowd during Wednesday’s graduation ceremony.

Upfront

REAL ESTATE TRENDS by Samia Cullen

COMMUNITY

Popular crossing guard ‘Charles on Charleston’ retiring Community reaches out to say thanks to man who left a strong impression on those he’s met by Rye Druzin

In today’s market buyers who are planning to write an offer on a property in a multiple offer situation have difﬁcult decisions to make. In order to be competitive they must write their offers without contingencies. Otherwise, they have a greatly reduced chance of getting the house they want. The appraisal contingency is one of the contingencies that sellers do not want to see in the offer. Prices are on the rise in many areas but appraisals don’t always immediately catch up to these sudden increases, despite efforts by agents to keep appraisers informed of the latest sales. If a property appraises for less than the offered price, the buyer will be forced to come up with extra cash for a larger down payment or risk breaching the contract. In response to rapidly increasing prices, the California Association of REALTORS® created a form called

“Market Conditions Advisory” that is usually part of our local disclosure package. Buyers have to read, acknowledge and sign-off on all the documents in the package. The form includes a statement that the purchase price offered by a buyer is his decision, not the real estate agent’s. It also states that making an offer without contingencies — such as the appraisal contingency — is not recommended by the real estate broker. Buyers should discuss this disclosure and waiver of the appraisal contingency with their agent. Using recent market sales data, buyers and their agent should try to estimate a likely range of appraised values for the property, so that the buyers can determine whether they have the ﬁnancial ﬂexibility to close the transaction if the property appraises for less than the offered price.

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 real estate news, follow my blog at www.samiacullen.com Katie Brigham

e greets everyone, no matter their age, their mode of transportation or their occupation. To many with whom he interacts, he is known as Charles, or as he has self-coined, “Charles on Charleston.” Charles Gater is one of the 28 crossing guards employed by the Palo Alto Police Department to patrol intersections at the beginning and end of each school day. “I believe in giving the kids something positive, try to brighten their day up because, to me, going to school in a positive frame of mind, you learn more, you get more out of it,” Gater said. Gater is a Cleveland, Ohio, native who has lived in the Bay Area for 30 years. He has worked primarily as a custodian in local school districts, but most recently, he spent two years as the crossing guard at the intersection of Nelson Drive and East Charleston Road. He served students from nearby Herbert Hoover Elementary and Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle schools. “I was working at Foothill College, and I retired as a custodian. And I didn’t have enough to do, so I decided I’d do this for a little bit, just to get out the house,” Gater said. Being a crossing guard “gave me the chance to ... interact with the kids. ... I just take to them.” Despite his short tenure as a guard, Gater has left his mark. He greets every person who walks across his intersection, high-fiving the students and asking them how they’re doing. Gater knows many

Risks of Waiving the Appraisal Contingency

Charles Gater, aka “Charles on Charleston,” worked his final day as a crossing guard near Hoover Elementary School on May 30.

Inspirations

a guide to the spiritual community

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UCC of the students and their parents by name. “He’s just the sweetest guy, a jolly good guy,” said Lynn Grant, a parent. Grant created retirement posters for students to sign in honor of Gater. Gater said he enjoys his interactions with students because they’re so personal and engaging. “It’s not the money. Here it’s about people, you know, and what can I give back to the people to make them feel better every day,” Gater said. “That to me is very important.” Gater is moving to Atlanta, Ga.,

with his wife at the end of the year for financial reasons and to be closer to family. But he still holds a special place in his heart for the kids he has looked after and gotten to know these last few years. “I love these kids, I really do. I really got attached to them,” Gater said. “They say I’m good for them, but they’re also good for me because it’s therapeutic for me. It gives me a chance to do what I do naturally, to be around people and talk. That’s what I like to do.” N Editorial Intern Rye Druzin can be emailed at rdruzin@paweekly. com.

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This Sunday:

Actions, Not Words

Rev. Daniel Ross-Jones, preaching An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ

ST. ANN ANGLICAN CHAPEL A TRADITIONAL E PISCOPAL

CHURCH

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ENVIRONMENT

Palo Alto to host Citywide Yard Sale June 8 Online, interactive map to guide shoppers to 320 residents’ sales

he number of Palo Alto retailers is expected to spike on Saturday, June 8, as more than 320 residents host garage sales as part of the Citywide Yard Sale. A 1930s Wedgewood stove, numerous guitars, hamster habitats and at least one chainsaw are all in the offering, according to the city. The biennial sale, which was launched in the 1990s, has become a bargain hunter’s staple, drawing buyers from as far away as Modesto and Gilroy, according to Wendy Hediger, the city’s Zero Waste program coordinator. In years past, some sales have drawn 250 shoppers, she said. This year, with expanded advertising, she anticipates even more buyers. But beyond giving people a chance to find bargains and earn some cash, the city’s purpose is to help residents reduce waste, con-

serve resources and reduce the city’s carbon footprint. “By coordinating residents’ yard sales, we hope to encourage the Bay Area community to keep useful items out of the landfill,” Hediger stated in a press release. Making second-hand items available also diverts people from buying brand-new items, which require energy to manufacture and transport. It even beats recycling. “Reuse is much better than recycling,” Hediger stated. “Reusing functional items is good for us, our community and the environment.” This year, smartphone and tablet users can navigate the yard sales using an online, interactive map. The map, at www.PaloAltoOnline. com/yardsale, lists each yard-sale address, the nearest cross street and the items being offered. Using geolocation, the map can

show the phone or tablet user where the nearest sales are as the shopper travels around the city. “We hope the new map will make it easier for you,” Hediger said. For those who prefer paper, a pullout map and list of sales items will be printed in the Palo Alto Weekly next Friday, June 7. The sale will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. At this point, Hediger said her only concern about the Citywide Yard Sale is the weather. While early June usually boasts sunny skies, a few years ago, there was a hail storm on sale day. She’s hoping for seasonally normal weather June 8. N The yard sale map is posted at www.PaloAltoOnline.com /yardsale. The Weekly is co-sponsoring the sale. — Jocelyn Dong

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

Give blood for life! b l o o d c e n t e r. s t a n f o r d . e d u ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊ >ÞÊÎ£]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 9

Learn the Guitar this Summer

Upfront

Carol McComb’s “Starting to Play” workshop includes the FREE use of a Loaner Guitar for the duration of the classes.* Regular cost is just $160 for nine weeks of group lessons, and all music is included.

CITY HALL

Budget shows Palo Alto turning the corner

*“Starting to Play” meets for one hour each Monday night for nine weeks beginning June 17. Students are encouraged to bring their own guitar, but both nylon-string and steel-string loaner guitars are available. Other classes at more advanced levels are also offered. A full brochure is available at Gryphon.

Ten ways the city may change in 2014 by Gennady Sheyner Stringed Instruments Since 1969

650 U493 U2131 ,AMBERT !VENUE s 0ALO !LTO www.gryphonstrings.com

You’ve made your house a home.

So who says you have to leave it just because you’ve gotten older? Avenidas Village can help you stay in the home you love. Attend a free open house on Thursday, June 27 at 2 pm. RSVP to (650) 289-5405 www.avenidasvillage.org

Your life, your way, in your home

CAREER DEVELOPMENT FAIR SATURDAY JUNE 29 10 AM – 3 PM

SPEAKERS | PANEL | RESOURCES FREE & OPEN TO ALL! MORE INFO: 650 | 473-0664

june FOR THIShighlights MONTH: – Movie Night: “Makers: Women Who Make America” – Assertive Woman Workshop – “The Gifts of Imperfection”– an Eight Week Workshop based on the work of Brene Brown – Women’s Support Group – Uncover Your Calling For further details, visit our website: deborahspalm.org 555 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto 650 /473-0664

debor ah’s palm Page 10ÊUÊ >ÞÊÎ£]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

ver since the world economy tanked in late 2008, budget season has been the dreariest of times in Palo Alto. Gaping deficits prompted the city to slash employee benefits; freeze policeofficer positions; outsource some functions, such as printing and golfcourse maintenance; and nearly outsource animal services before relenting in the 11th hour after intense community opposition. Then, something changed. Business picked up, vacancies disappeared and property taxes returned to the pre-crash heights of 2008. In City Manager James Keene’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2014, which begins July 1, the Great Recession is a faded memory. According to the document, which the City Council is set to discuss and approve on June 3, just about every major revenue source has rebounded in a big way since the distant days of 2009. Sales-tax revenues grew from $18 million in 2010 to $23 million in 2013, spurred by strong performance by the city’s restaurants and electronics and apparel shops. Hotel-tax revenues — $7 million in 2010 — are projected to reach $10.4 million in 2013. Property taxes were $25.7 million in 2011 but are expected to total $27.9 million in 2013 and $29.1 million in 2014. In fiscal year 2014, the city’s revenues are projected to rise by 5 percent, or $7.6 million. Keene’s budget, for the first time since he was hired in 2008, proposes a host of infrastructure improvements, “unfrozen” positions and no service cuts. The General Fund, which pays for most basic services (not including utilities), would rise to $159.8 million, up 4.6 percent or $7 million from 2013. Managers throughout City Hall are slated to have their salaries readjusted to match the median compensation of their peers in other cities. Motorcycle-riding traffic cops will once again patrol city streets. The Palo Alto Airport, operated until now by Santa Clara County, will now be run by Palo Alto. And spending on bike projects and street repairs will get a significant bump, belatedly underscoring the city’s proclamation of 2011 as “Year of the Bicycle” and of 2012 as “Year of Infrastructure.” There are some clouds on the horizon. Water rates, for example, are set to rise by 7 percent on July 1, largely to pay for water-infrastructure improvements. And the costs of pension and health care benefits continue to rise at a rate far faster than revenues, a trend that the budget says is simply “unsustainable.” Still, if Keene’s proposed budget is any indication, most of the changes that Palo Alto will see in the next year or two will involve additions rather than subtractions. Here are some highlights:

Veronica Weber

ITTING THE PEDAL — When Palo Alto approved a broad and ambitious bicycle master plan last year, members of the City Council pledged not to let this plan languish like its predecessor, its lofty visions withering in a forgotten drawer. With the new budget, the city is putting its money where its mouth is. The proposed budget allocates $1.4 million for design work on a new bike bridge that will span U.S. Highway 101 over Adobe Creek. The bridge project has already received a $4 million grant from Santa Clara County, and more grant funding may be in the pipeline. Once completed, it will give south Palo Alto residents and employees a new pathway into the Baylands and help the city overcome one of its most formidable bike challenges — a shortage of decent east-west routes. The budget also allocates $1.3 million for other projects, which include bike boulevards, bike lanes and off-road trails.

been operating the facility since 1967 and has been reluctant to make major upgrades, agreed to terminate its lease by the end of the year. It’ll probably be at least another six months before all the paperwork is approved. City Public Works Director Michael Sartor and Swanson have toured the facility to inspect its condition and discussed the needed improvements with the Federal Aviation Administration, which provides grants for airport fixes. Sartor told the City Council Finance Committee on May 16 that he is confident the airport could be a profitable operation. A 2011 analysis by Ralph Wiedemann and Associates showed that the airport could have generated up to $16.4 million in profits by 2037 if the city were to take it over by July 2012. That deadline has come and gone, but the city’s optimism remains. Sartor said analysis “clearly shows that the airport can be a very major, functional, revenue-generating operation, and that’s where we’re heading.”

