2013 08 09 paw section1 by Palo Alto Weekly

Vol. XXXIV, Number 45 N August 9, 2013

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Fall Class Guide Page 16 w w w.PaloA ltoOnline.com

FROM TO

BIG

boutique Palo Alto gyms ditch the big-box mindset PAGE 8

Transitions 15

Spectrum 21

Eating 27

Shop Talk 28

Movies 29

Home 37

Puzzles 54

N News City banks on nonproﬁts to aid the homeless

Page 3

N Arts Book bash: Mingle with the authors at Litquake

Page 25

N Sports John Elway’s jersey to be retired by Stanford

Page 31

CIT Y O F PALO ALTO PR ESE NTS TH E 29TH ANN UAL

TIME & PLACE 5K walk 7:00pm, 10K run 8:15pm, 5K run 8:45pm. Race-night registration 6 to 8pm at City of Palo Alto Baylands Athletic Center, Embarcadero & Geng Roads (just east of the Embarcadero Exit off Highway 101). Parking — go to PaloAltoOnline.com to check for specific parking locations.

5K WALK, 5K & 10K RUN Great for kids and families

COURSE 5k and 10k courses around the Palo Alto Baylands under the light of the Full Harvest Moon. Course is USAT&F certified (10k only) and flat along paved roads. Water at all stops. Course maps coming soon.

REGISTRATIONS & ENTRY FEE Adult Registration (13 +) registration fee is $30 per entrant by 9/13/13. Includes a long-sleeved t-shirt. Youth Registration (6 - 12) registration is $20 per entrant by 9/13/13. Includes a long-sleeved t-shirt. Youth (5 and under) run free with an adult, but must be registered through Evenbrite with signed parental guardian waiver, or may bring/fill out a signed waiver to race-night registration. Late Registration fee is $35 for adults, $25 for youth from 9/14 - 9/18. Race night registration fee is $40 for adult; $30 for youth from 6 to 8pm. T-shirts available only while supplies last. Refunds will not be issued for no-show registrations and t-shirts will not be held. MINORS: If not pre-registered, minors under 18 must bring signed parental/waiver form on race night.

SPORTS TEAM/CLUBS: Online pre-registration opportunity for organizations of 10 or more runners; e-mail MoonlightRun@paweekly.com.

DIVISIONS Age divisions: 9 & under; 10 - 12; 13 - 15; 16 - 19; 20 - 24; 25 - 29; 30 - 34; 35 - 39; 40 - 44; 45 - 49; 50 - 54; 55 - 59; 60 - 64; 65 - 69; 70 & over with separate divisions for male and female runners in each age group. Race timing provided for 5K and 10K runs only.

COMPUTERIZED RESULTS BY A CHANGE OF PACE Chip timing results will be posted on PaloAltoOnline.com by 11pm race night. Race organizers are not responsible for incorrect results caused by incomplete/incorrect registration forms.

AWARDS/PRIZES/ENTERTAINMENT Top three finishers in each division. Prize giveaways and refreshments. Pre-race warmups by Noxcuses Fitness, Palo Alto

BENEFICIARY Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund. A holiday-giving fund to benefit Palo Alto area nonprofits and charitable organizations. In April 2013, 55 organizations received a total of $380,000 (from the 2012-2013 Holiday Fund.)

FRIDAY SEPT 20 7PM A benefit event for local non-profits supporting kids and families

MORE INFORMATION Call (650) 463-4920, (650) 326-8210, email MoonlightRun@paweekly.com or go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com. For safety reasons, no dogs allowed on course for the 5K and 10K runs. They are welcome on the 5K walk only. No retractable leashes. Bring your own clean-up bag. Jogging strollers welcome in the 5K walk or at the back of either run.

Presented by

Event Sponsors

Community Sponsors

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Upfront

Local news, information and analysis

Palo Alto banks on nonprofits to aid the homeless City also considers limiting public access to Cubberley Community Center by Gennady Sheyner

hen Palo Alto officials passed a law Monday banning vehicle dwelling within city borders, they urged members of the nonprofit community to unite and work with the city on a broad and compassionate solution to the problem of homelessness.

For InnVision Shelter Network, a nonprofit that provides shelter and support services throughout Silicon Valley, the call to action wasn’t necessary. The nonprofit group, which operates the Opportunity Center on Encina Avenue in Palo Alto and 17 other sites between San Jose and

Daly City, has been working for months with other organizations to develop a solution to a problem that has become increasingly conspicuous in Palo Alto over the past year. Dozens of homeless residents have taken to living at Cubberley Community Center in south Palo Alto, turning it into what City Manager James Keene described as a “de facto homeless shelter.” On Monday, Keene renewed his call for help from the nonprofit

community, saying that the city doesn’t have the necessary resources and staff to solve the problem on its own. “We’re not going to make significant progress if everyone sits around waiting for the city to come up with a solution,” Keene said. The solution proposed by InnVision, in collaboration with other nonprofits, involves establishing a homeless outreach team (HOT) that would develop a census of Cubberley

residents and consider the particular needs of each resident. During this engagement process, the team of case managers would “engage, case manage, transport, and ultimately secure housing for the most difficult-to-serve homeless residents,” according to a white paper that the group wrote and provided to the Weekly. These would include residents with mental-health disabilities (continued on page 12)

CRIME

Police respond to smash-and-grab crimes A spate of auto burglaries targets rental vehicles by Karishma Mehrotra

Christophe Haubursin

Batter up! A Palo Alto Little League player sends off the pitch during a practice at the Middlefield Little League Ballpark. Fall teams are already formed, including a new 50/70 League for 12- and 13-year-olds.

ENVIRONMENT

Creek project will help endangered fish run free San Francisquito Creek work will redirect water flow so trout can migrate

teelhead trout are expected to be able to swim more easily between the Searsville Dam and the San Francisco Bay after a low-lying concrete slab is removed from San Francisquito Creek this month. The $285,900 Bonde Weir Fish Passage Improvement Project will remove a barrier that’s more than 50 years old and lies on the creek bottom in El Palo Alto Park at Palo Alto’s border with Menlo Park. The 45-foot-wide barrier, called a weir, has made it difficult for fish

by Sue Dremann to travel along the creek because it’s altered and sometimes impeded the water current, according to the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District, which is implementing the project. San Francisquito Creek hosts one of the last remaining wild steelhead trout populations in the Bay Area, according to researchers. In 2004, the Steelhead Task Force of the San Francisquito Watershed Council rated replacement of the weir as “high,” according to a California Coastal Conservancy

June 2013 report. The weir causes fish to get trapped in late winter and early spring as they try to travel up and down the creek. Either the trout get stuck upstream of the weir because there’s not enough water to flow over it, or water flows sheet-like over the weir but without sufficient depth. Young fish that can’t move downstream to more favorable habitats can die, according to the California Coastal Conservancy report. (continued on page 10)

he police call them “windowsmash burglaries.” In Palo Alto this summer, there have been about 70 such crimes, in which thieves busted car windows and took items within. Nearly 50 occurred in June. There were three smash-and-grab burglaries on Tuesday alone. “It’s been a huge problem lately,” Detective Sgt. Brian Philip of the Palo Alto Police Department said. “Over the summer months, we’ve seen a substantial increase in all areas of Palo Alto.” These spates have changed how the police department has responded, with an increase in high-visibility surveillance, probation and parole searches and inter-agency efforts. The crimes are “fast and furious,” Philip said. Criminals choose a vehicle, especially one with something of value sitting on the seat. They smash the window with any of a variety of devices, “they reach and grab it and they’re gone,” he said. Sometimes, Philip said, the burglars break the window, pop the trunk and grab valuables from there. Burglars target rental vehicles because people who are traveling carry their valuables with them more often. Many times, they attend business dinners at Palo Alto restaurants, making their laptops and smartphones — which Philip said are the most stolen items — vulnerable to theft. “Obviously, the criminals have figured out that we have a lot of business people in town. ... I think that’s probably attractive for our criminals because they know they are going to find some loot (here),” he said. “We know that thieves know that, and that’s what we’ve been targeting.” Stanford Shopping Center has been a focal point for thieves; six or seven a night occurred back in April

and May. Along with the shopping center, other “hot spots” included downtown Palo Alto parking garages on High Street and Bryant Street and several restaurants on El Camino. In July, thefts occurred four times at both Ming’s Restaurant on Embarcadero Road and the Enid W. Pearson-Arastradero Preserve. Police saw a similar trend earlier in the year until they arrested Shane Springer, of San Francisco, who they believe was responsible for a significant amount of the burglaries, Philip said. To crack down on the summer’s burglaries, police implemented multiple strategies and operations, some of which are ongoing and cannot be discussed, Philip said. “Let’s just say some of the things we’ve already done have virtually stopped all of the auto-burglary activity,” Philip said. It may be too quick to say, “virtually stopped” — July did have 26 auto-burglaries, according to the Palo Alto police log. Police have contacted several suspects, conducted probation and parole searches and emphasized working with what Philip calls the most effective method: high-visibility surveillance. “The intent was to let people know: ‘Hey, look, the police are out here,’” he said. “You may see them in a police car or you may not see them because they’re in unmarked cars. You may not see us because we’re on foot blending with people in the mall. We’re out here, and we’re watching.” One strategy, called a suppression operation, has police in uniform or in plain clothes, looking for specific suspects. Much of the information about these suspects comes from shared intelligence between cities (continued on page 13)

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Upfront QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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The Palo Alto Weekly (ISSN 0199-1159) is published every Friday by Embarcadero Media, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306, (650) 326-8210. Periodicals postage paid at Palo Alto, CA and additional mailing offices. Adjudicated a newspaper of general circulation for Santa Clara County. The Palo Alto Weekly is delivered free to homes in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, East Palo Alto, to faculty and staff households on the Stanford campus and to portions of Los Altos Hills. If you are not currently receiving the paper, you may request free delivery by calling 3268210. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302. ©2013 by Embarcadero Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. The Palo Alto Weekly is available on the Internet via Palo Alto Online at: www.PaloAltoOnline.com

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Address: ________________________________ City/Zip: ________________________________ Mail to: Palo Alto Weekly, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto CA 94306

‘‘

PUBLISHER William S. Johnson (223-6505)

I don’t want to kick it down to a future council. — Nancy Shepherd, Palo Alto vice mayor, on why she proposed sending the Jay Paul project, which includes a public-safety building, to the voters in June for an advisory vote. See story on page 6.

Around Town CRESCENT PARKING ... When it comes to parking shortages, every unhappy Palo Alto neighborhood is unhappy in its own way, to borrow from Tolstoy. In Professorville, residents have for years been up in arms about downtown employees, whose cars take over residential blocks during business hours. In Crescent Park, residents are more concerned about night-time parking, and the main culprit isn’t the business community but the East Palo Alto residents across the Newell Road bridge. This week, they may get some relief. The council is scheduled to consider on Monday a proposal to ban overnight parking at certain sections of Crescent Park, including a few blocks of Edgewood Drive where the problem is particularly conspicuous. The new law would ban parking on selected streets between 2 and 5 a.m. but allow residents on these blocks to purchase permits to park their cars at night. The council was preparing to approve this limited ban on Aug. 5 as part of its “consent calendar” (where items get approved in bulk and without discussion), but staff requested that the item get a fuller vetting during the Aug. 12 meeting. Opinions about the proposed one-year ban vary block by block. Those closest to the East Palo Alto border have been overwhelmingly supportive. Those slightly further away have been against it, arguing that the new rule would simply push the problem over to their streets. Ben Davenport, who lives on Hamilton Avenue with his wife and 8-month-old son, is in the latter camp. His mother-in-law and father-in-law, who take care of the child, would no longer be able to park in the house in the ban is adopted, he said. “It seems like we’re attacking the problem of excessive nonresident parking with a 30 pound sledge hammer, because that’s the only tool the city has given us,” Davenport told the council on Aug. 5. “The hammer analogy is all too apt because the game we are in fact playing is Whac-a-Mole.” FRESH AIR ... By Palo Alto’s standards, the city’s quiet crusade against cigarette smoke has proceeded at lightning speed. Unlike the city’s recent ban on plastic

bags and last week’s controversial ban on vehicle dwelling, the recent effort to ban smoking at local parks floated through the approval process with little criticism and no opposition. In March, a council committee considered a request from downtown and California Avenue merchants to ban smoking at three small urban parks, Lytton and Cogswell plazas downtown, and the Sarah Wallis Park near California Avenue. Then, like a cloud of smoke, the ban spread to all 24 parks and plazas less than 5 acres, thanks to a March recommendation by the City Council’s Policy and Services Committee. When the recommendation reached the full council, members reasoned: Why stop there? In a brief May discussion, they expanded the ban to include all city’s open-space preserves, including Foothills Park, the Baylands and the PearsonArastradero Preserve. This week, smokers may finally get a little reprieve. The council will consider on Monday creating designated smoking areas at Greer, Mitchell and Rinconada parks, an effort designed to keep smokers from having to drive out of the park for a cigarette, as was recommended by the Parks and Recreation Commission. These areas will include benches, signage and fire-proof waste and will cost the city about $13,500, according to a new report. The council will also weigh the commission’s recommendation to allow smoking at the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, except within buildings and near building entrances. ORGANIZED CHAOS ... People passing by Stanford Stadium or the Town and Country Village on Aug. 14 may notice a swarm of emergency responders and police cruisers from outside jurisdictions. It’s not Armageddon. It’s only a drill. Palo Alto is preparing to join Stanford University, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and emergency responders from Santa Clara County for what City Manager James Keene called a “large-scale stadium-evacuation drill” that will include 300 people. The drill will allow the agencies to “test various communication, transportation and medical-evacuation procedures,” Keene said. N

Upfront EDUCATION

Palo Alto teachers, students back to school next week New buildings to greet students at five campuses, new principals on two by Chris Kenrick

alo Alto’s 800-plus teachers return to work Monday morning to ready their classrooms for the first day of school Thursday, Aug. 15. Teachers and staff will convene for a 7:30 a.m. breakfast at Gunn High School for the annual “chow down,” a kickoff to the school year. They will hear a presentation from designer and inventor Brendan Boyle, a partner at the Palo Alto design firm IDEO and consulting professor at Stanford University, who will discuss how “design thinking” is used as a creative problem-solving method and the role of play in the innovation process. Boyle teaches a course at d.school, Stanford’s Institute of Design, called “From Play to Innovation.” They’ll also hear from Board of Education members, union presidents and Superintendent Kevin Skelly, who will honor employees marking major anniversaries with the school district. Two of the district’s 17 campuses — Palo Alto High School and Terman Middle School — open the school year with new principals. At Paly, Kimberly Diorio, assistant principal for the past six years, takes the helm, replacing Phil Winston, who resigned in June. At Terman, Pier Angeli LaPlace, a teacher and administrator at JLS Middle

School for the past 20 years, replaces Katherine Baker, who becomes the district’s director of secondary education. With property-tax revenues up, district officials for the first time in years say they have some financial breathing room. Board members in March approved $2.6 million in new spending — boosting principals’ discretionary funds and counseling budgets and adding teachers at middle schools and high schools as well as coaching and technology support for elementary teachers. They also allocated $5 million for staff “professional development” to be spent over three years. In addition, the district created a new position of “communications coordinator,” hiring former Santa Clara Unified School District Public Information Officer Tabitha Kappeler-Hurley at a salary of $130,000. Kappeler-Hurley was an English teacher and vice principal at Santa Clara’s Wilcox High School before moving into the public-information role in 2004, where she also directed career-technical education and a program to boost female participation in math and science. Major new buildings open this fall on several Palo Alto campuses, notably Gunn High School, JLS, Jordan and Terman middle schools and Fairmeadow Elementary

School. The buildings — including two-story classroom buildings and a new high-school gym — were funded through a $378 million facilities bond measure approved by more than 77 percent of district voters in 2008.

its twice-monthly meetings Aug. 27 after a two-month recess interrupted by brief special meetings Aug. 1 and Aug. 9. Upcoming agenda items include new school-district policy and procedures on bullying, sparked by a December 2012 settlement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The federal agency found that the district’s mishandling of the bullying of a disabled Terman student violated the student’s civil rights. The district agreed to revise its bullying policy as part of the settlement agreement in that case. Meanwhile, five other Office for Civil Rights cases involving the district have been filed or come to light. In the settlement of another case, the district agreed to adjust environmental factors at a middle school after parents filed a complaint. In another case, the Office for Civil Rights concluded June 14 there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of racial discrimination after a middle school minority student was searched by school officials after a substitute teacher accused the student of stealing $20 from her purse. Three other Office for Civil Rights investigations are pending. They include two cases filed by par-

Major new buildings open this fall on several Palo Alto campuses, notably Gunn High School, JLS, Jordan and Terman middle schools and Fairmeadow Elementary School. Construction disruptions continue at Duveneck Elementary School and Palo Alto High School, where the opening of a new Media Arts Center and a two-story classroom building have been delayed until at least December because of a dispute with a contractor. About $177 million remains in the bond fund for future projects, including a new elementary school and a new performing-arts center at Paly. The Board of Education resumes

ents — one at Duveneck and one at a middle school — alleging civilrights violations in the bullying of students with disabilities. In addition, the federal agency in June initiated its own investigation of whether Palo Alto High School complied with legal requirements designed to ensure an “educational environment free of sexual harassment, and whether it responds promptly and effectively to complaints or other notice of sexual harassment.” Also on the board’s horizon this fall is a vote — likely to be controversial — on district-wide academic calendars for 2014-15 and beyond. For the first time last year, the district shifted the calendar to a midAugust, rather than late-August, start date in order to complete the first semester before the December holidays. Though polling showed the work-free semester break was popular with high school students, some parents are dissatisfied with the change and are seeking alternatives. A calendar advisory committee of parents, school staff and students, representing a spectrum of views, was to analyze survey responses and generate options for the future. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

HEALTH

‘Skin-to-skin’ and ‘rooming in’ are on the rise in maternity wards Efforts to boost breastfeeding make well-baby nursery a thing of the past

n today’s hospital maternity wards, the growing practices of “skin-to-skin” and “rooming in” have turned the traditional newborn nursery into a relic of the past. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford now routinely postpones a baby’s first bath in favor of immediate and sustained “skin-toskin” contact with its mother — and aims to expand that practice. Rather than whisking off a healthy baby for a bath and a checkup, as in the past, nurses place the undressed newborn on the mother’s chest and cover it with a blanket. “The initial goal is that the baby is left there continuously until it has had its first breastfeed,” Packard obstetrician Susan Crowe said. That practice, along with having the baby sleep in the mother’s hospital room, fosters successful breastfeeding and other healthful measures, she said. New statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, released in conjunction with National Breastfeeding Month, show

a rise in breastfeeding in the U.S. as well as in hospital practices of “skin-to-skin” and “rooming in” — defined as the baby sleeping in the mother’s hospital room at least 23 hours a day. “These are two of the most influential things a hospital can do to support moms in reaching their breastfeeding goals,” said Crowe, also a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics/gynecology and maternal fetal medicine at Stanford’s School of Medicine. “Skin-to-skin has been going on at some levels for awhile, but we’re now making changes so we can uniformly offer this to families,” even after Caesarean births, she said. Rooming in has become so common at Packard that “there are very few babies in our well-newborn nursery,” she said. In cases where mother or baby must be taken for immediate medical attention after a birth, Crow said the hospital tries to promote skin-to-skin time later, when both

are medically stable. In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the practice of skin to skin has long been known as “kangaroo care.” Across the country, the percentage of hospitals where “most infants experience skin-to-skin contact” following birth increased from 40.8 percent in 2007 to 54.4 percent in 2011, the CDC said. The percentage of hospitals in which most infants room in with their mothers went from 30.8 percent in 2007 to 37.1 percent in 2011. Breastfeeding itself is on the rise, with California leading the way, according to the CDC. Nationally, the percentage of infants who were ever breastfed rose from 70.9 in 2000 to 76.5 in 2010. At age 6 months, 16.4 percent were still exclusively breastfeeding. In California, 91.6 percent start out breastfeeding — the highest of any state except Idaho (91.8 percent). At 6 months, 27.4 percent of California babies are still exclu-

