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
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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
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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
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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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