Don Feria

Veronica Weber

AKEOFFS AND LANDINGS — In April, Palo Alto signaled its intent to go fullspeed ahead with the takeover of its namesake airport when it landed Andrew Swanson as the city’s airport manager, a new position. Now comes the hard work of getting Swanson an airport to manage. The new budget proposes a loan of $325,000 from the city’s General Fund (which pays for most services not relating to utilities) to the new Airport Fund, to get the process off the ground. Santa Clara County, which has

IRDIES IN THE BAY — Palo Alto’s effort to inject a “Wow!” factor into its functional but unspectacular municipal golf course can be traced, in many ways, to the early morning of Feb. 3, 1998, when a violent storm caused the San Francisquito Creek to spill over local bridges, submerging entire sections of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Fifteen years later, help is on the way as the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority prepares to break ground on a flood-control plan that will widen a channel and rebuild levees in the Baylands, including a levee that would infringe on Palo Alto’s golf course. The agency’s plan would have required the city to relocate six to seven of the course’s holes. Instead, the City Council decided to use the flood-control project as an opportunity to completely overhaul the 18-hole course and to imbue it with natural plants, muted colors and other design elements aiming to emphasize its

Upfront PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL

Baylands location. According to the 2014 budget, the $8 million project aims to “reinvent the golf course in order to attract new users and increase revenue.” It helps that the creek authority will chip in about $3 million. The balance will be financed through bonds that will be repaid from golf revenues. To sweeten the deal even further, the golf course’s redesign will also create space for three athletic fields, addressing what the budget calls “a chronic shortage of fields in the city.”

Veronica Weber

the once-mighty seven-member traffic-enforcement team was winnowed down to two officers and ultimately disbanded. Now that the city’s revenues have recovered, the traffic team is making a comeback. Among the most dramatic budget changes in the new fiscal year is the “unfreezing” of seven positions in the Police Department, which has suffered more than its fair share of staff cuts during the recent period of austerity. The department will start with a three-person team, police Capt. Ron Watson told the Finance Committee on May 16, and possibly expand in the future. Palo Alto officers may also play a greater role inside the schools in the coming year. One budget recommendation is reinstating a schoolresource officer position that was slashed in 2009, leaving one. If the Palo Alto Unified School District agrees to split with the city the cost of the $165,000 position, both Palo Alto and Gunn high schools will have a dedicated officer charged with forging stronger connections between the department and the school community.

Veronica Weber

AKING IT TO THE STREETS — Palo Alto’s war on potholes began three years ago, when the city upped its annual street-paving budget from $1.9 million in fiscal year 2010 to $3.7 million in 2011 and 2012. This year, with a $900,000 grant, the city poured $4.6 million into street maintenance. And in 2014, the total is slated to rise to $5.7 million. Councilman Pat Burt, who chairs the Finance Committee, said at a May 16 budget hearing that he often finds himself at a newly paved street, makes a turn and finds another newly paved street and then makes another turn and finds more fresh paving. He lamented the fact that this accomplishment has largely gone unnoticed in the greater community. “The mindset of the community is that we still have lousy streets,” Burt said. “We’re right in the middle of pretty good progress on changing that.” The new budget reflects the city’s goal of raising its average Pavement Condition Index score to 85 (considered “very good”) within 10 years, with no street having a PCI score less than 60. Some progress has already been made. In 2012, after Palo Alto repaved 22 miles of streets, its average score went up from 74 to 77.

Veronica Weber

HE SIREN SONG — Motorcycle cops were once a regular, traffic-calming presence near Palo Alto schools. Then the Great Recession happened and

cil’s newly appointed Technology Committee on May 14. “I think that changed a lot from last year.” Recent examples of citywide fiber networks, from Provo, Utah, to Chattanooga, Tenn., are another motivating force, belying Palo Alto’s claim to be on the cutting edge of all things technological. Even if “fiber to the premise” doesn’t happen this year, the city’s dark-fiber ring is hardly staying dormant. The city is now in the midst of expanding the ring to all 18 school facilities and to other locations that would allow new service connections.

HROUGH THE WIRE — Palo Alto’s ultra-slow journey toward ultra-high-speed Internet could finally accelerate this year, not that local technologists are holding their breaths. The city has been exploring ways to bring high-speed Internet to every local residence since the late 1990s, when Palo Alto installed its underground fiber ring. But the grand, citywide project, known as “Fiber to the Premise,” has been thwarted time and time again, a victim of economic uncertainties and the council’s resistance to financial risk. Now, the situation is changing. The city’s fiber reserve, which collects revenues from about 80 subscribers, now stands at almost $15 million and is expected to roughly double by 2018. The council’s attitude has also changed. Mayor Greg Scharff and Vice Mayor Nancy Shepherd have both expressed enthusiasm for rebooting the fiber project this year. The rest of the City Council is also on board, as evidenced by its choosing “Technology and the Connected City” as one of its three official priorities for 2013. The Utilities Advisory Commission, which voted 4-3 last summer to abort the city’s fiber-expansion plan, is also back on board. “We didn’t feel like we had a strong indication from the City Council where to take this,” Commission Chair James Cook told the coun-

ATER WOES — For Palo Alto’s water customers, the price of drinking some of the cleanest water in the region is about to get steeper yet again. The city is one of 27 agencies that get water from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which is in the midst of a $4 billion renovation of the Hetch Hetchy water system. The comprehensive, multi-year project means higher water rates for all member cities. At the same time, Palo Alto is pursuing its own capital improvements, including an underground reservoir in El Camino Park. All of this means a 7 percent hike in the city’s residential water rates, which are already among the highest in the region. The change, which will take effect on July 1, will add about $5.19 to the average monthly residential bill, according to Utilities Department officials. But it’s not all bad news for Palo Alto’s utilities customers. While water rates may climb, gas and electric rates will both remain stable at least until July 2014.

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

(TENTATIVE) AGENDA – SPECIAL MEETING COUNCIL CHAMBERS June 3, 2013 - 5:00 PM ACTION ITEMS 1. Consideration of Concept Plan Process for Arts and Innovation District (27 University Avenue) SPECIAL ORDERS 2. Presentation by Jason Golbus on his visit to Tsuchiura, Japan, and representation of Palo Alto in the Kasumigaura Marathon 3. Selection to Interview Architectural Review Board for One Unexpired Term Ending on September 30, 2015 (resignation of Alizadeh) 4. Selection to Interview Planning and Transportation Commission for Two Terms Ending on July 31, 2017 (Alcheck and Martinez) 5. Selection to Interview Utilities Advisory Commission for Two Terms Ending on July 30, 2016 (Cook and Hall) CONSENT 6. Recommendation that the City Council Approve a Memorandum of Understanding with the Santa Clara Valley Water District for the Administration and Funding of Water Conservation Programs 7. Adoption of a Resolution Approving a Professional Services Agreement between the Northern California Power Agency and the Cities of Alameda, Palo Alto and Santa Clara for Electric Transmission, Generation and Regulatory Consulting Services 8. Approval of a Five-year Contract with G&K Services for Rental/ Laundry of Work Uniforms for Various City Departments at a Cost Not to Exceed $140,000 per Year of $700,000 for the Five-year Term 9. Approval of Contract Amendment One to Contract S13149314 with TruePoint Solutions in the Amount of $72,800 to Provide Deployment Support for Accela Mobile Applications 10. Adoption of Resolution Determining the Proposed Calculation of the Appropriations Limit for Fiscal Year 2014 11. 260 California Avenue Appeal of Directors Architectural Approval 12. Adoption of a Budget Amendment Ordinance in the Amount of $167,000 to CIP Project PE-12011, Newell Road/San Francisquito Creek Bridge Project to begin an EIR process evaluating project alternatives, Approval of Contract Amendment No. One to Contract No. C12142825 in the Amount of $167,000 with NV5, Inc. for a Trafﬁc Study and Alternatives Analysis for the Newell Road/San Francisquito Creek Bridge Project, Capital Improvement Program Project PE-12011, and Approval of Amendment No. One to the Cost Share Agreement with the Santa Clara Valley Water District Providing for Contribution of Local Matching Funds for the Newell Road/San Francisquito Creek Bridge Project 13. Annual Adoption of the City’s Investment Policy 14. Adoption of a Resolution Approving Fiber Optic Utility Rate Adjustments Effective July 1, 2013 15. Designation of Voting Delegate for the League of California Cities Annual 2013 Conference ACTION ITEMS 16. Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Adoption 17. Public Hearing: Approval of a Site and Design and Rezone of a Comp. Plan Designation for the Ronald McDonald House Expansion located at 50 El Camino Real. (Will include a PTC Recommendation on the ad) Quasi-Judicial 18. Policy and Services Recommendation regarding Charter Amendment Annual Reorganization 19. Colleagues Memo from Council Members Kniss, Price, and Vice Mayor Shepherd regarding Charter Amendment for Council Terms and Seats and other related items

(TENTATIVE) AGENDA–SPECIAL MEETING COUNCIL CONFERENCE ROOM June 4, 2013 - 4:00 PM 1.

RAND PLANS — From downtown parking to climate protection, Palo Alto planners will be a busy bunch in the next fiscal year. The city has an ambitious list of strategic vision documents in

Board and Commission Interviews- Historic Resources Board, Human Relations Commission, Library Advisory Commission, Public Art Commission CLOSED SESSION – at 7:00 P.M. in Council Chambers 2. Mitchell Park Library 3. Cubberley Community Center

STANDING COMMITTEE MEETINGS The Infrastructure Committee will be meeting on Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 5:00 P.M. to discuss; 1) Review Baseline Survey Results and Make Recommendations to the City Council on Next Steps in Considering an Infrastructure Finance Measure

(continued on page 15)

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Upfront

30%

OFF ONE ITEM*

CityView A round-up of

Palo Alto government action this week

City Council The council did not meet this week.

Board of Education (May 28)

E X T R AVA G A N Z A

Academic calendar: Board members asked for more survey data and analysis on community reactions to changes in the district calendar, which moved the schoolstart date to mid-August in order to squeeze in the whole first semester before the December holidays. This fall, the board will decide on academic calendars for 201415 and beyond. Action: None Cubberley: Board members indicated they support renewal of the city’s lease of the old Cubberley High School site when it expires next year and said they would work with the city on a joint vision for Cubberley’s future. Action: None New school: Board members indicated they would support a superintendent’s recommendation to postpone for one year a decision on location of a prospective new elementary school in Palo Alto. Action: None

Parks and Recreation Commission (May 28) UArt Palo Alto

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Smoking: The commission voted 5-0 to ban smoking at open-space preserves. The commission also voted 3-2 to create designated smoking areas in Rinconada, Mitchell and Greer parks. Yes: Hetterly, Markevitch, Reckdahl No: Crommie, Knopper Absent: Ashlund, Lauing

Planning and Transportation Commission (May 29)

395 Page Mill Road: The commission voted to initiate the “planned community” zoning process for 395 Page Mill Road, which would include 311,000 square feet of office space and a public-safety building at 3045 Park Blvd. Yes: Alcheck, Keller, King, Martinez, Panelli, Tanaka Absent: Michael

LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com

Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to consider direction on a communityengagement process for refining the concept plan for an “Arts and Innovation District” at 27 University Ave. The council also plans to adopt the fiscal year 2014 budget, consider a zone change to enable the expansion of Ronald McDonald House at 50 El Camino Real; and consider a colleagues memo from Vice Mayor Nancy Shepherd and Councilwomen Liz Kniss and Gail Price regarding reducing the size of the City Council and increasing the number of terms a council member can serve from two to three. The discussion of 27 University Ave. will begin at 5 p.m. on Monday, June 3, with the rest of the meeting scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

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CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to interview candidates for the Historic Resources Board and the Public Art, Human Relations and Library Advisory commissions. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

Dermatologists from Stanford Hospital & Clinics will be on hand to check for unusual moles or irregular blemishes that could signify the onset of skin cancer. If you have any of the following risk factors, this free screening is for you: Fair skin and excessive exposure to the sun t Many moles or atypical moles t A parent or sibling who has had skin cancer t

Saturday, June 1, 2013 8:00am – 11:30am

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HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD ... The board plans to discuss exterior modifications proposed for 456 University Ave.; consider a request for restoration of 505 Embarcadero Road; and discuss a “master sign program” for Edgewood Plaza, 2080 Channing Ave. The meeting will begin at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 5, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD ... The board plans to discuss 490 San Antonio Road, a proposal by Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School for a new gym and classroom building to replace existing two-story buildings; consider the streetscape improvements proposed for California Avenue; discuss proposed exterior modifications to 456 University Ave.; review a plan for a proposed four-story building at 240 Hamilton Ave.; and discuss 2500 El Camino Real, a request by Stanford Real Estate for a new fourstory, mixed-use building. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 6, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