Veronica Weber

by Chris Kenrick

New mom Metrri Jain holds her day-old son close to her chest at Stanford Hospital. Her son sleeps in her room, a practice known as “rooming in,” rather than in a well-baby nursery. Jain gave birth to her son on Aug. 4 and immediately engaged in skin-to-skin contact, which encouraged him to nurse. sively breastfeeding, the highest percentage of any state. In a 2011 “call to action,” thenU.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin suggested steps to remove barriers to breastfeeding — including education and employer support — for mothers who wish to do so. Breastfeeding protects babies from infections and illnesses including diarrhea, ear infections and pneumonia, Benjamin said. Breastfed babies also are less likely to develop asthma, and those who are breastfed for six months are less likely to become obese, she said. Mothers who breastfeed have a de-

creased risk for breast and ovarian cancer, she said. A study published in 2010 in the journal “Pediatrics” estimated the nation could save $13 billion a year in health care costs if 90 percent of babies were exclusively breastfed for six months. At the same time, Benjamin said, “The decision to breastfeed is a personal one,” adding, “No mother should be made to feel guilty if she cannot or chooses not to breastfeed.” N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

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Upfront ENVIRONMENT

Tiny mouse looms large over levee project

Faber and Laumeister tracts

Endangered species complicate effort to bolster flood control near San Francisquito Creek

East Palo Alto

by Gennady Sheyner level — that the environmental analysis conducted so far doesn’t fully satisfy its concerns about endangered species. Fish and Wildlife is particularly focused on the Faber Tract and the adjacent Laumeister Tract in East

The Service believes that the Corps and JPA should implement other alternatives to reduce flood risk in San Francisquito Creek such as passing flood flows through the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course ... rather than through the Faber Tract. Palo Alto, large swaths of marshland in the northwestern portion of the Palo Alto Baylands that is a home to dozens of California clapper rails, an endangered bird, and that boasts “an important population of the salt

marsh harvest mouse,” according to Fish and Wildlife. The environmental agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, took issue with the alternative chosen by the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, which would widen channels by reconstructing levees in the downstream area, including at the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course. Another alternative that the creek authority evaluated during the environmental review was creating a new bypass channel on the golf course for flood water. Fish and Wildlife argue that the selected alternative, by pushing water to the Faber Tract during floods, reduces the land clapper rails and harvest mice would have for escaping predators. It also takes issue with the assertion that the flood-control project “is not likely to adversely affect the California clapper rail and salt marsh harvest mouse.” “Since most predation on California clapper rails and salt marsh harvest mice occur during flood events, the Service believes that the proposed increases in the frequency, duration and height of flood flows within the Faber Tract and loss of availability of upland refugia cover

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lin

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Baylands Golf course

Duck pond Airport

Map by Shannon Corey

t stands less than an inch tall, sports a cinnamon belly, munches on pickleweed and spends its nights dodging owls and raptors in the Palo Alto Baylands. Now, this tiny critter threatens to delay a $16.7 million, regional floodcontrol plan that took years to formulate and that aims to protect Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park from the dreaded 100-year flood. Behold the salt marsh harvest mouse. The mouse weighs only about 20 grams, but its tiny frame is casting a large shadow over the environmentalreview process for the flood-control project, which has already received the blessings of all three cities. As an endangered species, it is protected by reams of state and federal regulations, including ones overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These days, as Fish and Wildlife considers granting a permit to the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority for the flood-control project, the safety of the tiny, tawny mouse has become a big concern. Last month, Fish and Wildlife indicated in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — the agency coordinating the project on the federal

Palo Alto Salt marsh harvest mouse habitat A permit for the San Francisquito Creek flood-control project to widen channels in East Palo Alto’s Faber and Laumeister tracts, a northwestern portion of the local baylands, is being held up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is concerned with protecting the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse. will result in a significant increase in the rates of predation,” Fish and Wildlife stated in the July 3 letter. The project, the agency argues, “has the potential to have severe adverse effects to the California clapper

rail and salt marsh harvest mouse.” “The Service believes that the Corps and JPA should implement other alternatives to reduce flood risk (continued on page 9)

CITY FINANCES

Palo Alto weighs higher taxes to fund infrastructure With passage of a bond measure uncertain, City Council committee considers other options

aced with a laundry list of infrastructure problems and lukewarm support for a bond measure to pay for the repairs, Palo Alto officials are weighing a menu of tax increases that they hope voters will approve in 2014. The infrastructure list includes everything from buildings in need of fixes to new facilities the city would like to have: sidewalk repairs, improvements to the animal shelter, bike paths, renovated fire stations, new downtown garages and the most pressing need of them all — a new public-safety building to replace the cramped and seismically unsafe police headquarters at City Hall. Yet a recent survey commissioned by the city showed that a funding measure that would pay for a public-safety building would likely not get the needed two-thirds support from city voters. On Tuesday, Aug. 6, the City Council’s Infrastructure Committee shifted its focus to other options for funding more than $100 million worth of infrastructure improvements. Among the ideas was an increase to the city’s hotel tax, also known as transient-occupancy tax. Palo Alto last raised its hotel

tax in 2007, increasing it from 10 to 12 percent. Mayor Greg Scharff on Tuesday proposed raising it to 14 percent, which would place Palo Alto’s rate above those of neighboring cities and on par with San Francisco’s and Oakland’s. Even without the increase, the tax is expected to net the city $11.5 million in revenues this fiscal year. As far as tax hikes go, the hotel tax is relatively palatable to residents. The survey showed 62 percent of respondents would support an increase in hotel tax to pay for infrastructure repairs (24 percent indicated “strong support”). The support for a real estate transfer tax (paid when property is bought and sold) was only 51 percent. Sales tax and utility-users tax scored at the bottom of the scale, with 38 percent and 29 percent. Scharff predicted that increasing a hotel tax would be a “slam dunk.” The council could then commit to using the funds from the tax to pay for a new police building. “Hands down, that’s the one that wins,” Scharff said. Another idea would be to ask voters to pass a bond measure, the same mechanism the city used in 2008

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by Gennady Sheyner to pay for library renovations. The survey showed 64 percent of voters supporting a possible infrastructure bond, though numbers varied depending on the project. More than two-thirds of the voters voiced support for renovating two obsolete fire stations and making progress on street and sidewalk repairs. Yet poll results showed 52 percent of responders would support those items and only 44 percent would support paying for a new downtown garage, another project near the top of the council’s wish list. Opinions on how to resolve the infrastructure quandary ranged far and wide, and the meeting ended with no consensus on what type of measure, if any, should be put on the November 2014 ballot. Vice Mayor Nancy Shepherd urged proceeding expeditiously with a new police building, a project that has eluded the city for more than a decade. The city is now weighing a proposal from developer Jay Paul Co., which offered to construct a police building in exchange for the city’s permission to build a 311,000-squarefoot office complex at 395 Page Mill Road. Shepherd proposed sending the Jay Paul project to the voters in

June for an advisory vote. “I don’t feel we have the shared energy or shared concern,” Shepherd said. “I think this is one of the most important deliverables I have to produce as a council member. I don’t want to kick it down to a future council.” Her colleagues on the committee — Scharff, Larry Klein and Marc Berman — agreed that a new police station and the fire stations should top the infrastructure list. But they had other ideas when it comes to funding. Klein and Scharff agreed that the city should not include the Jay Paul proposal in its deliberations on the 2014 bond. They pointed to a list of other possible ways to fund needed work, including renting land by the Los Altos Treatment Plant, passing a business-license tax and using money from the city’s development agreement with the Stanford University Medical Center. The agreement allots the city $22.1 million for infrastructure and housing and another $12.3 million for sustainability projects. The city also expects to get $2.4 million in annual revenues from new hotels, according to a staff report, which could be used to finance $33.6

million in capital improvements. Given these options, committee members agreed that asking the voters to approve a general-obligation bond on a police building is an unnecessary risk. “I don’t see any point in going to a bond measure unless we absolutely have to,” Klein said. “And I think our resources clearly allow us to move forward.” Berman was more open to a bond and argued that the city should save regular tax revenues for looming expenses such as escalating pension and health care costs. He advocated a bond for items that resonated with the voters, including sidewalk and street repairs. “I think there is support in the community for funding some of the projects that we have identified,” Berman said. With no clear consensus, the committee agreed to revisit the discussion at its next meeting, on Sept. 5. At that time, staff will present an updated analysis and more information about funding options and the city’s capital-improvement program. N Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

Upfront INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

City Council to review Sister Cities program Neighbors Abroad could expand to include business and technology focus by Sue Dremann mailings and city officials participating in meetings with sister-city dignitaries. But the organization’s lifeblood has always been its volunteers, with a vice president to lead each sister-city relationship. That leadership is aging, and although it seeks new volunteers, the program could be at risk if new leadership does not materialize. The staff report recommended continuing city support for Neighbors Abroad while reinvigorating the organization and making the city’s relationships more relevant to its business and technology goals. “We can leverage our existing international relationships and add some new ones, especially those that benefit our city and enhance our position in the global marketplace,” the staff wrote. The city has recently begun following a separate track with business-oriented exchanges through Smart Cities partnerships. A November 2012 exploratory agreement with the District of Yangpu, Shanghai, China, resulted in a pilot businessrelated student-exchange program with students from Palo Alto high schools. Yangpu has also expressed interest in learning more about Stanford Research Park and developing relationships with its companies. Palo Alto has been invited to take part in an October “Smart City” conference involving green-technology leaders in China to help instill 21st-century environmental ideas as China develops its industries, which could affect Bay Area clean-air concerns. The city of Espoo, Finland, and its Aalto University is also interested in collaborating with the Stanford Technology Venture Program and wants to pursue an exchange of government innovations and entrepreneurship ideas with Palo Alto. But the jewel in terms of a collaboration between cities and a pilot melding of Neighbors Abroad and Smart Cities is Heidelberg, Germany. The European city is home to several scientific and technical research institutions. Topics of discussion could include energy efficiency, cloud computing, interactive digital arts and gaming, nanotechnology, biotechnology and medical devices, sustainable development, “smart” cars and renewable energy. The two cities would serve as gateways to European and U.S. markets, the staff report noted. The council will also be asked to direct staff to design a government innovation and entrepreneur fellowship with Stanford, with staff providing an update to the council in the first quarter of 2014. N Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.

VIDEO: Generations of volunteers help at Obon Festival The Palo Alto Buddhist Temple hosted its annual Obon Festival last weekend, Aug. 3-4. The event included food, song and dance by members of the local community. Watch the video by Weekly Photo Intern Christophe Harbusin on www.PaloAltoOnline.com.

EDUCATION

Can ‘design thinking’ solve poverty and racism? Middle school students apply design principles to problems they see by Chris Kenrick

iddle school students in East Palo Alto brainstormed for solutions to racism, poverty and bullying in a summer program that emphasized new ways of problem solving. The 17 students in the Foundation for College Education’s new Steam program used principles of “design thinking,” developed at the d.school, Stanford University’s Institute of Design, to create projects addressing problems in their neighborhoods. “We picked poverty because we saw homeless people in East Palo Alto,” said Javier Berrera, whose group came up with the idea of placing donation boxes for school supplies around town, with information on dropout rates attached. “The reason we thought a lack of education was a big part of poverty was because most of our parents didn’t finish school,” he said. “We thought kids who drop out have a lack of resources, and school supplies would encourage them to get excited about school.” College students Rachel Jue and Ken Kauffman, who have participated in programs at the Stanford d.school, spent four weeks teaching the middle school students how to apply the steps of “design thinking,” which they described as “empathy, define, ideate, prototype and test.” The summer unit, which ended last week, was “a way to get kids to be a little more abstract while doing some concrete work,” said Anna Waring, executive director of Foundation for a College Education. The summer curriculum also included some discussion of early college planning

Courtesy of Foundation for College Education

urning a cultural-exchange program into one of strategic business and technology partnerships, the Palo Alto City Council will discuss its “sister cities” program, Neighbors Abroad, on Aug. 12. The potential revamping of the city’s 50-year-old program to include a short-term, strategic business component could revitalize the aging organization while expanding Palo Alto’s fledgling “Smart Cities” initiative. Smart Cities is a business-exchange project the city has been exploring with China and that staff hopes to expand to other cities around the globe. On Monday evening, staff will ask council members to authorize Mayor Greg Scharff to sign a Smart Cities partnership agreement with Heidelberg, Germany, in October. The agreement would serve as the experimental model for how the new business/cultural organization might function. City staff would collaborate with Neighbors Abroad and other community members to add the Smart Cities concept to new and existing sister cities. The hope is that the new focus will lead more community members to join the nonprofit Neighbors Abroad while advancing the city’s business and technology standing on the global stage, according to a new City Manager’s report. Staff lauded Neighbors Abroad’s significance, saying it provided cultural, educational and ambassadorial benefits. But given the mental shift over the past half-century away from a post-WWII psyche, the Smart Cities model could “attract a broader range of citizens to volunteer in their efforts,” staff noted. Palo Alto established its sistercity exchange program in 1963 with Palo, Leyte, the Philippines. Educational and cultural exchanges followed with five other cities: Oaxaca, Mexico; Enschede, the Netherlands; Linkoping, Sweden; Albi, France; and Tsuchiura, Japan. The impetus for these exchanges came out of the Sister Cities International concept created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 to develop peace and understanding between nations as a deterrent to war. But in the Digital Age, as the hub of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto is being courted by other cities with an interest in technology and business rather than culture. And representatives of some current sister cities have expressed an interest in a more focused relationship, especially related to economic development, according to the City Manager’s report. Neighbors Abroad has received support from the city only peripherally, with use of spaces, help with

Middle school students in the Foundation for a College Education’s summer program interview program associate Amelia Kolokihakaufisi about her workday. Students also produced video interviews of their parents explaining their immigration to the United States. for the students, most of whom are entering sixth grade, as well as trips to the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve, a water-treatment plant and the Exploratorium. The 18-year-old Foundation for College Education runs parent education and after-school programs to increase the number of students of color from the East Palo Alto area who graduate from a four-year college. Of the program’s 140 graduates since 1999, all have enrolled in college and 85 percent have graduated or are on track to do so — more than three times the national rate for students of color. This summer’s Steam program

was the launch of the foundation’s new program for middle school students, aimed at helping the youth “develop the curiosity, persistence and resilience to become successful learners and adolescents.” In the fall, the middle schoolers will come to the Foundation for College Education twice a week to do homework and mentoring and, one Saturday a month, to do larger projects or take field trips to places like Stanford’s technology-based FabLab or the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Waring said. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

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Upfront HEALTH

From big to boutique Palo Alto gyms ditch the big-box mindset for community and personalization

utside of a naturally lit, renovated church with original hardwood floors and stainedglass windows on Ramona Street, people gathered on the steps. They were laughing boisterously, and they were sweating. They weren’t standing outside a church, but instead, their gym, Uforia. Like several other local gyms, Uforia is part of a national trend: fitness centers that forgo the large warehouses with rows and rows of sometimes-daunting exercise equipment for the focused fitness regimens and personalized appeal of “boutique gyms.” Members “want people who know their names,” Uforia owner Sarah Lux said. “They don’t want to go into a club that is awkward and people don’t acknowledge them.” The boutique fitness experience “is definitely, definitely growing.” Lux may be on to something. One of 2013’s major fitness trends is “the rise of specialty gyms,” according to Shape Magazine, a monthly women’s fitness publication. “Both franchised small studios ... and independently owned boutique gyms are popping up nationwide, as the trend has expanded beyond major metropolitan areas,” the article states. The 2008 recession favored the growth of small-budget studios with fewer amenities over “all-inclusive gyms,” according to IBISWorld, a market-analysis firm. Clubs smaller than 20,000 square feet had an 81 percent membership retention rate while the largest clubs had a 70 percent rate in 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported. Membership at smaller clubs saw an 11.3 percent net increase while largest clubs saw a 0.7 percent decline in 2008, the Times stated. Owners of Palo Alto’s small gyms have seen this growth. Noxcuses upgraded from a modest 1,000-squarefoot space to a 6,000-foot location on Middlefield Road five years ago. Downtown’s FORM Fitness made a similar move in 2005, from

a 3,000-square-foot space to an 8,000-square-foot one on Bryant Street. FORM’s owner said the gym also recently doubled its number of trainers and opened a new location in Oakhurst, a Northern California city near Fresno. And Lux said Uforia’s client base grew 280 percent from 2011 to 2013. Its new 3,000-square-foot location has about 25 employees and offers 50 Zumba, cycling, aerobic and strength fitness classes a week. At Uforia, boutique fitness doesn’t just mean complimentary towel rolls, cucumber water and fresh fruit after every class — although all that is included. It also means instructors with professional dance backgrounds, a concierge who knows all clients by name and themed classes such as wedding or Gangnam style. Lux said Uforia’s classes have created close groups of friends who go out for yogurt after class, forgetting about their strenuous workouts. “A boutique fitness studio is very different from a gym. There are only classes here. You are never going to be alone here,” she said. “To me, that’s a big distinction from a gym where there is open equipment and you can just kind of do your own thing and put your music in and not really interact.” Even though FORM Fitness owner Sassan Golafshan agrees, don’t be quick to call FORM a boutique gym. “It would break my heart if people thought of us as ‘boutique’ although I could understand the misconception,” Golafshan said, cautioning that the term “boutique” is overly elitist. “That’s not us. ... The essence of this place is about average Joes just like (the small gym) in the movie ‘Dodgeball.’” Some may rethink the “average” part after looking at the price tag for small gym membership. While an adult can join YMCA Page Mill for $65 a month with an additional enrollment fee or one of Mountain View’s 24 Hour Fitnesses for $40 to $60 a month, Uforia offers monthly

Christophe Haubursin

by Karishma Mehrotra

Lit by blacklights, trainer Lissy Stalter walks through the aisle of Uforia Studios’ underground cycling room to the raging beat of dance music in July. The fitness center, based in a repurposed church, takes a group approach to working out. passes for $130. FORM charges from $60 to $129 in monthly fees, not including the initiation fee, and Noxcuses monthly memberships range from $79 for individuals to $179 for families. Golafshan cautions fitness consumers to not just look at the price. In fact, FORM does not post prices on its website. Golafshan wants people to come to the gym and “see what they’re paying for.” “It’s not like we’re buying books

‘A boutique fitness studio is very different from a gym. There are only classes here. You are never going to be alone here.’ —Sarah Lux, owner, Uforia

Christophe Haubursin

Form Fitness instructor Marcus Romo sits in on Emily Adams’ session at The Annex, the fitness center’s smaller offsite gym, on July 17. Page 8ÊUÊ Õ}ÕÃÌÊ ]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

“A lot of our clients ... don’t necessarily get that sense of community in their day jobs.” Barbara Hoskinson is one of those clients. “After going to work all day, instead of doing something else, people run over to Uforia,” said the 50-plus designer, who drives from Woodside for Uforia classes five days a week, even though she has seven other gym options nearby. “God, I just love it. I will never

on Amazon, where a book is a book. I always say that people need to come in and get a smell and feel for the place to know that ‘For this amount, this is what I’m getting.’” Golafshan added that FORM prices are adjusted by location (for example, FORM’s Oakhurst location charges $49 a month). “You live here for a reason,” he said of Palo Alto. “It’s not like we are charging a fee that residents of Palo Alto cannot pay. ... As consumers, we expect everything to be cheap without really paying attention to what the costs are for this service to be at (our) disposal.” Golafshan said two main costs elevate membership fees for his gym and many others like his. One, they are located in areas with more expensive rent, while big-box gyms choose areas with “dirt-cheap” rent. Two, they reward their employees with higher wages in order to not “kill the personal touch,” Golafshan said. Lux acknowledged that there will always be a market for bigger, corporate gyms like 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym. But there is something different stirring in Palo Alto, she said. “There is something about being community-driven in a tech-centric space that is very special,” Lux said.

not go there,” she said. “I’m like, ‘That is my gym.’” Hoskinson can call in if she is running late for a class, and they will save her spot. She can go out for coffee with a couple of the teachers. She can send them a song request through Facebook that they will integrate into their next class. And, after every Friday class, she sits on the steps and chats with others, sipping wine and “skinny” cocktails. “It’s more than just going to exercise. ... I actually wanna go because it feels very intimate,” she said. Golafshan has seen similar commitment in his clients. The former semiconductor salesman — nicknamed Sass, Sassy and Susan by others at FORM — said one member, an 82-year-old retired architect whom members nicknamed Uncle Fred, has attended every Zumba class since 2008. There is an emphasis on retention at Noxcuses as well. Owner Angie Degeronimo said that members stick around because they learn to integrate fitness into every aspect of their life. She holds an initial consultation (“a lifestyle interview”) and quarterly check-ins with every client where she asks questions that many members haven’t even begun to think about.