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CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to meet in a closed session to discuss potential litigation involving the construction of Mitchell Park Library and Community Center. The council will also discuss real property negotiations with the Palo Alto Unified School District regarding Cubberley Community Center, 4000 Middlefield Road. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

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COUNCIL INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to review baseline survey results and make recommendations to the council for next steps in considering an infrastructure ballot measure. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 6, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

Upfront

G U I D E TO 2013 S U M M E R C A M P S F O R K I D S

News Digest

For more information about these camps, see our online directory of camps at http://paloaltoonline.com/biz/summercamps/To advertise in a weekly directory, contact 650-326-8210

City looks to redesign â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;criticalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; downtown site When billionaire developer John Arrillaga proposed last year to build a complex of high-rises and a theater near Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s downtown Caltrain station, his vision didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly wow the community. Residents complained about the height of the proposed office buildings, the traffic problems that would ensue and a lack of transparency in the planning process. The City Council considered sending Arrillagaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal to the ballot box but scrapped that plan in December after getting an earful of criticism. Instead, the council directed staff to return with several alternatives for 27 University Ave., which is both a doorstep to Caltrainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second-busiest station and a gateway between downtown Palo Alto and Stanford University. This week, planning for the area took another turn when the city planners released a proposal that would allow the community to offer its own vision for the site. Under a proposal that the council is scheduled to consider Monday night, the city would launch outreach involving community meetings, a process that would culminate in an official city vision for the site. The proposal by staff represents a significant slowing down of a planning process that many in the community had criticized last year for moving far too fast and for taking place largely behind the scenes. A report released by the Planning and Transportation Department on Wednesday afternoon outlines three different options for a community-led process. The one it recommends would include two or three community meetings, with each meeting focusing on a particular aspect of the redevelopment, such as architecture, site design and building heights. The city estimates that the process will take between six to eight months and cost between $100,000 and $150,000. N â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gennady Sheyner

Jay Paul Co. project wins first zoning battle In a city teeming with major development applications, few fuel hopes and raise anxieties like Jay Paul Co.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grand plan for 395 Page Mill Road. The project, which the San Francisco-based developer pitched last year, is still in the early stages of Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s review process. It would bring 311,000 square feet of office space to a commercial site that currently houses AOLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Silicon Valley headquarters and that is already built out to the maximum of the zoning limit. In exchange for approval, Jay Paul is proposing to deliver to Palo Alto a prize that has been eluding and frustrating city officials for well over a decade â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a new public-safety building. The project is still at least a year away from potentially getting the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final approval, but it scored a major victory on Wednesday night when the Planning and Transportation Commission voted 6-0 to initiate a zone change that would make the project possible. Staff and planning commissioners praised Jay Paul for offering to spend $49.3 million on the new police building. Commissioner Alex Panelli voted along with his colleagues but expressed concerns about the already high level of traffic in the area. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re offering a substantial public benefit. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m well aware of the value,â&#x20AC;? Panelli told a Jay Paul representative. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m concerned about is this project could introduce â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in exchange for a one-time upfront benefit that has value for many years â&#x20AC;&#x201D; weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have years and years and years of ongoing downside because of the potential traffic and parking problems.â&#x20AC;? His colleagues were equally ambivalent about the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ultimate viability, though they all agreed that the opportunity deserves further study. Commissioner Michael Alcheck said he was â&#x20AC;&#x153;excitedâ&#x20AC;? about the police building and wondered aloud whether the city is â&#x20AC;&#x153;getting away with murder or notâ&#x20AC;? in the deal being offered by Jay Paul. He said he looks forward to seeing how the process unfolds. N â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gennady Sheyner

Some Palo Alto parks may get â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;smoking havensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Two weeks after the passage of Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s landmark law to ban smoking at all local parks, the Parks and Recreation Commission recommended the city allow designated smoking areas in three of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest parks, ban smoking in its open-space areas and allow smoking at the municipal golf course. The commission voted unanimously for the open-space smoking ban but decided not to significantly change smoking regulations at the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course on Embarcadero Road. When it came to designated smoking areas in city parks, however, the commission was divided. It voted 3-2, with commissioners Abbie Knopper and Diedre Crommie dissenting and commissioners Stacey Ashlund and Ed Lauing absent, to recommend smoking areas only in Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s three largest parks â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Rinconada, Mitchell and Greer. The decisions went against city staffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recommendation not to allow smoking areas in city parks. Staff had said that smoking sections would would be challenging to enforce, costly to implement and not encourage healthy behaviors. A complete smoking ban would also result in cleaner air, reduced fire hazard and fewer cigarette butts ingested by wildlife, Greg Betts, director of community services, said. N â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Eric Van Susteren

Academics

Athletics

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Shop the Palo Alto Citywide Yard Sale Saturday, June 8 from 8 a.m. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 p.m. A full-page ad with sale locations and merchandise will be available in the June 7, 2013 edition of the Palo Alto Weekly. Maps and sale listings will also be available online in late May at www.PaloAltoOnline.com/yardsale For more information about the Yard Sale www.PaloAltoOnline.com/yardsale zerowaste@cityofpaloalto.org (650) 496-5910

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2013 Get your thumbs up and hashtags ready for the 2013 edition of Best Of Palo Alto

Deadline to vote: July 7 Restaurants

Best Ambiance Best Bar/Lounge Best California Cuisine Best Chinese Restaurant Best Coffee House Best Dining With Kids Best French Restaurant Best Fusion Restaurant Best Indian Restaurant Best Italian Restaurant Best Latin American Cuisine Best Meal Under $20 Best Mediterranean Restaurant Best Mexican Restaurant Best New Restaurant Best Outdoor Dining Best Restaurant to Splurge

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scan the code to vote Best Gym Best Hair Salon Best Hotel Best Manicure/Pedicure Best Massage Best Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Haircut Best New Service Business Best Orthodontist Best Personal Trainer Best Plumber Best Senior Care Facility Best Shoe Repair Best Skin Care Best Travel Agency Best Value Hotel/Motel Best Veterinarian Best Yoga

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the pipeline, including a community â&#x20AC;&#x153;visionâ&#x20AC;? to determine the future of 27 University Ave. The downtown site, which currently hosts the MacArthur Park restaurant, is being eyed by developer John Arrillaga as a potential site for an office and theater complex. The budget allocates $250,000 in city funds for the process of planning for 27 University, and another $250,000 for separate studies evaluating downtownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential for new development and feasible locations for new parking structures. In addition to these specific studies, planners are still plowing ahead with revisions to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Comprehensive Plan, a document that supposedly guides the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s land decisions and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s every bit as complex as the name implies. The budget earmarks $105,000 to complete the revisions and another $50,000 to update the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Climate Protection plan.

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ANAGEMENT SHUFFLE â&#x20AC;&#x201D; This year, City Hallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s managers will see some changes, both in personnel and in compensation. City Manager James Keene has recently added a few high-level positions to the City Hall organization, hiring the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first airport manager, Andrew Swanson, and tapping former California State University executive Claudia Keith to serve as the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new chief communications officer. The city is also in the final stages of hiring its first â&#x20AC;&#x153;chief sustainability officerâ&#x20AC;? who will coordinate the carbon-reduction efforts of all departments. The city is also taking a closer look at managersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; salaries this year and adjusting them to match those in other cities. The realignment, which has been years in the making, will result in a pay bump for those whose pay currently falls below the median level in surveyed jurisdictions. (continued on page 17)

Upfront EDUCATION

District to offer refunds Summer school will go on as planned, but school district must change policy due to new law by Chris Kenrick he Palo Alto school district will offer refunds to families who have paid fees for the district’s 2013 summer-school program after getting legal advice that such fees are prohibited. Superintendent Kevin Skelly said Thursday the district’s 2013 summer-school program will go forward as planned, but that he will notify enrolled families within the next few days of its offer to refund the fees — some of which run as high as $475 — in light of recent legislation and court decisions. Without the ability to charge fees, the district and its Board of Education will need to reassess the future of summer school in Palo Alto, he said. New legal advice on fees was sent to school districts in an April 24 memo from the California Department of Education. A 2010 lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union challenged fees for summer school, sports uniforms, field trips and other education-related items, saying they “blatantly violate the free school guarantee by requiring students to pay fees and purchase assigned materials for credit courses.” In 1984, the California Supreme Court ruled: “Access to public education is a right enjoyed by all — not a commodity for sale. Educational opportunities must be provided to all students without regard to their families’ ability or willingness to pay fees.” The April 24 “fiscal management advisory” warns against “a tuition fee or charge as a condition of enrollment in any class or course of instruction, including a fee for attendance in a summer or vacation school, a registration fee, a fee for a catalog of courses, a fee for an examination in a subject, a late registration or program change fee, a fee for the issuance of a diploma or certificate or a charge for lodging.” In 2013 summer-school brochures published earlier that month, the Palo Alto school district had posted a $475 fee for a three-and-a-half-week Elementary Summer School at Nixon and Ohlone schools and tuition of $235 or $470 for a Middle School Summer Enrichment Program depending on whether a student enrolled in one or two courses. The district did not charge for high school classes in English, math, history or science but did charge for “enrichment” classes such a SAT prep and college-application essay writing. In addition to waiving fees for

(continued on page 17)

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Upfront

Budget

Online This Week

(continued from page 15)

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.

Community leaders to compete in spelling bee A ticket to the Reading Partners Silicon Valley Celebrity Spelling Bee will give the public a chance to watch local figures like retired San Francisco 49er Harris Barton and LinkedIn CFO Steve Sordello battle each other to be the literacy champion. (Posted May 30, 10:35 a.m.)

Palo Alto to weigh smaller City Council When the Palo Alto City Council meets for its regular meeting on Monday night, it will find itself grappling with a question with existential overtones: Is a nine-member council really necessary? (Posted Veronica Weber

HE NEXT CHAPTER — For Palo Alto libraries, what was supposed to be a “Golden Age” lost some of its sheen. Construction of the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center, which was originally slated to be completed last year, has fallen way behind and is now scheduled to conclude at the end of this year. With change orders mounting and the price tag rising, the city and its contractors are bracing for a legal battle to determine who screwed up what. At the same time, the city has closed Main Library for expansion and renovation (temporary libraries are at Cubberley Community Center and the Palo Alto Art Center). But if all goes as planned, the city’s bookworms will have plenty of celebrating to do in fiscal year 2014. Of the three major projects that Palo Alto voters approved when they passed a $76 million bond in 2008, the first — Downtown Library — was renovated on time and below budget, reopening in the summer of 2011. Mitchell Park will have been completed this year, and Main will be in the works. Meanwhile, even though the Mitchell Park costs continue to rise, the city is saving some money — $151,713 in salaries — by decreasing its library operations during the construction. N Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

Summer

(continued from page 16)

students who qualify for the federal free-and-reduced-price lunch program, Skelly said the district has had a “no questions asked” policy on summer-school scholarships. But with the new legal advice Skelly said: “We think we’ve got an issue here. “We believe offering summer school is something that’s valuable to our community, that people want to learn and that it’s really important for our goal in terms of getting kids well-educated. “But based on our conversations with legal advisers, we’re going to have to change our policy here,” he said. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

May 30, 12:15 a.m.)

Tunein Inc. raises $25 million TuneIn Inc., a Palo Alto-based online radio company, announced on Wednesday it had raised $25 million, drawing funds from International Venture Partners, Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst Partners. (Posted May 29, 2:23 p.m.)

VA aims to curb deaths from sepsis A blue bus parked outside the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Miranda Avenue has been the center of a statewide program that aims to change the way hospitals approach treatment of sepsis. (Posted May 29, 10:30 a.m.)

School board wants to renew Cubberley lease Palo Alto school board members Tuesday indicated they want to begin discussions with the City of Palo Alto on renewal of the city’s lease of Cubberley Community Center, which expires in 2014. (Posted May 29, 9:53 a.m.)

Attorneys challenge Buena Vista report Residents who would be displaced by the conversion of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park into a complex of high-end apartments should receive a far greater compensation than what is being proposed by the project’s developer, attorneys for the tenants allege in a letter to the city. (Posted May 29, 9:49 a.m.)