“What is the big picture of your life? And how can we set you up to succeed in it?” Degeronimo says to clients. “As opposed to ‘Sign a waiver and get on a machine.’ It’s much more comprehensive and lifestyle, wellness-integrated.” That psychological component, she said, drives true behavior modification. “They have the understanding that, ‘Oh, I don’t just do this short term. This is like my dentist appointments, like my haircuts.’ I see retention.” Like Lux, Degeronimo said Noxcuses members find camaraderie through fitness. “This is their one hour where it’s about (them) and their connection to friends,” Degeronimo said. But the group training is not for all. San Jose State University student Caitlin Warmack-Tirador has been going to the Mountain View 24 Hour Fitness for nearly four years to train for softball during the off-season. “It’s convenient because it’s open 24 hours a day, it’s relatively cheap and they’re located all over,” she said. She said she disregarded smaller gyms because of the price and the emphasis on group training. On the other hand, Noxcuses member Alison Crane and many of her friends sought out a smaller, less crowded gym after going to a big gym for half a decade. Degeronimo said she gives clients what they are interested in. “They are looking for education,” she said. “They are looking for selfcare. They are looking for a little bit of pampering.” N Editorial Intern Karishma Mehrotra can be emailed at kmehrotra@paweekly.com. About the cover: Shadowboxing with dual weights, Form Fitness member Whitney Woods keeps up the pace during one of trainer Emily Adams’ routines at the gym’s The Annex. Photo by Christophe Haubursin.

Upfront

Mouse (continued from page 6)

in San Francisquito Creek such as passing flood flows through the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course ... rather than through the Faber Tract.” If the creek authority chooses to proceed with the project as designed, it would have to include more than a dozen mitigations, including a new “upland refugia” for the rail and the mouse. This could mean installation of “marsh mounds” for the two species near or within the Faber and Laumeiser tracts. The creek authority was also directed by Fish and Wildlife to regularly monitor rodent traps to ensure that no salt marsh harvest mice were captured and to report any instances of captured harvest mice to the agency. Len Materman, executive director of the creek authority (an agency that includes elected officials from the three cities, as well as from the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the San Mateo Flood Control District), said the group is in ongoing negotiations with Fish and Wildlife about the proposed mitigations. The creek authority, he noted, already thoroughly studied the golf-course alternative during its environmental review, and officials concluded that it would cause “significantly greater” harm than with the channel-widening option. Materman told the Weekly the agency doesn’t expect the concerns from Fish and Wildlife to ultimately delay the project. However, the criticisms have already prompted the creek authority to change the sequence of its work. The authority applied for the permits in March and was hoping to have them in place in time to start in-channel work in early September. That now seems highly unlikely. And given that the agency isn’t allowed to work in the creek after mid-October because of the presence of steelhead trout, in-channel work will now have to be deferred until next year, Materman said. At the same time, Materman said, the agency is confident that it will get the permits without delays to the overall project. Some of the mitigations proposed by Fish and Wildlife are already part of the project, while others will be integrated into the design. These include the marsh mounds. The creek authority, he said, has been working with Fish and Wildlife and with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission to determine the locations and designs of the mounds. “We are looking to incorporate new mounds into the design of the project to address that concern,” Materman said. With the channel off limits because of permitting complications, the agency has been focusing on other elements of the project, including work with PG&E on alterations to electric lines crossing the creek and with the East Palo Alto Sanitary District to deal with a sewer line crossing the creek. “What we’re really focused on now is: What kind of things can we do outside the channel so that we can get these things out of the way?” Materman said. N

Michael Repka Before you select a real estate agent, meet with Michael Repka to discuss how his real estate law and tax back-ground beneﬁts Ken DeLeon’s clients.

Managing Broker DeLeon Realty JD - Rutgers School of Law L.L.M (Taxation) NYU School of Law

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REAL ESTATE TRENDS by Samia Cullen

Property Tax Advantage When Downsizing Your Home For many homeowners downsizing makes sense as they get older and family needs change. Although downsizing can be difﬁcult and emotional with memories holding you back from selling your home and taking your life in a new direction, there are advantages to downsizing. Freeing the equity in your home and having a simpler lifestyle can bring the thrill of new adventures, more travel or other activities that you were not able to indulge in before. However, paying higher real property taxes on the prospective new home often acts as a deterrent to downsizing. In California, Propositions 60, 90 and 110 allow qualiﬁed homeowners over the age of 55 or persons of any age who are severely and permanently disabled to transfer a property’s base value from an existing residence to a replacement residence, under certain conditions. These propositions apply to homeowners who relocate within the same participating county or between participating counties

(currently, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Diego, Alameda, Los Angeles and Ventura). Additional requirements for this tax treatment include: (1) the cost of the replacement property can’t exceed the current appraised value of the original property, (2) the replacement property must be acquired within two years of the sale of the original property, (3) the owner should ﬁle an application for this tax treatment within three years of the sale of their residence, and (4) the original residence and the replacement home must be the taxpayer’s primary residence or the taxpayer must have received or be eligible for a Disabled Veteran’s Exemption on both residences. The overview of the tax laws and treatments described in this article is for general information purposes only. You should consult your tax attorney or your accountant regarding how they may apply in your particular circumstances.

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

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Upfront

Creek (continued from page 3)

spheric Administration. The project won’t cause more flooding, Issel said. It is separate from other planned projects to replace the Newell Road and the Chaucer Street bridges in Palo Alto and to re-engineer the creek through the Palo Alto Baylands. Those plans are aimed to improve creek flow during heavy rains to prevent flooding. The weir construction is expected to damage the creek bank, but Palo Alto nonprofit organization Acterra will repair those areas this fall by adding 475 native plants, including snowberry, California blackberry, toyon, oceanspray, dogwood, elderberry native bunchgrasses and willows, said Alex Von Feldt, program director for Acterra Stewardship. The plants are grown at the Acterra Nursery and are native to the San Francisquito watershed. Acterra has been working at the site for more than 15 years, she said. N Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com. Veronica Weber

Steelhead use creek areas above the weir to lay their eggs and spawn and then travel to spots with more abundant food as they mature, according to a Resource Conservation District report. The weir was originally built to protect the base of a 25-foot-high retaining wall, which supports the railroad bridge and protects the historic El Palo Alto redwood. But the weir has become worn down by water and debris over the decades and is no longer structurally sound. In its place will be three, V-shaped rock-boulder weirs 20 feet upstream of the existing weir and 80 feet below, according to Joseph Issel, Resource Conservation District conservation project coordinator. Made of natural streambed materials, the new weirs will direct the water so the fish can move throughout the 40-mile channel from Searsville Dam to the bay.

Strategically placed groups of boulders will help slow the water flow and create shelters for the fish, Issel said. The project also includes repairs to the concrete retaining wall and a culvert. Work to remove the current weir could begin on Monday, Aug. 12, Issel said. The replacement should be completed in four to eight weeks. A bike path will be closed to pedestrians and cyclists when construction equipment is being moved into the area. A detour will be available using the Willow Road pedestrian bridge. The project is taking place after nearly a decade of false starts. An early design to rebuild the weir was deemed too expensive and involved too many landowners. The California Department of Fish and Game rejected a simpler plan to add a fish ladder in 2008. The current design was a collaboration among the Resource Conservation District, Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration and the National Oceanic and Atmo-

A 50-year-old deteriorating concrete slab, which has impeded wild steelhead trout, will be removed to help fish swim freely in San Francisquito Creek near El Palo Alto.

Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to have a joint session with the Library Advisory Commission. The council will then consider a ban on overnight parking on designated blocks within Crescent Park; consider a ban on smoking at all city parks; discuss Palo Alto’s “Neighbors Abroad” and “Smart Cities” partnerships; and revise the city’s recruitment process for boards and commissions. The joint session will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 12, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). The rest of the meeting will follow in the Council Chambers.

WOMEN & CANCER QUARTERLY TALK SERIES

OVARIAN CANCER Current and Novel Treatment Strategies THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 6:30PM – 8:00PM Arrillaga Alumni Center 326 Galvez Street Stanford, CA 94305

The Stanford Women’s Cancer Center and the Stanford Health Library announce a new quarterly series featuring talks on women’s cancers. At Stanford we are making great strides in

Speaker: Oliver Dorigo, MD, PhD

improving the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Director and Associate Professor Division of Gynecologic Oncology Stanford Women’s Cancer Center

ment options available as well as the clinical

This talk will discuss some of the new treattrials available at the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center.

This event is free and open to the public. To register call 650.498.7826 or register online at healthlibrary.stanford.edu/lectures

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COUNCIL APPOINTED OFFICERS COMMITTEE ... The council will meet in closed session for a conference on labor negotiations focusing on councilappointed officers. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). COUNCIL POLICY AND SERVICES COMMITTEE ... The committee will discuss ways to assist the homeless population and consider establishing community-center hours at Cubberley, Lucie Stern and Mitchell Park community centers. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to interview candidates for an opening on the Architectural Review Board. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14, followed by a closed session to discuss performance evaluations for the city clerk and the city auditor, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD ... The board plans to discuss 537 Hamilton Ave., a proposal by Korth Sunseri Hagey Architects for a designenhancement exemption to exceed the 40-foot height limit by 11 feet and 6 inches; and 636 Waverley St., a request by Hays Group Architects for a major architectural review for the demolition of an existing one-story building and construction of a new 10,328-square-foot four-story building with two floors of office space and two residential units on the third and fourth floors. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.). SCHOOL/CITY LIAISON COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the city’s progress on street improvements, the school district’s strategicplan goals and the district/city emergency preparedness and school-safety plans update. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, at the Palo Alto Unified School District, Conference Room A (25 Churchill Ave.). PUBLIC ART COMMISSION ... The commission plans to meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

Upfront

News Digest Council deliberating Maybell project future The Palo Alto City Council last night (Thursday, Aug. 8) was scheduled to determine its next steps on the divisive Maybell Avenue housing development, a planned project that includes 60 housing units for lowincome seniors and 12 single-family homes. Citizens opposed to the development qualified two referendums for the ballot. The referendums would overturn the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approval of Maybell, but when that vote should be held â&#x20AC;&#x201D; during a special election this year or in 2014 as part of a regularly scheduled council election â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was subject to the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision Thursday, after the Weekly went to press. The council also had the option of repealing its June 18 approval of a zone change that enabled the project to go forward. Coverage of Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meeting can be found on PaloAltoOnline.com. The nonprofit Palo Alto Housing Corporation, which is developing the Maybell project, was urging the city to hold a special election this year. Candice Gonzalez, the nonprofitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s executive director, told the Weekly that there was no sense in delaying the development for more than a year while so many seniors are in need of affordable housing. Delaying the election, she said, would unfairly put the burden on the nonprofit and jeopardize the grants that the Housing Corporation is banking on to develop the project on the former orchard site. If the council does not schedule an election for this year, the nonprofit would have to â&#x20AC;&#x153;explore all our options,â&#x20AC;? Gonzalez said, which include withdrawing the application and selling the property. Existing zoning would allow construction of between 34 and 46 single-family homes on the property. Over the past week, opponents of the development have submitted letters asking the council not to schedule a special election, which is by far the costliest option on the table. According to a report from the City Clerk, a special election would cost an estimated $634,400, which includes a $584,400 bill from the Registrar of Voters and $50,000 in expenses for the clerkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office. A vote on June 3, 2014, the day of the primary elections, would cost $404,800. If Palo Alto waits until Nov. 4, 2014, the cost would be $353,000. N â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gennady Sheyner

County woman tests positive for West Nile A Santa Clara County woman has recently tested positive for West Nile virus, the countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first such case this year, health officials said. According to the countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health & Hospital System (HHS), the woman became ill in mid-July and was briefly hospitalized. She is now recovering at home. While there have been 14 confirmed cases of West Nile virus in humans this year in California, there havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been any in the county this year or in 2012. The last human case of the virus in the county was in 2011, and it proved fatal. The county had also one case in 2008, four in 2007 and five in 2006, according to the county. Of the 14 statewide cases this year, two were fatal. The risk of becoming seriously ill from West Nile is low for most people, according to the county. Less than 1 percent of people can develop serious neurological illnesses such as encephalitis or meningitis. Infections are most common between June and September, when the weather is warm and mosquitoes are most active. County officials said residents can lower their risk of getting infected by West Nile Virus by using insect repellent when outdoors; wearing long sleeves and pants when going outside between dusk and dawn; installing screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out; and emptying standing water in flowerpots, gutters, pet-water dishes and other containers. N â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gennady Sheyner

Eight burglaries of Menlo Park-area homes Eight burglaries and thefts were reported in Ladera, Portola Valley, Woodside and Menlo Park between July 22 and Aug. 1, according to the Menlo Park Police Department and the San Mateo County Sheriffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office. Burglaries included: s JEWELRY AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT VALUED AT TAKEN BY A burglar who entered through an unlocked window in Ladera; s TOOLS TAKEN FROM AN UNLOCKED TOOL ROOM IN 0ORTOLA 6ALLEY s COMPUTERS ELECTRONICS A BRIEFCASE AND JEWELRY TAKEN BY SOMEONE who entered through an unlocked bedroom window in Woodside; s TOOLS MISSING FROM A HOME UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN 7EST -ENLO 0ARK s FOUR INCIDENTS OF BICYCLES EITHER LOCKED OR UNLOCKED MISSING FROM garages or carports, all in Menlo Park. Theft reports included unauthorized use of an online account; a resident who was told he owed money for purchases he said he did not make from accounts he does not have; missing jewelry from a closet in a home being remodeled; a walkie-talkie missing from an unlocked work vehicle; camera equipment missing from unlocked vehicle; two incidents of laptops and cell phones missing from locked vehicles with smashed windows; a skateboarder missing an iPhone left on a bench while skateboarding; a missing bench and side table from a yard; and a sighting of two men fleeing from the 7-11 store at 525 Oak Grove Ave. with $54 worth of 12-packs of beer. N â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Almanac staff

Corrections In the Aug. 2 article â&#x20AC;&#x153;Palo Alto considers suspending PaloAltoGreen,â&#x20AC;? the Utilities Advisory Commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vote was reported incorrectly. It was unanimous. Also, part of the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recommendation was omitted. The recommendation also directed staff to develop an alternative program that would allow customers to reduce the carbon footprint of their natural-gas supply through the purchase of â&#x20AC;&#x153;carbon offsets.â&#x20AC;? The Weekly regrets the errors. To request a correction, contact Editor Jocelyn Dong at 650-223-6514, jdong@paweekly. com or P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302.

CityView A round-up of

Palo Alto government action this week

City Council (Aug. 5) Vehicle dwelling: The council passed an ordinance banning vehicle dwelling. Yes: Burt, Klein, Kniss, Price, Scharff, Schmid, Shepherd No: Berman, Holman

Council Infrastructure Committee (Aug. 6) Sidewalks: The committee discussed the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s infrastructure priorities and possible ways to pay for these items, including an increased hotel tax and a bond measure that would go on the November 2014 ballot. Action: None

LETâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com

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

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Upfront

Homeless (continued from page 3)

and substance-abuse issues, as well as those who have been living on the streets for a long time and have resisted services in the past. On Tuesday night, Aug. 13, the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Policy and Services Committee will consider this proposal as well as other ways to assist the homeless population. It will also weigh a proposal to limit public access to Cubberley and other community centers at night. The new policy would limit access to between sunrise and 10:30 p.m. The report notes that with Cubberley open overnight, staff is â&#x20AC;&#x153;concerned for the safety and security of the Cubberley patrons, tenants, staff and the individuals residing on campus.â&#x20AC;? Some Cubberley dwellers get into â&#x20AC;&#x153;verbal disputes and physical altercations in the shower room,â&#x20AC;? according to the report. Some refuse to leave the showers at 8 a.m. (showers in the locker rooms are open to the public between 6 and 8 a.m., but only the homeless use it during that period). Others use the centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bathrooms for bathing and cooking. Staff has also reported fights between individuals, drinking and drug use and trespassing by some individuals into classrooms for overnight shelter. The report suggests an immediate response along with a long-term plan. In the short term, there would be an assessment of Cubberley residents and increased monitoring of showers. The long-term strategy would involve creating a HOT program of the sort envisioned by InnVision and its partners. The cost of such a team would be $150,000, according to staff. The Palo Alto team would tailor a â&#x20AC;&#x153;needs and services planâ&#x20AC;? for each Cubberley resident, hold one-on-one sessions and outreach events for the

residents and transport them to the Opportunity Center or InnVision shelters such as the Montgomery Street and Julian Street inns in San Jose. Mila Zelkha, who works on InnVisionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s administrative team and who helped formulate the program, said the group has been collaborating with other organizations, including the Downtown Streets Team, Momentum for Mental Health and Project WeHOPE, a shelter in East Palo Alto. She called InnVisionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal a â&#x20AC;&#x153;first passâ&#x20AC;? and said groups will continue to meet to refine a solution, with each agency contributing its ideas. Zelkha said that while her agency didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take a position on Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vehicle-habitation ban, it acknowledges that both sides of the debate make good points. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many of the people against the ban participate heavily in our programs, including Hotel de Zink, Breaking Bread and Clothes Closet,â&#x20AC;? Zelkha told the Weekly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are allies and they have raised legitimate concerns. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On the other side, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re very concerned about the fact that there is a de facto homeless shelter at Cubberley. It canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t continue to exist in the form that it is right now.â&#x20AC;? Zelkha, a Palo Alto resident who started working for InnVision Shelter Network in May, was among those in attendance at Monday nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s council meeting, where members voted 7-2 to approve the ban. She told the council that her organization is concerned about the safety issues around the neighborhoods and at the community center and urged the council to craft a strategy for getting the needed resources to the homeless population. More than 60 people spoke at the Monday meeting, with dozens urging the council not to pass the ban. Some speakers said that they have recently fallen on hard times and have no other place to stay. Fred