Driver files suit against parents over child’s death An East Palo Alto driver who fatally hit a second-grader in 2011 filed a counter-lawsuit against the child’s parents on May 6, according to papers in San Mateo County Superior Court. (Posted May 28, 10:30 p.m.)

Pressure cooker causes scare at shopping center Police evacuated nearby residents and businesses after a pressure cooker was spotted in bushes outside a building at San Antonio Shopping Center Sunday evening, May 26. The evacuation was lifted at about 9 p.m. (Posted May 27, 10:43 a.m.)

Police locate missing Alzheimer’s patient Palo Alto police said they have located an 85-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia who had been missing since Saturday morning. (Posted May 25, 6:14 p.m.)

Ravenswood hires new superintendent An administrator from a Sacramento-area school district will become the new superintendent of East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District on July 1. Gloria Hernandez, assistant superintendent in the Twin Rivers Unified School district, replaces retiring Ravenswood Superintendent Maria De La Vega. (Posted May 25, 11:32 a.m.)

Fugitive escapes police manhunt in Palo Alto A man who is wanted by police for burglary escaped a manhunt in Palo Alto on Friday afternoon, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said. (Posted May 24, 8:04 p.m.)

City hopes to bring back school-resource officer With its financial picture brightening, Palo Alto is looking to bring back a school-resource officer position that was slashed several years ago as part of the City Council’s broad budget-balancing effort. (Posted May 24, 3:44 p.m.)

Stanford unveils plans for perimeter trail Stanford University officials won praise for plans to build a biking and pedestrian trail leading from El Camino Real to the Dish on Thursday night. But enthusiasm for the Stanford Perimeter Trail was tempered by a parking proposal residents and cyclists said will only increase a traffic nightmare along Stanford Avenue. (Posted May 24, 9:54 a.m.)

City of Palo Alto ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Draft Mitigated 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 30-day circulation period beginning May 31, 2013 through July 1, 2013 during the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. at the Development Center, 285 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. This item will be considered at a public hearing by the Planning and Transportation Commission, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 7:00 PM. in the Palo Alto City Council Chambers on the first floor of the Civic Center, located at 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. Written comments on the Mitigated Negative Declaration will be accepted until 5:00 PM on July 1, 2013 in the Planning and Community Environment Department Civic Center offices on the fifth floor of City Hall. 3159 El Camino Real [13PLN-000040]: Request by FGY Architects on behalf of Portage Avenue Portfolio, LLC for Site and Design Review of a new 69,503 square foot four story mixed use building with 43 residential apartment units. The proposal also includes Design Enhancement Exceptions for height, setback, and build to lines. Environmental Assessment: An initial study and a Mitigated Negative Declaration have been prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Zone District: Service Commercial (CS). *** 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.

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 circulation period beginning May 31, 2013 through June 19, 2013 during the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. at the Development Center, 285 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. This item will be considered at a public hearing by the Historic Review Board, Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 8:00 AM in the Palo Alto City Council Chambers on the first floor of the Civic Center, located at 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. Written comments on the Negative Declaration will be accepted until 5:00 PM on June 19, 2013 in the Planning and Community Environment Department Civic Center offices on the fifth floor of City Hall. 456 University Avenue [13PLN-00078]: Request by Robinson Hill Architecture on behalf of Palo Alto Theater Corporation for Architectural Review Board review of exterior modifications to the existing building, including a new storefront window system at University Avenue, new storefront openings at the rear (parking lot), and a new retractable covered canopy over the courtyard, and installation of a bar and restaurant seating in the courtyard for an eating and drinking establishment. Environmental Assessment: an Initial Study and Negative Declaration have been prepared. Zone District: Downtown Community Commercial (CD-C)(P)(GF) with Pedestrian Shopping and Ground Floor combining districts. *** 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.

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Pulse

A weekly compendium of vital statistics

POLICE CALLS Palo Alto

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May 24-29 Violence related Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Child abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Sexual assault. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Strong arm robbery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Credit card fraud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Today’s news, sports & hot picks

Theft undefined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle related Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Driving with suspended license . . . . . . .4 Lost/Stolen plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Vehicle accident/mnr. injury . . . . . . . . . .7 Vehicle accident/prop. damage . . . . . . .5 Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Possession of paraphernalia. . . . . . . . . .1 Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Animal call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Other misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Menlo Park May 23-28

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Violence related Child Abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Credit card fraud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Theft undefined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Vehicle related Driving with suspended license . . . . . . .6 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Suspicious vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Other misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Atherton May 23-28 Theft related Theft undefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle related Abandoned Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Parking/driving violation . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Suspicious vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Vehicle code violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Fire call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Juvenile problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Medical aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .3 Suspicious person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Town ordiance violation . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

VIOLENT CRIMES Palo Alto High Street, 5/2, 11:27 a.m..; sex crime/ unlawful sex intercourse.

Menlo Park 700 block Hamilton Avenue, 5/28, 15:19 a.m.; corporal injury to child.

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On the Patio Wednesday & Thursdays 4-7pm

Transitions Births, marriages and deaths

June Thompson June Thompson, a longtime Palo Alto teacher, died on May 16. She was born on Feb. 8, 1926, in St. Louis, Mo. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1947 and then moved to New York City. She earned her M.A. in Early Childhood Education from Columbia University in 1951. She first taught in Bellflower, Calif., then in Palo Alto from 1953-1970. She spent her sabbatical year in London, 1962-1963, studying at the Montessori Training Organization and the St. Nicholas Training Centre. She earned an additional Montessori diploma from the College of Notre Dame in 1966 while directing a pilot program under its auspices for children of diverse backgrounds that led to a permanent Montessori school. She then moved to Alaska to become founding director of the Fairbanks Montessori School. Two

severe injuries impelled her to return to Ohlone School in Palo Alto, where she met her lifelong partner, Bill Thompson. They were married in 1970. She was also a docent at the Stanford Museum from 1971-1975, specializing in the Rodin collection. She served as curator of the permanent art collection of the City of Palo Alto through the Cultural Center. In 1980, she decided it was time to come to terms with living in the nuclear age and embarked on research and study that continued to her death. Her first action was at Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1983, protesting the MX missile. In June of that same year, she was arrested at Livermore Lab and held for 11 days. Some of her experiences are recorded in her book, “Missouri Mandala: Observations of an AntiNuclear Activist.” She is survived by her stepchildren Christopher Thompson, his wife, Toni, and their children Xochitl Andrade, Christopher Jr., and Daniel; Cynthia Wise, her husband, Larry, and their daughter, Nicole; Scott Thompson and David Thompson.

Margaret Gilles memorial service Born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Ann and Harry Hogan, Margaret Gilles died in Palo Alto on May 28. She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul and daughter, Anne Kennelly. Margaret and Paul were longtime residents of Menlo Park,

Calif. A funeral service will be held Friday, May 31, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Denis Church, 2250 Avy Ave., Menlo Park. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital or a charity of your choice.

Visit

Lasting Memories An online directory of obituaries and remembrances. Search obituaries, submit a memorial, share a photo. Go to: www.PaloAltoOnline.com/obituaries

Tsung - Chai Koo Resident of Mountain View, Ca April 7,1926 - May 21, 2013 T. C. died unexpectedly but peacefully at Stanford Hospital on May 21, 2013. Born and raised in Shanghai, China, T.C. immigrated to the Bay Area in 1976. He is survived by his loving wife Mary of 59 years and children Agnes (George), Louis ( Angie) and grandson George. Memorial Service for T.C. Koo will be held at: St. Albert the Great Church, 1095 Channing Ave. in Palo Alto. Viewing starts at 9:30 a.m. with a Mass at 11:00 a.m. Reception to follow. Arrangements entrusted to Alta Mesa Funeral Home in Palo Alto. PA I D

O B I T UA RY

Births Valentin Gonzales and Naomi Granados, Menlo Park, May 15, a girl. Brian Gilmer and Zhanna Sardaryan, Menlo Park, May 17, a boy.

Give blood for life! b l o o d c e n t e r. s t a n f o r d . e d u

Dennis Lee McCroskey August 25, 1945 - March 28, 2013 Beloved husband, father and brother, Dennis McCroskey died at home on March 28, 2013 in Palo Alto, California after a 5-year battle with prostate cancer. Dennis faced his disease progression with stoicism and resolve and without complaint. His quiet strength and unique sense of humor delighted his family and all who knew him. We will miss him terribly. Dennis was born in New York City to the late Paul and Ingeborg McCroskey. He excelled as a student and enjoyed wrestling at school. He was also very active in his Scout troop, participating in many long weekend treks, earning the rank of Eagle Scout at the age of 15. After graduating from Pearl River High School in New York in 1963 he enrolled at Cornell University and entered ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps). He served as an officer during the Vietnam War on the USS Bugara SS-331, a diesel submarine, and deployed to the Western Pacific (WestPac) in January 1968. Upon the Bugara decommissioning, Dennis was assigned to the prestigious Navy command CINCUSNAVEUR London, England where he served over two years as a briefing officer. It was a joyous time for Dennis. He lived in South Kensington Chelsea in London with fellow officers and brought to his household Windsor, his golden retriever. It was during this time that he perfected his skiing by getting weekend passes to Switzerland, often accompanied by his faithful companion, Windsor. While in England, Dennis obtained a Master’s Degree in International Relations from USC through a correspondence program offered to him. Following his discharge from the navy and some travels around Europe in a van with Windsor, he returned to the US where he earned his MBA from the Stanford Business School in 1975. He always dreamed of being an entrepreneur and embarked on many entrepreneurial endeavors

over the years. In 1988, he married his wife, Pam, after becoming re-acquainted with her after losing touch for 13 years. They were engaged within a few weeks of reconnecting. Together Dennis and Pam raised their two children, Cory and Paulette, doting and encouraging them in everything they did. He was always cheering from the sidelines at his children’s soccer and tennis games, and enjoyed surﬁng with them. In his late 50s Dennis decided to switch from skiing to snowboarding with his kids, thoroughly enjoying himself despite the bumps and bruises. He also fancied himself as his son Cory’s tennis coach, but Cory did correct him on that one. Prior to his retirement in 2010, Dennis worked at Applied Biosystems as Web Manager of Global Finance Systems and his specialty was SAP security. Dennis was a trustworthy colleague and a diligent employee who took pride in his work during the 14 years he was employed at Applied Biosystems (later to be purchased by Life Technologies). Yet the most important achievement in Dennis’s life was having his loving family by his side. He cherished family summer vacations in Yosemite Valley, surﬁng in San Diego and snowboarding in Lake Tahoe with his family. Dennis is survived by his wife, Pam, his two children Cory and Paulette, and two sisters, Patricia (RJ) and Paulette (John) and a half brother Phil (Charlene) and half sister Sheila. Additionally he is survived by his father-in-law, Oleg Sherby, along with his three brothers-in-law Larry (Diana), Steve (Ann) and Mark (Maria) along with numerous nephews and nieces and grand nephews and grand nieces. A private memorial will be held at a later date this summer. Donations can be made to http://www. yosemiteconservancy.org/gifts-memory PA I D

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Editorial

From fast to slow on 27 University? After unsuccessfully trying the hurry-up approach, city staff reverts to the classic Palo Alto process and asks, “How slow do you want to go?”

ust last fall, John Arrillaga’s vision for building huge office towers and a theater where the MacArthur Park restaurant and the Red Cross building now stand was on an unconventional and intentional fast track. After months of behind-the-scenes staff work with Arrillaga and design consultants that cost the city a half-million dollars, the plan was to put the rough idea to a city advisory vote in March or June of this year, and then begin working on an actual project application from Arrillaga. The project was a bird-in-the-hand that could evaporate if not allowed to proceed quickly, the reasoning went. And with TheatreWorks the beneficiary of the proposed theater, its large network of supporters in the community could surely be marshaled to support the project and turn out the right voters in a low turn-out special election. It was a serious misgauging of community opinion. In December, the City Council wisely responded to public outrage over both the process and the proposal by unanimously bagging the election idea and asking staff to develop at least two alternative design concepts that would help focus a more open and transparent public process. Those concepts were to have been brought back to the council in the first few months of this year, but for unexplained reasons no work has yet been done. Instead, in a report prepared for Monday’s City Council meeting, the staff outlines three different “community engagement options” that could last from six months to five years and cost between $100,000 and $750,000, depending on which process the council selects. The staff’s preference is for a process that is essentially what the council already asked for at its December meeting: development of several alternative concepts for the site followed by a few public meetings to gain input and reaction, and then refinements based on the input. We don’t see how the other options, involving much more public process, time and money, provide enough additional benefit to warrant the investment, and we don’t understand why we are at the same point today as we were six months ago. Glaringly missing from the staff’s discussion is how Stanford should be involved as new concepts are explored. As the landowner of the entire site under discussion, Stanford has de facto veto control over what gets built, regardless of what the city may decide it wants. With the original Arrillaga proposal for 27 University, Stanford wisely and understandably stayed in the background. After all, as Stanford’s largest benefactor, Arrillaga is used to having virtual free rein on projects he is funding, and Stanford could sit back and let Arrillaga negotiate the best development he could with the city. But as alternative design concepts are explored they may not be ones that Arrillaga is willing to embrace and finance for Stanford’s benefit, and there may be concepts that have more appeal than others for the university. Palo Alto is not without great leverage, however. Under the current zoning, no new development can occur on the site, so the only way Stanford can turn that property into a productive financial asset is to work with the city toward a win-win solution. Regardless of which “community engagement process” the City Council chooses, we hope it will specifically direct the staff to include high density housing (or mixed use) and a hotel/conference center as part of the new development concepts. These will provide a needed contrast to Arrillaga’s office-building proposal. As we’ve stated previously, we also hope the alternatives will explore creating a bus transit center on Stanford land on the west side of El Camino. Moving the bus traffic and the need for parking two dozen buses from the area adjacent to the train station will solve a major pedestrian and bike safety problem and facilitate better connectivity between downtown, Stanford Shopping Center, and whatever is built at 27 University. Finally, what the city should receive as a “public benefit” for allowing any new development on the site should not assume (nor preclude) the originally proposed theater. The process should identify a range of public-benefit options that reflect compelling needs of the community, and that correlate to the value being created for Stanford in whatever development is ultimately approved. Most importantly, the work going forward must be open and transparent. Anything short of that will prolong, not shorten, reaching a positive outcome that can be embraced by the community. Page 20ÊUÊ >ÞÊÎ£]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Spectrum Editorials, letters and opinions

Have a heart Editor, I acknowledge that car sleeping can detract from the ambiance of our otherwise perfect neighborhoods, but these folks don’t have the luxury of owning or renting a dwelling. When night falls, what do you expect them to do, disappear? My father was homeless during the Great Depression. He was rousted and even beaten by police for sleeping in public places. We can do better than that here in Palo Alto. Please don’t add to the difficulties and stigma that poor people face every day. Have a heart, people. Mark Meltzer Byron Street, Palo Alto

Empathy not wrath Editor, I am appalled that some members of the Palo Alto City Council are considering banning poor people from sleeping in their own cars. We are in an economic crisis in this regressive economy. If any of you had the misfortune to lose your jobs, and then your apartment or house, can you think of where you might sleep at night? Please consider people who are less fortunate than you. Building walls, based on socio-economic and racial lines around this city, is not a solution. We can do much better. I urge the City government members and the editor of the Palo Alto Weekly to reconsider your position. If we look at the solutions that San Francisco has initiated, including acknowledging the basic right of people to have access to a place to sleep in their city, we could do likewise. This city is becoming too exclusive; we have done nothing to limit the exorbitant rent increases that have been skyrocketing out of control. The vacancy rate for low-cost housing is .0 percent. What kind of city do we want Palo Alto to become? We need more community consensus before the city takes such drastic actions. Roberta Ahlquist Webster Street, Palo Alto

Tennis, tutoring aces Editor, One of the pleasures of being employed at Stanford was watching the tennis teams, my preferred sport. Over almost 30 years, I had the pleasure of meeting many of the team members, one of whom was Jeff Arons. Unquestionably, he ranked first in my books because of his dedication to public service in East Palo Alto, through this interlocking program of tennis and tutoring. Also note-

worthy is the inspiration and sustained institutional support Jeff received through Emeritus Coach Dick Gould, whom I have had the honor of knowing since my first year at Stanford in 1968. I thank the Weekly for recognizing these gentlemen and their service. Indeed, they are two distinguished “aces.” Henry Organ Euclid Avenue, Palo Alto

‘Know Your Rights Editor, Many thanks to all of the concerned parent groups for joining “We Can Do Better Palo Alto” in sponsoring the presentation “Know Your Rights” presented by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The purpose of the May 16 gathering was twofold: to inform parents and other community members about the civil rights law relevant to bullying and harassment at school, and to inform parents about their rights (including how to file a complaint). As a member, I am proud to say that WCDBPA birthed this event.

We were able to follow through on this exceptional parent-education gathering in spite of a lastminute withdrawal of support by the district office. The sponsors had hoped to receive interest from the PTA. Their members seemed conspicuously absent. I was disappointed to see Superintendent Skelly and a board member sitting in the rear of the room. I fear that their presence may have prevented some parents from asking questions they wanted to ask. Fear of retaliation has been reported to our group and it is real. Ken Dauber, WCDBPA cofounder, served as moderator for Q&A and paid for the babysitter himself so that all parents in the community could attend. Thanks for your generosity, Ken! Thanks also to Ohlone School’s staff for hosting and setting up for the standing-room-only crowd! Thanks again to OCR, Ken Dauber, WCDBPA, PASS, SEAN and CAC! Barbara Slone Barbara Drive, Palo Alto

WHAT DO YOU THINK? The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.

Should the Palo Alto City Council shrink from nine to seven members?

Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to letters@paweekly.com. Submit guest opinions of 1,000 words to editor@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. 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 Editorial Assistant Eric Van Susteren at editor@paweekly.com or 650-326-8210.

Check out Town Square! Hundreds of local topics are being discussed by local residents on Town Square, a reader forum sponsored by the Weekly on our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Post your own comments, ask questions, read the Editor’s blog or just stay up on what people are talking about around town!

On Deadline

Facing breast cancer — even checking for it — is an act of courage by Jay Thorwaldson he recent revelations by superstar Angelina Jolie and locally famous Liz Kniss that they have had breast-cancer-related surgeries and treatment have opened up a topic that is notable for being avoided — either in conversation or internally. Kniss, a former Palo Alto mayor, longtime City Council member and former member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, disclosed her breast cancer of a year ago at a recent meeting of the nonprofit Breast Cancer Connections organization, based in Palo Alto. Jolie’s disclosure of a preventative double mastectomy after she learned she carried the so-called “breast-cancer gene” (which vastly increases the odds of getting the potentially fatal disease) has opened up a national discussion and flurry of interest. On the local level, the Weekly’s story (www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story. php?id=29744) about Kniss’ disclosure has generated a similar burst of interest on the part of many women, she reported Tuesday in a telephone interview while awaiting a flight to Kansas City for a conference on “Fiber to the Home,” the longest-running topic in Palo Alto, I believe. “I have had so many people talk to me, or want to talk to me,” Kniss said of the past few days. She is more than happy to talk about it, but has noticed an odd pattern: Most “don’t

want to talk to me about their own breast cancer,” just the topic itself. Kniss said her decision to keep quiet about her diagnosis and treatment — confiding only in her husband, Rick, and four close friends — was among the hardest decisions she has ever made. It also was multi-faceted, both a personal desire for being able to deal with the situation herself in private and because she was then a candidate for City Council. She said she didn’t desire either a sympathy vote or a concern about her being able to serve adequately due to her health. There was an initial panic about whether she would be able to see her grandchildren grow up, then hope emerged. Looking back, she acknowledges that simple embarrassment may have played a role in her decision to stay private. “Isn’t it a shame that in our culture cancer is embarrassing?” she observed — more a statement than a question. She said the diagnosis came as a complete shock to her and her physician, following a routine mammogram. But she never felt that it threatened her life, even though her sister died of the disease a decade ago — without any mammography screening, Kniss believes. She’d now like to make a difference to other women, and those close to them in families or relationships. She will help raise funds for Breast Cancer Connections and push for greater awareness of the lifesaving potential of self-exams and regular screenings. Part of that awareness is about the vast improvements that have been made in the past three or four decades in detection and treatment, Kniss said. Men also have a stronger role they could

play in encouraging spouses or partners to get checkups, even though getting one can be scary enough to merit a medal of courage. In my own case, breast cancer has hit my family hard. It claimed my mother, my oldest sister and my mother-in-law. Two nieces have fought it off, for now — one who contracted it at age 24 and has long been clear — except she recently found she carries the breastcancer gene. One of her daughters contracted the disease and handled well some uncle-ish teasing about how good she looked bald, during treatment. It’s a topic that is hard to ignore when people you deeply love are stricken, or are vulnerable to the disease. But when not directly engaged it is a topic many simply wish to ignore. I also had a personal experience that dates back about 30 years, when some profound changes were beginning to occur in the detection and treatment of breast cancer. After I left the Palo Alto Times, I was named director of community relations (later director of public affairs) at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation/ Clinic (best known as PAMF). One continuing story was how clinic physicians began carefully experimenting with, first, “outpatient medicine,” and, second, with replacing the common mastectomy with removal of the cancer itself (lumpectomy) combined with radiation treatment and chemotherapy. The physicians in a widely publicized study found that the combination had survival rates as good as full mastectomies, without some of the emotional or other side effects. Then one day in the early 1980s a representative of the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto asked if PAMF would co-sponsor a community conference on breast cancer.

Sure, I replied. What aspect? They weren’t sure, so we set up a meeting to brainstorm an approach. Earlier, one physician had advised me to avoid at all cost sponsoring anything on breast cancer “because no one will come.” They tried one the year before, he said, and there were more speakers than audience members. “What was the title?” I asked. “Breast Cancer: A Legislative Update,” he replied. Hm, I thought, doing a mental diagnosis. At the meeting except for another man who was a volunteer, I was the token male of a dozen well-educated, articulate League members. We discussed different ideas and I at one point asked if I could ask a personal question: “How many of you do regular self-exams?” Two or three raised their hands. “For the others, why not?” I asked. There was a long, uncomfortable moment, then a soft voice from the far end of the table: “It’s scary.” Yes. The title we came up with was “Breast Cancer: Fear is the Enemy.” For the conference, we produced a booklet with the same title, covering more of the emotional side effects of breast cancer that a literature search revealed was almost completely absent from informational materials. The booklet was used for years by PAMF, and even by the Stanford Hospital surgery department for breast-cancer patients until other materials were developed. I’m looking for a copy to share with Liz. N Former Weekly Editor Jay Thorwaldson can be emailed at jthorwaldson@paweekly. com with a copy to jaythor@well.com. He also writes regular blogs at www.PaloAltoOnline.com (below Town Square).

Streetwise

How should Palo Alto and the surrounding communities respond to the recent increase in gun violence in East Palo Alto? Photos and interviews by Rye Druzin. Asked in front of Mollie Stone’s Market on California Avenue, Trader Joe’s at Town & Country Village, and on California Avenue.

David Ruiz

Journalist Alma, Palo Alto “Spread awareness because I did not know of the increased violence.”

Elijah Jordan Turner

Student Stanford “I do feel like there is a responsibility of Palo Alto to help East Palo Alto. Giving money to police departments to increase patrols.”

Lorin Krogh

Retired Professorville, Palo Alto “I believe guns kill people, and that a gun ban is a beginning but not an end.”

John Suppes

Builder Palo Alto Hills, Palo Alto “Provide more community support to the youth such as extra education opportunities, and extra recreational programs for youth outreach. Short-term solution is increasing police.”

John Jones

Veterinarian Cupertino “Better police surveillance and more cruisers.”