Smith was among them. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I recently lost my job, my wife and my house. I now live in an RV in a commercial zone. Please donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t criminalize me,â&#x20AC;? Smith said, before getting a round of applause. Residents from Greenmeadow and other areas near Cubberley supported the ban and told the council that they no longer feel safe in their neighborhoods. Their argument proved powerful for the council, which voted 7-2 to support the ban, with Marc Berman and Karen Holman dissenting. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have an obligation to protect our neighborhoods,â&#x20AC;? Councilman Larry Klein said during the discussion, which ended with shouts of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shame!â&#x20AC;? from observers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The dramatic increase in the homeless sleeping in their vehicles shows that we have inadvertently become a magnet. That has to come to an end.â&#x20AC;? Now that the ban is in place, the city is looking to work with area nonprofits to provide support for vehicle dwellers. In July, the city invited InnVision Shelter Network, the Downtown Streets Team and the San Jose-based Momentum for Mental Health to develop solutions that could be considered by the Policy and Services Committee on Aug. 13. InnVision also hosted a roundtable discussion in late July with congregations that host the rotating Hotel de Zink shelter about possibly expanding the program. The discussion has continued online in a private group, she said. InnVision Shelter Network (a group formed last year after InnVision merged with Shelter Network) makes it clear in its white paper that solving the problem wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be easy, given the wide range of challenges that vehicle dwellers face. The groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outreach team has already conducted a preliminary assessment of the Cubberley campus, the white paper states. Its strategy includes enhancing the services offered at

the Opportunity Center, including intensified case management and life-skills workshops. Case management will be implemented to â&#x20AC;&#x153;more effectively transition unsheltered homeless people into shelter and other housing opportunities.â&#x20AC;? The paper notes that some members of the community may be employed but â&#x20AC;&#x153;choose to live in their vehicles because of cost efficiency.â&#x20AC;? They may not suffer from addictions or serious illnesses, the paper states. â&#x20AC;&#x153;These individuals pose unique challenges, as they may not be in need of behavioral or primary health care services,â&#x20AC;? the paper states. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Although these individuals may not pose risk or undue nuisance factors to the community, they also must be assisted in transitioning out of Cubberley (or other areas unsuitable for vehicular or unsheltered housing). IVSN is experienced in negotiating with these individuals and circumstances.â&#x20AC;? The white paper notes that while the program would be new to Palo Alto, it has a proven track record elsewhere in the region. The HOT system has already succeeded in East Palo Alto, San Mateo and Redwood City. It has recently received

funds to expand to Half Moon Bay, Pacifica and South San Francisco. The goals for the Palo Alto program include a census that accounts for at least 80 percent of Cubberley residents and a two-day Beyond the Streets event that includes participation from at least 90 percent of the residents. Within the first six months of the contract award for a HOT program, 20 percent of the Cubberley residents will secure â&#x20AC;&#x153;permanent, permanent supportive, or other appropriate housing options.â&#x20AC;? Within a year of the contract, the number would be 40 percent. Ultimately, the effort would spread beyond Cubberley, the paper states. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If implemented, outreach case management will target homeless individuals residing at the Cubberley campus in conjunction with a recommended City of Palo Alto night closure of campus facilities and grounds, with the ultimate goal of dramatically reducing the unsheltered population, and significant efforts undertaken to help to secure permanent exits from homelessness for the target population throughout Palo Alto.â&#x20AC;? N Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

Online This Week

These and other news stories were posted on Palo Alto Online throughout the week. For longer versions, go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news or click on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Newsâ&#x20AC;? in the left, green column.

Psychiatrist who molested boys is jailed Dr. William Ayres was a former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He had treated pediatric patients from the 1960s to 2006, and evaluated hundreds of cases in San Mateo County juvenile court going back to the 1970s. (Posted Aug. 8, 9:11 a.m.)

One killed in head on crash in Woodside One person was killed and another was airlifted to a hospital after a head-on traffic collision on the outskirts of Woodside Wednesday evening, according to the California Highway Patrol. (Posted Aug. 8, 9:04 a.m.)

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Workers began removing a large oak tree at the entrance of Cagan Stadium at Stanford University on Tuesday, Aug. 6. (Posted Aug. 7, 10:51 a.m.)

WiFi to go live at Cogswell Plaza Flipping a giant switch at Elinor Cogswell Plaza today, Mayor Greg Scharff and City Council members will juice up the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal to make Palo Alto â&#x20AC;&#x153;the leading digital city of the future,â&#x20AC;? by giving it ultrahigh-speed Internet access. (Posted Aug. 6, 5:11 p.m.)

Zuckerberg calls for immigration reform The push for immigration reform got a boost Monday night when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave opening remarks for a film about Mountain Viewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented immigrant and Pulitzer prize winner. (Posted Aug. 6, 4:24 p.m.)

Palo Alto mayor signs on to gun-control coalition

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In an unscripted move, Palo Alto Mayor Greg Scharff on Monday night went along with urgings from the public and signed on to Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a gun-control initiative co-founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (Posted Aug. 5, 9:36 p.m.)

Motorist kidnapped at Palo Alto gas station A motorist pumping gas at the Shell gas station on Embarcadero Road was kidnapped and forced to drive an allegedly drunk man away from an accident early Thursday morning, Aug. 1. (Posted Aug. 2, 1:32 p.m.)

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Want to get news briefs emailed to you every weekday? Sign up for Express, our new daily e-edition. Go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com to sign up.

Upfront CRIME

Palo Alto home burglaries spike again Police warn residents to ‘Lock It or Lose It’ by Sue Dremann

ix residential burglaries in six days have prompted Palo Alto police to warn residents to be vigilant and lock their windows and doors. “We have had a spike,” Detective Sgt. Brian Philip of the police property-crimes investigative unit said Monday. The spate of break-ins began July 26, with the latest occurring Aug. 1. The burglaries were in north Palo Alto neighborhoods: in the 900 block of Elsinore Drive, 600 block of Palo Alto Avenue, 700 block of Alester Avenue, 1700 and 1900

blocks of Channing Avenue and 100 block of Walter Hays Drive. The burglars were believed to be on bicycles and scooters, he said. Items taken in three burglaries included jewelry (including a wedding ring), MacBooks, an iPhone, an Apple notebook and a revolver, police spokesman Officer Sean Downey said. In two cases the possessions were worth $4,650 and $5,550, he said. The value of items stolen in two other burglaries were not immediately known, and nothing was taken in one incident, according to police logs. Over the past several months, the

department has fought a spate of auto burglaries with the help of law enforcement in other cities and the San Mateo and Santa Clara county gang task forces. Several burglary groups working vehicle and residential break-ins have been affiliated with street gangs, Philip said. Police captured many of the criminals responsible for last year’s spate of residential burglaries. Twenty-six burglaries occurred in August 2012 alone. They put pressure on convicted burglars who are on probation and parole. But gangs might now have new players, he said.

Smash

Also, Palo Alto’s low crime rate leads to relaxed residents who might leave their valuables in their cars more often, she said. Philip put Palo Alto’s auto burglaries in a larger context. Many of the criminals don’t just burglarize cars. “In the grand scheme of things and in light of the auto-burglary rise, it brought to our attention that many of these crews are prolific in other things,” he said. “They are coming down here (from San Francisco) and doing a montage of crimes.” The various crimes include identify theft — which increased for a time at Palo Alto’s Nordstrom — and shoplifting. “So we know that; mall security knows that now,” Philip said. “So we were focusing on suspicious activity in general because we know that they are not partial to one crime or another.” One aspect that police still need

to work on is discovering where the stolen items end up, he said. “That seems to be the problem as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “It would be really nice if we could get law-enforcement resources together and try and figure it out.” Despite the continuing work, Philip said he predicts a steady decline in window-smash burglaries in Palo Alto. “Obviously, I don’t like seeing a big trend,” he said. “And I want people to continue to visit our towns and frequent our restaurants, so I’m going to do whatever I can to make this a safe place for them to be so they don’t have to worry about being a victim.” N

(continued from page 3)

— a strong asset, he said, to stopping burglaries. The arrest of a San Francisco man named Raydell Fletcher on June 25 was an inter-agency effort. After surveillance video at Stanford’s Nordstrom allegedly captured Fletcher committing an auto burglary, the San Francisco Police Department located a vehicle that matched Palo Alto police’s description of Fletcher’s car, and the Palo Alto police booked him. Palo Alto is not alone in experiencing a burglary spike. The crimes have increased across the Peninsula, and agencies have worked together to stem the issue, Philip said. Other heavily hit areas include malls in Daly City, San Mateo and San Francisco. Daly City Sgt. Michael Barton said their spike occurred in May and June around the Serramonte Shopping Center. It’s a crime a lot of cities are dealing with right now, he said. “What we found is that (the criminals) were not people we normally deal with, within our city,” he said. “So they were from outside our jurisdiction.” Barton said it would be fair to assume these criminals are mobile. “They are not going to stay in Daly City,” he said, especially if they see an increased police presence. “From a common sense approach, I would say that they will go somewhere else like Palo Alto.” It’s a “crime of opportunity,” in which criminals target areas where people leave their cars for a long time, he said. San Francisco Police Department Public Information Officer Tracy Turner said San Francisco had a 31 percent increase in auto burglaries in 2013. Criminals burglarized vehicles 1,139 times in May and 960 times in June in San Francisco. “They do come from out of the area to hit places,” she said. She reasoned that the increased value of the items left in cars has led to the growth of this crime.

SEE MORE ONLINE

www.PaloAltoOnline.com See a map of where the summer’s auto burglaries took place. Go to the digital version of this story on PaloAltoOnline.com

“It may be that they are passing on knowledge to other subjects,” Philip said. Fourteen residential burglaries occurred in July 2012 compared to the six this July, he said. But police don’t want the thieves to get a foothold. March, August, October and November were last year’s biggest burglary months, he said. “We need to remind people to be very vigilant about your property,” Philip said. In most of the recent incidents, thieves gained entry through open windows and unlocked doors. One thief climbed up and entered through an open second-story window. In the Alester incident, the

thief tried one back-yard window and then entered through a second one that was unlocked. No arrests have been made. The department will renew a special-enforcement detail, consisting of additional patrol and plainclothes officers. Palo Alto will continue its collaboration with other police departments and with Santa Clara and San Mateo county gang task forces, he said. The department is asking residents to review suggestions from its “Lock It or Lose It!” crimeprevention campaign. Information, including updated burglary maps, is available at www.cityofpaloalto. org/police. N

PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL CIVIC CENTER, 250 HAMILTON AVENUE BROADCAST LIVE ON KZSU, FM 90.1 CABLECAST LIVE ON GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL 26 ***************************************** THIS IS A SUMMARY OF COUNCIL AGENDA ITEMS. THE AGENDA WITH COMPLETE TITLES INCLUDING LEGAL DOCUMENTATION CAN BE VIEWED AT THE BELOW WEBPAGE: http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/agendas/council.asp (TENTATIVE) AGENDA – SPECIAL MEETING COUNCIL CHAMBERS August 12, 2013 - 6:00 PM STUDY SESSION 1. Joint Study Session with the Library Advisory Commission CONSENT 2. Adoption of Budget Amendment Ordinance, Approval of additional CDBG entitlement funds for Fiscal Year 2014 and an additional allocation of $30,000 to Avenidas from the City's Federal Line of Credit ACTION ITEMS 3. Adoption of an Ordinance Amending Chapter 9.14 (Smoking Regulations) of the Municipal Code to Either Ban Smoking in All City parks, or Ban Smoking in City Parks Except the Municipal Golf Course and a Designated Area at Mitchell, Greer and Rinconada Parks; Increase No-Smoking Buffer Zones; and Make Findings 4. Adoption of a Resolution Allowing the Implementation of a OneYear Trial No Overnight Parking (2AM-5AM) Program on Streets within the Crescent Park Neighborhood (Continued from 8/5/13) 5. Review of the City of Palo Alto/ Neighbor's Abroad Sister Cities Program, Discussion of International Relationships Strategy, Authorization to Engage in a Non-Binding "Smart Cities Partnership Agreement" with the City of Heidelberg, Germany, and Direction on Exploring Future "Smart City" Partnerships 6. From Policy & Services: Board and Commission Recruitment Program

STANDING COMMITTEE MEETINGS The Council Appointed Officers Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 4:00 PM The Policy and Services Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 6:00 PM to discuss; 1) Community Center Hours and Homeless Outreach, 2) Auditor’s Office Quarterly Report as of June 30, 2013, 3) Report on the Status of Audit Recommendations (June 2013), and 4) City Auditor’s Office Fiscal Year 2014 Proposed Workplan and Risk Assessment The School/City Committee will meet on Thursday, August 15, 2013 at 9:30 AM at the Palo Alto Unified School District Office to discuss; 1) PAUSD Strategic Plan Goals, and 2) District/City Emergency Preparedness & School Safety Plans Update

(TENTATIVE) AGENDA – SPECIAL MEETING COUNCIL CONFERENCE ROOM August 14, 2013 - 5:30 PM 1.

Architectural Review Board Interviews

(TENTATIVE) AGENDA – SPECIAL MEETING COUNCIL CONFERENCE ROOM August 14, 2013 - 6:00 PM 1. 2.

Closed Session City Clerk Annual Review Closed Session City Auditor Annual Review

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CITY OF PALO ALTO NOTICE OF FINAL DATES ON OR BEFORE WHICH DIRECT AND REBUTTAL ARGUMENTS MAY BE SUBMITTED TO THE CITY CLERK IN SUPPORT OF OR AGAINST THE MEASURES IN PALO ALTO TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE ELECTORS OF PALO ALTO AT A SPECIAL ELECTION, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that Friday, August 16, 2013, at 5:00 p.m., has been ďŹ xed as the ďŹ nal date and time when direct arguments for or against any qualifying ballot measure may be submitted to the City Clerk for printing and distribution to the voters of the City. The deadline for ďŹ ling rebuttal arguments with the City Clerk has been set for Friday, August 23, 2013, at 5:00 p.m. The polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. All materials to be printed in the Sample Ballot regarding the measure will be available for public examination from Saturday, August 24, 2013 through Tuesday, September 3, 2013, online at http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/ depts/clk/default.asp and in the City Hall Lobby and at the City Clerkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ofďŹ ce on the seventh ďŹ&#x201A;oor. DONNA J. GRIDER, MMC City Clerk

Pulse

A weekly compendium of vital statistics

POLICE CALLS Palo Alto August 1-7 Violence related Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Child abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Elder abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle related Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Bike recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Bike theft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Driving w/suspended license . . . . . . . . .6 Driving without license . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Lost/stolen plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Reckless driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Vehicle accident/mnr injury. . . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle accident/prop. damage . . . . . . 16 Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Alcohol or drug related Drinking in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Open container. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Possession of paraphernalia. . . . . . . . . .1 Under the influence of drugs . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Kidnapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Misc. penal code violation . . . . . . . . . . .3 Noise ordinance violation . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .3 Trespassing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Menlo Park August 1-7 Violence related Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft related Commercial burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle related Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Bike theft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Driving w/suspended license . . . . . . . . .3 Driving without license . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Lost/stolen plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Vehicle accident/prop. damage . . . . . . .3 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Miscellaneous Animal call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Indecent exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Juvenile problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Property for destruction . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . 1 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Atherton August 1-7 Theft related Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle related Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Suspicious vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Vehicle accident/prop. damage . . . . . . .2 Vehicle code violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Alcohol or drug related Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Fire call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Medical aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Suspicious person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Town ordinance violation . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

VIOLENT CRIMES Palo Alto El Camino Real, 5/8. 2:47 p.m.; child abuse/physical. Redwood Court, 6/27, 12:40 p.m.; elder abuse/financial. Embarcadero Rd., 7/17, 10:45 a.m.; battery/simple. Welch Rd., 7/30, 6:21 p.m.; child abuse/ neglect. Pena Court, 8/3, 11:43 a.m.; domestic violence/battery. 500 blk University Ave., 8/3, 3:20 p.m.; Stanislav Kass booked at main jail for strong arm robbery. 855 El Camino Real, 8/4, 5:03 p.m.; Assault with a deadly weapon, victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foot ran over by vehicle.

Menlo Park Bayfront Expressway/Willow Rd., 8/5, 10:11 a.m.; Assault/battery occurred after a traffic altercation.

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%JTDPWFS MPDBM CVTJOFTTFT at ShopPaloAlto.com t 4FBSDI MJTUJOHT t 3FBE BOE XSJUF SFWJFXT t 'JOE DPVQPOT BOE TQFDJBM EFBMT t 1VSDIBTF HJGU DFSUJĂś DBUFT t 4FF VQDPNJOH TQFDJBM FWFOUT t 7JFX QIPUPT BOE NBQT For more information call 650.223.6587 or email info@ShopPaloAlto.com Page 14Ă&#x160;UĂ&#x160; Ă&#x2022;}Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x192;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x160;Â&#x2122;]Ă&#x160;Ă&#x201C;Ă¤ÂŁĂ&#x17D;Ă&#x160;UĂ&#x160;*>Â?Â&#x153;Ă&#x160; Â?Ă&#x152;Â&#x153;Ă&#x160;7iiÂ&#x17D;Â?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x160;UĂ&#x160;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x153;Â°*>Â?Â&#x153; Â?Ă&#x152;Â&#x153;"Â&#x2DC;Â?Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;iÂ°VÂ&#x153;Â&#x201C;

Transitions Births, marriages and deaths

Loigene Grace Gendzel Loi Gendzel was a resident of Palo Alto from 1962 to 2012. She died on July 25. She moved to the retirement community at The Forum in Cupertino, Calif., in May of 2012. Born and raised in New York City, an only child, she graduated from Freeport High School on Long Island and then from Barnard College (Columbia University) in 1951, having majored in political science (international relations). She earned her Master’s in Social Work from the Columbia School of Social Work in 1956 while working at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center. She married Ivan Gendzel, M.D., on May 4, 1957. They relocated to San Francisco in 1958 and then lived on the Peninsula and in Oakland before moving to Palo Alto in 1962. Their son, Glen, and daughter, Amy, were raised and schooled there. Active in the PTA, the 4H and school enrichment programs, she later taught Oriental Brush Painting at Avenidas in Palo

Alto for 30 years and was an active volunteer with the United Nations Association, serving on the board and helping to set up the Library and Information Center. She and Ivan traveled extensively (frequently with their young adult children) during the 1980s and 1990s. Because of increasing heart problems, she was scheduled for heart surgery in August, but died suddenly at home. She is survived by her husband of 56 years, Ivan Gendzel of Cupertino; son Glen Gendzel, his wife, Colleen Hamilton, and their children (Joelle and Louis) of San Jose; daughter Amy Taylor, her husband John Taylor and their children (Grace and Jackson) of Everton, England (UK); sister-in-law Sue Ezekiel, her husband George Ezekiel of Oakland, their two sons (Dan & Jack) and their families. She was an artist and musician who loved teaching and sharing these interests with her students and fans. A memorial service was held on Aug. 4 in Cupertino. Please do not send flowers. However, if you wish to make a donation in her memory, consider Avenidas or the United Nations Association - Midpeninsula Chapter (where she volunteered for many years).