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Arts & Entertainment 5 7 9BHIFM =B 7 @CH<

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

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Above: Ruthi Eldar’s quilt “Kibbutz” depicts colorful fields of produce and community houses. Right: Bella Kaplan’s “Shared Accommodation, A Reality That Has Passed” paints a dark picture of the shared childcare system. by Rebecca Wallace

he kibbutz movement in Israel began as a cooperative, rural dream. A century ago, pioneering Zionists began to form what they saw as true communities: sharing the farm work and the child-raising, the responsibilities and the income. The classic image of a kibbutznik depicts someone in a work shirt and a sun hat, picking fruit, cooking huge meals, teaching in the communal kindergarten. Kibbutzim flourished in the 1930s and after World War II. Today, the picture has changed. A few hundred kibbutzim still exist in Israel, but residents are just as likely to be proficient on a computer as on a tractor. Private enterprise has bloomed in the desert. Some kibbutzim have added sleek guest rooms for tourists. A traveling exhibition, newly in Palo Alto, tells the kibbutz’s story in fabric and thread. “A Century of the Kibbutz” features 21 handmade quilts by members of the nonprofit

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Left: In “Vigilant Harvest” by Yemima Lavan, kibbutzniks have plows in their hands and guns on their backs. Above: In “My Grandparents the Pioneers,” artist Michal Dvir includes photo transfers of relatives.

‘There’s something about this material. It bends. It lives. It has an effect and an energy.’ —Ronit Widmann-Levy, director of arts and culture, JCC

Israeli Quilters Association, on the walls of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center’s fitness building. In vivid color, the panels depict many facets of the last century, from the kibbutz’s early days as a walled stockade to the modern explosion of tech-fueled business. Ronit Widmann-Levy, the JCC’s director of arts and culture, says textiles are a perfect medium to tell a complex story in an accessible way. “There’s something about this material. It bends. It lives,” she said. “It has an effect and an energy.” The earliest visions of the kibbutz are illustrated in the browns and beiges of Tamar Ophir’s quilt “A View To The Past: Stockade and Watchtower.” In the early days, kibbutzim were put up in a day, with walls and a tower for security. The sky is blue and filled with fluffy clouds over Ophir’s walled but still peaceful-looking settlement. In 1938, her aunt was one of the founders of Kibbutz Eilon in the Western Galilee, Ophir wrote in an exhibit card. “They built inside the walls tents for living and without air

condition, telephone, heating, etc., but with a lot of faith and identification that they are going the right way.” Quilter Michal Dvir goes back even farther in time with “My Grandparents the Pioneers.” The white-and-blue panel mixes photo transfers of relatives with shapes in cotton, silk and synthetic fabric, giving prominent space to the artist’s grandparents, who in 1921 founded Kibbutz Ein Harod, one of the first large kibbutzim. (Today, the kibbutz’s website advertises guest suites with plasma TVs.) “I wanted to express the spirit of those times by combining the original photos with the national symbols: blue and white colors and the Jewish icon known as the star of David,” Dvir wrote in an exhibit card. “I used traditional patchwork techniques to express their ... pioneering spirit.” Over the decades, as Ein Harod and its cohort communities grew, so did the vision of the friendly, communal lifestyle therein. In Ruthi Eldar’s quilt “Kibbutz,” the hills roll

and the red house roofs are bright with color. The trees are impossibly green. This is Widmann-Levy’s favorite panel in the exhibition; it brings back the summers she spent with her family in kibbutzim while she was growing up in Haifa. “I love the flow to this, the scent of the field,” she says. This quilt and several others are displayed prominently, along a well-used hall leading to the fitness-center pool. Other panels are behind the front desk, with more upstairs in the fitness center. Widmann-Levy worked with local curator Simcha Moyal to make the traveling exhibition fit into the JCC. On her tour of the display, WidmannLevy points out a few quilts that show a darker side to the Israeli experience: concerns about security. “Vigilant Harvest” by Yemima Lavan depicts kibbutzniks at work in the fields, plows in their hands and guns on their backs. Some panels show tanks and sturdy walls. Other quilts depict a mixed legacy of the kibbutz system: the housing model in which children slept separately from their parents in the kids’ area and spent much of their time growing up in a group of the kibbutz children and not one-on-one with immediate families. That model has gone out of favor and receives mixed reviews today, said Widmann-Levy, who has friends who grew up in the system. Some loved the

warmth and community, while others felt scarred by being separated from their parents. Klein Rachel’s quilt “Putting to Bed: Reality facing Dream” has one section showing children sleeping in a communal room, and another section with parents holding a child in a private bedroom. Bella Kaplan’s “Shared Accommodation, A Reality That Has Passed” is grimmer, with the children faceless and the crib slats resembling cage bars. More upbeat are the quilts showing the “lul,” or playpen on wheels. In a community where one adult was responsible for many little ones, a simple stroller wouldn’t do, so a small playpen with room for a few kids was put on wheels. The lul has become a symbol for the kibbutz. In the modern world, there still is some nostalgia for the kibbutz system, as evidenced by the contemporary popularity of the playpen on wheels, Widmann-Levy said. “It’s the cutest thing. In cities today it’s very chic.” N Info: “A Century of the Kibbutz” will be on display through July 3 in the Goldman Sport & Wellness Complex Lobby at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto. The fitness center is open Monday through Thursday from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Fridays from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, go to paloaltojcc.org.

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Arts & Entertainment

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF A DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT AND PUBLIC HEARING Project Title

City/County: Public Review Period: Public Meeting:

Public Hearing:

Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course Reconﬁguration and Baylands Athletic Center Expansion Project (SCH #2013012053) City of Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, California June 3, 2013 to July 19, 2013 Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course Clubhouse, 1875 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto. This meeting will be in an open house format. Planning and Transportation Commission Meeting. Wednesday, June 26, 2013, 6:00 PM Palo Alto City Hall Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course Reconﬁguration and Baylands Athletic Center Expansion Project in the City of Palo Alto is available beginning on June 3, 2013 for review and comment by the public and all interested persons, agencies, and organizations for a period of 45 days, ending July 19, 2013. All comments must be received by that date.

Project Description: The City is proposing a project to reconfigure the Golf Course and expand the existing Baylands Athletic Center. The Project would reconfigure all 18 holes of the Golf Course, a portion of the driving range and practice facility, and replace a restroom facility, while retaining a regulation golf course with a par of 71. The reconfigured Golf Course would be designed with a Baylands theme that would incorporate or modify the existing low-lying areas into the Golf Course, reduce the area of managed turf, and introduce areas of native grassland and wetland habitat. In addition to reconfiguring the Golf Course, the City is proposing to incorporate 10.5 acres of the existing Golf Course into the Athletic Center. The design and scale of the Athletic Center expansion are yet to be finalized. For the purposes of this EIR, it is assumed that the Athletic Center expansion would include a maximum of five full-size athletic playing fields and a 24,100-square foot gymnasium with additional parking and lighting. The existing baseball field and softball field at the Athletic Center would not change. Construction activities for the Golf Course reconfiguration would begin in early 2014 and last approximately 11 months. Following the completion of the turf installation, there would be a grass turf grow-in period of approximately 7 months. It is anticipated that the Golf Course would be closed to the public for approximately 15 months between Spring 2014 and Summer 2015. The final design and construction schedule for the Athletic Center Expansion have not yet been determined. The proposed project would have unavoidable significant impacts with regard to aesthetics (lighting), short-term air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions. The project site is included on a hazardous materials/contaminated sites list (Cortese list) compiled pursuant to Government Code Section 65962.5. Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Report: Copies of the Draft EIR will be available for review beginning on June 3, 2013 at the following locations: • City of Palo Alto, Development Center, 285 Hamilton Avenue, 1st Floor, Palo Alto, during business hours, Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., (650) 329-2496. • Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course Pro Shop, 1875 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303, during business hours, Everyday, Dawn to 9:00 p.m. • City of Palo Alto, Community Services Department, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, during business hours, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., (650) 463-4900. • Palo Alto Main Library at Art Center Auditorium, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94303, (650) 329-2436. • Mitchell Park Library at Cubberley Community Center Auditorium, 4050 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306. • College Terrace Library, 2300 Wellesley Street, Palo Alto, CA 94306. • Downtown Library, 270 Forest Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301. • City’s website http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/planningprojects. Comments may be submitted at the public hearing and/or in writing to: Joe Teresi, Senior Engineer, City of Palo Alto Public Works Engineering Services, 250 Hamilton Avenue, 6th Floor, Palo Alto, California 94301, or emailed to Joe.Teresi@CityofPaloAlto.org, no later than Friday, July 19, 2013, at 5:00 p.m. If any person challenges this item in court, that person may be limited to raising only those issues the person or someone else raised at the public hearings described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered at, or prior to, the public hearings. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, those requiring accommodation for these meetings should notify the City of Palo Alto 24 hours prior to the meetings at (650) 3292496.

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Otak Jump

Project Location: The proposed project is located at 1875 Embarcadero Road and 1900 Geng Road in northern Palo Alto, on Assessor’s Parcel Numbers (APN) 008-06-001 and 008-002-032. The project site is approximately 175.8 acres in size, east of U.S. 101 and is bound by San Francisquito Creek to the north and west, the Palo Alto Airport of Santa Clara County to the east, and Embarcadero Road to the south.

Iago (Philip Skinner) shares a few malevolent words with Otello (David Gustafson).

Storms and schemes Dramatic visuals fuel a powerful telling of tempestuous ‘Otello’ by Rebecca Wallace

t’s fitting that such a tumultuous tale begins with a perfect storm. West Bay Opera’s new production of Verdi’s “Otello” is commanding from the second the curtain rises, with a nervous chorus watching unseen ships founder in a tempestuous sea. The singers sway in a green-gray world behind a hazy curtain, with flickering lanterns and lightning flashes (thanks to a few perfectly placed strobe lights). The whole scene has a properly queasy “Raft of the Medusa” look. These fine visuals by set designer Peter Crompton and lighting designer Steven Mannshardt lead the way into a powerful telling of Shakespeare’s story. The orchestra booms under the capable baton of José Luis Moscovich, and we’re off on a course for jealousy, vengeance oaths, heady arias and murder. The shipboard person about whom the chorus frets is Otello, the new Venetian governor of Cyprus, returning home from victory in battle with the Turks. When the Moor steps safely onto shore, everyone is relieved except scheming ensign Iago, furious that Otello has granted Captain Cassio the promotion that Iago desired. And hell hath no fury, etc. Aforementioned schemes are about to be unleashed on Cassio, Otello and Otello’s wife, Desdemona. The vivid production values of this rendition of Verdi’s 1887 work show how far West Bay has come. In 1969, the company presented

OPERA REVIEW “Otello” with a simple pairing of two pianos. The voices don’t hurt, either. The opening-night audience was clearly pleased to have the smooth tenor of David Gustafson (Otello) back on the Lucie Stern Theatre stage after his turns as Radamès in “Aida” and Calaf in “Turandot.” Philip Skinner contributed a cannon of a baritone as Iago, with earnest soprano Cynthia Clayton as Desdemona and energetic tenor Nadav J. Hart as Cassio. The length of the opera gives Otello’s rage ample time to develop. In the beginning, the governor is tender with his wife, with the lovely duet “Gia nella notte densa (Now in the dark night).” On opening night, there was only a hint of foreshadowing in the way Otello laid Desdemona down and reached down to kiss her, just a flicker of the violence to come. As Iago began to weave his web, slowly convincing Otello that his wife had been unfaithful, Otello’s rage was kindled, growing into something irrational and unstoppable. Skinner’s sneering voice and Gustafson’s expressive eyes kept the story building. A highlight between the two came at the end of Act II with the roar of the duet known as “Si, pel ciel marmoreo giruo (Yes, I swear by marbled heaven).” As the two swore their revenge for Desdemona’s “infidelity,” the openingnight audience shouted its approbation. Well deserved.