Visit

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

Dorothy Munn Aker June 4, 1925 – July 14, 2013 Dorothy June passed away on July 14, 2013 at Sunrise Assisted Living in Palo Alto, California. She was born in Taft, CA on June 4, 1925 to Alice Taylor Munn and Charles Edward Munn. Dorothy grew up in Long Beach, CA and graduated from the University of Redlands with a teaching credential. She taught in Bakersfield and then moved to Menlo Park to teach in the Palo Alto Unified School District. She married Raymond Aker in December, 1950. They lived in Palo Alto, building their home on Waverley Street where she lived for 50 years. She moved to Sunrise in November of 2006. She stopped teaching to raise a family and then returned to the Palo Alto Unified School District to teach for more than 15 years. She was involved in AAUW; PEO, Chapter T in Palo Alto; The Women’s Propeller Club, Port of the Golden Gate; and American Baptist Women, both while working and in retirement. She has been an active member of

the First Baptist Church of Palo Alto since 1951. Dorothy enjoyed traveling with her late husband, Raymond, sharing numerous adventures around the world in Europe, South America, Greenland, and Indonesia. She shared her husband’s interests in his work with the Drake Navigators Guild and historical ships. She enjoyed her family and is survived by her three children: Carolyn Shepard of Belmont, Charles Aker (Concepcion de Maria) of Leon, Nicaragua and Elizabeth Mateyka (James) of Erie, Colorado, and four grandchildren: Steven Shepard, Carlos and Maria Alejandra Aker, and Matthew Mateyka. Interment will be private. A Memorial Celebration will be held on Sunday, August 18, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Palo Alto, 305 N. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301. In lieu of ﬂowers, donations for scholarships for women may be made to www.peointernational.org. PA I D

OBITUARY

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Health & Fitness

Fall Class Guide F

all is just around the corner. That means that the kids are back in school, but there are still opportunities and classes available for adults and kids outside of the campus. Fall is a great time to learn a new cooking technique, dance or pick up that language that you’ve always wanted to learn. All the classes listed below are local. The Class Guide is published quarterly by The Almanac, the Palo Alto Weekly and the Mountain View Voice.

Business, Work and Technology CareerGenerations 2225 E. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto 650-320-1639 info@CareerGenerations.com www.CareerGenerations.com CareerGenerations offers group sessions to meet specific career needs. CareerGenerations career coaches can help assess talents in the context of today’s marketplace, generate career options, improve resumes and socialmedia profiles, design a successful search plan, and skillfully network, interview and negotiate salaries.

For the Dancer Beaudoin’s School of Dance 464 Colorado Ave., Palo Alto 650-326-2184 www.Beaudoins-Studio.com Tap, ballet, ballroom and jazz dance classes are available for children and adults as well as special classes for preschoolers.

Dance Connection 4000 Middlefield Road, L-5, Palo Alto Studio: 650-852-0418 Office: 650-322-7032 info@danceconnectionpaloalto.com www.danceconnectionpaloalto.com Dance Connection offers graded classes for preschool to adult with a variety of programs to meet every dancer’s needs. Ballet, jazz, tap, hiphop, boys program, lyrical, pilates and combination classes are available for beginning to advanced levels.

Uforia Studios 819 Ramona St., Palo Alto 650-329-8794 www.uforiastudios.com Uforia Studios specializes in vari-

American Red Cross: Silicon Valley Chapter 400 Mitchell Lane, Palo Alto 650-688-0415 www.siliconvalley-redcross.org In a Red Cross First Aid class students learn CPR, choking rescue, bleeding control and treatment of burns, fractures, seizures and more. Adult CPR and First Aid Certificates.

ous fitness classes: dance (Zumba, hip-hop, Bollywood, hula hooping), strength and sculpting (uDefine) and spinning (uCycle). All fitness levels and abilities are welcome.

Zohar School of Dance and Company 4000 Middlefield Road, L-4, Palo Alto 650-494-8221 zohardance@gmail.com www.zohardancecompany.org Zohar offers classes in jazz, ballet and modern dance to middle and high school kids as well as adults. The studio is under the direction of Ehud and Daynee Krauss.

The Great Outdoors Lucy Geever-Conroy, Flight Instructor for Advantage Aviation 1903 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto 650-493-5987 www.advantage-aviation.com Offering learn-to-fly seminars, ground school and flying lessons, along with free seminars for pilots.

Be Yoga 440 Kipling St., Palo Alto 650-906-9016 info@be.yoga.com www.be-yoga.com Yoga studio with small class sizes and workshops on ayurveda, reiki and meditation.

Betty Wright Swim Center at Abilities United 3864 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto 650-494-1480 www.AbilitiesUnited.org/ BWSCwelcome aquatics@AbilitiesUnited.org Aquatic exercise and therapy in the fully accessible, public, warm-water (93 degrees) indoor pool. Classes include aqua aerobics, aqua arthritis, back basics, body conditioning, Aichi yoga and prenatal. Swim lessons.

California Yoga Center (Palo Alto) 541 Cowper St., Palo Alto 650-967-5702 info@californiayoga.com www.californiayoga.com The California Yoga Center offers classes for beginning to advanced stu-

dents. Classes emphasize individual attention and cultivate strength, flexibility and relaxation. Ongoing yoga classes are scheduled every day and include special classes such as prenatal, back care and pranayama. Weekend workshops explore a variety of yoga-related topics. Studios in Mountain View and Palo Alto.

The Happy Body 305 North California Ave., Palo Alto 310-488-1862 creators@thehappybody.com www.happybody.com The Happy Body Program is a different approach to weight loss. Using a system involving nutrition, exercise and relaxation, teachers Aniela and Jerzy Gregorek help achieve the desired results of a balanced lifestyle featuring improved health and greater youthfulness.

Kidz Love Soccer Mitchell Park, 600 E. Meadow Drive, Palo Alto 408-774-4629 www.kidzlovesoccer.com/ classes.php Kidz Love Soccer youth soccer classes are open to boys and girls of all abilities. The curriculum is customized for kids of all ages. Classes encourage a better SELF — Sportsmanship, Esteem, Learning and Fun.

Kim Grant Tennis Academy 3005 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto 650-752-8061 www.kimgranttennis.com The Kim Grant Tennis Academy offers tennis classes to minis (ages 3-5), beginner (ages 5-7), intermediate

KEHILLAH JEWISH HIGH SCHOOL Admission Open House Sundays 2-4:30 p.m.

October 27, 2013 December 15, 2013

RSVP to admissions@kehillah.org | 650.213.9600 x154 3900 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303 | www.kehillah.org Kehillah means community. Join us. Page 16ÊUÊ Õ}ÕÃÌÊ ]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Fall Class Guide I and II, advanced and elite players.

dementia caregiving and computers. Membership costs, fees and class listings are included on the website.

Studio Kicks 796A San Antonio Road, Palo Alto 650-855-9868 info@studiokickspaloalto.com www.studiokickspaloalto.com Studio Kicks is a family fitness center offering high-energy cardio kickboxing classes and martial-arts training for kids 4 and up. Taught by owner/instructor Richard Branden, six-time world champion and original stunt cast member for the “Power Rangers.”

Taijiquan Tutelage of Palo Alto 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto 650-327-9350 mjchan@ttopa.com www.ttopa.com Taijiquan Tutelage teaches the classical Yang Chengfu style of Taijiquan (T’ai chi ch’uan). Beginning classes start monthly.

Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA

Language Courses German Language Class 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto 650-329-3752 adultschool@pausd.org www.paadultschool.org This Palo Alto Adult School class teaches participants how speak, read, and write German, with an emphasis on conversation. Basic grammar and Germanic culture are also covered. Weekly class begins Sept. 19.

The Peninsula Parents Place Koret Family Resource Center, 200 Channing Ave., Palo Alto 650-688-3040 www.parentsplaceonline.org/ peninsula KarenFB@jfcs.org Offers parenting classes on subjects ranging from strategies for managing picky eaters to making the switch from diapers.

3391 Middlefield Road, YES Hall, Palo Alto 650-396-9244 paloalto.ca@taoist.org www.california.usa.taoist.org The nonprofit Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA has nationally accredited instructors who offer classes designed to improve balance, strength and flexibility while promoting relaxation and good health. Beginner classes in Taoist Tai Chi internal art of Tai Chi Chuan are offered for all ages and fitness levels in Palo Alto. First class is free.

Mind and Spirit Ananda Palo Alto 2171 El Camino Real, Palo Alto 650-323-3363 www.anandapaloalto.org Offers classes on meditation, chanting and yoga.

Music, Arts and Food Art with Emily 402 El Verano Ave., Palo Alto 650-856-9571 emilyjeanyoung@gmail.com www.artwithemily.com Emily Young teaches mixed-media, multi-cultural art lessons for children at her fully equipped studio.

Midpeninsula Community Media Center 900 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto 650-494-8686 info@midpenmedia.org www.communitymediacenter.net The Media Center offers classes every month in a wide range of media

(continued on next page)

Yoga at All Saints’ Episcopal Church 555 Waverley St., Palo Alto 650-322-4528 www.asaints.org Kundalini-style yoga, combining asana (physical poses), breathing exercises and meditation. All ages. No registration necessary.

Just for Seniors Avenidas 450 Bryant St., Palo Alto 650-289-5400 www.avenidas.org Avenidas offers classes from balance, line dancing and back fitness to

Palo Alto Prep CHANGING LIVES...REDEFINING EDUCATION Palo Alto Prep is a unique private high school designed to help students succeed in every aspect of life. We believe that school should be enjoyable and every student experience the pride of personal and academic accomplishment. International trips and experiential activities create a fulﬁlling high school atmosphere

See our New Campus TH

OPEN HOUSE NOV 7 Call for Details Founded in 1985 www.paloaltoprep.com

Accepting applications for FALL 2013-2014 Fully accredited/UC A-G college prep. Year-round enrollment.

PALO ALTO PREPARATORY SCHOOL

2462 Wyandotte Street, Mountain View 650.493.7071

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Nurturing Minds and Hearts Come grow with us

!CCEPTING !PPLICATIONS for K-4 for the 2013-2014 School Year

Ventana is a progressive Episcopal school taking its inspiration from the schools of Reggio Emilia which encourage artistic expression, critical thinking and investigative learning.

" # # $ % $ & ' ( )

We offer a unique educational experience for curious minds!

Fall Class Guide (continued from previous page)

arts, including publishing media on the Web, podcasting, digital editing, field production, TV studio production, Photoshop for photographers, citizen journalism and autobiographical digital stories. Biweekly free orientation sessions and tours.

New Mozart School of Music 305 N. California Ave., Palo Alto 650-324-2373 info@newmozartschool.com www.newmozartschool.com New Mozart provides early-childhood music classes for children 2-7 years old, including violin classes and group Suzuki lessons.

â&#x20AC;˘ An education focused on the development of the whole child

Opus1 Music Studio

â&#x20AC;˘ Small class sizes and ratios providing individualized instruction

2800 W. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto 650-625-9955 musicopus1@gmail.com www.musicopus1.com Opus1 Music Studio offers group music lessons for all kinds of instruments to ages 2 and up. Beginners to advanced level.

â&#x20AC;˘ Project-based curriculum promoting inquiry and collaboration â&#x20AC;˘ Quality after-school enrichment programs Call us to Register, RSVP or schedule a tour: 650.948.2121 or email ventanaschool@ccla.us WWW VENTANASCHOOL ORG s "ORDER 2OAD ,OS !LTOS

Friends Nursery School is now taking applications for our 2013-2014 school year! Our fully qualiďŹ ed teachers provide a nuturing environment that fosters social/emotional development and creativity and is consistent with our play-based curriculum (non-proďŹ t, modiďŹ ed parent co-op). Visit our website at www.pafns.org for more details. 957 Colorado Ave, Palo Alto s 650-856-6152

German-American School of Palo Alto Classes for all Ages

Test Prep for AATG, AP, DSD, SAT

German on Saturdays!

Ages 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Adults

Full Immersion

Cultural Events

No Prior German Knowledge Required

Pacific Art League 227 Forest Ave., Palo Alto 650-321-3891 frontdesk@pacificartleague.org www.pacificartleague.org Art classes and workshops by qualified, experienced instructors for students from beginners to advanced and even non-artists. Classes in collage, oil painting, portraits and sketching, life drawing, acrylic or watercolor, brush painting and sculpture. Registration is ongoing.

Palo Alto Art Center 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto 650-329-2366 artcenter@cityofpaloalto.org www.cityofpaloalto.org/enjoy Classes and workshops for children and adults in ceramics, painting, drawing, jewelry, book arts, printmaking, collage and more.

The Silicon Valley Boychoir

Saturday School

Summer Camp

s on Han d an Germ www.gaspa-ca.org

(650) 520-3646 | office@gaspa-ca.org P.O. Box 50942, Palo Alto, CA 94303

600 Homer Ave., Palo Alto 650-424-1242 www.svboychoir.org The Silicon Valley Boychoir rehearses in downtown Palo Alto and trains boys in the art of choral singing with an emphasis on vocal coaching, music literacy, and artistic standards. The multi-level choir is for boys in

August Promotions Buy 5 COLLEGE APPLICATIONS (PCAP), get 1 FREE All-In-One Program (AIOP) - up to $3000 OFF* Tutoring - up to 25% OFF*

$250 Instant Rebate* on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fall Class Passâ&#x20AC;? Original Price $3299 Now $3049 Register classes before 8/18, get additional $50 OFF

Fall 2013 Classes Now Open for Enrollment 4131 El Camino Real, #103 s Palo Alto s 650.288.3710 645 High St. s Palo Alto s 650.391.2390 Search for Tutoring on Yelp s www.TTLearning.com * Promotions end Aug. 31, 2013. Restrictions Apply. Contact us for details Page 18Ă&#x160;UĂ&#x160; Ă&#x2022;}Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x192;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x160;Â&#x2122;]Ă&#x160;Ă&#x201C;Ă¤ÂŁĂ&#x17D;Ă&#x160;UĂ&#x160;*>Â?Â&#x153;Ă&#x160; Â?Ă&#x152;Â&#x153;Ă&#x160;7iiÂ&#x17D;Â?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x160;UĂ&#x160;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x153;Â°*>Â?Â&#x153; Â?Ă&#x152;Â&#x153;"Â&#x2DC;Â?Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;iÂ°VÂ&#x153;Â&#x201C;

Fall Class Guide grades 2-8. Auditions are held in August, January, and May.

Sur La Table Cooking School 855 El Camino Real, Palo Alto 650-289-0438 Cooking073@surlatable.com www.surlatable.com/ (Go to â&#x20AC;&#x153;cooking classesâ&#x20AC;? navigation bar, and search â&#x20AC;&#x153;Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;?) Classes are two- to two-and-a-half hours long. Recipes and tasting-sized portions will be provided in the class. Sur La Table offers hands-on classes, demonstration-only classes and classes for kids and teens.

School Days Amigos de Palo Alto 1611 Stanford Ave., Palo Alto 650-493-4300 www.amigosdepaloalto.com Amigos de Palo Alto is a full Spanish-immersion preschool. Offers child care and instruction from bilingual speakers with emphasis on natural learning. Preschool sessions are offered five days a week.

Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School

www.hausner.com Kindergarten through eighth grade school located in Palo Alto. Committed to promoting academic excellence, community responsibility, and vibrant Jewish living. Serves families from a wide range of Jewish backgrounds and religious practices.

International School of the Peninsula Cohn Campus (grades 1-8): 151 Laura Lane, Palo Alto Cooper Campus (nursery): 3233 Cowper St., Palo Alto 650-251-8500 istp@istp.org www.istp.org After-school programs for preschool, elementary and middle school students. Classes include Mandarin, French and Spanish language courses, as well as French cooking, Asian cooking, chess, science, robotics, Chinese dance, art and craft, watercolor, gymnastics, soccer and multi-sports.

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Milestones Preschool 3864 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto 650-618-3325 preschool@AbilitiesUnited.org www.milestonespreschool.org Milestones Preschool, a developmental program, provides children aged 2-5 years an educational environment that promotes their development of the social skills, independent thinking, intellectual growth, and positive self-image they need to succeed in kindergarten and later in life.

450 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto 650-494-8200

(continued on next page)

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Free Dyslexia Consultation at Athena Academy the school for children gifted with Dyslexia Grades 2-6

Visit our website at www.AthenaAcademy.org or call (650) 543-4560 to schedule a consultation. Athena Academy shall admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, sex, or religion to all rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, sex, or religion in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship or tuition assistance, loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs.

Fall Class Guide

(continued from previous page)

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Sand Hill School 650 Clark Way, Palo Alto 650-688-3605 info@sandhillschool.org www.sandhillschool.org Sand Hill School offers a 6:1 student/teacher ratio for grades K-4. Located at the Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Council.

Sora International Preschool 701 E. Meadow Drive, Palo Alto 650-493-7672 www.SoraPreschool.com English-Japanese bilingual preschool. Soraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission is to help families that are raising bilingual children as well as those that want their children to begin a second language at an early age.

Tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;enna Preschool at the Oshman Family JCC and Congregation Beth Am 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto and 26790 Arastradero Rd., Los Altos Hills 650-223-8788 earlychildhood@paloaltojcc.org www.paloaltojcc.org/tenna Play-based approach that includes two-, three- and five-day-per-week options for children 18 months to 5 years old with emphasis placed on experiential learning, family involvement, values and fun.

Something for Everyone Palo Alto Adult School 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto 650-329-3752 adultschool@pausd.org www.paadultschool.org Hands-on computer, language, test preparation, writing, bird identification, investment, hiking, yoga and certificate courses available. Hundreds of online classes are offered by the Palo Alto Adult School in conjunction with Education to Go.

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In my Photoshop Elements class, I learned new shortcuts and techniques. Ruth provided great hand outs for each class lesson. With my new skills, I have worked on various photos that I use in my volunteer publication projects.â&#x20AC;? Ellie MansďŹ eld Retiredâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Sempervirens Fund

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The Class Guide is published quarterly in the Palo Alto Weekly, Mountain View Voice and Menlo Park Almanac. Descriptions of classes offered in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Stanford, Atherton, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley, East Palo Alto and beyond are provided. Listings are free and subject to editing. Due to space constraints, classes held in the above cities are given priority. The winter Class Guide will publish on Dec. 4 and 6, 2013, with deadlines approximately two weeks prior. To inquire about placing a listing in the class guide, email Editorial Assistant Elena Kadvany at ekadvany@ paweekly.com or call 650-223-6519. To place a paid advertisement in the Class Guide call our display advertising department at 650-326-8210.

Editorial

Posturing on parking As momentum for a residential parking-permit system grows, downtown property owners embark on odd strategy of blame-and-scare tactics

he last thing the downtown business community or nearby residents need is a debate over who is to blame for the parking problems in downtown Palo Alto. Yet that is exactly what a group of property owners is instigating by organizing and submitting a petition to the city last month that warns of a “greatly less successful and less vibrant downtown” if neighborhood parking restrictions are imposed. The confrontational approach is apparently intended to raise doubts and fears about the economic collateral damage that could occur if neighborhoods are given relief in the form of some kind of permit system to limit the encroachment of employee parking. It is a foolish and short-sighted strategy that sets up false battle lines and only serves to fuel the intense and legitimate concerns of neighbors. The letter and petition, spearheaded by developer-property owner Chop Keenan and signed by 16 business and property owners, comes at a time when creative problem-solving and outreach is needed, not posturing that attempts to blame residents for parking too many of their own cars on the street. Downtown property owners, you are better than this. You should be seeking to help solve the problems of the adjacent neighborhoods, not deepen the divide between residents and businesses. There is a substantial shortage of parking for the number of employees and visitors to downtown businesses, and to assert that nearby residents are major contributors to the problem distracts from the development of meaningful solutions. To be sure, the causes of downtown’s parking problems are complicated and have been exacerbated by the city’s employee parking-permit policies, but commercial property owners are in denial if they think the City Council or community can be persuaded that the commercial growth and success of downtown is not the primary generator of the parking shortage. But more disturbing is the assertion that restrictions on employee parking in residential areas would force businesses to leave downtown for less impacted office parks. “As employee parking becomes difficult and office building leases expire, office/technology companies will leave the downtown one-by-one for more attractive areas,” the letter argued. “This in turn will reduce the supply of customers for restaurants, retail and service businesses. By the time the economic effects of the exodus are noticed, it will be too late to reverse,” the owners said. Downtown property owners have had the good fortune of owning the most valuable commercial office space outside of Manhattan. With a few exceptions, they have continuously increased rents because demand for space downtown allows them to. Using Palo Alto’s special planned community zoning, many have redeveloped their properties with greater density than normally allowed by offering so-called “public benefits.” The result of this success is a vibrant downtown with much more office space, many wealthy property owners, and traffic and parking problems that were not anticipated. By most measures, it is wonderful to have a busy and vibrant downtown. But it does not come without impacts and problems, and downtown property and business owners need to own the parking problem, not suggest that residents with too many cars or too few garages should share the blame. It is critical to downtown’s future and to the quality of life in nearby neighborhoods that parking for employees and customers keep pace with new development. The city has failed at achieving this by not finding an affordable parking solution for low-paid service workers, forcing them into the neighborhoods, and by not providing enough total parking spots to meet the demand. The philosophy that by limiting parking or making it more expensive workers will stop driving and use public transportation can only work if employees are prevented from spilling out into nearby neighborhoods and if low-paid workers are provided affordable parking options other than parking on residential streets. The City Council last year wisely rejected a poorly conceived staff proposal for a trial residential parking-permit system for a few blocks in the Professorville neighborhood. Instead, it asked for a more comprehensive plan to address both parking and development downtown, which is now underway. There is little doubt that a permit program for residents will be a component of a final plan. Commercial property and business owners would be wise to spend their time and energy looking for successful models in other communities and actively working with their residential neighbors to develop a consensus plan for such a system. Posturing to head off new regulations is a non-starter.

Spectrum Editorials, letters and opinions

Maybell corrections Editor, Trina Lovercheck’s letter praising Palo Alto Housing Corporation for responding to neighbors and modifying the project is inaccurate. PAHC had one neighborhood meeting in April to present the project. Many people raised serious objections to the density, height, inadequacy of the traffic study, and incompatibility with adjacent low-density residential sites. PAHC refused to modify anything and made no efforts to reach out to the community until after the referendum petitions were circulating. After hundreds of people deluged the City Council with objections to the project, councilmembers reacted. Councilmembers, not PAHC, imposed modifications including reducing market-rate homes from 15 to 12, increasing setbacks and reducing heights of the homes along Maybell, and installing sidewalks along Maybell. Installation of sidewalks without express approval of existing Maybell homeowners is prohibited, but PAHC and council ignored that fact. While driveways for the homes along Maybell are at the rear of the buildings, staff insisted on having access from the project to Maybell via the apartment parking lot next door, so all 72 units on the site can use Maybell instead of Clemo to enter and exit. Existing zoning does not allow up to 47 single-family homes. It allows two single-family homes plus 32 condos or apartments, assuming underground parking and no private streets within the site. A more realistic number of housing units is 25 to 30, assuming some are BMRs, justifying the BMR density bonus. Access should be limited to Clemo. Bob Moss Orme Street, Palo Alto Editor’s note: To clarify, City of Palo Alto planner Tim Wong stated at the June 13 City Council meeting that 46 homes could be built at the site, given the use of density bonuses for affordable housing.

cial, emotional and mental health pressures. Providing educators with the knowledge to detect and refer students to mental health services and support is a very important public health issue. Studies note that timely and appropriate referrals may make a huge difference in a student’s ability to cope and may even be life saving. This type of training also supports the outcomes for meaningful School Safety Plans, which have many elements including crisis intervention, suicide prevention training, and anti-bullying programs. Social and emotional well-being also impact educational outcomes. We have a responsibility to create and enhance our abilities to be caring and compassionate. I hope the commissioners of the CTC will use this opportunity to add mental health and wellness training requirements to credentialing requirements. This type of training will help everyone. Gail A. Price Palo Alto City Councilwoman Orme Street, Palo Alto

Tunnel vision Editor, Palo Alto and other Peninsula cities suffer greatly from singleissue people and groups. They demand that we all sacrifice on behalf of the one thing they care about. They don’t care consequences outside their narrow focus — consequences the rest of us have to live with. Present and former city employees say our pension obligations to them are sacred and legally binding. But they were made without the taxpayers’ consent, and accountants say we residents and local businesses can’t possibly pay them all. Homeless advocates say we must sacrifice Cubberley Community Center (and our downtown streets) to people of whom half to three-fourths are mentally ill alcoholics and drug addicts who mostly don’t come from our city in the first place. They need help, but they are a state-level problem — and many need involuntary institutionalization. Others just need jail — like the one who stole a $40 (continued on page 23)

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

What should be done about the parking shortage downtown?

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.

Training for teachers Editor, The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) is currently considering adding a new element to credentialing requirements. I strongly support the inclusion of mental health and wellness training requirements for teachers and administrators in school districts throughout California. The addition of this component to required training for credentialing is both critical and overdue. Our adolescents face many soÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊ Õ}ÕÃÌÊ ]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 21

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!

Guest Opinion

A primer on regional growth plans by Stephen Levy ast month the Association of Bay Area Gover nments (A BAG) a nd Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) adopted Plan Bay Area, an integrated land use and transportation strategy for the Bay Area through 2040. At the same time ABAG adopted the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) that sets planning targets for housing in each community through 2022. For nearly 40 years regional growth plans have been required by the federal government to guide federal transportation funding that totals in the billions of dollars each decade. Plan Bay Area provides an overview of the amount and location of job and housing growth over the coming 25 to 30 years — information that is helpful in designing transportation investment plans for efficiently moving people and goods within the region. With the passage of SB-375 additional goals were added to the long-term regional planning process — goals to reduce greenhousegas emissions and locate housing within the region to match expected job growth. Regional growth plans are based on anticipated growth in jobs, population and housing and on where these jobs and housing are expected to be located within the region. Plan Bay Area is based on local plans, on staff analyses of current and expected trends and input from ABAG members who represent the cities and counties in the region.

Most public discussion in Palo Alto and around the state is about the regional housing needs planning targets. A regional housing target is approved by the state, and ABAG committees work out the local distribution. The criteria for allocating housing to communities are determined by ABAG members and include local plans, expected job growth and access to transportation including freeways and public transit. In addition, ABAG committees have adopted a ìfair-shareî concept so all cities are expected to plan for some lowand moderate-income housing. Who makes these decisions? ABAG members include cities and counties within the nine-county Bay Area. Committee members consist of elected officials including mayors, council members and county supervisors. The executive committee, which approved the final plan, consists of a group of ABAG elected official members including Greg Scharff, Palo Altoís current mayor. What parts of Plan Bay Area and the regional housing needs assessment are mandatory? Cities are required to plan and zone for their housing allocation to 2022. Plan Bay Area provides information and a vision to guide private and public sector decision-makers about future growth trends and related strategies. What happens if growth trends suddenly change after these plans are adopted? Regular updates are scheduled to take account of new information and trends. Plan Bay Area will be updated every four years and a new regional housing needs assessment will be developed in eight years. Do people have to live where ABAG has planned for housing growth? No one is forced to live in a specific place, and housing and

job developments are subject to review and approval by cities. Moreover, people are free to live outside the region in places like Tracy, Salinas or Davis and commute in to jobs in the region. Is everyone expected to live and work in the same community? The answer is no. But there is a policy goal of shortening commutes through land use and transportation policies. One part of Plan Bay Area is the identification of ìpriority development areasî where housing and job centers are relatively near transportation corridors such as freeways, Caltrain or BART. For example, now cities and developers are exploring options for housing and jobs near the new BART stations planned between Fremont and San Jose. What is the relationship between Plan Bay Area and the regional housing needs assessment? For the current regional assessment and Palo Alto housing allocations, there was no connection. The housing needs assessment was completed before Plan Bay Area regional growth projections were known. Both the state and ABAG agree that if the regional housing needs assessment had been based on Plan Bay Area, the regional housing targets would be higher than under the adopted housing needs assessment. The next assessment will be based on future Plan Bay Area growth projections. Would it make any difference in Plan Bay Area if greenhouse-gas emissions magically disappeared? Probably not. One result would be that the region would be even more attractive as a place to live and work and growth would probably increase. But the trend toward locating jobs, housing and transportation to reduce the time and expense of travel is desired by residents and businesses apart from

reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and these plans would proceed because they meet the needs of residents and businesses. For the current Plan Bay Area and the regional housing needs assessment, some residents in Palo Alto and other communities have argued that the regional growth projections are too high. As mentioned above, the current Palo Alto housing targets were not based on Plan Bay Area growth projections but the broader question deserves an answer. I produced the regional growth projections and have told ABAG that if new projections were done this year, they would be higher than those in Plan Bay Area. Job growth has surged in the past two years averaging close to 100,000 jobs per year. Population growth is accelerating and last year Santa Clara County had the highest population growth rate among counties in California. Residents can see new plans for housing and job growth in our city, county and around the region even as demand pushes prices higher. Growth rates will slow as baby boomers age, retire and die and as birth rates decline. But the regional projection of 1 million more jobs and 2 million more residents by 2020 now seems conservative, particularly in light of immigration reform proposals that will increase expected regional growth. Plan Bay Area is an attempt to plan for this anticipated growth in a way that supports economic prosperity and provides a range of housing, job location and transportation options to minimize the potential negative impacts of the coming growth on our lives. N Palo Alto resident Stephen Levy is director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

Streetwise

What is your opinion on the City Council’s vote to ban vehicle dwelling? Asked at the Cambridge Avenue post office in Palo Alto. Interviews and photographs by Rye Druzin.

James Salveson

Allen Baum

Arden Anderson

Maurice Green

Elain Jenkins

Electrical contractor College Terrace, Palo Alto “I don’t think that people permanently living in a vehicle is a good thing, but I think that some compromise needs to be met.”

Retired College Terrace, Palo Alto “It makes me a little uncomfortable that we’re forcing away people who have no other options.”

Retired College Terrace, Palo Alto “I support the City Council but it seems like there are other solutions to the homeless problem.”

Retired Barron Park, Palo Alto “I think it is a good thing to do so long as the city provides other resources for them.”

Nanny Sunnyvale West, Sunnyvale “They need some place to stay but they need to also treat it well.”

Page 22ÊUÊ Õ}ÕÃÌÊ ]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Spectrum

Letters (continued from page 21)

headlight off my bicycle. Developers, trade unions, city governments, the state legislature, advocates for minority and poor peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights collude in saying we must turn our towns into high density Manhattan-style cement canyons, to atone for the crime of providing many jobs, while sparing Atherton â&#x20AC;&#x201D; because it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t provide jobs? Note that none of these special interests say where the extra drinking water is supposed to come from. Water rationing anyone? Just like all those anti-abortion fanatics who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care about the overpopulation crisis. Tunnel vision makes life simple. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a luxury we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford. Live in the real world. Lee ThĂ¨ San Antonio Road, Palo Alto

No alternatives to ban? Editor, On Monday night, I went to the town council meeting where the Vehicle Habitation Ordinance was debated and passed. Although the idea of making Palo Alto a safer place is a good one, the fact is, less than 10 percent of all homeless people in Palo Alto are mentally ill and/or drug addicts. The ordinance will prevent those potentially dangerous people from causing harm, but it also prevents the 90+ percent who are not dangerous from having a safe place to live. The ordinance should only have been passed if an alternative option is being provided to house homeless people. Luke Stribling Yale Road, Menlo Park

Repeal Maybell project Editor, The proposed low-income senior housing project at the corner of Maybell and Clemo in Palo Alto has been approved by the Palo Alto City Council. The surrounding neighborhoods, and indeed much of the city, is strongly against this project because it accentuates the traffic and safety issues already present, it lacks the services that seniors would need, and the city of Palo Alto loaned money to the developer before the required rezoning was approved. In response to the Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions, petitions to stop the project have qualified for the ballot. In order to stop this controversy, and to rebuild the trust the city has lost by creating the controversy, the City Council should repeal the Ordinance and Resolution for the project. If they choose not to repeal, they should put these ballot measures on the next general municipal election in November 2014 to avoid the costs of a special election. If the city holds a special election for this single issue, the city would expend costs for the election for the benefit of a single developer. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to do the right thing and repeal the MaybellClemo project. Jim Colton Georgia Avenue, Palo Alto

On ugly buildings Editor, If the headline in the Post concerning the â&#x20AC;&#x153;findingsâ&#x20AC;? of the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and the Planning and Transportation Commission (P&TC) is correct it shows why the city is in such trouble. The answer from the majority of these Council appointees to the sidewalk width and ugly buildings â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ready â&#x20AC;&#x201D; increase the height and density of new projects. Why? I can only assume their intent is to protect and enhance the assumed â&#x20AC;&#x153;rightsâ&#x20AC;? of non-resident developers. What happened to neighborhood concerns articulated in the Comprehensive Plan and instead change the zoning to reduce the size, mass and height of building? Or, requiring sufficient parking for future uses, including a full understanding of the actual number of employees in these new buildings, not four employees per1,000 square feet, closer to six or seven per square foot? Discussing architectural design is a bit like the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Emperorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Clothesâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; people seem afraid to say what they really think. However, it would be fairly easy to name the Top-TenUgly-Buildings in town, most of which have been reviewed and approved by the City staff and ARB in the last few years. The City Council needs to immediately impose a moratorium on all building permits. Then revamp the ARB by getting a broader, non-modernistic architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view of the world that reflects the historic aesthetics of our town, ask current members to submit their resignations and eliminate the requirement that all members be architects, maybe a couple, but not all. Ken Alsman Ramona Street, Palo Alto

Cause for sadness Editor, Verification of the referendum signatures for me as a Maybell area resident is a cause for sadness, not elation. Our neighborhoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s victory came when community engagement got the city council to modify PAHCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal for low-income senior housing to meet neighborhood concerns before approving it. The result was a â&#x20AC;&#x153;gold-platedâ&#x20AC;? project, with a large building with 60 small apartments for low-income seniors largely hidden at the back corner of the property while deluxe single-family housing was what would be seen on Maybell and Clemo. But the larger agenda of the well-organized campaign that mobilized the community to oppose what appeared until February to be a surprisingly uncontroversial project went well beyond Barron Park issues. The Maybell Action Group hijacked legitimate neighborhood concerns to push its program of removing city council members, eliminating Planned Community (PC) zoning by initiative and providing a rallying cry for likeminded groups throughout the city â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;none of us is safe if PC rezon-

ing prevails in Barron Park.â&#x20AC;? Their organized intervention in the online and print media shaped discussion. Other voices could barely be heard. The hapless PAHC got beaten up for its efforts to intercept commercial development of that property and shape a project that would benefit the community. And the campaign goes on. Moderation holds little attraction in an atmosphere of revolutionary zeal. But I think in this case the Maybell neighborhood would be better off if it had taken its gains and held a victory celebration. Jerry Underdal Georgia Avenue, Palo Alto

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Maybell referendum Editor, This past Thursday we were notified by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters that the referendum on the ordinance amending the zoning for Maybell Avenue had a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the ballot. As petition circulators for the referendum it is not our desire or intent to have a special election. We see no point in wasting valuable taxpayer dollars on a special election. It is much more sensible to place this issue on next general city election in November 2014. We feel it is important for the media and community to understand that it is not the petitioners who would ask for a special election. As a matter of fact the city council can rescind their decision to re-zone this property and save all of the residents the cost of an election. Diane Lee and Jim Jurkovich Willmar Drive, Palo Alto

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s find solutions Editor, The downtown businessesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; petition that asserts residents are primarily to blame for the intrusive parking in the neighborhoods adjacent to the University Avenue business district is based on several false premises. One is that parking has been difficult in the South of Forest area â&#x20AC;&#x153;for many decades.â&#x20AC;? Having lived in the Professorville Historic neighborhood for 35 years I can attest to the fact that there was no intrusive parking in our neighborhood until 2004 when the city implemented the downtown twohour parking zones. Ironically, those two-hour parking zones were implemented in response to a request from the downtown businesses because their employees were over-parking downtown streets and discouraging potential customers from shopping! Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also incorrect to imply that residents themselves are overparking the area. All one has to do is to visit the area on a Sunday or in the evenings to see the true character of the residential streets adjacent to the downtown area prior to the two-hour parking zones being implemented. Interestingly enough when the two-hour parking zones were implemented city staff warned in writing that intrusive park-

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NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING of the City of Palo Alto Historic Resources Board [HRB] 8:00 A.M., Wednesday, August 21, 2013 Palo Alto Council Chambers, 1st Floor, Civic Center, 250 Hamilton Avenue. Go to the Development Center at 285 Hamilton Avenue to review ďŹ led documents; contact Diana Tamale for information regarding business hours at 650.329.2144. 2080 Channing Avenue [13PLN-00197]: Review of a request by Sand Hill Property Company for an amendment to the Planned Community Zoning (PC5150) for the Edgewood Plaza Shopping Center mixed use project to allow for the reconstruction of one of the two historic Eichler retail buildings (Building 1). Building 1 was approved to be dismantled and rehabilitated onsite as one of the primary public beneďŹ ts, but was demolished instead. The Supplemental Environmental Impact Report prepared for the project has been published and the public comment period began May 17 and ended July 20, 2013. A Planning and Transportation Commission public hearing for the project has been tentatively scheduled for September 11, 2013. Steven Turner, Advance Planning Manager The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request an accommodation for this meeting or an alternative format for any related printed materials, please contact the Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ADA Coordinator at 650.329.2550 (voice) or by e-mailing ada@cityofpaloalto.org.