Occasional touches of humor were welcome, as when tenor Otello mocked Iago’s big voice, and the female chorus was particularly sweet when presenting gifts to Desdemona. Clayton was plaintive in her final “Willow Song,” a tune about a girl who loses her lover, sung just before Otello steals into the bedroom in the night to ask, “Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona?” Pray she does, and Clayton remains compelling, even as she is asked to spend much of the opera professing her innocence over and over. But, as everyone knows, this story turns on the plottings of Iago. In another nice scenic touch, one set change is done at the wave of the ensign’s hand. A set piece rises and a platform moves, the world changing at his command. N What: “Otello” by Giuseppe Verdi with libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare’s “Othello,” presented by West Bay Opera Where: Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto When: Remaining performances are June 1 at 8 p.m. and June 2 at 2 p.m. (This is a co-production with Festival Opera; performances at the Lesher Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek are scheduled for June 28 at 8 p.m. and June 20 at 2 p.m.) Cost: Tickets are $40 to $75. Info: Go to wbopera.org or call the box office at 650-424-9999.

Arts & Entertainment

A world of arts Jazz, world music, dance featured in new Stanford Live season by Rebecca Wallace

fter a season focusing on classical music, Stanford Live is planning a lineup with a broader range of dance, jazz, worldmusic and theater performances. French choreographer Jérôme Bel is planning a trio of pieces; musicians will bring the sounds of Portugal, Africa, Japan and Pakistan to campus; and musical-theater luminaries Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin will make an appearance. Last season was dedicated to welcoming the new Bing Concert Hall as a fresh hub for classical music. Now, 2013-14 will continue to offer plenty of it. Strings start the season on Sept. 22, with violin great Itzhak Perlman hosting and conducting a concert of up-and-coming young string players from his Perlman Music Program. Other classical musicians scheduled to perform this season include: the Estonian National Symphony on Nov. 2, the Takács Quartet on Jan. 25 and 26, violinist Joshua Bell on Feb. 8, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel on March 16, and soprano Deborah Voigt on April 11. As in seasons past, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the choral group Chanticleer will give multiple concerts. Opera will make an appearance as well. A free live simulcast of San Francisco Opera’s production of “Falstaff” will be shown outdoors at the university’s Frost Amphitheater on Oct. 11. Nearly all the Stanford Live events, classical and otherwise, will be held at Bing, where the vineyard seating and theater-in-the-round feel provide an unusual venue for dance.

Choreographer Bel will have three evenings to display his work there. On Nov. 13, in “The Show Must Go On,” which the New York Times has called a “conversation with the issues of antivirtuosic movement and artifice,” untrained dancers and Bay Area professionals alike will take the stage. Pop music and a D.J. will figure prominently. Nov. 18 brings “Cédric Andrieux,” a solo autobiographical piece with Bel himself; and on Dec. 2 Bel is paired onscreen in the “filmed dance dialogue” known as “Pichet Klunchun” with the classical Thai dancer of the same name. Bel will be present to answer questions after the film screening. More dance comes on Jan. 31 with the Brazilian ballet troupe Grupo Corpo. The troupe will also perform a shortened family matinee on Feb. 1. Several jazz musicians will also take the yellow-cedar stage at Bing. Early in the season, on Sept. 29, players will conjure up the spirit of New Orleans with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, singer Ivan Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli and drummer Stanton Moore. More New Orleans-style jazz will follow on Oct. 27 with pianist Jonathan Batiste and his band Stay Human. In world music, the PortugueseAfrican singer Mariza will perform an evening of Lisbon-style fado music on Nov. 1. Japanese sho player Ko Ishikawa joins cellist Maya Beiser and others in the world premiere of “Linked Verse,” a Stanford commission from university composer Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, on Dec. 7. Asif Ali Khan takes the audience to Pakistan on April 1 with a night of

Serving Fine Chinese Cuisine in Palo Alto since 1956 A Great Place for Get-togethers Happy Hour s Catering s Gift Certiﬁcates Private Dining s Meeting s Banquet Rooms

Sufi soul. World music is an annual affair at the “Harmony for Humanity” concert, which pays tribute to the late journalist and Stanford graduate Daniel Pearl. The free event is Oct. 9. And no season would be complete without the ukulele. Jake Shimabukuro, whose ukulele playing went viral online a few years back, brings his strings to Bing on April 24. On a different note, vaudevillian Tomás Kubinek will aim for laughs at the hall with two performances on May 4. The shows come on the heels of LuPone and Patinkin, longtime friends and Sondheim supporters, who will bring their Broadway chops to Bing on April 26. The LuPone-Patinkin pairing is a special event intended mainly for Bing members and sponsors, but Stanford Live promises that a few public tickets will also be available. Overall, the season runs Sept. 22 through May 16. Subscriptions go on sale June 3, with single tickets on sale starting Sept. 7. For a complete schedule and ticketing information, go to live.stanford.edu or call 650725-2787. N

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PENINSULA

Discover the best places to eat this week! AMERICAN

CHINESE

Armadillo Willy’s

Chef Chu’s

941-2922 1031 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos www.armadillowillys.com

948-2696 1067 N. San Antonio Road www.chefchu.com

The Old Pro

Ming’s

326-1446 541 Ramona Street, Palo Alto www.oldpropa.com

856-7700 1700 Embarcadero East, Palo Alto www.mings.com

STEAKHOUSE

New Tung Kee Noodle House

Sundance the Steakhouse

947-8888 520 Showers Drive, Mountain View www.shopmountainview.com/luunoodlemv

321-6798 1921 El Camino Real, Palo Alto www.sundancethesteakhouse.com

INDIAN

Janta Indian Restaurant [Chopsticks Always Optional]

We have daily dim sum service from 11am-2pm. We also offer tasty vegetarian and vegan dishes. In our Bar we have happy hours from 3pm to 6pm / Mon-Fri. Book now for our private rooms and banquet facilities. And don’t forget about our take out and delivery. In addition to all this, we’re open 365 Days / 11am-9:30pm and parking is never a problem.

Read and post reviews, explore restaurant menus, get hours and directions and more at ShopPaloAlto, ShopMenloPark and ShopMountainView

462-5903 369 Lytton Ave. www.jantaindianrestaurant.com

Thaiphoon 323-7700 543 Emerson Ave, Palo Alto www.ThaiphoonRestaurant.com

“Voted Best Dim Sum in Silicon Valle y” – Metro’s best of Silicon Valley 201 3

Ming’s Chinese Cuisine and Bar

1700 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto tel 650.856.7700 / fax 650.855.9479 / www.mings.com ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊ >ÞÊÎ£]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 25

GraphicDesigner Embarcadero Media, producers of the Palo Alto Weekly, The Almanac, Mountain View Voice, PaloAltoOnline.com and several other community websites, is looking for a graphic designer to join its award-winning design team. Design opportunities include online and print ad design and editorial page layout. Applicant must be ﬂuent in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Flash knowledge is a plus. Newspaper

Movies OPENINGS

or previous publication experience is preferred, but we will consider qualiﬁed — including entry level — candidates. Most importantly, designer must be a team player and demonstrate speed, accuracy and thrive under deadline pressure. The position will be approximately 32 - 40 hours per week. To apply, please send a resume along with samples of your work as a PDF (or URL) to Shannon Corey, Creative Director, at scorey@paweekly.com

4 5 0 C A M B R I D G E AV E N U E | PA L O A LT O

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETING of the Palo Alto Planning & Transportation Commission Please be advised the Planning and Transportation Commission (P&TC) shall conduct a public meeting at 6:00 PM, Wednesday, June 12, 2013 in the Council Chambers, Ground Floor, Civic Center, Palo Alto, California. Any interested persons may appear and be heard on these items. Staff reports for agendized items are available via the City’s main website at www.cityofpaloalto.org and also at the Planning Division Front Desk, 5th Floor, City Hall, after 2:00 PM on the Friday preceding the meeting date. Copies will be made available at the Development Center should City Hall be closed on the 9/80 Friday. Study Session 1.

Study Session with City Attorney to discuss: (1) overview of City Attorney ofﬁce, (2) role of Planning and Transportation Commission and (3) recent legal trends and litigation in areas of land use and planning.

Consent 2.

Natural and Urban Environment and Safety Element of the Comprehensive Plan Update

805 Los Trancos Road: Extension of Council Approval of a Site and Design Review Application for a new house at 805 Los Trancos Road

Study Session 4.

Mayfield Development Agreement Overview & Subdivision Concept Study session for the purposes of providing: 1) an overview of the 2005 Mayfield Development Agreement and 2) an opportunity to review and discuss the upcoming submissions for the 250 units of housing Stanford will provide under the 2005 Mayfield Development Agreement (MDA).

Questions. For any questions regarding the above items, please contact the Planning Department at (650) 329-2441. The ﬁles relating to these items are available for inspection weekdays between the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This public meeting is televised live on Government Access Channel 26. ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn more about the City’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), please contact the City’s ADA Coordinator at 650.329.2550 (voice) or by e-mailing ada@cityofpaloalto.org.

*** Curtis Williams, Director of Planning and Community Environment Page 26ÊUÊ >ÞÊÎ£]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

The heist gang’s all here in “Now You See Me.”

Now You See Me --

(Century 16, Century 20) The signature line of the new “magicians pull heists” movie “Now You See Me” says it all: “The closer you look, the less you see.” It’s meant to be a lesson in stepping back and taking in the big picture, but it lands as an accurate appraisal of the movie’s emptiness. Emptiness doesn’t preclude fun, but “Now You See Me” is so preposterous in its particulars, so ludicrous in its lowdown, that you’re liable to kick yourself silly for having bothered to play along. As directed by Louis Leterrier (“The Incredible Hulk,” “Clash of the Titans”), the picture starts Jaden Smith in “After Earth.” out brisk and credibly “Ocean’s 11”-y, a shuffly jazz score accompanying introductions to the Laurent) to investigate and flirt. middlebrow magicians who will Despite all of those stars, most become star players “The Four of whom have individually headHorsemen.” lined their own movies, screenA mysterious figure selects writers Ed Solomon and Boaz and brings together Vegas-y at- Yakin & Edward Ricourt uncontractions J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse ventionally split their narrative Eisenberg) and Henley Reeves focus such that the plot becomes (Isla Fisher), as well as two hus- the star. The story mostly sticks tlers: mentalist Merritt McKinney by Agent Rhodes, with the Four (Woody Harrelson) and small- Horsemen as his antagonists, but time scammer Jack Wilder (Dave we’re encouraged to root for the Franco). After a time jump, we criminals, whose three splashy find the motley crew headlining show crimes make up the film’s a giant MGM Grand show under three acts. the patronage of insurance mogul The ornamentation here is Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) nothing to sneeze at. Leterrier and the watchful eye of debunker brings flash and dazzle to spare, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Free- including action sequences that he man). frames tightly and moves quickly. When that Vegas show turns He also succeeds in translating to out to be predicated on a right- film two bits of magic trickery before-your-eyes Parisian bank (film-opening bits involving a heist, in come grumpy FBI agent card trick and Harrelson’s bodyDylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) cue readings; it’s downhill from and magic-loving Interpol op- there). And who couldn’t enjoy erative Alma Dray (Melanie Caine and Freeman in a couple

of toe-to-toe pas de deux? Unfortunately, the film establishes then basically ignores an intriguing premise that the “Four Horsemen” are being tested for membership in an ancient magic cult (there are a few interesting movies in that idea, and this isn’t any of them). Instead, the picture makes a deal with the devil, making character incidental to standard-issue twists that vigorously strain credulity. There are worse distractions to be had than “Now You See Me,” but in a crowded summer marketplace, don’t be surprised if “Now You Don’t” right quick. Rated PG-13 for language, some action and sexual content. One hour, 56 minutes. — Peter Canavese

After Earth -

(Century 16, Century 20) Director M. Night Shyamalan is the Jekyll and Hyde of Hollywood. He soared with twisty thrillers “The Sixth Sense” (1999) and “Unbreakable” (2000), but stumbled badly with recent offerings “The Happening” (2008) and “The Last Airbender” (2010). So teaming up with the Fresh Prince for a fresh start probably seemed like a bright idea. It wasn’t. “After Earth” is the sort of picture the Mystery Science Theater 3000 gang would salivate over. The costuming and set design often scream “sci-fi on the cheap,” and the performance by lead Jaden Smith is amateurish at best and awful at worst. Shyamalan’s solid direction and some decent visual effects offer a bit of redemption, but not nearly