(continued on page 24)

Spectrum

Letters (continued from page 23)

ing would result, but neither the businesses nor the city took action to mitigate the problem. Now downtown area residents have had enough of their neighborhoods being turned into the largest commercial parking areas in the city. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time for the businesses and property owners to take responsibility for the problem they have created and ignored for the past 10 years and work with the city to find creative, timely solutions. Michael Hodos Bryant Street, Palo Alto

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A Funeral Home Like No Other

Editor, Palo Alto is beginning to be like those ancient Greek tragedies, where ordinary peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives are controlled by â&#x20AC;&#x153;the gods,â&#x20AC;? and the hero has a tragic flaw. Our heroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tragic flaw is the infatuation with money as a measure of happiness, outranking health, orchards, river meadows, security, pure air and convenient parking. All these are taken from innocent bystanders and laid at the altar of transformation of land into money, and, to make the tragedy complete, last Monday the Council placed a gratuitous curse on the victims who have already lost their original homes, banning them from sleeping in their cars. In the offing is the loss of domicile to more than 400 residents of Buena Vista trailer park whose owner-occupied homes are on land legally rented from an owner who makes a respectable profit, more than he would get from any other investment he could finance, with the valiant foot soldiers self-furnishing the worker housing that a responsible municipality would have seen to when it permitted the initiation of mass production. Indeed, Palo Alto never did address the obvious need for worker housing; the trailer arrangement was sanctioned by the county be-

fore Palo Alto annexed the area (so as to widen access to the industrial park) with the consent of too trusting residents. They now have their right to provide their own housing being taken away so that the law may be changed for the benefit of an owner who has benefited from the existing zoning and even from Prop. 13, while his land value rose. However, the greater part of the value is in the zoning, which the Palo Alto City Council seems inclined, out of pure generosity, to give the landlord. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As flies to foolish boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.â&#x20AC;? Stephanie Munoz Alma Street, Palo Alto

Reverse building trends Editor, The Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Commission and the Architectural Review Board met July 31 to address the controversies and â&#x20AC;&#x153;reverse the trendâ&#x20AC;? surrounding the so called â&#x20AC;&#x153;new ugly-ismâ&#x20AC;? architecture going up around town. The emphasis was to be on setback lines and introverted designs. The meeting took a detour from focusing on narrow sidewalks to becoming an opportunity to fantasize about the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Grand Boulevardâ&#x20AC;? design to â&#x20AC;&#x153;improveâ&#x20AC;? El Camino Real, including car lane reduction. (The commission had previously voted the Grand Boulevard concept down.) Participants pontificated on how to facilitate the contentment of walking, cycling and use of public transport gliding back and forth on the Boulevard as if on air. Wistful statements were made such as â&#x20AC;&#x153;The idea of the importance of the automobile is losing a little bit of its gripâ&#x20AC;? (a statement requiring some serious analysis) and â&#x20AC;&#x153;We transition out of automobiles and to other modalitiesâ&#x20AC;?? The nostalgia for quaint European sidewalk cafes enters constantly into the Grand Boulevard fantasy.

Perhaps turning one of the automobile lanes into a Venetian canal will create another â&#x20AC;&#x153;modalityâ&#x20AC;? such as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gondola.â&#x20AC;? The â&#x20AC;&#x153;sustainableâ&#x20AC;? agenda has exacerbated the irreconcilable forces of involuntary higher density competing against rational human wellbeing. This results in the failure to address the most basic element of planning criteria ... the â&#x20AC;&#x153;setback line.â&#x20AC;? Ironically, instead of facilitating good design, the regulatory tyranny of cities, regional and state bodies has prevented it. Barry Nathan Roosevelt Circle, Palo Alto

Brave new world? Editor, Like Michael Snyder, director of the Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, my friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genetic testing revealed a very high risk for diabetes. When he was hospitalized at Stanford this spring they wanted to give him a medicine with a black box warning for diabetes. We told them of his genetic risk and offered to share the test results. But no one was familiar with genetic testing and they seemed uncomfortable and awkward with this information. When one of the doctors called me I asked if my friend was getting the drug and was told he was and that in fact they were increasing the dosage. I reminded her of the diabetes connection and again I was rebuffed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well, when he gets out you can stop it.â&#x20AC;? It was too late. When he got out I ordered blood tests, he had diabetes, and diabetic neuropathy in his hand followed. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m reading a lot about how Stanford is worried what patients will think of genetic testing. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m worried that Stanford is not prepared for this conversation as our experience taught us. Brave new world? Where? This was a sad commentary on institutionalized ignorance and failure to do no harm. Ann Bradley Addison Avenue, Palo Alto

This week on Town Square Town Square is an online discussion forum at www.PaloAltoOnline.com Bill for Maybell election could top $600,000

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Posted by Referendum supporter, a resident of the Green Acres neighborhood, on Aug. 7 at 8:30 a.m. PAHC didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet deadline The City shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t waste the money, because PAHC didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet its funding deadline anyway. Their deadline was July 3, and a basic requirement is to have the zoning in place by then. They did not have their zoning in place then, the City staffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own report says itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not in place until 31 days after the second reading, i.e., end of July, and now with the referendum, not even then. The funding situation is competitive, in other words, if PAHC misrepresents their basic requirements, they would be taking money away from another worthy project that played by the rules. City Council would do well to

remember they are elected officials. Citizens collected more than enough signatures for one of the referendums within just 10 days, even though many of the volunteers were gone for the summer or otherwise unable to participate. Posted by Elaine, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Aug. 7 at 7:30 a.m. Waiting game is a scheme Now letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wait for it! Waiting, waiting â&#x20AC;&#x201D; soon we will read here and everywhere that this potential $600,000 special election bill is the fault of PAHC or the city â&#x20AC;&#x201D; your choice. What we wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t read is that the responsibility for us wasting our tax money on an irrational ballot measure to stop housing for poor people is the exclusive fault of referendum supporters. They wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take responsibility. For a week nearly identical letters

from referendum lovers have been generated demanding a June 2014 vote supposedly to save money in a less pricey general election. What they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say is that to delay the vote to 6/14 would destroy the Maybell funding, construction budget and likely the whole project. So by saving themselves a horribly time-consuming and expensive battle, they could simply accomplish the goal of destroying the housing through delaying the vote for a year. There is no way any city could go along with this scheme to put off the vote a year. The city can only set the vote for Nov. 2013 with the responsibility of a much more expensive election on the heads of Maybell opponents where it belongs. And by the way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; this is not news â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it was entirely foreseeable before the signatures were gathered. Special elections are always expensive.

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

Big book bash Litquake brings 40-some authors to Palo Alto for readings, discussion and mingling by Rebecca Wallace

translator who & Wisdom,” Russian falls down the authors, memoirs, stairs and loses short fiction, emergher native laning authors, sex and guage. A man who romance books, and skips town with his food writing. dead brother’s dog. Authors schedA spirited pair of San uled for individual, Francisco defense atmore in-depth talks torneys. These people include: Jane Smimay not actually be ley ( “T housa nd in Palo Alto on Aug. Acres,” “The Man 18, but their creators Who Invented the will. Computer”); Daniel Sheldon Siegel, of On that afternoon, Handler, also known the legal-thriller 40-some Bay Area as Lemony Snicket series starring defense attorneys (and authors will gather at (“A Series of Unforexes) Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez, the Oshman Family tunate Events,” “Why will be on the “Thrilling Tales” panel. Jewish Community We Broke Up”); Ellen Center for Litquake Sussman (“The ParaPalo Alto, a free fes- Nina Schuyler, dise Guest House,” translator who can speak only Japanese tival of literary salons author of the “French Lessons”); after an accident; Amy Franklin-Willis, and readings. Un- novel “The Deborah Perry Pi- whose “The Lost Saints of Tennessee” prodoubtedly, more than Translator,” is scione (“Secrets of tagonist leaves his hometown with only a a few of their char- part of the emerging-authors panel at Silicon Valley: What dog and a book after personal tragedy; and acters will be Litquake Palo Alto on Aug. 18. Everyone Else can Tracy Guzeman, whose “The Gravity of there in spirit. Learn from the Inno- Birds” is a tale of two lost sisters. The day is an offshoot of Litquake vation Capital of the World”); and Andrew Litquake Palo Alto begins with “fireside in San Francisco, back in Palo Alto Sean Greer (“The Story of a Marriage,” readings” from 2 to 2:20 p.m., followed for the second year after last year’s “The Confessions of Max Tivoli”). by a Jewish women’s theater reading from event attracted more than 2,000 peoMany of the authors have local ties. Suss- 2:25 to 2:45. The literary salons — panel ple, said Ronit Widmann-Levy, the man is a longtime judge in the Weekly’s talks and individual discussions — follow JCC’s cultural arts director. short-story contest, and Piscione is active from 3 to 6:30 p.m. “Our authors recognize the Pen- in organizing Silicon Valley’s professional Wrapping up the day until 8 p.m. is insula as a true book-loving com- women for networking and building op- “Blues, Booze & Schmooze”: a free-form, munity,” writer Jane Ganahl, the portunities for women 21-and-over, no-host co-founder of Litquake, said in a in the valley. party for the authors and press release. Palo Alto author attendees. The Gaucho Crafters of fiction and nonfiction alike Keith Raffel will gypsy-jazz sextet will will be speaking, some in individual con- moderate the “Thrillperform, and cocktails versations and others taking part in panel ing Tales” panel, with with literary themes discussions with various themes: “Cross- participating writers will be served up. N ing Cultural Borders,” “Thrilling Tales including Sheldon Siewith Jewish Characters,” “Jewish Humor gel of the popular legal-thriller series starring defense attorneys (and exes) Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez. Ann Packer (“The Dive from Clausen’s Pier,” “Songs Without Words,” “Mendocino and Other Stories”), a Stanford native and the Info: For a detailed daughter of two StanLitquake Palo Alto ford professors, will schedule and for be part of the panel on more information, short fiction. “Secrets go to paloaltojcc. The emerging-authors of Silicon org or call 650panel will introduce atAmy FranklinValley” is 223-8605. The tendees to three newer Willis will speak one of the Palo Alto Weekly is authors: Nina Schuyler, nonfiction books by Deborah about her novel “The Lost Saints of one of the event’s whose July novel “The Perry Piscione, who will give an Tennessee” as part of the emergingsponsors. Translator” follows a individual author talk. authors panel.

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Arts & Entertainment

Worth a Look Theater

Can there be humor and warmth in a play about a woman buried up to her bosom in earth? If Samuel Beckett is the writer, yes. When the aforementioned play, “Happy Days,” opened off-Broadway in 1961, the New York Times’ Howard Taubman wrote of it, “If Mr. Beckett does not lift the heart, his mournful song is at least compassionate, and that is a great deal.” There’s more to the play than simply the woman’s predicament, of course. An actress must draw on great emotion to portray all the shades of nuance in how she reacts to her limited life, from prayer to self-imposed daily routine. Stanford Summer Theater has signed on one of its veteran thespians, Courtney Walsh, to play the lead role of Winnie. Don Damico plays husband Willie, with the play directed by SST artistic director Rush Rehm. The production is scheduled to travel to France in the fall. “Happy Days” plays Aug. 15 through Aug. 25 at the Nitery Theater (Old Union) on campus, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $15/$25. Go to sst.stanford. edu or call 650-725-5838.

Music

Charged Particles They’ve been doing gigs around the state in venues as diverse as theaters, libraries, wine bars, festivals, an art gallery in Oakland and Yoshi’s San Francisco. Now the electric-acoustic jazz band Charged Particles is back home on the Midpeninsula with shows coming up in Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

Stefanie Okuda

‘Happy Days’

Courtney Walsh plays Winnie in the Samuel Beckett play “Happy Days,” which opens at Stanford Summer Theater on Aug. 15. the group gathers a crowd of singers, loans them scores and hosts sing-alongs bolstered by pro conductors at the piano. Many weeks, the musical offering is classical, such as a requiem or cantata. On Aug. 12, the group closes out this year’s series with a selection of Broadway songs. Dawn Reyen, Schola Cantorum’s assistant conductor, will lead, with lyrics projected on a screen. The event takes place at the Los Altos United Methodist Church, 655 Magdalena Ave., starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 general and free for audience members under 25. For more information, go to scholacantorum. org or call 650-254-1700.

Art

Drop-in drawing

Jon Krosnick, Jason Muscat and Murray Low perform in Palo Alto on Aug. 16 as the jazz band Charged Particles. Pianist Murray Low and drummer Jon Krosnick both teach at Stanford, while electric bassist Aaron Germain has been based in the Bay Area since 2000 after playing the Northeast. The band itself has been releasing records, with changes in lineup, since 1994. The focus is on fusion, mixing up jazz with funk, Latin, classic and other music genres. It’s not surprising considering Low’s background in particular; he was nominated for a Grammy Award with the Machete Ensemble for best Latin jazz album in 2004. Upcoming Charged Particles showtimes include: 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 16 at Scott’s Seafood, 855 El Camino Real, Palo Alto; 6 to 9:30 p.m. Aug. 24 at Coconuts Caribbean Restaurant & Bar, 642 Ramona St., Palo Alto; and 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 19 at Lutticken’s, 3535 Alameda de las Pulgas, West Menlo Park. These shows are free. For more information, go to chargedparticles.com or call 650-851-9143.

Summer Sings You may not ever play Harold Hill, but you can still sing “Seventy-Six Trombones” to a packed house. Just accept the fact that you won’t be vocalizing alone. Every summer, the Peninsula choral group Schola Cantorum lets audiences get in on the act by hosting weekly Summer Sing events. On Monday evenings, Page 26ÊUÊ Õ}ÕÃÌÊ ]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Four centuries of drawing continue into the 21st century on Aug. 10 and 17, when visitors to the Cantor Arts Center can try their own hands at art in the main gallery. An artist instructor will be present both days at the big exhibit “Storied Past: Four Centuries of French Drawings from the Blanton Museum of Art” starting at noon, leading a free art activity of “translating looking into drawing.” Participants should bring their sketchpads and drawing implements (only graphite and colored pencils will be permitted) for the drop-in activity. The gallery should provide lots of inspiration: The exhibit is packed with 60 drawings, some so detailed that they have magnifying glasses hanging on the walls nearby. The museum is at Museum Way and Lomita Drive at Stanford University, open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays until 8. Admission is free. Go to museum.stanford.edu or call 650723-3469.

A&E DIGEST NEW CSMA E.D. ... Vickie Scott Grove, the former executive director of Child Advocates of Silicon Valley in Milpitas, recently took the reins as executive director of the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View. She also has served as vice president of programs at the Santa Clara-based ALearn, which provides educational programs for underrepresented students. Grove will be meeting the community at the school’s open house, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 25 at 230 San Antonio Circle. Go to arts4all.org or call 650-917-6800.

Eating Out FOOD FEATURE

Links to the land Chef shares his love of charcuterie at Hidden Villa sausage-making class Story by Elize Manoukian | Photos by Sofia Biros

hether he’s experimenting in his kitchen at home or teaching DIY charcuterie lessons at Hidden Villa, chef Quentin Levy proves that getting closer to your food doesn’t have to be like watching sausage being made, even when that’s exactly what it is. Working with Hidden Villa is a natural fit for Levy, a Gilroy resident with Louisiana roots, who discovered the Los Altos Hills farming nonprofit while attending a wedding there. The ingredients that he uses as both a chef and a consumer echo Hidden Villa’s philosophy of sustainable and organic growth. “This is Disneyland to me,” Levy said, motioning to the expanse of fields and farm around him. “I love this place.” Hidden Villa is one of the last remainders of Silicon Valley’s pre-tech agricultural legacy. The farm was founded in 1924 by Frank and Josephine Duveneck, who dedicated it to the conservation of the Adobe Creek watershed and open-space wildlife reserve, as well as to providing educational programming for environmental and social justice. In addition to hosting youth camps every

summer, Hidden Villa also offers public classes in such topics as milking cows and making bacon. That’s where Levy comes in. For the past few years, Levy has instructed students in artisanal cheese production, barbecue, meat-curing and sausage-making at Hidden Villa. After cooking professionally for more than 20 years, Levy started a business that allowed him to work on a more personal level. “My stuff is really small-batch,” Levy said. “Strawberry lavender water kefir: I guarantee you will never hear that again.” None of the students in Levy’s July 14 sausagemaking class had ever heard of such a drink, but all seemed to enjoy sampling the light, fizzy beverage that packed a slight punch. The kefir was designed as a pairing to the salami and fresh sausage that Levy prepared in Hidden Villa’s Dana Center. The drink coincided with the suggested theme of the $65 class: fermentation, or the anaerobic process by which foods can be preserved or prepared. While setting the stage for the Spanish(continued on page 28)

Chef Quentin Levy makes pork sausage during one of his classes at Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills.

DINNER BY THE MOVIES AT SHORELINE’S

Cucina Venti ons ervati s e r g in accept

able l i a v a ng cateri Now

It is in this spirit that we will continue sharing our classic recipes with you each week.

“Sorrento Watermelon” Salad Cocomero con ﬁchi e rucola Ingredients:

Ripe watermelon Feta cheese (full block in brine) Fresh Arugula Fresh ﬁgs Sicilian olives

1390 Pear Ave., Mountain View (650) 254-1120 www.cucinaventi.com

Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday

Slice watermelon into a 5”L x 3”W x 1” H rectangle. Cut a 4” x 2” piece of feta cheese into 1” square pieces and place evenly over watermelon slice. Top with a large pinch of arugula and 1/2 sliced whole ﬁg. Pour ribbons of Vidalia onion dressing over salad. Place 4 Sicilian olives around the plate and lightly drizzle olives with extra virgin olive oil to ﬁnish dish.

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Eating Out (continued from page 27)

As students look on, Levy makes chicken sausage. style chorizo — a fermented salami made with the same technique used by the ancient Romans — Levy discussed the health benefits of the fermentation process, which he said can enrich foods with vitamins and probiotics while also enhancing flavor. Levy also advocates the use of organic and locally raised meats. He

used a pork shoulder from Fogline Farm in Santa Cruz for the class, and often uses meat raised at Hidden Villa in his recipes. According to Levy, knowing where your meat comes from helps you assess the likelihood of contamination that can result from commercially farmed pigs, which are often fed

cornmeal and antibiotics that raise the risk of superbugs. It’s no coincidence, Levy suggested, that the Latin word for sausage is botulus. While an old adage states that no one should see laws or sausage getting made, Levy makes a good argument for sausage: When it is homemade, you know what goes into it. In the place of nitrites, nitrates, dextrose and “pink slime,” the mechanically separated meat product, Levy said that all you need to make great sausage is just “pig and salt” — although he did supplement that formula with dry herbs and toasted fennel. This minimalist approach appealed to Kim Gardner, a Santa Cruz resident visiting Hidden Villa for the first time. “I like the idea of making my own things,” Gardner said. “It’s really personal and involved.” The class environment was comfortable, as students occasionally interjected questions and comments while Levy demonstrated in the front. After preparing and stuffing the hard sausage, Levy explained

how to construct a homemade drying rack to facilitate the fermentation process. Before beginning the next sausage, a fresh chicken loukaniko sausage in the style of the island of Mykonos — “What makes it really Greek is the summer savory” — he paused the class to take a snack break. Students helped themselves to an array of fermented foods, such as collard kraut, brussel sprout kimchi, pickled cauliflower seasoned in turmeric, and fig preserves. The spread was coupled with samples of the chorizo and loukaniko. Out of the 18 participants, only one had attempted sausage-making before. When Levy dismissed the class, many of the students asked him to email them recipes. “I would definitely try it,” Gardner said. “How creative could I get?”

That curiosity is what drives Levy to explore new tastes and places in his recipes, from the flavors of a family farm in the former Czechoslovakia to those inspired by Spain, Levy’s dream destination. “I can’t wait to go,” said Levy. “I just want to give people something they’ve never had before, and that they will really enjoy.” N N I NFO RMATI O N Quentin Levy’s next scheduled class at Hidden Villa is “Whole hog: all about pork” on Saturday, Aug. 24. The cost is $80. For information on this and other upcoming classes at Hidden Villa, go to hiddenvilla.org and click on the public-events calendar.

ShopTalk by Daryl Savage

PENINSULA

Discover the best places to eat this week! AMERICAN

New Tung Kee Noodle House

Armadillo Willy’s

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

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

INDIAN

The Old Pro

Janta Indian Restaurant

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

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

ITALIAN

Thaiphoon

Cucina Venti

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

254-1120 1390 Pear Ave, Mountain View www.cucinaventi.com CHINESE

Chef Chu’s

Read and post reviews, explore restaurant menus,

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

and more at ShopPaloAlto,

Ming’s

ShopMenloPark

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

and ShopMountainView

get hours and directions

Page 28ÊUÊ Õ}ÕÃÌÊ ]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

BARBER OPENS IN MIDTOWN ... Palo Alto’s newest business this week is in Midtown. It’s small and tightly tucked into a spot in between two parking lots, and PG&E is currently doing major repairs near its front door. But none of that fazes Terry Parks, a 48-year-old Palo Altan whose lifelong dream was to open his own barbershop. Urban Style opened its doors at 719 Colorado Ave. on Aug. 5. It replaces the 6-year-old soapmaking shop called Opal’Z, which closed in December. The cottage-like space has been transformed into an “old-school” barbershop. “We painted the whole place. We put in six new barber chairs. We did everything,” said Parks, whose wife, Kathy, helped in the redo. Parks is not new to hair design. “I’ve been cutting hair since I was 15 years old,” he said. For the last six years, Parks has been using his garage on East Meadow Drive for his barber business. Urban Style, at 725 square feet, is even smaller than the garage. “But I’ve developed a good clientele over the years, mainly through word-of-mouth. And the Internet helped, too. College students Yelped me and high school kids Googled me. That’s how they found out about me. And they became my meat and potatoes,” he said. A former Marine, Parks hopes to appeal to the “average person, the family man.” He added: “It’s cool here. That’s why I chose the name ‘Urban Style.’ It’s a relaxed atmosphere.” Parks has taken great pride in decorating his shop. Adorning the walls are pictures of some of his favorite people, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Bob Marley. Also on the wall is an antique set of barber tools, given to Parks by friends and relatives. “I hope this becomes the community barbershop, kind of the way ‘Floyd the Barber’ was on ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’” Parks said.

about exactly what kind of grocery store can be profitable at Alma Plaza at 3445 Alma St. in Palo Alto. Can a discount store succeed where an upscale store could not? Developer John McNellis is betting on it. “We have 6,500 people in Palo Alto on Social Security and more than 2,000 lowincome housing units.” One longtime Palo Alto renter agrees. Valerie Borg, a 70-year-old retired hair stylist, has a one-bedroom unit facing Alma Street. “I shopped at Miki’s once. That’s it. Not my type of store,” she said. Borg remembers when Lucky Stores was her neighborhood grocer. “I loved that store. Lucky was nothing fancy. But who cares about fancy when all I want is to buy food at cheap prices. I don’t care what the package looks like or if they have a pretty display,” she said. Lucky occupied the back of the plaza from 1964 to 1999. The name of the grocery chain then changed to Albertsons and it continued doing business until 2005. Miki’s opened in October 2012 and closed six months later after lackluster sales. The site now sits dark as it awaits its new tenant. All the shelving and the former bakery, cheese and deli counters sit empty. Grocery Outlet’s anticipated opening is in the first quarter of 2014 and it is expected to employ 20 to 25 people, said a source familiar with the plans.

DISCOUNT GROCER GEARS UP FOR ALMA PLAZA ... The recent announcement that Grocery Outlet will replace the short-lived Miki’s Farm Fresh Market has fueled speculation

Heard a rumor about your favorite store or business moving out, or in, down the block or across town? Daryl Savage will check it out. Email shoptalk@paweekly.com.

PHILZ ON FORBES LIST... A shout-out to Philz Coffee, which was just named online as one of “The 25 Most Creative Consumer and Retail Brands” on the ForbesList. There are two Philz locations in Palo Alto, another at Facebook in Menlo Park, and a newly opened shop in Cupertino. Philz has been on a roll lately. This past year, it was also voted as one of Zagat’s 10 Coolest Coffee Shops in the U.S. “We’re growing and we’re thrilled,” CEO Jacob Jaber said. N

Movies

++++

“

THIS SUMMER’S ‘LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE’.” -Claudia Puig,

OPENINGS

Elysium --1/2 (Century 16, Century 20) “2001: A Space Odyssey” author Arthur C. Clarke posited that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It’s a thought that must’ve emboldened writer-director Neill Blomkamp (“District 9”) as he set to work on his science-fiction actioner “Elysium,” which hinges on a piece of seemingly magical technology. For the sake of the parable (and the gun battles and the explosions), audiences will have to accept the existence of “med bays” that can heal anything short of physical obliteration. These med bays are the pride of every home on Elysium, a Kubrickian, spic-and-span Stanford torus space habitat for the 1 percent that spins serenely above a ruined Earth. But the way this technology fits into Blomkamp’s futuristic dystopia isn’t a logical conclusion — why the wholesale denial of the technology to the 99 percent when it’s such a powerful incentive and potential opiate of the masses? And it raises questions for which he has no time (since any sign of old age has effectively been eliminated, is there population control? sterilization or mandatory death at a certain age?). But forget all that. Guns! OK, OK, let’s meet “Elysium” where it lives. In a galvanizing performance that reminds us why he’s a movie star, Matt Damon plays Earth-bound Max da Costa, a car thief on parole. Max makes his living “on the line” at the factory of missile-defense outfit Armadyne. He’s trying to keep his head down, but not hard enough (the stop-and-frisk robots on his way to work don’t get his humor). Max has long held a dream of one day relocating to Elysium, having promised his childhood sweetheart Frey that he would take her there one day. But the heat is on when Max gets a lethal dose of radiation at work: If he doesn’t get to Elysium in five days, he’s dead. At the hospital, Max bumps into Frey (Alice Braga) for the first time in decades (what, he never looked her up? Sorry — guns!). Turns out Frey has a daughter in the final stages of leukemia, so Max would be a really big jerk if he didn’t find a way to get them all up to that gleaming wheel in space. His only way there is to lean on space-coyote Spider (Wagner Moura), who outfits Max with an body-boosting exoskeleton and embroils him in a plot to hijack brain-data, the victim of choice being Armadyne CEO John Carlyle (William Fichtner). Serendipitously, Carlyle’s brain just now holds “the keys to the kingdom,” which raises the stakes for the high and low populations. Max thus puts himself on the radar of Elysium’s politically ambitious Secretary of Defense Delacourt (Jodie Foster, employing a meandering accent), who sics on

him her off-the-books junkyarddog Agent Kruger (Sharlto Copley of “District 9”). As in his calling-card debut, Blomkamp uses science-fiction allegory as a vehicle for action and artfully convincing special effects. “Elysium” tells a tale that literalizes “class warfare,” depicting the illegality of immigration as heartless and the willful ignorance of solvable squalor (including sweatshop labor conditions) as the ultimate sin. There’s a tough-mindedness there that’s admirable, even if it’s preaching to a mall-multiplex choir. But one wishes Blomkamp were less concerned with his “Halo”style run-and-gunning and more interested in the subtler repercussions of such a society. Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout. One hour, 49 minutes. — Peter Canavese

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters --1/2 (Century 16, Century 20) Three years ago, “Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief” didn’t exactly take the world by storm, but its modest box-office returns were good enough to justify a sequel and keep young star Logan Lerman lashed to the mast for at least one contractually obligated sequel. That sequel has arrived, and in following up its already sort-of blah predecessor, “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” not surprisingly feels more dutiful than creatively energized. Based on the popular YA book series by Rick Riordan, the “Percy Jackson” franchise doesn’t bother to disguise its mandate to be “Harry Potter” on a budget, replacing magic with Greek mythology and Hogwarts with Camp Half-Blood. Director Thor Freudenthal, taking the reins from Chris Columbus, does his best to keep the sequel roughly on par with the original, chasing down action and goofy humor but not bothering to consider innovation, narrative sense or genuine dramatic weight. Lerman’s Percy, the half-blood son of Poseidon, must this time go on a quest across the Sea of Monsters (“what the humans called the Bermuda Triangle”) to recover the Golden Fleece in order to restore life to the magical tree containing the spirit of Zeus’s daugh — zzzzzzzzz. Wha’? Where was I? Let’s keep it simple: Percy’s satyr bestie Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and puppylove interest Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) are still hanging around, and Luke (Jake Abel) is still a pissy bad guy. And they’re all half as interesting as they were last time. New to the scene is Clarisse (Leven Rambin), the gung-ho demigod daughter of Ares, god of war.

“Sea of Monsters” nominally feints at character development by beginning at a place of self-doubt for Percy (“You’re more than a onequest wonder,” assures Grover), then further shaking him by putting his world in jeopardy and sending him a half-brother: the ditzy cyclops Tyson (Douglas Smith). Daddy seems to like Tyson best, but Annabeth hates him with something approaching racist disdain. Citing nonsense reasoning, Annabeth insists that Tyson use a spray-mist to disguise his cyclops-ness behind an impression of two-eyed normality. Our hero Percy observes this with an expression of slight dismay, but cravenly says nothing, partly because the CGI budget and (in all likelihood) Douglas Smith’s agent dictate otherwise. Percy’s pusillanimity alternates with his natural instincts kicking in, making the movie a cycle of brood, leap into action, brood, leap into action, brood ... As in “The Lightning Thief,” “Sea of Monsters” comes peppered with Ancient Greek literary allusions — with attitude! That’s good news whenever the adults are around, particularly Stanley Tucci as Dionysus and Nathan Fillion as Hermes. Blessed with the funniest material, they happily make meals of the scenery. Erstwhile partyanimal Dionysus amusingly lives on the wrong side of Zeus, while UPS-guy Hermes serves as Percy and company’s “Q” (lending a hand in hopes Percy can get through to Hermes’ son Luke). Yes, Percy faces his Charybdis, but it turns out to be less an “Odyssey” and more a rehash-mashup of “Pinocchio” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” with not-so-special effects. And “Sea of Monsters” piles up the insults by (spoiler alert) clumsily faking deaths before (double spoiler alert) bringing no fewer than three apparently dead characters, one by one, back to life. “PG” rating aside, it’s the kind of Teflon plotting that even the youngest audiences can recognize as being unworthy of taking seriously.

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR NOW PLAYING AT SELECT THEATRES THEATRES AND SHOW TIMES

“Want to see great acting, from comic to tragic and every electrifying stop in between? Then focus on Cate Blanchett. Her triumphant performance is one for the time capsule. Alec Baldwin plays with conniving charm. Sally Hawkins is the deﬁnition of wonderful. Andrew Dice Clay nails his role. Bobby Cannavale is ever superb. Louis C.K. is a tender, wicked surprise. Peter Sarsgaard is excellent. Michael Stuhlbarg is sleazed to perfection. Lacing laughs with emotional gravity, Woody Allen is working at the top of his game, sending out each laugh with a sting in its tail. ‘Blue Jasmine’ is not to be missed.” -Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

Alec Baldwin Cate Blanchett Louis C.K. Bobby Cannavale Andrew Dice Clay Sally Hawkins Peter Sarsgaard Michael Stuhlbarg

Written and Directed by Woody

Allen

The New York Times

CRITICS PICK

Filmed in San Francisco

Rated PG for fantasy action violence, scary images and mild language. One hour, 46 minutes. — Peter Canavese

NOW PLAYING

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MOVIE TIMES

OPENINGS Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the Millers 1/2

Spa Treatments

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Movies

(Century 16, Century 20) â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the Millersâ&#x20AC;? is stupid, ugly and hateful. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing to see here â&#x20AC;&#x201D; please move along. It took not one but two lazy screenwriting teams, Bob Fisher & Steve Faber and Sean Anders & John Morris, to take a halfway decent premise and run it into the ground. They have the help of director Rawson Marshall Thurber (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dodgeball: A True Underdog Storyâ&#x20AC;?) and a cast â&#x20AC;&#x153;ledâ&#x20AC;? by Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. Sudeikis plays David Clark, a down-on-his-luck Denver weed dealer who suddenly finds himself at the mercy of his high-rolling supplier Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms). To settle a debt, David agrees to smuggle two tons of premium weed across the border. His brainstorm: enlist others to play his family, the better to roll an RV full of weed past unsuspecting border agents. And so it is that two neighbors â&#x20AC;&#x201D; stripper Rose (Aniston) and teen-geek Kenny (British actor Will Poulter) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and homeless girl Casey (Emma Roberts) hit the road. In a chance meeting, Davidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old friend (Thomas Lennon) somewhat jealously tells the aging single, â&#x20AC;&#x153;You could disappear tomorrow and whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d even know?â&#x20AC;? It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take a crystal ball to see that David and the gals are bound to trade in their selfishness for family values, while the virginal Kenny gets his first crack at romance. Lessons will be learned. But mean-spirited to squishy does not a convincing trajectory make, especially for a proudly foulmouthed, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Râ&#x20AC;?-rated comedy. That wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be so much of an issue if â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the Millersâ&#x20AC;? werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t such a dismally unfunny endurance test, but there you are. Apart from Poulter (whose career could be on the way up if he survives the transition from juvenile actor), â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the Millersâ&#x20AC;? is a graveyard for actors who have yet to demonstrate individual bankability on the big screen. Anistonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s big scene is a striptease that says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is life after 40, if you find a stripper pole,â&#x20AC;? while Sudeikis again hammers away at his one smarmy note and Roberts coasts on cruise control. Some relief arrives in the form of sterling supporting players Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn (now why couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t they have played David and Rose?) as a genuine pair of RV enthusiasts with a daughter (Molly Quinn) whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kennyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s age. But almost all of the comic business proves utterly charmless, if not repulsive. Only the agreeably cartoony Poulter squeezes a bit of blood from the turnip, eagerly taking kissing lessons from his fake sister and fake mom, or bopping and rapping his way through TLCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Waterfalls.â&#x20AC;? When in doubt, make ironic use of an 18-year-old song. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entertainment? Rated R for crude sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and brief graphic nudity. One hour, 50 minutes. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Peter Canavese

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.

2 Guns (R) ((1/2 Century 16: 11 a.m. & 1:40, 4:25, 7:15, 9:50 p.m. Century 20: 10:40 & 11:55 a.m. & 1:15, 2:35, 3:50, 5:15, 6:30, 8, 9:10, 10:40 p.m. 20 Feet From Stardom (PG-13) ((( Aquarius Theatre: 2:15, 4:30, 7 p.m. Fri-Sat also at 9:30 p.m. Bank Holiday (Three on a Weekend) (Not Rated) 5:45, 9:25 p.m.

Stanford Theatre: Fri

Blackfish (PG-13) Palo Alto Square: 1, 3:10, 5:25, 7:35 p.m. Fri-Sat also at 9:50 p.m. Blue Jasmine (PG-13) ((( Century 16: 9, 10:15 & 11:30 a.m. & 12:45, 2, 3:15, 4:30, 5:45, 7, 8:15, 9:30, 10:45 p.m. The Conjuring (R) Century 16: 10:50 a.m. & 1:45, 5:05, 7:50, 10:30 p.m. Century 20: 12:05, 2:45, 5:25, 8:10, 10:50 p.m. Despicable Me 2 (PG) (( Century 16: 9:15 & 11:45 a.m. & 2:35, 5:20, 7:55, 10:20 p.m. Century 20: 10:20 a.m. & 12:45, 3:15, 5:40, 8:10, 10:35 p.m. Dirty Dancing (1987) (PG-13)

Century 16: Fri 2 p.m. Sat 2 p.m. Sun 2 p.m.

Elysium (R) ((1/2 Century 16: 9:05 & 10:20 & 11:40 a.m. & 1:05, 2:25, 3:55, 5:15, 6:45, 8, 9:25, 10:40 p.m. Century 20: 10:50 a.m. & 1:30, 4:10, 6:55, 9:40 p.m. In XD noon & 2:35, 5:15, 8, 9:40 p.m. Fruitvale Station (R) ((( Aquarius Theatre: 2:45, 5, 7:30 p.m. Fri-Sat also at 9:55 p.m. Century 20: 10:55 a.m. & 1:05, 3:20, 5:35, 7:50, 10:10 p.m. Grown Ups 2 (PG-13)

Century 20: noon & 2:30, 5, 7:25, 9:55 p.m.

The Heat (R) (( Century 20: 11 a.m. & 1:45, 4:25, 7:10, 10:05 p.m. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m So Excited (R) (( also at 10 p.m.

Palo Alto Square: 1, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45 p.m. Fri-Sat

The Late George Apley (1947) (Not Rated) Stanford Theatre: Sat-Sun 5:40, 9:50 p.m. Monsters University (G) (((1/2

Century 16: 10:30 a.m. & 1:20, 7:30 p.m.

National Theatre Live: The Audience (Not Rated)

Guild Theatre: Sat 11 a.m.

Pacific Rim (PG-13) ((( Century 16: 12:25, 7:05, 10:05 p.m. In 3d 9:20 a.m., 3:35 p.m. Century 20: 10:35 a.m. & 1:35, 4:45, 7:45, 10:45 p.m. Percy Jackson 2: Sea of Monsters (PG) ((1/2 Century 16: 9:10 a.m. & noon, 2:40, 5:25, 8:20 p.m. Century 20: 10:30 a.m. & 1:10, 3:55, 6:45, 9:30 p.m. In 3D 11:50 a.m. & 2:30, 5:10, 7:55, 10:35 p.m. Planes (PG) Century 16: 11:20 a.m. & 1:50, 4:20 p.m. In 3D 9 a.m., 7:20, 9:55 p.m. Century 20: 7, 8, 9:30, 10:30 p.m. & 12:01 a.m. In 3D 7:30, 9:50 p.m., 12:05 a.m. Random Harvest (1942) (Not Rated) Stanford Theatre: Sat-Sun 3:20, 7:30 p.m. Red 2 (PG-13) 7:15, 10 p.m.

Century 16: 4:05, 10:10 p.m. Century 20: 11 a.m. & 1:45, 4:30,

The Smurfs 2 (PG) Century 16: 11:55 a.m. & 2:30, 7:30 p.m. In 3D 9:25 a.m. & 5, 10 p.m. Century 20: 10:40 a.m. & 6:40 p.m. In 3D 1:20, 4, 9:20 p.m. Turbo (PG) (( Century 16: Fri 10:35 a.m. & 1:15, 3:50 p.m. Sat 10:35 a.m. & 1:15, 3:50 p.m. Sun 10:35 a.m. Mon 10:35 a.m. & 1:15, 3:50 p.m. Century 20: 10:35 a.m. Fri-Sat also at 1:15, 3:50 p.m. The Way Way Back (PG-13) (((1/2 Century 20: 11:15 a.m. & 1:55, 4:35, 7:05, 9:45 p.m. Guild Theatre: 2:45, 5:15, 8 p.m. Fri-Sat also at 10:15 p.m. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the Millers (R) 1/2 Century 16: 9:45 & 11:10 a.m. & 12:35, 1:55, 3:15, 4:40, 5:55, 7:45, 9, 10:25 p.m. Century 20: 11:45 a.m. & 2:20, 5, 7:45, 10:30 p.m. The Wicked Lady (1945) (Not Rated)

Stanford Theatre: Fri 7:30 p.m.

The Wolverine (PG-13) ((1/2 Century 16: 9:30 a.m. & 12:30, 3:45, 7:25, 10:15 p.m. Century 20: 11:30 a.m. & 2:30, 5:30, 8:35 p.m.

( Skip it (( Some redeeming qualities ((( A good bet (((( Outstanding Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (266-9260) Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View (800-326-3264) Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City (800-326-3264) CinĂŠArts at Palo Alto Square: 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (493-0128) Guild: 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park (266-9260) Stanford: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (324-3700) Internet address: For show times, plot synopses, trailers and more information about films playing, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies ON THE WEB: The most up-to-date movie listings at PaloAltoOnline.com

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