Movies MOVIE TIMES All showtimes are for Friday through Sunday only unless otherwise noted. For other times, as well as reviews and trailers, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies. 42 (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: 10:25 a.m. & 1:25, 4:20, 7:25 & 10:30 p.m. After Earth (PG-13) ( Century 16: 10 & 11:15 a.m. & 12:30, 1:45, 3:05, 4:20, 5:35, 7, 8:15, 9:35 & 10:45 p.m. Century 20: 10:30 a.m. & 12:55, 3:20, 5:50, 8:20 & 10:50 p.m. In XD 10:30 a.m. & 12:55, 3:20, 5:50, 8:20 & 10:50 p.m. Before Midnight (R) (Not Reviewed) Guild Theatre: 1:15, 4, 7 & 9:45 p.m. Brigadoon (1954) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Sat-Sun 5:30 & 9:25 p.m. Clash by Night (1952) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri 5:35 & 9:40 p.m. Epic (PG) ((( Century 16: 10:05 a.m. & 12:40, 3:20, 5:55 & 8:35 p.m. In 3D 11:20 a.m. & 1:55, 4:35 & 9:50 p.m. Fri & Sun also at 7:15 p.m. Century 20: 10:30 a.m. & 12:20, 1:10, 3:50, 6, 6:45 & 9:25 p.m. In 3D 11:50 a.m. & 2:30, 5:15, 8 & 10:35 p.m. Fast & Furious 6 (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 10 & 11 a.m. & noon, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7:10, 8:10, 9:15 & 10:15 p.m. Fri-Sat also at 11:05 p.m. Century 20: 10:25 & 11:25 a.m. & 12:25, 1:20, 2:20, 3:20, 4:15, 5:15, 6:15, 7:10, 8:15, 9:10 & 10:05 p.m. Frances Ha (R) (((1/2 Aquarius Theatre: 2:15, 4:30, 7 & 9:15 p.m. From Here to Eternity (1953) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri 7:30 p.m. The Great Gatsby (PG-13) (( Century 16: 11:45 a.m. & 6:40 p.m. In 3D 3:10 & 9:55 p.m. Century 20: 11:40 a.m. & 6 p.m. In 3D 10:50 a.m. & 2:10, 5:20 & 8:55 p.m. The Hangover Part III (R) (1/2 Century 16: 10:15 & 11:30 a.m. & 12:45, 2:05, 3:25, 4:45, 5:55, 7:30, 9 & 10:20 p.m. Century 20: Fri & Sun 10:40 & 11:30 a.m. & 12:20, 1:10, 2, 2:50, 3:40, 4:30, 5:20, 7, 7:50, 9:30 & 10:20 p.m. Sat also at 6:10 & 8:40 p.m. The Iceman (R) ((1/2 Aquarius Theatre: 1, 3:30, 6 & 8:30 p.m. The Internship (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Sat 7:15 p.m. Iron Man 3 (PG-13) ((( Century 16: 1:25 & 7:35 p.m. In 3D 10:20 a.m. & 4:@5 & 10:30 p.m. Century 20: 2:50 & 9:10 p.m. 10:25 a.m. & 1:20, 4:30, 7:30 & 10:35 p.m. Jaws (1975) (PG) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Sun 2 p.m. Century 20: Sun 2 p.m.

“A WONDERFUL PARADOX: A MOVIE PASSIONATELY COMMITTED TO THE IDEAL OF IMPERFECTION THAT IS ITSELF VERY CLOSE TO PERFECT.” -A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mud (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: 2:55 & 8:40 p.m. Now You See Me (PG-13) (( Century 16: 10:35 a.m. & 12:05, 1:30, 2:55, 4:15, 5:45, 7:20, 8:45 & 10:25 p.m. Century 20: 10:45 a.m. & 12:05, 1:30, 2:50, 4:15, 5:35, 7, 8:25 & 10 p.m. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R) (Not Reviewed) Guild Theatre: Sat midnight.

“GRADE A!

AN ENCHANTING ENTERTAINMENT THAT’S ALSO THE MOST HONEST AND MOVING FILM ABOUT LOVE IN YEARS.” -Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Singin’ in the Rain (1952) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Sat-Sun 3:35 & 7:30 p.m.

HHHH!

Star Trek: Into Darkness (PG-13) ((( Century 16: 10:10 & 11:10 a.m. & 1:10, 4:10, 5:15, 7:25, 8:30 & 10:35 p.m. Fri-Sat also at 2:15 p.m. In 3D 12:10, 3:15, 6:15 & 9:40 p.m. Century 20: 10:35 a.m. & 12:35, 1:35, 4:40, 7, 7:45 & 10:50 p.m. In 3D 11:35 a.m. & 2:35, 3:35, 5:40, 8:45 & 10 p.m.

(HIGHEST RATING)

“ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIES.”

Stories We Tell (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Palo Alto Square: 2, 4:45 & 7:15 p.m. Fri-Sat also at 9:50 p.m.

-Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

What Maisie Knew (R) (Not Reviewed) Palo Alto Square: Fri-Sat 2:15, 5, 7:25 & 10 p.m.

Ethan Hawke

( Skip it (( Some redeeming qualities ((( A good bet (((( Outstanding Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (266-9260)

Guild: 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park (266-9260)

Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View (800-326-3264)

Stanford: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (324-3700)

Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City (800-326-3264)

Julie Delpy

Before Midnight

Internet address: For show times, plot synopses, trailers and more information about films playing, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies

CinéArts at Palo Alto Square: 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (493-0128)

enough to warrant your box-office bucks (especially with “Star Trek Into Darkness” playing one theater over). Set in the distant future when the human race has abandoned Earth for greener pastures, the story follows stoic general Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son, Kitai (Jaden Smith), as their spaceship crashes on the one planet they want to avoid: Earth. Kitai sets out to locate a piece of the ship and a homing beacon that will get them safely off the planet while Cypher stays put to mend his broken legs. But Kitai’s journey won’t be an easy one, as evolved species, rugged terrain and a vicious alien bar his path. Clearly intended as a starring vehicle for Jaden, “After Earth” comes across more as a misguided

vanity project for producers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. There is an admirable moral undertone about conquering fear that gets somewhat lost in the messy sci-fi morass. And Kitai is a weak character, diluted more so by Jaden Smith’s novice portrayal. In fact Kitai (or is it Jaden?) appears ready to weep or run in nearly every scene — not exactly the behavior of heroes. Will Smith does his best to shoulder the load and delivers a heartfelt performance. The visual effects are also impressive, especially when Kitai is being chased by a pack of ornery baboons. And kudos to composer James Newton Howard for a strong soundtrack. Ultimately though, “After Earth” is the dictionary definition of nepotism. And there’s no reason for

you to waste your time and dime on this family affair. A

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some disturbing images. 1 hour, 40 minutes.

WRITTEN BY

— Tyler Hanley

RICHARD LINKLATER FILM

RICHARD LINKLATER & JULIE DIDELPY & ETHAN HAWKE RECTED BY RICHARD LINKLATER WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM

Century Theatres at Palo Alto Square Fri and Sat 5/31 – 6/1 Stories We Tell – 2:00, 4:45, 7:15, 9:50 What Maisie Knew - 2:15, 5:00, 7:25, 10:00 Sun thru Thurs 6/2 – 6/6 Stories We Tell – 2:00, 4:45, 7:15 What Maisie Knew - 2:15, 5:00, 7:00 Tickets and Showtimes available at cinemark.com

STARTS FRIDAY, MAY 31

CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORY OR CALL FOR SHOWTIMES

Sony Pictures Classics and Costa Navarino invite you to enter the “Great Greek Giveaway.” Grand Prize includes a trip for 2 to Costa Navarino in Greece where the film was shot. To enter and to view complete rules, visit www.beforemidnightmovie.com. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. “The Before Midnight Great Greek Giveaway” (“Sweepstakes”) starts at 12:00 midnight ET on 5/19/13 and ends at 12:00 midnight ET on 7/26/13 for email entry and on 7/27/13 for postmarking mail entry. Sweepstakes open only to legal residents of contiguous Continental U.S. (“Eligibility Area”) 21 and older. Subject to complete Official Rules available at www.beforemidnightmovie.com. Void outside Eligibility Area and where prohibited or restricted by law. Sponsors: Sony Pictures Classics Inc., 10202 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232 and TEMES S.A. - Costa Navarino, 5 Pentelis S., 17564, Athens, Greece.

VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.BEFOREMIDNIGHTMOVIE.COM

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Sports Shorts

NCAA TENNIS

A fitting finale for Gibbs

OPEN QUALIFIER . . . Stanford freshman Mariah Stackhouse earned a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open on Tuesday afternoon after shooting a 36-hole score of 5-under 139 to lead the qualifying tournament on the Eisenhower Course hosted by the Industry Hills Golf Club. Stackhouse was the low medalist in one of 20 qualifying tourneys conducted by the U.S. Golf Association. Those who qualify will compete at the U.S. Women’s Open, to be played on the Sebonack Golf Course in Southampton, N.Y., on June 27-30. Fresh off tying for 29th to lead the Cardinal at the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships, Stackhouse had a weekend to rejuvenate. Stackhouse capped off her freshman season with eight top-10 finishes, including two collegiate titles, and a 72.0 stroke average in 32 rounds of competition. Earlier this spring she shot a 10-under 61 for a collegiate and course record at the Peg Barnard Invitational, where she won her first tournament and managed to shoot a 26 in the front nine.

IN THE POOL . . . Gunn High grad Brandon Johnson was among the 15 players named to the men’s U.S. Senior National Team in water polo for the FINA World League Super Final, which will be contested in Chelyabinsk, Russia beginning June 11. Johnson, head coach of the Palo Alto High boys’ team, will be joined by Stanford grad Janson Wigo, Cardinal junior Alex Bowen and Stanford freshman Bret Bonnani. The U.S. took first place at the FINA World League Prelims, which concluded Monday in Los Alamitos. The U.S. Women’s Senior National Team team opens FINA World League Super Finals on Saturday with a game against host China in Beijing. The Americans also meet Russia and Hungary in preliminary play. Sacred Heart Prep grad KK Clark, Stanford grad Lolo Silver, Stanford seniors Annika Dries and Melissa Seidemann, Cardinal sophomore Kiley Neushul and freshman teammate Maggie Steffens are all playing for the national team.

Sacred Heart Prep senior Nico Robinson (in red) finished third in the 110 high hurdles at the Central Coast Section finals last week in a school record of 14.34, trailing a state-leading 13.91 by Bellarmine’s Jalen Wright (right).

It’s the big stage now Six local athletes and one relay team head to CIF State Track and Field Championships by Keith Peters or Menlo School junior Maddy Price, one good turn deserves another. For Palo Alto senior Victor Du, it will be a leap of faith. And, for Gunn junior Sarah Robinson, it’ll be a matter of just going the distance. Those are some of the storylines heading into this weekend’s CIF State Track and Field Champion-

ships at Buchanan High in Clovis as local athletes test the state’s best at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Four local athletes will compete in two events — Price in the girls’ 200 and 400, Robinson in the girls’ 1,600 and 3,200, Palo Alto junior Nick Sullivan in the 400 and 1,600 relay and SHP senior Nico Robinson in the 110 high hurdles and long jump.

Two others — Gunn freshman Maya Miklos (300 hurdles) and Du (long jump) — will go in one while the Palo Alto boys have their 1,600 relay team entered. Think of it as quality over quantity. Field event qualifying begins Friday at 3 p.m., with running qualifying events starting at 5 p.m. On (continued on next page)

ON THE AIR Friday Swimming: Arena Grand Prix at Santa Clara, 5 p.m.; Universal Sports Network

Saturday Swimming: Arena Grand Prix at Santa Clara, 5 p.m.; Universal Sports Network Kenneth Wilner

John Hale